Mish Sci Fi Musings: April 2010

30 April 2010

The Jacket (2005)

If you feel like watching a an interesting movie, I suggest The Jacket (2005). It is a little on the heavy side in terms of subject matter which includes experimenting on patients who appear to be mentally ill, but the movie is based on the novel written in 1915 by Jack London originally under the title The Star Rover. The difference between the novel and the movie is that in The Star Rover, the prisoner endures torture by escaping in his mind into the universe as if he were a space traveler, in contrast, the movie has the patient shift in time which is induced by experimental drugs. The movie is well acted and of course it is an interesting story.

26 April 2010

Stephen Hawking Believes Intelligent Aliens Exist!

The famous physicist Stephen Hawking believes aliens exist in the universe but that they would be likely to conquer us rather than make friends. So we are looking at meeting Klingons or Romulans as opposed to Vulcans or Betazoids! From the article:

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has repeated his long-held belief that intelligent aliens are likely to exist, and that a visit by them to present-day humanity would probably have unfortunate consequences for us.
“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational... 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.”
“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," he argues. "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.”
Alternatively, in the case of aliens having originally evolved on an Earthlike world, it might simply be their goal to seize and colonise ours, as Prof Hawking says - regardless of the status of their homeworld, they might like to have another. The mere fact of their being able to get here across interstellar distances would tend to suggest they might be technically capable of overcoming humanity and exterminating or enslaving us - or confining limited numbers of us to reservations, if they were relatively kind aliens.

Ok, now I am thinking of the aliens from Stargate such as the Goa´uld or Wraith, yikes! His thoughts on the alien life are very interesting and oppose some the ideas of some of his colleagues who think that life on Earth is a fluke and no other life may exist in the universe.
You can read the entire article HERE.

24 April 2010

A True Star Wars Fan!!!

A woman wore a Stormtrooper costume to her graduation so I do not know if this qualifies as being a fan or a fanatical fan or just plain crazy!
From the story:

Ever hear the story about the woman who wore her Star Trek uniform to jury duty? Interestingly enough, I have another story to tell along that same lines, but with a different genre.

Manja Peters, who is a 36 year old woman, and a student from Canterbury University in the United Kingdom, decided she wanted to do something special for her last graduation. So in order to celebrate getting her Bachelor of

Fine Arts Degree, Peters decided to wear a full Star Wars Stormtrooper Costume during the ceremony.The reason for the costume, Peters admits, is that she is a film major and that she grew up watching Star Wars. It was directors like George Lucas who gave her the interest in film studies. Plus she says, it was meant as a way to make others happy. She commented:

I also wanted to bring a few smiles to people’s faces. It’s been tough, with the recession and redundancies.

Not everyone, though, seemed joyous about her wardrobe selection. According to Peters, some people felt nervous about the costume. But she explained, “I’m short so I’m not that imposing.”

Now where have I heard a line about a short Stormtrooper before? Hmm.

Actually, I think it is very creative and she was being artistic and unique and realistic about the times we live in. If anyone had a problem with her choice of attire, they really need to get over themselves.
LINK

21 April 2010

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

I usually muse about science fiction subjects, but I came across the film entitled Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and was entranced by this unusual and horrific story. The movie was made in 2006 but is based on a German novel written in 1985 by Patrick Suskind.
The story is set in 18th century France and shows us the deplorable living conditions of that time and focuses on Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the antihero of the story. The journey of his birth to his death describes his super human ability to smell and his eventual obsession to make the most magical perfume in the world, a perfume that could control humanity. However, the way he goes about making this perfume is beyond comprehension and not what you would expect.
If you have not seen this movie, in my opinion, it is a must see because the acting is beyond excellent, the music outstanding, and the cinematography fantastic.

19 April 2010

The Lyrid Meteor Shower

Every year, the Lyrid meteor shower takes place in April and I remember one year camping out in the back yard on a sleeping bag and watching the show in the sky, it was a lot of fun and very memorable. From the Space.com:

Anyone who enjoys watching the sky for "shooting stars" will have an opportunity to observe an old and reliable meteor display over the next several days: the April Lyrids. The best time to watch will be for a night or two around the peak, April 22
.
Faithful meteor shower The Lyrids are an annual display of fairly fast meteors that may be seen any night from April 16 to 25: they are above one-half of their maximum in numbers for about a day or two centered on the date of their peak activity.This year, the peak is predicted to fall during the daylight hours (for America and Europe) on April 22. After the gibbous moon sets at about 2:30 a.m. local daylight time that morning, observers near latitude 40 degrees north will still have about 90 minutes of dark sky to watch for the Lyrids before dawn interferes. The southern states are more favored because the Moon sets earlier and twilight begins later.

