The Future of Space Exploration

If there is one company I admire, it is SpaceX. Elon Musk's team not only makes space exploration cheaper by bringing the competitive prices of the private sector to government agencies, but they also try to innovate. Let's face it, today's rocket technology, in many sense, is old and hasn't changed much over the past decades. We still discard booster rockets, dumping billions of dollars into the ocean. And that is where SpaceX comes in with their vision of reusable rockets, of which they actually came pretty close last month when they almost landed a rocket on a barge, floating in the Atlantic ocean. It did not quite work out the way they hoped, but they are on track and the future is looking bright. Here is their vision that can become reality pretty soon. Sometimes I feel we truly live in an age of wonder!

Quote of the Month

"There's nothing magical about science.

It is simply a systematic way for carefully and thoroughly observing nature

and using consistent logic to evaluate results.

Which part of that exactly do you disagree with?

Do you disagree with being thorough? Using careful observation?

Being systematic? Or using consistent logic?”

- dr. Steven Novella

Quote of the Month

"Anyone who stops learning is old,

whether at twenty or eighty.

Anyone who keeps learning stays young.

The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

- Henry Ford

Wanderers

The short movie below was made by Erik Wernquist. It is a vision of humanity's expansion into the Solar System, based on scientific ideas and concepts of what our future in space might look like, if it ever happens. The locations depicted in the film are digital recreations of actual places in the Solar System, built from real photos and map data where available.

Without any apparent story, other than what you may fill in by yourself, the idea with the film is primarily to show a glimpse of the fantastic and beautiful nature that surrounds us on our neighboring worlds - and above all, how it might appear to us if we were there. Oh, and did I mentioned that for the narration, Wernquist used one of Carl Sagan's speeches? ;)

Quote of the Month

"We often fear what we do not understand.

Our best defense... is knowledge."

- Tuvok

Star Trek Voyager

How to Paint Night Goblin Miniatures

In this article, I would like to demonstrate my preferred way of painting Warhammer night goblins. Although I am not a well known painter, I think I gathered enough experience over the past fifteen or so years since I began collecting miniatures that I feel quite confident writing this article. By the end, I hope anyone will be able to paint these little green guys to a standard that is somewhere between tabletop and professional quality (somewhere around a 6 or 7 rating on a CoolMiniOrNot scale). To illustrate the article, I chose a classic 90s night goblin, sculpted by non other then Kev Adams. They are extremely hard to get by and cost a pretty penny, but I greatly prefer the look and feel of the them over today’s bulkier and more aggressive looking miniatures. Nevertheless, the principles are the same and can be applied to any kind of goblin in the Warhammer setting (or any other universe where the goblins are green).

Before I begin, however, there is one issue I need to mention. I use Citadel paints exclusively, but I have not purchased new colors in quite a while. So, some of the paint names I will mention below may sound unfamiliar to newcomers as Games Workshop recently revamped its entire color line, changing quite a few names, discontinuing old colors, and introducing new ones. To help with this problem (and those who use other brands, such as Vallejo), I included a visual representation of the main colors I used at each step. Based on these, it should be relatively easy to pick out or mix the colors needed. So, without further ado, lets begin!

Quote of the Month

"Science works on the frontier between knowledge and ignorance.

We are not afraid to admit what we don't know; there is no shame in that.

The only shame is to pretend that we have all the answers."

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Quote of the Month

"Don’t just teach your children to read…

Teach them to question what they read.

Teach them to question everything."

- George Carlin

The Perseid Meteor Shower Is Upon Us!

The Perseid Meteor Shower, the largest annual meteor shower on the planet, is once again upon us! It can produce 50 - 80 bright "falling stars" per hour, a spectacular show that is visible from all but the southernmost region of the globe. Unfortunately, the full moon makes it a bit less spectacular this year, but worth staying up nonetheless. As in previous years, I urge you to visit Spacedex for tips, tricks, and how to find out about optimum viewing conditions in your area.

Image courtesy of Spacedex.com

Backpacking through Japan - The Last Day

My picture blog continues with the last day.

Farewell to Asakusa (the Kaminarimon in the background)