In Case You Missed It/Podcast: The Second Monster in Aliens

Posted on by onespaceman2000

A few months back, NPR’s Planet Money podcast had a terrific episode titled, “The Real Horror of ‘Alien’ and How It Explains Why We’re Not Paid Enough.”

In the episode, we learn more about Weyland-Yutani, the company in the 1979 film Alien that employed the crew on the space tug Nostromo. You may remember that this crew eventually became little more than a meal and incubator for more monsters.

Maybe there was another monster on the ship as well. Maybe it was even a bigger monster, because it had already inflected the entire Earth economy. Something called monopsony, which is basically when all of the workers become the quasi-slaves of a few corporations. Unread contracts and absent labor unions became the basis for much abuse on and off the spaceships.

It’s a fun episode that allows you to see the film from the perspective of an economist as well as an everyday worker.

You can also hear from Fede Álvarez, who directed and co-wrote a subsequent film Alien: Romulus. It will probably be no surprise that Weyland-Yutani doesn’t become a better place to work.

Science fiction is often a mirror on society, even if we don’t see our reflection right away. Think about all of those drug commercials on television where everyone is dancing, yet the announcer keeps telling you about the horrible side-effects and possibility of death. Sometimes you just need to close your eyes and listen. The mirror can work even without your eyes.

In Case You Missed It: Modern Day Pharaohs Hit a Bump in the Saudi Sand

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): An artist’s rendering of The Line extending for more than 100 miles into Saudi Arabia from the Red Sea..(PetaPixel)

While the Middle East is going through a tough time at the moment, to put it mildly, it may be worth remembering the hubris of the region over the years. For example, Saudi Arabia was planning to build a new city in the desert called Neom that would have included a $500 billion 100-mile horizontal urban “skyscraper” named The Line (shown above). Yes, endless oil riches can lead to such silliness.

Consider it the equivalent of Egypt’s pyramids, another over-the-top public works project. And like the pyramids of old, The Line is now a monument to the dead, or in this case the death of the country’s Vision 2030 plans. After reports of climbing building costs, as well as the deaths of thousands of workers (similar to the pyramids), the whole gargantuan project may be down-scaled to boring data centers. So much for the modern-day pharaohs who are now watching the region go up in smoke.

The Line could have been one more man-made structure to be seen from space, but our alien friends still have plenty to view should they send a probe through the solar system (as some believe they have). While the pyramids can still be seen from space, the best way to be certain our planet is filled with life is to view it from its dark side. The evening light from our towns and cities cover the globe with recognizable patterns.

Image (Credit): North and South America as seen from space. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

In Case You Missed It: A Mystery Beneath the Ice

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Camp Century in Greenland. (NASA)

We live in a time of conspiracies, as the newspapers demonstrate everyday.

One conspiracy from the World War II era related to Hitler maintaining a secret base in Antarctica. While that story has been debunked, have you heard the one about the secret U.S. base hidden beneath the ice?

Last May, Newsweek told this story in an article titled “Map Shows US Nuclear Base Hidden Under Greenland’s Ice Since Cold War.” It discusses a NASA “discovery” last year during the test of new radar equipment – the (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) – to peer beneath the ice.

The NASA team rediscovered Camp Century, a secret U.S. base constructed in the late 1950s during the Cold War. The U.S. was testing the idea of building nuclear-missile launch sites beneath the ice. The effort proved fruitless, causing the abandonment of the secret base in 1967.

While Greenland is again on the tip of many tongues, the idea of joint military operations between the U.S. and Greenland is nothing new. The U.S. signed a treaty with Denmark back in 1951 that permitted U.S. military facilities throughout Greenland. The story notes that the U.S. has as many as 17 military bases in Greenland hosting close to 10,000 troops. Today, the U.S. has only one military base left with about 150 Air Force personnel.

Camp Century is not really a big secret today, and you can find many articles about it over the years, but it was an interesting discovery for NASA, and proved the value of the new radar equipment.

Maybe NASA needs to make a pass over Antarctica next just to put to rest any remaining rumors about that Nazi base. Better yet, we can check out some sites on the Moon to be certain the Nazis did not build a base there as well.

Note: This Newsweek story was originally reported in The Wall Street Journal, but the newspaper’s firewall would have prevented many from reading the story. You can find another good summary of NASA’s Camp Century encounter in this Smithsonian magazine article.

In Case You Missed It: Experiencing Disney’s Star Wars Hotel

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Drinks at the Disney Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. (Disney)

The Disney hotel lasted for less than two years, but for more than four hours you can experience it on YouTube.

Opened in March 2022, Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was an expensive, all-inclusive hotel that brought Star Wars adventures directly to the well-heeled. By September 2023, the fun was over when Disney shuttered the hotel forever after failing to attract enough customers.

The YouTube video, The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel, follows Jenny Nicholson, who paid $6,000 for a two-night stay at the hotel. You get to see the experience for yourself and get deep into the highs and lows of her adventure.

Since most of us either lacked the funds or chutzpah to check into this hotel, this is the next best thing. You may never see such an adventure again. Of course, maybe the Alien franchise will see something to build on. After all, that series is all about the gullible checking in but not checking out.

In Case You Missed It: One Way to Get Kids into Planetariums

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Taylor Swift light show at the Saint Louis Science Center. (Saint Louis Science Center)

It may be an unusual way to encourage children to visit a planetarium, but it seems to be working. Taylor Swift light shows appear to be the new rage at planetariums across the country.

The image above comes from the light show at the Saint Louis planetarium, though you can find similar shows at planetariums in Springfield, Massachusetts, Laramie, Wyoming, and Boulder, Colorado.

I suppose this is a way to introduce some kids to the existence of the planetarium while also paying the overhead for the planetarium itself. It would be nice to learn whether the same crowd comes back later to learn more about the solar system and universe, though I have not seen much press on that relationship.

One can only hope that the real stars eventually outshine the Earth-bound ones for some of these children. Maybe the visit will even lead to more interest in the planets, such as Saturn. After all, didn’t Taylor sing about that planet in her song Seven?

Sweet tea in the summer
Cross your heart, won’t tell no other
And though I can’t recall your face
I still got love for you
Your braids like a pattern
Love you to the moon and to Saturn
Passed down like folk songs
The love lasts so long