Category: Cool Stuff

Recent events or stuff that has registered on my patented COOL-o-meter.

Horatius at the Bridge

History Lesson Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post Future History Lesson, a  passing quote in the science-fiction novel “Starship Troopers” by Robert Heinlein piqued my interest on two events in real history: ‘Horatius at the Bridge‘ and ‘The Death of the Bon Homme Richard‘. What I discovered in both cases I found so rich in story, that I had to explore them further. Below is what I discovered about Haratius. The surprising story of Bonhomme Richard can be found in Part 3 (coming soon).

Horatius at the Bridge

Publius Horatius Cocles and Two Companions Defend Tiber Bridge by Augustyn Mirys (mid 1700’s Polish painter)

When first digging I could not find a specific work with this title, but there was a lot of information to be found on the person and the event. I eventually discovered that “Horatius at the Bridge” was the title of some editions of the narrative poem “Horatius“ by the Victorian Era historian Baron Thomas Abington Macaulay which was published in his book “Lays of Ancient Rome“ in 1842. It was very popular in England at the time, memorized and recited avidly, and taught in schools. Even close to a hundred years later Winston Churchill recalled memorizing it. You can download a free public domain digital ebook of the entire “Lays of Ancient Rome” via Project Gutenberg, available in multiple file formats. Continue reading Horatius at the Bridge

Future History Lesson

History Lesson Part 1:
Roman Soldiers & American Revolution Sailors as seen by Starship Troopers

 

Starship Troopers book cover
Starship Troopers book cover

I started reading “Starship Troopers“ by Robert Heinlein today and it inspired me to investigate a little real history.

First, I’ve been a big fan of Heinlein for awhile, but strangely had never read this novel which many regard so highly. I had seen the crappy movie supposedly based on it, but let me say that movie really holds no similarities to the novel except for some characters’ and alien species’ names. Worse the movie turns some of the deeper but controversial aspects of the novel on their head, and turns the entire story into a farce. For example Heinlein’s novel portrays a democratic society in which suffrage is earned by a term of government service – in the case of the main characters this happened to be military service. The movie version portrays a fascist society where the only road to citizenship was through the military — kind of like non-citizen inhabitants of the early to mid Roman empire who could earn citizenship only after serving 25 years in the Roman legions.

I’m getting off the topic, which isn’t so much about the future the novel portrays, but about detailing some things I learned from a “future history lesson” today’s reading inspired me to take. Continue reading Future History Lesson

Doctor Who Saves Google

Today in honor of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor”, Google did a Doctor Who Doodle that was also a game. You select the incarnation of the Doctor that you want to play. Then you are transported (via TARDIS of course) to a number of levels to rescue the Google letters that were stolen and are guarded by the Doctor’s enemies: the Daleks, Cybermen and even a Weeping Angel. If you die in the game you re-spawn as the next incarnation of the Doctor.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Google Doodle - Game Over Screen

YOU are unique in the Universe

I’ve been re-watching the seventh season of the new Doctor Who series. This extended quote from The Rings of Akhaten written by Neil Cross is really amazing on so many levels. The words were spoken by The Doctor to an innocent little girl who believed it was her destiny to sacrifice her life for her people, but they could have (and should be) spoken to anyone — the bullied, the suicidal… to everyone. Continue reading YOU are unique in the Universe

Skyrim: One Voice, One Violin

Having been massively addicted to Skyrim recently, (yes, I know I’m late in finally playing it,) I thought this music video of a rendition of Skyrim’s theme song was very cool. Besides being a very well filmed & edited video, the music was done entirely by one guy’s voice and one gal’s violin (using tons of tracks obviously). I also loved the live action “in-game 1st person POV” shots, complete with Skyrim’s HUD. Pretty fun stuff.

Blue Jay, “Hey.”

Got the day off work today, and slept in a little this morning. I had removed a box fan from one of my apartment windows, and I was just standing looking out the wide open window enjoying the view when I noticed some birds. On the far side of some tennis courts on the school grounds that neighbor my apartment complex, I saw two big blue jays and a larger black bird I could not identify.

Jay (okay, Magpie) on the Prowl - an old photo of mine of a bird similar to this morning's encounter

Curious, I got out my binoculars and checked the trio of birds out. The mysterious stranger was just a big crow. The hyper-territorial jays had probably been harassing it, and now they were all just resting on top of the tennis court fences eyeing each other warily.

Continue reading Blue Jay, “Hey.”

We *ARE* In The Twilight Zone

While doing house work, I have been watching original episodes of The Twilight Zone. Heard this little bit of narration from the pen and mouth of Rod Serling.

“You’re looking at Mr. Fred Renard, who carries on his shoulder a chip the size of the national debt.” — “What You Need” The Twilight Zone, S01E11 (1959)

Even in 1959, the U.S. national debt was considered incredibly large. In 1959 it was “only” $290,797,771,717.63 ($290.8 billion). As I write this @ 2pm on 8/21/2013, it just passed $16,909,269,760,000 ($16.9 TRILLION). And you can visually watch it increase by the tune of over $10,000 per SECOND.

But really, I guess it’s not that bad… That is only 58 times bigger than it was 54 years ago. Now just wait $10,000, did I just say that? Just goes to show that we ARE in the Twilight Zone.

If Planets Were as Close as the Moon

moonfromearth.jpg
Normal Night Sky © Ron Miller/BNPS

We all know what a landscape photo displaying the moon looks like. Here’s one that The Atlantic posted. But far more interesting is they have posted similar images created by Ron Miller, former art director of NASA, showing what the night sky would look like if each of the planets in our solar system were the same distance away as the moon is to us. Continue reading If Planets Were as Close as the Moon