Looking Into The Future

For Lo!  We Are Back At That List From The BBC
About those 10 times that science-fiction predicted the future.  Today we look at that very inventive chap Robert Anson Heinlein, and one of his literary creations.  Art?

Here we are

     In "Waldo" he created an artificial hand that can manipulate a much more powerful mechanical hand, which means the story's disabled inventor is able to live a more normal life.  This 1942 story made enough of a stir with the readership for it to be applied to remote manipulators that only came into existence much later.  What you see above are waldoes in action.  If you ever see people working with nuclear materials, they tend to be doing it at a distance in a separate room, using - waldoes.

RAH using one of his pseudonyms

     You can see the operator in bottom at port, and yes, he is the one tootling about with that enormous array, mixing incredibly dangerous chemicals.
     Now, motley, do you think it would be possible to make a shaken martini with these industrial waldoes?  Let's try!

I Have To Post This For It To Make Sense On Facebook
Behold, gentle readers, woven textile floor-protectors.



"Panzer Ace" By Richard Von Rosen
I do have another observation about this memoir, which applies particularly to RVR's time in the East, although in Hungary rather than the Sinister Union.  At this time, late 1944 and into 1945, his Abteilung was using the King Tiger, which, if our sloven Art will make busy -

The beast in question

     This thing was basically a mobile metal fort, which came in at just under 70 tons, and is one of the heaviest production tanks evah.  Massively armoured, with an equally enormous gun, it had a great deal of trouble in the Hungarian countryside.  RVR's memoir at this point repeatedly has the term "bogged down" as the Tigers sink into the mud, and it's no fun trying to retrieve one of these things.  You either bring on three whacking big recovery half-tracks, or use another Tiger, and pull the bogged vehicle out verrrry slowly.  If you take too long, Hay Pesto! the Sinisters would turn up; and they had enough big guns in big tanks to settle a bogged Tiger.
     Here an aside.  By this time the Teuton war machine no longer able to access the rare elements needed to make armour plate less brittle, and more flexible.  This meant that Teuton armour plate tended to shatter when hit by large calibre and/or high velocity shells.

Like this.  Whatever hit appears to have gone through both sides of the turret.

     That was pretty grim.  Let us bring one something light and entertaining.

BOOJUM! Reviews Films
I should add a proviso there: "What Conrad thinks is light and entertaining."  So here we are.  As ever, don't expect anything proper here, as we make it up as we go along*.  Although we do occasionally throw in a proper review, just to mess with you.  Yeah.  Perverse.  Live with it.
"The Turning": O good Lord aloft, another dreadfully boring arty film done by some auteur who somehow got his "project" green-lit, probably because the film studio are going to use it as a tax dodge of some kind.  Really!

Hardly riveting, is it?

     The video screens advertising this film in the Dark Tower weren't very effective either, since they had the film's title fading in from a totally black screen, which meant you'd gone past them by the time the whole thing became legible.
     I dunno.  Perhaps it's really a tense psychological drama about a spy being "turned", as in being persuaded to work for their erstwhile enemies?  Hopes not high.
"Dolittle": Judging from the film poster, this is nothing to do with the South Canadian raid on Japan.  In fact, since there are a whole bunch of animals present, it must be the latest iteration of Hugh Loftus's greatest creation, Doctor Dolittle, who can speak to animals.  Art?

This one was a box office bomb of epic proportions

     One can see why this new one got made.  The two Eddie Murphy vehicles grossed about £300,000,000 worldwide.  You can imagine the sweaty-palmed suits in Hollywood with visions of cargo containers of cash rolling in if it does well, the swines.

This will all make sense on Facebook

"Sonic":     Words fail me.  No, only joking!  Your Humble Scribe is rarely at a loss for words or lacks an opinion about anything.  I understand this is a film adaptation of a computer game character, so the odds are already stacked against it, computer game adaptations being notoriously crap.  What makes a good First Person Shooter or platform game does not necessarily translate well to the screen.  Remember "Super Mario Bros"?
     Anyway, Sonic.  Really?  Art!

Port: Iteration One  Starboard: Iteration Two

     You see above the results of pre-screening tests.  The thing to port was judged to be quite horrid, apparently falling into the Uncanny Valley, so the whole film had to be re-done with a kindlier, cuddlier version of a giant blue hedgehog.
      Conrad is no zoologist, but I'm pretty certain that the hedgehog does not come in blue.  It is also notoriously slow.  It also has prickles, not fur.
     Call me pessimistic if you like, yet I predict that this thing will bomb.  It will bomb like a Stuka.

"No comment," stated Harry The Hodgepig

Finally -
Jason, of my office team, is something of a Renaissance Man.  NO!  I don't mean he's a fan of the band, rather than he appears to be able to turn his hand to anything, including computer programming, as this is something he has an extensive background in.  Also house renovations and tracking stolen mobile phones.
     Anyway, he mentioned a "Bug Bounty" on Friday, a phrase I'd not heard of before.

NO!  Art -

     What he meant was that software companies will remunerate people who analyse the code behind their programs and find weaknesses that exist.  This means patching stuff before hackers and their ilk get into the system and exploit it.  Of course, anyone who does discover a bug could then go off and sell that information on the dark web, say for a month or two before informing the software company**.

     And with that we are done!

*  Sorry to burst your bubble.
**  Or is that just me and my amorality speaking?