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Space Shuttle Discovery Flies Over DC
Just Submitted My First WP7 App!
It’s like a real-life Galaxian!
Seriously though, this is awesome. Hopefully they are actually communicating to stay in formation and not just individually programmed to stay along a specific flight path.
Crazy Star Wars Conspiracy Theory
Kevin posted a link to this earlier today- thought I would share. Credit to the author- Keith Martin.
A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-IIIIf we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.
Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO’s memory wiped but not R2’s. He wouldn’t make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy’s top experts at hacking into other people’s systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.
For the next 20 years, as far as 3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of the princess but doesn’t know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being as loud and obvious as he always is, his unobtrusive little counterpart goes with him. 3PO is R2’s front man. Wherever they land, R2 is passing messages between rebel sympathisers and sizing up governments as potential rebel recruits – both by personal contact and by hacking into their networks. He passes his recommendations on to Organa.
Yoda is out of the picture by this stage, using the Force-infused swamps of Dagobah to hide himself from Vader and the Emperor. Or something. He is meditating on the future and keeping in touch with Obi-Wan via the ghost of Qui-Gon Jin, which as comm systems go has the virtue of being untappable. Obi-Wan, on Tattoine, keeps in touch with Bail Organa and the other Rebel leaders by courier, of which more later.
As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia’s own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan – or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There’s a reason for that.
Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options:
A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity
B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now.
But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it’ll save a lot of trouble later on.
Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it’s easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin’s performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.
Much of Obi-Wan’s behaviour in this film, and Yoda’s in the next, can best be understood if they are frankly scared to death of what Luke might become. (Ben is also scared that he himself will make all the same mistakes he made with Anakin.)
Now, with the existence of the rebellion at stake, Bail Organa has finally told Leia to go see Obi-Wan and has sent her along with R2. The original plan would then be for Obi-Wan (with optional Luke and/or Leia in tow) to leave his exile and take the Death Star plans to Yavin, where they can be put to use. R2 (with Leia if Ben doesn’t want to take her) would then carry on to Alderaan to maintain the cover story. The original plan does not survive contact with a large Imperial Star Destroyer.
R2 and 3PO bail out in an escape pod, landing in vaguely the right area of Tattoine, where R2’s first priority is transport. He arranges to be captured by a group of Jawas and, once on board their transport, he makes a deal with them (possibly using emergency funds stored about his person) to take him where he wants to go. The Jawas refuse to go directly to Kenobi for fear of marauding Sandpeople but they agree to R2’s second request : transport to the Skywalker farm. They even get to keep the purchase price if they can sell R2 and 3PO there. The Jawas shake on it and go through with the plan.
Seeing 3PO fail to recognise the farm where he worked for 10 years gives r2 a moment’s amusement but, as soon as possible, he gets away and heads for Kenobi. Luke and 3PO follow, which may or may not have been part of the plan.
On first seeing R2, Obi-Wan has a twinkle in his eye and calls him “my little friend”. Well, he is. However, when Luke wakes up and says that R2 claimed to be owned by an Obi-Wan Kenobi, he blandly says “I don’t seem to remember ever owning a droid.” Ben has in fact owned several but the remark is aimed at R2 and translates as “You keep quiet. I’m not about to tell him everything just yet.” Obi-Wan thinks fast and tells Luke a version of his past that does not involve a father who became a dark lord of the Sith. He wants to examine Luke a lot more closely before he risks telling him the real truth.
Although the Death Star plans need to get to Yavin as soon as possible, Obi-Wan needs to make one more diversion first. If the Empire knows that Leia is a Rebel leader, then they also know about her father and the whole Organa family may need immediate evacuation. Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion’s other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.
…
20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He’s there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda’s. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it’s his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion’s best ship.
The Millenium Falcon may look like a beat-up old freighter but it can outrun any Imperial ship in normal space or hyperspace, hang in a firefight with a Star Destroyer or outmaneouvre a dozen top-of-the-line TIE fighters. It’s a remarkable feat of engineering and must have cost a colossal fortune to build. How does Han come to own a ship like that? He only thinks he does, actually it’s Chewie’s. Half-way through RotS, we see the Falcon landing at the Senate building on Coruscant. If it’s the same ship (which of course it is) then it was the personal transport of one of the senatorial delegations – a much more likely source to commission its design. That delegatino must have later joined the Rebellion and given it the use of the Falcon. In fact, if the delegation is the one from Kashykk, then the ship may have belonged to Chewbacca as early as RotS.
Han is Chewie’s front man. It’s much better, and safer for him, if he doesn’t know what’s really going on. Chewie used to work with Lando Calrissian in a similar way but Lando wanted to settle down, so Chewie arranged for him to lose the Falcon in a card game to Han Solo, an even better choice as partner. Han and Chewie’s working method is pretty much what we see in the cantina scene: Chewie make the contacts and sets up the deals, then turns them over to Han who haggles over the price and gives the final yea or nay. This lets Chewie wander the seamy underside of the galaxy pretty much at will, making contacts, gathering and passing information with no-one was the wiser, especially not Han.
