Further Assimilations

It takes a certain kind of person to play World of Warcraft, yes. It takes another kind to try and figure out the geographical details of the place.

Azeroth's "Google Map" has been assembled at mapwow.com. For most of the game, players have explored two continents on that fantasy world (though at least one more is known to exist), but the actual map scale has never been revealed. Some time ago, I figured that one could record the time it takes to walk between two points on the map, and multiply that by the average walking speed of a hero laden with equipment, and come up with a fair estimate of the scale.

I'm far too lazy to do that, of course, but someone else wasn't, and neither was another person. Turns out that the "continent" of Kalimdor is about 4 miles wide... or around 41 square miles in size. For my Virginian friends, this is vaguely the size of the combined cities of Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

In a related note, this destroys a hypothesis I had made before about the shape of the world of Azeroth. The "world map" seen in the Burning Crusade game expansion must be considered an artistic rather than a faithful representation; and I argued that Azeroth was clearly flat, because there is no difference in the position of shadows between the northernmost and southernmost points of the continent at the same time of day and season. (The Greek Eratosthenes used the shadow trick to figure out the Earth's size in the 3rd century B.C.)

Unfortunately, if Kalimdor is around 10 miles long, then that's not enough distance for the shadow trick, and the question remains unresolved. Oh, well. Perhaps the Gnomes can develop a space vehicle and get some photographic evidence (there is indeed photography in WoW).

First day in two weeks I've felt halfway decent. My sleep was restful, the little headache pulses are gone, and I even had the initiative to get back to walking today. (Only 2/3 of a mile, because it got cold out, and I didn't bring a jacket this morning.)

Tonight I will be catching up on housework and bills, and of course giving my Mom a call to see how she's doing.

Was thinking more about the high-tech Captain Nemo today. If you dropped today's MacBook Pro in his workroom, I suspect that he'd figure out how to turn it on, and even use some of the software if there wasn't a login password. I expect he'd work out what the battery was, and might even be able to recharge it using the technology of his time. I'm sure he could work out the basic concept of the motherboard, and I'll even grant that he could reverse-engineer the simpler peripheral protocols with enough brute force, time, and care.

I'm fairly confident, though, that the LCD screen, integrated circuits, memory, and hard disk would be completely beyond him. At his technology level, any of them would have to be ripped apart and destroyed to achieve even a basic understanding of the principles involved. A magnetic storage medium might be within his imagination, but the ability to build another one just wouldn't exist yet.

(A few of the TNG and DS9 episodes annoyed me in this fashion, showing the heroes taking apart communicators and tricorders with utterly primitive tools. I'm convinced that one couldn't even crack the cases with less than highly specialized tools, and if one did, the contents would be largely integrated into a few non-user-serviceable bits. But that's just me.)

Perhaps Nemo could accomplish much with "black box" parts delivered by a mysterious supplier, much as the scientist-heroes of This Island Earth did. But could our justly-paranoid sea captain trust the source?

• 10:48 Reading BadAstronomer's live tweets of the launch of the space shuttle this morning. I love this Internets thing. #
• 10:50 Hating the fact that, due to the early EDT changeover, I'm getting up in the dark again :( #

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Really, I can't bear to watch this "UFO Files" program for another second.

Yes, I do indeed love the idea of flying saucers and extraterrestrial visitors, for the same reason I dig Atlantis and telekinesis; because it would be cool. But can I please have more than second-hand stories and photographs of indistinct blobs? Could I please please have some indisputable proof, something that could be used to convince almost anyone?

Sagan said "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," and I'm not going to argue with the man. I'm not here to debunk anyone. I want to hear the story that shakes the world. But it's going to take more than "I knew someone who had a friend who worked with a guy who swears he saw stuff in a government document of some kind."

• 09:02 @snidegrrl: great job acing that final - woo! #
• 09:03 Humid and warm this morning. Will be claening the apt. tonight, but got TSO tickets tomorrow! #
• 14:26 I am indoors. It is 75 degrees outside right now. Why am I indoors? #
• 17:46 Thought my concert tickets had gone missing. Just found them again. BIG sigh of relief. #
• 23:11 Just watched Science Channel video of people doing repairs on the Empire State Building's spire. Vertigo- and nausea-inducing. #

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I quote the Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait:

"Most people are surprised — I was when I first heard — that Brian May is actually a scientist. He had just started working on his PhD thesis when he got distracted by his guitar playing in some band or another. But he knew was gonna be a big man someday."

His thesis is entitled Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, and it seems he now has his degree. I only hope the "Flight of the Hawkmen" theme played as he accepted the honors.

This is just... excellent.

I love E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series. Many of the reasons why I love it are succinctly expressed in the comments to this other user's LJ entry, in which jordan179 discusses all the SF cliches that Smith practically invented.

One of my favorite comments to the entry is: "When I read a lot of modern science fiction of the "doomed to disaster" variety, I often think that what the characters in the story need is an E. E. "Doc" Smith or John W. Campbell Engineer-Hero to come along and knock the problem on its head a few times." I talked about this in my "zombie horror" entry. Too many SF / Fantasy characters these days have already given up, and won't even try to do something about the horrible situation they're in.

