Martian Trip Video Posted

I posted a new video this week about my trip to Mars. I didn't actually go to Mars to make it. The video began as a short story I wrote for a class I took on conversational Mandarin, so the narration is in Mandarin. There are English subtitles though.

My new trip to Mars video is now posted at:

http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my-trip-to-mars/ , and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqpdEFnbeoM

After my wife died last year, her brother took her remains back to China for burial. My wife and I agreed to that before she died. My brother-in-law invited me to visit to see her grave. I didn't speak any Mandarin and was worried about travelling there on my own. I decided to take a class to learn some of the language.

We had to write, and present, a short story in Mandarin. It was supposed to be only five sentences long. Mine ended up as six, but no one complained.

I'm still not very confident about my pronunciation, and I have trouble remembering words. After I recorded the audio, I asked some Mandarin speaking friends review it. I had to rerecord part of it.

I used some images of the Earth and Mars from the NASA website. They are in the public domain. I only needed one image of the Earth. I used several images of the Martian surface. To make them more visually interesting, I did either a pan or a zoom to give some motion. I had created a star-scape for another project, and I used that as the background for the full planet images.

In my original version, I used an image from the movie "The Martian". The image was exactly what I wanted, but since it wasn't public domain, I decided I needed something else. I tried several approaches before I found something I liked. Like the other images, I have an image of the Martian surface pan across the screen. I added a video of an eye blinking, so as to appear as if an astronaut was looking through a visor.

I wanted to add some background sound to the narration. NASA created audio files of the sounds that different planets and the Sun make. I think they convert the radio waves they produce to make the sound. I used sounds for the Earth, The Sun, and Mars.

I did sneak in a bit of an Easter egg. Only one person has mentioned it so far.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Should I create my own conspiracy Theory? The Other Earth Conspiracy.

I've had an interest in conspiracy theories for a long time, even though I am very sceptical about them in general. I've been tempted to create my own conspiracy theory for fun and profit. I've hesitated to do that because I was afraid that people might take it seriously.

Years ago I got interested in the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. At first I kept an open mind, but, as I learned more about the theories, I began to think they were just too implausible to be true. My thoughts on the conspiracy theory led me to make my movie "Who Shot the President". http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/filmlist/who-shot-the-president/

"Who Shot the President" resulted in more threats than money, but more people have watched that than any of my other movies. I didn't like the threats, but I could see that there was a great deal of interest in the topic. Like any other filmmaker, I do want to find an audience and there is clearly one that looks for conspiracy theories.

In the past I hesitated to pursue conspiracy theories in my movies for a couple of reasons.

First, I don't want to trick people to get them to watch my movies. To me, that seems very dishonest. If I take that route I would feel I have abandoned the reasons that I wanted to make movies in the first place. It wasn't just to make money, although that would be nice. I wanted to say something of value.

Second, I worry that some people might take my conspiracy theory seriously. Even some very outrageous conspiracy theories have their adherents. Even if presented as broad satire, some people will still want to believe.

Despite these concerns I've developed a fake conspiracy theory.

The Other Earth Conspiracy

A conspiracy needs a good name, to catch people's attention. The theory is about NASA, but I can't call it the NASA Conspiracy, because there are already plenty of conspiracies about NASA. For now I'll call it The Other Earth Conspiracy. That sounds lame to me, but maybe I can come up with a better name later.

The theory is based on some strange behaviours on the part of NASA. I've listed those below.

1. NASA has begun to search for other earths

NASA has for the last 20 or so years supported the research of astronomers in their search for extra solar planets. They have a website devoted to this work:

"Planet Quest - The Search for Another Earth" at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/

While the stated reason for this research is scientific curiosity, the question that comes to mind is, "What is the big rush?" After all, it may be millennia before we could ever actually visit them.

2. NASA has developed plans for a warp drive space ship

Most of us of heard of warp drive from the "Star Trek" TV programs and movies. They use warp drive as a plot device to get the characters from one solar system to another quickly so the crew can have a new adventure every week.

The idea seems like a pretty far out science fiction invention. However, NASA has designed a space ship that uses warp drive. See: "NASA Reveals Latest Warp-Drive Ship Designs" at http://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-reveals-latest-warp-drive-ship-designs

As with the search for another earth, we have to ask the question, "What is the big rush?" So far as we know, no one has even demonstrated that warp drive is even possible.

3. NASA has wasted a lot of money

In recent years it seems like every one criticises NASA for inefficiency, mismanagement, and waste. Here are a few samples:

·         GAO: True Cost of SLS, Orion Unclear http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/40610gao-true-cost-of-sls-orion-unclear

·         More Wasteful EPO Spending at NASA http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/01/more-wasteful-e.html

·         NASA: James Webb Space Telescope to Now Cost $8.7 Billion http://www.space.com/12759-james-webb-space-telescope-nasa-cost-increase.html

·         $4 billion over budget, four years past schedule: Meet Northrop's problem program http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/fedbiz_daily/2014/04/4-billion-over-budget-four-years-past-schedule.html?page=all

What is odd, is that NASA used to have a very good reputation. Remember, who else besides NASA has promised the Moon and delivered?

What happened to NASA? Now it seems like they can't even do anything without massive cost over runs. Can that really be true?

One begins to wonder, "Are these projects really that badly run?" Could it be that these projects are just a front? Could it be that the money is actually spent on other, secret, projects?

4. NASA is a leader in the study of global warming

One of NASA's activities is the study of Earth's climate. See: http://climate.nasa.gov/. Many people have expressed scepticism about global warming, and say NASA exaggerates the danger.

But a recent study paints a very different picture. The authors of "Climate change prediction: Erring on the side of least drama?" found that scientists have tended to under estimate and under play the effects of global warming. For example the shrinkage of the Arctic polar icecap has been much greater than even the worst case scenario.

The original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378012001215, but since it is behind a pay wall, you can read about some of the results at: http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-scientists-esld.html.

The question that comes to mind is, "Why does NASA want to downplay the threat of global warming?" Are they just too cautious, or could there be a more frightening explanation?

What are we to make of all of this? Possibly they are nothing but a collection of unrelated facts. But, they might also point to a conspiracy. There are a lot of unanswered questions about NASA is up to.

• Could it be that they have discovered that human life on Earth is doomed?
• Could it be that they have abandoned any hope they can stop the inevitable?
• Could it be that they have planned an escape for the elite and themselves?
• Could it be that they have started to build the warp drive space ship to escape?
• Could it be that they have started to look for another planet to escape to?
• Could it be that they have diverted money to pay for the escape?
• Could it be that they have down played the danger of global warming to keep the general population in the dark until it is too late?

This all seems too far fetched to be real. But who knows? Maybe, somewhere far out in space, a new earth orbits around a dim star in our sky, and around that new earth, astronauts from our old Earth have already looked down on their new home.

Warning: This is just an exercise in speculation and I don't believe that any of it is true. Please don't take it seriously.

I realize that this conspiracy theory is similar to "Alternative 3". See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_3

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog