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Science Fiction Coming True!
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Quadibloc
May 23, 2013, 2:24:32 PM5/23/13
to
This news story (about a thin, flat lens made from a material with a
negative index of refraction that can be sprayed on glass as a
coating)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130523101841.htm
although it doesn't correspond to a _common_ theme in science fiction,
is still the sort of thing that is so unexpected that most of us would
not have expected to live to see it... except in the pages of a
science-fiction story.
John Savard
negative index of refraction that can be sprayed on glass as a
coating)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130523101841.htm
although it doesn't correspond to a _common_ theme in science fiction,
is still the sort of thing that is so unexpected that most of us would
not have expected to live to see it... except in the pages of a
science-fiction story.
John Savard
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
May 23, 2013, 2:32:25 PM5/23/13
to
Quadibloc <jsa...@ecn.ab.ca> wrote in
news:4e68773f-7ec5-4f98...@o2g2000yqb.googlegroups.c
om:
I was expecting a story about uterine replicators and vatgirls.
--
Terry Austin
"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek
Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
news:4e68773f-7ec5-4f98...@o2g2000yqb.googlegroups.c
om:
--
Terry Austin
"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek
Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
Anthony Nance
May 23, 2013, 3:10:13 PM5/23/13
to
about the winners of their International Space Apps Challenge:
-- Best Use of Data: Sol (Kansas City)
Sol is the world's first interplanetary weather application. Users can
select a planet and view the weather there, as they might view the
weather on Earth by typing a postal code. The Sol team also built the
Mars Atmospheric Aggregation System (MAAS) API, used to fuel several
of the Mars weather applications produced during the challenge.
Robert Carnegie
May 23, 2013, 5:15:36 PM5/23/13
to
he told his father as a joke that instead of wearing
spectacles to drive, you could now get a prescription
windscreen - and his father was so genuinely interested
that for weeks Billy had to pretend to be looking for
the magazine that the news was in. Maybe not a true
story - and later on, Billy revealed very alarming
facts about his father - but a good routine at the time.
Apparently it's on Youtube. Another alarming thought,
mentioned in the routine, is, what does a prescription
windscreen driver look like when he's coming towards
you? A gigantic pair of eyes driving a car?
ppint. at pplay
May 23, 2013, 6:44:50 PM5/23/13
to
- hi; in article,
<4e68773f-7ec5-4f98...@o2g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
jsa...@ecn.ab.ca "Quadibloc" noted:
- "yes, but...": it's really only a one-liner, unless it
makes a real difference to the people in the story, or at
least some of them - either makes new things possible, or
things that they could do before, now impossible; maybe,
has some totally unexpected-by-the-reader effect, for a
twist ending (works for a short story, but can't support
aught much longer than that).
- the main effect of having a negative refraction index
that i can think of immediately, is that iirc it'd make
a stick poked into it (assuming it could be) from air
appear to bend in the opposite direction from that when
poked into water. hmmm...
- i dimly remember refractive indexes of materials depend-
ing on how by much the speed of light was slowed by them
from that in vacuo; does this mean that, in anything with
a negative index, the speed of light within it increases
above its in vacuo value?
- bob shaw created a story cycle based upon the possibil-
ities of glass which slowed light to a greater or lesser
extent below the real-world speed, sometimes by orders of
magnitude, and the different implications for his charac-
ters of these effects, their discovery and exploitation [a];
i don't expect that superluminal light in the new material
is likely to lead to time travel and tardises [b], but if
you can spin a convincing story that depends on a feature [c]
of this purported explanation of the property...
[a] - collected in _Light of other Days_ gollancz h/cvr, pan p/b
[b] - "tardides!"
[c] - "bug!"
- love, ppint.
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"sunspots are important because scientists now know
they can affect the british climate."
- horizon: global weirding, bbc4, 20:35 bst (19:35 gmt) 2/4/13
<4e68773f-7ec5-4f98...@o2g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
jsa...@ecn.ab.ca "Quadibloc" noted:
makes a real difference to the people in the story, or at
least some of them - either makes new things possible, or
things that they could do before, now impossible; maybe,
has some totally unexpected-by-the-reader effect, for a
twist ending (works for a short story, but can't support
aught much longer than that).
- the main effect of having a negative refraction index
that i can think of immediately, is that iirc it'd make
a stick poked into it (assuming it could be) from air
appear to bend in the opposite direction from that when
poked into water. hmmm...
- i dimly remember refractive indexes of materials depend-
ing on how by much the speed of light was slowed by them
from that in vacuo; does this mean that, in anything with
a negative index, the speed of light within it increases
above its in vacuo value?
- bob shaw created a story cycle based upon the possibil-
ities of glass which slowed light to a greater or lesser
extent below the real-world speed, sometimes by orders of
magnitude, and the different implications for his charac-
ters of these effects, their discovery and exploitation [a];
i don't expect that superluminal light in the new material
is likely to lead to time travel and tardises [b], but if
you can spin a convincing story that depends on a feature [c]
of this purported explanation of the property...
[a] - collected in _Light of other Days_ gollancz h/cvr, pan p/b
[b] - "tardides!"
[c] - "bug!"
- love, ppint.
