Pat @Pat@qoto.org

I just blocked skells for using a racial epithet. 15:03

Here's another image from the film that shows that this really is a scifi, but it's still mostly just a typical medium-quality, 80s/90s Hollywood movie. (Fair use)

(Image: From Timebomb, fair use.)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #film #movie #mind #technology #conspiracy #90s #spy #brain #FTW #bad #mullet

Retro SciFi of the Week…

Timebomb (1991)

Three decades after The Manchurian Candidate, ten years after The Bourne Identity novel, ten years before The Bourne Identity film. Not much scifi in this one, just a typical low budget film of that era. TV movie quality.

Can you get monkeypox by spanking the monkey?

#extinct #endangered #species #environment #ocean #river #china

China has intentionally killed off all of its Paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) causing the extinction of the species.

https://news.yahoo.com/iconic-chinese-paddlefish-wild-yangtze-232130046.html

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

- - -
How to set your hot water heater to the most efficient temperature...

First, turn it down a little bit.

Then wait a few a days to see if anyone complains.

If nobody complains, turn it down a bit more.

Repeat until somebody complains.

That’s the perfect setting.

(Did you know that in the summer, depending on several factors, you may not even need to turn on your hot water heater at all!)

See also:
https://qoto.org/@Pat/107948799721263487

(Image public domain per https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Handyman_project_to_disassemble_hot_water_heater_1.JPG)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #film #movie #telepathy #virtual #government #corruption #technology #mind #control #hivemind #neural #AI #future #FTW

Retro SciFi of the Week…

Brainstorm (1983)

Another “mind” scifi, this came out during the Human-Potential Movement which derived from the Psychedelic Movement of the 1960s. Think of this one as the HPM answer to The Manchurian Candidate (1962) which was about brainwashing techniques used by governments. Each of those movements were likely used as covers by clandestine entities for conducting mind control experiments “in the wild”.

This film came out during the period between the end of the Vietnam War and the fall of the USSR. Prior to Vietnam, the military was well-regarded by people in the US due to our victory in WWII. After Vietnam the national mood was “Spit on the baby killers.” During the 1990s without the Soviets around to sustain the anti-military mood in the US, the reputation of the military was repaired as everybody began chanting, “Support the troops”. So you will see an anti-government / anti-military bias in this film (and many films made during that time).

This film is probably most noted for what happened off camera during production. One of the lead actors, Natalie Wood, died in a boating incident under suspicious circumstances and they almost scrapped the film. They had to rework the film and shoot additional scenes using a look-alike for some shots. You may be able to identify those in the film if you look closely.

Also, as with many films from Hollywood, this one has racial bias. Can you identify the bias in this film?

@lucifargundam

(I suspect only about <2% of readers will fully understand what I said.)

@lucifargundam

People who do that tend to f*ck their own mothers in outhouses, too.

@lucifargundam

Well, I mean the site is called "Glassdoor", what did they expect?

It's like using "Windows" and expecting your computer to be secure.

Yeah, that's "portion", not "potion".

(fair use image)

#Webb #Hubble
#Astronomy #wonderful #life

Animated sequence of the galaxy cluster "Stephan’s Quintet" from the Webb Telescope...

Patsplaining...

This one is absolutely, 100% true. A flashlight (or any other source of light) that travels toward the Earth (or any other gravity well) will increase in frequency. This is known as gravitational blueshift (or gravitational redshift when light travels away from a source of gravity).

The part that’s somewhat deceptive is that the change is so small that it cannot be detected with the human eye, so in actuality the light will appear the same color, even though it is actually “bluer”.

Gravitational blueshift is due to general relativity and can be explained in one of (at least) three ways…

1. Time runs slower in a gravitational field; the more gravity, the slower it runs. And the closer you are to the Earth, the higher the gravity. So the frequency will be more because: frequency = 1 / time

2. Anything that falls into a gravity well gains speed, or momentum. This is an increase in energy. Since light is already traveling at the speed limit it can’t go any faster when it “falls” in, so the only way it can gain energy is to increase its frequency.

3. Because of the equivalence principle, gravity is acceleration and the source of the light has lower gravity because it is further away, and so it is accelerating slower at that point than it is when it is closer to Earth with higher gravity, so the frequency shifts due to the Doppler effect.

Further reading…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound%E2%80%93Rebka_experiment

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

****SPOILER*****

This is much more complicated than I thought when I posted this poll. It also depends on how you measure the "surface", i.e., if you measue the entire surface as a smooth sphere or as a fractal surface.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_dimension

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_roughness#Soil-surface_roughness

****SPOILER*****

Also, some additional parts are in shadow because of the irregularity of surface features, such as craters and mountains which cast shadows.

****SPOILER*****

Excluding light from sources other than directly from the Sun, it's between 85-90% in shadow. The entire back of the moon is in the shadow of the moon itself, while the front is about 75% covered by the shadow of the Earth.

What potion of the surface is in shadow?

Here's a picture of a recent lunar eclipse...

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #film #movie #flop #epic #fail #technology #scientology #travolta #war #future #FTW #bad #Lafayette

Retro SciFi of the Week…

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Battlefield Earth is infamously regarded as one of the worst science fiction films ever made. Based on L. Ron Hubbard’s navel of the same name, the film took nearly 20 years to finally get financed and produced. The film uses a stilted, campy acting style and copious tilted camera angles similar to the style made famous by the 1960s TV series Batman. The stilted acting style was interpreted by most critics as simply bad acting.

(fair use image)