I saw it this weekend. It was funny and clever, and well-done in the Pixar style. (Sample clip here.)
Bleah. My head cold has left me too fuzzy to say anything substantial. More later!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
HR8799?
From cnn.com:
Astronomers capture first images of new planets
The first-ever pictures of planets outside our solar system were released today in two studies.
Using the latest techniques in space technology, astronomers at NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used direct-imaging techniques to capture pictures of four newly discovered planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.
"After all these years, it's amazing to have a picture showing not one but three planets," said physicist Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
"The discovery of the HR 8799 system is a crucial step on the road to the ultimate detection of another Earth," he said.
None of the planets is remotely habitable, scientists said.
Both sets of research findings were published Thursday in Science Express, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A team of American and British astronomers and physicists, using the Gemini North and Keck telescopes on the Mauna Kea mountaintop in Hawaii, observed host star HR8799 to find three of the new planets.
Scientists estimate that HR8799, roughly 1.5 times the size of the sun, is 130 light years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. The individual planets in this planetary family are estimated to be seven to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
Astronomers say the star is too faint to detect with the human eye, but observers could probably see it through binoculars or small telescopes.
"This discovery is the first time we have directly imaged a family of planets around a normal star outside of our solar system," said Christian Marois, the lead astronomer in the Lawrence Livermore lab study.
It continues to amaze me that we can detect extrasolar planets now. Granted, they're humongous superjovian planets, but still. Planets! It gives me a continuing geeky thrill.
I just wish we had a better name for the star- or, rather, any real name at all. HR8799? That isn't a star, that's a bill before Congress.
Astronomers capture first images of new planets
The first-ever pictures of planets outside our solar system were released today in two studies.
Using the latest techniques in space technology, astronomers at NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used direct-imaging techniques to capture pictures of four newly discovered planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.
"After all these years, it's amazing to have a picture showing not one but three planets," said physicist Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
"The discovery of the HR 8799 system is a crucial step on the road to the ultimate detection of another Earth," he said.
None of the planets is remotely habitable, scientists said.
Both sets of research findings were published Thursday in Science Express, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A team of American and British astronomers and physicists, using the Gemini North and Keck telescopes on the Mauna Kea mountaintop in Hawaii, observed host star HR8799 to find three of the new planets.
Scientists estimate that HR8799, roughly 1.5 times the size of the sun, is 130 light years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. The individual planets in this planetary family are estimated to be seven to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
Astronomers say the star is too faint to detect with the human eye, but observers could probably see it through binoculars or small telescopes.
"This discovery is the first time we have directly imaged a family of planets around a normal star outside of our solar system," said Christian Marois, the lead astronomer in the Lawrence Livermore lab study.
It continues to amaze me that we can detect extrasolar planets now. Granted, they're humongous superjovian planets, but still. Planets! It gives me a continuing geeky thrill.
I just wish we had a better name for the star- or, rather, any real name at all. HR8799? That isn't a star, that's a bill before Congress.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Mundanity in Science Fiction
Courtesy of Bruce Sterling's blog, we have Geoff Ryman's Mundane SF Manifesto:
- That interstellar travel remains unlikely; that Warp drives, worm holes, and other forms of faster-than-light travel are wish fulfillment fantasies rather than serious speculation about a possible future.
- That unfounded speculation about interstellar travel can lead to an illusion of a universe abundant with worlds as hospitable to life as this Earth. This is also viewed as unlikely.
- That this dream of abundance can encourage a wasteful attitude to the abundance that is here on Earth.
- That there is no evidence whatsoever of intelligences elsewhere in the universe.
- That absence of evidence is not evidence of absence -- however, it is considered unlikely that alien intelligences will overcome the physical constraints on interstellar travel any better than we can.
- That interstellar trade (and colonization, war, federations, etc.) is therefore highly unlikely.
- That communication with alien intelligences over such vast distances will be vexed by: the enormous time lag in exchange of messages and the likelihood of enormous and probably currently unimaginable differences between us and aliens.
- That there is no present evidence whatsoever that quantum uncertainty has any effect at the macro level and that therefore it is highly unlikely that there are whole alternative universes to be visited.
- That therefore our most likely future is on this planet and within this solar system, and that it is highly unlikely that intelligent life survives elsewhere in this solar system. Any contact with aliens is likely to be tenuous, and unprofitable.
- That the most likely future is one in which we only have ourselves and this planet.
I have mixed feelings.
First of all, I rather like it when artists- whether writers, painters, filmmakers or whatever- develop a code that guides their work. When such codes are designed intelligently, they can lend useful structure and a kind of context to art.
But I love me some space opera. Star Trek, Star Wars, Iain M. Banks, you name it. I know that the first two are goofy science fantasy, and the latter tries to compensate for the lost wonder of space by going for Really Big Effects; but still, I love it. It's the closest thing to a real sense-of-wonder effect that I'm likely to see in SF.
The tone doesn't help much either- it's basically a concession that sf is escapism, but that they will be different. They will be serious, responsible, and relevant. They will address serious causes, not just in their explicit writing, but in the subtle psychological effects of their writing.
I'm not sure that this can possibly work. But i have to give them credit for trying.
- That interstellar travel remains unlikely; that Warp drives, worm holes, and other forms of faster-than-light travel are wish fulfillment fantasies rather than serious speculation about a possible future.
- That unfounded speculation about interstellar travel can lead to an illusion of a universe abundant with worlds as hospitable to life as this Earth. This is also viewed as unlikely.
