Nothing like a cold in the summer to knock you out of the game.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Have you seen the announcement about the new element that has been found?

Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years; It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:04 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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From the pen of science fiction writer John Wright comes a sequel to A.E. van Vogt's The World of Null-A and The Pawns (or Players, depending on your edition) of Null-A (the less said about Null-A Three, the better). Will Null-A Continuum fare better than Kevin J. Anderson's sequel to van Vogt's classic Slan? I hope so.

The mystery, however...how come Tor/Orb came out with a handsome trade paperback of The World of Null-A but has not, several years later, done the same with The Players of Null-A. I see them out with Voyage of the Space Beagle this month...

It has been a long time since I've read Slan or the two Null-A books; I'll toss them on to Mount Toberead before getting into the sequels by these two puppies.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Come play in the universe.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:58 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm sure you could make one look neater, but this is one of the odder uses of duct tape that I've seen.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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In 1971, science fiction lost of its greatest advocates on this day.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:43 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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People keep asking me, where's John; maybe he'll pipe up...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:22 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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It's always nice to wake up and find some a$$hat has spammed your site with bogus comments; I wonder if it the same "gentleman" who spammed me with e-mail on how he wants to "advertize" (sic) on the site.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 04:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A fair wind right down the Channel was rare enough: often and often he had had to anchor for the tide, beat up tack upon tack in the narrow seas, winning a few miles only to be driven back again—weeks sometimes before he could get clear into the Atlantic; but now the familiar landmarks filed by in fine brisk succession: the South Foreland, Dungeness, Fairly, and Beachy gleaming through a wall of rain with solid blue-black cloud behind it; and then late in the evening there was the Wight clear on the starboard bow. Jack climbed into the mizentop with a telescope and before the green light vanished in the west he thought he caught the glint of his observatory dome at Ashgrove Cottage. He stared at it in a strange confusion of spirits, as though at another world, farther from him now than when he had been in the Antipodes.

(Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:40 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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A water main break is one sure way to ruin your usual approach to work.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm trying to catch up, honest; but schedule changes and a family member undergoing surgery is making life wacky!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A most excellent movie!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You get invitied to a couple's house...the next day you are uninvited because of of the couple is having a meltdown.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Happy Birthday, USA! Still going...and going...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a terrible responsibility but I have learned to live with it." (Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 02:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Some very nice pictures from Apollo and the (let's hope they don't muck it up) Constellation program.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:37 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The monthly summary from me will be delayed a tad until I find some free time to write up some pithy comments and do a final count on books and short works read...

Not quite completely updated book and short list here...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"The Republics were assembled. The Games were set to begin. The Sun glared down upon the Olympiad, brutal. Tempers were short. Surly Greeks exchanged surly words. An old man entered the arena. He was bent, this old man was. His every bone ached. He pleaded to the Athenians for a place to sit—and they ignored him. Leaning heavily on his walking stick, dizzy now, his knees quaking, the old man begged the delegates of Corinth, of Mykonos, of Naxos, of Thira. Each turned a deaf ear to his plea. At last, the old man staggered to the Spartan delegation—and before he could croak out a single word, every Spartan rose as one, and stepped aside. And the old man shook his walking stick at all assembled, his voice rising to a lion's roar that rattled the very stones. "Every Greek knows what is right," he bellowed, "every Greek knows—but only the Spartans choose to do it!" (The character "Dilios", 300, Frank Miller and Lynn Varney)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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John's Reading Report (June 200

OK, here's what I've read over the past month, some of it unplanned:

Pattern Recognition, William Gibson

No More Mr. Nice Guy!, Robert Glover

Skeleton Crew, Steven King

In progress:

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett.

On deck (this is growing faster than my finished list):

Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill Bolte Taylor

Extraordinary Relationships, Roberta Gilbert.

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemerovsky.

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World, Carl Zimmer.

Spook Country, William Gibson.

Posted by: JohnL at 03:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It was hot. Africa hot. Even Tarzan would have found it hot.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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