Pat @Pat@qoto.org

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spoiler warning – Tron/Wizard of Oz

I forgot to mention one of my favorities, The Wizard of Oz (1939). Tron was certainly influenced by that film – the protagonist goes to a alternate reality, meets others who together help to kill an evil, autocratic bad guy.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #dream #world #film #movie #hacker #culture #war #justice #liberation

Retro SciFi Film of the week…

Tron (1982)

This was the first major motion picture to extensively use CGI. The film was targeted at the small, niche market of computer users, as well as others who were interested in the new fad.

This dream/fantasy world narrative was influenced by early literature such as The Odyssey and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Tron had considerable influence on subsequent science fiction films such as The Martix, Vanilla Sky (Abre los ojos) and Inception.

(movie poster image owned by Buena Vista Pictures; low res fair use)

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Tolstoy: War and Peace

Putin: I'll use Napoleon's campaign as my playbook -- invade another country to try to influence their alliances. What could go wrong?

Tolstoy: War and Peace

Me: TLDR

#mind #psych #science #language #brain

Choose:

#respirator #COVID19 #vax #vaccine #mask #masks #omicron #delta #BA2 #N95 #cdc

N95 respirators are much more comfortable to wear than cloth masks because they allow more air to flow through them.

So, how can a mask that allows more air to flow through it still filter almost all of those tiny (100nm) viruses?

Here’s an article that explains the amazing science behind the N95 respirator:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-the-n95-face-mask/

#AcadamyAwards #BestActress #BestActor #film #films #movie #movies

Congratulations to Jessica Chastain and Will Smith for being awarded Best Actress/Actor at the 2022 Academy Awards.

(Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SDCC_2015_-_Jessica_Chastain_(19111308673)_(cropped).jpg, CC-BY-SA-2.0; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TechCrunch_Disrupt_2019_(48834434641)_(cropped).jpg, CC-BY-2.0)

#covid19 #covid #covid.gov #respirator #mask #masks #vax #vaccine #socal #distancing #WH #Uspol #CDC #CDCP #NIOSH #N95

#TruthBeTold

The truth is…

Press Secretary Jen Psaki became infected with COVID-19 because she didn’t wear an N95 respirator.

Psaki doesn’t wear a respirator when she gives her press briefings to the White House correspondents.

According to the CDC, none of the White House correspondents who were infected by Psaki are considered close contacts.

(In epidemiology, a “close contact” is anyone who was close enough to an infected person to possibly become infected themselves. It’s used for contact tracing to locate people who may have become infected to help prevent further spread of disease, among other things.)

#TruthBeTold = 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)

You can watch the episode here:

https://archive.org/details/flash_gordon12/chapter12.mov

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #space #race #film #movie #death #ray #war #justice #lgbt

Retro SciFi Film of the Month...

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe: Doom of the Dictator (1940)

This is the final episode of the film series in which Ming is defeated (no spoiler – it’s in the title!)

"Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" was produced in the US shortly after the start of World War II, when the issue of whether the United States should enter the war was a hotly debated topic.

#germany #nordstream2 #russia #ukraine #oil #food #hunger #solar #panel #water #fuel #gas #energy #science
#nato #eu #europe #driving #electriccar #earth
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Energy saving tip number 13

Eat plants…

Calorie for calorie, a plant-based diet is much more energy efficient than feeding those plants to animals and then eating the animals. Beef requires about 53 times as much food energy than if you just ate those plant calories directly. (Source: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-efficiency-of-meat-and-dairy-production)

Eating “lower on the food chain” will also help to alleviate the global food shortages that are expected due to the war in Ukraine.

(Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soybeans_at_Harvest_(10138472185).jpg, United Soybean Board, CC-BY-2.0)

Another thing you can do to save heat from hot water is to stop the drain of your sink or tub/shower to prevent the hot water from going down the drain.

Let the water sit in the sink for a couple of hours before you let it drain. That way the heat from the hot water will be released into the room to help heat the living space, instead of being wasted down the drain.

This saves a surprising amount of energy because water holds many times as much heat as air does.

(They make heat-recovery heat exchangers for the drian that can do this automatically, but it's really just as easy to get in the habit of doing it yourself.)

