Matthew S. Williams's Blog, page 158

Nile-Like River Spotted on Titan

Out in the far reaches of the Solar System, the Cassini Space Probe continues to send us mind-bogging images of Saturn and it’s moons. This latest was released by NASA just two days ago, a photograph which shows a massive river on Titan, Saturn’s appropriately-named largest moon. Already, Cassini confirmed the existence of a large, methane lake in Titan’s “tropical” region. But this latest find would seem to indicate the Titan is even more Earth-like than previously thought.

For example, the river is not only comparable in relative size and shape to the Nile here on Earth, it is also filled with a cold, hydrocarbon liquid (most likely ethane or methane). This is a historic find, since it is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere beyond Earth. But of course, it’s what the river implies that has many scientists especially excited. For example, Jani Radebaugh, a Cassini radar team associate at Brigham Young University, USA, claims that the river may be an indication of plate tectonics:

“Though there are some short, local meanders, the relative straightness of the river valley suggests it follows the trace of at least one fault, similar to other large rivers running into the southern margin of this same Titan sea. Such faults – fractures in Titan’s bedrock – may not imply plate tectonics, like on Earth, but still lead to the opening of basins and perhaps to the formation of the giant seas themselves.”

In short, the river is another indication that Titan may be an early version of Earth. At one time, it is believed Earth’s own surface was covered with lakes that were much different in chemical composition than the one’s we know today. The process of change is what may have given rise to certain colonies of cell bacteria, which in turn created more complex organisms and eventually vertebrates. Intrinsic to all of this were shifts in the planet’s plates, which corresponded to several life-creating epochs in Earth’s history – the most notable being the “Cambrian Explosion”.

Naturally, there are plenty of difference between this “alien” river and it’s Earth-bound cousin too. For one, the Nile extends for a whopping 6,650 kilometers (4,132 miles), whereas Titan’s big river is roughly 400 km long. What’s more, Titan cycles hydrocarbons instead of water, as our life-friendly planet does. On top of all that, Titan is able to maintain these hydrocarbons in a liquid state because of its cold temperatures, much colder than what he enjoy here on the comparatively balmy Earth.

Still, I think you’ll agree, the resemblance is quite startling Stay tuned for more news from our Solar System. It becomes more exciting every day!

Source: Universe Today.com

Pappa Zulu – Chapter 25

“All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.”

-Francois Fenelon

The sun was beginning to crest the sky in front of them. A good thing to see by, but it also meant they were flying into the glare. Their quarry, on the other hand, was flying with it at their backs. Not a good thing…

Lieutenant Milton adjusted his attitude and eased in closer to the Captain. Word had come down that this might be a combat op, and the Captain was kind enough to step in. A good thing to, as Milton had yet to see a sortie that didn’t involve precision munitions. The idea that their might be birds that’d shoot back was a little unnerving.

His instrumentation began to beep slowly. On his radar screen, the series of blips that had been picked up at Kirkland were there, clear as day. There were more than a few, and they were slowly on approach. Any hope they had of finding it to be nothing but an especially large flock of geese or some kind of atmospheric disturbance had disappeared long ago.

Now it was just a question of making sure their guests signed in… and left their guns at the door.

Milton looked up to his HUD, watched the green display lights dance before him. They were still too far for a radar acquisition, but he kept his eyes on the instruments, checking his weapons readouts and holding the throttle tightly. In the event that things got hairy, they were loaded to bear. Missiles, ammo, and plenty of fuel in their external tanks; everything a boy needed to stay airborne and kick some ass!

He reminded himself of this as they closed further with the bogeys. Always good to know just how much you could shoot back in the event the guests got ornery.

The comm came on, the voice of the Colonel buzzing in.

“Tango Base to Tango One, do you have visual on bogeys, over?’

The Captain came on the line and replied. “Tango Base, this is Tango One. We are on approach, bogeys are visible on the horizon. Any luck on IDs over?

The Colonel came back, sounding just the slightest bit annoyed. “That’s a negative, Tango One. Bogey transponders are a blank. Maintain course and for visual confirmation, over.”

Milton took a deep breath and tightened his hands on the throttle and stick. A few tense moments passed before the Colonel came back on. The words were just a little bit unnerving. The people manning the big dishes were unsure who they were dealing with, which meant it all came down to them and their ability to get close enough to see who it was. He imagined this was how the airmen used to do it in the olden days.

Blips on some radar tower operators screen, no idea of who or what they were. Then Tally-ho, and the flyboys went in, risking life and limb to perform a quick pass and determine if they were Jerry’s, Japanese or just some merchant planes that got lost on their way home. Not having comms with other airgroups didn’t help that situation much either.

