#Valve_Corporation | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thatsnotcanonpodcasts · 4 years ago

Text

Half-Life projects, Comic-Con program guide, Playstation Factory & Esports Mental Toughness

First, Dev-i-boy found a list of Valve games that never came out. These games were created in the dark times before Half Life: Alyx was announced, and include some interesting looks at what Half Life 3 could have been.

You can't go to Comic-Con this year, but you can watch it online. There's a great program with tons of shows including comics, television and gaming news. It's also probably the most accessible Comic-Con ever, since you don't need to leave your house and the shows are free.

First the robots came for the car factory jobs, and I said nothing. Then they came for the Playstation 4 assembly jobs, and I said "Cool, that's some nice tech". Sony has almost fully automated their assembly line and only use four people on the ends of a single assembly line that makes one console every 30 seconds. It's awesome.

Esports are stressful, and high skill players show the same signs of stress as their analogue counterparts. This doesn't surprise the Nerds at all, but it's an interesting study.

This week, Professor played a chaotic real time dice rolling game, DJ kept the peace in Agents of Mayhem and Dev-i-boy got distracted by job applications. Wish him luck.

Half-Life projects cancelled before Alyx, including Half-Life 3

- https://www.pcgamer.com/at-least-5-half-life-projects-were-cancelled-before-alyx-including-half-life-3/

Comic-Con @ Home program guide

- https://bleedingcool.com/comics/wednesday-programming-for-san-diego-comic-conhome-is-up/

- https://bleedingcool.com/comics/thursday-programming-for-san-diego-comic-conhome-is-here/

- https://bleedingcool.com/comics/friday-programming-for-san-diego-comic-conhome-is-here/

- https://bleedingcool.com/comics/saturday-programming-for-san-diego-comic-conhome-is-here/

- https://bleedingcool.com/comics/sunday-programming-for-san-diego-comic-conhome-is-here/

Near fully automated Playstation Factory

- https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/PlayStation-s-secret-weapon-a-nearly-all-automated-factory

- https://vdata.nikkei.com/en/newsgraphics/sony-playstation/

Stress and Coping in Esports and the Influence of Mental Toughness

-https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00628/full

Games Played

Professor

– Project: ELITE - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171726/project-elite

Rating: 4/5

Deviboy

– DNP (Did Not Play)

Rating: TBA

– Agents of Mayhem - https://store.steampowered.com/app/304530/Agents_of_Mayhem/

Rating: 3/5

Other topics discussed

Major Twitter accounts hacked in suspected bitcoin scam

- https://www.smh.com.au/technology/major-twitter-accounts-hacked-in-suspected-bitcoin-scam-20200716-p55chj.html

Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours (an interactive storybook, written by Geoff Keighley, that takes fans inside Valve Software to chronicle the company's past decade of game development, including the return of Half-Life.)

- https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361700/HalfLife_Alyx__Final_Hours/

Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. Valve wanted to release new games quickly, without spending years developing a major new product with new tools. For Episode One, they focused on the player's relationship with Alyx, developing her artificial intelligence. The game uses an updated version of Valve's Source engine, with new lighting and animation technology.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_One

Portal (Portal is a series of first-person puzzle-platform video games developed by Valve. Set in the Half-Life universe, the two main games in the series, Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011), center on a woman, Chell, forced to undergo a series of tests within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center by a malicious artificial intelligence, GLaDOS, that controls the facility. The Portal games are noted for bringing students and their projects from the DigiPen Institute of Technology into Valve and extending their ideas into the full games.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(series)

Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. Following Episode One (2006), it was the second in a planned trilogy of shorter episodic games that continue the story of Half-Life 2 (2004) Like previous Half-Life games, Episode Two combines shooting, puzzle-solving, and narrative, but adds expansive environments and less linear sequences.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_Two

