Matthew S. Williams's Blog, page 189

Mars Lander Mission, 2016

With all the news coming back from Curiosity rover since its deployment, one would get the impression that Mars is a pretty happening place. Blue sunsets, wide open vistas, tall mountains and extensive plains. All the while, our collective fascination with the planet has been growing apace. And it seems that this trend is destined to continue…

After looking at several low-cost options for their next major mission, NASA scientists decided to once again return to the Red Planet, this time to do some interior planet studies to determine whether Mars has a solid or liquid core, and determine the planet’s basic structure.

Known as the InSight lander, this mission won out over two equally enticing proposals. The first called the for the deployment of the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME), a floating high-tech buoy which would be sent to Saturn’s moon Titan. Once there, it would study the methane lakes of Titan, examining their composition and interaction with the atmosphere. Thanks to the Cassini probe, these lakes have attracted a great deal of interest of late, particularly since they may be able to support life. Understandably, many can’t wait to study them up close and see if this holds true.

The second potential mission called for the deployment of “Chopper”, a proposed Comet Hopper mission that would put a lander on comet 46P/Wirtanen where it would study the comet’s composition. This comet, which was originally discovered in 1948, belongs to the Jupiter family of comets and orbits the Solar System once every 5.4 years. Studying its make-up would go a long way to helping scientists understanding how Solar comets behave and provide clues as to the early formation of our Solar System.

But scratch those! With 2016 on the way, budget limited and Mars the happening place, InSight will be the one to go. What’s more, it’s research is likely to prove very useful in settling some ongoing arguments, not the least of which is whether Mars possesses liquid water beneath its surface. If this should prove true, it might mean terraforming could be a go sometime down the road…

People can dream! And speaking of which, check out the NASA simulation of what InSight will look like once deployed.

Source: Universe Today

Whiskey Delta – Chapter 9

“That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”

-Friedrich Neitzsche

The doors slammed repeatedly against their hinges. With every blow, the chain went taught and then relaxed, tight and limp. They could hear the sounds coming through, the terrible cry of an untold number of Whiskeys howling their blood-curdling roar.

Dezba tightened his hold on the M4′s handle and stretched his trigger finger. He thought back to the first briefing the Mage gave when he first took command of the Rattlesnakes. Fresh off the line from dealing with the First Wave, he knew the enemy and had seen them in action.

“Your average Whiskey doesn’t look too bright or threatening when it’s on its own or standing idle,” he said. “But when they get the smell of blood and start moving in packs, they can get some fierce and move really fast. Let em alone long enough, and they can move like water and swallow an entire neighborhood in seconds… Trust in your equipment, and the man next to you, and you will make it out alive.”

Dezba looked to his left. Jone’s weapon was trembling and he looked about ready to unload the entire thing at anything that moved. Typical FNG behavior, and it didn’t exactly inspire a lot of trust right now. Reaching out with his free hand, he steadied the weapon and looked Jones in the eye.

“You’re okay, Private. Just remember… you’re armed, they’re not.”

Jones nodded, but muttered something inaudible under his breath. From the way his lips moved, Dezba figured he was saying “the sound” over and over again.

“It’s just noise,” Dezba said. “That’s their bark, not their bite.” He turned away before uttering the rest. “Their bite is way fucking worse.”

To his right, Whitman appeared in better spirits. Hands tightly on the grips on his rifle, eyes fixed ahead and waiting for a target. Like Jones, he kept repeating the same thing under his breath.

“Come on, come on, come on, come on…”

Dezba chuckled. There was something he could count on; Whitman’s rampant, stupid blood lust.

“Come on, come on, come on, bring your ugly face to my gun and I’ll shoot if off for ya!”

Whatever juju that boy lived by, he hoped it lasted the rest of the day. He made a mental note to take it easier on him from now on. Redneck or not, it was nice to know he didn’t have to worry about him being at his side. He felt confident with Majorca and Mill guarding their flanks as well.

