Testy Area 51 (2 Viewers)

[Mike Frezon]

Nice. Thanks, Christopher.

Really interesting to see all those people gathered to watch the event.

 

[Steve Christou]

You can barely see the shuttle from where you were Chris, was it worth all the effort? It just looked like someone set a firework off in the distance. How did it sound? Could you hear it at all or did it just go thhhpttt like a Roman candle?

How is everyone? Any new movies? Captain USA out on release yet? Hairy Botty still breaking records?

I've been busy writing articles on the early Bond films the past few days, just an excuse to post a lot of rare photos and posters really. Thunderball (1965) is my newest hub. Check it out droogs.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Thunderball-1965-Illustrated-Reference

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Well, the photos I got only captured the first few seconds off the pad. It rose & rose & rose. Then, well after it had passed beyond our sight, the sound reached us, a noise like Niagara, or something of that character, a thunderous rumbling roar.

 

[Ron-P]

Let's just hope all that money wasted on those Orbiter missions will be better spent.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Nice hub Steve. Thinking about Thunderball reminded me of a childhood memory that I haven't considered in years (damn I'm getting old.)
I was too young to see Thunderball theatrically, but I do recall putting together a jigsaw puzzle based on the film. The puzzle depicted the underwater scuba battle between SPECTRE forces and Bond and his buddies (CIA / British military? - I don't recall.) I must have been 8 or 9 years old when I worked on the puzzle. The SPECTRE forces were in black scuba gear in the foreground on the puzzle and Bond and allies were depicted as being in the distance in orange gear. As a kid, I thought that the self-propelled sleds were pretty cool. Guess I still think so.
As far as films go...
Finally got around to watching Black Swan this weekend with a friend. I enjoyed the first half, but was let down by the film as the neurosis became more extreme and ultimately (for me) undermined the dramatic credibility of the film. Watched Animal Kingdom a few weeks back and thought it was a very effective drama that creates a very unsettling atmosphere through its discordant music and sense of chaotic uncertainty. Very solid and effective drama.
- Walter.

 

[Steve Christou]

Walter, I saw all the Connery Bonds at the cinema with my dad thanks to reissues and double bills in the early 70's. Loved them all, still do. One toy I remember owning was the Aston Martin DB5, I wish I still had it.

 

[Ruz-El]

I have a smaller version of that, as well as the white Lotus that changes into a sub in my basement Steve. Not worth anything though, both will played with and missing the missles/ejector seat.

 

[Steve Christou]

Russ, I just remembered that I have a model of the Aston Martin here on my shelf, it was part of a magazine collection which had a 007 car attached to the front of it. Over 100 issues, I didn't know there were so many vehicles worth collecting in the Bond films. I bought 5 of them, which included the white Lotus Esprit from Spy Who Loved Me and the BMW from World is Not Enough.

 

[Elizabeth S]

I have a tiny (about 2-1/2") Bond car that came with one of my Blu-Rays. I don't know which car it is. it's blue-gray.

 

[Walter Kittel]

My first exposure to the Bond films was on ABC via the Sunday night movie - a staple on ABC during the 1970s. Moonraker was the first Bond film that I viewed theatrically; and every one since then although A View to A Kill just about put me off of Bond.
- Walter.

 

[RickER]

Let's just hope all that money wasted on those Orbiter missions will be better spent.

Yea, screw all the people that are out of jobs now.
I am in the camp of we should spend MORE money on space, not less. Hell, we never even made the Space:1999 timeline, forget 2001! We will not make it to Jupiter in my kids life.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

If you wanted to get something done in space, Shuttle did not prove to be the best way of accomplishing that. Frankly, the whole NASA system is messed up. In terms of institutional competence to undertake big projects, they don't have it -- which is not merely my opinion, but that of a gentleman I know who investigated NASA twice for the National Research Council. (Have I mentioned I know some strange people?)
Marshall Space Flight Center hasn't successfully built & flown a new spacecraft since von Braun left. Meanwhile, Boeing has built the Delta IV, Lockheed-Martin the Atlas V, & Space-X the Falcon 1 & Falcon 9, as well as the Dragon capsule.
The Shuttle workforce includes some very competent people, but they're shackled to a system which has never worked right, & can't really be made to work right. What we need is not a big new government-directed single programme, but a lot of different efforts (diversify!), so that even though some fail, others will succeed.

 

[Steve Christou]

Seems I'm not the only one wondering what NASA was doing the past 30 years.

The Shuttle: a journey through space and time that took us nowhere

Despite thousands of orbits and all the hype, Nasa's 'old friend' has achieved very little.
So the party’s over. Yesterday at 10.56am BST, the Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center, thus bringing to an end Nasa’s 30-year experiment in reusable spacecraft. “It’s been an incredible ride,” said Chris Ferguson, the pilot. He feigned optimism, but couldn’t explain what happens next. “It’s a little sad because we’re saying goodbye to an old friend.”
The Shuttle was indeed an old friend. It brings to mind that dysfunctional pal most of us have – the handsome, carefree guy who can’t hold down a job, but manages to camouflage his inadequacies with style and bravado. In the same way, Nasa yesterday Twittered lots of impressive numbers about Atlantis (33 flights, 4,848 orbits and 125,935,769 miles), but woefully failed to explain what had been achieved.
The Shuttle story should really be titled “Lost in Space”. About $210 billion went towards a programme born of fantasy. The story came to an end because the American government finally accepted what experts realised at the beginning: strip away the drama of manned space travel, and the Shuttle is an expensive and complicated way to provide what should be a cheap and simple service.
After 133 missions, thousand of orbits and millions of miles, our old friend the Shuttle has taken us back to where we began 30 years ago. Despite all the excitement, drama and tragedy, we’re no nearer an answer about what to do in space.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8652590/The-Shuttle-a-journey-through-space-and-time-that-took-us-nowhere.html

The best thing they did IMO is put the Hubble telescope into orbit, those images sure make spectacular desktop wallpaper.

