Month: April 2009

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin for WordPress

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin is easily the best related posts plugin out there for WordPress, especially after a recent update that makes it easy to use templates to determine the exact look and feel of the output. It also speeds things up a bit by giving the user the option to cache the related posts SQL output.

Shooting Space Debris Down with Lasers

SatelliteThe collision earlier this year between an inoperative Russian military satellite and an Iridium communication satellite led to a lot of speculation about the future of satellites and dealing with such collisions and the debris created in their aftermath. The February 2009 collision apparently created upwards of 500 individual pieces of debris which can potentially threaten other satellites.

Moreover, there is a small chance of a cascading debris failure called the Kessler Syndrome in which debris from one collision causes other collisions which in turn cause other collisions until it is all but impossible to orbit satellites around the Earth.

Fortunately, NASA has a plan — we could always shoot down space debris ranging from 1 to 10cm in size with ground-based lasers. SpaceFuture.com posted a summary of the status of such research published back in 1997,

A recent NASA study sought to determine the feasibility of removing the threat to low-altitude spacecraft by deorbiting nearly all debris objects of primary concern. This would be accomplished by irradiating the objects with a ground laser, which would ablate a thin surface layer of the debris and cause plasma blowoff. The resulting dynamic reaction would change the object’s orbit, decreasing its perigee and causing its rapid reentry. The study, called Orion after the mythological archer, was cosponsored by the USAF Space Command, directed by the author (then at NASA Headquarters), and managed by John Campbell of Marshall.

. . .

Several Orion systems were defined by the team, as were the characteristics and performance of two representative systems. The nearer term system would be able to remove from orbit essentially all of the 30,000 110-cm debris objects at or below about 800-km altitude within three years, for an estimated total cost of $60 million-$80 million, including R&D and operations. The longer term system would be able to remove essentially all of the 125,000 1-10-cm debris objects at or below 1.500-km altitude within two years, for an estimated total cost of $150 million-$180 million.

NASA would focus primarily on the smallest debris which can be hard to detect, opting to simply maneuver around debris larger than 10cm since it is easier to detect and, also, avoid. However, debris less than 1cm still poses a risk but is not reliably detect and would not be targeted by this system.

The article notes this system could not be used as a method of destroying satellites — you’d have to point the laser at a satellite continuously for months to effect its perigree enough to notice, and literally for years before causing major structural damage to a satellite.

Form of . . . an Action Figure!

Mattel’s been announcing its SDCC exclusives, and at the top of the list has to be this DC Universe Classics rendering of Wonder Twins 2 pack with Gleek. The Wonder Twins 2 pack will be offered for sale later at MattyCollector.com, but the only way to get Gleek is at SDCC.  Hmm . . . a Wendy and Marvin 2 pack might not be far behind.

Wonder Twins with Gleek SDCC Exclusive

Go, Roger, Go

So Roger Friedman is this sort of bottom-feeding entertainment writer who Fox News has been syndicating for awhile. Finally he does something useful and posts a review of the leaked and torrented unfinisd print of the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie, and he’s got entertard bloggers calling for his head. Typical of the genre is Josh Tyler’s junior high school-esque rant,

What’s strange and incredibly frustrating for someone attempting to retain his site’s independence, is that if you slap big corporate ownership on something, it instantly elevates it to respectable institution. Maybe we indie-sites deserve to be treated like gutter rats, but if we do then so do the big corporate, mainstream print and internet crowd which spends so much of its time looking down its collective nose at the rest of us.

Never has that been more evident than today when Fox News reporter Roger Friedman posted a review, on FoxNews’s website, of the recently pirated, illegal copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Take just a moment to let the implications of that sink in, and then while you’re at it consider this: The normally fractured, opportunistic, greedy, independent online community has shockingly, united as whole, and refused to review the film. Not only has almost every even marginally respectable website and blog refused to review it, most have come out with strong commentary against the viewing of it, decrying the illegal downloading of Fox’s upcoming summer blockbuster as blatantly immoral. Some have done so even in the face of backlash from their generally pro-piracy readers. In response Fox’s hard-working public relations departments have issued statements asking for the online community’s support, praising indie-run sites like this one for coming out against the illegal pirating of Wolverine, and asking us to stand up and refuse to download or discuss it.

. . .

So who caved? Not the internet crowd, not the independently owned bloggers so often decried as the scum of web society. Fox’s own FoxNews. The same Fox begging for sympathy over the pirating of their big movie. While the hard working (and well-intentioned) 20th Century Fox PR staff asked for restraint and cooperation, on the other side of the company someone decided to take advantage of the buzz on their film to greedily increase traffic to their website while at the same time, by their willingness to run a review from someone who illegally downloaded it, further promote the spread of the very Wolverine downloads which Fox claims are bankrupting the movie industry. Worst of all, Roger Friedman not only illegally downloaded the movie and then reviewed it publicly, he then all but endorsed the idea of others doing the same saying: “I did see Wolverine on a large, wide computer screen, and not in a movie theater, but it could not have played better.”

ROTFLMAO. See what Friedman did is what real journalists do. Whether Fox or anybody else likes it, “Wolverine” is out there and people are watching it. Whether or not its any good is something people like myself are curious about and even an early version can help clarify that issue.

Tyler’s “see no torrent; hear no torrent; speak of no torrent” acquiesence with Fox is absurd. Maybe if he wants “indie” film websites to be taken seriously, he might want to put a stop to the public fellating of Fox’s public relations department.

Personally, I hail Roger Friedman for doing something that apparently these “independent” sites would never think of doing — going beyond being a simple extension of big studio public relations departments.

Update: A commenter over at ScreenRant sums up my thoughts on this,

Michael J said,
April 5th, 2009

Roger Friedman has a set of brass ones. Good for him for not being a toadie of the film industry. Unlike 99% of the so called critics and film websites.

Indeed.