Musing Bytes 4 - Science Fiction
EventHorizon1984
16 March 2014
“Is this Doctor the sort who needs flattery? Or can I leave him to it?” Jyoti Cutler
“I just let him talk.” Flip Jackson
“I am still here you know.” The Doctor
“You are so brilliant. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.” Jyoti Cutler
“Hmmm” The Doctor
Doctor Who, "Scavenger"
Big Finish, 14 March 2014
On 14 March 2014 Big Finish released the Doctor Who audio adventure “Scavenger” featuring The 6th Doctor, Colin Baker. The synopsis reads:
Big Finish is known for “producing high-quality audio drama” “based on popular TV series such as Doctor Who” and others.
Now that is the public relations view. (Ed.) In my opinion, that view is rather understated.
If you’re a Doctor Who fan, “Scavenger” is an excellent ‘listen’. As are other Big Finish products.
If you’re another type of fan, there is a nice Easter egg included in the audio drama. Salvage 2???
“I’ve been wondering. What happened to Salvage 1?” The Doctor
“Some Moon project from a hundred years ago. Nothing to do with us.” Jyoti Cutler
Well.
“Jettison Control this is Salvage 1. The Vulture has landed!”
Melanie “Mel” Slozar from the Lunar surface, Salvage (January 1979)
A very nice tribute to the 35th anniversary of the TV movie Salvage and the TV series that followed.
Thank you Big Finish.
© 2014 Sony
"... Jettison Salvage ..." "... Jettison Salvage ..."
Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith), Salvage (1979)
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“So are you seriously telling me. All those blokes. Old man white hair, Beetle’s haircut, frilly shirt, long scarf big eyes, cricket boy, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Lord Byron. Are all of them? They were you?”
“ah Yes.” The Doctor
“Wicked.” Ace
Doctor Who, The Light At The End
Big Finish, October 2013
And speaking of Big Finish.
The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary show, “The Day Of The Doctor” was not the only official multi-Doctor show. In October 2013 Big Finish released their 50th Anniversary audio adventure “The Light At The End.” Featuring the voice talents of Doctor Who original (20th Century) cast members:
Tom Baker (The Fourth Doctor)
Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor)
Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor)
Sylvester McCoy (The Seventh Doctor)
Paul McGann (The Eighth Doctor)
Louise Jameson (Leela)
Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
Nicola Bryant (Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown)
Sophie Aldred (Dorothy Gale “Ace” McShane)
Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford)
Vicki (Maureen O’Brien)
Steven Taylor (Peter Purves)
Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh)
Polly Wright (Anneke Wills)
Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines)
Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury)
Jo Grant (Katy Manning)
Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding)
Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson)
Geoffrey Beevers (The Master)
And many more.
Buy it.
Two Doctors observing The Sixth Doctor.
“Do I really end up with such a terrible sense of fashion?” The Doctor (Tom Baker)
“Says the man in the impractical scarf. It’s all a question of taste I suppose.” The Doctor (Paul McGann)
“Well I suppose that would explain your Wild Bill Hickok costume?”
“Most people think it has something to do with Byron.”
Doctor Who: The Light At The End (2013)
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“… Code name Lovely Angel?! Dirty Pair!”
The soon to be ex-object of Yuri’s affection.
“LOVELY ANGELS!”
Yuri and Kei, The Dirty Pair (1979- )
Meanwhile in Japan, SF Magajin published a story by Haruka Takachiho. It was titled “Daatipea no Diabouken”, or known in English as "The Dirty Pair's Great Adventures". Featuring The Dirty Pair Lovely Angels, Trouble Consultants Yuri and Kei of the World Welfare Work Association (3WA)
From then to now, the 1979 serialized book would spawn anime, manga, and comics of their adventures.
The Dirty Pair
Top Left, Clockwise
- 1979- - (c) Haruka Takachico, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
- (L-R) Yuri 1, Kei 1, Mughi/Mugi 1
- 1985-1994 - (c) Sunrise, Nozomi Entertainment, Toshifumi Yoshida
- (L-R) Kei 2, Yuri 2
- 1988-2002 - (c) Adam Warren, Haruka Takachiho, Eclipse Comics, Dark Horse Comics
- 2010- - (c) Hisao Tamaki
- (L-R) Kei 5, Mughi/Mugi 5, Yuri 5
- 1994-1996 - Dirty Pair Flash (c) Sunrise, Bandai, Nozomi Entertainment
- (L-R) Kei 4, Yuri 4
Happy Birthday Dirty P Lovely Angels.
“What happened? Or should I ask, what disaster have you initiated?”
3WA Department Chief Soranaka to Kei and Yuri ... after devastating the WWWA home city.
The Dirty Pair Strike Again (2008)
/*
Musing Bytes 5 - Laniakea, Kokaku Kidotai, and PayPal
Musing Bytes 5 - Laniakea, Kokaku Kidotai, and PayPal
EventHorizon1984
30 September 2014
“Deep in the fundamental heart of mind and Universe there is a reason."
