Welcome Captain Capitalism readers! Take a shot of Rumpie and enjoy the post! 
Dear Readers: The Young Prince has discovered an online Star Trek video game, which has cause him to rediscover his love of that TV classic. He will be joining two of my favorite Facebook friends, Thrand and Eldgrimr on Canto Talk this Thursday (Jan. 24th, 7 pm PST, 9 pm CT, click here to find show link).
The good news is, I may be able to get a second year out of my Star Trek babe Halloween costume.
If you like Star Trek – The Original Series, you will like this video, in which friends from the Military History Page does a little experimental archeology to recreate a canon similar to the one Captain Kirk made when he defeated the Gorn (from the episode entitled Arena).
If you are mechanically minded, like chemistry, and are a fan of any of the Star Trek series, this is worth checking out. Love the lab work, Thrand and Eldgrimr!
Meanwhile, as another example of Star Trek experimentation, check out this Discovery News Story: Warp Speed: This Is What You’d Really See
A group of final year Masters students decided to understand what we would really see if we were to approach the speed of light. And far from the dramatic star trails, we’d actually see a blurred white blob in the direction we are headed. Why? Well, that comes down to some pretty fundamental physics as to how light works.
As our hypothetical starship rips through spacetime, any light from the stars ahead of us will be blueshifted. Like a police car with sirens blaring, it sounds high-pitched as the car approaches you and lower pitch as it moves away. This is known as Doppler shift — the sound waves (of the siren) are compressed as the car approaches and stretched as the car speeds away.
Electromagnetic radiation works in a similar way. The visible light emitted from the stars ahead becomes compressed as we speed forward. The wavelength gets shorter and shorter the more we accelerate. Very quickly, we’ll see the light moved through the blue part of the visible light spectrum and then through the ultraviolet. The electromagnetic radiation from the stars no longer belongs in the visible spectrum, so our eyes can no longer detect the light. At close to the speed of light, the once-visible light (from our frame of reference) gets pushed into the X-ray part of the spectrum, making the galaxy ahead of us dark.
Forget all those psychedelic versions relativistic space travel, it’s actually all gone dark and… well… dull.
I hope they offer Star Trek based classes when my son hits college…instead of those featuring “50 Shades of Grey”.
Thrand and Eldgrimr also take on other shows, as in the case of “Deadliest Warrior”: In this case, a rematch of Viking vs Samuri:
As an deluxe bonus, Barry Jacobsen, the Associate Producer and Historical Advisor on “The Deadliest Warrior” will be joining us to discuss that video.
hey are also some of the best “experimental archeologists” around, as they show in these videos experimenting with arrow heads:
For the history-lovers out there, you will want to check out their website: THRAND AND ELDGRIMR’S WELL OF REMEMBRANCE!
More is here:
- Book review for Antony Cummins on Viking Martial arts: http://youtu.be/2pb6AbcvE_Q
- The YouTube video subscription site is http://youtu.be/2pb6AbcvE_Q
And they have a fun sponsor, too: MEDIEVAL SHOPPE AUSTRALIA
I have to take issue with the warp speed white blur. Just like CFL lightbulbs emit ultraviolet radiation (stay 2 feet away or risk skin cancer), stars emit light that may shift into our visible spectrum.
I have not read the warp speed report yet, so it will be interesting if this factor is addressed.
“At close to the speed of light, the once-visible light (from our frame of reference) gets pushed into the X-ray part of the spectrum, making the galaxy ahead of us dark.”
But this inclines me to think that the lower-energy frequencies would be shifted into the visible portion of the spectrum. We’d be seeing by radio at some point, no?
This is an AWESOME post!
We will not need to travel at light speed or beyond … there must be another way to move around in space. I believe there is reason why all UFO sightings are of a disk shaped object rather than the type we see in Star Trek or elsewhere. I believe that the propulsion system requires the disk shape to perhaps enter a worm hole or some other creation that allows a slip through to somewhere else.
We are visited … they got here from another system …. not by speeding, but by taking a short cut that we don’t know about yet.
As our politics are going now … we have ceased to move into the future and under Obama we are moving backward to what the USSR has fifty years ago.
Oh well … we aren’t the only inhabited planet in our galaxy, but perhaps just the stupidest.