Now if only the LT and first would get their asses up here…

The doors thudded again, and this time they came apart a few inches. In the tiny space that formed between them, half a dozen dead eyes became visible and dozens of clawing fingers reached out to fill the gap. With each push, that space expanded just a little. The chain was still in place, but it was stretched taught and could go at any minute.

“Hold!” he yelled. Now was the perfect time to panic and do something stupid, like fire prematurely. Nothing worse than being short on ammo when the real charge came.

“Hold…”

The biggest slam yet came this time. The Whiskeys could see Dezba and his men on the other side now, smell their sweat and their stank. The allure of living flesh was irresistible to them. The sight of it just out of reach must have seemed like a taunting offering. And the way Dezba had pissed them off already… Hell, he could tell they were prepared to smash through anything to get at them now. He could see it in their faces. They were angry, they were desperate. They’d run headlong into shrapnel to gnaw at their bones!

“Hold…”

Any second now. The door was widening. More eyes, fingers, and even clawing limbs were pushing through now. The horrible roar reached a fevered pitch as the faces shoving through bore broken teeth and rotted tongues. The mouths were gaped open, reaching out to get them.

And then… the chain snapped.

It fell apart and to the sides as if in slow motion.

The first of the bodies fell forward into the room and flew straight at them. They took forever, each step an eternity as the screaming faces and claws reached out to get them. Dezba seemed to be moving in slow motion too. His own hands seemed to take untold centuries just to get to the trigger and in time for him to issue the order.

“Weapons Free!”

And just as quickly, everything moved fast again. Too fast to track. The rifle burst didn’t even seem to register in his mind, just the sight of the first one falling in his sights. Another one quickly filled it and he shot again, sending it to the ground next. More and more filled the aperature of his sights. All he could was  keep targeting and keep shooting .

One head, two heads. One down, two down. Onto the next. Fire, spot, fire, spot. Out. Reload. Cock. Resume.

To Dezba’s left, the reverberations of Jone’s shotgun thrummed in time with the pounding of his heart. Boom, boom, boom! When Jones stopped to reload, Dezba felt suddenly cold, like his heart had stopped. He looked to his right and saw Whitman still shooting, and felt some measure of warmth again.

Trust in the men next to you, the Mage said. Trust in their equipment as well.

Speaking of which, his weapon ran out and began clicking where it should have been firing. He drew his attention back to his sector, slammed a fresh mag in and kept up the fire.

Fire, spot, fire, spot. Drop one, drop two, drop three, count your rounds!

And then, the first mass of them was all gone. They could hear more noise coming as the stragglers caught up and began to push towards their position. He did a quick check of his magazines and issued some orders while there was still time.

“Mill, Majorca, cover! Whitman, Jones, ammo check!”

The two SAWs kept firing bursts at any stragglers who ran in while the the two privates flanking him checked their weapons to make sure their mags were full. Dezba knew he had thirteen more rounds still, which would stagger their reloads. That’d come in handy when Mill and Majorca needed to reload too. Their weapons packed a good two-hundred rounds, but took substantially longer to restock once they were out.

Whitman swapped out a fresh mag for his near-depleted one and gave him the thumbs up. Dezba looked over to see Jones sliding fresh cartridges in his gun, his fingers trembling. He nearly dropped one when the noise reentered the room and more dead eyes came upon them.

“Eyes up! More coming!”

And it began again, with more and more dead flesh pouring in. Already, a pile was forming in the center, moving bodies falling and laying on the tile. But fresh ones kept moving in to take their place, another head stepping up to fill the vacancy left by the last.

Dezba felt time slowing down again as he realized that they were keeping them contained. He, Jones and Whitman were stopping them dead, Majorca and Mill combing them from the sides. The monsters had nowhere to go but down as they caught it from all directions. Before long, the second wave began to thin out and it seemed clear there wouldn’t be a third. He could even hear himself yelling.

