Dr Who, Bubbles & Dreams
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Dr Who, Bubbles & Dreams
Doctor Who has finished another season with the biggest bombshell in nearly 60 years of stories. What does this mean? Why is it happening? And why does it taste like caramel and marzipan? Nobody except the leakers could have known what was going to happen this time, and it's more controversial than politics. Doctor Who has time traveled back to the 80s to pick up some plot ideas from the Dark Times between the cancellation and revival.
Hello Ducky, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again. Because a bathtub slowly filling is behind this week's scientific breakthrough. The Sound of Bubbles is key to understanding the physics behind their growth and collapse. Aren't you glad I didn't choose "Where did you come from, where did you go, where did you come from Bubbleeye Joe?" as the musical reference.
And then it's time for Dreams, the newest evolution in a long history of amateur game development tools. Some developers have already been picked up by a company thanks to their work on a No Man's Sky clone. Professor is excited for the resurgence of amateur game development and hopes Dreams will rise up to be the next generation's rapid prototype and release tool.
Dr Who Finale Discussion & Christmas announcement
The sound of…..bubbles
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sound-soap-bubbles-pop-reveals-physics-behind-bursts
- https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.084502
Next gen making games using…the power of Dreams
Games Played
Professor
- Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1064221/Halo_Combat_Evolved_Anniversary/
Rating – 3.5/5
DJ
- SYNTHETIK Arena - https://store.steampowered.com/app/984110/SYNTHETIK_Arena/
Rating – 3/5
Other topics discussed
Truck carrying toilet paper rolls exploded in the middle of the highway
Regeneration (In Doctor Who, regeneration is a biological ability exhibited by the Time Lords, a race of fictional humanoids originating on the planet Gallifrey. This process allows a Time Lord to undergo a transformation into a new physical form and a somewhat different personality after instances which would normally result in death.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(Doctor_Who)
Cartmel Masterplan (fan name for the planned Doctor Who backstory developed primarily by Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch and Marc Platt, by which they intended to restore some of the mystery of the Doctor's background that had been lost through revelation of the existing backstory.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartmel_Masterplan
Dr Who : Who are the Division
- https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-season-12-finale-division-explainer/
Section 31 (Section 31, in the fictional universe of Star Trek, is an autonomous intelligence and defense organization that carries out covert operations for the United Federation of Planets.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_31_(Star_Trek)
Bradley Walsh to quit Dr Who after Christmas special
- https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/bradley-walsh-set-sensationally-quit-21618111
Dr Who : Series 13 to feature the return of the Daleks
- https://www.cbr.com/doctor-who-series-13-daleks/
CyberMaster (The CyberMasters were Cyber-convertedTime Lords created by the Master from the corpses of all those who had been on Gallifrey when he destroyed the Capitol.)
- https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/CyberMaster
John Nathan Turner (ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction seriesDoctor Who. He was also the final producer of the series' first run on television (from 1980 until it was cancelled in 1989).)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nathan-Turner
BBC drama chief: Dr Who will not get cancelled
- https://www.cbr.com/doctor-whos-ratings-are-dropping-but-show-is-in-no-cancelation-danger/
Time Field (The time field was a body of time energy that spilled from cracks in the fabric of time and space.)
- https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Time_field
The Rani (Ushas, better known as the Rani and known more formally as Ushas of Miasimia Goria, was a renegade Time Lord and member of the Deca.)
- https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rani
Jenny (Jenny was the daughter of the Tenth Doctor, artificially created from his DNA when it was sampled by a progenation machine.)
- https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Jenny_(The_Doctor%27s_Daughter)
Georgia Moffett (Georgia Elizabeth Tennant (née and credited as Moffett) appeared as Jenny, the title character of the Doctor Who story The Doctor's Daughter.)
- https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Georgia_Moffett
Chris Chibnall (English television writer and producer, best known as the creator and writer of the award-winning ITV mystery-crime drama Broadchurch and showrunning the long-running BBC sci-fi Doctor Who.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Chibnall
The Slow Mo Guys : Bubble bursting at 18,000fps
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvZ2Z_s4Bo
Tom Scott : Help, My Fusion Reactor's Making A Weird Noise
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrtGp8hv-0Y
PS2 : An important piece of gaming history
- https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-51736665
Unity (cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Inc.'s Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X-exclusive game engine.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_(game_engine)
Blender (a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, and computer games.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software)
Kodu Game Lab (originally named Boku, is a programming integrated development environment (IDE) by Microsoft's FUSE Labs. It runs on Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodu_Game_Lab
Garry’s Mod ((often abbreviated as GMod) is a sandbox game developed by Facepunch Studios and published by Valve.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry%27s_Mod
Lancing with Myself (TNC Podcast)
- https://thatsnotcanon.com/lancingwithmyselfpodcast
Shout Outs
29 February 2020 –Game Developers Conference 2020 postponed - https://www.pcgamer.com/au/game-developers-conference-2020-has-been-cancelled-due-to-coronavirus-concerns/
GDC has announced that the 2020 event will be postponed until "later in the summer" due to ongoing concerns about the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. "After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March," reads an update from GDC's organizers. The coronavirus is also having an impact on events outside of GDC: Sony, Square Enix, Capcom, CD Projekt, and PUBG Corp all pulled out of PAX East. Multiple game tournaments, like IEM Katowice, have also had to deny access to the public, opting to continue as an online only event.