The show is even better if you camp out in the mountains, camping is fun with the right crowd, a campfire, s´mores, the whole works!

17 April 2010

Star Trek Memories by Whoopi Goldberg

I was reading the article in TrekToday in which Goldberg talks about her role as Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation and in fact, that is the last character Gene Roddenberry ever wrote for the Star Trek series. I have heard her interviewed in the past about her strong desire to be part of TNG, but at the time, the producers did not take it seriously until she got on the phone and said she really was interested. From the article:

But those in charge of The Next Generation weren’t keen initially on having her at first. “When I got the opportunity, I asked to be part of it. But they were like ugh, they don’t wanna … The person I asked was LeVar Burton because he was doing it. I said, ‘Tell them I wanted to do it very much,’ and told them all the reasons. He said OK.”But it took a while before Goldberg got her chance. “A year went by and nothing happened. When I saw [Burton] next I said, ‘What happened?’ ‘They didn’t believe me.’ I said, ‘Give me the phone number,’ and I called them. We had a meeting with Gene Roddenberry who asked me the same question you just did (what drew her to Star Trek). I told them the same thing I told you. I never thought about it that way. So he wrote the last character that he wrote for me, and that’s how it happened.”

The episodes I like the most with the character Guinan are "Time´s Arrow" and Yesterday´s Enterprise and I have to say, Yesterday´s Enterprise has to be one of my favorite episodes of TNG.

15 April 2010

The Eerie Silence by Paul Davies

Physicist Paul Davies has written a book that is exactly the kind of topic I like to read. The basic question he asks is:

If aliens exist, where are they?The physicist Enrico Fermi asked this question 60 years ago, and it has since come to be known as the “Fermi Paradox”. Given how vast the universe is, and the billions of years that life has had to spread across the cosmos, why have we not found any evidence of alien life?Paul Davies takes a fresh look at this question in his engaging and thoughtful new book, The Eerie Silence.

He goes on to discuss if life on Earth is a simple fluke or there is a possibility that life does exist somewhere out there in the vast Universe.

He also explains that communication may take time:

Even if complex life can be found elsewhere, does that mean it will be intelligent? By “intelligent,” we often mean a species that will use science to investigate the universe. Davies again throws cold water on our assumptions, saying the scientific method is a specific outcome of Greek philosophy and medieval European monotheism. Despite this, Davies gamely uses the Drake Equation to estimate there could be 10,000 civilizations in the galaxy capable at this time of communicating by radio waves.

“At this time” is an important element of his estimate, since a barrier to interstellar communications is not only distance but time. Consider aliens living one thousand light years away. Davies points out that if they were able to see Earth in their telescopes, they would not see us as we are today, but as we were in the year 1010 A.D. - long before we invented radio dishes. And because human radio technology is only about 100 years old, it will take another 900 years for our first signals to reach them.

His writing would suggest he feels we are alone in the Universe but in true scientific form he states:

Still, the fact that we don’t know and may never have the answer about alien life is reason enough to keep searching, says Davies. By stretching our minds to try to envision all the possibilities in our search for aliens, not only may we one day find what we seek, but in the process we also will learn about many other deep and enduring mysteries of the cosmos.

I would like to think that life does exist in the Universe, but then again that is why I love science fiction, and I am not being unrealistic, in my opinion, because nothing has been proven to exclude the fact that life does not exist beyond our galaxy. It is a book that gets you thinking about all the possibilities in life.

LINK.

14 April 2010

Universe Video

I found this very interesting video over at the website by Mike Brotherton that takes us on a journey beginning on the surface of the Earth, then depicts the satellites that orbit the Earth, and then shows us our our place in the Universe. It puts into perspective our small place in the Universe and how much we have to explore and learn about this vast place we live in.

