Showbits

This may seem a tangential topic to Showbits, but bear with me as I share this fascinating interview with Veronica McGregor of JPL. Ms. McGregor had a very important responsibility in the recent Mars Phoenix mission: she maintained the lander's Twitter feed, writing several daily updates to appear on the microblogging site.

Ms. McGregor took this media venue as an opportunity not just to disseminate factual information, but to engage her readers by presenting the Lander's discoveries from a first-person perspective. She describes how Twitter's 140-character limit motivated her to shorten prefixes such as "The Phoenix Lander" or "Data is not coming in suggesting" to simply "I am doing this" or "I found that".

Moreover, over the course of these many reports, the tweets took on a distinct voice, furthering the anthropomorphizing of the Phoenix Lander. It even wrote back to its followers, establishing an interplanetary dialogue. In response to public reaction to the discovery of water ice was the tweet, "Thanks for the congrats! &amp yes, I've seen water ice before but this is big news because it's 1st time EVER H20 has been collected/measured." And as the project neared the end of its life, it pondered, "Many questions about next Martian summer and will I wake up? It is beyond expectations. But if it happens you'll be among the 1st to know." Ms. McGregor explained the thought that went into these exchanges:

It's funny, when I sit down to write something for Phoenix I feel like I have to get into my "Phoenix character." I've been writing some other things for Phoenix, in first person, and I had to explain to somebody that it takes me a little while because I have to actually start thinking, well, "how would Phoenix look at this?"

In this way, the Lander became not unlike WALL•E, the mechanical hero of Pixar's summer hit. Though the Lander's virgin tweet on May 7 predates the movie release on June 27, it's likely not a coincidence that two optimistic robots captured the public's imagination simultaneously. Movies like WALL•E and Star Trek prompt humanity to look to the future and the stars, and NASA is helping us get there. Even the slightest glimmer of hope, no matter how whimsical or fictional, is something we're hungry for.

Phoenix's success on Twitter has led other projects have followed suit. The Mars Rovers, which turn five years old in January, joined Twitter in August, while the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan started tweeting in July. NASA's next expedition, the Mars Science Laboratory, which won't launch until September 15, 2009, at the earliest, already has a over 3,000 followers — despite having not yet published a single tweet! And if these aren't enough for you, NASA has indexed its many other Twitterers.

Someday, we'll be looking not up to the stars, but back to the Earth. Until then, we can count on entities like NASA and Pixar to bring the universe to us.

A movie I was hoping to catch in theaters earlier this year but have now seen on DVD is The Astronaut Farmer. I knew the movie starred Billy Bob Thornton, who I'd ever only seen in bit parts in Armageddon and The Apostle. Once the title rolled, though, I was surprised to see the film also contained an all-star supporting cast: Virginia Madsen (Firewall, Voyager), J. K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson from the Spider-Man movies), and — in a surprising and uncredited appearance — Bruce Willis as an old military buddy. By the movie's end, I'd not only enjoyed these bit parts but also come to respect Mr. Thornton as a leading actor.

The movie starts with Charlie Farmer (get it?) already deep in the throes of his obsession to obtain that which eluded him in his Air Force days: space flight. We don't know how long he's been building a spaceworthy rocket in his backyard barn, but it's only when he tries to purchase enough fuel for liftoff that the government becomes aware and suspicious of this potentially terroristic activity and intent on shutting it down. Just as discouraging are the numerous community members who see Charlie as a whacko — perhaps even a threat. Only his family supports his endeavor… but even they have their limits.

Astronaut Farmer is a fun movie about the underdog with some wonderful scenes underscoring the protagonist's uniqueness. When he's a guest speaker in a grade school classroom, the teacher compliments him on his "costume" — it having never occurred to her that Charlie is being authentic in both dress and intent. Later, when he is suspected of mental instability, the small-town sheriff sends him to the only psychologist available: the school nurse. Charlie's intolerance for this folderol is to his company's consternation and audience's amusement. A pair of sympathetic FBI agents support this light mood. (When they get a call from their superiors, be sure to listen to the ringtone!)

However, the film may sometimes strain plausibility with its bright-eyed optimism. Or maybe that's just the pessimist in me; I honestly couldn't decide whether to root for or decry our hero when he tells an FAA hearing board, "When I was a kid, they used to tell me that I could be anything I wanted to be, no matter what… and maybe I am insane, I don't know, but I still believe that." With all the tragedy and disappointment Farmer's had in his life, can he really still be that naive? And why can't more of us be that way? It's the same struggle played out more comically in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Perhaps all that mounting frustration is what motivates a sudden and dramatic plot twist at the one-hour mark. Or maybe it was the otherwise calm pacing of the story that the directors decided midstream needed a tweak. Either way, though disruptive at first, this thread too plays itself out by the movie's end. Farmer captures the hearts and imaginations of a nation in this tale that's by-the-book, but is sweet nonetheless and an inspirational counterpoint to my cubicle's décor — maybe I should consider replacing it:

I discovered In the Shadow of the Moon last month when I thought my moviegoing for 2007 was complete and looked at the year's remaining releases to confirm. I was pleasantly surprised to find Ron Howard's name attached to this documentary about the first lunar landing. It made me keen to see the film's theatrical release, but I suspected its limited distribution would resign me to waiting for the DVD.

Today, a review on Tech_Space linked me to the film's official site, where I found a version of the movie trailer superior to this one:

Now I know I can't wait to see this film. There have been so many documentaries about the crises of the world (Inconvenient Truth) and the nation (Fahrenheit 9/11) that we need to be reminded of the powerful steps mankind can take when focused on positive change. Amidst our legitimate fears and concerns, humanity must remember that it has much to be proud of.

The good news is that Shadow's distribution is growing beyond its initial release, and it will be in my own town just a week from today.  I will be honored to accompany these men who boldly went where no one had gone before.