Life, the Universe and Everything, 1982, Douglas Adams
Elizabeth Gibney's Nature.com article "Earth's new address: 'Solar System, Milky Way, Laniakea'" started small.
"The supercluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way is 100 times bigger in volume and mass than previously thought, a team of astronomers says. They have mapped the enormous region and given it the name Laniakea — Hawaiian for 'immeasurable heaven'."
Based on "Tully, R. B., Courtois, H., Hoffman, Y & Pomarède, D. Nature 513, 71–73 (2014)."
The topic added dimensions to the question, 'Is it bigger than a breadbox?'. Yes, very much bigger.
"The super-cluster spans some 520 million light-years in diameter."
Photo from Nature.com
View Nature.com video at http://www.youtube.com/embed/rENyyRwxpHo
However The Universe is, Large. Depending on your concept of "observable universe", The Universe is approximately "92 billion light-years" in diameter, but Earth based observations have only viewed up to 13.8 billion light-years "in every direction".
Still Laniakea is big. Bigger than anything a human would encounter in the day to day world. There are no hardware stores stocking 500 million to 1 billion light-year tape measures.
And yet Laniakea looks familiar.
“Well, it's just that the way the Major's been looking at us lately is kinda scary.”
Tachikoma, Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell, Masamune Shirow
(c) Production I.G., Bandai Entertainment, Madman Entertainment, Manga Entertainment
The conceptual view of Laniakea is reminiscent of Major Motoko Kusanagi's face, during one of her classic falling scenes.
Ghost in the Shell, Masamune Shirow
(c) Production I.G., Bandai Entertainment, Madman Entertainment, Manga Entertainment
Ghost in the Shell, or Kokaku Kidotai, was first written and illustrated in May 1989 by Masamune Shirow. Making 2014 it's 25th Anniversary year.
Getting back to to the topic of known space. The Universe is expanding, not contracting. An appropriate time sequence would be the Major rising, not falling. The galaxies have the flow and appearance of water on a woman's head, as she breaks the surface of a pool of water.
Taking all this to a philosophical conclusion. Suppose the Laniakea formation was our three dimensional view of "Laniakea", a mathematically higher dimensional being, entering our Universe and peeking.
The Goddess could use a hair cut. Guess where?
“We and our board believe the best way to drive long-term shareholder value is to keep eBay and PayPal together, to capitalize on the opportunities”
John Donaohe, eBay INC CEO, January 2014
The news of eBay INC separating into two entities, PayPal and eBay, circulated quickly today.
"EBay Inc. (EBAY) is spinning off its PayPal division, throwing the business into direct competition with Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. as consumers step up the use of smartphones and computers to pay for goods and services.
Activist shareholder Carl Icahn had pushed for a split earlier this year"
"eBay and PayPal are going their separate ways. Today eBay announced that its fast-growing PayPal division would be spun off as a new company in 2015."
While many had anticipated this for years, it took the actions of Carl Icahn to spark the separation.
John Donahoe, eBay INC CEO, will handle the separation, and then step down as CEO.
It is likely the announcement of the split was timed to give eBay INC a last minute boost, before the 3rd Quarter expired.
Our guess is John Donahoe and company are angling to sell the de-clawed and devalued version of eBay INC., soon after the separation.
"Donahoe was the wrong man for the job"
David Steiner, EcommerceBytes, 30 September 2014
In a rare show of public disdain, David Steiner of Ecommercebytes.com, started his article "How Will John Donahoe's Tenure at eBay Be Remembered?" with:
"In baseball, there's a saying after a team has a bad season: You can't fire the team, you fire the manager.
John Donahoe's team at eBay has had a bad season, with growth that didn't keep pace with its competitors, a public confrontation with investor Carl Icahn, security breaches, site outages,.. you could say that eBay has had a very bad season."
And ended with:
"The Donahoe Era was a disaster for small sellers."
Our take on John Donahoe stepping down as eBay INC CEO, and hiding in one or both of the new PayPal and eBay Boards?
"There's something wrong here, there can be no denying
One of us is changing, or maybe we've stopped trying
And it's too late, baby, now it's too late
Though we really did try to make it
Something inside has died and I can't hide
And I just can't fake it"
It’s Too Late, 1971, Carol King & Toni Stern
Grab your own business domain and setup shop online.
Before it is too late.
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“The thing that's always worried me about being one of the few is the way we keep on getting fewer.”
Flight Officer David Campbell (Sir Richard Burton), The Longest Day (1962)
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Posted at 19:13 in Business, Commentary, eBay, eBay Spotlight, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Film, PayPal, Science, Space, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Carl Icahn, Carol King, David Steiner, eBay, Ecommercebytes, Ghost in the Shell, GITS, It’s Too Late, John Donahoe, Kokaku Kidotai, Laniakea, Major Motoko Kusanagi, Masamune Shirow, Motoko Kusanagi, PayPal, Toni Stern
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