“Keep it up! Pour it on, men! Pour it on!”

Jones joined him. The kick of his gun and the way it kept sending the bastards to the floor was getting to him, the sheer power he held in his hands beating back the fear that had him in its grips a moment ago. He yelled senselessly, cursing and hollering every time a buckshot ripped through another one of the beasts.

Just about everyone was shouting now. Screaming at the bastards to die and be done with it. They seemed to be obliging too, the thinning numbers dying farther and farther from the center of the room.

And then, it was over. The last body fell and there were no more coming. Every gun went quiet and the smell of hot brass and GSR permeated. A new noise, a deafening din began to creep into the room then, something more powerful than all the shouts, wails and gunshots combined. Dezba almost laughed when he realized what it was.

Silence…

“Loudest noise in the whole damn world…” he remembered someone saying once. Somehow, it was the end of the carnage that sounded the loudest of all. An absence which was a more profound presence than all the chaos it replaced.

And there it was again. Slowly, it began to ebb, and the gentle noise of the world crept back in.

That’s when he heard the low moans.

“Shit, some of ‘em aint dead,” cried Jones.

Dezba heard the words and spotted the movement on the floor. There and across the room, he saw feet sliding, tongues lolling, and even some arms trying to crawl their way forward.

Shit, he thought. Shot to pieces, and those that could were still trying to find their way to something, to grab a hold of whatever flesh they could and bite it.They fought like fanatics, these things. Or perhaps like machines. Their programming unbreakable, even in the face of obliteration.

His eyes came to stare at the nearest one. It was looking at him now too. For the first time ever, he noticed that it had features beyond the horrific face and rotted skin. For starters, it had long, blonde hair and thin, frail-looking arms. Most of it’s lower body had been shot up, but it was still extending its arms out at him. He almost thought it was asking for help, until he saw the two rows of greying teeth snarling at him. He also saw the eyes, the milky, terrible, globes of eyes.

To his rear, Whitman emitted a shrill whistle to get his attention.

“Sarge? Bad time for that warrior shit, man. We still gotta finish em off!”

“‘Leave no Whiskey undead’, as the Mage says.”

It was Mill saying this as he fed a fresh ammo box into his SAW and strung the ammo. Dezba barely heard him over the sound in his ears. The tiny moaning, and the beating of his own heart. He was frozen otherwise, caught in those awful, milky globes. He moved forward, his feet moving him just shy of the creatures reach. From here, he could see right down into the maw of the creature as it tried to grab hold of him.

What was he seeing there? Was there even anything to see beyond the mad panic that animated these things? He saw what looked like pain, but was there anger too? Was that a face filled with hatred for the living, or torment over the prospect of being undead? Or was that just the look of a monster desperately hungry to feed? How could he even tell?

But then, what was the point of their little ‘ambush’ anyway, if all they wanted was living people to feed on? Why not simply take out the people waiting on the roof? Surely, no obstacle they put in place could keep these bastards at bay. Why go to all this trouble? The thoughts put a crinkle in his forehead which was beginning to give him a headache.

“Sarge?”

Dezba’s mind went clear. His hand whipped around in a blur, grabbing his sidearms from his hip and pointing it directly in the thing’s face. A hole exploded between it’s eyes a second later and the thing went limp. Three more blasts and every piece of moving flesh was stilled. Everyone in the room recoiled, then realized that he had placed three head shots in the space of just over a second.

The world began to creep back in on his senses, just in time for him to hear Whitman’s whistle of surprise.

“Shit, Sarge. We’re about to nominate you for the Congressional Medal of Ugly!”

First Squad erupted in hoots of laughter and elation. Everybody joined in, everybody except the Sarge…

DNA: The Ultimate Hard Drive | Wired Science | Wired.com

Reblogged from Ye Olde Soapbox:

DNA: The Ultimate Hard Drive

 

By ScienceNow

 

By John Bohannon, ScienceNOW

When it comes to storing information, hard drives don’t hold a candle to DNA. Our genetic code packs billions of gigabytes into a single gram. A mere milligram of the molecule could encode the complete text of every book in the Library of Congress and have plenty of room to spare.