12 April 2010

Star Trek Live Show

Since the exhibition of Star Trek at Las Vegas was closed and auctioned off, there is now an option for those die-hard Trek fans:

This summer, visitors to Kennedy Space Center will be able to participate in Star Trek Live, a new stage show.Star Trek Live melds special effects, space technology and audience interaction in a half-hour production from CBS Consumer Products and Mad Science Productions.Reported by Trektoday last fall, Star Trek Live will be appearing at Kennedy Space Center beginning June 11.Star Trek Live will allow audience members to “join Starfleet Academy” where they will be catapulted into an adventure featuring special effects, science, audience interaction and on-screen appearances from Captain Kirk and Spock themselves, with clips from the 2009 Star Trek XI film enhancing the experience.The audience member “cadets” will prepare for their first day at Starfleet Academy, but their introduction is rudely interrupted by an attack from a Romulan renegade. It’s up to the cadets to adapt to living and working in space, and to figure out what has happened and how to fix it as the future of the Federation will be in their hands.There will be five performances scheduled daily at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the cost of which is included in the KSC regular admission price.

LINK.

10 April 2010

Star Trek Auction in Las Vegas

If you have time and money, this Saturday in Las Vegas you can bid for Star Trek props such as the famed Capt. Picard´s chair which might look great in your living room, or a uniform for the next party you attend.
From the article:

"Star Trek" fans looking for Enterprise chairs, Starfleet uniforms or a model Klingon Bird of Prey can seek out new life for the dismantled pieces of a closed Las Vegas attraction based on the famous franchise. Auctioneer Propworx Inc. plans to sell roughly 1,000 items large and small from Star Trek: The Experience at a warehouse sale Saturday in Las Vegas, CEO Alec Peters said.
The attraction, based on the beloved science fiction television series and movies, closed in 2008 after a 10-year run.

It is sad the attraction had to close but great for those who have the means to collect the items from the exhibition.
HERE is a link to the full story.

09 April 2010

Worf on the ISS!!

I love it, Worf will be on the Space Station:

Amongst the items delivered by the Discovery space shuttle to the International Space Station earlier today, was a patch with a Star Trek connection.The acronym for the NASA patch for the Window Observational Research Facility, a science equipment rack that will enable astronaut-tended and remote-controlled Earth-observation experiments, is the same as the name of Lt. Commander Worf, the Klingon seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

07 April 2010

Musings about T´Pol of Star Trek:Enterprise

When I think of the television show Star Trek: Enterprise, I think of my favorite character T´Pol who was the Vulcan science officer. I did enjoy this series of Star Trek even though it was a prequel set 100 years before the Original Series of Star Trek. I usually do not like prequels and this series had problems, in my personal opinion, in the third season but the fourth season explained some differences between TOS and TNG such as the Eugenics Wars as well as the different appearance of the Klingons between these very same series. In Enterprise, my favorite character was T´Pol because she was a strong, smart, yet feminine character, who felt torn between two worlds. She remained loyal to her Vulcan heritage and the suppression of emotion, duty to logic, duty to science, and tradition, and on the other hand, she was very curious about humans and their lack of logic at times, impulsiveness, and willingness to take chances.
I was pleased to read an interview will Jolene Blalock who played T´Pol and her interesting comments:

A science fiction fan from her childhood days, Jolene Blalock loves playing roles in the sci-fi/fantasy genre.Part of the attraction of sci-fi and fantasy, for Blalock, is that it makes people think beyond the ordinary.“Well, sci-fi/fantasy is always going to attract me, because it’s something that’s special to my heart,” said Blalock. “Growing up, I grew up on the original Star Trek. Also, when I was in sixth grade, I would come home from school and watch the Star Wars trilogy back to back every day for the entire year. It’s something that brings humanity outside of itself. It makes us think outside of ourselves, it presents the question what if, what if we could jump the timeline, what if we could meet another intelligent species, what if we could colonize on another planet. It deals with very big ideas, so sci-fi/fantasy, you can do [anything].:As T’Pol, Blalock enjoyed her character’s effect on the men on the Enterprise. “I enjoyed her ability to suck the air out of a room,” said Blalock. “I enjoyed her, what I mean is, the boys could be having their boys moments and she would walk in and all the air would just be sucked out of the room. I enjoyed that. And she didn’t have to say anything. I loved her inability to take a joke. Or to get a joke.”T’Pol had something in common with Blalock’s Sister Nicci character from Legend of the Seeker, both were strong characters without sacrificing femininity. “”I enjoy every role that I take, for different reasons,” said Blalock. “Effeminate, I feel that T’Pol was quite feminine in her own right, and I feel that all of my characters have been quite feminine. They’ve been strong females.”

