"The author regrets that he is unable to reconcile himself to the thoughtful point of view you have expressed. However, it must be kept in mind that being raised in different cultures and different places can result in such differences of viewpoint between individuals. The author is from planet Earth."

—Author Unknown

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Can we travel to other planets? Will the expense (or the transit times or the awful aching black) overwhelm us? Charles Stross considers the concept of interplanetary and interstellar travel and colonization.

This has (naturally!) generated a lot of talk among fans of space travel, science fiction, etc. Here's an excellent entry from Centauri Dreams, Paul Glister's site. Check out his book!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Space Shuttle Atlantis and the ISS attacked by forces of the Empire? Say it ain't so!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 02:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"I've worked in the private sector before; they expect results!"

(Dr. Ray Stantz, Ghostbusters)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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For myself, I probably stand alone in owning to a sentimental weakness for the night-piercing whistle—judiciously remote, as some men love the skirl of the pipes. In the days when streets were less wearily familiar than now, or ever the golden cord was quite loosed that led back to relinquished fields and wider skies, I have lain awake on stifling summer nights, thinking of luckier friends by moor and stream, and listening for the whistles from certain railway stations, veritable "horns of Elf-land, faintly blowing." Then, a ghostly passenger, I have taken my seat in a phantom train, and sped up, up, through the map, rehearsing the journey bit by bit: through the furnace-lit Midlands, and on till the grey glimmer of dawn showed stone walls in place of hedges, and masses looming up on either side; till the bright sun shone upon brown leaping streams and purple heather, and the clear, sharp northern air streamed in through the windows..."We are only the children who might have been," murmured Lamb's dream babes to him; and for the sake of those dream-journeys, the journeys that might have been, I still hail with a certain affection the call of the engine in the night...

(Kenneth Grahame, "The Romance of the Rail", Pagan Papers)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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How beautiful to a genuine lover of reading are the sullied leaves and worn-out appearance, nay the very odour (beyond Russia) if we would not forget kind feelings in fastidiousness, of an old "Circulating library" Tom Jones or Vicar of Wakefield. How they speak of the thousand thumbs that have turned over their pages with delight.

(Charles Lamb, Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Reading stimulates the young and diverts the old, increases ones satisfaction when things are going well and when they are going badly provides refuge and solace. It is a delight in the home, it can be fitted with public life, throughout the night, on journeys and in the country, it is a companion which never lets me down."

(Cicero, 64 BC)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"My career is about as promising as a Civil War leg wound."

(Warren Zevon)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Oh, good! I was hoping to add theft, endangerment, and insanity to my list of things I did today."

(Agent Pleakley, Lilo and Stitch)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her. "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace." He gave a shrug. "They never are."

(George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Oh, great altar of passive entertainment bestow upon me thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear thought impossible."

(Calvin in front of the TV, Calvin & Hobbes)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

(George Orwell)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Regular posting to resume soon, I hope! Here's what I've been about.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I spent last week camping in the Colorado Rocky Mountains with my eldest son and his Boy Scout troop. I am now clearing the backlog of work that always piles up on vacations. I'm hoping to post something appropriate for the Heinlein centennial in the next couple of weeks, so check back soon.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of my favorite authors, a proponent of the "new space opera", is blogging.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Mr. Wizard, the man who made science fun, is now doing experiments on a different plane.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:51 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 I read that this morning and it's really sad. I LOVED Mr. Wizard's World as a kid. I doubt we'll get one like him again.

Posted by: Rhianna at June 13, 2007 01:03 PM (UUcua)

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I discovered a science fiction roleplaying game called Traveller. A little black box, three booklets. You provided pen, paper, dice and imagination. What fun we had during college with that! Traveller evolved into various editions, died, was brought back, died again, was brought back again. I drifted in and out.

Some time later another company brought out a science fiction roleplaying game based on Star Wars. I bought some of the modules, but never really used it. That game eventually faded, but that franchise went out to be run by the uber-gaming company...which also et the franchise fail.

They've now brought out The Saga Edition of the Star Wars roleplaying game. Is there still room for pencil and paper games in a world of many flavors of computer games? Here's a review that looks at the current edition.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:44 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The late Dr. Robert Forward pioneered the idea of using tethers in space for all sorts of things such as propulsion. NASA and JAXA are working together on an experiment to explore some of these ideas.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Night after night they played there in the great cabin with the stern-windows open and the ship's wake flowing away and away in the darkness. Few things gave them more joy; and although they were as unlike in nationality, education, religion, appearance and habit of mind as two men could well be, they were wholly at one when it came to improvising, working out variations on a theme, handing them to and fro, conversing with violin and 'cello; though this was a language in which Jack was somewhat more articulate than his friend, wittier, more original and indeed more learned. They were alike in their musical tastes, in their reasonably high degree of amateur skill, and in their untiring relish.

(The Far Side of the World, Patrick O'Brian)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Now, I didn't even know gout was still a problem these days, but apparently I can kill two birds with one stone and just drink more coffee.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:46 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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