See my “Lost in Space” missive below.
Things that go ***BOOM*** in the night…
CTV News-Toronto: Meteor over Ontario caught by ‘global asteroid warning’ startles some with loud boom
Jerusalem Post: Most energetic gamma-ray burst confirms Israeli researchers’ predictions
S.G. Howe: The Scary Truth About NASA’s ‘Smiling Sun’ Photo
The image, which is depicted in ultraviolet radiation, actually shows what are known as “coronal holes,” beams of electrically-charged solar wind that “can cause severe disruptions to the atmosphere of Earth,” according to University of California physics professor Brian Keating.
Each eye and the mouth of the sun’s “smile” are patches of the star’s outer layer that have cooled by a few hundred degrees, Keating said…
So what do a few sections of slightly-cooled, slightly-less-dense gas mean for Earth-dwellers?
When the gusts of wind hit our planet’s atmosphere, they can cause beautiful auroras as the sun’s particles and Earth’s gases intertwine — but they also have the potential to be incredibly disruptive to telecommunications. It would take a significant amount of electrically-charged particles from the sun’s offshoots to reach Earth, but enough exposure could be read by antennae and interrupt television, radio, and other forms of communication, per Keating. In a severe scenario, the solar wind blast could impact electrical grids, leading to power outages…
Jess Thomson: Powerful Bombs and Solar Snake Appear on Surface of Sun
Ain’t no amount of abandoning ‘fossil fuels’ is going to stop this global warming/climate change…
NASA: NASA’s Webb Catches Fiery Hourglass as New Star Forms
The more we discover the more we realize how little we actually know…
Faisal Rasool: Starquakes Could Be The Cause Of This Strange Cosmic Conundrum
VIDEO: Scientists Say We May Have Already Found a Spacetime Traveling Worm Hole and Not Realized It
Meanwhile, what could possibly go horribly wrong…
Michelle Starr: Scientists Created a Black Hole in The Lab, And Then It Started to Glow
Ouch…
ELE…
Joshua A. Krisch: Scientists just found a hidden 6th mass extinction in Earth’s ancient past
UFOS and ALIENS:
Boats below??
Window reflection?
Diana Logan: Mom and Son Catch Video of a Trio of UFOs Outside Their Plane Window
Sci-Fi:
I just finished binge-(re-)watching the three seasons of the old TV series “Lost in Space” this week. Day-ummm that was a lot of episodes! I loved the series when I was a kid, but kids, atleast back in them-thar days, didn’t recognize or realize absurdity so easily. And that absurdity actually increased with the progressing episodes in the second season and well through the third and final season. I can see why, after three seasons, lead actor Guy Williams who played the dad and captain of the Jupiter 2 didn’t want to do another season of the series. It had slipped with adult viewers but the child demographic grew. However, the creator of the series did not want to keep spending the costly budget on the TV show just for kids.
Anyhow, each season the Robinsons found themselves having to leave whatever ‘Earthling habitable’ alien planet they had spent that TV season on because that particular planet was going to be destroyed. In the start of the next season(s) the hapless crew would find themselves on yet another ‘habitable’ alien planet … that coincidentally closely resembled the previous one.
In each season the non-indigenous aliens that would happen onto the Robinson’s planet were ridiculously “human”-like, breathing the same atmosphere mix AND speaking ‘the kings’ Earthly English. Not only that, but they knew and used our Earthly names for star systems, and even planet Earth, most saying they’d visited it but weren’t willing to take them (or mostly Dr. Smith) home. Neither did John Robinson or Maj. Don West bother to have any of these aliens map out an astronomical map for them to try to get back to Earth … The one chance they did have they were nearly there and of course Dr. Smith (the most eager to return home) F-ed it all up and they went down the next trek of their misadventures. Some of the aliens resembled humans from various Earth eras. A couple implied they themselves were Earthlings that had been snatched by aliens visiting Earth. Some implied they were the real mythical ‘gods’ of human lore. Others were diabolical aliens of various humanoid likeness or weirdo alien constructs. But today I am struck by the fact the creators and producers of the sci-fi series never once depicted the legendary “greys” aliens people across Earth have claimed to have encountered here. Just cartoonish depictions, as I said, that typically could speak English … or “Robot” could instantly translate.
The story of the Robinson family was a very loose re-adaptation (obviously) of “The Swiss Family Robinson” story.
Well, I have a few qualms about some of the family behavior that was, at times, even more ridiculous than the aliens.
Today’s #WOKE environment will likely catch up with this old TV show to bitch and moan over the sexism and misogyny therein. The mother and two daughters were mostly left to the menial homemaker duties and tending the hydroponic garden that in no way could sustain these people like it did. The young son made no bones about chiding his sister that she was incapable of being intellectually scientific because, well, “you’re just a girl”.