1 March 2020 – Luis Alfonso Mendoza passed away - https://comicbook.com/anime/2020/03/01/dragon-ball-anime-latin-dub-death-murder-gohan-luis-mendoza/
Luis Alfonso Mendoza Soberano known mainly for being the voice in the Latin American Spanish dub of teenage and adult Gohan in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid saga, the voice of Bugs Bunny since 1997 and Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory was murdered in a shooting in Mexico City at 604 Balboa Street. According to local media, the incident was due to "a quarrel for a property" with the attacker. He died at the age of 55.
1 March 2020 – Ghibli art exhibition in Japan – https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2020-03-01/preview-ghibli-theme-park-displays-one-last-time-before-its-2022-opening/.156989
The Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art will hold an exhibit called "The Great Ghibli Exhibit ~Two More Years Until the Ghibli Park's Opening~". It will include display items destined for the upcoming Ghibli Park from June 25 to September 16. The exhibit will be the last preview of the theme park's contents before they move into the park's Ghibli no Daisōko Area (Giant Ghibli Storehouse) in two years. The latest version of the exhibit will also add previously unreleased materials. Entry to the exhibit will cost 1,600 yen (US$14) for a same-day adult ticket, or 1,400 yen (US$13) for a pre-booked ticket.
Remembrances
2 March 1729 – Francesco Bianchini - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Bianchini
Italian philosopher and scientist. He worked for the curia of three popes, including being camiere d'honore of Clement XI, and secretary of the commission for the reform of the calendar, working on the method to calculate the astronomically correct date for Easter in a given year. His deduction of a rotational period of Venus was based on the observation of its surface using a 2.6" (66mm) 100-foot focal length aerial telescope. Today, we know that this is impossible, because of the thick cloud cover on this planet. He also worked on the parallax of Venus, and he measured the precession of the Earth's rotational axis. As part of his efforts to improve the accuracy of the calendar, Bianchini was commissioned by Clement XI to construct an important meridian line in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs) in Rome, a device for calculating the position of the sun and stars. Craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honour. He died at the age of 67 in Rome.
2 March 1930 – D.H Lawrence - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence
English writer and poet. His collected works represent, among other things, an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. Some of the issues Lawrence explores are sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage". Lawrence is best known for his novelsSons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley's Lover. In these books, Lawrence explores the possibilities for life within an industrial setting. Lawrence is concerned with the nature of relationships that can be had within such a setting. Though often classed as a realist, Lawrence in fact uses his characters to give form to his personal philosophy. His depiction of sexuality, though seen as shocking when his work was first published in the early 20th century, has its roots in this highly personal way of thinking and being. He died from tuberculosis at the age of 44 in Vence.
2 March 1944 – Ida Maclean - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Maclean
English biochemist and the first woman admitted to the London Chemical Society. Between 1920 and 1941 Maclean published in the Biochemical Journal approximately thirty papers, many in collaboration, on her particular interests, namely the role of fatty acids in animals and the synthesis of fats from carbohydrates. She came to be regarded as an authority on biochemistry, and her 1943 monograph The Metabolism of Fat was the first published of Methuen's series Monographs on Biochemical Subjects. She died at the age of 66 in London.
2 March 1962 – Charles Jean De La Vallee Poussin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Jean_de_la_Vall%C3%A9e_Poussin
Charles-Jean Étienne Gustave Nicolas, baron de la Vallée Poussin, Belgianmathematician. He is best known for proving the prime number theorem. The king of Belgium ennobled him with the title of baron. Although his first mathematical interests were in analysis, he became suddenly famous as he proved the prime number theorem independently of his coeval Jacques Hadamard in 1896. He also published a counterexample to Alfred Kempe's false proof of the four color theorem. The Poussin graph, the graph he used for this counterexample, is named after him. He died at the age of 95 in Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels.