Transition to services and a flat structure (The change in Valve's approach has also been attributed to its use of a flat organization structure that the company adopted in 2012. Valve had originally used a hierarchical structure more typical of other development firms, driven by the nature of physical game releases through publishers that required tasks to be completed by given deadlines.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation#Transition_to_services_and_a_flat_structure_(2010%E2%80%932015)

Epic Games (American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. Epic Games develops the Unreal Engine, a commercially available game engine which also powers their internally developed video games, such as Fortnite and the Unreal,Gears of War and Infinity Blade series.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games

Artifact (digital collectible card game developed and published by Valve. It focuses on online player versus player battles across three boards called lanes, and is based upon the universe of Dota 2, a multiplayer online battle arena game also from Valve. Artifact was designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_(video_game)

More details on the cancelled Valve projects

- https://www.ign.com/articles/half-life-3-left-4-dead-3-details-cancelled-valve

Axe (DOTA 2 character) (Mogul Khan, the Axe, is a melee strength hero, infamous for creating chaos in battle and thriving off of it. xe is commonly played as an initiator, as his potent disables can disrupt the enemy's formation and give his team openings in fights.)

- https://dota2.gamepedia.com/Axe

Minecraft (Minecraft is a sandbox video game developed by Mojang Studios. Created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language and released as a public alpha for personal computers in 2009, the game was officially released in November 2011, with Jens Bergensten taking over development around then.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft

Roblox (Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. Founded by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 and released in 2006, the platform hosts user-created games in many genres, such as racing games, role-playing games, simulations and obstacle courses, coded in the programming language Lua.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roblox

DEATH STRANDING (DEATH STRANDING is an action game developed by Kojima Productions. It is the first game from director Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions after their split from Konami in 2015. It was released by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 on November 8, 2019, and by 505 Games for Microsoft Windows on July 14th, 2020.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding

-https://store.steampowered.com/app/1190460/DEATH_STRANDING/

Hunt Down The Freeman (Hunt Down The Freeman is a fan-made spin-off game based on Half-Life 2 and both a "narrative" sequel and a spin-off o fHalf-Life: Opposing Force released in 2018 by Royal Rudius Entertainment.)

- https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Hunt_Down_The_Freeman

- https://store.steampowered.com/app/723390/Hunt_Down_The_Freeman/

Seven Hour War (The Seven Hour War was a brief, but decisive confrontation between the Combine and the governments of Earth, ultimately leading to a large human death toll and the Combine occupation of the entire planet.)

- https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Seven_Hour_War

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts.)

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Jedi:_Fallen_Order

Half-Life 2: Episode Three (a cancelled game that was planned as the final installment in the Half-Life 2 episodic trilogy.)

- https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_Three

Half-Life 2: Episode Four (An unreleased Half-Life game set in Ravenholm, alternatively called Half-Life 2: Episode Four, Return to Ravenholm, or Ravenholm, was in development from 2005 to 2008.)

- https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_Four

JKX Comics (Comic books simplify STEM concepts from multiple disciplines to create engaging comics to increase students' scientific literacy.)

- https://www.jkxcomics.com/

Cells At Work! (Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akane Shimizu. It features the anthropomorphized cells of a human body, with the two main protagonists being a red blood cell and a white blood cell she frequently encounters.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cells_at_Work!

RedLetterMedia - Mr. Plinkett's Star Trek Picard Review

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwF1iri1GjQ

RedLetterMedia - Star Trek: Picard - re:View

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfQdf93e63I

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Trailer – CBS

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3RkBKedKWw

Todd McFarlane (Canadian comic book creator and entrepreneur, best known for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and as the writer and artist on the horror-fantasy series Spawn.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_McFarlane

Steins;Gate (a 2011 anime television series created by the animation studio White Fox based on 5pb. and Nitroplus's 2009 visual novel of the same name, and is part of the Science Adventure franchise along with Chaos;Head and Robotics;Notes. It is set in 2010, and follows Rintaro Okabe, who together with his friends accidentally discovers a method of time travel through which they can send text messages to the past, thereby changing the present.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steins;Gate_(TV_series)

Quantum Immortality (Quantum suicide is a thought experiment in quantum mechanics and the philosophy of physics. Purportedly, it can falsify any interpretation of quantum mechanics other than the Everett many-worlds interpretation by means of a variation of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, from the cat's point of view. Quantum immortality refers to the subjective experience of surviving quantum suicide. This concept is sometimes conjectured to be applicable to real-world causes of death as well.)

