"What dreams may come..."

 

 “To sleep, perchance to dream...”

Hamlet, Act III, Scene I.

Although the Martian storm* that held the Opportunity Mars rover in powered-down sleep since June 10th of this year has finally subsided after 180 days, it remains unresponsive to NASA's attempts to establish communications.  So far Mission Control has made over 350 attempts to contact the disabled rover, with no results.

However, Opportunity still has a chance.  Although the sandstorm has abated, the winds continue, which offers the possibility that residual dust will be blown off Opportunity's solar panels so that it can recharge its batteries and resume operation, which would certainly the best of all the possible conclusions to the rover's current plight.

Until that happy outcome, sleep on in peace, Opportunity. May your digital dreams take you to a place where your batteries never need charging, your memory arrays are sharp and fast, the sands are smooth under your wheels and the skies are always clear.

- Sid

* Did you know that there's a Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that, among other things, keeps track of Martian weather for NASA? It was launched in 2005 with the mission of searching for historical evidence of water on Mars, and, as with so much of the technology we've sent to Mars, has remained in place and continued to work.

"There's a fire, sir."

Having just announced my love affair with the International Space Station, it seems unfortunate to learn that scientists have discovered antibiotic-resistant bacteria of the Enterobacter* strain on the station.

Okay, the good news is that they're not pathogenic** to humans. The bad news is that they exist at all as a different form from related Terran bacteria. The really bad news is the missing part of the good news: they're not pathogenic to humans YET.  Computer simulations indicate a 79 percent probability that they will eventually evolve into a human disease pathogen, which seems like a bad thing.

Anybody remember The Andromeda Strain...?

- Sid

* If you're unfamiliar with the Enterobacter strain of bacteria, Wikipedia™ informs us that it is "a genus of common Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae."

You're welcome. 

** Able to cause disease. Again, you're welcome.

A Personal Observation on the ISS: I Don't Like It.

I've had a chance to see something that is way outside everybody else's frame of reference and gives a perspective that is very different from everyone else's. 

Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield

It's true - I don't like the ISS.

I love it.

 

I love that there's this massive science fiction prop up there in low earth orbit, second brightest thing in the night sky after the Moon, traveling at the ridiculous speed of 28,000 kilometers an hour and zooming around the planet once every 90 minutes.

I love the pictures of the ISS, and I love the pictures from the ISS, the Canadarm and DEXTRE, incredible photos of the Earth, astronauts doing spacewalks, all that stuff, because they all look like pictures of the future, except they're being taken now.

I really love that people on the ISS have worn Star Trek uniforms and waved DON'T PANIC towels and shot David Bowie homage music videos and done all that sort of silly human stuff that has nothing to do with science.

Because they're living there, and that's what people do when they live someplace, silly human stuff - and we do that now, as a species, some of us sort of live in space, how incredibly cool is that?  And what a great step into the future - I don't know about small steps and giant leaps, but at least we're moving forward.

And when they come back, the astronauts seem to love and appreciate the planet just a little bit more than when they left, which has to be a good thing.

So, again, I don't like the ISS - I LOVE IT.

- Sid

Islands in the Sky.

Today we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station, whose first construction module lifted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on this date in 1998.

So much of the process of space exploration has been ephemeral in terms of human involvement: yes, there are some abandoned bits and pieces on the Moon, we're about to add another citizen to Mars' burgeoning robot population, and there are various satellites and probes whirling around the solar system, but when it comes to people, humanity itself has just come and gone, leaving only a footprint or two.  Space stations such as the ISS represent the first real progress toward establishing a permanent extraterrestrial presence for our species.

The International Space Station is the descendant of two space initiatives from the 1970s: the Soviet Salyut space station program, and the American Skylab.

Salyut 7, Skylab

Salyut 1, the first inhabited orbital outpost, was launched on April 19, 1971, heralding a series of nine Soviet civilian and military space stations - although, to be accurate, only six of the stations were successfully crewed.  The Salyut program was plagued by disasters:  the first crew sent to Salyut 1 was unable to board the station, and the second crew tragically suffocated during re-entry after their ground-breaking 23 day sojourn in space.

