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Pat

Here's a short video explaining the orbital mechanics of the Artemis mission.

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Pat

Congratulations to NASA for a successful launch and translunar insertion burn. It's now on it's way to the moon.

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Pat

If you are experiencing performance issues with qoto, like very long page loads, try switching to a theme that doesn't use the Mastodon instance ticker.

Edit Profile --> Preferences --> Theme dropdown menu

Select a theme the doesn't use the Mastodon instance ticker. (The default theme uses the ticker, so don't use that one.)

If you are not logged in, it will use the default ticker and so you may have performance issues when you are not logged in.

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Pat

The truth is...

A day is 24 hours long, plus or minus about 20-30 seconds. However, during the winter the days get longer. At the winter solstice the days are the shortest.

But the southern hemisphere is different. In the southern hemisphere the days are nearly always 24 hours (+/- about half a minute).

And on the equator it gets really weird, because a sidereal day on the equator is only about 23 hours, 56 minutes year-round. And at the north and south poles, occasional the day is a second longer (leap second), due to climate change, among other reasons.

In space, astronauts experience time differently because they are in an area of lower gravity due to general relativity. For example, the International Space Station experiences 16 sunrises and sunsets per Earth day.

In areas where there is daylight saving time, on the day those areas enter daylight saving time the day is 23 hours, and when it switches back to standard time it’s 25 hours. These short and long days only occur in the areas where there is daylight saving time which you’d think would cause massive geological strain on the Earth’s crust and upper mantle, but for some reason it doesn’t.

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= A statement that is logically or literally true (or partly true), but seems to imply something that isn’t true or is just plain weird. (for rhetoric, logic or propaganda studies… or just for fun)

(public domain image from Mediawiki Commons)

(image not to scale)

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Pat

A positively charged atom or group of atoms is a cation. (cat-i-on)

(image courtesy: Sean McGrath, cc-by-sa-2.0, Mediawiki Commons)

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Pat

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Mission to Mars (2000)

This film got great reviews in Europe but lousy reviews in the US. I suspect the lousy reviews were due to something other than the quality of the film because this is a well-made film. The sets and props are about the best I’ve seen, and the CG (computer graphics) are also well done.

The writing is a little weak, especially the dialogue, but these seasoned actors were able to bring those words to life. The plot is nothing special and the narrative is just a straight, linear story throughout – no flashbacks or flash-forwards. It’s a very easy film to watch and doesn’t demand much from the audience, but it’s still entertaining and realistic for the most part. There are a lot of lines of exposition in this film, but I think the filmmakers wanted to make sure anyone could watch this one and easily follow the plot.

Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump) gets the most screen time of the main characters, while Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) got the least, and Cheadle was also given the majority of the clumsy exposition lines. (I wonder why?) The women were also slighted in this film, but sadly that’s typical for 20th century Hollywood.

Visually the film was fantastic with realistic scenes on Mars and in space which was somewhat reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. They didn’t get the science right all the time, and some of the situations and problems they faced were kind of unrealistic, but that’s par for Hollywood.

This is a great film for a family, or a group of people that may include those who might struggle with a more complex plot line or who prefer a temporally linear presentation but it’s entertaining for science geeks, too.

(image from film, fair use)

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Pat

I think using a CW in a post merely because it contains civics information (politics) is one of most anti-democratic things I've seen on fedi.

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Pat

#8080 #6502

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

WarGames (1983)

The authenticity of this film has held up pretty well over time. They apparently had very good technical consultation with only a few incredulous “Hollywood moments” thrown in here and there. The film also provides an excellent snapshot of the early hacker culture and the 80’s cold war posture. At the time the film was produced, only a small portion of the population even knew how to use a computer, let alone owned one.

Production wise, it was pretty well made and is still entertaining even though it’s now been 40 years since it was produced. The filmmakers made liberal use of stock character actors in the film who played it a bit over the top at points, and there was quite a bit of awkward exposition, which is not uncommon for a film that is trying to introduce new concepts to an audience, which at the time, was digitally illiterate.

The film has acquired substantial cultural significance over the years and was likely influential in forming public opinion about technology, nuclear weapons and the cold war.

Recommended for anyone who needs to understand the early days of the computer revolution and the American cultural environment during the years leading up to the fall of the Soviet Union.

