ST-v-SW.Net: The Blog

Riker Destroys the Enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:45:00 +0000

(Video Link)

It's the sound effects on "impact" that really sell it and crack me up.

The New Enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:48:00 +0000

This would have been acceptable. But this is a fan design by Gabriel C. Koerner and not the real deal.

No, friends, the new Enterprise is here: Click at your own risk.

As someone on Flare put it, this is what the ship from Galaxy Quest would've looked like if they'd been legally able to make it look like the Enterprise.

Weird Science News

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:54:00 +0000

Scotch tape, if peeled in a vacuum, emits surprising amounts of X-Ray radiation.

Next up . . . fusion from Velcro in vacuo.

Tiny Sheets of Mostly Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:02:00 +0000

... 10 times lighter and many times stronger than steel ...

That makes for one badass carbon footprint.

Trek More Militarized?

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:27:00 +0000

Entertaining as it might seem at first blush, it may be that even in the time of the TNG Space Hippies, the Star Trek galaxy during the Dominion War might be more heavily militarized than was the Star Wars galaxy during the Clone Wars.

I say this because of a line in this video, a sneak peek at the Clone Wars CGI series. We know from the AoTC film (and, more explicitly, the novelization) that circa (or soon after) the beginning of the Clone Wars, the Republic had some 1.2 million clones.

(Unless the Kaminoans had exponential increases in capacity, it follows that the Republic must have had only a small number of millions of clones available for most of the war. Given the batches we saw in the film, this generally follows.)

The line in the video: "Our droid armies outnumber the Republic clones 100 to 1."

Per the premiere episode, it is clear this is not a reference to a specific battle or specific region. Thus, this would mean that the number of Separatist battle droids of assorted flavors numbers somewhere between 120,000,000 and, guesstimating, perhaps 500,000,000.

That's just five hundred million, for a reasonable top-end.

Compare this with the fact that a Cardassian reserve unit on Septimus III numbered some 500,000 men, which Martok described as old men and walking wounded. Even if we assume that this reserve unit, the Eleventh Order (of twelve known), was at full manpower for an Order, this would give the Cardassian military some 6,000,000 (six million) personnel.

This seems small for an Order, however. In "The Dogs of War"[DSN7], the number of men under two Guls (one with 100,000 himself) and a Legate was over 600,000 . . . and of course Guls can merely be captains.

Cardassian Orders seemed to usually include ships, though, whereas the description of this Order sounded more like a ground force, i.e. an army. Assuming the Cardassians had perhaps 5,000 ships (of the 30,000 that the DCB Axis was fielding during the latter days of the Dominion War), with average crews of 275 per ship, the total would rise to around 7.5 million.

Of course, we know from "The Changing Face of Evil"[DSN7] that seven million Cardassian soldiers had died over the course of two years of war . . . a war the Cardassians were generally winning, thanks in no small part to their expendable Jem'Hadar allies.

So clearly the 7.5 million total Cardassian military figure is too low, unless they were all completely replaced in two years with fresh recruits.

Surely, then, the correct figure is in the tens of millions. If we assume that the Cardassians had 21 million soldiers (having thus lost a third of them over two years . . . rather high for a war you're winning, but whatever), then they would outnumber the Republic forces anywhere from 4-to-1 to almost 20-to-1.

This from the Cardassians, generally considered a rather smallish adversary. (After all, a third of the Klingon military ate the Cardassians' collective lunch circa "Way of the Warrior"[DSN4].)

Now, I've previously calculated that Starfleet ought to have some 2.5 million persons on starships alone. Sisko has referred to millions on the line. It follows that the Federation had at least as many soldiers if not more than the Cardassians.

So there were six total powers . . . the DCB Axis and the FKR Alliance. If they all had 20,000,000 troops or so, then we'd be looking at a total of 180,000,000 military personnel.

That is equal to the low end of the total Clone Wars possibilities, but within the range.

