Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
Daniel Birthday Rocket Launch
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011Drone is Back!
Monday, March 14th, 2011After a six week absence, due to extreme work conditions, the AR Drone makes a re-appearance Sunday morning at the Steussy Ranch.
The Drone is Back
Monday, January 17th, 2011
And, with health returned to the Steussy Ranch, we have also received a repaired and reconstructed AR Drone! We’re being very gingerly with it now, since it was in the hospital for a long time.
About to Launch!
Look! It flies!
AR Drone in Temecula
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010Nic’s big present to the family was this UFO-like flying machine (which I had seen and flown before, see here and here). It’s a complicated, expensive and very fragile machine – but boy is it cool when it works!
Below is the feed from the camera onboard during a flight over the top of our house.
More time spent repairing than flying
UPDATE: The drone is currently dead. Parrot customer service has quickly responded with an offer to repair. Will update as news comes in.
Mad Men
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
The three best minutes of TV I have ever seen
Summertime. Gabi and I watch one or two TV shows every night throughout the year after the kids are in bed. Our favorites (24, Lost, Fringe, Survivor, CSI) are all in reruns or canceled now. Summer is the time to find a newish show, one that has been on-air for awhile which we’ve heard about but never watched. One that we can see from the beginning of the series. We discovered 24 and House this way in previous summers.
This is the summer of Mad Men, a biography of advertising men in New York, starting in March 1960 and moving forward. It can be viewed as science fiction in reverse: everyone smokes, everyone drinks too much, no car seats or seat belts in cars, no cellphones, no computers, no internet, and dozens of other things we take for granted.
But concept and setting do not make a show. Personalities do. Writing does. And this is one of the most finely written pieces of TV I have ever witnessed. And it begs my imagination to try to describe it in any cohesive way, other than to say I like it. The clip above (linked here) is so fine and elegant and moving, but I can’t tell you why, since it requires viewing the previous 12 episodes to know why, simultaneously on four or five different levels, this presentation is so hard for Donald Draper.
Part of my attachment is, no doubt, the passing of my father this year, for this is his era. In 1960 he was 36 years old, the same age as the protagonist, Donald Draper. While the show is clearly a reflection of our time, it is my father’s world being shown. Smoke. Martinis. Scotch. And more.
Nine hours before we watch the next episode.
Star Wars Holiday Special
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009It’s that time of year folks! The 31st anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special! This was only the second broadcast/presentation of anything from the Star Wars universe, so it does deserve some attention. Personally, I like the commercials that pop up from the late 70′s.
The Holiday Special has received scorn from across Star Wars fandom, and it certainly is one of the worst video presentations of all time. Kinda funny that way.
XKCD on the Star Wars Holiday Special
Thank God for Skype
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
I’ve now spent 24 hours in Indianapolis.
“You look older,” Gabi tells me. “I am older,” I reply. And she can see me.
For anyone who has not tried it, video Skype is one of the wonders of the universe. The legendary videophone, available for free, anywhere in the world – all you need is a webcam. I propped up my laptop in the overly-sumptuous lobby of the hospital where Mom is, and talked with Gabi (and Veronica) for half an hour. It was almost like being there.
LCROSS Impact
Friday, October 9th, 2009
I’m up this morning watching the NASA coverage of the impact. It’s clear that presenting events is NOT their core competency. I’ll keep posting images and videos here as they come available.
4:54am – Palomar Observatory reports no plume visible. It’s only about 25 miles from where I am.
Finding Water on the Moon
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Tomorrow morning, at 4:30am PDT, the LCROSS “package” will slam into a permanently dark crater near the South Pole of the moon, one of the coldest places in the solar system. It will be followed, four minutes later, by the shepherding probe will fly through the dust plume raised by the impact before it hits the lunar surface nearby.
Telescopes around Earth and in orbit will be watching to find any clues of OH bounds, indicating water. Passive techniques have found indications of water throughout the moon, save along the equator (where the Apollo missions landed, unfortunately). Current thoughts are that hydrogen ions from the solar wind hit the lunar surface, combine with oxygen in the regolith, and form water until direct exposure to the sun sublimates it.
But water should be most common in the permanently shadowed craters at the poles – some estimates have it up to 2% of the soil material there. And extracting the water would be easy. Just microwave it.
Wow. I’m getting up early for this, even though it only means following the impact on NASA TV. I’m a geek, what can I say?
Krugman and Stross Transcript
Sunday, August 9th, 2009Paul Krugman (PK). Nobel Prize winning economist and columnist for the New York Times.
Charlie Stross (CS). Hugo-winning science fiction author.
Anticipation World Con, Montreal, Quebec
August 6, 2009
Transcription by Edwin Steussy, Apogee Communications. Please send corrections to ed “at” my last name “dot” com.
CS: Good evening, we’re very pleased to be here and thank you very much for inviting us to talk.