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide_and_immortality

Anime Expo VR Chat Meetup Has Attendees Waiting for Hours in Virtual Lines

- https://www.animemaru.com/anime-expo-vr-chat-meetup-has-attendees-waiting-for-hours-in-virtual-lines/

Playstation 4 ((officially abbreviated as PS4) is an eighth-generation home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15 in North America, November 29 in Europe, South America and Australia, and on February 22, 2014 in Japan. It competes with Microsoft's Xbox One and Nintendo's Wii U and Switch.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4

Valve - Building the Steam Controller

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCgnWqoP4MM

Inside the Sony factory: Watch how the PS3 is assembled.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXRHrnA7lOY

Nintendo president issues apology for the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift

- https://micky.com.au/nintendo-president-issues-apology-for-the-nintendo-switch-joy-con-drift/

Bridge is the ultimate trick-taking card game, easily the greatest source of enjoyment that four people can have with a pack of cards. Bridge is a sport: the World Bridge Federation is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Just like every sport, Bridge offers enormous benefits to its players.

-https://www.bridgemaniac.com/is-bridge-olympic-sport/

Chess makes move for inclusion at 2024 Paris Olympics

- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chess-olympics/chess-makes-move-for-inclusion-at-2024-paris-olympics-idUSKCN1Q12N4

Esports History (The earliest known video game competition took place on 19 October 1972 at Stanford University for the game Spacewar.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esports#Early_history_(1972%E2%80%931989)

First game tournament, ‘Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics,’ held 40 years ago

- https://www.polygon.com/2012/10/20/3529662/first-game-tournament-intergalactic-spacewar-olympics-held-40-years

45 years after first-ever gaming tournament, Seattle museum hosts vintage Spacewar! Olympics

- https://www.geekwire.com/2017/45-years-first-ever-gaming-tournament-living-computers-hosting-vintage-spacewar-olympics/

Professional 'Counter-Strike' Player Caught Cheating in Tournament (Pictures from the event show Kumawat packing a backpack and leaving, the rest of the team looking grim around his computer alongside tournament officials, and a file explorer window showing a suspicious-looking program innocently named "word.exe.")

- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43eexp/professional-counter-strike-player-caught-cheating-in-tournament

Formula E Driver Disqualified After Cheating in Virtual Race

- https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/daniel-abt-formula-e-disqualified-cheating-virtual-race-1234615414/

The Magic School Bus Rides Again (The Magic School Bus Rides Again is a Canadian-American animated children's web series, based on the book series of the same name by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. It also serves as a continuation of the 1994–1997 PBS Kids series The Magic School Bus, with Lily Tomlin reprising her role as Ms. Frizzle. The series premiered on Netflix on September 29, 2017.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_School_Bus_Rides_Again

The Magic School Bus Rides Again | Main Trailer

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoiTW2zw80c

The incredible story of how Target exposed a teen girl's pregnancy

- https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-incredible-story-of-how-target-exposed-a-teen-girls-pregnancy-2012-2

Jessi Combs (American professional racer, television personality, and metal fabricator. She set a women's land speed class record (four wheels) in 2013 and broke her own record in 2016. She was known as "the fastest woman on four wheels.”)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessi_Combs

American jet-car racer and Mythbusters host Jessi Combs posthumously awarded world land-speed record for a woman

- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-25/jet-car-racer-jessi-combs-female-land-speed-record-fatal-crash/12391272

Remembering Grant Imahara - Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project – 7/14/20

