M Thomas Apple Author Page

No “Planet McPlanetface” option. Sorry.

April 15, 2019
MThomas

planetoid

The three choices fit IAU naming regulations and are associated with mythological creatures and figures that reflect aspects of 2007 OR10’s physical properties, which include rock, water ice, possibly methane ice, and a surface that’s red in color.

Your three choices?

Gonggong (共工, the bringer of floods 洪 and chaos)

Holle (which I always thought was Hulda or Holda)

Vili (which I knew as Wela in English class)

At least these scientists learned an important lesson from our recent past…

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Info here: www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/scientists-launch-public-vote-for-the-name-of-a-distant-world/

Vote here: https://2007or10.name

First ever black hole image (not counting Disney)

April 10, 2019
MThomas

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“What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System,” he said.

“It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe.”

So this demonstrates two things.

One – Einstein was right (when wasn’t he, at this point).

Two – We need a Disney remake.

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Calling Christopher Nolan!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47873592

RIP – Vonda N McIntyre

April 7, 2019
MThomas

I bought her Star Trek novelizations when I was a teenager. At the time, I had no idea that (a) she was an original Trekkie (b) had studied genetics and (c) had won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award (the Nebula multiple times).

She also made it a point to prove that women could write science fiction just as well as men, in a completely male-dominated science fiction landscape.

She managed to finish her final novel less than two weeks before she died.

RIP.

(Read here if you don’t have access to or don’t care for the NYTimes: https://www.geekwire.com/2019/vonda-n-mcintyre-1948-2019-seattle-science-fiction-star-dies-cancer/)

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

Amazon shoppers misled by ‘bundled’ star-ratings and reviews

April 5, 2019
MThomas

The combinations of formats and editions make it impossible for readers to pick between multiple versions of the same products, and allow those selling badly put together editions to piggyback on good reviews.

At this point, Amazon should just admit that its review policies are a complete shambolic mess. If they refuse to allow fellow indie authors from reviewing each other and even prevents their own friends and relatives from reviewing their work, how can Amazon justify trying to sell dreck this way?

Hypocrisy.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/05/amazon-shoppers-misled-by-bundled-product-reviews

Customers who purchased digital books from the Microsoft store will soon be forced to return them.

Already widely reported.

Note that if you buy ebooks *directly from the author – or *from Smashwords – then you get to keep them.

Yet another reason to cut out the middle man, especially if the middle man is a huge corporation that doesn’t care about its consumers.

via Microsoft’s ebook store closes, and will take all customers’ ebooks with it —

The Race for Your Face: Recognize this?

April 4, 2019
MThomas

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

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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

We’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/

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