Space Money

Given the current fiscal crisis and the nationalization of Northern Rock (and personally, our surprisingly pleasant treatment at the CO-OP Bank where we have shifted our accounts, this guide to alien cash exchange, while not exactly 'Marxist', is a handy starter:

"Don't get ripped off by unscrupulous intergalactic exchange bureaus! Consult our guide to alien money, including exchange rates with the U.S. dollar. Click through for a listing of currencies from Dune, Red Dwarf, Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and others."

See the guide here.
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Galactica strikers

This pic shows the now empty set of Galactica where shooting for series four stopped at episode 4.13 because of the Hollywood writers strike. Ronald Moore's site has some reports on what Galactica writers have (not) been doing for the strike. Pencils anyone? A ball game ticket with the Chief...? Recall his problematic negotiations with Admiral Adama in the strike episode in series three (3.15, discussed here), but before they get to earth, lets sort the workplaces out. Police in UK going out too - for all the wrong reasons, but in any case, Support the strikers.

Beep Beep Sputnik

Beep Beep - 50 years ago today. Happy Birthday.

From the fine folk at Needham High School's History Crib


The Launch of Sputnik
"Never before had so small and so harmless an object created such consternation."
- Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience

The launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, brought the dawn of the space age, and increased conflict between the United States and the U.S.S.R. The people of the United States had begun to feel as if they were unsurpassable in every aspect of life. However, the launch of Sputnik alarmed society and created a wide spread panic in suspecting that their country was vulnerable and could be outshown.


The Story of Sputnik

Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, was launched on October 4, 1957 by the U.S.S.R. It was little more than the size of a basketball and weighed 184 pounds. Sputnik was not equipped with any scientific instruments, but orbited the earth once every 98 minutes. It contained a single radio transmitter, which did little more than issue an incessant beeping that allowed even the most primitive instruments to track it. As an instrument used for gathering data, Sputnik was relatively insignificant. However, Sputnik did usher in the new age of space exploration, and initiated the U.S./ U.S.S.R. space race that would lead to the creation of the manned space shuttle and utilization of the space station.

Why the U.S. Did Not Beat the U.S.S.R. into Space

Conflict between military branches had hindered the progression in creating a satellite before Sputnik's launch. Also, it was not until the U.S.S.R. got Sputnik launched that the U.S. saw their own space program as something more than a leisurely hobby. Satellites were predicted to have no military value to the U.S., and so sufficient funds were not put into the Vanguard project. A lack of qualified personnel contributed to the slow progression of the U.S.'s satellite projects as well. After Sputnik's launch, however, money was pumped into education and satellite projects.

....
continues here if you want to read what Eisenhower did next.

but better might be to seek out:
"Soviet Claiming Lead in Science." The New York Times. 5 Oct. 1957: 2.

Happy Birthday, ball of tin. Erm, RED ball of tin. Yaay!

Poignancy in Space

This post from Anti-Popper is brought forward to here to inaugurate a new series of 'posts from the past' - historical division - sci fi. Heh heh. The humanity of Adama and Jameson - is doggited.

"Saturday 16 December 2006

galactica: my friend the blob

"I can’t find my ancient copy of Battlestar Galactica 2: The Cylon Death Machine, and it hurts. Of course, because I’m such a fan of the current series, it doesn’t seem likely that a novelisation of the original, cheesy Battlestar Galactica would have a place in my heart, right? I mean, my brother got me Fredric Jameson’s Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions for my birthday — I couldn’t possibly like this kind of trash, which barely passes for “real” science fiction, right? But I was a big fan of the original Galactica, for two reasons:

1. While it was undoubtedly drab in comparison to Star Wars, Galactica was shown frequently enough on TV to simply work its way, on a rhythmic level, into my playground fantasies when I was seven years old. And it’s not as if I hadn’t found “finer” sf, either — I was also reading Isaac Asimov’s robot stories at the time.