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Pat

Here’s a cool chart I found on Wikipedia that shows the age/sex demographics of the US population over time. In a sense, it’s a 3D chart – 2-spacial, 1-temporal dimension.

There’s a common trope about not having enough working-age population to support the retirement of the Baby Boom generation, because there was a huge bulge in births followed by a decline in births. But, as this chart shows, immigration has filled in those “low spots” over time, so thanks to our high immigration rate there are enough people to take care of all those old Boomers as they retire. (Even the ones who protest against immigrants.)

(chart from Mediawiki Commons, creative common license)

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Pat

A quick video tip for those migrating from twitter...

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Pat

A sad and scary video clip 

This video has not been modified. This is how thin this person actually is.

I wish there was more that society and medicine could do to help people with this affliction.

(fair use 50s clip from an hours-long video, reproduced here for critique and commentary.)

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Pat

C-SPAN website has been down all day.

Anyone know if they are still broadcasting on the cable systems?

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Pat

Reposting this to the local timelime because I think it's funny...

(original thread: qoto.org/@lupyuen/109217111189)

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Pat


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Congratulations to Rishi Sunak on becoming the Prime Minister of the UK, and the first Asian and Hindu PM.

And congratulations to the UK for another peaceful transfer of power under trying conditions.

(image source: flickr.com/photos/hmtreasury/4, Open Government License v3.0, nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/op)

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Pat

Although an avid streamer, FDR was confined to a wheelchair so he rarely did IRL, instead limiting his online social engagement to Fireside Chats. His frequent use of social media, at the time known as “bulletin board systems”, gave Roosevelt an advantage over his frequent rival, Adlai Stevenson, who didn’t even know how to use a mouse.
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= A statement that is logically or literally true (or partly true), but seems to imply something that isn’t true or is just plain weird. (for rhetoric, logic or propaganda studies… or just for fun)

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Pat

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

In Time (2011)

This one is definitely in my top-ten list of best science fiction films ever made.

When I sat down to watch this, I thought it was going to be some cheap, exploitive film to take advantage of Justin Timberlake’s fame, but it turns out that he can actually act. And he’s a very good actor, world class.

The premise of the film is that time, instead of money, is the currency. Everyone is genetically engineered to stop aging at 25 years old, but then their built-in clock starts ticking and if they don’t refill it, then they die. People who acquire a lot of time can live forever in their 25-year-old body.

Highly recommended. (The film, not the economic system :)

(fair use image from the film)

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Pat

In case any of you font designers are confused...

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Pat


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NASA’s planetary defense spacecraft mission (DART) has successfully altered the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos and they have determined that it will not hit the Earth. The asteroid is about 170 meters in diameter and if it hit Earth it would have caused immediate massive casualties on impact with a crater more than a mile in diameter and likely spewed dust and debris into the atmosphere effecting the climate for years.

The success of the mission means we will not have to face the same fate as the dinosaurs - - at least this time.

Here’s the full briefing:
youtu.be/Zhzn0U2m5wQ?t=13

(Public domain image of the Barringer Crater)
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= A statement that is logically or literally true (or partly true), but seems to imply something that isn’t true or is just plain weird. (for rhetoric, logic or propaganda studies… or just for fun)

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Pat

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Happy Mental Health Day!
_

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Pat

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The Island (2005)

The beginning of this film kind of reminds me of modern food laboratories or food manufacturers for some reason. It’s very similar to the film “Never Let Me Go” (2010) except this one is much more of a real scifi with lots of high tech, special effects and action.

For 21st-century films, each of these films have a lot of racial bias. I don’t remember seeing any black characters at all in Never Let Me Go. Screenwriters (and novelists who want their work picked up for the screen), know that Hollywood producers are racist and will often choose settings for their stories that are exclusively white, like European historical dramas or, for example, a mid-twentieth century English boarding school. That way when Hollywood gives the green light, the producers know that black people will not be cast for the leads. That’s racist.

The Island was set in the future and could have had black characters in the leads, but they just chose not to. There were a few minor black roles in the film, but they were deemphasized. There was, however, a reference to historical racial oppression at one point in the narrative.

(Fair use image from The Island)

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