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"sunspots are important because scientists now know
they can affect the british climate."
- horizon: global weirding, bbc4, 20:35 bst (19:35 gmt) 2/4/13
ppint. at pplay
May 23, 2013, 6:47:53 PM5/23/13
to
- hi; in article, <knlpil$ftq$1...@dont-email.me>,
na...@math.ohio-state.edu "Anthony Nance" proffered:
for any invented world of one's own...
- love, ppint.
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"Incipient Doldrums."
- roger thomas, 19/3/97 (3/19/97 for merkins)
na...@math.ohio-state.edu "Anthony Nance" proffered:
>
>Similarly, I ran across this yesterday in a NASA press release
>about the winners of their International Space Apps Challenge:
>
>-- Best Use of Data: Sol (Kansas City)
>Sol is the world's first interplanetary weather application. Users can
>select a planet and view the weather there, as they might view the
>weather on Earth by typing a postal code. The Sol team also built the
>Mars Atmospheric Aggregation System (MAAS) API, used to fuel several
>of the Mars weather applications produced during the challenge.
- now, if only one could input online the parameters
>Similarly, I ran across this yesterday in a NASA press release
>about the winners of their International Space Apps Challenge:
>
>-- Best Use of Data: Sol (Kansas City)
>Sol is the world's first interplanetary weather application. Users can
>select a planet and view the weather there, as they might view the
>weather on Earth by typing a postal code. The Sol team also built the
>Mars Atmospheric Aggregation System (MAAS) API, used to fuel several
>of the Mars weather applications produced during the challenge.
for any invented world of one's own...
- love, ppint.
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
- roger thomas, 19/3/97 (3/19/97 for merkins)
William December Starr
Jun 14, 2013, 7:50:41 AM6/14/13
to
In article <knlpil$ftq$1...@dont-email.me>,
then we might really have us some Science Fiction Coming True.
("Hey, what's Olympus Mons' zip code again?"
"Which slope?")
-- wds
na...@math.ohio-state.edu (Anthony Nance) said:
> Similarly, I ran across this yesterday in a NASA press release
> about the winners of their International Space Apps Challenge:
>
> -- Best Use of Data: Sol (Kansas City)
> Sol is the world's first interplanetary weather application.
> Users can select a planet and view the weather there, as they
> might view the weather on Earth by typing a postal code. The Sol
> team also built the Mars Atmospheric Aggregation System (MAAS)
> API, used to fuel several of the Mars weather applications
> produced during the challenge.
Now if you could input the postal codes for places on other planets,
> Similarly, I ran across this yesterday in a NASA press release
> about the winners of their International Space Apps Challenge:
>
> -- Best Use of Data: Sol (Kansas City)
> Sol is the world's first interplanetary weather application.
> Users can select a planet and view the weather there, as they
> might view the weather on Earth by typing a postal code. The Sol
> team also built the Mars Atmospheric Aggregation System (MAAS)
> API, used to fuel several of the Mars weather applications
> produced during the challenge.
then we might really have us some Science Fiction Coming True.
("Hey, what's Olympus Mons' zip code again?"
"Which slope?")
-- wds
William December Starr
Jun 14, 2013, 7:53:58 AM6/14/13
to
In article <55e0cf6d-85ef-4abd...@googlegroups.com>,
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mr-magoo-1997
Magoo drives a red Studebaker convertible in "Mr. Magoo,"
a fact I report because I love Studebakers and his was the
only thing I liked in the film. It has a prescription
windshield. He also drives an eggplantmobile, which looks
like a failed wienermobile. The concept of a failed
wienermobile is itself funnier than anything in the movie.
-- wds
Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> said:
> It reminds me of Billy Connolly telling an anecdote where
> he told his father as a joke that instead of wearing
> spectacles to drive, you could now get a prescription
> windscreen - and his father was so genuinely interested
> that for weeks Billy had to pretend to be looking for
> the magazine that the news was in. Maybe not a true
> story - and later on, Billy revealed very alarming
> facts about his father - but a good routine at the time.
> Apparently it's on Youtube. Another alarming thought,
> mentioned in the routine, is, what does a prescription
> windscreen driver look like when he's coming towards
> you? A gigantic pair of eyes driving a car?
Mr. Magoo Movie Review & Film Summary (1997) | Roger Ebert
> It reminds me of Billy Connolly telling an anecdote where
> he told his father as a joke that instead of wearing
> spectacles to drive, you could now get a prescription
> windscreen - and his father was so genuinely interested
> that for weeks Billy had to pretend to be looking for
> the magazine that the news was in. Maybe not a true
> story - and later on, Billy revealed very alarming
> facts about his father - but a good routine at the time.
> Apparently it's on Youtube. Another alarming thought,
> mentioned in the routine, is, what does a prescription
> windscreen driver look like when he's coming towards
> you? A gigantic pair of eyes driving a car?
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mr-magoo-1997
Magoo drives a red Studebaker convertible in "Mr. Magoo,"
a fact I report because I love Studebakers and his was the
only thing I liked in the film. It has a prescription
windshield. He also drives an eggplantmobile, which looks
like a failed wienermobile. The concept of a failed
wienermobile is itself funnier than anything in the movie.
-- wds
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