Link.

I love what she has to say on the subject of scifi/fantasy in that we can think outside of the ordinary such as what we would do if we met a sentient alien being, or how would we react if we could travel in space for long periods of time, how would we treat each other and alien races? These are the types of questions I muse on because even though it might be a science fiction novel or movie, it relates to everyday life, and we can learn that our attitudes and behavior do have real world consequences.
On another note, I enjoyed seeing Blalock in Stargate Sg1 and Starship Troopers 3!

06 April 2010

2010 Baja California Earthquake

I am still recovering from the earthquake that struck the 4th of April, a nice peaceful Sunday afternoon that was disrupted by the intense shaking of the 2010 Baja California earthquake as it is being named! Even though I live about 150km from the epicenter, it was an intense shaking that had myself and my family headed for the back door in panic! I was reading this article on Live Science, well here is what they said:

Yesterday's magnitude-7.2 earthquake that rocked northern Mexico and parts of Southern California was barely worth noting compared to the ongoing, major forces that shape planet Earth. In a geologic sense, there are greater forces at work, from the coming and going of ice ages to an ongoing imbalance in the planet's rotation that make it wobble like a spinning top that's winding down.

Ummm, I agree on a global scale, but in my daily life, when the ground is shaking so hard I can barely stand, it is worthy of note, on my part at least.

"These large earthquakes are rare, catastrophic events," Gross explained. "What's normally causing the Earth's rotation to change is the surface mass movement of the oceans and atmosphere."

I am glad they are rare because it is no fun going through the main event and the aftershocks, and waiting for a larger aftershock, it really rattles the nerves!
I am just having a little fun with the article because it has been so stressful the last couple of days I feel like poking some fun at something, I do enjoy studying about earthquakes and learning new things about them, just not going through the experience first hand, at least this was in the afternoon and not in the middle of the night which is much worse.
Anyway, here is the article.

04 April 2010

Apple iPad Reminds me of Star Trek Padd!

When I saw the new Apple iPad, my jaw dropped, it looked just like the Padd so frequently used in all of the Star Trek series! I always liked those Padds in the television shows because you could write stories, poems, but also look up historical records, do inventory, read books, write mission reports, the sky was the limit. I am not a big fan of new gadgets that come out every week and make the gadget I just purchased obsolete so I tend to only pay attention to what is being invented and usually it takes me years to get something new that I feel will stay around a while without being replaced quickly. When I see something similar to a common Trek prop, I get more curious than usual, but not curious enough to buy until it really has books, history, math, well, something very Star Trek -like, but that is just me, waiting for the ultimate piece of technology. Anyway, I like the look of it but I am waiting to hear if it is easy to use and not too sensitive to the touch or fragile because I am very rough with things like my cellphone, for example, I have dropped it more times than I can count and it still works! I would not want a fragile Padd, it needs to be space-worthy, Ha!

02 April 2010

Pac-Man in the Moon!

When I read the article about the Pac- Man image appearing on the moon that orbits Saturn it made me laugh so hard, but it is true, the image of the tiny moon taken by the Cassini spacecraft does look like the 1980 Pac-Man figure I used to play when you actually had to go to an arcade to play video games on those monstrous machines. I played Pac-Man but my favorite game was Space Invaders, I could play that game for hours as well as air hockey on those huge tables. Sometimes it is nice to go down memory lane....
From the article:

The Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn has caught an interesting new view of the tiny moon Mimas.

The probe measured temperature differences across the object's surface and produced a map that looks just like the 1980s Pac-Man video games icon.Scientists are unsure why Mimas should display such variations but say it is probably related to the diversity of textures in the surface materials.Some textures may retain heat better than others, they explain.Mimas is about 400km (250 miles) across. It has a distinctive scar called Herschel Crater which has led many to draw comparisons with the "Death Star" from the Star Wars movies.

Mish Sci Fi Musings