Famous Birthdays
2 March 1545 – Sir Thomas Bodley – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bodley
English diplomat and scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford. In 1444, the existing university library was augmented by a gift of some 300 manuscripts from Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Henry IV; this prompted the university to build a new library above the Divinity School which was at that time under construction. However, during the Reformation of the 1550s, the library had been stripped and abandoned, remaining virtually untouched until the return of Bodley in 1598. The library was later named the Bodleian Library in his honour. He determined, he said, "to take his farewell of state employments and to set up his staff at the library door in Oxford." In 1598 his offer to restore the old library was accepted by the university. Bodley began his book collection effort in 1600, using the site of the former library above the Divinity School, which was in near ruin. Although Bodley lived over 400 years ago, modern libraries benefit from some of his ideas and practices. One important idea that Bodley implemented was the creation of a "Benefactors' Book" in 1602, which was bound and put on display in the library in 1604. While he did have funding through the wealth of his wife, Ann Ball, and the inheritance he received from his father, Bodley still needed gifts from his affluent friends and colleagues to build his library collection. Although not a completely original idea (as encouragement in 1412 the university chaplain was ordered to say mass for benefactors), Bodley recognized that having the contributor's name on permanent display was also inspiring. He was born in the city of Exeter in Devon.
2 March 1886 – Willis H. O’Brien – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_H._O%27Brien
American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," and is best remembered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949), for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) proposed giving O'Brien an Oscar for his technical effects on King Kong but Willis insisted that each of his crew receive an Oscar statue also, which the AMPAS refused to do, so O'Brien refused to accept the Oscar award for himself. He was born in Oakland California.
2 March 1902 – Edward Condon - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Condon
Distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. The Franck–Condon principle and the Slater–Condon rules are co-named after him. During the McCarthy period, when efforts were being made to root out communist sympathizers in the United States, Edward Condon was a target of the House Un-American Activities Committee on the grounds that he was a 'follower' of a 'new revolutionary movement', quantum mechanics; Condon defended himself with a famous commitment to physics and science. Condon became widely known in 1968 as principal author of the Condon Report, an official review funded by theUnited States Air Force that concluded that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have prosaic explanations. The lunar crater Condon is named for him. He was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
2 March 1904 – Dr. Seuss – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss
Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel, American children's author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. Geisel adopted the name "Dr. Seuss" as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College and as a graduate student at Lincoln College, Oxford. He published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature to illustrate political cartoons, and he also worked in the animation and film department of the United States Army where he wrote, produced or animated many productions – both live-action and animated – including Design for Death, which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. After the war, Geisel returned to writing children's books, writing classics like If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), and Green Eggs and Ham (1960). He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Events of Interest
2 March 1949 – Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute - https://www.wired.com/2010/03/0302b50-nonstop-circumnavigation/
The flight covered 23,452 miles, averaging a ground speed of 249 miles per hour. The modified bomber required air-to-air refueling four times as it flew ever eastward. The airplane was an updated version of the B-29 that had fought in World War II and was close to being obsolete by 1949. Refueling while flying was the biggest challenge of the flight. Though commonplace today, the technique was not widely used at the time. The Lucky Lady II was refueled from its close relative, the tanker version KB-29. Four pairs of KB-29s based in the Azores, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Hawaii were used as airborne gas stations. The Lucky Lady II was actually the second aircraft set up for the around-the-world flight. The first B-50, Global Queen, experienced engine problems after taking off Feb. 25 and landed in the Azores. The jet-powered B-52 bomber erased the Lucky Lady II's record in 1957 with a circumnavigation lasting just 45 hours, 19 minutes. Another B-52 lowered the record in 1980 to 42 hours, 23 minutes. The record still stands today.
2 March 1972 – The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral,Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pioneer-10-launched-to-jupiter
Pioneer 10, the world’s first outer-planetary probe, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet. In December 1973, after successfully negotiating the asteroid belt and 620 million miles, Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter and sent back to Earth the first close-up images of the spectacular gas giant. In June 1983, the NASA spacecraft left the solar system and the next day radioed back the first scientific data on interstellar space. NASA officially ended the Pioneer 10 project on March 31, 1997, with the spacecraft having traveled a distance of some six billion miles.
2 March 1978 – Grave robbers steal Charlie Chaplin’s body - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/grave-robbers-steal-charlie-chaplins-body
In one of history’s most famous cases of body-snatching, two men steal the corpse of the revered film actor Sir Charles Chaplin from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey, located in the hills above Lake Geneva, near Lausanne, Switzerland. After Chaplin’s widow, Oona, received a ransom demand of some $600,000, police began monitoring her phone and watching 200 phone kiosks in the region. Oona had refused to pay the ransom, saying that her husband would have thought the demand “ridiculous.” The callers later made threats against her two youngest children. After a five-week investigation, police arrested two auto mechanics–Roman Wardas, of Poland, and Gantscho Ganev, of Bulgaria–who on May 17 led them to Chaplin’s body, which they had buried in a cornfield about one mile from the Chaplin family’s home in Corsier. That December, Wardas and Ganev were convicted of grave robbing and attempted extortion. Political refugees from Eastern Europe, Wardas and Ganev apparently stole Chaplin’s body in an attempt to solve their financial difficulties. Wardas, identified as the mastermind of the plot, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years of hard labor. As he told it, he was inspired by a similar crime that he had read about in an Italian
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