Read more… 625 more words

Can you say "biological computer"?

The Martian Chronicles, Finally!

A funny thing happened to my wife and I while we were vacay-ing on the Sunshine Coast. After our walk in the wilderness – we asked for a Swiss Family Robinson-style vacation, we got the Hunger Games! – we put in at the town of Powell River for a little rest and recoup. In addition to drinking plenty of Townsite beer (brewed locally), we sampled local food, basked in the sun, and waited on the Blackberry Festival, which is celebrated every August.

And of course, on our first afternoon there, we did a little shopping. Our first stop took us to a second hand bookstore where we perused old titles for something to flip through over the course of the next few days. Yes, we both brought a handful of books with us for our vacay, but for some reason decided to leave them with my folks in Comox. I don’t know, I guess we figured we wouldn’t have time. But let me tell you… when you’re between pumping creek water, nursing sore muscles, and cooking dried food in your rocky, buggy campsite, a good book comes in handy. And not just for swatting!

Anyway, one of the fruits of our bookstore search was a copy of the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Already I had mentioned this book as part of my tribute to Ray Bradbury, but in truth, I never really read it. And since it’s style and format were part of what got me thinking about my group’s latest anthology, I thought it was high time I read it and saw what all the hub-bub was about. I am now half-way finished and it’s top of my current vacay reading pile, which includes Mona Lisa Overdrive, Second Foundation, and We… ambitious maybe?

I hope to do a full review in the coming weeks and paying this timeless book its due. I also hope to truly adopt some of the themes and stylistic touches to my own work, as they were certainly most effective at capturing the travails of colonization and the settlement on a new world. In the meantime, here is the hilarious video entitled “F*ck me Ray Bradbury”, comedian Rachel Bloom’s own tribute to the venerated author. I hope the master takes no  offense

Time-Lapse Footage of Curiosity Rover Landing

Amongst the awesome footage which is coming back from Mars, courtesy of the Curiosity Rover, is this lovely compilation. Using the many photos snapped by the rover as it made it’s decent, the enterprising folks over at Spaceflight 101 have created a time-lapse video of what the landing looked like.

Taken by the the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), the images capture the separation of the heat shield from the rover and then its powered descent. Well worth watching, and stay tuned for more updates from Curiosity as it continues its journey across the Martian Landscape.

The 70th Anniversary of the Dieppe Raid

Here in Canada, few historical events from World War II inspire as much anger, sadness, and remembrance than the anniversary of the Dieppe Raid. It was 70 years ago today that Canadian Forces, in what was to be the first offensive of the war, attacked the European coastline near the small French town of Dieppe. The raid, as it was classified, was a total failure, resulting in 913 dead, almost 3000 captured, and countless more wounded. Out of the nearly 5000 men who went in, less than half made it home.

Earlier today, I read some articles that spoke of the surviving veterans, the youngest of whom is 90, as they arrived at Dieppe to take part in the commemorative ceremonies.

Countless French people welcomed them by hanging Canadian flags from their balconies and volunteering to show them about town. For the locals, honoring the veterans who fell while trying to liberate their town has become a way of life, similar to the Belgian people of Ypres and the Dutch who honor how Canadian forces liberated their country in 1944.

Naturally, when these veterans tell their stories again to reporters or the many who wabted to hear them, they conveyed some rather mixed emotions. There were moments of anger and pride intermixed with a general tone of lament, and in that respect, they are joined by all Canadians who remember. Even now, 70 years later, there is still ample speculation about the Dieppe raid.

Taking place in 1942, during the height of the war when the Allies were still on the losing end, the planned raid on Dieppe represented the culmination of many hopes, fears, and political considerations. For over a year, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had been asking – in fact, pleading – with the Allies for a Second Front in Europe that would take pressure off the Russian forces. Ever since the Germans moved into his country roughly a year before, Russians were dying by the millions and the Red Army was struggling to hold them back.