But that's only part of the tale. Even multiplying Federation population estimates by six to account for the other five empires in the Dominion War, plus some extra wiggle room, we might find a total population of 20 trillion for the six nations involved.

Meanwhile, a rough minimum estimate for the Empire is about 200 trillion persons, or ten times larger.

The end result is that, by percentage, the Federation during the Dominion War featured a greater percentage of her population in the military than did the forces on both sides . . . including clones and droids for argument's sake . . . during the Clone Wars.

Also noteworthy is the fact that even a small Alpha Quadrant power like the Cardassians managed to lose more troops in two years of war than the Republic ever actually had. While I'm comfortable with the assumption that the Empire fielded a larger force than the Republic twenty years earlier, one can't help but wonder just how large this force might've been. Even at ten times larger than the wartime military, the Empire would have only 12 million troops. The Cardassians would likely still have more.

(Now all we need are crew counts for frontline SW vessels.)

If these values are even remotely accurate, the view of the Empire as a military juggernaut if for no other reason than the walls of flesh they could send against an enemy is suddenly quite a bit different.

If these values are even remotely accurate, then, the Empire would have a helluva time doing anything against any major nation in the Alpha Quadrant.

- Ship ranges would favor the AQ power significantly, making combat extremely difficult for Imperial ships.

- Imperial ships might have a small FTL advantage, but there's not a great deal they could hope to do with it.

- Conquest could not be an option, as they would not have the manpower to take and hold a rebellious planet.

And so on.

Clone Wars CGI Premiere Report

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:11:00 +0000

The first two episodes of the Clone Wars CGI series have shown. I'm actually pretty fond of it so far on a pure enjoyment level. I find that I'm really liking the theme, which (until it hits the BSG-drum-ized SW fanfare) has a really nifty sound.

As for the tech, though . . . well, let's look at the highlights:

- We get to see the small Republic vessel from TPM again, which is a very nice nod to continuity. The vessel is not especially nimble, it seems, but does the job. It has four four-meter-wide cylindrical escape pods which, given the floorspace, might be able to hold a dozen people. It looks designed for four, though, implying a likely crew of sixteen or less.

- Two Separatist warships drop out of hyperspace right on top of the small Republic cruiser. These are referred to in the non-canon as Munificent class and said to be 825 meters in length. Gunnery aboard these vessels appears to be handled by your basic retarded battle droids.

- Range on these ships is as limited as it always is in Star Wars. Just as the CW CGI movie gave us ships lined up within spitting distance, we hear it pretty explicitly this time. Right after this moment, the clones report they they are out of range of the Munificents:

The Munificents had actually already stopped firing by this point, despite their intense desire to destroy the pod:

Similarly, in the second episode we get to see another space combat incident. A Separatist warship and a small Republic force square off, holding position outside one another's weapons range:

Then, shortly before the Separatist warship is reported as beginning to close with the Republic ships, we see this:

That skinny shadow against the red dwarf is the Separatist warship Malevolence, estimated at SDN to be around two to three kilometers in length, meaning we are not terribly far from it in the above shots, probably less than a hundred kilometers.

When the Separatist warship prepares to fire its funky ion cannon superweapon thingy, the Jedi Plo Koon aboard one of the Republic Venators orders the ship to fire. The clone officer replies that they are "not in range yet".

So even against another large warship, their range is on the order of 100 kilometers.

- Clones from the above-mentioned Republic ships were able to operate for a brief time in a low pressure environment (definitely not a vacuum given the light refraction from droid and vessel headlights, but enough to result in death within seconds (with multiple lungfuls of screaming) for unprotected clone officers). The medical droid that looked them over later said that the "pressure suits" provided "some protection" against the effects, but the Clones were obviously not feeling well. The medical droid said they'd need a medical frigate for full recovery. The Jedi Plo Koon also said and demonstrated he was able to "withstand the pressure" for a brief time.