- That this dream of abundance can encourage a wasteful attitude to the abundance that is here on Earth.
- That there is no evidence whatsoever of intelligences elsewhere in the universe.
- That absence of evidence is not evidence of absence -- however, it is considered unlikely that alien intelligences will overcome the physical constraints on interstellar travel any better than we can.
- That interstellar trade (and colonization, war, federations, etc.) is therefore highly unlikely.
- That communication with alien intelligences over such vast distances will be vexed by: the enormous time lag in exchange of messages and the likelihood of enormous and probably currently unimaginable differences between us and aliens.
- That there is no present evidence whatsoever that quantum uncertainty has any effect at the macro level and that therefore it is highly unlikely that there are whole alternative universes to be visited.
- That therefore our most likely future is on this planet and within this solar system, and that it is highly unlikely that intelligent life survives elsewhere in this solar system. Any contact with aliens is likely to be tenuous, and unprofitable.
- That the most likely future is one in which we only have ourselves and this planet.
I have mixed feelings.
First of all, I rather like it when artists- whether writers, painters, filmmakers or whatever- develop a code that guides their work. When such codes are designed intelligently, they can lend useful structure and a kind of context to art.
But I love me some space opera. Star Trek, Star Wars, Iain M. Banks, you name it. I know that the first two are goofy science fantasy, and the latter tries to compensate for the lost wonder of space by going for Really Big Effects; but still, I love it. It's the closest thing to a real sense-of-wonder effect that I'm likely to see in SF.
The tone doesn't help much either- it's basically a concession that sf is escapism, but that they will be different. They will be serious, responsible, and relevant. They will address serious causes, not just in their explicit writing, but in the subtle psychological effects of their writing.
I'm not sure that this can possibly work. But i have to give them credit for trying.
Veterans' Day
Today, that is!
All my respect and honor to those who have fought and died in our nation's wars. May we never forget them.
All my respect and honor to those who have fought and died in our nation's wars. May we never forget them.
Monday, November 10, 2008
The Horror Pivot-Moment
Here's something I've been thinking of lately.
Have a look at this: it's an episode of the original Twilight Zone, "Living Doll," featuring Telly Savalas as an abusive dad who meets a doll with a mind of its own.
There's a moment about three minutes in, where Telly holds the harmless-looking doll for the first time and it tells him, "My name is Talky Tina, and I don't think I like you."
And it's that moment- that one instant of perfect shivery weirdness- that sells the whole thing. All the rest of the episode is just working out the details and consequences of that one moment; it's dull by comparison.
(Not to say that it's a dull episode! It's not. But the emotional impact seems to happen right here at the beginning, where we're suddenly presented with the introduction of weirdness to a normal, if awful, suburban world.)
Is there a word for this? Something like the opposite of "climax" for plot, where it makes an emotional impact at the beginning and plays out the details from there?
Have a look at this: it's an episode of the original Twilight Zone, "Living Doll," featuring Telly Savalas as an abusive dad who meets a doll with a mind of its own.
There's a moment about three minutes in, where Telly holds the harmless-looking doll for the first time and it tells him, "My name is Talky Tina, and I don't think I like you."
And it's that moment- that one instant of perfect shivery weirdness- that sells the whole thing. All the rest of the episode is just working out the details and consequences of that one moment; it's dull by comparison.
(Not to say that it's a dull episode! It's not. But the emotional impact seems to happen right here at the beginning, where we're suddenly presented with the introduction of weirdness to a normal, if awful, suburban world.)
Is there a word for this? Something like the opposite of "climax" for plot, where it makes an emotional impact at the beginning and plays out the details from there?
Anathem
Neal Stephenson's latest, Anathem, is... a very Neal Stephenson book.
By that I mean that it has his hallmarks: very-involved worldbuilding, some mildly quirky characters, and an exuberance in writing that sometimes makes his novels go on a bit longer than they should.
The book is built around a kind of monastery, which only opens its gates to the outer world once every ten years. Within this monastery is another monastery, whose contact with outsiders happens only once a century; and within that it yet another, whose inhabitants only emerge once a millenium.
(Yes, it's very implausible. But part of Stephenson's appeal is that he makes it work; in the context of this parallel-Earth society, it all makes perfect social sense.)
It's stated directly at the beginning that this is not our Earth; but that's easily forgotten, because of the fun that Stephenson has with the evolution of English words. It makes the world feel familiar, somehow. It could be us, far in the future, still dealing with the consequences of things that are happening today.
By that I mean that it has his hallmarks: very-involved worldbuilding, some mildly quirky characters, and an exuberance in writing that sometimes makes his novels go on a bit longer than they should.
The book is built around a kind of monastery, which only opens its gates to the outer world once every ten years. Within this monastery is another monastery, whose contact with outsiders happens only once a century; and within that it yet another, whose inhabitants only emerge once a millenium.
(Yes, it's very implausible. But part of Stephenson's appeal is that he makes it work; in the context of this parallel-Earth society, it all makes perfect social sense.)
It's stated directly at the beginning that this is not our Earth; but that's easily forgotten, because of the fun that Stephenson has with the evolution of English words. It makes the world feel familiar, somehow. It could be us, far in the future, still dealing with the consequences of things that are happening today.
Happy Birthday, Marine Corps!
The United States Marine Corps was founded on this date in 1775. Happy 233rd birthday to our slightly-younger, slightly-tougher brothers!
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