Flying Solo

I’ve always wanted to get into RC flying, and this may be the thing that pushes me over the edge. While not yet available commercially, it can’t be far off. It may just put my Kindle2 desire on hold.

When I grow up, I want to write like Roger Ebert

I am continually blown away by Ebert’s writing on his blog. I’ve followed his reviews since getting hooked on “Sneak Previews” back in the PBS days, and his reviews are still great. I generally agree with them, but even when I don’t I appreciate his opinion.
It seems that in his blog he's found his voice, an outlet for things note about movies. Odd that after losing his physical voice he's found it here. Or perhaps not odd at all.
About Dogs:
I never met a dog that didn't beg at the table. If there is a dog that doesn't, it has had all the dog scared out of it. But a dog is not a sneak thief like a cat. It doesn't snatch and run. Only if presented with an irresistible opportunity. It is a dinner companion. It is delighted that you are eating, thinks it is a jolly good idea, and wants to be sure it's as delicious as you deserve. You are under a powerful psychological compulsion to give it a taste, particularly when it goes into convulsions of gratitude. Dogs remember every favor you ever do for them, and store those events in a memory bank titled, Why My Human is a God.
On Steak 'n Shake:
A downstate Illinois boy loves the Steak 'n Shake as a Puerto Rican loves rice and beans, an Egyptian loves falafel, a Brit loves banger and mash, an Indian loves tikki ki chaat, a Swede loves herring, a Finn loves reindeer jerky, and a Canadian loves bran muffins. These matters do not involve taste. They involve a deep-seated conviction that a food is absolutely right, and always has been, and always will be.
GO read his blog. If you haven't figured out the world of RSS readers yet, his blog is a good reason to start.

They just keep going…

Remember Spirit and Opportunity, those plucky little Mars rovers that were designed for a ninety-day mission? Five years later, still going strong.

A small but important uptick in electrical output from the solar panels on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit this month indicates a beneficial Martian wind has blown away some of the dust that has accumulated on the panels.
The cleaning boosts Spirit's daily energy supply by about 30 watt-hours, to about 240 watt-hours from 210 watt-hours. The rover uses about 180 watt-hours per day for basic survival and communications, so this increase roughly doubles the amount of discretionary power for activities such as driving and using instruments. Thirty watt-hours is the amount of energy used to light a 30-watt bulb for one hour.

Five years later, they’re still out there gathering good scientific data and taking amazing pictures. When folks decry the money we spend at NASA, it makes me insane.

 

The Wisdom of Mike Rowe

Really, if you don’t read Mike’s blog, you should.

”At base, I still believe that you should try your hardest and do your best at whatever task you undertake.  Whether you're splitting logs or sipping Boodles, do it well.  I do not believe, that there is anything magical about an 8 hour workday or a 40 hour work week.  Those are perimeters designed by people who write the checks, and accepted by those who draw a bright line between work and play.  As a rule, I've chosen to avoid such relationships.  Calling an activity "work" or "play" is just another label, and usually, a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I prefer to smash the two together whenever possible.”

What's wrong with this picture?

As I've said before, I think Wall-E is a great movie, an instant classic. But the more I watch it the more certain things bother me about it.

Let's start with our title character, Wall-E himself. It is apparent early on that he has a personality. He's curious. He likes to explore beyond his main programming, which is apparently picking up and stacking trash. He collects things that interest him. Clearly he's had some kind of malfunction that makes him this way. If we're to believe that he's a robot designed solely to do the above tasks, then there is no reason for him to be curious, watch old movies, or collect things. Our suspicions are confirmed later in the story when Eve saves him and he reverts back to default programming. No curiosity, no personality.

His curiosity provides us with brief bits of comedy. He puts on a bra, honks a car horn, can't decide where to put a spork in his collection. Neat bits, but if we are to believe (as we later learn) that humans have been gone for seven hundred years, does a bra survive intact that long? Can a car's battery - even a futuristic one - hold a charge for that long that is good enough to give us a robust "chirp chirp" from the alarm? Let alone the battery in the remote still be good?

I can accept that Wall-E has had some kind of event that has caused his programming to go off-kilter... until we meet Eve. We know right away that Eve has a personality - she laughs. She also floats, which we'll get to later.

What possible reason could there be for Eve to have a personality? Her job is to hunt for life - apparently only plant life, because the cockroach doesn't excite her. She doesn't need curiosity, just persistence. But she can laugh, turn on light bulbs, and solve a Rubik's cube. All apparently essential qualities for a robot who's sole purpose is to ferret out life from garbage.

And Eve can just float. And she has a beam that can grab things and float them to her - a tractor beam, if you will. Even though we watched all the ships take off in clouds of thunder and smoke, she can float. Even though the humans left behind thousands (or millions?) of Wall-E's to stack the garbage, she has a tractor beam. Technologically, she's as far advance from Wall-E as he is from Hero-1. But we're to be believe that they were both made by the same people... at around the same time. After all, when we finally get to see the humans we can't believe they've done much but eat and sit. They certainly don't appear to have innovated anything since they left. We see giant Wall-E's on the 'mother ship' and they aren't improved in any way. So why the difference? Why can't Eve be a clunking pile of barely functioning junk?

Her arm is an amazing weapon. What for? Blasting things out of the way so she can find life? No, she apparently tries to shoot anything that moves, which would appear to go against her purpose. But again we get a bit of comedy as Wall-E frantically tries to avoid destruction.

Oh, and she can solve the Rubik's cube. Why? What possible purpose could that ability have to enhance her main function? Perhaps her programmers expected to find life embedded or hidden in a senseless puzzle?

We finally make it to the ship. Perhaps we'll find some consistency there. Or not.

We're led to believe that the humans are couch-bound lumps, barely able to lift limbs to feed themselves. Indeed, they appear to eat everything through a straw. They lay in couches and watch a magic screen that floats above them apparently all day. When Wall-e knocks one woman's screen away, she's amazed at the ship around here, like it's something she's never seen before.

The ship has apparent artificial gravity -- when things are dropped they fall -- but when Otto turns the ship's wheel to tilt the ship, everyone slides to one side.

Yet the humans have managed to reproduce. Perhaps they grow the new humans, in vats or artificial wombs. We really only see them interacting with robots and image screens, so maybe.

When the time comes for the Captain to walk he does so with relative ease, to the point of fighting off Otto the autopilot. Even though moments before he had struggled to lift his head far enough to suck on his coffee straw.

And then of course, all of the humans discover that they can walk with relative ease. Amazing.

So Wall-E. Really, a great great movie, I haven't changed my mind. Just bring your extra - large "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" cap.

The Whoscarf lives!

  Who can forget the great Tom Baker as the fourth Dr. Who? Certainly not me. I remember blocking out the schedule to watch each episode on PBS, and even going to a Dr. Who convention in Champaign. There has never been a Doctor to equal Baker. You can argue, but my opinion will not be swayed. Now thanks to the efforts of this guy, you can create your own signature Tom Baker Dr. Who scarf. With designs from multiple seasons you can sport multiple versions and see who notices the difference. Of course, it takes a special kind of nerd to wear one, let alone make one. Off to the yarn store!

Flying?

They call this “flying”. I call it falling with forward momentum. Other words spring to mind, like “insane”, “Stupid”, and “death wish”.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.