Barring some special and not-mentioned difference between the Clone armor in this instance and regular clone armor, it seems that Clone armor does have limited sealing capability. Whether this applies to later Stormtrooper armor is unclear . . . given the usual capacity to see skin, I would assume that if Stormtrooper armor has such capabilities it requires some sort of extra equipment or special preparation.

- Both clones and especially droids are again shown to be extraordinarily awful shots. Two clones and a batch of droids do battle at a range of less than ten meters . . . the droids probably fired fifty times and hit nothing. One droid fired for several seconds, first hitting a rock and then firing constantly about a foot to the left of a clone.

The clones were victorious, but they probably fired three or four times as many shots as there were droids to shoot at.

- Clones are seen to have a rocket launcher and grenades. The rocket launcher is actually fairly powerful, dislodging and cracking up a large rock feature which then smushed several destroyer droids.

More to come if I see anything noteworthy.

- UPDATE 10-06-08

- Venator class Republic ships are
apparently built like clown-cars . . . three of them can put out a
huge-mongous amount of debris, enough to act basically like the
asteroid belt from TESB. This despite there being parts of them --
large enough to be recognizable as Venator sections -- also visible.

-
An SDN post reminded me about the Separatist warship picking up an
active medical droid when all the other systems on a hiding ship were
down to evade detection.

"We're picking up a faint signal," says a battle droid, "from a droid. Not one of ours. They're right behind us."

It isn't clear what the signal was.

The
SDN commenter claimed that this case was evidence of detecting a
droid's power emissions and then determining (from them or via a deeper
scan) that the droid was not of the battle droid models. While
possible in context, it seems off given that the Separatists couldn't
find the escape pods with their working comm systems.

What seems more likely was that this was the droid's equivalent of a Bluetooth connection to the ship.

Geek Porn: Future-Tech Tricorders and Lightsabers

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:22:00 +0000

Applied quantum entanglement principles, realized on a small scale, could produce high-quality EM scans from a handheld device. While this much was obvious (albeit sci-fi for now), not as readily apparent is the statement that entangled emission and detection can achieve similar quality of information with as little as a millionth of the energy input.

While I'm not sure about the direct scaling as suggested by the reviewer in the linked article (a microwatt CT scan? Come now . . . ), the principle could certainly result in a CT-type scanner operating off of the future equivalent of AA batteries.

We're already getting close to tricorder goodness with use of ultra-wideband signals, which allow for a scanning device that can effectively see through doors and walls.

Elsewhere in Geekville, you can tie knots in light beams, after a fashion, by way of electric and magnetic field lines linking up. Among other things, this can be used for plasma confinement.

Of course, it's not too hard to make the mental leap from "shaped light-thingy" to "long shaped light-thingy", i.e. lightsaber, whether merely as confined light or in the form of a confined plasma sword. Whether this idea would actually support such an application (even theoretically) I leave to the future to decide. In the meantime, though, my geeky brain will leap to that conclusion post-haste.

Also cool in that article is the storyboard of how focus fusion is supposed to work, which is the first time I'd heard of such a concept. Given that I was already thinking of lightsabers, certain elements of the focus fusion idea made me think of the Death Star superlaser.

Tacking back on a tangent from that and going back to knotted light beams, we could at least now have a tentative explanation for how a laser could stop in mid-space and join up with other lasers in a lasery cloud before launching off to blow up a planet.

But, of course, we no longer need one. Between my exploration of SW canon and the recent EU books like Death Star, the superlaser is widely known not to be a mere laser. Ironic, no?

Just Some Quick Fun Links

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:22:00 +0000

LHC Scientist Confuses Star Wars with Star Trek, Universe Doomed

Star Trek: The Olbermann Gambit

Clone Wars Quickie Tech Review

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:44:00 +0000

First off, let me re-iterate my earlier comments based on the trailer for the Battle of Christophsis:

*** Numerous Dialled-Down Yields! ***

I couldn't help but giggle. Not only are there massive, voluminous cannons with the output of pea-shooters (come on, guys, where's the earth-shattering kaboom?), but they constitute such a threat to Separatist forces that a retreat is issued. And, there are so many atrocious tactics here that I scarcely know where to begin.

