It is interesting to see what new areas of crime pop up. Following up on the crimes mentioned in this post, thieves are now targeting...solar panels!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:13 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Science fiction writers Steve Miller and Sharon Lee are surviving the demise of their former publisher by finding a way of making money (gasp) by "giving" away their writing (gasp gasp).

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:50 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The latest in a series: you can build anything with Legos...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It appears that the Internal Revenue Service has suffered greatly due to cuts in hiring and equipment purchase. Just look at the e-mail I received from them this evening!

You Have Get a Tax Refund on your VISA or MasterCard
Complect The Formular
And get your tax Refund
(Your Refund Amount Is $620.50)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Or, more properly, what's wrong with US publishers?

Here's a guy who has written a pile of novels and short stories. Heck, he's won an award or three (Hugo, Locus and John W. Campbell Memorial, to be specific). His stories and novels are interesting...thought-provoking...they stretch your mind.

So why is it that his short story collection is only published in the US by a relatively small publisher? Why is it that his latest novel, Incandescence, is the only one of his works widely available in the US (his UK publisher published his whole backlist)?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:15 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Robert J. Sawyer expounds on Robert A. Heinlein's rules for writers. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yes, you can build anything with Legos.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East
'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,
An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased
Ere 'e's fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier OF the Queen!

Now all you recruities what's drafted to-day,
You shut up your rag-box an' 'ark to my lay,
An' I'll sing you a soldier as far as I may:
A soldier what's fit for a soldier.
Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .

First mind you steer clear o' the grog-sellers' huts,
For they sell you Fixed Bay'nets that rots out your guts --
Ay, drink that 'ud eat the live steel from your butts --
An' it's bad for the young British soldier.
Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .

When the cholera comes -- as it will past a doubt --
Keep out of the wet and don't go on the shout,
For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,
An' it crumples the young British soldier.
Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .

But the worst o' your foes is the sun over'ead:
You must wear your 'elmet for all that is said:
If 'e finds you uncovered 'e'll knock you down dead,
An' you'll die like a fool of a soldier.
Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .

If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
Don't grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;
Be handy and civil, and then you will find
That it's beer for the young British soldier.
Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .

Now, if you must marry, take care she is old --
A troop-sergeant's widow's the nicest I'm told,
For beauty won't help if your rations is cold,
Nor love ain't enough for a soldier.
'Nough, 'nough, 'nough for a soldier . . .

If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath
To shoot when you catch 'em -- you'll swing, on my oath! --
Make 'im take 'er and keep 'er: that's Hell for them both,
An' you're shut o' the curse of a soldier.
Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .

When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,
Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier . . .

When 'arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She's human as you are -- you treat her as sich,
An' she'll fight for the young British soldier.
Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .

When shakin' their bustles like ladies so fine,
The guns o' the enemy wheel into line,
Shoot low at the limbers an' don't mind the shine,
For noise never startles the soldier.
Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . .

If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

(Rudyard Kipling)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:55 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Upon the urging of some at SF Signal (although they may deny it), I took a look at the fiction set in the game universe known as Warhammer 40,000 (produced by Games Workshop). Some further research yielded recommendations from science fiction authors such as David Drake (who is going to be writing a "blurb" for one of the upcoming books) and John Lambshead (researcher, game designer, science fiction author who somehow finds time to play the game).

Well...with recommendations like those... more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:33 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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More signs of alien warfare...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm sure there's an officially sanctioned academically sound politically correct format out there somewhere...but how do I tell my daughter about what happened today? Especially when I still find it so difficult to speak about it myself?

I have wanted to be the one to do so. I feel that she needs to hear it from somebody who was there. Unvarnished from historical distortions as I can make it; as close to the actual experience as I can relate, without scaring the living daylights out of her.

Now I find that I must do so. Why? It seems that a classmate has given her a somewhat distorted version of what happened. No doubt he only heard it from his parents, but it has the taint of the whole it-was-a-plot-by-the-United-States-and-the-Israelis element about it.