At the same time, the Allies had been contemplating plans for the liberation of France ever since it had been overrun two years earlier. For the British and French, the memories of the summer of 1940, beginning with the invasion of Belgium, the outflanking maneuver through the Ardennes Forest, the fall of Paris and the evacuation of Dunkirk, were still phantoms they wanted to dispel. With Germany pushed out of France, the Allies would have a major ally back in the fight and put an end to Germany’s expansion, which had continued unabated since the war began.

And last, the Canadian Armed Forces were desperate to get into battle, hoping to demonstrate some of the same zeal that had popularized their forces in World War I. And with the US finally entering the war on the Allied side, there was an added push to score a victory before the Yanks got in and claimed all the glory A commando-style raid against a section of the Atlantic Wall seemed like just the thing to bolster morale and show the world that the Canadian Expeditionary Force was still a force to be feared!

Ultimately, the raid was a failure for numerous reasons, all of which proved intrinsic to helping the Allies draft Operation Overlord – the invasion of Normandy – roughly two years later. First off, the raid had little support to speak of. Aside from the 5000 men and tanks heading onto the coastline, their were very ships ships and aircraft standing by to blast German positions and take on the coastal defenses.

Second, the planners did not take into account the challenging terrain along the beaches. Rather than being sandy shores, they were composed of tiny little rocks which played havoc with tank treads, making them virtually useless. As a result, the Canadian soldiers found themselves running into German machine guns and mortar positions with no cover or support.

Third, the plan was changed over and over again so that less and less forces would be committed to the fold. This led many to question whether the raid would even have enough men or firepower to achieve their mission. However, Allied planners dismissed these objections by emphasizing that the attackers would have the element of surprise. That was not the case though, since Allied Command had been publicizing the attack for some time before it happened.

In short, the mission was the perfect recipe for failure, leading some to speculate that that had been the goal all along. With Stalin pleading for a Second Front and the Allies unable to convince him that they were not ready, some claimed that Dieppe was meant to fail as a way of illustrating their point.

In addition, new evidence is being brought to light that suggests that the raid was a diversion for a covert operation that involved commandos attacking a German position near the town that was believed to house information about Germany’s reworked codes. Here again, the argument is revisionist and speculate in nature, and chances are the real reason the mission failed was because of negligence, overconfidence, and desperation on the part of the planners.

Naturally, some good came out of the operation. After learning about the importance of support, secrecy, and superior numbers (the three S’s), the Allied went about planning Overlord. By June of 1944, the plan was complete and all the particulars had been worked out. In addition to committing countless men, ships, planes and tons of materiel to the invasion, they also conducted a vast counter-intelligence ploy to trick the Germans into thinking that the real invasion force would be coming in at the Calaise region, not Normandy.

So today, like all good Canadians, I wish to honor the veterans who are currently overseas, receiving their well-deserved honors and recounting the historic Dieppe Raid that they took part in so many years later. I’d also like to salute those soldiers who are no longer with us, many of whom were wounded, captured and forced to spend the rest of the war in army hospitals and German POW camps. And I would especially like to pay tribute to those who didn’t make it back, who died on those rocky shores as the result of politics, weaknesses and human stupidity. Even after 70 years, surely we must be learning something from all this.

Top Five Exoplanets In The Known Universe

Hello again! Boy, I tell ya, it’s good to be back in the swing of things. You know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder? Well, they also say a few things about being addicted to your devices! But either way, I’m happy to be back in civilization and able to communicate with my friends and colleagues who are, unfortunately, only reachable electronically.

And I’m even happier that people have had a creative outburst while I was away. I miss being able to take part in brainstorming sessions and coming up with new ideas with people. So I was pretty pleased when I came home and found my inbox so crammed full of emails and comments from my writer friends. And, like a plant that’s been deprived of water, their thoughts set my mind aflame with new ideas!

