Unabashed

This is brilliant, really. Freightliners on transoceanic voyages guzzle gas like nobody’s business. A company called Skysails, based in Hamburg, Germany, has unveiled a product that can reduce fuel consumption of those vessels by up to 35%.

The best apparatuses and advancements in the world, to me, are those which utilize traditional concepts and methods while at the same time capitalize on modern technology. They’re nostalgic–in a good way–but at the same time they’re modern and technological. This may seem like an oxymoron–past/future; historical technology?–but they combine the quaint with the futuristic in a way that’s very appealing. To me at least. I love reading about the Age of Sail, the era of tall ships, and I’ve pined for the romanticism of sailing ships exploring the world. (My love of old things-made-new manifests itself, obliquely, in my reading: I love equally to read Charlie Stross and Patrick O’Brian, Joe Haldeman and Shelby Foote.) The Skysail concept doesn’t go so far as to suggest a regression, but augments modern apparatuses with forward-thinking modifications to historical concepts, improving historical technologies.

I like new stuff, too. Like microwaves. Love microwaves :-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: , age of sail, freightliner, futuristic, historical, nostalgia, sail, sailing, ship, ships, skysails, tall ship, transoceanic

In my search for knowledge of FTL travel, hyperspace and all things geek, I found this top 10 Movie Spaceships page (and I do love me some top 10 lists), via SpecFic on Blogspot. Being a Douglas Adams fan I would have put the Heart of Gold higher, and I don’t think I would have put Alien’s Nostromo on the list at all: intergalactic tug boats need not apply, even though the name (Nostromo) is very cool. In my view, if you put in Nostromo you’d have to include Serenity as well, at least in a tie (I might put in both of them at no.10 now that I think of it). I don’t like Apollo 13 being there either, just for the simple fact that Ap13 wasn’t exactly capable of an extended trip. It barely made it back from the short run it took. I like the addition of the Independence Day mothership, but can’t believe the Death Star was left off the list. These would be my top picks:

10. Nostromo/Serenity
9. Romulan Warbird (Chosen over the more-recognizable Klingon Bird of Prey. Just personal preference, I guess)
8. Alien Mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. Tie: Cylon Raider from the original Battlestar Galactica (I know it’s not a movie; sue me) and Tie Fighter from Star Wars (esp. Darth Vader’s kick-ass pimped-out version)
6. Independance Day Mothership — Big. Scary. Lots of firepower, lots of defences; like the Deathstar, however, one significant oversight.
5. Heart of Gold — Two words: Improbability Drive
4. Death Star — The biggest and the baddest, with one slight overlooked weakness.
3. USS Enterprise — Not much needs to be said about starship Enterprise that hasn’t been said already.
2. Tie: Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica and X-Wing Fighter.
1. Millennium Falcon — A space cowboy’s wet dream; famously makes the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: adams, battlestar, cylon, death star, douglas, drive, enterprise, galactica, heart of gold, improbability, nostromo, raider, serenity, ship, Space, spaceships, star trek, star wars, viper, x-wing fighter