Monday, August 27, 2012

Neil Armstrong Dies at 82





The man that took one very small step that immediately propelled our dreams, visions, and hopes on a colossal  leap that would resonate for all of human history has passed away.  Neil Armstrong, the Apollo program astronaut that became the first human being to set foot on the surface of the Moon died Saturday from complications of heart surgery.
At 10:56 ET on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped down a ladder attached to the Eagle lander after the lander touched down on the Moon.  At touchdown, Armstrong sent the transmission, "Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed."  About six and one-half hours later, Armstrong stood on the surface of the Moon and uttered, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."  Fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin joined Neil Armstrong on the surface, placed a United States flag, conducted and set up some scientific experiments, then they rejoined the main spacecraft and returned to Earth with the third astronaut, Michael Collins.  None of them would return to space again.

I cannot think of any other person in the history of human space travel and exploration whose name will be remembered for the whole of whatever will come to pass in the future that lays before us as Neil Armstrong's will.

By his passing, we are diminished...may he rest in peace.




Peace...

M.D.
@michaeldunkle














Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Warhammer Quest Coming to an iPhone/iPad Near You!
















Warhammer is hitting the mobile gaming platform with a top down 3D version of Warhammer Quest, a classic boardgame that's a couple of decades old but getting a new spin for iOS.  Atomic MPC reported on the GW blog post that came out yesterday announcing the upcoming release.

The stills posted on the GW site are pretty nice...and it's great again to see GW embrace video game platforms, especially with ones like the iPad.

I have to agree with David Hollingworth on Atomic MPC...if GW brings us Space Hulk next, I'll grab that without a second thought!

Peace...

M.D.
@michaeldunkle

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Sci Fi Author Harry Harrison dies at 87



There inevitably will be some off-color jokes about Harry Harrison death at age 87 and whether or not Soylent Green 'is people,' but nevertheless the Sci Fi author that wrote Make Room! Make Room! (the novel that became the movie Soylent Green) and the Stainless Steel Rat series (the last book in the series just came out a couple of years ago) will be missed!



io9 compares Harrison to Douglas Adams in the realm of great space opera authors...the Stainless Steel Rat series spanned 12 novels and added arguably as much to the humorous science fiction genre as Adams' Hitchhiker's series did. 

Harry Harrison, great sci fi author, dead at 87...

Peace...

M.D.
@michaeldunkle


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Leviathans Review on Wired

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Leviathans-closeup.jpg 
Pretty cool review of the tabletop wargame Leviathans on Wired.com.  Basically this is a tactical tabletop with a steampunk airship theme.  While there is a hefty $99.00 price tag for the game, it does come with everything you need to start playing out of the box, including pre-painted airship minis (though let's be honest...if you don't flinch too badly at a WH40K or WHFB rulebook at $75+, and entire out-of-the-box playable game for $99 shouldn't scare you too much).  The game is being released by Catalyst Game Labs...famous for producing the current Battletech and Shadowrun universes

The reviewer suggests that this is kind of an in-between level game...board gamers may find the ruleset a bit daunting, while tabletop miniature gamers may find it a bit simplistic.  If this is the case, then I'm all for it - having a game system that spans both levels always has appeal in my book.

The boxed set comes with two fleets, British and French, and there are expansion sets for both fleets that will grow your fleet to larger battle groups.

Looks fun...and I'll have to keep an eye out for it at the local game shop!

Peace...

M.D.
@michaeldunkle

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Miniwargaming.com Hiring Nerds and Geeks Worldwide!

Like painting little plastic space men and creating gothic science fiction terrain?  Are you nerdy enough that you spend a lot of time taking pictures of the stuff you painted and even making videos about it?  Then have I got the job for you!



MiniWarGaming is hiring for content production employees...and you can do this from home!

Check out Matthew's video about the job...then get paid to bring out your inner geek!

Peace...

M.D.
@michaeldunkle

Following The Twitter Feed Of A Robot

A Facebook friend of mine said basically the same thing about this...the relative absurdity of following the twitter feed of a robot.  But that's what I'm doing...

@MarsCuriosity is the Twitter Feed of the Curiosity Rover that landed on Mars a few days ago.

Curiosity Rover

Pretty cool...great pictures and totally worth the follow!

Peace...

M.D.
@michaeldunkle

First Color Photo of Martian Landscape from Curiosity


Ok...easy to say this looks like a decent dust storm in Arizona...but really, just let your mind wander a bit and think about the fact that this is a picture of a landscape on another planet than ours.  Not some Sci Fi movie...but an actual photograph of another world.

Awesome...humbling...exciting...

Peace...

M.D.
@michaeldunkle