For one, I realized I had yet to discuss NASA’s top 5 Exploplanets in any real detail. Not long ago, it was announced that the planet Gliese 581 g, which is roughly 20 light years from our Solar System, is the most Earth-like planet in this region of the Galaxy, and hence, the most likely candidate for settlement someday. However, this news came as part of a larger story about all the planets, Earth-like or otherwise, that NASA has been confirming the existence of in recent years. Guess I was too busy focusing on how this effecting my writer’s group to expand on how cool these discoveries really are

The table above shows the top five contenders, grouped according to how similar they are to Earth in terms of gravity, atmosphere, distance from their star, and ability to support life. Gliese 581 g, the fourth planet from the Gliese 581 star, ranks as number one with a 92 percent comparison match. Being roughly the same size as Earth, though boasting significantly more mass, it is also thought to have roughly the same gravitational pull. In addition, the astronomer who was intrinsic in it’s discovery, Steven Vogt, indicated that it is a prime candidate for extra-terrestrial life.

The second candidate, at 85%, is Gliese 667C c, a planet which orbits a red dwarf roughly 22 light-years away. It is so named because it’s parent star is part of a triple star system, or a trinary. Since c is estimated to be at least 4.5 times as massive as Earth, it has the honor of being designated a “Super-Earth”, and no doubt would have enough gravity to make even a world-class athlete feel overwrought from the simple task of walking.

Third is Kepler-22 b, an exoplanet which was spotted by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope in 2009. An 81% match to Earth, this world is another “Super-Earth” which is speculated to have an atmosphere and climate which could be hospitable to Earth creatures. Unfortunately, this bad boy is over 600 light years away, making it a pretty poor candidate for settlement anytime soon.

Fourth up is HD 85512b, another super-Earth which orbits the orange dwarf Gliese 370, which is roughly 35 light-years away. At a relatively reasonable distance, and a 77% match to Earth, this planet could be a suitable candidate for colonization one day. NASA already estimates that its average surface temperature and presence within the star’s “Habitable Zone” would be within tolerable limits. Hopefully the gravity is the same!

And coming in at fifth place is the second planet to come to us from the Gliese 581 system, the fifth planet known as Gliese 581 d. As the above table shows, g and d are both within the systems Habitable Zone and could be made to support human populations, provided certain requirements (i.e. the existence of water, suitable temperatures and gravity) were met. When it was first discovered in 2007, it was dismissed as being “too cold” to support life. However, subsequent atmospheric modelling studies suggest that it could be habitable provided its atmosphere is capable of generating a Greenhouse Effect, as Earth’s is.

Many question how and why the discovery of exoplanets will benefit humanity. As one of my friends (hi Rami!) asked me recently, what good is it to colonize worlds do us if our problems remain? I argued that it would ensure our survival, but quickly realized that I’d need to make a better case if I was going to prove that point. As a curve-ball, I asked him to consider the possibility that maybe Earth itself, as we’ve made her in the past 15,000 years, could be the problem…

Naturally, that statement requires clarification. But that’s something for another time. Right now, all I am hoping for is that the discovery of habitable planets within humanity’s reach will mean either the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, or the option of planting the seed of humanity in a distant solar system. The implications of either would be mind-blowing, and I for one feel privileged to live in a time when such possibilities might be coming true!

Red Dawn Relaunch

Oh boy, I thought as when I heard about this preview. Another reboot of a cult-classic huh? As I’m sure I’ve said a million times before, why doesn’t Hollywood just admit that they are out of ideas. Sure, this relaunch of the movie about a possible Soviet Invasion will star Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and sure they are taking a slightly more realistic take by making at least one of the “Wolverines” an actual combat veteran (as opposed to say, a bunch of teenagers and Patrick Swayze).