Later missions suffered from launch failures and mechanical issues in orbit.  The second Salyut mission crashed into the Pacific Ocean during launch, its replacement and Salyut 3 both fell to Earth without ever being boarded, and only one of two crews were able to board the next successfully established station.  However, the Salyut program also succeeding in establishing new records for time spent in space, and developing protocols for ongoing orbital stays and re-supply missions.

Skylab, which was launched on May 14, 1973, and infamously returned to Earth as a rain of fiery debris in 1979, has been the only space station to date operated solely by the United States. The Skylab program also suffered its share of problems, starting with damage to the micrometeorite shield and one of the station's primary solar panels during launch - in fact, the the primary purpose of SL-2, the first manned mission to Skylab, was to make repairs.  After making the station inhabitable, the SL-2 crew spent 28 days on the station, setting a new record for time in orbit.  The SL-3 and SL-4 missions extended that record to 59 and then 84 days in 1974, after which the station was abandoned until its orbit decayed.*

The Mir station was the successor to the Salyut program, and took the evolutionary step of modular construction in order to create a larger station, rather than the single-unit approach taken by Salyut and Skylab.  Originally established by the Soviet Union in 1986 and later kept in operation by Russia until it was de-orbited in 2001,  Mir also planted the seed of international cooperation in space exploration. Over its 15 year lifespan, Mir hosted astronauts** from the United States, France, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Syria, Afghanistan, and, of course, Canada: Chris Hadfield's first mission into space was a space shuttle flight to Mir.

These three programs paved the way for the ISS by proving the value of a permanent orbital platform for scientific research, establishing the feasibility of extended stays in space by humans, and demonstrating the practicality of using a modular approach to orbital construction. 

The ISS has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a repurposed 12.5 metre Mir module. Twenty years and 136 assembly flights later, the current configuration is 109 metres in length, weighs just over 400 metric tonnes, and offers visitors 32,333 cubic feet of space, with as much living room as a six bedroom house.***  (By the way, there's a great tour of the interior of the ISS available on Google™ Streetview.)  It also represents the first truly international cooperative space venture, with sixteen nations being involved in the station's construction: the United States, Russia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

230 astronauts have visited the station, which has been continuously occupied since the end of 2000, with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson setting the record for the longest time in space at 665 days.  

It would be wonderful if the ISS followed through on its obvious potential to act as a way station to the Moon, Mars, or any similar manned exploratory missions to explore the solar system, or even just continued in its current role as a unique and productive research platform. However, at the moment its days are numbered. Funding by the US government is scheduled to end in 2025, after which its fate is uncertain. Although other countries provide financial support (Canada has chipped in $1.4 billion since the station's inception) NASA handles the lion's share of the expenses - if the US government pulled out, the station's future would be in jeopardy.

Although privatization has been suggested, so far the private sector has not demonstrated very much interest in the station, other than Space-X's Dragon re-supply contract.  Perhaps an even more public approach is the solution: what if we all had the opportunity to directly support the ISS?  I already donate about sixty dollars a year to the Planetary Society to support space exploration - it would only cost the US population ten dollars per citizen annually to match their government's current financial commitment. How many people spend more than that at Starbuck's every day?

- Sid

* Skylab also set the stage for the first recorded orbital mutiny. Overwhelmed by the frantic work schedule set by NASA for the last Skylab mission before the decommissioning of the station, the irritated Skylab 4 mission crew turned off their radio link to Mission Control and went on a one-day strike on December 28th, 1973.

**  Mir also hosted a Japanese journalist, Toyohiro Akiyama, in 1990.

*** Some sources say a five bedroom house, although the station sleeps six - I guess it depends on how big bedrooms are where you come from.

Geekmas 2018: Okay, maybe a little too happy.

To be honest, at $59.99 USD (plus shipping) it's a bit more money than I generally expect that people will spend on my seasonal gift, but at least it's not as expensive as the rifle version...and, honestly, she looks so HAPPY.