Just who the fuck were these people?

A series of dots appeared on the horizon before them. Grey-green specks amidst the fluffy patterns of clouds. Milton felt his heart rate climb as they came into view. His HUD began to scramble to characterize each one, placing a box around the closest of them just as soon as they were in range. They were about close enough now that Milton could see them clear enough, but he still had no idea what make and model they were.

He jumped on the comm to the Captain.

“Tango One to Tango Two, do you have a make on those planes, over?”

“Uh, Tango Two, those look to be Charlie-Seventeens.”

“Any sign of who’s flying them?”

They were close enough now that Milton could see their true colors. Teal blue paint on the fuselage, but no signs of insignia or designations at this range. Most likely, they wouldn’t be able to see until they pulled a full and complete flyby. What’s more, they weren’t adjusting their course, despite that they must be able to see their Falcons on approach.

“None,” said the Captain. “Advising base now, over.” The Captain switched over to the airbase and began relaying their report. “Tango Base, we have eyes on bogeys. Air fleet is composed of Charlie-Seventeens, possible USAF craft, over. Do we have comms at this time?”

There was a short delay. “No comms at this time. Attempting to remedy. Stand by and maintain course.”

“Great,” Milton said to the Captain. “We keep sweating it out up here while they try to put in a call.”

“Cut the chatter,” the Captain replied. “We got our orders. Standby and wait for the go ahead.”

Milton grumbled and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Nothing but to do but wait, and all the while knowing that they couldn’t even talk to the people on the other side. He checked his readouts again, radar, weapons, then back to the HUD. All things still in the green and working just fine. All things good to go in case-

“Tango Base! I got new radar signatures on scope! Verify, over!”

Milton heart lept and he looked over in the Captain’s direction, then down to his own radar scope. Sure enough, there they were. A small collection of specks forming in the upper left hand of the screen. They looked so faint, despite the fact that they were as close as the C-17s. How was that possible?

“Tango One, be advised. We have no additional bogeys on our screens, over.”

The comms went dead for a second. The C-17s were getting mighty close now. Milton could almost make out the windows on the closest of them, but there was nothing in the skies around their ten o’clock, where these new bogeys were coming from. He waited anxiously, his eyes looking left and right for any trace, his heart rate and the quick succession of radar beeps filling his ears.

“Tango Two, bogeys at ten o’clock high! I say again, bogeys at ten o’clock high!”

Milton looked to where the Captain was indicating and saw them. The telltale configuration of Raptors, descending in on them from up above. His heart went into overdrive as he realized what was happening.

“Fucking stealth fighters! They were luring us in!”

The Captain didn’t appear to hear him. Quickly, he relayed the latest back to base. “Tango Base, be advised! We have four – no, five Raptors on approach. I repeat, we have five Foxtrot-twenty-twos on approach. Requesting instructions, over!”

Milton waited for several painful heartbeats. The comms became active again just as a new instrument began to blare at him.

“Captain, they’ve got radar lock on us!”

“Tango Base, be advised! Bogeys are hostile! Engaging now!”

Milton switched to his Sidewinders and prepared for evasive maneuvers. The instruments stopped beeping and switched to a steady scream as many klicks away, a missile with his name on it launched.

*                    *                    *

Thur listened in and kept stroking at his upper lip. A small layer of sweat was beginning to form there and he felt the need to keep brushing it clean. Nothing worse than a sweating upper lip, especially when others were counting on you to keep it stiff. The rest of his face felt cool and slick too, unlike the rest of him which felt uncomfortably hot.

Between all the training and combat experience he had accumulated over the years, waiting for a potential crisis to break was still not something he could get used to. There was simply no way to insulate oneself from the knowledge that very soon, all hell could be breaking loose and one’s own people could very quickly die in the process.

No, there was no training that could prepare one for that. And no amount of experience seemed to make it any easier, regardless of what any commander said. And the reports coming in from the 150th weren’t clarifying the situation much. What they knew for certain was that there was indeed a large flotilla of planes, clearly USAF assets, and they were on approach.

No guarantee they were hostile, but no way to determine where they came from either. A potentially hazardous situation, made worse by the fact that they didn’t have the means to communicate with them. And if he sent the rest of the air wing to intercept at this point, things were likely to escalate. He wanted to believe the best, but only because he knew the worst was something they were not ready to deal with.

“Colonel, what is the status of Wachowski birds? Are they fueled yet?”

Vasquez barked something into the headset, got back an affirmative. “Yes, sir. The air squad is fueled and armed. Just waiting for the go ahead signal.”