On the subject of young Will Robinson, at his very young age he came and went without a “by your leave” of either parent, even after being told to stay at/in the ship. Of course he would be tagging along with the stowaway Dr. Smith, and they would inevitably get into dire troubles on their middle of the night outings, with Mom and Dad sitting comfortably back at the spaceship sipping coffee and casually bemoaning their son’s disappearance and disobedience. We are supposed to believe it was all Dr. Smith’s bad influence on the kid. However, it showed the absence of parental influence on him.
A couple other things I noticed …
1. There’s an implied romance between Maj. West and the oldest daughter Judy Robinson, but outside of flirty small-talk and sweet batting of eyes at each other there was barely a hand-hold, let alone even a peck on the cheek. Late in season 3 there’s an episode where somehow the future is revealed and we see Judy’s offspring and must assume she and Maj. West had been married (probably by Capt. John Robinson).
2. You get the deep feelings John and wife Maureen have for each other, yet, they were limited to loving words and deep glares at each other, never even a peck on the forehead or cheek. Was this a no PDAs some TV network morality standard in order to keep it strictly “family fare”? *shrug*
3. Where (and why) in Hell did the Robinsons have so much useless junk along on the spaceship? Even Dr. Smith … who had originally been a spy and was supposed to only be very temporarily aboard the Jupiter 2 to quickly sabotage it, and then leave, but ended up being accidently locked on board and launched when he stayed too long … had a lot of personal stuff on the ship? To show the absurdity of this clutter the family and Smith had to clear out piles of stuff to lighten the load to preserve fuel so the ship had more of a chance for their take-off from the first alien planet that was about to implode at the end of season 1. In season 2 and 3 the junk they had managed to still keep was evident, including stage sets and theater costumes, etc. **facepalm** I can see why Guy Williams had had enough by season 3 and was done with it.
4. OHHHH!!! And I nearly forgot, out of all the beings and humanoids the Robinsons ran into on the obscure alien planet … Dr. Smith’s Cousin Jeremiah Smith roaming space as a galactic gambler?? Seriously??? These five Jupiter 2 crew members can’t find their way to Earth or Alpha Centauri but Smith’s deeply indebted gambler cousin from Earth is star-hopping easily and simply just doesn’t want to head back to Earth even though he knows where the “F” it is?
When the 1998 “Lost in Space” film came out the relationship details and behaviors were a bit more grown-up, and gender roles more modern with females obviously ‘liberated’ into their own and more ingrained with irrefutable strength and intellect, not relegated to tending to meals, laundry and gardening. They were a real purposeful part of the mission.
In the 2018 Netflix version of “Lost in Space” (3 seasons) the whole dynamic was turned totally on its head…
1. Wife Maureen, not husband John, was the leader of the Jupiter 2 mission, and that spaceship was just one of several ships heading off to colonize other worlds. Maureen would often make the wrong decision but I’m not sure it was a failure of ability, or her feminist ego in the face of her disagreeing husband getting the better of her judgement.
2. Oldest offspring, Judy, was a mixed-race child from Maureen’s previous relationship before John. And Mr. and Mrs. Robinson’s current relationship was on shaky ground.
3. Judy was the crew’s brain-trust, with her half-siblings Penny and Will experts in their own scientific fields and responsibilities.
4. Maj. West wasn’t even part of the Jupiter 2 crew but was a space smuggler they ended up needing and brought him along later in the first season.
5. “Robot” was not from Earth. It was an alien mechanical entity that Will discovered crashed in it’s own spaceship on the first planet they’d crashed on (with other spaceships and crews) and was able to tame and modify to serve alongside the family.
6. Dr. Smith was now a very unstable sociopath female who had committed murder to gain access to the Jupiter 2 and stowaway in her escape from the authorities (In the original 1965 TV series it’s left up to the viewer to decide if that male spy ‘Dr. Smith’ had indeed murdered the guard to access the Jupiter 2 to sabotage it and ended up being an unwilling stowaway) but was more, locked-down and contained/watched by the Jupiter 2 crew than the crew did with Dr. Smith in the original TV series. He was allowed to continue to roam and screw-up freely each and every episode. While the 1960s TV original turned evil spy Dr. Smith into a bumbling overgrown child scared of his own shadow and leaning on Will Robinson for unconditional companionship, the Netflix version of the female Dr. Smith is a continual malevolent manipulative character who seeks to not just win over Will Robinson as a friend and ally but as a tool to get to control of the ‘robot’, the ship and the mission.
7. Little, if any, campiness in this version of the Robinson saga. Female ‘Smith’ has her quirks, and “Don West” is less “stick-up-his-butt” and more scoundrel, which off-sets the “Judy” character’s no-nonsense overly focused seriousness.
Yeah, I’ve watched all versions of “Lost in Space”.
Midnight Reviews: The 10 Worst Lost in Space Episodes
My next ‘binge’ will be to first re-watch the 1998 “Lost in Space” movie (has been awhile since), where some of the original TV’s cast members have cameo appearances, and then to re-watch the three season Netflix series that so far is “canceled” and no season 4 on the nebula horizon.
The Universal Spectator 
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