sandbagger writes: Visual artist and futurist Syd Mead, who helped shape the look of influential sci-fi films including “Blade Runner,” “Tron,” “Aliens” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” died Monday of complications from lymphoma in Pasadena, Calif. He was 86. Mead was set to receive the Art Directors Guild’s William Cameron Menzies Award during the Guild’s 24th Annual awards in February…
Tag: trek
Ask Slashdot: What Will the 2020s Bring Us?
dryriver writes: The 2010s were not necessarily the greatest decade to live through. AAA computer games were not only DRM’d and internet tethered to death but became increasingly formulaic and pay-to-win driven, and poor quality console ports pissed off PC gamers. Forced software subscriptions for major software products you could previously buy became a thing. Personal privacy went out the window…
Solstice sun at southernmost point
The 2018 December solstice happens when it’s sunset (December 21) in the Americas, sunrise (December 22) along the Asian Pacific Coast, noontime (December 21) for Hawaii and Alaska and midnight (December 21-22) for Africa and Europe. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/southernmost-sun-brings-december-solstice…
Remembering Rene Auberjonois, ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ Actor
Last weekend saw the death of Rene Auberjonois at age 79, writes Variety. schwit1 quotes their report: Auberjonois was a prolific television actor, appearing as Paul Lewiston in 71 episodes of ‘Boston Legal’ and as Clayton Runnymede Endicott III in ABC’s long-running sitcom ‘Benson.’ He played Odo in ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,’ and carried that role into video games, voicing…
Remembering Star Trek Writer DC Fontana, 1939-2019
Long-time Slashdot reader sandbagger brings the news that D. C. Fontana, an influential story editor and writer on the original 1960s TV series Star Trek, has died this week. People reports: The writer is credited with developing the Spock character’s backstory and “expanding Vulcan culture,” SyFy reported of her massive contribution to the beloved sci-fi series. Fontana was the one who…
Do AI Deserve the Same Rights as Animals?
The digital magazine Aeon published a thought-provoking proposal this spring from a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside and an assistant professor of philosophy at Boston’s Northeastern University: Universities across the world are conducting major research on artificial intelligence (AI), as are organizations such as the Allen Institute, and tech companies including Google and Facebook. A likely result…
Monday, Mercury Makes Rare Appearance with a Trek Across the Sun. Here’s How to Watch It.
The tiny planet Mercury will be visible from Earth as it moves across the sun, in an event known as a transit. Source: https://www.livescience.com/watch-mercury-transit.html
Virgin Galactic unveils commercial space suits
The date for the world’s first commercial space flight is not even confirmed yet, but future passengers’ Star Trek-like outfits are ready and waiting. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-10-virgin-galactic-unveils-commercial-space.html…
Is It Possible To Build a Warp Drive?
appedology.pk quotes Popular Mechanics: Warp drive is one of the many futuristic ideas proposed in Star Trek, allowing for faster-than-light travel across the galaxy. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity prevents anything from moving faster than light. In 1994, a theoretical physicist proposed a workaround: creating a bubble within space-time that would twist distances, allowing anything within the bubble to travel long distances….