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TG_pm98W8c

Neo-Geo (SNK's first two products using the Neo Geo name are an arcade system called the Neo Geo Multi Video System (MVS) and a companion console called the Advanced Entertainment System (AES), both released in 1990.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo#Neo_Geo_MVS_and_AES

NEOGEO mini

- https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/us/neogeomini/

Neo Geo Pocket (The Neo Geo Pocket is a monochrome handheld game console released by SNK. It was the company's first handheld system and is part of the Neo Geo family. It debuted in Japan in late 1998 but never saw an American release, being exclusive to Japan, Asia and Europe.)

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_Pocket

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics fictional character Wolverine. It is the fourth installment of the X-Men film series, the first installment of the Wolverine trilogy within the series, and a spin-off prequel to X-Men (2000).)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_Origins:_Wolverine

Ultraman (a fictional superhero and is the first tokusatsu hero launched by the Ultra Series and by extent, Tsuburaya Productions. His appearance in the entertainment world helped spawn the Kyodai Hero genre with countless shows such as Godman and Iron King.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraman_(character)

Frankenstein's monster (Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often erroneously referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Shelley's title thus compares the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein, to the mythological character Prometheus, who fashioned humans out of clay and gave them fire.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein%27s_monster

Escape from New York ((stylized on-screen as John Carpenter's Escape from New York) is a 1981 American science fiction action film co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter. The film's storyline, set in the near-future world of 1997, concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's maximum-security prison.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_New_York

Lady Mouth (TNC Podcast)

-https://thatsnotcanon.com/ladymouthpodcast

Shout Outs

12 July 2020 – Joanna Cole, Author Of ‘Magic School Bus’ Books Turned TV Series passes away 75 - https://deadline.com/2020/07/joanna-cole-dies-author-magic-school-bus-book-tv-series-was-75-obituary-1202986879/

Joanna Cole, whose Magic School Bus book series was beloved by millions of young readers and later turned into an animated television show. The idea for The Magic School Bus was born in the mid-1980s. Scholastic senior editorial director Craig Walker was fielding requests from teachers for books about science, and decided a storytelling and science series was the answer. He recruited Cole for the task. She was the author of the children’s book Cockroaches,along with illustrator Bruce Degen. The concept was simple: Teacher Ms. Frizzle led students on journeys into everything from the solar system to underwater adventures. Magic School Bus books sold tens of millions of copies and later was turned into a popular animated TV series and later a Netflix series. Plans for a live-action movie with Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle were announced just last month. Cole and Degen recently completed The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution, scheduled for publication next spring. She died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Sioux City, Iowa.

13 July 2020 – Boxed, Sealed Copy Of NES Super Mario Bros. Sells for $114K At Auction - https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2020/07/12-1/boxed-sealed-copy-of-nes-super-mario-bros-sells-for-114k-at-auction

Heritage Auctions, an auction house based in Dallas, Texas specializing in pop culture memorabilia auctions has announced that it has set a new bidding and auction sales record for the sale of a highly-graded boxed and sealed video game, with the retail version of Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System having been bid and won for an unheard of $114,000 on Friday, July 12th. The auction house previously set the record for the winning bid on highly graded boxed and sealed copies of video games with a copy of the 1987 Mega Man game for the same console being sold for $75,000 in 2019. This version of the game dates back to mid-1987 and still features the original cardboard hang tab underneath the shrink wrap. This makes it one of the few remaining early copies in such a pristine condition with a high Wata Games certified rating of 9.4/10. This was the highest-quality version of the game ever sold by the company, where previously lower quality versions of the game such as a 8.0/10 selling for $40,200.

