Once more with… This is a recreation of a Martian landscape snapped by one of our robot explorers, turned to an imagined dirigible landing pad where human explorers await.
From the short film Wanderers that’s worth several viewings and reading the words from the forward of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of The Human Future in Space. Click the pix to biggerize for more detail.
Comments Off on Rule 5: Wanderers
Posted in Obsessions, Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged carl sagan, Erik Wernquist, Pale Blue Dot, The Everlasting Itch, Wanderers
The more I think about them, the more those camera-carrying quadcopters appeal:
“Outdoor flight is made possible by advanced GPS positioning that compensates for light wind. The Phantom has a fail-safe function and can be configured to automatically fly to and land at its take-off position if connection to the transmitter is lost…With a maximum horizontal speed of 22 miles/hour (10 meters/second) the Phantom lets you capture the action of almost any sport, event or scene.”
Why? Because they’re there.
Via Instapundit.
Posted in Blogosphere, Obsessions, Science/Engineering, The Culture
Just because, you know, they make steel by burning. Doesn’t mean, you known, they could melt it with burning. Nah.
Never mind the stars. We have the solar system to explore.
A cool, short film by Erik Wernquist and Carl Sagan: Wanderers.
Via Instapundit
UPDATE: More on the film from Popular Science.
Posted in Evolution, Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged Erik Wernquist, short films, the solar system, Wanderers
I’d give the guy credit if I could remember where I read this or heard it. Probably only applies to those of us of a certain age who remember how things were waaay back before the Internet came along and, certainly, the Web.
Back in the old days (as recently as the 1970s), you’d write a letter or a postcard and mail it and figure, at the least, it would take three or four days to arrive. And, then, if the recipient was particularly conscientious, and responded fairly quickly, in a day or so, it would be another three or four days before you got your reply. Call it ten days from message to response. Ten whole days.
Today (drum roll) you send an email or you text a text and what? Are you patient? Do you expect to wait for as many as ten days for a reply? Heck no. In fact, if you don’t hear back in ten minutes, well… An hour, tops. Should you not hear back in 24 hours, oh my, you begin to wonder if your interlocutor is still alive. And when as many as 48 hours have passed you figure either s/he is dead or they wish you were.
From ten days to ten minutes. Max. Expectations. Wow.
UPDATE: By McGeHee, a commenter at Dustbury: “I distinctly remember watching Wile E. Coyote send away for things and receive them seconds later. And that was back in the ’40s!”
Posted in Obsessions, Science/Engineering, Scribbles, The Culture
Tagged email vs snailmail, expectations
Beautiful $3,295 working reproduction of the Confederate black-powder favorite LeMat revolver. Originals were hand-made in New Orleans. Part revolver, part shotgun, all sex.
“It was the only percussion revolver of the mid-19th century that rivaled the 1847 Walker Colt for sheer audacity of size and power. A unique looking firearm, the LeMat had a movable hammer that offered the option of firing a massive 9-shot .42 caliber cylinder from the top barrel and a second, lower shotgun barrel chambered for a grapeshot paper cartridge – the coup de grace.”
It was carried by, among others, Rebel cavalryman J.E.B. Stuart and also one of the Rebel officers in my novel Knoxville 1863. Click the pix to biggerize it for better detail.
Via America Remembers.
Posted in Civil War, Guns, Science/Engineering
Tagged America Remembers, collectible firearms, LeMat revolver
Actually, they didn’t say “dangerous.” That’s the Worm’s lie. No surprise. He lies.
What he also didn’t say is what WUWT does: “…while 97% of scientists may agree that global warming is caused by humans, virtually 100% agree that global warming has stopped or slowed considerably during the 21stcentury.”
I still contend that this climate change dodge (a wholly-owned subsidairy of the Democrat Party) is a tax scam, just like Obamacare.
Via WSJ & WUWT
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 