He nodded. “And what’s the latest from 2nd Battalion? Are they near base yet?”

“All company’s reported they are en route and should be here within the hour, sir,” the tech replied from his seat.

He took a deep breath. At least there was that much. As long as the situation remained in a fluid state, they had time to get their forces in order. Three companies would be just enough to hold Espanola, if indeed that was their destination. As long as they had the BCT in reserve and ready to move…

“Sir!” Vasquez yelled. “Update coming in from the one-fiftieth, sir!” He unplugged the headset from the terminal and upped the volume. Thur immediately heard the voice of Colonel Wachowski screaming over the line.

“Tango Patrol is down! Repeat, Tango Patrol is down! Bogeys are hostile and have opened fire!”

Thur sprang to his feet. His hands were now tightened into balls and his knuckles turning white.

“What happened? Who fired on them?”

Vasquez hit the reply on the terminal. “Colonel, what was the last transmission of the Tango One. Who opened fire on them?”

On the other end, Wachowski took a deep breath and recited it all back to them. The sudden appearance of additional craft, their identification as Raptors, and the speculation that they had gotten as close as they did by flying at their service ceiling until the last minute, and relying on their stealth capabilities.

“Son of a bitch,” Vasquez said, shaking his head. Thur knew exactly what he was thinking and felt his heart sink. It was indeed the worst case scenario, and it had come at the worst possible time. Their were outmatched at this point, and the enemy now had the advantage of clear skies to make their approach. Only one thing could stand in their way before they reached Espanola, and he doubted they would be able to make enough of an impact.

“Colonel, order the one-fiftieth to scramble all fighters. They are to put up a fighter screen around Espanola immediately.”

“Yes, sir!” he began to relay the order. Turning to face the others, Thur placed his hands in front of his mouth in prayer-like fashion. A dozen or so technical officers and NCO’s looked at him, the unmistakable signs of worry in their eyes and the indication that they all were waiting to be told what to do.

Snapping his fingers at each terminal in the room, he began to bark orders.

“All of you, get on the horn to all commands in the area. I want all units to be advised of the current situation. We have a hostile force on approach to HQ, enemy assets in friendly uniform. All elements not currently wearing the Rattlesnakes battle colors are to be considered hostile. 2nd Battalion has its orders, any elements engaged with Whiskey incursions and not currently en route to Espanola are to standby and await further orders. Get on it!’

“Yes, sir!” they said in unison, and began running to their stations.

Thur turned back to the Vasquez and placed his hands in front of his mouth again. He could feel fresh sweat forming there. Vasquez looked up between issuing orders to give him much the same look as the others.

It was a mistake, he realized at last. For too long, he and his XO had kept the details of this private, fearing that any open talk amongst the officers and enlisted men might undermine moral or be a security risk. Mance, the virus, the other assets they had encountered in LA. He had never allowed his people to know what was going on beyond their front door, and even feigned ignorance where several crucial aspects of it were concerned.

They had had their reasons, and plenty of good intentions, or so he told himself. But now, the result of that was that his own people were running around in a haze of uncertainty and panic. At least he trusted his people to do right now, to keep their heads level and come through alive. The irony of that sickened him at the moment.

I didn’t trust them with the truth, but I’m trusting them to stay alive. And what’s more, those who didn’t survive would be dying for him. Such was not a comfortable realization, and in the end, it was yet another thing that no amount of time or training could prepare a commander for.

The Future Is Here: The Braille-Streaming Implant

Imagine, if you will, a revolutionary new technology that sidesteps visual impairment and allows a blind person to process visual information by transmitting braille patterns directly into their retina. Might sound like the stuff of science fiction (a la Geordi LaForge), but thanks to a recent development by the company Second Sight, it is scientific fact. In what was a medical first, researchers tested the device by streaming Braille patterns directly into a patient’s retina, allowing them to read visually with almost 90% accuracy.

“It’s basically a cochlear implant, but for the eyes,” says Thomas Lauritzen, Senior Research Scientist at SMP and lead author of the study. But whereas the cochlear implant circumvents dead hair cells on the inner ear that respond to acoustic signals, the Argus II device circumvents photoreceptors, the cells in the human eye that measure light. By combining a retinal implant with the headset which work together to read the environment and transmit the information to the optical nerve, the device will allow the visually impaired to see color, movement, and objects.

