Lexomatic

The announcement of fusion at the National Ignition Facility doesn't mean much: the 3 MJ of fusion energy were produced by 2 MJ of laser energy but required 300 MJ of grid energy. Moreover, laser-confinement techniques aren't considered as practical as magnetic confinement in tokamaks, as with the ITER project sited in France. (The NIF was actually built as a form of nuclear-weapons testing, not for power generation.) So there's nothing new for China to steal. For "what does the breathless non-science news coverage actually mean?", see: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/what-enabled-the-big-boost-in-fusion-energy-announced-this-week/ The "wormhole" announced a few weeks back was a very abstract, simplified simulation in a quantum computer; it's no good for macroscale transport, let alone a communications link. See: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/no-physicists-didnt-make-a-real-wormhole-what-they-did-was-still-pretty-cool/

Details: 2022 August 18 (Thursday) 21:00 (Japan time) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x0vDmy1gJ4 On the official "MACROSS ch" channel, via the "SHOWROOM" conference platform Max viewership ~1,450 Length ~2 hours Hosted by: Nozomi Nishida (seiyuu, Makina Nakajima) Hidetaka Tenjin Judges (not named in the YouTube summary, and I haven't translated the onscreen identifying cards) Promotions for: Home video release of "Macross Delta the Movie: Zettai LIVE!!!!!!" / "Theatrical Short Film Macross F ~ Labyrinth of Time ~" on September 28 Concert "Walkure FINAL LIVE TOUR 2023 ~Last Mission~" in 2023 May 20 (Sat) and 21 (Sun) VF-25F Messiah Ranka Lee some modeling supplies VF-1 with grenade armor Regult with missile pods Fighter nose collection: YF-29 Alto Saotome Fighter nose collection: YF-29 Max Jenius Fighter nose collection: VF-31F Messer Fighter nose collection: VF-31J Hayate Plamax 1/72 VF-1A/S with red/black stripes (fighter mode only?) more modeling supplies Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31AX Kairos Plus The bulk of the stream was devoted to the "Macross Modelers 6th Plamodel Photo Contest," with commentary/reactions by the hosts (and entrants?). There were three groups of photos, so I surmise it was the finalists, winners, and then all >260 entries. Mecha, human figures, scratch builds, dioramas, egg fighters, anime-textured paint jobs. Lots of Regults, not many Glaug.

Summary of attendance for the three Fathom Events "Macross" movies (I'll edit this post and update the table as reports accumulate and/or I re-scan the forums to add/verify details.) Schema: Locations are obtained from the user-profile or as hinted in a post, and I've translated to major market area (MMA). Username with asterisk means "checked the online seating reservation, but did not attend." Codes: "nr" post but a value was not reported, "na" no post. Rows are sorted by time-sequence of report, not username or location. In lieu of direct HTML control with TABLE or PRE, I've formatted this table using the fixed-width Courier New font (at 12 points, otherwise the rows wrap) and column padding as CHR(160), i.e., the non-breaking space; this facilitates transfer to a text editor or spreadsheet of your choice, unlike an image of my spreadsheet. Findings: There were many more reports for "Macross Plus" in December than for "Macross Frontier" in June. Username Location(MMA) MacPlus MacF_1 MacF_2 blackconvoy_D01 8 na na Kelsain Erie PA nr na na Metal_Massacre_79 ?? 11 na na jvmacross 3 na na NightmarePlus ~20 na na snakerbot Houston TX 8 na na TehPW Cleveland OH 10 na na jealous37 12 na na Knight26 Tucson AZ 8 na na DYRL VF-1S Denver CO nr na na HGSucks Oklahoma City OK 12 na na Corrinald 5 na na 100mega San Antonio TX nr na na Britai 7018 San Francisco CA ~50 na na Boobytrap ~40 na na UN Spacy San Francisco CA 6 na na Gaijin HI 8 <11 11 Rhubarbarian Los Angeles CA ~full na na Focslain Pittsburgh PA 8 na na EastwindS2k DC nr na na twich Spokane WA nr na na Shawn few na na Shawn * 15 na na Rogueload 6 na na Rock nr 5 na Seto Kaiba Detroit MI half nr 12 Lexomatic Phila PA na 4 4 Stampeed Valkyrie Allentown PA 9 12 na sharky Atlanta GA na 6 na darkranger12 na nr na kajnrig >20 nr ~25 M’Kyuun Spokane WA ~12 7 7 Master Dex na 7 na kazuo na ~20 ~10 Bolt Northern CA ~25 na na iguanaman8989 na na 7 Gamma00Ray New York NY na few few

