Robot Claw – Page 653 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

The God Machine

September 25, 2009

I was telling KLS the other day, on one of our near-daily walks, all about the paper-delivery job my brother, father and I used to do back when I was a youngling. The newspaper was the local free paper, The Star, and we used to deliver it to a section of the town of Redhead, near where we lived in those days.

I described my memories of the job – which were quite vivid – and found myself thinking all about Redhead, and wondering how those 20 or 30 blocks we used to deliver to are these days. When we got home I fired up Google Earth, and had a look:

< Redhead, 2006

There it is, the part of Redhead we used to deliver to. But…, but it’s not quite the same. It has, of course, changed. This (beautiful, very high-res) image is the Redhead of now. What I want to see is the Redhead of 1985-6.

This got me thinking about the potential of Google Earth. We fire up the software now and see astounding images of Earth from above. The quality is ever-increasing and more and more of the planet is being mapped. Take this next shot as an example of how pristine the images can be:

< Can you see?

Those are surfers at Merewether Beach, which is a beach close to where my parents live. This image was captured (by a low-flying plane) in December 2006, and as you can see it is impressively detailed, and exists as a nice snapshot of a day at the beach for a bunch of surfies. In time, this image will be replaced. Perhaps the next image will be taken in winter, and the water may be rougher and few (if any) surfers would be present. Years down the line the shape of the beach itself may change. A hundred years hence there may not even be a beach at all.

Future generations will be able to see all this at a glance, for Google Earth has a nifty ‘view historical information’ option. Select a date and watch the image change before your eyes. As an example, check out these three shots of the building in which I spend most of my time when I am at school, the Life Sciences building:

< Back then

< How it is now

Above, we have the same place over a 13 year period. The earliest image in Google Earth is from 1994, and shows the spot where the building is today to be just a grassy field. In 2001 – when I started school at UAlbany, the building had begun construction. And by 2007 – the most recent imagery – you can see the building is complete.

This building is trivial stuff, except perhaps to future historians of Albany or UAlbany. Imagine however the full potential of Google Earth as a chronicle of human history. Imagine were we able to fire up Google Earth, dial in 1944, and examine in great detail the front lines in Europe, or the wreckage in the wake of the explosions in Japan? Imagine were we able to dial up 1000AD and check out the middle ages, or 2000AD and see New York City with a world trade center. Who’s to say which images, right now, may be of priceless importance in the years to come?

On a more personal note, I’d love to be able to check out such things as my old schools and see them as I remember them, and not as they are now. St Mary’s for instance… time has moved on:

< Where’s my table??!

There is no imagery for Australia prior to 2004, and as much fun as it is to ‘virtually travel’ using the current maps… how much fun would it be to go back in time and see the haunts of my youth as they were in those days? Future generations will be doing just this, and I’m sure old man Robert will be doing the same, reminiscing about this period of my life.

But to have all the years of your life saved in the Google Earth database! What I wouldn’t give for such a vivid history book!

Fighting Fantasy Redux 2

September 24, 2009

Almost four years ago now, after a trip to Australia, I decided to recollect all the Fighting Fantasy books I was a great fan of in my youth. In a matter of months I had obtained many of them, and as the years went by I would continue collecting. Not only the old books (from the 1980s) but also the new reprints by Wizard books, including the few new adventures (Howl Of The Werwolf, Bloodbones) they have put out.

In four years my collection has become near complete. I am missing only 3 actual gamebooks, those being Deathmoor (#55), Knights Of Doom (#56) and Revenge Of The Vampire (#58). On the rare occasions when any of these are offered for auction on ebay they are invariably very expensive or in the UK. Just yesterday I missed a winning bid on a copy of Deathmoor. My highest offer was $21 and it went for almost $60…

Other items I would like to have, in the interests of completing the collection, would be the last FF RPG ‘manual’ Allansia. I doubt I’ll ever have it though, for it’s one of the rarest FF-related items ever printed and routinely goes for hundreds of dollars at used book vendors. I’d also like to get the two-player gamebook, Clash Of The Princes (that I once owned) and any of the other peripheral books, such as the Zagor gamebooks, Goldhawk novels or the colour puzzle books (Tasks Of Tantalon, Casket Of Souls).

I remain optimistic I may be able to pick up one of more of such items in my upcoming Australia trip.

Anyway, the true purpose of this post is to report that Wizard books is once again rebranding and re-releasing the FF gamebooks! Renumbered re-releases of Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, Citadel Of Chaos, and Deathtrap Dungeon are already out (in the UK) and a brand new FF book – Stormslayer – is due in October!

ff4new

Furthermore, they will continue to release older books but seem to be planning to prioritize new titles. The next confirmed new book (due early 2010) is called Night Of The Necromancer, and future planned titles seem to include Escape from Oblivion, Claw of the Fleshless King, The Cold Heart of Chaos and Assault on the Fortress of Evil.

I must admit I was a bit leery when I heard about the rebranding a few months back. But this seems like good news indeed – the series must be popular for them to be planning so many new entries! Unfortunately the books will not be available in the US at all, so I’ll have to turn to my usual contacts for sustained FF goodness 🙂

In related FF news, the iPhone game is due in October, and the DS game is due in 2 weeks!

181145b < !!!

You can be absolutely positive I will be getting this. However I may wait until my plane trip to actually play it 🙂

Atomic Age

September 22, 2009

On this day, 30 years ago, a then-secret US satellite named Vela detected a double flash of light coming from an area in the Indian Ocean about 2000 km southeast of Africa. The flashes were characteristic of a nuclear airbust, and the immediate theory was some country had detonated a nuclear test at the location.

The event has entered the history books as somewhat of a mystery. Immediately afterwards the US flew many sorties through the area using planes fitted with equipment to detect fallout, and nothing was detected. Questions about the accuracy of the detector on the ageing satellite seemed to be answered by the fact that an EM wave (presumably caused by the event Vela detected) was detected by a second satellite and the Arecibo radio-telescope in Peru. The wind patterns in the south Indian ocean end up in Australia, and the fact that radioactive elements were discovered in sheep and cattle thyroids within a few months of the event also suggest a nuclear blast had occured.

Speculation fell onto South Africa, or perhaps a joint South Africa / Israel test. One can imagine the machinations of the world’s spy agencies in those days, attempting to confirm or deny the theories. Various investigations and reports from within the USA to congress both supported and rejected the idea of the event being an explosion, and although many authors and even retired officials have since supported the possibility of a South African weapon test (South Africa did not – officially -have nuclear weapons in 1979) the truth of what happened in the Indian Ocean 30 years ago today remains unknown.

What I find intriguing about this is the fact that were the satellite not positioned to detect the event when it happened, it would have remained unknown.

One wonders what else various governments have gotten up to over the years unbeknownst to their neighbours on earth. After all, a nuclear explosion is a mighty difficult thing to hide, and if this was indeed one, whomever was responsible almost hid it (and even though ‘caught’, haven’t yet been found).