Tissue-thin

The extreme skinniness of the shadow of the rings against Saturn's cloud top settles once and for all the extreme silliness of film depictions of spaceships flying through huge debris fields when passing through planetary rings. You can't even see it in the thumbnail, so thin the region is, so the pilot and navigator would have to be aiming for that razor's edge to be in the right place for it to be a problem.

Plus I'm pretty sure the contents of these ring systems is much smaller than the huge boulders the CGI team likes to toss around.

The Gernsback biology lab

A little while back my friend D and I were bringing the snark concerning some vintage pulp SF covers via chat:

Me: But never mind that, take a look at this!
D: Those helmets were a SF prediction that never came to pass.
Me: It was rejected in the design meetings for the video iPod
Me: This one made me think of what we were saying yesterday.
Me: It looks like that alien has been working on his abs
D: To impress the Earth ladies.
Me: As always
Me: Now that I look at it, I can't tell whether it might be a guy in red spandex and a contraption over his eyes.
D: You have to read "Master Mind of Mars" to find out.
Me: I assume the guy who isn't red is the TA
D: TAs aren't supposed to be shirtless
Me: It must be an advanced lab
D: He should have a lab coat at least.
Me: He might be using his garments to wipe down that fork-holder
Me: Meanwhile the lady in the background is like "Can I get some service around here?!"
D: I wonder what "details" the second picture is supposed to be showing.
Me: Male pattern baldness?
D: Are those tufts of hair poking out of the red skullcap?
Me: I think he spent too much time inside the video diving helmet and this is what happened.
Me: At least they should have plenty of boysenberry syrup.
Me: I wouldn't be surprised if these covers were the reason the economy collapsed two years later.

We are by nature each too gentlemanly to make any snide comments about the appearance of the women, I would like to point out. It is not as if either of us have demonstrated a superior level of artistic achievement ourselves, but really, now.

Because America is so good at pimping her heritage

NASA is talking about taking bids for retired Space Shuttles once the program is over.

Beware: NASA estimates it will cost about $42 million to get each shuttle ready and get it where it needs to go, and the final tab could end up much more.

The estimate includes $6 million to ferry the spaceship atop a modified jumbo jet to the closest major airport. But the price could skyrocket depending on how far the display site is from the airport. Only indoor, climate-controlled displays will be considered.

"Indoor, climate-controlled displays" to me says "shopping malls," assuming that once we are over the current bad patch of financial woe there will still be any retail left in the developed world. I think a Planet Hollywood inside an old Shuttle might do nicely, with crème brulées served on the famous insulating tiles. The craft is already set up with restroom facilities, after all, though an investor would probably have to set up their own wine cellar onboard.

I would hope that the Shuttles remain on US soil, however, rather than ending up in Dubai or Shanghai or something like that. No matter how friendly a country is to ours right now, a thing as big as this might well be set up for the long haul, and we do not need the sight of an angry foreign mob taking out their frustrations on yet another national symbol any time. No, if there is any desecration of American space history to be done, let it be done by Americans themselves, I say.

The moon in your cup

I think OnLatte might have the best idea of all for consumable lunar art. The idea is to imprint a picture of the full moon on top of your latte, and as you drink it down, the eclipse would advance.

previously

Losers interviews with the Gods

The rolls are closed now, with only seven winners ("Earth" not being a god-name, strictly speaking, and Pluto having been cast out into the darkness). What would be the reaction of the divine also-rans, I wondered?

