Via BoingBoing, I'm reminded of Fritz Leiber's classic story Catch That Zeppelin! when I see these images.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...To Do In Nelson's Navy. Originally posted at The Gunroom mailing list.

01. My official title is Midshipman, not Superman.
02. I will not tell anyone that I can have them keelhauled for disobeying my orders.
03. When addressing Lt. Hornblower, I will call him 'Sir'. I will not add 'Lancelot'.
04. The main mast is not 'the mightiest tree in the forest' and I will stop trying to cut it down with a herring.
05. The ship does not weigh the same as a duck. I will not try to burn it.
06. I will not confess to mutiny in ships I was not on.
07. When asking if someone was dropped on the head as a child, I will not use Wellard as a demonstration.
08. I will keep any jokes involving doing the breast-stroke to myself.
09. I will not say there are klingons on the starboard bow.
10. I will not taunt the French. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via BoingBoing, a cool retro-looking spaceship made from...what else...Legos!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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George MacDonald Fraser has passed away.

Damn. Double damn. Triple damn. And not just because we'll never see the tale on how Harry ended up fighting for both the Union and the Rebs...

Addendum (January 23, 200 : A nice article from Down Under.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A contemporary look on the discovery of the planet (yes, planet) Pluto. One of my favorite books as a kid was a biography of Clyde Tombaugh that Scholastic Books had published. My first "science hero"!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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How To Build a Robot Army. The latest in a series of books to help you protect against various hypothetical invasions.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You are getting veeeeerrrrrryyyy sleeeeppppy.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Lately my spam has been in German. In fact, the German-language offers for illegal software have totally replaced any wishes for a good new year (that usually were either stock scams or pill scams). Today the spam box had fifty (50) variations of illegal software...in German.

Go figure. I guess, though, it is better than the previous foreign-language batch with was in something that would not translate into a readable character set, other than looking like something along the lines of something vaguely Native American!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Other Times Than Peace, David Drake (Baen Books, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4165-2076-4, cover by Kurt Miller).

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When the sun is streaming through the kitchen window and strikes the pot of coffee, it is then you see that the container of black gold that gets your morning started is nothing more than a bunch of muddy-looking water.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The list can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The list can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A semi-serious rundown of reading plans for 2008.

"S": If the author's name begins with "s". It seems that "s", along with "A" and "C" appear to be my biggest sources of books.

Serials: I love serials. Poul Anderson's Technic Series. H. Beam Piper's TerroHuman Series. Robert A. Heinlein's Future History.

Shorts: I have a lot of anthologies. Themed anthologies. Best of anthologies, either grouped by year, genre type, or whatever. Anthologies of a single author. It's time to really try and get through some of these. Plus, keep up with Analog and maybe work my way through some backlog there.

Science: Or non-fiction in general. I'm going to continue to read non-fiction. If it happens to fall into the category below, or be full of shorter works, or part of a series, so much the better!

Seven: If it was purchased in 2007, if it was published in 2007, if it was published in the 1970's, if there is a seven in the ISBN, if the book contains a page seven...

Now, I usually end up not following reading plans when I make them. But I think that this one is vague enough to be usable!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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