****

But just as a first rough pass, let's look:

1. No air support: There are at least five jetpack-laden clones, but the jetpacks get only brief use in a cavalry-style raid. And even then they don't do it right . . . they just land on the ground in the open beside the enormous walker and start running and shooting like morons.

2. No use of high ground: With the quasi-exception of the cavalry raid, everyone is parked on ground level.

3. No perimeter scouts or spotters: Despite the presence of tall buildings useful for spotting, it appears that the Separatists, with dozens and dozens of droids and multiple ubertall walking weapon platforms, surprised the Republic forces by walking up the road to within half a mile before anyone really got wind of their attack.

4. No sensors: Carrying on from the above point, a tricorder would've been pure awesome here, since it seems that neither side knew what the other had even when they were within line of sight and half a mile away. The Separatist leader seemed astonished to learn that the Republic forces had those pea-shooter cannons, for instance.

5. Inconsistent use of cover: Multiple Republic AT-ST-style walkers just go meandering toward the Separatists right in the middle of the line of fire . . . little surprise that we see two of them blow up. Later, Obi-Wan orders a charge, and a group of clones go running right up the line of fire. The extraordinary thing is that some of them live, only to walk right up to droids and start smacking them around while the other droids scarcely notice. It's like fighting Civil-War-era Borg or something.

****

But surely it is I who must be mistaken. I mean, SW forces are all uber-elite, y'know, with kiloton-yield hand weapons, making them more than capable of spanking the pants off pajama-clad UFP hippies.

More seriously, there are instances of clones being flung backward by weapon hits, which speaks well for SW firepower . . . but it appears that those shots came from the big Separatist walkers anyway, which returns us to the "awful" category.

Now, I can revise and extend those remarks somewhat, and add (A SPOILER-STREWN) review of other issues:

Read forward at your own risk.

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Last chance to not be spoiled . . .

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1. First, let me note that indeed, the Republic soldiers did take up spotting positions later. There is no evidence of any sniping in use, but at least spotting did occur eventually. We can excuse the early lack of it as perhaps not having had time to climb some stairs or something.

(You would think given the lack of sensor equipment that this would've been a first priority, but I guess not.)

1a. The above having been said, there is mention of sensors later. On Tatooine, Separatist or Hutt sensors detect three lifeforms crossing the Dune Sea, and are able to distinguish between different the different lifeforms.

(I would at first have assumed . . . given that the Separatists on Tatooine at the time were not in a base or with an obvious large vessel nearby IIRC . . . that those were the Hutt's own sensors. However, given the plotline at this point and one of the lifeforms they found, it seems unlikely that the Hutts ever had this info. Thus I would presume those were Separatist sensors hidden away somewhere, possibly on the ship or ships that I don't recall seeing).

2. As known from the trailer, the Separatist forces retreat under a withering Republic cannonade. So poor is the command and control of the Separatists that the alien commander is ignorant of the presence of the cannons even while having other Trade Federation tanks blown up by them right beside him. When he finally talks to a forward droid and learns of them, he orders a full retreat.

Later, however, he executes a new plan. The Separatist forces on Christophsis had a Gungan-esque shield generator (at a fixed location instead of on a creature), implying that the technology is not unique to Naboo's waterways.

From a location perhaps a handful of kilometers distant . . . I'd call it a mile or two, but it is within line of sight and not on the horizon, in any case . . . the alien commander activates the shield, and begins expanding its radius to cover a new advance of his forces.

The Republic forces consider the tactical situation grim. The cannons are useless against the shield. Without time to take out enemy forces with the four or five cannons as they advance, what will happen is that the shield will pass over the Republic forces and the cannons with the droids right behind, at which point they'll destroy the cannons and overrun the Republic forces.