- Sid

"My god, it's full of stars..."

I took a picture of Jaq the Cat by the light of my iMac screen on Sunday morning, and something about the way it lit up his furry little face reminded me of David Bowman's enigmatic final words from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Coincidentally, Canadian actor Douglas Rain, who so perfectly provided the voice of the HAL 9000 computer in both 2001 and its undervalued sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, passed away on Remembrance Day this past weekend at the age of 90.  It must be interesting for an actor to be best known for a role in which his character doesn't even have a face, let alone having his own face be seen.

- Sid

lower case titling can be a thing if you want.

And now, a quick op ed piece from Chris: friend, old school World of Warcraft participant, zombie critic, and apparent fan of lower case titling:

the zombie apocalypse is making progress on all fronts

It has come to my attention that zombies are making inroads into World War One and Two across different media:

1. Video games:
https://www.cultofmac.com/94407/save-world-war-i-from-zombies-and-cthulhu-with-the-wasted-land-on-ios/

Pretty much everything goes in video games and this is better than any GTA version in terms of social message. This might be cool.

2. Board Games:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/246960/axis-allies-zombies

 

I remember playing the original version in high school so this is a bit of sacrilege. Granted Axis and Allies was a broad brush stroke game with dice being the main driver rather than strategy but still...

3. Movies:  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlord_(2018_film)

I think this is especially poor taste for this zombie version of D-Day coming out so close to Remembrance Day. Imagine some poor nonagenarian going to see this not really reading the fine print...*

Something must be done about this zombie plague!

In other news, Blizzard™ killed Diablo by stopping development on the PC and only continuing it on smart phones. The auditorium at Blizzcon was underwhelmed to say the least....

- Chris

* This is quite a valid point, you'd never know if you just went by the title - Operation Overlord was the Allied code name for the plan to retake France during World War II.

 - Sid

 

Geekmas 2018: State of Contentment.

https://scottpark.carbonmade.com/

Well, it's finally happened: I have everything I need.

Okay, maybe not everything, but when I sat down to do this year's Geekmas gift suggestions, I found myself unexpectedly at a loss. I have a ridiculous backlog of unread books, I'm a bit gamed out at the moment after spending a LOT of Wasteland time in Fallout 4 over the last year, I'm well stocked in terms of geek t-shirts, my toy shelf is full, I'm good for physical media - what's a contented geek to do?

Regardless of my state of satisfaction, my workplace Secret Santa draw is on the horizon, not to mention people who know me personally who will be Christmas shopping, so I feel obliged to offer some kind of guidance. Let's see what the marketplace holds...

Books
Regardless of the state of my unread book inventory, there are still a couple of things that I'd like to add to the stack, starting with The Fifth Season, the first book in N.K. Jemisin's award winning The Broken Earth trilogy. (If you're feeling spendy, all three, but Amazon.ca™ shows them at a somewhat pricey twenty-two dollars each - trade paperbacks, I assume.   After her epic awards speech at this year's Hugos, I'm more than a little curious to read some of her work.

Luna: Wolf Moon, by Ian McDonald, is actually a sequel request in more ways than one: tt's the follow-up to the excellent Luna: New Moon which I requested - and received - a couple of years back. There's a third book coming (there's a longer conversation we can have about the odd prevalence of trilogies in science fiction) but it's not out until March of 2019, so we can save that one for next year.

Not meaning to be a nag, but Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch, and The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson are still left on the list from last year.  And there's still that William Gibson book that isn't even supposed to released until December 25th this year...

Games

 

Let's see...there's a new Lovecraft-themed computer game out, Call of Cthulhu from Cyanide Studios, but the reviews have been pretty uniformly unfavourable.*  It's also not available on PC yet as far as I know, which takes it right off the list - sorry, not a console gamer.  I have much higher hopes for Frogwares' The Sinking City, scheduled to hit digital shelves in March of 2019 - it certainly has a much cooler trailer. It's apparently more of an open-world concept game that Call of Cthulhu, which critics describe as being more like the Chaosium™ tabletop RPG that inspired it - perhaps a little too much like it, based on the reviews.

