Monday, August 19, 2013

19 August 2013

Birthdays 
Ahmed Best b. 1973 (Star Wars, voice of J** J** B****)
Jonathan Frakes b. 1952 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Diana Muldaur b. 1938 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Gene Roddenberry b. 1921 died 10/24/1991(Star Trek)

The choice for today's Picture Slot seems pretty cut and dried. Since there is zero chance I would choose the youngest person on the list due to his unfortunate role (not really his fault, always blame the writers and director first), since the other three people on the list are there because of Star Trek, Roddenberry is obviously trump.

Many happy returns to the living.

Movies released
Spy Kids: All The Time In The World In 4D released 2011

Prediction: In 1958, Ford releases the first plans to build a nuclear powered car called the Nucleon.

Reality: Yes! The company that brought you the Edsel and would soon be making both the Maverick and the Pinto was going to make a sporty little two seater with a turbine engine fueled by a nuclear reactor. As you can guess from this mock-up, the engine was in the rear and there was at least two feet of shielding between the nuclear reaction and the passengers.

Also, you can tell this is the 1958 version and not the 1962 because of the fins.

What about a rear end collision? Oh, pish tush, those things NEVER happen.

I suppose I should take this opportunity to say I am not 100% opposed to nuclear energy. It can be made safe and with thorium reactors, the nuclear waste storage problem can be minimized due to recycling. As I read once, nuclear energy is safe unless you do something monumentally stupid.

The Ford Nucleon was monumentally stupid.

Thanks to loyal reader Zombie Rotten McDonald for finding a link to nuclear powered transportation over on io9.com.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Last week, we had Robert A. Heinlein disenfranchising young people. Tomorrow, the young get their revenge on the old.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

5 comments:

  1. I recall reading a story about neighbors in a future society where fossil fuel use was very limited and expensive, and most people used bikes or similar for transportation; the pollution of internal combustion was subject to heavy social censure.

    One of the neighbors was a purist and a snob about it, and had created a feud with his nighbor about the issues.

    Who took every chance to screech out of his driveway in his restored car, belching smoke out the tailpipe and winding the engine all the way up, spitting gravel on the neighbors lawn and laughing at his apoplectic fist-shaking.

    Then he gets back, pulls down the garage door, and he and his son go about rewinding the spring-engine that actually powers the car, refilling the non-toxic smoke generators, and resetting the speakers that blared engine noises.

    What I'm saying, is if I could do that with that nuclear powered car shell, I would.

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  2. I believe that story I recall is a Bradbury story. As is his way, much more focused on the human part of the equation than the science part of it.

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    Replies
    1. Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is full of dates that have already passed. We will soon be hearing from him.

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