Categories
design movie

DeLorean Time Travel Consultant

A couple of weeks ago I watched the movie “Driven” about John DeLorean and his run in with the law. It was an ok movie but not as exciting as I had hoped. I still liked it but I was hoping for something more like Ford vs. Ferrari.

Anyway, last night I happened to watch Back to the Future and felt particular appreciation for the genius idea to use a DeLorean as the time travel vehicle. It was perfect, right down to the fact the DeLoreans were/are notoriously unreliable which added to the suspense as lightning is moments away from striking and Marty can’t get the car started.

Anyway, after the movie was over I was grooving on Huey Lewis’ “Back in Time” and watching the credits roll when I noticed the name Ron Cobb beside the words, “DeLorean Time Travel Consultant”. What does that even mean? I did a quick search and found Ron Cobb’s website and wikipedia entry. It turns out he designed the concept for the DeLorean Time Machine. I also learned that unfortunately, he died just last year on his 83rd birthday, from complications of Lewy body dementia. From Wikipedia:

Ronald Ray Cobb (September 21, 1937 – September 21, 2020) was an American-Australian artist. As well as being an editorial cartoonist he worked on numerous major films including Dark Star (1974), Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Back to the Future (1985), The Abyss (1989), Total Recall (1990), and Southland Tales (2006). He had one credit as director, for the 1992 film Garbo.

It’s really neat to see the prop schematics for the DeLorean Time Machine. It’s extra fascinating to read all the names of the different time travel components. Be sure to check out the original design of the flux capacitor.

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Categories
pandemic

Dying in the Name of Vaccination Freedom

The people in this video confound me. I don’t understand how anyone who is in the ICU and literally dying of Covid can still think the vaccine isn’t necessary for all eligible.

(Via Kottke )

Categories
Apple finance

Apple Financial Results Q3 2021

Yesterday Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2021 third quarter ended June 26, 2021.

Its latest financial results included $81 billion in revenue, the best third quarter in the company’s history. In fact, Apple has reported record revenue for each of the last four quarters.

Here are the Q3 Six Color Charts.

Categories
bad review revue

The Bad Review Revue

The Tomorrow War: “But if I had a time machine, I’d punt myself to the past just before The Tomorrow War went into production, and save everyone the trouble.” — Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

Space Jam: A New Legacy: “Here’s the thing about basketball: It is extremely watchable. Here’s the thing about Space Jam: A New Legacy: It’s not.” — Mary Sollosi, Entertainment Weekly

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions: “The best thing about the ‘Escape Room’ film series is that it gives audience members clear directions in the title about what they should immediately do: Escape. Room.” —Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

Great White: “You want the sharks to win.” — Emily Breen, HeyUGuys

Die in a Gunfight: “Mostly an uninspired drag, and perhaps the first ‘Romeo and Juliet’ adaptation where viewers will side with the exasperated parental characters.” — Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard: “It saps your will to live.” — Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine

Casanova, Last Love: “I spent most of Casanova, Last Love not hoping the guy gets the girl but hoping the girl gets away safely.” — David Bax, Battleship Pretension

Categories
family history

Benjamin Franklin Milner

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin Milner
Frank Milner

My great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Milner is buried beside his wife Ella in the Temple Hill Cemetery1 near Raymond, Ab. I remember we’d always take the time to check out his gravestone whenever we visited there but even my dad is too young to have known Frank, since my dad was born 18 years after he died. It’s not surprising though because my Great Grandpa Milner was really old. For some perspective, he was born seven years before the start of the American Civil War and another full 40 years before Utah achieved statehood.

I don’t know too much about Frank except what I’ve read in the excerpt below from p.196-198 of Valiant in the Faith, with spelling corrections, notes, and links added by me.

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  1. My grandpa Marshall used to jokingly call it Boot Hill. Boot Hill is the name or nickname of many cemeteries in the old west with reputations for the number of men that died with their boots on (presumably involving gun play or hangings). The Raymond cemetary was called Temple Hill because of the hope and plans by the folks in Raymond to have the first latter-day saint temple built there—ultimately the Alberta Temple got built in Cardston much to the multigenerational disappointment of the locals in Raymond. I guess a cemetery is the next best thing?[↩]
Categories
life

Going Out Again

It’s been two weeks since my second shot and the other night a few friends and I went out for a drink together. We went INSIDE the establishment! It actually felt a little bit awkward wearing our masks in around all the mostly full tables as the patrons imbibed but it felt natural to drop the mask and for that night anyway, as far as we were concerned the pandemic is over.

Of course it’s not over, but that first taste of normalcy felt great.

Categories
Miscellaneous

Lobster Diver Swallowed by a Whale

Michael Packard, the Lobster diver that found himself in the mouth of a whale did a Reddit Ask Me Anything:

I’m a lobster diver who recently survived being inside of a whale. AMA!
byu/bloxiefox inIAmA

He also survived a small plane crash and another time found a human body while diving.

Categories
Apple

WWDC 2021

Apple hosted its World Wide Developer’s Conference (day 1) today. As much as I think a career in coding would have been good for me, I really only dabble as an amateur programmer. Nevertheless I love the keynote.

Here’s the summary video from Day 1:

Categories
pandemic

Maxinated

I got my second shot of COVID-19 vaccine just 10 minutes ago. I signed up for the Pfizer mRNA vaccine but they said all they had was Moderna so that’s what I got.

Categories
Science

What Would You Do with an Extra Thumb?

According to a new study led by UCL researchers, robotic third thumb use can alter brain representation of the hand.

The team trained people to use a robotic extra thumb and found they could effectively carry out dextrous tasks, like building a tower of blocks, with one hand (now with two thumbs). The researchers report in the journal Science Robotics that participants trained to use the thumb also increasingly felt like it was a part of their body.

[…]

Before and after the training, the researchers scanned participants’ brains using fMRI, while the participants were moving their fingers individually (they were not wearing the Thumb while in the scanner). The researchers found subtle but significant changes to how the hand that had been augmented with the Third Thumb (but not the other hand) was represented in the brain’s sensorimotor cortex. In our brains, each finger is represented distinctly from the others; among the study participants, the brain activity pattern corresponding to each individual finger became more similar (less distinct).

A week later, some of the participants were scanned again, and the changes in their brain’s hand area had subsided, suggesting the changes might not be long-term, although more research is needed to confirm this.

It wpuld be interesting to see if such a device actually made everyday life easier.