None of which helps for Christmas 2018, unfortunately.  In anticipation of future purchases, perhaps a gift card for the Steam™ game distribution platform is the route to take for this category, although it looks like Steam™ wants you to set up an account before you can give someone a digital gift, which feels like a lot to ask - although it does go directly to the recipient's account, which is handy. The Steam website claims that Shopper's Drug Mart has physical gift cards, but the SDM web site only shows $50 options.  If that's a bit more than you wanted to spend, the easiest solution may be to just give me some cash with a little note that says BUY A GAME FROM STEAM WITH THIS.

Graphic Novels

Amazon.ca** - The Infinity Gauntlet, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Civil War, Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C.: One Man Army Corps, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dark Nights: Metal: Dark Knights Rising, Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: Seed of Destruction.

(Drops mike, leaves stage.)

Blu-rays
Okay, fine, blu-rays, because they're relatively quick and easy, and generally not too pricey: Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, the original Westworld, the 1982 cult classic The Sword and the Sorcerer (if you can find it), 12 Monkeys, or The Time Bandits.


Merch
For something local, The Storm Crow*** must have some kind of merch: hats, socks, mugs, t-shirts, something - XL for both of those last two, please, I like large cups of tea and loose t-shirts.  They don't mention it on their web site, but they may sell something over the counter at one of the two Vancouver locations: 1619 Broadway or 1305 Commercial Drive. (This is speculation, by the way, please don't send me angry comments complaining that I sent you on a wild goose chase - although they are fun places to visit.)
Finally, if all else fails, surprise me!  I usually don't recommend that as an option, especially for books, but people have managed to successfully purchase me geek gifts that didn't appear on my wish list in the past.

 As a guideline, I'm pretty old school in my fandom. I tend to take this all pretty seriously, and I lean toward canon, so no "Come to the dark side, we have cookies" t-shirts, not my gig. Think classic - or even vintage. Caveats: as much as I'd love some classic SF movie posters, I have no wall space for the things that I already have, so maybe skip anything in that category.

Good luck!

- Sid

* What I really want is the fascinating 2005 game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth, which I played most of in a bootleg version many years ago but never finished - mostly because I didn't have any instructions on how the controls worked. (A little research reveals that an Amazon™ vendor would be happy to sell me the original game for $379.33. A little MORE research reveals that it's available on the Steam™ gaming store for $6.50 CAD - okay, never mind, I'll just download that sometime this weekend. Welp, so much for being gamed out...)


** Or, locally, on the second floor of Chapters Indigo at Broadway and Granville,  Golden Age Collectibles downtown on Granville, or The Comicshop on 4th Avenue in Kits - but that would have messed with my flow.


*** I see that they've opened a Storm Crow on Church Street in Toronto, the Storm Crow Manor.  My sincere congratulations to the owners - New York, you're next.
 

"Man of Tomorrow"

I don't normally discuss the scheduling of blog postings - this is a hobby, not a profession, it's not like I'm being forced to meet a quota - but I have to admit that I'm pleased to have caught up with myself in terms of retrograde updates.  Almost all of the Honeymoon series sat in draft while I got back in sync with Pacific Standard Time, attended plays from our two season's ticket theatre subscriptions, studied for (and wrote) a midterm exam for the BCIT continuing education Occupational Health and Safety course that I'm taking, started studying for the end of term exam on November 22nd, and completed the final assignment.  In other words, it's been a busy time.

Sadly, there were some casualties in the interests of moving forward:  I abandoned a couple of posts about Ireland, my Jodie Whittaker debut posting was a bit rushed, I didn't say anything about the Venom movie, there was no Hallowe'en posting, and a couple of other possible topics just fell by the wayside.

However, I'm finally back in sync with real time as opposed to cooking the books in terms of blog timestamps.  It's good to be back in the future - have I missed anything?  Cold fusion?  World peace?  Damn...I bet Trump's still President, isn't he...

- Sid