So, "Macross Frontier the Movie II: Wings of Farewell" (2011), as screened in southeast Pennsylvania ... Again a four-person audience, but the three apart from myself were different than a fortnight ago. Younger than last time, one of them a woman, and she's a dedicated fan, subtype: character goods; showed me a picture of her display cabinets full of Sheryl, Ranka and Mylene. (I myself had brought a backpack of the Perfect Triangle Roman album, Macross R mook, etc.) The Regal staff had again to be reminded to start the stream, but no problems with the audio. It wasn't a thundering bass mix, but was entirely adequate to purpose. The movie was bookended by a voice actress greeting (only one of them this time), no ad for merchandise, and then a triplet of short music videos. "American fans, please consume Macross!" she urged, basically. Gee, Big West, it would be helpful if you gave us some hints how we might do so. Do you really have zero idea about marketing? Show us the URLs for the official site and YouTube channel. <rolls eyes>

Well, actually ... as of SNW episode 7, there's a character from ST5 who's been re-introduced, that being ... ... which is at least thematically consistent with the show's emphasis on "let's reinvent Spock and T'Pring's relationship." I'm waiting to see if they somehow insert Sarek and Amanda so that Pike knows all about Spock's family, even if Kirk doesn't; evidently Spock gets more circumspect between these two Enterprise tours.

Same here. Anyone who didn't know there's a second half would be left wondering "that's an odd place to end the plot." But there's probably no such person: who doesn't know the second half exists, who hasn't already found the listing on the Fathom Events. Fathom Events is all about "you're already familiar with this, now see it again / on the big screen for the first time" (The Fifth Element +25, G.I. Joe: The Movie +35, The Thing +40, ...). It's not a fatal disaster, given presumably low expectations to start with, but it's certainly a weird failure of marketing. I suppose we could provide feedback to www.fathomevents.com or its SNS channels, rather than just commiserate here. I mean, how many screens total were showing this? (You have search by location; there's no "all screenings" list.) Given the "under a dozen people" reports above for a sample of screens, it's probably under a thousand audience members, nationwide.

Responding briefly to @Seto Kaiba's response to my observation: yes, I know it's a compilation movie, and you know, but I'm pointing out that, given the constraints of the form, the pair aren't ideal as a standalone experience, and that became very obvious now that I've watched them (I've got the Japanese BD of Wings of Farewell, plus fansub). If you're trying to entice a friend into Macross, and they're unwilling to watch a whole TV series, this shorter rendition won't be entirely satisfying either. Follow-up pondering: what's the goal as a Fathom Event? Presumably not to appeal to the tiny, tiny fraction of the U.S. population who are already fans. It can't serve the purpose of theatrical distribution in Japan, which is to promote the home video and ancillary merchandise. Is Big West testing the waters of U.S. cinematic distribution? Was this a practice run for the Delta movies? Did Big West get a really good price, given the struggling state of the U.S. cinema market? Flip side: Is Fathom Events desperate for name-recognition content?

Just got out of my local Fathom Events screening (southeast PA/north DE happens to be well supplied with options, and the nearest location is my home Regal multiplex, just a few minutes away). There were three other audience members. Demographics: all of us were male, age 40-plus. We had to remind the Regal crew to actually start the projector: "7:00? It starts at 7:20, with ads. Wait, you've got a blank screen?" Pre-roll, there were a couple of cheery statements by the voice actresses for Ranka and Sheryl, and an ad for the so-called "proplica" interactive-electronic toy versions of their microphones, but no other merch. The BIGWEST logo displayed, but that was it; not the usual vanity parade of a half-dozen production committee members, and definitely no Harmony Gold USA. Post-movie was a static card reminding us about Fathom Events, but nothing about part 2 ("The Wings of Farewell") in two weeks. Movie comments: I've seen the TV series, I'm familiar with the plot, and I've got the Roman album for the visuals, but this is the first I've seen this movie adaptation. Viewed critically, as part one of a two-part story, it doesn't effectively establish all of the points of conflict ... We know that Galaxy (*) is up to skulduggery, and they're fond of cybernetics, but it's not yet established there's a cabal behind Grace. Ranka and Sheryl's song is somehow linked to the Vajra, but we don't know why that's important. We know that Galaxy and Frontier are in a race for the Vajra homeworld, but not why (since, in isolation, the movie doesn't mention humanity's mad scramble to survive via supertech). Presidential aide Leon looks shifty, but that's the only sign the Frontier government-military-industrial complex might not be lily-white. The Vajra themselves aren't compelling as an adversary: they're big and dangerous, but they've got no personality, and "kaiju property destruction" is a bit abstract -- "hey, mass funeral for 280 people we don't know." The climax of this chapter is that Ranka realizes the Vajra are after her, but neither she nor anyone else understands that the Vajra consider it a rescue (that inversion comes in part two). (*) If you're not familiar with the naming conventions of the emigration fleets nor the scale of the milieu, "Galaxy" will be confusing. "Wait, so the Frontier fleet is in competition with the entire galaxy? Is that a human galaxy or aliens?"