2. By fleshing out all the aspects of the show that were atrophying under the family-oriented network TV regime of the day, the novelisations made Galactica seem so much better than it really was. Like many media tie-ins, Robert Thurston’s first couple of Galactica novelisations were based on the original scripts, and written several months before shooting. In Galactica’s case, this meant Cylons that weren’t clumsy walking toasters who couldn’t shoot straight (a last-minute change dictated by the network), but murderous lizards who (according to Thurston) thought bitchy thoughts about their superior officers, waited impatiently for promotions, and were driven crazy by the itches that developed under all that heavy armour!

Writing about my loss of The Cylon Death Machine is particularly poignant for me because the event is so recursive. From what I can remember, the novel’s narrative was interspersed with extracts from Commander Adama’s personal log — The Adama Journals — in which he muses about all sorts of seemingly random and inconsequential shit in the middle of the tactical emergencies of the time. Adama’s log is, of course, very bloggy. In this log, he finds the time to mourn how so much Caprican culture was destroyed in the apocalyptic Cylon attack on the Colonies. But rather than honour high culture, Adama chooses to remember pulpy kids’ science fiction: his own favourite childhood book was called something like Sharkey the Star Rover, and featured the insterstellar wanderings of an orphan human boy, Sharkey, and his best friend, an alien blob called — of all things — Jameson. Adama requests of a search of all the archives in the fleet, but alas, the book is lost forever. Just as I’m not quite sure whether I remember this book correctly, Adama wonders if his memory of Sharkey The Star Rover is accurate. Sharkey loves his alien friend Jameson, who receives much racist abuse from other humans. And yet Sharkey also wishes Jameson were a real boy, instead of a blob, so that he could hold him, and thus physically express his love.

I miss The Cylon Death Machine, and thus, Sharkey The Star Rover."

[ tags: battlestar-galactica, culture, pop-culture, science-fiction, sf ]

Posted by jebni at December 16, 2006 10:44 AM | TrackBack"

Gagarin grooves

This looks like space-fun for every day of the week, not just Sundays:

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Sunday 19th November 6pm – 1am Radio Gagarin: Experiments in Sunday Socialism
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Notting Hill Arts Club, 21 Notting Hill Gate, London W126pm – 1a.m. £5.

London's only Balkan/Russian/ Baltic/Gypsy/Klez/ Mash/Thrash/ Trash/KULTURKlash!!!

Radio Gagarin's' bi-monthly Experiments in Sunday Socialism sessions fill Notting Hill Arts Club to overflowing with a tundra melting mix of live music, digital DJ prowess, performance art, east European cinema, poetry, puppetry, poverty, latkes, blinis and vodka. Live acts have included Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz, Oi Va Voi, DJ Shantel, Sophie Solomon, Nayekovichi, Babar Luck, Mama Matrix, Luminescent Orchestrii, Geoff Berner, Ghetto Plotz & Mukka. The Commissar continues to pledge exclusive new music from DESTROYERS -100% Balkan Mania, EMUNAH …The Cut Chemist Crew of NW London' and The Langham Research Centre Musique Concrete, performance from Friends of Gagarin, Marxist-Leninist alienation from art/animation/video installations for the Proletariat from state artists Adrian Philpott & Cathy Gale; frozen vodka & rakiya galore and resident DKs (Dancefloor Komissars) Max Reinhardt & Misha Maltsev sweating it out in the Gypsy Diskoteka til' the road of excess has led us to the place of wisdom. Early evening come to feed your soul with autumnal home-cookin in the Kitschen and take a rest from your fight for Revolutionary Determinism for a few moments in the Kinodrom with new and classic shorts from Eastern Europe.
Co-Produced by YaD Arts / Adrian Philpott/ Oi Va Voi / The Shrine
For more info: tel 020 7629 5555
http://www.nottinghillartsclub.com/
www.moralsupport.org.uk/productions_FoG.html
www.kosmonaut.se/gagarin
www.marxists.org/archive/ trotsky/works

BSG Circles

You'll find lots of interesting stuff on Ange's blog 'Sometimes', but I must confess I was surprised to find she's a BSG fan - her compendium/aggregation of BSG posts from elsewhere is the best I've seen.
Check: here