Evidently the cannons themselves were not only unshielded, but also didn't have the range to take out the shield generator as soon as the shield passed over. One gun moved forward could have poked through and fired, but instead . . .

Anakin and his new Padawan volunteer to try to get past the enemy lines and take out the shield generator on what ought to have been a suicide mission. Remarkably, however, the Separatist alien commander did not leave himself any reserve forces nor any large force guarding the shield generator . . . The Jedi meet one destroyer droid. Near the generator a handful of very heavy combat droids were present, but by the time they came out of hiding and attacked the Jedi were a couple of dozen meters away from the critical (and easily destroyed) shield generator anyway.

This gives the Republic forces the upper hand again, as does the arrival of reinforcements.

2a. We learn that clones and Jedi and people hiding from droids in little boxes can pass through the shield without ill effect. Clone cannon fire, however, is deflected.

This, plus the large beam/spread shield emission pattern, suggests that the Gungan-style shield is of a very different nature than the ray shields that trapped Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine in Ep3. Besides a different look (e.g. without the watery shimmer when struck), that one was said to be able to kill, though that could merely imply a much greater energy level.

3. The overall plot revolves around the retrieval of a kidnapped Hutt child, who happens to be Jabba's son. Because, in a Republic with trillions of common folk and with uncounted quadrillions in the galaxy as a whole, there are only actually like a dozen interesting people.

The kidnappers take the Huttlet to the planet Teth, said to be in "wild space", outside the range of the fighting. This strongly implies support for the fact that there's a lot more of the galaxy than what is contained within the Republic or Empire.

4. Did I see an Acclamator?

5. There was more of the same sort of in-atmosphere combat between front-line starships like we saw in RotS, but this time even lower. And not a mushroom cloud to be seen. Funny that.

6. Unless I'm mistaken, a Republic ship drops shields over its main hangar entrance (which on this Venator was actually the portal on the side . . . those got used more than once I believe). Droid fighters immediately kamikazed it, which is funny really . . . perhaps the smartest droids in the picture were the ones who killed themselves.

7. Speaking of droids, just wow. Many of the clones weren't all that bright in combat, either, but the droids are definitely not intellectual powerhouses when it comes to tactics and strategy.

Interestingly, however, the battle droids do have some level of autonomous thinking. A commanding droid's semi-retarded companion (who couldn't remember 13376245 when spoken to him, if I remember correctly) frequently debates tactics with him, requiring reminders of who is in charge. Of course, the commanding droid is not terribly brighter, given that as the retard falls to his disassembly the commander orders him to "get back here".

8. The bit with Republic walkers scaling a wall is interesting. They basically push their toes in the rockface, from what I saw in the trailers, but I didn't notice that maneuver in the theater.

The tactical utility of the whole operation is suspect, though. Scout troopers (in camouflage, but still with the funny hat brim on their helmets) had indicated that there was no way to land at the structure's top. However, we later see that there are multiple landing platforms. Further, even as they flew in the Republic soldiers ought to have noticed that they could just drop in at the front door. The losses incurred scaling the wall could not have been fewer than if they'd just dropped right in the middle of the show, or used sensors to find the other landing platform. Instead, R2 had to find reference to it in the location's computer system.

Again . . . lack of sensors kills these people. But still, the walker climbing routine is an impressive feat.

9. The show may end up giving us EU-inspired faster speeds. The action was quick fairly often, i.e. "OMG we have to be there tomorrow", while no distances were given.

The trips here include Coruscant to Christophsis, Christophsis to Teth, and Teth to Tatooine. The Teth to Tatooine trip takes less than a day, and possibly much less than a day. However, whereas Teth is wild space, Tatooine is merely deep in the outer rim. This is suggestive of speeds greater than the AotC example, though we'll have to see more about where wild space is considered to begin and such.