If I might interject on the contours of the current debate: I concur that the Protoculture doctrine behind the Zentraedi doesn't make sense, if you come at it with assumptions derived from "serious" space-opera and mil-SF like Star Trek, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Keith Laumer's Bolo novels, etc. [1]. If the over-the-top scale of Zentraedi forces is a satire of real world nuclear-MAD overkill (to name one facet), then it might originate in the original conception of Macross as a parody of Gundam, in which case the proper interpretation is more in line with the British-1980s-satire stance for Warhammer 40,000 or Judge Dredd. (Where "originate" would mean "post-hoc rationalization compatible with ideas from 1982, but rejected at the time.") As a viewer it's very easy to be unaware of the Protoculture doctrine, because it's mentioned on-screen only a few times (when the human characters are lucky enough to encounter a Protoculture relic with storytelling on its mind) and is otherwise revealed in video games and "setting materials" like Macross Chronicle, relayed to us through the good services of @Seto Kaiba et al. Most of the time, the narrative focus is elsewhere, and the only discernible reason for most elements is "rule of cool." FWIW, the story of "human strategic planners and historians (none of them romantic nor singers) who interview Zentraedi officers, study Protoculture relics, discover the true horrific scale and callousness of the original plans for the Protoculture's civil war" seems more doujinshi territory than anything we'll see on TV or in a Macross R-style official written form. Imagine Captain Picard faced with the Protoculture's decision to create "an entire race of disposable people." [1] ... Star Wars (some of the novels, not really the movies, although the TV series sometimes consider the ethics of the Republic's clone army), David Weber [2], John Ringo, Sean Williams and Shane Dix, or the Jack McKinney Robotech novelizations (which are a different beast than the TV series which had to make-do with existing footage). [2] The third book of Weber's Dahak/Empire from the Ashes series reveals a premise akin to that of Macross: the Achuultani have been sweeping around the galaxy for millions of years in a state of cultural stasis, exterminating everybody, because their war computer is justifying its own continued operation.

For the moon (0:16), it resembles Mimas, the "Death Star" moon of Saturn -- I'm guessing that's a recent bombardment crater (by somebody's superweapon) with four concentric walls of ejecta. FWIW, the first caption line 演習1日目 reads "exercise first day" -- I thought it might be the name of the body. Yamato 2199 et seq. has put some effort into its astronomical realism -- at 1:57, on Day 7, they seem to be conducting exercises around a pulsar. Also, I don't care for the animation of the space fighters: IMHO, it's too Macross-y for this milieu. (My benchmark in this respect are the Starfuries from Babylon 5.) The Cosmo Pythons (that's the new-model Earth fighter, according to Yamato superfan site OurStarblazers.com) ignite engines and are instantly at full speed (0:45), rather than accelerating; they've got RCS thrusters but aren't consistently showing "thrust/counterthrust" (0:50), and make aerodynamic-style moves without thrusters (0:52, 1:06) such as scissoring/swooping (1:04). I do like that the console displays at 0:39 are more concise than in Macross.

The awkward helmet-plus-cuirass (with four Technic pin connections, two lateral and two downward) was introduced for divers in the "Atlantis" theme in 2011, and I agree this is an improvement for Space contexts: it's akin to the two-stud trans-clear neck-bracket used in "Chima" to affix wings to the Eagle-tribe figs. Hasbro's KRE-O had something similar (neck-bracket with four studs) for the Transformers minifigs, several years ago. They're both more versatile than the MMU-style backpack-with-handgrips from CS in the late 1980s. I don't care for the medium-azure color, though; I'd prefer a neutral white or light-bley. For the windscreens, the trans-light-blue hue isn't very exciting. Set 60349 is clearly inspired by the NASA "Lunar Gateway" station and corresponding Orion spacecraft, whose service module has four solar panels in a cruciform arrangement. Hmm. We've had plenty of STS, but have any of the recent City spaceport sets inspired by the misbegotten SLS launcher? I try to avoid thinking about its particular configuration and distinctive features. On the station, the far-left end is the 4x4 curved-corner plate introduced for the Super Mario sets. The EVA'ing astronaut is wielding a power drill, which is funny considering the "oops, there's a hole in this newly-launched Roscosmos module of the ISS, so let's blame a U.S. astronaut" scandal over the past year. A power driver would be a more likely tool, but that element is found in a bagged tool-cluster, and who needs a 4-way lug wrench on a space station?

