I’m catchin’ up with myself!
Talking Heads
I’m'a just go semi-chronologically through some stuff I’d have posted here (& that I didn’t post over at the We are the Dead site) had this site not been in limbo (due, according to the HostGator support guy, to “the database” having “a hiccup” [or to "the powers that be" having "it in for me", if you're not into the whole Ockham's Razor heuristic]).
First, from way back on April 10, Annalee Newitz yakked with Peter Watts about his research background, current science in current science fiction (and in Blindsight specifically), the moving target of “timelessness”, unrepentant criminality, and other fun stuff.
On a related note, via Deanna, some space intrigue I missed from late last month.
THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.
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He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”
He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”
“Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking” by Jonathan Leake, Sunday Times UK 4-25-10
Sounds like Hawking has also been reading Blindsight (and maybe Tiptree’s “Mama Come Home” and “Help” and Reynolds’ Revelation Space and Banks’ Matter and… well, the list goes on).
Somewhere above earth is America’s latest spaceship, a 30ft craft so classified that the Pentagon will not divulge its mission nor how much it cost to build.
The mysterious X37B, launched successfully by the US Air Force from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, using an Atlas V rocket, looks like a mini-Space Shuttle — but its mission is top secret.
It is officially described as an orbital test vehicle. However, one of its potential uses appears to be to launch a surge of small satellites during periods of high international tension. This would enable America to have eyes and ears orbiting above any potential troublespot in the world.
The X37B can stay in orbit for up to 270 days, whereas the Shuttle can last only 16 days. This will provide the US with the ability to carry out experiments for long periods, including the testing of new laser weapon systems. This would bring accusations that the launch of X37B, and a second vehicle planned for later this year, could lead to the militarisation of space.
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With all the focus on the launch of the secret X37B, another space launch by a Minotaur IV rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California received less attention.
It was carrying the prototype of a new weapon that can hit any target around the world in less than an hour.
The Prompt Global Strike is designed as the conventional weapon of the future. It could hit Osama bin Laden’s cave, an Iranian nuclear site or a North Korean missile with a huge conventional warhead.
“Launch of secret US space ship masks even more secret launch of new weapon” by Michael Evans, Times UK 4-25-10
Aside from a few episodes of The Ray Bradbury Theater I remember from my childhood, this PBS/Wonderworks joint from the year I was born has to be the the finest adaptation of a Bradbury story I’ve ever seen. Cinematography by Robert Elswit (who went on to relative greatness), music by David Frank (who went on to relative obscurity, but who was apparently working on some kind of symphonic collab with Michael Jackson at the time of Jackson’s death).
A few months back, John Allen clued me in to another Ray, whose track “Triangle Walks” put me in mind of Bradbury’s “Tomorrow’s Child”, in which a woman gives birth, kinda, to a small blue pyramid.
Via Margaret Killjoy, here’s Fever Ray’s cover of Nick Cave’s “Stranger Than Kindness”.
Bit with the lamps reminded me, inevitably, of this.
Also via John Allen, now they‘ve gone and done it.
According to India’s DARPA-type deal, Prahlad Jani also did some things you’re not supposed to be able to do (live without food & water for 70 years, be nourished instead by amrit), but Indian spook scientists, shockingly, have yet to present the study data.
In other old news, editorial standards at The Telegraph are just as abysmally low as those at any other major pape you’d care to name.
India’s Defence Research Development Organisation, whose scientists develop drone aircraft, intercontinental ballistic missiles and new types of bombs. They believe Mr Prahlad could teach them to help soldiers survive longer without food, or disaster victims to hang on until help arrives.
“Man claims to have had no food or drink for 70 years” by Dean Nelson, Telegraph 4-28-10
As an Anglophile and proofreader, stuff like this drives me nuts. I mean, it’s your language, arseholes! We Yanks are just usin’ it.
Last, but certainly not least, I give yinz Director, CEO, President and CFO of Matrixx Initiatives, Bill Hemelt.
He may not melt, but Bill’s eyes do sorta shapeshift at around 0:50.
Keep on keepin’ on keepin’ on and cuídate.