 

[Ruz-El]

Without the shuttle, we wouldn't of had a real world space ship to use in Steve's favourite Bond film Moonraker. Let's all give it the respect it deserves!

I'm off to see Tree Of Life. Hoping to catch Captain Americas this weekend. POW!

Looking forward to that hubber Steeeeeeve!

 

[Steve Christou]

Hey Moonraker is my guilty pleasure Bond, whenever I feel like pleasuring my guilt I put it on. Have you pleasured your guilt lately?

Hey Russ if Captain America is successful do you think they'll do a Captain Canada next?

Tree of Life? meh I've read that watching paint dry was more exciting. I'd rather watch dear old Roger zapping Drax's goons up on that space station.

 

[Ruz-El]

Captain Canuck!

and in looking for that picture, from a couple days ago:

Mind's Eye Entertainment has acquired the rights to the classic Canadian comic book superhero, and is developing a live action movie.



TORONTO – Not wanting to be left out of the superhero movie game, Canadian indie producer Minds Eye Entertainment has acquired the movie adaptation rights to the classic Captain Canuck comic book series.


our editor recommends

Captain Canuck is the Canadian masked crusader launched in 1975 as a comic book by writer/creator Richard Comely and, after the second issue, by fellow artist George Freeman.


The Captain Canuck franchise has been optioned many times over the years as a possible TV series or movie, most recently by Sinking Ship Entertainment.


Now Mind’s Eye will look to develop a live action movie for international movie screens.


“I have always been a big fan of Captain Canuck, and we are honored to be working with Richard on bringing Canada’s greatest Superhero to the big screen,” Mind’s Eye topper Kevin DeWalt said Tuesday.


No word on which Canadian actor will don head-to-toe in figure-hugging rubber to play the Captain Canuck character, but Canadian-born stars Hayden Christensen, Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling have been rumored as possible leads.


Recent credits from Mind’s Eye include the action drama The Tall Man, starring Jessica Biel, the thriller Faces in the Crowd, with Milla Jovovich and Julian McMahon, and Stephen King’s Dolan’s Cadillac, starring Christian Slater.






This will be a real piece of shit. I can guarantee it. The Canadian film industry can not do action. If it's about people talking about Canadian issues, then they can handle it.



I fully expect Tree Of Life to be very relaxing. I also know that if it's as pretty as Mallecks films are on DVD and Blu, I'll be kicking myself for not watching it on the big screen.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I thought Wolverine was Canada's greatest superhero, & he's in every superhero movie nowadays.

 

[Ron-P]

Yea, screw all the people that are out of jobs now.
I am in the camp of we should spend MORE money on space, not less. Hell, we never even made the Space:1999 timeline, forget 2001! We will not make it to Jupiter in my kids life.

Seriously? People lose jobs all the time, I know, I've lost many and am still working. The NASA program was nothing but a waste of money and gained us nothing. All that money could be better spent on the plant we currently inhabit rather than wasting it on fantasy.

But, I'm sure our lovely government will find a new and better way to waste all that money.

 

[RickER]

 Seriously? People lose jobs all the time, I know, I've lost many and am still working. The NASA program was nothing but a waste of money and gained us nothing. All that money could be better spent on the plant we currently inhabit rather than wasting it on fantasy. But, I'm sure our lovely government will find a new and better way to waste all that money.

I know what you are saying...how do i say this without talking politics?I would rather see my tax dollars go to jobs, even if the shuttle was not the end all. It could of been! But thanks to budgets cuts in the 70s, we got what we had, for the last 30 years.Not much.NASA hardly puts a dent (less than 5% i think?) in what the government spends.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Try less than 1% of the Federal budget.
And anybody who says "we need to spend this money on Earth instead" doesn't really understand the problem. In the broader view, I could point out that some of the resources we are beginning to run short of, such as nickel & platinum, are mined principally from meteor craters, so it makes sense, now that such capabilities are within our grasp, to go out & get our own. (Give me $150 billion for asteroid mining, & in 20 years I can turn it into $150 trillion. Pretty much guaranteed.) And solar energy is pretty much limitless in space, so we could capture it using satellite power stations & beam it down to Earth, far more cheaply in the long run than any other source of power.
More narrowly, much of what goes to make your life pleasant or even viable in the present day has come out of space development. Passing over the tens of millions of lives saved & hundreds of billions of dollars of agricultural production made possible by satellite weather forecasting, many modern medical devices such as the heart pacemaker were originally developed in the course of space research, which also was a strong impetus to the development of modern electronics, & resulted in advances in manufacturing techniques & materials science which are ubiquitous now. Not to mention, for example, the improved understanding of combustion from rocket development has led to more efficient engines, from lawnmower to power-plant size.
There's no "fantasy" about it. The real positive effects of space work on our Earthly lives are enormous, & could grow a thousandfold in the coming decades if an intelligent approach is taken. Unfortunately, neither the government nor the capital markets are likely to provide that approach, so it's up to us.