10. We also see our first Star Wars starbase. It was a relatively simple design . . . a central shaft (with some sort of peculiar cylindrical ship docking along the outer part, IIRC), with a toroidal area or spokes about a third of the way down, perhaps (we only got a glimpse, and as I write this it is several hours later, so pardon my memory).

Republic ships dock with their noses against the station. Presumably the cylindrical vessels are base resupply rockets, a la Progress and the ISS.

11. The ship shots are rather nice . . . there are a few good old fashioned ship beauty shots here.

12. Last but not least, this is a really violent show. We get to see heads from a multiple beheading, clones getting their heads blown off, clones getting blown up, clones getting picked up by the neck, shot through the torso, then tossed aside . . . all kinds of disquieting stuff. In that sense I think it might be more gruesome even than the films.

More to come as thoughts come to me . . .

Clone Wars Not Actually CGI !!!

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:20:00 +0000

That's right, you heard me. How do I know? Because I was reading this press report about the Clone Wars "CGI" movie and saw this picture:

It was at that point that I realized that Anakin was, in fact, being played by Don Swayze:

And what of Dooku? You've seen that unnaturally looooong face in the promos and trailers, right? That's just Ric Ocasek from The Cars.

It's all a lie, I tell you!

;)

Main Site Update

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:32:00 +0000

From the main site update list:

"I was reminded recently that I have made no noteworthy changes to the site in, oh, over a year now. So, I've been trying to do a little better. I had once been pondering a massive reworking of the site to make use of some of the newer site-construction technologies that would allow a huge number of features and easy updating. However, I reached a bit of a halt when it came to the idea of wanting to convert all the pages over to new scripting and such. So, for the time being things remain as they are. I have, however, done a little bit of rearranging on this page, which hopefully smooths things out a bit, as well as converting to the use of a Creative Commons license. It's hardly a relevant change, but I like it better."

As for the re-arranging, I've basically just moved a few things about. The feedback and links area that used to inhabit the bottom of the page has been tightened up so it's now part of the Errata in the Articles section, along with the legal disclaimer.

Some old stuff has been moved into section pages, such as the Debates and Site Attack Responses area and some of the reviews and episode-specific analysis stuff.

I've also just graduated a few things from the Tech Archives into the main pages, such as the SW Orders of Magnitude page and the Taylor novel research, which is now part of the aforementioned Reviews and Episode Analyses section.

Amusement

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:42:00 +0000

While the canon issue stuff is best discussed over at canonwars.com, I can't help but take a moment to ponder something funny here, where the Funny SDN News goes.

You see, our old selectively-EU-phile friends from SDN have recently discovered and been discussing an LA Times Lucas interview from May, some 3 months ago. It's old news, but they're apparently just finding it, right?

Or, is it that the quote they're referencing is a fairly safe one to deal with? It's not like some of the other quotes from Lucas this year that devastate their position (even moreso than it already has been). It's more generic.

Either way they're out of touch, and instead of disagreeing with and debating creators of and experts on canon, they ought to simply defer to them. But I guess that's almost the definition of "belligerently uninformed", so I guess I ask too much of them.

(Theoretically) Humorous Turns of Phrase

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:13:00 +0000

I was looking for something else and came across a rather brief discussion from 2004 regarding a page of mine.

While discussing the origins of neutron stars, I made the following statement:

To get a good neutron star, you need to take a really old star . . . preferably one of sufficient age that it has an iron core (because once you hit iron, you actually have to put more energy into fusion than you get out of it, and most stars don't bother).

Now, silly me, I never thought that anyone would take that last parenthetical bit literally. But check out this humorless git:

It's not that "most stars don't bother" it's that these stars CANNOT continue the fusion reaction. It would require more energy to fuse the iron atoms together than this reaction (note the word reaction) would produce. The word reaction is important because this is how all of the lower elements are formed. The fusion reaction runs off of the energy it produces, and if it does not have the available energy, then the reaction will halt.