13 July 2020 – Grant Imahara passes away at 49 - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-14/mythbusters-host-grant-imahara-dead/12454370

Former MythBusters co-host Grant Imahara has died suddenly after reportedly suffering a brain aneurysm. Before his career on camera, Imahara spent nine years at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic, where he started working after gaining an electrical engineering degree from the University of Southern California. He had visual effects credits for The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), as well as the Matrix sequels. However, Imahara was most well known for being a member ofMythbusters’ Build Team, joining the cast in 2005 after the departure of Scottie Chapman. Working with team members Tory Belleci and Kari Byron, Imahara tested the scientific plausibility of hundreds of myths by designing and building outlandish contraptions, delighting thousands with his innovation and stoking wider interest in robotics. He was enthusiastic about sharing his passion for engineering with others, and encouraged people to be curious and investigate how things work. After leaving Mythbusters in 2014, Imahara co-hosted short-lived Netflix series White Rabbit Project with MythBusters co-stars Kari Byron and Tory Belleci, continuing to investigate scientific questions and make such topics accessible to a wider audience. He also consulted with Walt Disney Imagineering to develop its Stuntronics — robotic aerial stunt performers intended to be deployed in Disneyland theme parks. He was also a Trekkie, and had acting credits on fan productions Star Trek: Renegades (2015) and Star Trek Continues (2012). He passed away in Los Angeles, California.

14 July 2020 – X-Men the movie is 20 years old - https://www.cbr.com/x-men-anniversary-original-did-better-prequels/

On July 14th, it will be 20 years since X-Men premiered. SinceX-Men: First Class introduced a new take on the world of mutants, the original trilogy has been met with criticism in comparison; however, there are several things the original trilogy, comprised of X-Men, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand, did better than the successors. The X-Men’s greatest achievement was its ability to show that superheroes could be taken seriously. Created in a time when superheroes were seen as too kid-focused to be profitable. The X-Men chose to focus on the series’ very real theme of racial precedence. A theme far more adult than those in previous superhero movies. The movie also did it’s best to steer clear of various comic book elements. Such as flashy costumes, omega level powers, or one-dimensional villains. Magneto’s plan of turning humans is a very comic book plan. It is not done for power, wealth, or revenge. Simply to make humans and mutants equal. This helped give the movie a level of grit and realism not normally seem in superhero movies at the time. It also allowed it to stand in contrast to the brightness of the Spiderman series. Singer's X-Men actually paved the way for movies like Spider-Man (2002), additional X-Men films, Wolverine, Deadpool, even Daredevil,Hulk, and Punisher, and of course, Iron Man and the MCU as we know it today.

Remembrances

13 July 1762 – James Bradley - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bradley

English astronomer and priest who served as Astronomer Royal. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light , and the nutation of the Earth's axis. These discoveries were called "the most brilliant and useful of the century" by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, historian of astronomy, mathematical astronomer and director of the Paris Observatory. Bradley worked with Samuel Molyneux until Molyneux's death in 1728, trying to measure the parallax of Gamma Draconis. This stellar parallax ought to have shown up, if it existed at all, as a small annual cyclical motion of the apparent position of the star. However, while Bradley and Molyneux did not find the expected apparent motion due to parallax, they found instead a different and unexplained annual cyclical motion. Shortly after Molyneux's death, Bradley realised that this was caused by what is now known as the aberration of light. The basis on which Bradley distinguished the annual motion actually observed from the expected motion due to parallax, was that its annual timetable was different. This discovery of what became known as the aberration of light was, for all realistic purposes, conclusive evidence for the movement of the Earth, and hence for the correctness of Aristarchus' and Kepler's theories. The theory of the aberration also gave Bradley a means to improve on the accuracy of the previous estimate of the speed of light, which had previously been estimated by the work of Ole Rømer and others. After publication of his work on the aberration, Bradley continued to observe, to develop and check his second major discovery, the nutation of the Earth's axis, but he did not announce this in print until 14 February 1748, when he had tested its reality by minute observations during an entire revolution (18.6 years) of the moon's nodes. He died at the age of 69 in Chalford,Gloucestershire.