However, beyond that, there doesn’t appear to be anything new or remotely realistic about this movie. For one, the plot has been updated so that small town America is invaded by Cuba and North Korea. Really? Two tottering Soviet-era dictatorships that can’t even feeds their own people and are on the brink of collapse manage to circumvent America’s coastal defenses and occupy the United States? Really? This movie sounds like Cold War propaganda, sans the actual Cold War!

At first, I thought I saw some meager potential here. But that was before I read the actual description of the plot. After that, I felt like grabbing the producers and execs who thought this was a good idea and giving them a good shake. “This is why you can’t reboot Cold War Era ideas in the post-Cold War world!” I’d say. The first movie made sense in that it resonated with Americans who were hearing about Russia’s fortunes in Afghanistan. Red Dawn played to the imagery coming out of that war, where young fighters were running around, their heads wrapped in bandanas, and taking out Russian tanks and helicopters with Stingers and RPGs.

But this? This just seems like another excuse by Hollywood producers to do something that’s been done, throw in some cool new action sequences, and sit back and count their money. If they had any guts, they’d have made it China invading instead of Cuba and North Korea. But then again, you gotta hedge your bets right? Can’t piss off the real threats if you’re currently tied at the hip economically. Better to talk about the marginal countries that are under embargo and no one worries about anymore.

Ah well, at least the trailer looks cool. Might even be a good candidate for download.

Back From the Brink!

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Hello all! Just wanted to let people know that my wife and I triumphantly (well, sort of) returned to civilization yesterday. After three days in the bush, we decided that our vacation and health would better be served if we detoured from our planned path and headed back into the small town of Lund to rest and recoup. Before ya’ll go thinking we’re a bunch of weaklings, let me assure you the decision wasn’t made lightly!

After being dropped off on slippery a rock face at the head of our trail, which is apparently safe to scale at high tide, we proceeded to march with 5 days of supplies on our backs through 12 kilometres (5.5 miles) of mountains forests. Our destination was 16km from the coastal point where we were dropped off, which we figured would b easy. After all, we hiked that much in the day when we were in Camino in Spain. Well, let me tell you… hiking the West Coast Trail is nothing like Spain!

After the first four we were tuckered. After the first eight, we were exhausted and drank all our water. And of course, the bugs were quite awful and my darling bride was stung by a wasp, which swelled up really bad by midday! As the day was drawing to a close, we realized we wouldn’t make it to the first cabin on our journey, not unless we wanted to arrive at 8pm (2000 hours) and finish dinner by 10. And so we decided to make camp at the first camp site which came our way.

And when I say make camp, I mean old school! Since we planned to hike from cabin to cabin along the trail, we had no tent, and were forced to sleep on the ground in our sleeping bags and thermarests (1 inch thick pads). We drew our water from the lake and used that to cook and recoup all the water we lost hiking through the summer heat and forests. Thank God for water filters and iodine tablets, I tell ya! And granted, our shelter was very improvised, consisting of a slanted rain cover and a mosquito net, but we were pretty proud. And in spite of some serious pain from sleeping on rocks and noises which kept waking my wife up, we slept alright.

The next day, braving really sore muscles and stiff backs (from sleeping on rocks) we made it to the cabin another 5.5 km away, all uphill. However, we quickly learned that there was no water there, and we had to pump our water from a rain barrel. We knew the next leg of our journey would be even harder, and would consist of 17 km if we were going to make it to the next cabin. Otherwise, we would be camping out in the open again, subject to whatever came our way. And of course, the shortages of water were scaring us just a little. With the summer heat being more than expected, most creeks in the area were thought to be dry…

So instead we came up with the alternate plan. Instead of either hiking 17 km and braving dehydration and incredible soreness and pulled muscles, or hiking another 12 and braving much the same and expecting more sleeping on rocks with the chance of visits from nocturnal predators, we hiked 5 km through clearcut landscape and marshes to the nearest road, then hiked another 4km through road construction and a dusty highway to make it to the town of Lund, which is where we set out from in the first place. We were sore, dirty, tired, and very hungry. A shower and a final camp meal later, and we were feeling somewhat human again!