Unfortunately, according to Lauritzen, the new eye device is about 30 years behind the technology of the cochlear implant. Whereas the device is capable of translating larger objects reliably, it has some troubles conveying smaller visual cues, such as letters and short sentences. It was for this reason that Lauritzen and his research team turned to streaming braille instead of normal text. This test bypassed the usual configuration of a camera and the neuroprosthetic implant and sent the electrical information directly into the implant itself. So instead of feeling Braille with their finger tips, the patient was actually able to see the succession of Braille symbols streaming onto their retina.

And the results were incredibly encouraging, with tests being conducted with 50 patients. According to the team’s report: “For this specific visual Braille project, we were able to increase reading speeds by more than 20-fold.” What’s next for the Argus II? Hopefully, FDA approval to begin large-scale production and distribution in the United States and elsewhere. And with time and improvements, it just might result in vision loss being restored for countless people!

Check out a video of the Argus II in action below:

Source: IO9

Pappa Zulu – Chapter 24

“No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.”

-Calvin Coolidge

The evening had very quickly given way to the dead of night. Even though it had been completely dark when she first took the night’s watch, much had changed in the last few hours which had led her to perceive a drastic change. For one, all the fires had been extinguished in the houses immediately behind them, and the cities power supply had been shut down. As of now, the only thing to see by were the small collection of LEDs and nightlights the guards carried.

Saunders may have been imagining it, but the temperature also seemed to dropped off quite quickly since she first took her spot on the wall. Every exhalation was a thick vapor now, and every inhaled breath an icy cold sting. Luckily, Justice was able to produce some blankets as well, no doubt from the same store that held their seats. She had to assume that over a year of standing watch over their own borders had meant that they’d learned a thing or two about sentry duty.

She stretched out her leg again, gave it some kneading up and down the length of the muscle. Pushing into the tissue produced some sharp pain, but seemed to alleviate the stiffness. She was reminded of the time she had went to that spa with her sister, on their little getaway to Las Vegas. For over an hour, they had laid on tables while skilled shiatsu technicians had dug into their backs and caused all kinds of pain in the pursuit of relaxation.

She remembered how much she had hated it at the time. Not only because of the paradox of yielding pleasure from pain, but also because the entire experience seemed so lavish and needlessly expensive. At the moment, she wanted very much to be on that table again. Perhaps those nice technicians could give her a leg that did as it was told and wasn’t in constant pain.

Looking over at her, Justice snickered. She looked back at him with a frown.

“What?”

“You get used to it,” he said. Saunders waited for the addendum to that statement, but none came.

“What are you talking about?”

“Standing watch,” he said with some obviousness. “You get used to being still. Being bored. Waiting for something to happen. Worrying it might happen. But then nothing does and you have to relax while you’re vigilant. It’s takes time.”

She processed that and then emitted a disdainful noise. “It’s my leg, Leatherman. Plus I’m still cold. I’m not worried or bored or worried-bored. I’m stiff as fuck.” She shook her head and kept shaking it, well to the point that she realized she was being a total bitch.

“Sorry, Justice,” she said finally. “Just think I might not be ready to get back into duty here.”

“Eh, no problem,” he said. “But who’s… Leatherman?”

She looked at him and laughed gently. “Oh, nobody. Just a nickname some of the guys in my squad came up with. Way you guys look, all tough as rawhide. They figured the name sounded fun.”

Justice considered her words and nodded approvingly. “Leatherman… I like it. Gonna use it too. You mind?”

“No, not at all. Be my guest.”

“Good,” he said, nodding some more. “Leatherman…”

The name seemed to inspire a grim smile on his face. Justice “Leatherman” Essaqueta. She could imagine him taking it back to his friends and peers and demanding they call him that from now on. She might have laughed were she not shivering and stiff as all hell.

A sound from their rear made Justice snap to attention and swing around to face it. His gun was up and in both hands in a heartbeat. Saunders needed a few extra seconds just to catch up.

“Who goes there? Identify yourself!”

Saunders could hear the heavy breathing coming from somewhere down below. Whoever it was had come running up to see them, and was standing in a shadowy alcove between light sources.

“Viper,” he said heavily. Saunders issued the reply.

“Venom…” she waited for further identification, but ventured a guess from the sound of the voice. “Jones, that you out there?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said between breaths. “Lieutenant dispatched me to come get you. Says we got Battalion on the horn, telling us to pack up.”

“What?” she said, looking to Justice. “We’re supposed to be stationed here for at least another month. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but sounded important. Rumor has it all companies are being called in, ma’am. Word is it comes from the top.”

Saunders wasn’t prepared to argue with that. She took one more look at Justice, who just shrugged and motioned for her to go.

“You okay here?”

“Fine,” he said. “Sounds like you got bigger game to poach.”

She chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. She then grabbed hold of her rifle and performed the arduous task of getting on her feet, waving at Justice to let her do it on her own. It was no simple task, but she managed to get on her feet and down the steps without falling. Jones was there to help her off the last of them before they hit the ground and started running together. It was an incredible effort to get her leg moving quickly again, but Jones managed to keep pace.

After a few blocks, she was able to jog without too much discomfort. She was even keeping her wind up. As such, she also took the opportunity to ask some questions.

“Any other rumors going around you wanna tell me about?”

Jones shrugged. “No telling. But everybody’s up and moving now. Some are saying we might be under some kind of attack.”

“Attack?” she said, almost mockingly. “What, like a Whiskey incursion somewhere?”

“Don’t know, didn’t ask,” Jones replied, sounding out of breath again. “Like I said, no one knows.”

Saunders took the hint and was silent for the rest of their jog back to base. As he had told her, the place was in a flurry, every portable light on and marking the passage of troops who were busy loading up and getting ready to move. When they were back in the courtyard with the rest, she began looking for Braun and found him speaking to the platoon RTO. The latter was holding up the receiver to the squawk box and seemed to be on the defensive, Braun laying into him about something.

She crossed the courtyard and made her way to within earshot of them. She managed to catch what seemed like the tail end of things.

“…the Colonel that this unit will be there within the hour and if he has a problem with that, he can file a formal complaint. Okay?”

“Yes, sir. Just relaying the message, sir.”

“Fine.” He looked up and saw her. An immediate change came over him, the stern CO becoming the sympathetic, tender soul she knew only in private. He quickly remembered where he was and what situation they were in and shook it off.

“Sergeant,” he said, approaching and issuing a salute which she returned. “Sorry to pull you off the wall in the middle of the night, but we’ve been called back to HQ. Your squad is assembling now.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, shooting a look in the direction of their Humvee. Jones had joined the others, all of whom were busy loading up their weapons, munitions, and other assorted gear. She looked back to Braun, cast a look around to make sure no one was listening in. “Do you know what’s happening, sir?”

He cleared his throat and adopted his official face. She immediately felt silly for asking and braced herself for the impending reply.

“We’ve been ordered to return to base post-haste, Sergeant. Beyond that, no explanations were given and according to the rules and engagement, none are required.”

Saunders stiffened to attention. So it was like this again, was it? “Yes, sir. Sorry I asked.”

She was about to leave when he laid a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She looked back to see a particularly worried look on his face.

“However, I don’t think it would be out of line of me to advise that no NCO’s take unnecessary risks, no matter how necessary they might seem. If I were to lose any of them, I don’t know what I’d do.”

A moment of deja vu hit her. She could faintly remember such words from before, when she was laying half-dazed and half-dead on the ground. A terribly warm and cozy feeling came over her, the kind that ran deep and could be uncontrollable when summoned. She cleared her throat and stifled it as best she could. She had things to do and people to look after. A simple nod was all she could manage at the moment.

Braun let her slip off and she ran back to her vehicle. Whitman was now seated in the front and checking the nav terminal and squawk box. Mill was up top checking the gears of the fifty cal. The others were busy loading up the squad’s assorted kit and backpacks. The only one not doing anything was her.

“Squad, what the hell’s going on?” she said. Everyone looked up in the middle of what they were doing. “Am I to understand you’ve left nothing for the NCO to take care of?”

They looked to each other and shrugged. Mill answered.

“Jones was slow in getting to you. We had time.”

“Man, fuck off!” Jones said, grabbing his shotgun and hopping in  the back.

“Boy’s still weak on the cardio ma’am.”

She unslung her SCAR and hopped in the cab next to Whitman. “Probably comes from all those late nights banging people’s daughters.”

That got a laugh from everyone, even Jones himself. All assembled, Whitman started her up and they waited for their turn to taxi out onto the roadway. Next stop, Espanola, HQ, and whatever situation was so important that they had to be trekking back in the middle of the night.

More Judgement Day Announcements…

November saw some rather interesting developments in the field of robotics. First, there was the unveiling of Disney’s charming juggling robot, an automaton capable of playing catch with a human being. This robot is intended for use in Disneyland parks as a form of entertainment for guests, but many people wonder if this is an eerie precursor to a machine that is capable of throwing other things as well…

While Disney was scant with the details of how the robot works, they did explain that a camera tracks the balls being thrown, while an algorithm works out exactly where the ball is going to land and positions the robot arm accordingly. Combining video tracking and software, the robot is able to anticipate where its catching hand needs to be, much like the human brain does. Check out the video of it playing catch with a human stand-in below:

Also in the news, Momentum Machines unveiled a new automated burger robot chef last month. After being successfully tested on the line, the company announced its plans to introduce this robot to fast food chains everywhere, saving companies millions of dollars in staffing costs. According to projections, Momentum Machines says that its automated burger robot — which does everything from flipping burgers, to slicing tomatoes, to toasting the bun — could save the fast food industry $9 billion in wages.

