I just found this old draft post, and thought I'd send it live... I was going to write a bunch about this back in 2011, but I just don't care enough now!
I still find it amusing, though!
Atlanta Nights is a collaborative novel created in 2004 by a group of science fiction and fantasy authors, with the express purpose of producing an unpublishably bad piece of work, so as to test whether publishing firm PublishAmerica would still accept it.[1] It was accepted; after the hoax was revealed, the publisher withdrew its offer.[2]
The primary purpose of the exercise was to test PublishAmerica's claims to be a "traditional publisher" that would only accept high-quality manuscripts. Critics have long claimed that PublishAmerica is actually a vanity press that pays no special attention to the sales potential of the books they publish since most of their revenue comes from the authors rather than book buyers. PublishAmerica had previously made some highly derogatory public remarks about science fiction and fantasy writers, because many of their critics came from those communities; those derogatory remarks influenced the decision to make such a public test of PublishAmerica's claims.[3]
Photo of the Day (#4) by A. F. Litt: September 12, 2016
This is a very cool spot, and a bit terrifying for those of us who grew up in the Cold War, especially considering how many of these things were scattered about these fields (and still are)... The Launch Control Center tour is definitely worth it, too, though maybe a little less photogenic.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars was canceled by Lucasfilm in mid-production, but some of the preliminary story reels of the incomplete episodes are available here: http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/the-clone-wars-legacy. There are eight episodes available to watch covering two story arcs. Some of the other unused scripts were adapted into other media such as comics and novels. These stories are considered canon, and are worth checking out!
Today’s photo isn’t technically great, since it’s shot on the P510 with the super zoom cranked to the max, but it is interesting. We were staring at the large quarry lake that has filled the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana since the last time I was there and we noticed some statue or something up on the mountain to the east of us. Turns out that it is an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary and the second tallest statue in the United States after the Statue of Liberty. Built in 1985, it wasn’t there the last time I was through Montana. The statue is 90 feet tall, but is still easily missed since it is way up on top of a 8,500 foot mountain, 3,500 feet above the town.
For more information and some interesting pictures, follow the links below:
The Story: "The base of the statue was poured with 400 tons of concrete in September of 1985. December 17, 1985, a Nevada Air National Guard team lifted the statue in four sections with a CHAR Sikorsky Sky Crane. Supported by the Montana National Guard, the U.S. Army Reserve from Butte, and teams of civilian workers, the final head - section was place atop the statue, while thousands watched."
Our Lady of the Rockies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot (27 m) statue, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that sits atop the Continental Divide overlooking Butte, Montana. It is the second tallest statue in the United States after The Statue of Liberty. The statue was built by volunteers using donated materials to honor women everywhere, especially mothers. The base is 8,510 feet above sea level and 3,500 feet above the town. The statue is lit and visible at night."
Butte's iconic Our Lady of the Rockies celebrates 25 years: "In 1979, Bob O'Bill wanted to build a 5-foot statue of the Virgin Mary to celebrate his wife's recovery from serious illness. He thought maybe it would be placed in a city park. But plans began to snowball and area engineers were soon picking out a suitable spot — the 8,500-foot Saddle Rock high on the Continental Divide — for the placement of a 90-foot statue. From head to toe, it would be as big as the Statue of Liberty and it would become the second largest statue in the country. It still holds that honor."
Q&A: Gerd Ludwig’s Long Look at the Chernobyl Disaster | PROOF: "Deep inside, at a dark hallway, we stopped in front of a heavy metal door. The engineer indicated I had only a brief moment to shoot. It took him a long minute to open the jammed door. The adrenaline surge was extraordinary. The room was absolutely dark, lit only by our headlamps. Wires were obstructing my view. At the far end of the room I could make out a clock. I was only able to fire off a few frames and wanted to wait for my flash to recharge. But he already pulled me out. I checked my pictures. Out of focus! I begged him to allow me in one more time. He gave me a few more seconds to frame the clock showing 1:23:58 AM—the time when on 26 April, 1986 in the building that housed Energy Block # 4, time stood forever still.” —Gerd Ludwig on photographing inside reactor #4, where an explosion caused a catastrophic nuclear meltdown. Ludwig describes this as one of the most challenging situations he has ever photographed."
Partially made to give myself something to do instead of going stir crazy on Christmas Day, but also to practice with Premier for work on my One Day On Earth videos over the next couple weeks.
The first is a countdown on the One Day site for the deadline for us submitting our films. The second is progress on my novel. See a connection?
On top of this, I am not on some sort of artist’s retreat down here is Sacramento, I have a lot of hard work to do to get my mother and I out of here by the time my kids’ winter break is done.
Finally, I have a couple of days’ worth of prep work on some photography contests with an end of the year deadline. I will probably be using pictures from the big August camping trip, most of which I have not looked at since, well, August.
So, a while back I set a sort of deadline for myself… I would like to have the first draft of the novel done by February 1. This is still achievable, even if little work is done until the last two weeks of January.
We have 21 days or so to get the move done. And I have 26 days to get my video done, which should go a lot better than last year’s since I have a better computer to work with and “better” clips shot with a better camera.
It is a much more complicated video, I suspect, than last year’s, and I am breaking it down into segments, the first of which I’ve already completed (long weekend). The only thing really intimidating me about the video right now is how many clips I have to run through and organize, and some untested, by myself, editing techniques that I hope to use with some of them.
And the arts work will be morning and evening work with the days spent working with mom on the move and assorted other issues.
I can do it, but I need to stay focused and I need to remember… The next couple of months will be full of hard work, but the rewards will be tremendous when it is all complete.