Chewie persuaded Han to do business with Jabba the Hutt so he could make regular runs to Tattoine, where Chewie could pass messages between Kenobi and Organa. When R2’s urgent message came through only days before, the only way for Chewie to get back to Tattoine in time was to make the “mistake” that forced Han to dump his cargo to avoid capture. As a down side, this led to Solo’s getting a death mark out on him from Jabba the Hutt. Chewie was a bit upset about the need for that but figured they weren’t going to be dealing with Tattoine for much longer.
En route to Alderaan, R2 and Chewie play stop-motion chess. This is the latest in a series of games they’ve played over the year in the back rooms of space stations and cantinas across the galaxy, but this is the first time they’ve done it in front of their respective straight men, so they put on a big show.
Then it all goes wrong again. Alderaan is gone and the Falcon is caught and brought aboard the Death Star. Only Han, Luke and 3PO don’t know just how much trouble they’re in but Obi-Wan has a plan and seems confident (but Jedi always do). Soon afterwards, R2 finds Leia in the detention cells and shouts that they have to rescue her, to which Chewie can only agree. If Vader learns he has a daughter, then they’re all in deep trouble, so Chewie does his bit to persuade Han to go along with Luke’s plan.
Then, on the verge of escape, Vader himself turns up only yards from both of his children, one of whom is leaking Force all over the place. Obi-Wan stages a distraction by letting himself die and go into the Force while the others escape. At this point, Chewie suddenly realises that he’s been left in charge, not only of the Death Star Plans and the survival of the Rebellion but of the secret son and daughter of Darth Vader. With the Organas and Kenobi all dead, only Chewie, R2 and Yoda know who Luke and Leia are. And only Ob-Wan knew where Yoda has been hiding. Chewie is stressed out by the responsibility and R2 (who keeps making crude jokes about the whole affair) is being no help at all.
Chewie’s first problem is what is happening between Luke and Leia. With a psychic link they can feel but don’t understand, thrown together in a life-or-death escape, they are looking at each other with a sparky intensity that Chewie gradually recognises as Romantic Tension. He’s no expert on human relationships but Chewie is fairly sure that that’s Wrong, so he does the only thing he can under the circumstances – he throws Han at her. Han is at first not interested but after a while starts to warm to the idea with an intensity that gives Chewie new worries.
When they reach Yavin, Han decides to take the money and run and Chewie decides to go with him. Looked at in cold light, it’s for the good of the Rebellion. Even if Yavin is destroyed, there’ll be one agent who knows what’s going on who can try and put something back together, but he doesn’t feel good about it. When Han decides to turn around and join the attack, Chewie is all for it.
Han and Luke get medals but Chewie doesn’t. Actually, Leia offers him one but Chewie turns it down. He got one of those things from Yoda about 20 years ago, but there’s no way he can tell her that.
As the film ends, the three founders of the Rebellion are all gone. Bail Organa is dead, Yoda is out of contact and Obi-Wan’s ghost can only talk to other Jedi. (So that would be Yoda then.) Thus, the field leadership of the rebellion has just been turned over to the daughter of Darth Vader. Chewie is really hoping that someone with an official rank greater than hers will get here real soon before he has to think really seriously about option C.
Any thoughts?
The Coolest Thing that WolframAlpha Does
Shows which flights are overhead. You can even add a city name or zip code.
Are wrist gadgets the next big thing?
I’ve noticed quite a few big-name companies introducing wrist gadgets lately. Some of them are really interesting, but I haven’t quite seen one that sparks my interest enough to buy. Most of them integrate fitness, media, time, and other things that are convenient. Lots of areas of expertise, but all seem to be lacking somewhere. I think that this is definitely an upcoming tech battleground, as the competition is already heating up. Here are a few that caught my attention recently, as well as my thoughts on what they have to offer.
iPod Nano
I don’t think that Apple originally intended the new nano to be a wrist gadget, but people immediately started to sell watch bands that they fit in. On Apple’s most recent release, they seem to have really embraced this. They now offer a ton of different watch faces, and even advertise the device in one of the bands. If Apple sticks with this design, I bet that they start to sell their own watch bands soon.
It offers the well-known iPod interface, as well as a few apps that Apple has designed. They have also built-in the Nike+ app, and you no longer have to buy the accessory to put in your shoe. This can be used to track workouts (calories, distance, steps, etc), and customize workout playlists. The Nano doesn’t have any sort of wireless connection though, which is a deal breaker.
Apple iPod Nano
Jawbone UP
This one is new, and really interesting. It is designed by Jawbone, who is mostly known for their Bluetooth speakers and headsets. It is designed as a “wear it all the time” gadget that is basically an ultra-sensitive accelerometer. With some pretty impressive software, it can be used to track steps taken as well as measure the state of sleep that you are in. You plug it into the headphone jack of an iOS device and upload the data straight into an app, which is pretty neat. The app itself has a feature where you can take pictures of what you are eating, as well as how it makes you feel after.
