How to unwrap the Earth into a gigantic O'Neill Cylinder

“3Blue1Brown”explains “But Why Is a Sphere’s Surface Area 4 Times Its Projection?”

This 17 minute video offers two visual proofs of Area – 4 times pi times radius squared. The visual methods correspond to differentiation and integration in calculus. 

The unrapping of the sphere as a cylinder offers what – well, an O’Neill cylinder.

The projection of a shadow onto a flat plane also offers some possible sci-fi concepts if you want to make a movie about life in space.

This little video reminds me of my substitute teaching days.

"Why Social Justice Is Cancer": that is, the ideology of it, not the resultant

Lauren Chen explains “Why Social Justice Is Cancer: Identity Politics, Equality, and Marxism”

She doesn’t object to social justice as a natural result in a well-functioning society, but on it as an ideology.

She is right on in noting that the “social justice warrior” movement is about focusing on one’s identity as a part of a group and not as the self.  Along with this is the ideology of “intersectionality”.

Everything in this ideology comes from the karma of belonging to an oppressor or oppressed groups.

In intersectional theory, people pay for the sins of others in their groups.

She recommends people educate themselves about what’s in the Communist Manifesto.

People are calling “social justice combat” a new “religion”.

  

She also mentions the controversy over people (perhaps particularly on the “Right”) being taken off Patreon recently.

"A Tour Through Our Solar System": back to grade school, but some great art work

“A Tour Through Our Solar System” just gives us the basics.

Running 14 minutes, it comes from “Blogunknownmysteries” but has the narrative style of a 50s little Golden Book, maybe.

But there are pretty good illustrations of what places like Europa and Titan look like.

   

The Kuiper Belt probably extends about a light-year out, a quarter of the way to Alpha Centauri.

"Foodfellas": short film from USC Film School, where the mob takes over the fast food business

“Foodfellas”, a satire short film by Reuben Guberek , from Film School Shorts (USC), 13 min, is inspired by “Goodfellas”.

  

  

A young man makes a deal with a clown figure in the mob to dominate the fast food business. Pretty soon he has to endure the consumer lawsuits for Type 2 diabetes. And then he hunts down his boss. 

  

The shootout at the end is both terminal and funny. 

   

I wouldn't want to own a franchise bad enough that it would be a mob target.  And chicken nuggets don't look like bitcoins to me. 

    

The guy in “Pretty Privilege” (Oct 23) is credited here. 

Picture: My trip, Sept. 2018, near San Francisco Civic Center. 

"Infection Control Film" for UK hospitals: with pacman doctors there are no risks

BrandAnonymous has an “Infection Control Film” for Cambridge Hospital of the UK’s National Health Service.

It’s animated with pac-man like characters and a rhyming poem (imagine having been hired to write this script). But it manages to mention norovirus (“vomiting”).

The handwashing requires scrubbing and polishing nails (they would have been trimmed, as for piano). They involved scrubbing wrists.

I have a reason for looking at this in my own fiction writing, and I’ll come back to it.

Should we wonder about restaurants and fast food next?  

   

This is one of the shortest “short film” ever, at 1:13.

CNN Films: "Remembering George H. W. Bush"

Saturday night, December 1, CNN Films is airing “Remembering George H. W. Bush” (link ).
   

This may be the quickest feature film every assembled.  Bush died late Friday November 30 after many bouts with pneumonia.  His wife Barbara had passed away in April 2018.

Of course, what I remember best is how the world changed with the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War. It would help set up the political climate in which Bill Clinton could propose lifting the ban on gays in the military.  I even remember Gen. Schwarzkopf’s radio briefings as I drove to work early in 1991.

And Bush was president when the Berlin Wall fell, and when the Soviet Union collapsed suddenly at the end of 1991.

Here is a story on GHWBush’s last words. 

His mother said, when you win, don't gloat.  Talk about the team, not yourself. 

The funeral will be at the Washington Cathedral on Wednesday December 5, 2018.

  

I remember when Barbara spoke about family values in the GOP convention in 1992.  She said “You don’t have to be married, but if you have children, they have to be the number one priority in your life.” 

His "Thousand Points of Light" is said to be the largest volunteer organization in the world.  I can't say I volunteer for people's everyday needs.  I hasn't been very personal recently. 

"O'Neill Tennis": Non-extreme sports for residents or a rotating space station with only artificial gravity

“O’Neill Tennis 1.02” from IBM Math and Physics, shows how sports would work on a rotating space station habitat. 

The game designer simulates a tennis serve and game on a court inside an O’Neill cylinder (space station)

  

  

When the ball is in flight, the rotation of the space station has no effect on it, which is a problem with the way people understand artificial gravity.  It moves in a straight line but appears to curve because of the motion of the station.

  

What would be interesting would be baseball batting cages: pitching and hitting home runs in an O’Neill stadium. Bryce Harper could set up a lab in his Las Vegas home before a Super Bowl party on Facebook Live.  Not sure how well NFL football would work, either.