Of as yet, no video is available of the burger robot doing a demonstration, but this helpful infographic does give a breakdown of the robots structure and basic functions (below). Granted, this might seem like a callous and insensitive move, especially to the over 2 million workers currently employed in fast food in the US alone. But with just about every other production line having been automated already, this seems to many like the next logical step. Good luck Momentum Machines; hope the angry mob outside your offices doesn’t scare you!

Granted, this may all still seem like a far cry from Skynet and Cylons, but under the circumstances, is it any wonder that Cambridge University founded the Center for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) to evaluate new technologies? Clearly, some people are worried robots are going to be doing more than just chucking balls and flipping our burgers.

Awesome Sci-Fi Movie Mashup!

Behold, the cool scenes from every science fiction movie ever made, all in one video. Well, not necessarily all of them; in fact, true geeks may noticed that some of their favorites might be lacking. However, I think you’ll agree, this is a pretty good sampling of a wide array of classic films. In fact, the creators merged footage from 100 movies here, a collection of classic and more recent sci-fi films, and set it all to music (Glitch Mob remix of “Monday,” by Nalepa). Enjoy!

Pappa Zulu – Chapter 23

“Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.”

-Sun Tzu

The Humvee pulled up in front of the HQ at exactly oh-two-hundred hours. His escort immediately jumped from their seats and opened his door, moving in to flank him as they pressed into the building. His body was still in the process of waking up, but it moved with a purpose. Getting called in the middle of the night had that effect, providing a surge of adrenaline in a way that few other things could.

Perhaps it was a primordial instinct, being awakened in the night to thwart wildebeests and wild carnivores that had wandered into the camp. And time had only honed that instinct, upgrading the enemies and the weapons, but not the sense of grim necessity. No matter the hour, the hunters and warriors had to rouse from sleep and gather to address the threat.

If only he knew what it was they were dealing with. Vasquez’s message hadn’t specified what they had picked up. But then again, he couldn’t be specific when accurate information eluded him as well. Another reason for concern…

They cleared their way inside, every grunt on the base stopping in their tracks to come to attention and salute. Thur snapped many hurried ones in response as he blew past them, the boots of his escort clomping on the linoleum tiles as they made their way to the second floor and to the communications hub. When they finally blew through the doors, Vasquez and the immediate staff all stood and snapped their heels together. All saluted at the same time, looking to him with grim expressions.

“C0lonel, what’s happening that couldn’t wait until morning?”

“Sorry to wake you, sir,” he said, going back to the switchboard he was standing over. The young tech officer who stood by him grabbed a hold of the headset he was wearing and quick punched up the frequency he was monitoring. He grabbed a spare headset and handed it to the Colonel, who in turn handed it to Thur.

“Comm traffic?” he asked, taking it and putting it up to his ear.

“From Albuqurque, sir. Colonel Marquis is on station.”

Thur began to listen in and Vasquez spoke into the mike on his own set. His basso voice warbled onto the frequency and into Thur’s ear amidst general background noise.

“Colonel Marquis, the CO is on station. Please repeat what you just told me for his ears.”

On the other end, Haynes cleared his voice and spoke in a crisp, officious manner, suddenly aware that the Mage was listening in. “I say again, sir, we have established power to Kirkland Alpha Foxtrot Bravo. Radar intercept indicates we have bogies on approach to your location from vector November, November Echo at five zero zero mikes. Be advised. Intercept indicates their approach could bring them into our airspace in a matter of hours, over.”

“Colonel, say again. You have bogies on radar, over?”

“Affirmative, sir. As soon as we got power to the dishes, we began detecting radar signatures. We weren’t sure if it was interference or some kind of sunspot activity. I’ve had my techs looks it over and they think its genuine, sir… Over.”

Thur removed the headset and looked at Vasquez. All he could do was shrug. Suddenly, the importance of waking him in the middle of the night was abundantly clear. Not since the First Wave had struck over a year ago had they experienced any kind of air traffic in their vicinity, civilian or otherwise. Knowing that there was something airborne just beyond their zone of control could only be interpreted as bad news.

“Colonel, have your officers determined how many bogies they’ve detected so far, over?”