It was not an easy decision. Even though we found scarcely any water along the way, which confirmed some of our worst fears, and we were so sore we could barely walk when we got into town, I still feel like we bailed on a challenge. That never sits well. However, we vowed to return sometime in the future, promising to travel light, prepare well in advance, and bring a damn tent! That way, we should be able to set out own schedule, be able to put down where we want, and not be subject to the weather or worry about night-time predators.

Of Remakes and Smart People Making Stupid Arguments

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Image Source: Io9

In my position as a social sciences major, I have had many opportunities to witness dumb ideas argued intelligently; cases where the stupidest premises imaginable were made to sound respectable and even plausible by academics who were in the habit of injecting cool rhetoric or intellectual claptrap into weak ideas. If nothing else, it demonstrated to me that there are apologists and defenders who invest way more thought into their arguments than other people do into their work.

One case involved a Humanities Major (I assume) arguing that Brittany Spears song “I’m Not A Girl (Not Yet A Woman)” was a possible indication that the then starlet was a closet post-modernist Hegelian philosopher. Another had to do with the hidden genius behind George W. Bush’s many uses of inventive wordplay. And both were patently brilliant in the way they tried to make the completely mundane and painfully stupid sound smart. I tell ya, you have never heard so many smart argument employed in the defence of such stupid subject matter!

But this article really took the cake for me. Entitled “Why Remakes Are One of Our Greatest Achievements as a Civilization”, this article asserts that there is a connection between the many, many Hollywood relaunches of late and some of our most venerated cultural traditions as a species. And here too, I had to doff my cap the writer. Never have I heard so much thought dedicated to pure thoughtlessness, so much intellectual rhetoric employed in the defence of something so undeserving.

First, the author asserts that remakes are really a sublimated form of folk tales, resembling how cultures in ancient times would tell the same basic stories across vast stretches of space and time. Second, they deconstruct originality by claiming it is a largely 20th century construct that was invented by Modernists hoping to make a break with the past. The conclusion? That originality is a myth and that retelling the same story is a sign of organic creativity… I guess.

Ignoring the fact that we are talking about Hollywood remakes for just a second, I noticed two fatal flaws in this argument. One, Hollywood remakes are deliberate attempts to capitalize on old ideas by simply updating them with the latest in special effects, or by simply redoing an old idea which was shown to have worked in the hopes that it will again. Only in the most farfetched ways does that resemble the organic process of how stories spread across time and space, evolving in terms of detail but remaining similar in theme.

Second, originality may have been a Modernists obsession, but it’s hardly a recent invention. In fact, writers of all ages have lamented the lack of originality in their own  generation and wishing they had lived in earlier times, when writers of great renown established reputations by being the ones who left an indelible mark on their cultures literary traditions. Ancient Greece’s own Aeschylus said his tragedies were “composed of the crumbs from Homer’s table”. Shakespeare’s own works acknowledge a huge debt to Christopher Marlowe, the man who invented blank verse Iambic Pentameter and inspired many of The Bard’s own stories.

Granted, nobody is 100 % original in any time, but to say it’s a myth is both cynical and a rhetorical dead end. And that fact that I’ve even invested this amount of thought into this argument makes me think that the authors of this and other such articles have pulled one over on me. But really, I just have to wonder… are there really people out there, so educated yet so bored, that they have to employ their argumentative and rhetorical skills to subject matter such as this. Have they nothing better to do?

In any case, here is the article. Note the comment, by me (houseofwilliams) in the comment section. I did my best to argue my previous thoughts in as succinct a form as possible. Feel free to leave your own thoughts, or do the mature thing (which I could not), and not not dignify such arguments with a response. And believe me when I say that I will be commenting on the summer or reboots and remakes shortly, and not in a particularly kind way

Why Remakes Are One of Our Greatest Achievements