Pat @Pat@qoto.org

#covid19 #deaths #respirator #CDC #ZeroCovid

Here are the latest totals from China and the US. (Source: Johns Hopkins Univ.)

China
Cases: 4,903,496
Deaths : 97,643

US
Cases: 102,310,448
Deaths: 1,107,852

*****Puzzle spoiler*****

The Moon's gravity is 1.622 m/s^2, much less than Earth's 9.80665 m/s^2.

If you scatter a lot of smoke in an average-size room, it will hang there for over an hour. But how long would it hang there if there was no air in the room?

#poll #puzzle #quiz #science #gravity #air #moon

-
Fun Fact:

If someone smokes a joint in a zero-G environment, all the smoke just hangs there.

#science #zeroG #space

(image CC-BY-2.0, Elsa-Olofsson)

#CSPAN #USPol #UnfairEdit
-
Here's a minute and a half summary of today's CSPAN callers.

#catuday #felix #science #fiction #scifi #STEM

Here’s a 1950’s children’s cartoon, Felix the Cat. “Master Cylinder” is introduced in this episode. Some of the science demonstrated in this episode:

- Coherent solenoidal optical tractor beam

- Levitation of biological organisms via a superconducting magnet

- Whole-brain scanning and uploading to a non-biological brain emulator

- Realtime telescopic photonic image processing, enhancement and display

- Fully articulated robotic arm with semi-anthropomorphic end effector

- EMP (electromagnet pulse) weapon

Yeah, our grandparents were smarter than we are.

(Episode: Master Cylinder, King of the Moon (1959), fair use reproduction for educational, critical… blah, blah, blah... )

Also, this film was made a few years after Star Wars, with C3-PO and R2-D2, so audiences were primed for cute robots.

@QOTO #BugReport

@freemo

The icons under my toots and menus are displaying improperly. Seems to happen after I send a toot. Refreshing the page fixes it.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #robots #AI #future #military #weapons #war #MtSaintHelens #vegetarian

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Short Circuit (1986)

Robots in fiction have a long history of being portrayed as adorable or affable characters, beginning with Tik-Tok and the Tin Woodman from Baum’s Oz books.* (Ironically, the name Tik-Tok was used by John Sladek as the titular character in his 1983 novel for an evil robot.) The robot in this silly film, Number 5, is a nice robot.

Number 5 has a high-pitch, whiny-sounding voice, which apparently is appealing to people because the same voice has been used over and over again ever since for many robots. In fact, an almost identical clone of Number 5 (same voice and personality) stars opposite Tom Hanks in Finch (2021).

Although the robot has a main role in this film, the movie is really about Ally Sheedy, who plays a woman who operates a vegetarian food truck in Oregon. (I think her character was given most of the silliest lines in this film.)

I almost didn’t pick this film for Retro Scifi Film of the Week because the film has an all-white cast – there are no black characters or characters played by people of color at all in the film. Also, the sidekick character “Ben” uses that phony Hollywood Indian accent which is now universally considered offensive. And one of the main characters, Newton Crosby played by Steve Guttenberg, tells an antisemitic joke at one point in the film, which is kind of weird since both Guttenberg and Sheedy are Jewish. But 1987 was definitely a different time, coming after the 50s-60s civil rights movement, but before the Rodney King beating in 1991. I only included this film because it has a lot of otherwise positive messages.

Sheedy also starred in WarGames (1983) which I including in this series. (See: https://qoto.org/@Pat/109282008723785446 for more on the history of the time during which these films were make.)

(* - Also, coincidentally Sheedy’s mother’s maiden name is Baum.)

(fair use image from the film)

Just a reminder...

More people died this past week in the US from COVID-19 than died in the 9/11 attacks.

Please wear your respirator when you are in public.

(image CC-BY-SA-2.0, Martin Von Creytz; modified with inset of N95)

***TruthBeTold Spoiler***

This statement is true. Burkina Faso is only 38 years old.

However, Burkina Faso is a country in Africa. The woman pictured in this TruthBeTold is actually Agatha Barbara, the first woman president of Malta. (The Republic of Upper Volta was renamed Burkina Faso in 1984.)

#TruthBeTold

Believe it or not, but Burkina Faso is only 38 years old.

- - -
#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)

#women #leaders #malta #BurkinaFaso

-
Capitalism gave us airplanes.

#capitalism #econ101 #airplane #WrightBrothers #freedom #progress #kittyhawk
(images PD; and CC-BY-SA-2.0, Bill Larkins)

#covid19 #deaths #respirator #CDC #ZeroCovid

Here are the latest totals from China and the US. (Source: Johns Hopkins Univ.)

China
Cases: 4,887,702
Deaths : 18,558

US
Cases: 102,026,383
Deaths: 1,104,326

****TruthBeTold Spoiler*****

Did you figure this one out?

The assertion that more people are becoming restive about Putin’s wealth appears to be a true statement based on news reports. (Putin has spent his entire career as a public servant, yet has amassed a large fortune).

The deceptive part of this TruthBeTold is the picture – it shows President Biden’s mansion, not Putin’s. (Biden has been a public servant for his entire career and throughout his time in government he has claimed that he was the poorest guy in Congress).

#USPol

#TruthBeTold

More and more Russian citizens are beginning to protest against Putin’s ill-gotten wealth, including his opulent mansion.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/navalny-makes-allegations-of-putin-wealth-ahead-of-protests/

- - -
#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)

#russia #putin #potus #mansion #corruption

-
Here's a cat doing the moonwalk on the moon.

He's sad because his wife just got left behind on Earth.

(details: https://qoto.org/@Pat/109643514025295664 )

#caturday #cat #moon #dance #moonwalk

from: Dancing on the Moon (1935)

This one isn’t true at all.

That isn’t really Ben Affleck, it’s Kevin Baron the editor of Defense One, but he looks just like Affleck. Also, Baron prefaced his statement with “...then. there's an argement that...”, so I don’t know if this is Baron’s personal opinion or not (although his facial expressions and voice intonations seemed to indicate approval for the argument).

I have no idea how Affleck feels about defense spending or the application of these technologies.

#TruthBeTold

Here’s Ben Affleck on CSPAN saying that we should grow the US military and spend more on AI, network IT, and space assets.

- - -
#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)

#BenAffleck #DOD #military #budget #AI #network #Space #asset #SkyNet

(fair use video clip from CSPAN)