It's like saying that if you don't give your standard car enough gas, then the engine will seize because "it doesn't feel like continuing the reaction."

It's not that it doesn't want to, stars don't have a personality or a brain, it's that it simply cannot continue the reaction.

The only reason we have the higher elements is because they were created during a supernova. The extreme heat and energy present during a supernova provides enough fuel for the iron atoms to fuse into elements like lead, cobalt and uranium.

Okay, fine, maybe it wasn't funny and I'll give up my lifelong yearnings to do stand-up comedy. But was it really necessary for some twerp to try to correct me on the point, as if I were seriously anthropomorphizing big fusion balls?

(Note to the twerp, on the off-chance this is ever seen: stand-up comedy is not a real life-goal for me ... just kidding a little! Get a grip!)

OCD FTW

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:30:00 +0000

(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder For The Win!)

Check out these pictures of a guy's modified Super Star Destroyer resin kit with gazillions of wee fiber-optic lights.

This guy is bats&!+ insane. Awesome work, but totally bats&!+ insane.

But It's Still Like Getting a Medal at the Special Olympics ...

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:56:00 +0000

"Honey, come to bed."

"But baby, someone is wrong on the internet!"

"How To Win an Internet Flame War"

Great Big Bag of Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:20:00 +0000

Look at these pictures.

Popular Science notes that we do not fully understand the origin of volcanic lightning, but acknowledges that "the lack of research done in the field is understandable: Even
scientists, when they see an erupting, lightning-spewing volcano, tend
to run in the opposite direction."

"What Does the Computer Think?"

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:56:00 +0000

With the exception of "Home Soil"[TNG1], in which Crusher instructs the computer to theorize on something, most of the time the TNG era showed us computers used in a way not dissimilar from computers today. You tell it to provide information, make your own theory or determination, and run with it. Or, via the vocal equivalent of clicking a "beam me up" icon, you tell it to do something it's already programmed to do.

In TOS, though, it seemed that the computer . . . for all its whirring and clicking . . . was doing more thinking. There seemed a more frequent use of computer theorization. For instance, in "Mirror, Mirror"[TOS2], Kirk poses a few questions to the computer and lets it do the theorizing, and even provide an instruction list for what to do with the theory's application. Scotty followed along with its reasoning enough to know he'd need some help doing the work, but that's it.

It may be that TOS was actually closer to future reality in that case. In a rather interesting article, it's suggested that sheer volume of information along with mathematical correlation might allow for a computer that serves more as analytic theorizer than info-search-tool a la Google.

To be sure, this isn't necessarily a new idea. There have been many science-fiction stories about all-knowing thinking machines. Among other iterations, there was "Cyclops" from David Brin's novel The Postman, which also featured a "data net" along the lines of what you're currently surfing.

But presumably, as we've gotten to know working PCs, the idea of what they're capable of has declined to some extent. That is the best explanation I can think of for the less impressive way they were written in the TNG era. To be sure, the computers didn't seem to be any dumber by any means, but they simply weren't asked that many theoretical questions as I recall.

Something I Never Noticed During ST2 ...

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:38:00 +0000

The TMP-era ships have phaser emitters that are rectangles with two little hemispheres on top. Generally I've rolled with the common idea that the two hemispheres were little ball turrets or some high-tech no-moving-parts emitter thingy or what-have-you. But whatever it was, there were just two per rectangle.

But if that were so, then what the hell is this?:

That's three beams with a fourth on the way, though there's enough wiggle room for the fourth to be non-overlapping with one of the other three (and hence still keeping the three total).

But that's three. Three, I say.

Back to the drawing board?

Irony Bomb

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:41:00 +0000

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=124081

The thread above could very well split your side if you've followed the debate for any length of time.