Note: Although Nichelle Nichols (as Uhura) was a character in Star Trek, in the particular episode featured here in this series, she only had a bit part. (Plus that one was not a movie, it was TV.)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #space #race #film #movie #robot #revolution #justice

Retro SciFi Movie of the Week...

I, Robot (2004)

This is the only movie so far in the “Retro SciFi Movie of the Week” series that has a black character in it. I had to come all the way up to the 21st century to find it. So this film is not very “retro”, although the original story is from the mid-20th century.

Black people are even more under-represented in science fiction films than they are generally in Hollywood.

#germany #nordstream2 #russia #ukraine #oil #home #solar #panel #water #fuel #gas #energy #science
#nato #eu #europe #driving #electriccar #earth #shelter
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Energy saving tip number 8

Choose a zero-energy home…

Zero-energy or ultra-low energy buildings are designed so that, on average, they require little or no energy. It is much easier to design a zero-energy home from the beginning than it is to try to upgrade an existing home.

Using techniques such as earth sheltering, super-insulation, high-efficiency windows, seasonal thermal storage, and other techniques, a building can be designed that requires no additional energy for lighting, heating and cooling. Solar panels can provide the energy required to run appliances and other devices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house

(Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earth_house.jpg, CC-BY-SA-4.0)

I have to come to the defense of Ms. Brennan here…

Margaret Brennan is perhaps the most competent news anchor in the business. I’m sure she meant to say “a mile a second”, which would be at the threshold of hypersonic speed. The phrase, “a mile a minute” is an old expression which goes all the way back to the early railroad days, when a train was the fasted vehicle around. It was even faster than a pony express rider. So the expression “a mile a minute” was used for over a century to mean “fast.” I’m sure Ms. Brennan is well read in history and knows that, and that’s how that phrase got crossed up in her neurons.

Also, “a mile a minute” is alliterative, which forms stronger neuro-links and is more likely to be followed by the language processing centers in the brain than a non-alliterative phrase such as “a minute a second.”

Isn’t neuro-linguistics fun (and sometimes embarrassing)?

Still, reporters on average, usually struggle with math and science topics.

#russia #ukraine #oil #gas #putin #war #crimes #nato #eu #europe #us #dod #lloyd #austin
#MathChallengedReporters

US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin says that Putin’s deliberate targeting of civilians in Ukraine is “really disgusting”. He says the use of chemical or biological weapons by Putin would prompt a significant reaction from the US and the global community..

Margaret Brennan says Russia is now using missiles that travel “a mile a minute”.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/austin-vows-significant-reaction-if-russia-uses-chemical-or-biological-in-ukraine/

#germany #nordstream2 #russia #ukraine #oil #career #solar #panel #water #fuel #gas #energy #science
#nato #eu #europe #driving #electriccar #job #invention
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Energy saving tip number 10

Invent the next breakthrough in energy…

Changing our behaviors to conserve energy can help with the immediate needs of this particular energy crisis, but a major breakthrough in energy could end oil wars permanently.

Consider working in STEM fields that work to develop new energy sources. If you work for the petro-fuels industry, consider switching careers to new energy. The industry is dying and you don’t want to get stuck with an obsolete resume.

Be aware that the petro industry aggressively works to sabotage the new energy industry, including infiltration of research projects and setting up trojan companies that work to undermine development of new sources of energy by sucking resources from legitimate R&D. For example, companies that say they are developing hydrogen fuels for transportation are very often working on behalf of the oil industry.

But there are many areas of legimate research. Areas of active research and development include...

- Commercial fusion energy
- Low-temperature superconductors
- Improved solar cell efficiency
- Grid energy storage technologies
- Improved electric batteries
- New generation fission reactors that are safer and more sustainable
- Efficient heat engines, waste heat recovery, and other efficiency improvements
- Electric vehicles

(Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2017_TOCAMAC_Fusion_Chamber_N0689.jpg, CC-BY-SA-4.0)

The best actor in this film was Susan Cabot. It turns out that she had an eventful and tragic life, including severe mental illness, an affair with King Hussein of Jordan, and a horrible death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Cabot