But these sorts of interests can cause havoc in the US - here my good friend Ted gets grief from the Right in Arkansas. Ted is a prospective BSG fan, a 'post-terrorist' (!!!) apparently, and he posts as frequently as I do about FDM.
Point your RSS reader at: this.
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Japan sees manned moon station in 2030. 02/08/2006. ABC News Online

Japan sees manned moon station in 2030. 02/08/2006. ABC News Online:

"Last Update: Wednesday, August 2, 2006. 7:31pm (AEST)

Japan sees manned moon station in 2030

Japan's space agency has set a goal of constructing a manned lunar base in 2030.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has revealed its ambition to an international conference in Tokyo this week but has not yet been allotted the budget for the ambitious project.
JAXA hopes to launch a satellite into lunar orbit next year, followed by an unmanned spacecraft that will land on the moon and a probe ship that will collect samples from the moon.
Under the plan, the astronauts will be sent to the moon by around 2020 so that they will start construction of the base to be completed by 2030.
Japan had earlier given 2025 as the target date for a lunar base.
'The feasibility of the plan is unclear at this point as we need to gain understanding by the Government and the Japanese people on our plan, but technologically it would be possible in a few decades,' Satoki Kurokawa, a spokesman for JAXA, said.
'Exploring a frontier is always a mission of science. In addition, space programs have the potential to create cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the field of robotics.'
Japan's space program has been on a rebound with a series of satellite launches after an embarrassment in 2003, when it had to abort a rocket carrying a spy satellite just 10 minutes after lift-off.
The United States is planning to put a person on the moon by 2015, the first since another American, Eugene Cernan, on December 11, 1972.
US President George W Bush has set the goal of a manned mission to Mars by 2020.
The European Space Agency plans a human flight to the moon in 2020 and China and India are preparing unmanned missions in the next two years"
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pic - George Melies - Voyage to the Moon 1902.
See also Federation Big Brother and to see what the place might be like, see the film by Ichikawa Kon

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Captain Picard's Journal: Federation Big Brother

Captain Picard's Journal: Federation Big Brother:

"Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Federation Big Brother

Let's hope some unknown alien force or a spatial anomoly doesn't attack the Enterprise right now, as we would all be victims to whatever it was.

The reason?

The entire crew is watching 'Federation Big Brother' on a galaxy-wide telecast.

Everyone has been addicted to this show since it started. All the crew can't help watching housemates walking around doing absolutely nothing. Every so often, those viewing decide on who should leave, and those with the most votes are beamed out.

At first, I was very dismissive of it all, being the Captain; then I started to watch it, and now I don't have any sleep in case anything is missed.

These are the housemates:

Morogh: He's a gay Klingon that insists on keeping everything tidy.

Velas: He is a Romulan who taunts Morogh; there have been a lot of disputes between the two.

Four of Twelve: She is a Borg drone that all the other housemates stay well clear of; they are not sleeping well at night as she says she will sneak into their beds and assimilate them. She hasn't much of a line in conversation; all she says is 'Resistance is futile.' and 'You will be assimilated.'

Data: Yes, our very own Commander Data is a housemate. Unfortunately he was the first to be beamed out, as he lay in bed all day doing nothing. It was only later that we found out that some unscrupulous housemade had switched him off.

Lwaxana Troi: As she is a telepath, the housemates are being careful what they think whenever Deanna's mother is around as she will find them out. I know the feeling.

Ensign Jordan: This young man from Earth, just 20, is there for the female viewers. Lwaxana ha"

- There must be tonnes of this stuff including slasher versions, but I thought turning off data was funny - and I so agree. The android is just a p.o.v character for pre-teens, not even a proper geek. See also Constance Penley's great little book "Nasa/Trek".
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The Future has already come true

Spend 8 minutes looking at this...

http://epic.lightover.com/

Except for the last minute, where I reckon they shouldn't have bothered with the twee 'perhaps there was another way' routine - it was better just as a scary future pod.

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