Here is the first completed segment for the video, though it may be the last piece to appear in it. I’ll also post it as it’s own post later for my own indexing purposes…
Hoping to see some aurora tonight. Usually we are too far south, too close to the city, and living in Oregon which means that the skies are more often than not hidden by clouds. But we can still hope.
Tonight, it is clear and misty and we have the brightest full moon I’ve seen in ages. Actually, it’s the brightest I’ve seen it since the peak of the Perseids meteor shower last summer, which was almost completely blanked by yet another full moon.
This flare was very powerful, and blasted out a wave of particles that’s expected to hit Earth sometime tonight after midnight EST (the exact time is difficult to determine). We’ll be OK down here on Earth, but there may be sporadic communication issues, power outages (maybe), and aurorae. If you’re on Google+, Camilla Corona SDO is the person to follow. She has updates and great links!
Take a closer look at the flare that erupted on March 6, 2012.
This movie of the March 6, 2012 X5.4 flare was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the 171 and 131 Angstrom wavelength. One of the most dramatic features is the way the entire surface of the sun seems to ripple with the force of the eruption. This movement comes from something called EIT waves -- because they were first discovered with the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory. Since SDO captures images every 12 seconds, it has been able to map the full evolution of these waves and confirm that they can travel across the full breadth of the sun. The waves move at over a million miles per hour, zipping from one side of the sun to the other in about an hour. The movie shows two distinct waves. The first seems to spread in all directions; the second is narrower, moving toward the southeast. Such waves are associated with, and perhaps trigger, fast coronal mass ejections, so it is likely that each one is connected to one of the two CMEs that erupted on March 6.
The Space Prediction Center expects that we are in a favorable pattern for at least the next week to potentially bring more solar storms to the earth. What is not known is the magnitude of future events. What is expected is quite a show from the Northern Lights Wednesday night and Thursday night, which may be visible as far south as Michigan and Illinois.
For North America, the good part of a solar storm, the one that creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights, will peak Thursday evening in North America. Auroras could dip as far south as the Great Lakes between Canada and the United States or lower, Kunches said, but a full moon will make them harder to see.
Auroras are "probably the treat we get when the sun erupts," Kunches said.
Still, the potential for problems is widespread. Solar storms have three ways they can disrupt technology on Earth: with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions. This is an unusual situation, when all three types of solar storm disruptions are likely to be strong, Kunches said. That makes it the strongest overall since December 2006.
This is a clip from the Discovery Channel show Frozen Planet, and if that’s the sort of thing they’ll have on the program, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Because I love each and every one of you, here is a fantastic portrait of two worlds: Saturn and its ginormous moon Titan, courtesy of the Cassini spacecraft:
If you want to see those pictures Craig and I were looking at and find out more about them, I’ve written about all three: Picture 1(Rudolph), Picture 2 (the star spewing jets of gas that Craig made fun of), and Picture 3 (the cluster of galaxies with the swoosh of gas). I’ve heard from a few folks with the Chandra Observatory – the one that took the last picture — and they were thrilled it got press. I’m wondering if they had their volume turned all the way down when they watched…
That is enough semi-plagiarism for tonight. Time to go and look at the sky.
Where the dolls are stored... Springwater Corridor. Gresham, Oregon. February 28, 2011. Photo of the Day, February 29, 2011. (Leap Day & 18 Months, FOB!)
Satellite imagery used to be the exclusive domain of governments and spy agencies, but ever since Google Maps and Google Earth we can all get to see weird things! Fancy a look at Area 51? Wondered what it’s like in downtown Moscow? Or maybe you want to check out the Principality of Sealand? These are just ordinary, everyday things that millions of people use Google Maps and Earth to research every day. But what about the things you weren’t supposed to see, the freaks of camera? Here are 17 of the most bizarre sights for you to laugh at, complete with lat/lons and (where possible) KMLs. Enjoy.
Never quite sure which side she falls on… First heard about her new project on Colbert last night. Just sharing my further look into what is going on in her world (which is very likely a slightly different and stranger world than our own)…
We are together to talk about Biophilia, Björk's new album and suite of smartphone apps that will combine science-themed songs with computer games that aim to teach music theory to the uninitiated, like me. "Music education's not as hard as people make it out to be, but it's been put on this pedestal for a chosen few," she says. It is for this reason that, like a modern-day Maria von Trapp, Björk is giving me an impromptu music lesson.
…
Biophilia, her most experimental project to date, looks set to divide opinion yet further. Its name - inspired by neurologist Oliver Sacks's book Musicophilia - evokes humankind's empathy with nature, which Björk has borne out with songs about genetics, crystallisation, plate tectonics and dark matter. The accompanying apps will be released in place of music videos, while the live shows have so far included a recorded voice-over by British naturalist David Attenborough, a live Tesla coil and four "gravity harps" suspended on 3-metre pendulums.
You may know that Bjork is a big nerd, but you are not yet enough of a Bjork nerd to know that the developer behind some of her gorgeous new apps – the ones that constitute her Biophilia album – is only 20 years old. And yes, Max Weisel, who started making apps for the iPhone at 16 and designed the very wonderful and free Soundrop app, did that leave-school-and-run-to-California-to-launch-a-startup thing. For now though, he’s on the album tour, swiping iPad screens on stage behind Bjork, 26 years his senior.
I wondered who the fellow was playing the iPads in the performance below…
There is some interesting stuff going on here. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a platform to explore these apps, but I think this is very interesting and a potentially ground breaking direction for music to move towards…
There are a lot of demonstrations on Bjork’s YouTube channel. I am going to be wasting some time today checking them out.
The album Biophilia is available in traditional formats as well. (Wow, things are moving fast for this old Luddite when I found myself, for the first time, refering to MP3 downloads as a traditional format. But it is also available on Vinyl, so I am absolved.)