One of the killer features though, is the smart alarm. The Jawbone UP measures the small movements that you make while sleeping to track the state of sleep that you are in. This is plotted on a graph that the user can view, and rated on some algorithm so that you can compare you nights. You can see quality and time of sleep. The neatest part, though, is that you can set the device to wake you up by a certain time during a lighter stage of your sleep cycle, which they claim makes you feel less groggy in the morning. It’s pretty neat, check out the website for a video.
There is also a built-in social network of sorts for challenges and things that will probably not get used very often. Neat idea though.
My biggest issue though is the lack of wireless communication. How did Jawbone, a company known for making high-end Bluetooth devices, exclude Bluetooth from the UP? It seems like you have to plug this thing into your iOS device all the time! You have to plug it in to view and upload data, as well as to change from awake to sleep mode! That seems like a pain. I would rather have a device that I could just wear all the time without thinking about it.
i’m Watch
This one has been getting a lot of attention- mostly from our neighbors across the pond. It is being marketed as “The world’s first real smartwatch”, whatever that means. It seems like it is running a heavily-customized version of Android that has access to some proprietary apps, and a special app store.
It is also kind of a remote control for your phone. You can use it to make calls and things, which is a pretty unique feature. I’m kind of uncertain if it has any wifi built-in, but the website says that you need to tether your phone to it in order to work. I’m not sure if that means Bluetooth of wifi, but it is a pretty promising concept. My biggest gripe though, is that it doesn’t really offer you anything that pulling your phone out of your pocket doesn’t. We will see how the developers handle this one.
imWatch
Motorola MOTOACTV
This one is being marketed mostly as a fitness device, with the people from The Biggest Loser backing it. It runs a flavor of Android, and has lots of fitness features built-in. It plays music, tracks steps/calories, as well as an integrated GPS sensor. Motorola is selling this with clips, watch bands, and bike mounts. The nice thing about this is the heart monitor, which is something that the others do not have. Everything can be plotted, charted, mapped and compared so you can check things out after your day. There is also an “audio coach”, which updates you on pace, performance and things.
I’ve had some issues with Motorola lately, so I am skeptical about this one. It seems primarily aimed at fitness, and is a bit pricey. Might be worth it for someone who works out a lot though.
MOTOACTV
Hopefully, soon, something really amazing will come out that combines all of the great features of all of these. I want something that looks nice, and can track everything seamlessly. I want something with a long battery life and wireless communication. I want something that doesn’t look like a box, and can actually give you useful information. I want to be able to see charts of my heart rate, steps taken, calories burned, location, and any other data that it collects without manually syncing.
It seems like lots of companies are starting to explore these things, so here is to hoping that something useful comes out soon.
But it’s Dave ****ing Grohl
From GIGWISE
Foo Fighters Dave Grohl has temporarily joined Cage The Elephant as their drummer on their current tour.
Cage The Elephant, who are currently supporting Foo Fighters on their US tour, have been without a drummer after Jared Champion’s appendix burst on Monday night (October 10).
The band’s guitarist Lincoln Parrish told Spin that Grohl offered his services after hearing about Champion.
”Dave somehow heard what had happened and called our tour manager. He said, ‘Hey, so do you think the guys would go for it?’. Our manager was like ‘Um, yeah!!!’
He added: ”I had to pinch myself. I turned around and Dave Grohl is playing the drums. It’s an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Nobody can replace Jared. But it’s Dave ****ing Grohl. If you’re going to be replaced by anybody, it might as well be the best.”
Guess who just got a pair of toe shoes!
I just made some of the best Indian food that I have ever had – and it was EASY!
So I was watching the cooking channel, and they had a commercial for Alton Brown coming to their network which featured a curry episode. I got kind of excited about this since my neighbors have been cooking up a curry all day and it smelled delicious. Since every episode of Good Eats is available for free on YouTube, I went to check it out. Everything that they made was too complicated, and every recipe that I could find had way too many ingredients. I decided to give something else a try, and figured that it would probably be completely disgusting, but why not?
I had some pulled pork that I had made earlier which was hitting the end of its shelf life, as well as some leftover rice from Chinese delivery the other day. I went to the store to grab some organic whole-milk yogurt just started winging it.
The Sauce
I put about 1/4 cup of yogurt into a mixing bowl and started adding generic yellow curry powder until it looked like it was a good color (probably about two tablespoons). I like my curry with a little bit more cumin, so I added a bit. I mixed in Sriracha sauce until I got the desired heat and color. That’s it!
Cooking
I broke my pulled pork into sizeable chunks and mixed it all together. I put all of that into my little dipper slow cooker for about an hour. Once that was ready, I brought the Chinese food rice back to life in the microwave by adding a little bit of water. Poured the pulled pork and sauce over rice and went to town.
Wow!!! Since this was so easy, I was sure that it was going to be disgusting. I’m not sure if it was the sauce or the fact that I used pulled pork (have you ever heard of that being done??), but it was delicious. The sauce was smooth and spicy. The pulled pork was an excellent compliment to the curry sauce. The rice was pretty bad, but the sauce covered it up.
Seriously, this dish has like four ingredients. Even if it wasn’t this good, I would keep making it- but it is. This has to be the easiest pseudo-Indian food recipe that I have ever seen. Try it, you won’t be disappointed.
Chris Brown - Things that I like. 