Apollo	So sister Venus gets a great big cloudy inner planet and I get nothing? Except for that spacecraft that nobody under thirty even heard about? It's not as if I didn't have enough classical hexameters to my name, all told, to establish me as a cut above the minor gods (Mercury, I'm looking at you).
Ceres	You know, NASA, General Mills and Post would have been happy to fund a mission to visit me. I'd have liked one which had some definite signs of vegetation, though, so maybe I could be slotted in for the next Earthlike extrasolar planet, hmm?
Diana	Blatant anti-butch bias. Yeah, you heard me. And I do not want to hear about how Earth's Moon is really mine, that really is pretty much a load of bull and everyone knows it.
Juno	First off, I've about had it with that movie, so you don't have to think up anything funny to say. Hubby mine dearest is up there in his massiveness, surrounded by all his precious little trollops to boot, am I right? And for me, they set aside a little bit of rock? Not good enough! Mark my words, I'll have you all saying that it really was not good enough!
Minerva	I figured I had those scientists in my pocket, being all about learning and all, not to mention the Classicists (Athens, anyone?), but I guess the kind of wisdom I specialize in doesn't work when it comes up to dumbasses. They might have thought to associate my alter ego with something other than some runner-up in the asteroid belt - that, to me, is just insulting.
Vesta	The way I see it, people were just scared that if there were a planet, there might someday be a colony, and if there were a colony, the settlers would be known by everyone else as "Vestal Virgins." Alls I want to know is, what's so bad about being a virgin? It's not as if everyone didn't start out that way. Besides, the little dinky stone they gave me, that might have a colony too, so you're not off the hook.
Vulcan	I am the one who like invented technology, without which your society would be in a pretty mess, I should point out. I could have had all these moons with metallic names, and geek-themed craters, and nobody else could rock a volcano like me. They shoulda let Gene Roddenberry have some say in things, you know what I mean?
Bacchus	Aw, hell with it. How 'bout a tall frosty one?

Eclipse pies

1. Print out high resolution pictures of the moon in eclipse using food-grade inkjet ink and edible paper in a Canon or Epson printer.


2. Apply the illustrations to traditional Moon Pies.


3. Share with fellow lunatics.

More information on high resolution edible printing here.

Update: A warm welcome goes out to all my visitors from evilmadscientist. I have not pressed forward to make this astronomically themed dessert a reality because I lack the prerequisites, but would love to hear from anyone who has in fact been able to construct this or something similar in reality.

Dead tree media lives

One of my photos on Flickr is included in the 4th edition of the Schmap New York Guide. Look for the listing for Strand Books to show up (in the little widget shown here) or in the list (using the direct link) - my offering shows a few dozen inches of the 18 miles of shelves.

I was captured by the analogy between travel in outer space and travel in the mind through books.
On my latest trip there, incidentally, I didn't buy any books from the section depicted, opting instead for some history, finance, and humor. It would be hard for me to imagine spending any length of time in there, however, and emerging empty-handed.

Alternative Moon names

Did you know that there's a name for each full moon? I certainly didn't know about the existence of names beyond the old "hunter's moon" and "harvest moon," or that there were variations in the naming.

I came up with my own suggested list of names for this year:

1. January 3: Full Sobriety Moon


2. February 2: Full Steroid Moon XLI


3. March 3: Full Take The Storm Windows Down Moon


4. April 2: Full State and Federal Moon


5. May 2: Full International Conspiracy Moon


6. May 31: Free Extra-Special Bonus Moon


7. June 30: Full Are We There Yet? Moon


8. July 29: Full Spiked Lemonade Moon


9. August 28: Full Back-To-School Specials Moon


10. September 26: Full Talk Like A Pilot Moon


11. October 26: Full Goblin Turkey Moon


12. November 24: Full Who Let The Dogs Out?! Moon


13. December 23: Full Shopper's Freak-Out Moon

You are welcome to print this out and stick it to your refrigerator for handy reference.

Gift idea #2: Extraterrestrial life

Esquel,
originally uploaded by Bistrosavage.

According to CBC News: A meteorite that crashed in northwest Canada almost seven years ago might have been able to host the very earliest life forms. And yet you can buy chunks of planetoid over on eBay with little trouble at all. Wouldn't any gift recipient be thrilled to be the first to own a sample of a completely unknown (and possibly virulent) microscopic life-form?

As further proof, I think this etched bit of meteorite (broken link) looks like the inside of a Borg ship on Star Trek.