Tag Archives: space

atlantis

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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Quite vividly do I remember when I sat in my parents’ living room on 12 April 1981, watching the launch of ‘Columbia’ on television. The ↑first flight of a ↑Space Shuttle into orbit. During the years when men walked the moon I was too young, and hence have no recollection of that at all. For me the Space Shuttle program was, like the Cold War, something that defined the world of my childhood. The Space Shuttles transposed what I read in comic books and science fiction stories into empirical, everyday reality. In July this year the era came to an … Continue reading →

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wireless

Posted on by November 4, 2011
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These days the telephone turns 150 … if, without any reservations whatsoever, you accept ↑Johann Philipp Reis (1834-1874) as its inventor. German media during the last weeks were inclined to accept it that way, naturally. Alas, a short glimpse on the ↑timeline of the telephone teaches us that we can not anymore write histories of technology by constructing absolute origins and godlike inventor personalities. Nevertheless does it seem above dispute that Reis coined the term “telephone.”     Be all that as it may, I take the ample opportunity to have a look on how the future of the telephone … Continue reading →

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2012 scorcher

Posted on by February 8, 2011
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‘Apocalyptic blockbuster absurd, say NASA scientists‘—thus headlines an article by John Harlow in ‘The Australian’, published yesterday. NASA is very unhappy with scientifically overflawed science-fiction movies like Roland Emmerich’s ‘2012‘ of 2009 (which they deem to be the worst), or Michael Bay’s ‘Armageddon‘ (1998). But they are quite fond of the cyberpunk genre. Here’s some water on my mills: NASA and the SEE [Science & Entertainment Exchange, a group of physicists and others campaigning for more authentic science fiction] also praise “good” science fiction films such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner [1982], which convincingly portrayed a futuristic Los Angeles now … Continue reading →

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astrobiology

Posted on by December 2, 2010
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WASHINGTON — NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. read more … and here is a discussion of NASA’s politics concerning announcements of that ilk. … Continue reading →

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40

Posted on by October 5, 2012
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 Since about 100,000 years there is something called ‘human culture’ on Earth. It is save to assume that every single human being having lived since has now and then glanced up to the moon in the skies. But it is just 40 years ago from today that human beings walked on moon’s surface. In the face of that and in spite of all the crap happening every day on our planet, imagine in what kind of phantastic and special times we are living. … Continue reading →

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rendered arena

Posted on by October 3, 2012
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↑STOCKBURGER, AXEL. 2006. “↑The rendered arena: Modalities of space in video and computer games“. London: University of the Arts. Available online [.pdf | 3.7MB]: http://www.stockburger.co.uk/research/abstract.html abstract: During the last 30 years computer and videogames have grown into a large entertainment industry of economical as well as cultural and social importance. As a distinctive field of academic inquiry begins to evolve in the form of game studies, the majority of approaches can be identified as emerging either from a background of literary theory which motivates a concentration on narrative structures or from a dedicated focus on the rules in video and … Continue reading →

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spooknik

Posted on by October 10, 2012
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On 4 October 1957 ↑Stephen King was at the cinema. Together with the other ten-year-olds clustered around him he watched the morning performance of ↑Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. Just as the flying saucers started their attack on Washington D.C. the movie was interrupted and the houselights went on. Pale and nervous the manager entered the auditorium. “‘I want to tell you’, he said in that trembly voice, ‘that the Russians have put a space satellite into orbit around the earth. They call it … Spootnik.’” (↵King 1993[1981]:21) For the assembled post-war kids a world crashed. The world of US-American … Continue reading →

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moon

Posted on by October 4, 2012
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 Sometimes when I walk home in the evening, crossing the river I stop midbridge and wonder at the moon. Then, for a few minutes, I try to really become conscious of the fact that exactly one dozen men already walked around up there. By ‘becoming conscious’ I mean trying to think about the men on the moon in exactly the same way I think about the people walking on the bridge I am right now standing on. To develope the same stance. And I rarely succeed—and if, then only for a few moments of pure understanding. Suddenly it’s gone again … Continue reading →

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three spaces

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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 The field I am doing fieldwork in consists of three spaces (or kinds of spaces) at least. First there are the conceptual communication- and interaction spaces made possible by the Internet-infrastructure, respectively by the various Internet-services like www, e-mail, ↵IM, ↵IRC, and ↵ftp running on top of it. Very common, I know; inside academia nearly everything cyber- deals with these spaces. But more often than not they are associated with communicaton, seldomly with interaction. Good examples for the latter’s presence are ftp and IRC’s ↵DCC feature, because exchanging ‘things’ like pictures, movies, demos, program-applications, or code itself undoubtedly is an … Continue reading →

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world wind add-ons

Posted on by October 5, 2012
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↑World Wind (see ↵world wind works) was released by NASA as Open Source Software, and quite naturally a ↑world wind community emerged, generating add-ons. See ↑The unofficial unofficial add-ons list, which includes download-links. There is much which can be put to good use, and things beyond. For example the ↑WorldWind 1.3 Deathstar addon—like Skall, the creator, said: “Useless, but somebody had to do it !” That’s absolutely right. … Continue reading →

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