Yesterday and Star Trek

Apologies to anyone who was perplexed by yesterday's picture.

Janice recognized it - ship's RADAR (on a computer screen).  It wasn't a test, but sometimes we overlook what other people might not be familiar with - even from TV or films if not first hand.

Mr B teaches sailing. He also teaches navigation and collision avoidance at sea, which are useful skills for sailors, and that includes being able to use all the technology available to make navigation and collision avoidance skills even more effective. I was supervising lessons naturally - I love stuff that moves on computer screens. In fact I apparently got a bit fixated on it.  We just stuck a bit of Star Trek jingo in there for fun. 

(On old time commercial sailing ships the second in command was the Sailing Mate - or "Mr Mate" when addressed. These days she/he is the First Officer, or Chief Officer - sometimes informally 'Number One' - especially in Star Trek where they employ the titles of old sailing ranks for their 'deck' officers. The person in charge on a ship today is called the Master (short for Sailing Master), and addressed formally as 'Captain'. Informally (and out of earshot) people who have been at sea commercially might also refer to the Master as 'the Old Man', and on recreational craft we use the term Skipper.) Confused? You should be.

"Make it so" referred to setting a course for the appointed destination, and getting us there.  We aren't really serious Trekkies, but there are some lines that Patrick Stewart (as Captain Jean Luc Picard) uttered often enough in his rich vocal tones, that they find places in cultural jokes.  Anyone who has watched it knows that every 'generation' of the Star Trek franchise had such jokes - like: 'It's life Jim, but not as we know it,' from the original Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who had similarly rich vocal tones).


For clarification purposes here it is again - Mr T (aka Tigger) studying a lesson on the difference between 'heads up' and 'course up' when you are setting up your RADAR to assist your collision avoidance efforts while underway at sea.



If you think about it, RADAR assisted collision avoidance doesn't work in space travel where collisions could happen in three dimensions, rather than the two dimensions represented by the surface of the sea.  Or at any rate, you could not usefully display the information about ALL nearby craft on a 2 dimensional screen.  It would be like trying to get the position and depth of any lurking submarines and height and positions of all overhead aeroplanes to join the picture the RADAR provides of all the ships that are sharing the sea surface with you - all on a flat screen

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    Lovely backup post, Tigger mate! Doesn't matter that you are not 'serious' Trekkers - you still knew enough to get the juices running for those of us who are!!! Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx

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    1. You are welcome Yam-Aunty. My humans might not dress up and all that stuff (or do the hand signals - or speak Klingon) but they seem to know the story lines and who is in the Federation and which races are the 'opposition'. There is serious and then there is Serious. Furrings and Purrings Mr T

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  2. Training to be the ship's cat, Mr T?

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    1. More the Designated Person Ashore (DPA). I would be a ship's cat if it didn't have to involve water. xxx Mr T

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  3. You are very good at concentrating Tigger. Cryptic crossword clue: Marine animal 5 and 3? Answer: Ships Cat.

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  4. Thanks for the full explanation Tigger. Gail, who is living proof of the fact that not all scientists are Trekkies, had figured out that we were looking at something to do with a ship's radar, and something in the back of her mind wondered if 'Make it so' had a connection with Star Trek, but that's as far as she got!

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  5. Oh no that makes sense.
    As for space travel. That’s probably why they now have holograms. Much easier to navigate
    I’ve learnt so much today already and it’s only seven in the morning. Thank you

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  6. thanks for the info on the prior post. I recognize all the shipping info today because I am an avid reader of historical fiction and in all that I have been on man a ship or boat and heard what they called each other. I am a reader trekkie. when Star Wars came out, my boys were 10 and 12, and they and there dad begged me to go to the movies and see it. I nearly died watching it of utter boredom and told them that was the last for me. but I did love it when the movies came out and Star Trek came on TV because the three of them lived for it and I could go in the bedroom and READ.. I did watch few episodes, enought to know a few of the names of the characters. I see angela mentioned holograms, and that is something I am really interested in.. not in space but just to know. hubby doesn't know what a hololgram is. I had the remote doing fast forward and I stopped to watch a commerical, he said what are you doing, i answered watching the hologram, I want tod be able to do that. loved your explanation

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  7. I'm sure Tigger is learning alot, he would make a good captain, maybe he deserves a captain hat?

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