This list can now be viewed here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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List can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via BoingBoing, a link to a collection of videos from last year's Singularity Summit. See Ray Kurzweil, Eric Drexler, Cory Doctorow and Mr. GEB himself!

And they say that I am a strange loop!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has been one of the roads by which men have passed to supreme power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer life, with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small service rendered to humanity. And when we remember further that in another direction magic has paved the way for science, we are forced to admit that if the black arts has done much evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the child of error, it has been the mother of freedom and truth.

Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden Bough. 1922.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The suns tumbled up into the mauve autumn sky like rollicking kittens.

(Jack Vance, The Anome, 1973)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times?...As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells...and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower...both strange and familiar."

(Inkspell, by Cornelia Funke)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Sir, have you considered the converse of engineering? We fall into it so naturally, but in the end every project expires, and one way or another every team is dismantled, and that's something we're not wired to deal with. It saddens, even traumatizes us. That's where geniuses are needed, to engineer the conclusions of things."

(The Collapsium, Wil McCarthy)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Okay, Seaman Sanson, this is your safety briefing," the rep said, grinning again. "Be aware that the platform you are using for entry is poorly constructed and may collapse. Be aware that on the far side of the gate you may experience reduced air quality. Be aware that on the far side of the gate you may experience increased or decreased gravitational field. The far side of the gate may not be at ground level and you may experience vertical movement on exit. Upon returning you may find that you do not hit the platform in which case you will experience an approximately twenty-meter fall to ground level. The gate may not return to this same location at all in which case you may find yourself in any location in this universe or in any other universe. The environment suit that you are using is not warranted by the manufacturer for use in any nonterrestrial environment and, therefore, you are using it at your own risk. Do you understand this warning?"

(John Ringo, Into the Looking Glass)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"What is his background Mr. Secretary?"

"NASA, then defense contractors," the secretary said, smiling faintly. "Ph.D.s in physics, aeronautical engineering, optics, electronic engineering and some other stuff. Smart guy. Very bright, very sharp, high watt."

"Fifty-ish, balding," the Homeland Security director added, chuckling. "Fifty pounds overweight, pocket protector, five colors of pens, HP calculator on his hip."

The defense secretary just smiled. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Just remember," Miller growled, over the radio. "Once you ignite the fuse, Mister Satchel Charge is not your friend."

(Into the Looking Glass, John Ringo)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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He dialed his phone again.

"Garcia."

"Have the detectors arrived?"

"About an hour ago, and you were right. There's a fairly continuous stream of subatomic particles coming out of it. I think it's degrading."

"Okay, good," Weaver said.

"Is that firing I hear?" Garcia asked.

"Yeah, we're being invaded," Weaver replied and yawned. "Monsters from the eighth dimension or something. I think we're about to get overrun."

"Jesus! Get out of there!" more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Shit," Sanson said, dropping out his magazine and slapping in a new one.

The reason for his exclamation was clear. A new type of creature was pouring through the gate. These were bipedal and large but otherwise similar in general appearance to the earlier attackers. The big difference was in their armament. The tops of their beaks appeared to be hollow and as Weaver watched they stitched the line of defenders with projectiles. Two of them concentrated on the big machine gun, which had been gotten back into action, and the two man crew was riddled with the projectiles, their blood splashing all over the truck, which was still painted in desert camouflage.

The beasts were, also, heavily armored and seemed to shrug off most of the rounds coming their way. Only the heavy rounds of the MG-240s seemed able to penetrate their armor and the things were now concentrating on taking out the machine guns one by one. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Weaver waved at the sergeant and showed his Pentagon ID again.

"I'm Dr. Weaver with the DOD," he said. "This is Command Master Chief Miller with SEAL Team Five. What do you have?" more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A science fiction writer he knew always carried a black backpack that he called his "alien abduction pack." "Everything I need to survive for twenty-four hours in eighty percent of terrestrial environments." It was really a "I crashed in somebody else's hotel room at a con" or "the airline lost my bags" pack. Weaver had started carrying one as well and he was glad for it now. He could shave with his own razor and brush his teeth with his own toothbrush. He'd used up the bottle of water the day before but that was easily remedied.

As soon as he was done with his shower, hair brushed, wearing new underwear thanks to the "alien abduction pack" again, he was ready to face the day.

(Into the Looking Glass, John Ringo)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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(Reposted from 2006, also referenced in 2007.)

Review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And now, inspired by too much reading of the works of Patrick O'Brian...

Spanish Ladies

(Which is what I sing when I read too much Patrick O'Brian...)

Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish Ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain;
For we've received orders for to sail for ole England,
But we hope in a short time to see you again.
We will rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt sea.
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England;
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty five leagues. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 04:19 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Always makes me think of the movie Jaws. Great scene.

Posted by: Gunner at May 07, 2007 11:12 PM (LjQ8D)

2 ditto

Posted by: Dallas Meow at May 08, 2007 07:58 AM (8LYtL)

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Have you got a to be read pile? A pile of books you're about to start? How about a pile of books "in process"? I've got several of them: books I'm reading, books I'm about to read, books being used to research other books, books I haven't gotten around to reshelving (I have a lot of books!).

Via BoingBoing, a new Flickr collection of To Be Read piles!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via Making Light, a look at the new Library of America volume that collects four works by Philip K. Dick. Where will this volume be shelved? In Science Fiction? In Literature? Having seen H.P. Lovecraft move from the SF shelves in your typical big box bookstore to Literature (at least for his LOA volume), I expect more literary shuffling.

Who's next for the LOA? Le Guin? Delany? How about Heinlein?

Alas, Philip K. Dick's android head is still missing!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 03:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 02:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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