13 July 1921 – Gabriel Lippmann - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Lippmann

Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann, Franco-Luxembourgish physicist and inventor, and Nobel laureate in physics for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference. One of Lippmann's early discoveries was the relationship between electrical and capillary phenomena which allowed him to develop a sensitive capillary electrometer, subsequently known as the Lippmann electrometer which was used in the first ECG machine. Above all, Lippmann is remembered as the inventor of a method for reproducing colours by photography, based on the interference phenomenon, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1908. The interference phenomenon in optics occurs as a result of the wave propagation of light. When light of a given wavelength is reflected back upon itself by a mirror, standing waves are generated, much as the ripples resulting from a stone dropped into still water create standing waves when reflected back by a surface such as the wall of a pool. In the case of ordinary incoherent light, the standing waves are distinct only within a microscopically thin volume of space next to the reflecting surface. Lippmann's process foreshadowed laser holography, which is also based on recording standing waves in a photographic medium. He died at the age of 75 aboard the steamer SS France, while en route from Canada.

13 July 1974 – Patrick Blackett - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Blackett

Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett, British experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism, winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948. In 1925 he became the first person to prove that radioactivity could cause the nuclear transmutation of one chemical element to another. He also made a major contribution in World War II advising on military strategy and developing operational research. Blackett spent ten years working at the Cavendish Laboratory as an experimental physicist with Ernest Rutherford. Rutherford had found out that the nucleus of the nitrogen atom could be disintegrated by firing fast alpha particles into nitrogen. He asked Blackett to use a cloud chamber to find visible tracks of this disintegration, and by 1925, he had taken 23,000 photographs showing 415,000 tracks of ionized particles. Eight of these were forked, and this showed that the nitrogen atom-alpha particle combination had formed an atom of fluorine, which then disintegrated into an isotope of oxygen and a proton. He thus became the first person to deliberately transmute one element into another. In 1947, Blackett introduced a theory to account for the Earth's magnetic field as a function of its rotation, with the hope that it would unify both the electromagnetic force and the force of gravity. He spent a number of years developing high-quality magnetometers to test his theory, and eventually found it to be without merit. His work on the subject, however, led him into the field of geophysics, where he eventually helped process data relating to paleomagnetism and helped to provide strong evidence for continental drift. In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his investigation of cosmic rays using his invention of the counter-controlled cloud chamber. The crater Blackett on the Moon is named after him. He died at the age of 76 in London.

Famous Birthdays

13 July 1527 – John Dee - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee

Anglo-Welsh mathematician, astronomer,astrologer, teacher, and occultist, but mostly he was an alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Queen Elizabeth I, but spent much of his time on alchemy,divination and Hermetic philosophy. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated turning England's imperial expansion into a "British Empire", a term he is credited with coining. He believed that numbers were the basis of all things and key to knowledge. His goal was to help bring forth a unified world religion through the healing of the breach of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and the recapture of the pure theology of the ancients. From 1570 Dee advocated a policy of political and economic strengthening of England and imperial expansion into the New World. His 1576 General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation was the first volume in an unfinished series planned to advocate imperial expansion.He argued that England should exploit new lands through colonisation and that this vision could become reality through maritime supremacy. Dee promoted the sciences of navigation and cartography. He studied closely with Gerardus Mercator and owned an important collection of maps, globes and astronomical instruments. He developed new instruments and special navigational techniques for use in polar regions. He believed that mathematics (which he understood mystically) was central to human learning.Although Dee's understanding of the role of mathematics differs much from ours, its promotion outside the universities was an enduring achievement. For most of his writings, Dee chose English, rather than Latin, to make them accessible to the public. He was born in Tower Ward, London.