The same people who seriously consider the notion that a TIE fighter is sufficiently armed to wipe the floor with any ship named Enterprise consider whether there's any such thing as a wanked pro-Wars argument or pro-Wars wankers, and find that there really aren't any.

In other news, back when David Duke, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and like-minded souls had that conference in which they claimed the Holocaust never occurred, a straw poll was held in which they found that there wasn't a single Jew-hating sociopath in the room, and that all anti-Holocaust arguments therein expressed were both logical and valid.

Quantum Entanglement Photography

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:03:00 +0000

This is spiffy.

I don't even know if the quantum entanglement this thing uses can be interfered with via natural causes, if you'll pardon some layman terminology, short of destroying photons or otherwise causing absorb/re-emit episodes for them, but that would be an interesting concept for that everpresent interference that Trek sensors always experience. ;)

Berman!

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:40:00 +0000

May 14-20 1994 TV Guide, p. 20:

"But there is a very strong sense of finality -- we owe that to the audience. Riker will not wake up in the shower and say it's all been a dream."

- Rick Berman, Executive Producer

Yeah . . . he saved that for Enterprise. Dick.

SP 937-215

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:56:00 +0000

Based on the title (which is Picard's serial number, per "Chain of Command, Pt. I"[TNG6]), then Picard represents one of 676,000,000 (676 million) possible Starfleet officers.

(For those in Mississippi, you multiply the possible values of each digit to get the total . . . 26 x 26 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10, in this case.)

This pattern for serial numbers was faithfully followed in TNG materials (even for fairly recent Starfleet folks), though there are possible discrepancies in Voyager. TOS serial numbers were different, and thus it is unclear when the new version began. Assuming this occurred circa 2300, and assuming no repeats, we would have 70 years in which to fit up to 676,000,000 people who received serial numbers. That's a maximum of 9,700,000 persons per year.

If we also assume a completely made-up average of 15 years of service from every person receiving a serial number, then Starfleet could have up to 144,000,000 people serving at any one time between 2300 and 2370.

Remember, however, that these are highest possible values . . . it is absurd to assume that the serial number system was set to die in 2370.

Perhaps more interesting/strange is the fact that both ENT-era and TOS-era serial numbers allowed for higher numbers.

Caught Another Warp Reference

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:01:00 +0000

Another "Head Case" example (i.e. quick mental calculation by a character):

In "Obsession"[TOS2], Kirk and Spock are discussing an event "an hour" earlier with the cloud-creature that had been doing warp eight prior to the event. As Kirk notes, it turned and attacked when instead "it could have been many light years away from us".

Even assuming that "many" equalled "two", two light-years per hour is 17,520c.

Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Lightsabers and long exposure times combine most excellently.

"Darth Mojo" original post (with more) here.

"Stop Nerd on Nerd Crime"

noreply@blogger.com (G2k) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 02:15:00 +0000

Great commentary on and summation of the Vs. Debate:

"As a nerd I understand how and why people can be passionate about many things. What I don't understand is when one fanatical nerd group thinks they are better than another fanatical nerd group. Case in point Star Wars fans vs. Star Trek fans. Star Wars fans think that Star Wars is the Filet Mignon of Science fiction and that Star Trek is a turd sandwich served with a side of fecal fries. Darth Vader pwns (nerd lingo for owns) Captain Kirk, Obi one super pwns Spock, and C3PO bitchily slaps Captain Picard. News flash nerds those that wear costumes, are of a greasy composition, and live in their parents basements should not be bashing those that wear costumes, are of a greasy composition, and live in their parents basements. Stop nerd on nerd crime.

Someday I have a dream where all intergalactic space based nerd theme show fans can come together and share some awkward costumes and Zimas. Star Wars fans with Star Trek fans and Battlestar Gallactica fans etc. Maybe even some will fall in love and have a whole mess of costumed babies who will be ostracized and beaten up by the non costumed children of public schools. Until this magnificent dream of nerd unity occurs I will use the force and live long and prosper."