This lead me to the following link: "The Doom that Came to Necropolis". Imagine a Cthulhu Mythos story starring a square-jawed man of Science! who won't be cowed by shadows in the dark...

Wil Wheaton is reviewing old ST: TNG episodes for a website known as TV Squad. He's just reviewed Justice, and my trivia sense tingled; Brenda Bakke, the half-naked actress who gleefully welcomes Worf as the "Huge One", also played Nim, the Texas Air Ranger in Gunhed.

This, of course, contributes nothing at all to your day.

Slighlty more interestingly, astronomer Phil Plait has posted that tonight's 9:35 launch of the Space Shuttle will be visible over most of the US' east coast. A link to a similar opportunity from '97 suggests that Norfolk viewers might be able to see the STS reach 12 degrees over the south-southeast horizon, while Roanoke area space buffs will only see the engine glow for 5 degrees (possibly discounting intervening mountains).

(I'll probably forget to go look, though.)

A year after having it loaned to me, I have finally picked up and read "Eldest" by Christopher Paolini. This book is the sequel to "Eragon", which I found to be enjoyable, if lacking in originality. "Eldest" is more of the same; I'd suggest it to any reader I know, with the caveat that they shouldn't expect anything mind-blowing. The writing is good, and the characters are interesting, which is more than many fantasy books can claim.

Still, one day I want to read a high fantasy novel where the elves are short-lived and highly industrial, if not technological. Perhaps the ancient lost civilization that left behind all the ruins and dungeons could be one of humans, or lizard men, or Things We Barely Understand instead of the freakin' elves again. And hey, how about hippie, type B dwarves that live simple lives of farming and woodcarving? You get my drift, here?

We lived through Ernesto - our house was never in danger, though I did lose power halfway through my morning webcomic troll. Driving to work was a dumb idea - two different blocks were flooded, and when the tires stop making the "zzziiiisssshhh" noise and begin making the "blubble-blurble-splep-blobble" noise, the water's too deep - but dumb luck saved me, and the drive home was a little better. The yard looks a bit battered, though.

The International Astronomers Union voted last week that Pluto isn't a full planet, but a "dwarf planet". They did this in part because Pluto's moon, Charon, is almost the same size as Pluto and might have deserved planet status; and a more distant body in our solar system, "2003 UB313", is even larger and might have been awarded the same privileges. "2003 UB313" has been nicknamed "Xena" by its discoverer, and no stuffy astronomers' group is going to sit still for "Planet Xena". (The nickname is unofficial, but may well stick.) (And yes, Xena has a satellite... Gabrielle.)

Pluto, Charon, Xena, and the asteroid Ceres all qualify for "dwarf planet" status under the IAU's new rules. I say Pluto still deserves the love, and we all know what's a planet and what's an asteroid, whatever they say. Manned mission to Planet Xena!

Podcast recommendations of the day: Taverncast, for WoW players; not only is the material useful and interesting, but it's presented in a very light-hearted, entertaining manner by the hosts. Also, Geek Counterpoint, for those with a science bent; much drier in tone, but still well-presented and interesting - my interest was caught by the episode on inflatable spacecraft. Seriously.

The Hyundai is very mad at me right now. The dash clock and stereo are cutting out intermittently (and separately), the a/c has stopped working (and with it, my defogger, which has made driving in the rain interesting), and my temperature gauge is running high. Given how much of the car is factory-sealed, that may mean a trip to the dealership. :(

I may finally attend a NekoCon this year, given that it's right on my doorstep and all. Thinking about it.

Ahh... a nice road-ragey morning. Rather than rant about it, though, I'm going to let it wash right over me.

After months of procrastination, I have cleaned up my office. There's a four-foot-square floor-to-ceiling stack of boxed books and models in one corner, but at least I can use the rest of the space now. I look forward to getting a real computer desk to replace the wheeled cart I'm using at the moment.

Jo and her son Danny and I watched "Cosmic Voyage" last night, which was a updated version of the classic "Powers of 10" educational film plus some material on the ongoing history of the universe. It was narrated by Morgan Freeman, so you couldn't go wrong. We were discussing the 'life on other planets' issue - with a hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone, it would be amazing if the intelligent life thing had only worked out one single time - and I brought up an article of faith on my part: cool science-fiction movies aside, any race which manages to reach the stars will have matured far beyond the desire to invade us, mutilate our cows, make circles in our fields, and probe our lower GI tracts. Jo pointed out quite correctly that we were close to reaching the stars, on a universal timescale, and we hadn't matured to that level yet; my heartfelt response was that if the human race doesn't put its house in order really damn soon, travelling to the stars will be quite the moot point.

I really could have sworn I had a lot more to talk about this morning. Maybe it was mostly the road-rage. Oh, well - if anything comes back to me, it's not like I won't be in front of a keyboard all day.