M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

Sea Levels Are Rising. Time to Build … Floating Cities?

April 6, 2019
MThomas

At the core of Oceanix City is a 4.5-acre hexagonal floating platform that is meant to host up to 300 people. 

Hmm, where have I seen this before….

And just think, to accommodate all of Manhattan, we only need to make…uh…

another 5,549 of them!

Compared to convincing the powers that be that climate change is real and we’re all screwed…piece of cake!

— Read on www.wired.com/story/sea-levels-are-rising-time-to-build-floating-cities/amp

The Race for Your Face: Recognize this?

April 4, 2019
MThomas

Face

The Chinese government uses facial recognition for large-scale surveillance in public CCTV cameras, both to catch criminals and monitor the behavior of all individuals with the intent of turning the data into a score. Seemingly harmless offenses like buying too many video games or jaywalking can lower your score. China uses that score for a sort of “social credit” system that determines whether the individual should be allowed to get a loan, buy a house or even much simpler things like board a plane or access the internet.

Yeah. That’s a real advantage for human rights and democracy. And when the hackers get involved, it’ll lead to an entirely new definition of the term “face lift.”

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/facial-recognition-apple-amazon-google-and-the-race-for-your-face-facebook/?ftag=CAD-04-10aac3a&bhid=100000000000000000000000000831528

Gateway now includes Canada, eh

April 3, 2019
MThomas

_105864206_gateway_orion_approaching

Now that Trudeau has agreed to help out, if anything goes wrong we can always “Blame Canada!”

No, no, it’s a joke, alright, eh. Sorry, sorry.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47426798

On to Triton. With Trident. Finally.

March 29, 2019
MThomas

IMG_1856We’ve learned a lot about Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, since it was first discovered in 1846. Some scientists believe it could be an “ocean world” with liquid water — and maybe even harbor life.

And now, pending approval, we might soon get our best glimpse yet. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposed on Tuesday [19 March 2019] at a conference in Texas to send a spacecraft called “Trident” to Triton — with the goal of sussing out whether it’s a habitable world.

A low-cost mission that would give us decent photos and even video of Triton, Io, and even Venus. Let’s do this.

futurism.com/nasa-mission-neptune-moon-triton/

Bennu’s Intergalactical Glitterspray Show!

March 27, 2019
MThomas

asteroidmoons

OK, not actually glitterspray. Lots of tiny moons. Micromoons?

Exploding out of Bennu, which is an asteroid circling way out near Pluto right now, but will intersect Earth’s orbit in September 2060. And in 2135. And in 2175. And maybe soon again after that.

Doomsayers, prepare yourselves!

(Cumulative 1 in 2700 chance it’ll hit Earth by then. Too bad Bruce Willis won’t be around to save us.)

www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/nasa-bennu-osiris-rex-asteroid/585256/

New Earth discovered only 70,000 years away

March 24, 2019
MThomas

new-earth-2

Welp, it’s official. NASA announced they have confirmed another “Earth” (really, an “Earth-like planet” simply means it has enough water and is in the right orbit from its star to hypothetically support life).

Too bad it’s 500 light years away, which currently would take us a mere 70,000 years to reach.

But it’s a start…

http://www.scienceinsanity.com/2019/03/its-official-astronomers-have.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR0l7pzDPR1XQvk7Ka4CDZafWuoB6q0RxqTBmb5Yleu0Lx0rAPs3tWKB0sM

Water moves on the Moon — well, molecules do, at any rate

March 13, 2019
MThomas

NASA and other scientific groups have discussed the potential of using the Moon as a sort of jumping-off point for missions deeper into space. If water could be collected on the Moon it could prove to be a great resource for manned missions headed deeper into the solar system.

Interesting, but I have a feeling that Lunar Base occupants will need slightly more than a few “bouncing” molecules to drink (or to create hydrogen for rocket fuel or colony energy needs).

bgr.com/2019/03/11/water-on-the-moon-surface-lunar-regolith/

Black holes, Hawking radiation, and quantum physics: Feeling dense yet?

March 8, 2019
MThomas

Modern physics dictates that, after being consumed, information about this matter should be forever lost to the universe. But a new experiment suggests that there might be a way to use quantum mechanics to gain some insight into the interior of a black hole.

Black hole sun / won’t you come / to drive away the rain? 🎶

www.space.com/black-hole-information-paradox.html

Why bother looking for aliens? Because we’re probably not all that smart

March 5, 2019
MThomas

[A]n obvious obstacle to identifying our neighbors is the tendency to limit our imagination to what we already know. But this should not necessarily remain the case in the future.

Frankly, I think it’s high time that somebody invent the warp drive so that the Vulcans will finally notice us.

blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/are-we-really-the-smartest-kid-on-the-cosmic-block/

Enter the Dragon! It’s a new mating ritual?

March 3, 2019
MThomas

“Attachment was made to a new type of mating adaptor on the ISS’s Harmony module. ”

Yes, we’ve matured so much as a species that we still insist on resorting to sexual metaphors to describe intricate technological details on our space vehicles.

But anyways, good for Space X and NASA. Now let’s hope other companies get into the act so we can kickstart this whole expand and populate the galaxy thing.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47430432

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