Offline

We are offline for a major site revamp...

What's 7 Billion Between Friends

The theme is billions this week, it seems. We are due to hit 7 billion people on our little blue planet.

I assume, of course, we have a plan on where to fit all the new arrivals. I'm sure someone or some group is in charge of figuring out how to handle feeding, clothing, and housing another half billion or so.

How many people exactly can live on earth? Are there too many already? Is technology really gonna solve this problem? Can we just continue to let our population grow and grow while simultaneously try to sell everyone on planet earth a cell phone & HDTV?

Seriously, I think the big question is why don't we have a plan? Simple question but the difficult answer will determine our future.

Places I would live to visit

Travel - it's a good thing. Especially if you have time to stay and explore, avoid the tourists are really get to know the place.

Here's a proposed itinerary that would certainly be exciting. However, I can't see to find any direct flights though, especially with all the delays out of Washington, DC.

I suppose we have much more important things here at home. We clearly need to spend the household budget on this and this before we take any vacations anyway. Plus, to keep me distracted from thought of relaxing on a beach at Beta Canum Venaticorum, I can just watch this for entertainment.

Quicktime and Low-rez trailers now online

Due to popular demand, I now have some new version of the trailers for those with humbler machines. The quality suffers noticeably, but at least you can see them.

http://www.sv2studios/films/outsidein/teaserone.htm

Quicktime 480p trailer and Windows Media 480p trailers are now online. Enjoy!

New Windows Media Trailers

I finally got around to tweaking the concept teaser trailers for "Outside In". Download them here. You'll need a beefy machine to play them back properly, but I've tweaked these for better playback on medium speed machines and added a smoother sound mix.

These new clips are surround sound and they are best viewed on a fast machine with large display and quality 5.1 surround sound. "Outside In" is designed and hopefully destined for the big screen -- and by that I mean literally display on large screen for "experential viewing".

“Outside In” is a film that demands a larger canvas for an audience to experience the high-resolution images from Saturn that climax the film. A defining moment in my life was seeing the 9 foot-wide painting of “The Sacrament of the Last Supper” by Salvador Dali. I had seen small prints of the work before, but the experience of seeing it full size in person was life-changing.

NASA Screws the Pooch

"Yeah, I guess so, Hot Dog. Just be sure you don't screw the pooch."
Gus Grissom, US Astronaut

Well, NASA (and it appears Congress & the Administration) has done it again. The proposed NASA budget favors funding expensive problem projects (the shuttle, International space station and getting back to the moon) over the two most exciting, history making and potentially history changing ever, JIMO which includes Europa and the Terrertial Planet Finder.

These two missions could well discover life or the absence of life near Earth. Either way, huge discoveries. Both will deliver stunning images, incredible science and possibly new discovers not guessed at for a relative bargain price.

If you even slightly care about "Outside In" or the future of the human species or even just good government fiscal management, write your representatives:

http://www.capwiz.com/tps/home/

This is my letter sent to the prez and my reps in Congress:

I was horrified to see the cuts made in the NASA budget that killed the JIMO Europa mission and the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission.

The current Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn is one of the most incredible achievements in human history (despite the lack of media attention).

The Europa mission and the Terrestrial Planet Finder might well be the most important undertakings of mankind, especially if they discover life elsewhere or point to an Earth alone with life.

I think NASA administrators and Congress are so focused on the short-term that there is no plan for our children and children children's future.

The only concern appears to be on the next few quarters or maybe a year or two out while our futures, in space exploration, energy, climate change. geopolitics & more are being mortgaged by the pursuit of expediency, war and fear.

You should all be deeply ashamed. History will not be kind judge.

Art as Science in the Ancient World

Cave drawings that might be 25,000 years old have been discovered. What's interesting to me is wondering why we had an urge to draw and capture. The urge to speak or sing or dance is less mysterious to me - we see similar behaviors in other animals.

But drawing - that's uniquely human, even more so than consciousness. I'm not aware of any animal behavior that evolved like it, except, curiously we can teach it to other animals, but it's unclear what they make of it.

I wonder if science and the first drawings came from similar impulses - trying to both see what's outside in our world and in our heads. It is an accident that cave drawings led to written language or that geometry is such an old mathematical field?

I don't think Art and Science are miles apart. I know that films with equal parts art and science are few and far between. But I hope to do what I can to correct this. Here's to "Outside In" being a good step toward reclaiming cave drawings as a vital way to understand our world...