13 July 1831 – Arthur Böttcher - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_B%C3%B6ttcher

Jakob Ernst Arthur Böttcher, Baltic German pathologist and anatomist who was a native of Bauska, in what was then the Courland Governorate (present-day Latvia). In 1856 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Dorpat (present-day University of Tartu in Estonia) with a dissertation on the nerve supply to the inner ear's cochlea. Böttcher is largely known for his anatomical investigations of the inner ear, particularly studies involving the structure of the reticular lamina and nerve fibers of the organ of Corti. Today his name is associated with the eponymous "Bottcher cells", which are cells of the basilar membrane of the cochlea. Other anatomical terms that contain his name are:

Böttcher's canal: Known today as the ductus utriculosaccularis or as the utriculo-saccular duct. This duct connects the utricle with the endolymphatic duct a short distance from the saccule.

Böttcher's ganglion: Ganglion on the cochlear nerve in the internal auditory meatus.

Böttcher's space: Also known as the endolymphatic sac; the blind pouch at the end of the endolymphatic duct.

Charcot-Böttcher filaments: Spindle-shaped crystalloids found in human Sertoli cells. They measure 10 to 25 µm in length. Named in conjunction with neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893).

13 July 1940 – Sir Patrick Stewart - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Stewart

English actor, director and producer whose work has included roles on stage, television, and film, in a career spanning six decades. He has been nominated for Olivier,Golden Globe, Emmy,Screen Actors Guild, and Saturn Awards. Stewart's first major screen roles were in BBC-broadcast television productions during the mid-late 1970s, including Hedda, and the I, Claudius miniseries. From the 1980s onward, Stewart began working in American television and film, with prominent leading roles such as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, its subsequent films, and 2020's Star Trek: Picard; as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men series of superhero films; and voice roles such as CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock in American Dad! and the narrator in Ted. Having remained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in 2008 Stewart played King Claudius in Hamlet in the West End and won a second Olivier Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 16 December 1996. In 2010, Stewart was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama. When Stewart was picked for the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), the Los Angeles Times called him an "unknown British Shakespearean actor". He initially experienced difficulty fitting in with his less-disciplined castmates, saying that his "spirits used to sink" when required to memorise and recite technobabble. When questioned about the significance of his role compared to his distinguished Shakespearean career, Stewart has said that: "The fact is all of those years in Royal Shakespeare Company – playing all those kings, emperors, princes and tragic heroes – were nothing but preparation for sitting in the captain's chair of the Enterprise." He was born in Mirfield,West Riding, Yorkshire.

Events of Interest

13 July 1956 – The Dartmouth workshop is the first conference on artificial intelligence. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshop

13 July 1967 – On this day in 1967 (in West Germany), Frankenstein Conquers The World enjoyed a run through the theatres. - https://www.scifihistory.net/july-13.html

The feature starred Tadao Takashima and Nick Adams, The film was a Japanese-American co-production; it was the first collaboration between Toho and Henry G. Saperstein. In the film, scientists investigate a child's resistance to radiation that makes him grow to monstrous size, while a second monster ravages the countryside. In 1966, Toho/UPA released a sequel titled The War of the Gargantuas. Here's the plot summary :

"During WWII, a human heart taken from a certain lab in Europe (Dr. Frankenstein's) is kept in a Japanese lab, when it gets exposed to the radiation of the bombing of Hiroshima. The heart grows in size, mutates and sprouts appendages, and eventually grows into a complete body and escapes. Later, a feral boy with a certain physical deformity (a large head with a flat top) is captured by scientists who refer to the boy as Frankenstein. The creature grows to the height of 20 feet, escapes again, fights police and army, and is practically indestructible. Later, a reptilian monster goes on a rampage. Eventually the Frankenstein creature and the reptile face off in a terrible battle."

13 July 1977 – New York City: Amidst a period of financial and social turmoil experiences an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and looting - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_blackout_of_1977

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Facebook

- Page - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

- Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/440485136816406/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS

iTunes -https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094

RSS -http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nerds_amalgamated/

Email - [email protected]

Support via Podhero

- https://podhero.com/podcast/449127/nerds-amalgamated

Rate & Review us on Podchaser - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/nerds-amalgamated-623195

0 notes