"Let me tell you about the day Daddy almost got killed..."

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Going Downtown. There was a fire in the area, somewhere, last night. It involved at least some plastic. Toss that into a mix with some low-flying planes, and a fun night ensues.

I didn't look until I felt the flame.
The steel turns red, the framework starts to go.
Jacks clasp Jills' hands and step onto the sky.
The noise was not like anything you know.
Stand still, he said, and watch a building die.
There's no one you can help above this floor.
We've got to hold our breath. We've got to climb.
Don't give me that; I did this once before.
The firemen look up, and know the time.
These labored, took their wages, and are dead.
The cracker-crumbs of fascia sieve the light.
The air's deciduous of letterhead.
How dark, how brilliant, things will be tonight.
Once more, we'll all remember where we were.

110 Stories, John M. Ford.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Young Lady has been doing a lot of reading, but (like me, when I was a kid) tends to fall into small interest groups: reading the same series several times, etc. So we went to the library this weekend and went through a couple of shelves worth of books, with me looking at stuff and saying things like "Hey, this is about kids who travel through time, like The Magic Treehouse, want to try that?", etc.

The one suggestion I thought she'd reject immediately has really hooked her. I spotted several Tintin omnibus collections, three adventures per book. I pulled them out, talked about them, and she took out three. And has been reading them end-to-end since. You never know what will hook her!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I had the extreme good fortune to not only have seven (see if you can figure out what seven) books autographed by Travis S. "Doc" Taylor tonight, but to have dinner and a couple of drinks with him as well. He is a gracious and funny guy, and while he tries hard to project a "one of the guys image", there were more than a couple of times this evening when my jaw was hanging open trying to follow the way his mind jumps around.

Remember Neil Anson Clemons from Warp Speed and Quantum Connection? How about William Weaver from Into the Looking Glass and beyond? Now I feel like I've met them for real!

Let's see...spacecraft design. Child rearing. Detecting extrasolar planets with off-the-shelf equipment. Shrodinger's Cat. Quantum computers. Quantum physics and organic quantum computers. The Monoceros Ring. Roger Penrose. Miguel Alcubierre. Gamma-ray bursters. The Looking Glass books, The Warp Speed books. Other books he is written, has partially written, would like to write... Authors and/or stories that we both like. RoboTech. Star Blazers. Space opera. "Doc" Smith and parallels with Warp Speed and other books. Robert A. Heinlein. Spider Robinson. Lasers. Exotic space propulsion systems. How to get to another star in one person's "career life". Life extension. The wisdom of ordering sushi in a restaurant that is obstensibly Italian in nature.

And a whole lot more.

Folks, he's a fascinating guy. He's a very nice guy. If you get a chance to meet up with him at a convention or a conference, do so! You won't be sorry!

"Doc", it was great meeting you. I appreciate all the autographs! And the fascinating conversation! Is beer the same as coffee for you (hypes you up)?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:45 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Hey, guess who I'm having dinner with tomorrow night if all goes right?

Travis "Doc" Taylor!!!!

Time to be the raving fanboy!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Young Lady has been somewhat indifferent to science fiction and fantasy. There's the amusing time when my wife was flipping through channels, came across Forbidden Planet, and dismissed it as "Oh, that's a Daddy movie" to our daughter's inquiry. On the other hand, some of the things she has read on her own can be termed science fiction or that much-abused term "science fantasy". more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:23 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Baltimore has him. Philadelphia wants him. Good thing there's a Poe Militia standing by to defend his body!

(Alternate URL here because the NY Times never makes it easy.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'll never look at a tomato...or a cucumber...the same way again!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:13 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Those two plucky rovers, Spirit and Opportunity are still going on Mars. Opportunity has finished its year-long exploration of the half-mile wide crater known as Victoria and is back on "surface level" for its next stop. Spirit has sent back the "Bonestell Panorama". Wouldn't it have been wonderful for Chesley to have seen this?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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