I've recently started working through the SpeakerPodCast's back catalog during my thrice-weekly walking-trail exercise. Always fascinating, but to supply context and improve comprehensibility, might I suggest: At the start of each episode, state the date you're recording it. The publication date is metadata, but I don't necessarily look at the metadata if I'm letting my iPhone iterate through my podcast queue. Also at the start: what's the current state of emergency in Tokyo, and how has that impacted moving out-and-about? When name-dropping, help those of us who aren't so plugged-in to the industry and physical layout of Japan: People: "So-and-so, director of Series-PQR and Series-STU" Musicians: They tend to have weird names that a listener might not recognize when spoken. "Who's Main? Oh, May'n, the vocalist for Sheryl Nome. I thought it was pronounced May-uhn." Projects: "Title-XYZ, a TV series from 2007" Locations: "Held at Site-JKL, a small event venue in the basement of a department store in Gotanda ward, Tokyo" Each episode has an agenda but the actual direction of the conversation is seat-of-the-pants, so please keep in mind, "if we allude to XYZ, how much context (who/what/when/where/why) do listeners need, to understand why XYZ is significant?" If you realize during editing that clarification is needed, insert an explanation: "In this next section we talk about the production team for ABC: person 1, person 2, and person 3, whom we've met at several publicity events over the past five years, so they're willing to share extra details with us."

Haven't fully screened 3.0+1.0 on Prime Video yet, but I've skimmed it. (I've been screening the Rebuild movies with my parents for lack of another audience with whom to share the cinematic experience, and 2.5 hours is potentially a slog for them. If you think you're confused, try explaining Hideaki ANNO's obscurantism to a couple of senior citizens whose main exposure to anime is Studio Ghibli films.) Initial thoughts:

IMHO, the story (*) of Evangelion is first and foremost about character growth (i.e., transcending the "hedgehog's dilemma") so the civil and mecha engineering isn't the point, but I agree that the magnitude in the Rebuild movies strained credulity. My partial-head canon is that: Some of the NERV mega-installations were repurposed Progenitor facilities (to give a name to the aliens who seeded Earth with the so-called White and Black Moons). Post-N3I and post-SEELE, Gendo and Fuyutski used Progenitor automated manufactories that had been included in the seed packages, whose instructions were part of the so-called Apocrypha to the Dead Sea Scrolls. WILLE didn't build the AAA Wunder, but they did refit it. (Originally I speculated that it was a leftover Progenitor ship -- as in Nadia -- but the final movie gives a different *spoiler* origin.) They tapped a whole lot of international NERV materiel that Gendo wasn't using. (*) The story is about character growth, but the money is in the character goods: muscular mecha and cute protagonists.

Re: the sequence in which humanity learns about the Protoculture Epoch: some is revealed in the episodes, but are additional (and less cinematic) details provided by the setting materials? Are we told of a NUNS Ministry of Xenoarchaeology on Earth that coordinates research reports from the emigrant fleets? Which works with diplomats to gain access to Protoculture ruins in sovereign (Zolans, Windermereans, etc.) and emigrant fleet quasi-sovereign planetary claims? (As a premise, this bears similarities to elements of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, but with a much larger cast of players. Yeah, that's probably the domain of doujinshi or at best cast audio dramas, rather than official animations. Romance between middle-aged bureaucrats in rival ministries -- who are not threatened with daily violent death -- fighting great battles over funding priorities -- and singing karaoke!) In DYRL, it's "yay, we defeated Boddole Zer! But the galaxy has a thousand other fleets just as dangerous." In Macross 7, Exedol almost goes catatonic when he infers the Protodeviln have broken loose -- but there's no indication he had proactively warned humanity that "we might encounter this threat." Later, the fleet discovers the Protoculture infodump-installation. In Frontier, we learn there are "research" fleets -- presumably their remits would be astronomy, superdimension pathfinding, exobiology, xenoarchaeology and "this seems to be a regular Zentraedi patrol route." In Delta, the galaxy-telepathic network hijacked by the Windermere-Epsilon cabal has been interpreted by fans to be a last-ditch effort by a Protoculture remnant, but we don't get dates.