Haynes came back promptly. “Intercept is not clear at this time as to how many, but the return signature suggest a large air fleet, sir. Requesting instructions, over.”

Thur removed the headset again. He covered the mike so nothing of what he was about to say would go through. He didn’t want Haynes listening in until he had something to tell him, hopefully of an encouraging nature.

“Have we contacted the one-fiftieth at Oscar-Oscar yet?”

“We have, sir,” Vasquez replied with a nod. “Their radar doesn’t have the same range as the old airbase and unfortunately they can’t confirm it at this time. However, even if they were in range, there might be trouble on their end.”

“How so?”

Vasquez gestured to the tech who was sitting between them. He looked to Thur and explained. “Well, sir, at that approach, the radar base at Oscar-Oscar wouldn’t have a clear line of sight on that sector of the sky until they were closer. Say… within two hundred clicks, sir.”

“Ergo, we can’t rely on them to confirm or deny this readout anyway,” Thur concluded. “Dammit, I knew we should have placed some radar intercepts outside the park boundaries.”

“Sir, that’s not your fault,” Vasquez reminded him. Thur nodded and raised his hand. He didn’t need to be told once more that those areas were not under their control and gaining the permission of the locals was a work in progress. He knew better than most how slow that process had been. Perhaps he should have gone with his initial instinct and taken control of them directly, thrown all attempts at negotiation to the wind.

“Well, until such time as we can confirm these radar signatures, we can’t exactly send the patrol wing to meet them. We simply don’t have the fuel”

“No, sir,” Vasquez agreed. “But a single reconnaissance patrol wouldn’t be ill-advised. I can have an Alpha Charlie one-thirty on hand to make sure they can be refueled, should the need arise.”

Thur considered it for a second and nodded. He snapped a finger at the tech officer and began issuing orders.

“Son, get Colonel Wachowski on the horn, tell him I need him to prep an aerial recon of two F-16 fighter jets, coordinates to follow.”

“Yes, sir,” the tech said, and began fumbling with his controls. While he did that, Thur jumped back on the headset and continued his conversation with Haynes. A quick request for a precis of his situation led to a rather long reply.

“We’ve secured the airfield, the bridges, and the old command headquarters up the road. All of the infected have been pushed south of the eye-forty and the BCT is refueling and resupplying for another push. Our birds have hit locations within that area and west of the eye-twenty five with napalm and white phosphorous, good effect on all targets. Once we’ve secured the area, we expect mopping up and sanitation to take no more than a few days.”

Thur nodded. Just a few more days and Albuquerque would be theirs, or so the Colonel would have him believe. There was no way he could pull them out now, not to chase radar signatures that may or may not even be real.

“Excellent job, Colonel. Please stand by.” He looked over to Vasquez. “What was the last report from the other companies of Second Battalion? What was their last reported disposition?”

“Alpha’s still up north, sir, scattered around the townships and monitoring Santa Fe Park. Bravo and Charlie were covering the south ends, word was there were incursions moving into those areas since we started pushing to the north.”

“Did Alpha report any contacts in the north since their last mission?”

Vasquez shook his head. “No, sir. Not since Alpha Platoon cleared out the cave network at Cerro Vista.”

“Good,” he snapped at another tech at another terminal. “Lieutenant, I want you to raise Colonel Haynes, 2nd Battalion. Order as follows. All elements not currently engaged in Whiskey operations in and around Sierra Foxtrot Park are to report back to Espanola at first light. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!” the officer answered, and began making the call. Thur turned back to Vasquez and noted that he was already on the line with Wachoski over at the airfield and arranging to get some birds in the air.

He smiled and ran his hand over his face. For the first time since being roused, he felt a wave of fatigue wash over him. Now that things were beginning to come together and his camp was preparing to repel a potential threat, his body was catching up to him. Every joint began to ache and every muscle felt stiff. They all wanted him to return to bed and put in for another few hours of sleep. But of course, that would not come. Not tonight, and not until they knew for sure who was out there and whether or not they intended them harm.

As soon as Vasquez was finished speaking to Wachowski, the two of them shared a look of mutual anxiety. Was this it, their eyes seemed to say. Was this the long dreaded encounter they had feared since news Mance’s existence had surfaced? Were the chickens coming home to roost at last and old enemies finally approaching their doorstep? Or was this simply a matter of an old Doppler dish shooting up sunspots or static traces? If it was the latter, what did that mean, aside from a longer wait?

Though it was not something they dared speak of in the presence of the others, both men knew quite well that the world they now lived in carried no guarantees of fidelity and honor amongst old allies. Such things had become obsolete the moment the First Wave had struck and destroyed all vestiges of cohesion and order amongst the service branches. In the first place, all could be counted on to assist each other simply by protecting their own domains and ensuring the Whiskeys were pushed back.

But of course he knew that once that phase was complete, a new one was likely to arise, one where the Whiskeys might not even be a going concern anymore. Once the immediacy of their threat was neutralized, it was to become a question of who would lead the reconstruction effort, and whether or not they would make room for anyone else to join in.

Old habits, he thought, smiling sardonically. Old habits indeed.

Death of a Superhero

Came across this trailer while making one of my usual rounds of the internets! And I have to say, it looks both intriguing and incredibly heartwarming. In this film, which has already won a slew of awards – People’s Choice Award and the Young Jury Award at the 2011 Les Arcs European Film Festival, and the Audience Award and ‘Special Mention’ of the Jury at the Mamer-en-Mars European Film Festival – a young boy draws comics of an invincible superhero while he struggles with his own mortality.

Based on a New Zealand novel of the same name and filmed in Ireland, the movie splices animated segments with real footage in order to capture the spirit of the text and to posit real-life experiences with imaginative renderings. In addition to showing the power people have to shape their reality and use fictional escapes to deal with life, it also serves as a sort of commentary on the enduring power of superheroes and mythology in the modern world.

I shall be watching it forthwith! I recommend you do the same

Second Asteroid Makes Even Closer Pass to Earth

Thank you to Raven Lunatick for bringing this to my attention! It seems that while everyone was watching Toutatis the other day, another asteroid slipped past Earth with few noticing. Luckily, researchers had been observing this newly-discovered asteroid, named 2012 XE54, since Dec. 9th and knew that like the much larger Toutatis, this one would pass Earth by without incident.

But whereas Toutatis avoided Earth by a whopping 7 million kilometers, roughly 18 times the orbit of the Moon, XD54 passed within 230,000 km of Earth. That’s within the Moon’s orbit in case you don’t know, which is a far closer shave for those keeping track!

Granted, this asteroid was substantially smaller than Toutatis, measuring in at 36 meters at its widest point compared to Toutatis’ hefty 4.5 km length. However, that does not mean that such a small object does not have considerable destructive power. For the sake of perspective, consider the case of the asteroid that landed in Siberia in 1908. Here, the stellar object in question was similar size to XD54, and flattened some 2000 square km of forest when it exploded above Siberia’s Podkamennaya Tunguska River.

In addition, XD54 shares another characteristic to the much larger Toutatis, in that its orbit is similar to our own. Scientists now predict that it takes the stellar object 2.72 years to complete a single lap of around the sun. This means that, like Toutatis, we can expect to see it again in the not-too-distant future. However, that’s not likely to be for many years and there’s no indication of if and when it will collide with our planet. So as far as the Doomsayers are concerned, humanity just might make it out of 2012 alive!

Source: DNAIndia.com

Asteroid Toutatis Narrowly Misses Earth

Astronomers were keeping their eyes on the skies yesterday as the asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis passed Earth by. While it was never a direct threat to Earth, its passage presented an opportunity for scientists to study it and the history of the early Solar System.

At its closest approach, 4179 Toutatis was 7 million km away from Earth, or roughly 18 times farther than the Moon. But that was close enough for NASA’s Goldstone Observatory to snap some radar images of the object (shown below). The timing could not have been more fortuitous, since NASA had recently upgraded to a new digital imaging system. And numerous amateur astronomers were able to get some interesting pics and even video.

Already, there are some preliminary findings from this 4.5-kilometer- long (3-mile-long) asteroid’s flyby. According to Michael Busch, a radar team member of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory: “Toutatis appears to have a complicated internal structure. Our radar measurements are consistent with the asteroid’s little lobe being ~15% denser than the big lobe; and they indicate 20% to 30% over-dense cores inside the two lobes.”

In truth, this is not the first time that Toutatis has passed Earth by. As it passes by Earth’s orbit every 4 years, it is one of the largest known potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) to have an orbit around the Sun so closely resembling our own. This presents another opportunity for study of the object. As Lance Benner of NASA’s Near Earth Object Program (NEOP) puts it: “We already know that Toutatis will not hit Earth for hundreds of years. These new observations will allow us to predict the asteroid’s trajectory even farther into the future.”

As they say, “an ounce of preservation…” And in the meantime, check out the photos and video taken of 4179 Toutatis as it passed Earth between the days of Dec. 11th and 12th, 2012.

Source: Universe Today