Some days, do you ever wonder, what with all the exoplanets being discovered and concerted studying of the skies, where all the aliens are? And why haven’t we found any evidence of them? And do they make their spacecraft entirely out of the black box? Well, Jill Tarter is here to clear some of that up. And by “clear up,” I mean “tell you how much we don’t know.” Mind you, it might be good…
Last Wednesday, I was in more meetings than not, so when it came to figuring out a good “wonky Wednesday post,” this article by Olga Khazan in The Atlantic resonated with me. Basically, the article points out how much of the jargon is not only used in business and office settings a form of the office culture, but that it’s also, shall we say, an act. Both from my background in theater and anthropology, I…
I still remember reading Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep with the idea of the “net of a million lies,” which we may well have already reached without the bonus of having an interstellar civilization. Instead, we have an absurd amount of people around the globe thinking they’re on a flat Earth. I stumbled across this video that has a succinct explanation for a lot of conspiracy theories.. One of the concepts mentioned in…
I remember playing around with shortwave radio growing up in the previous millennium and the excitement at finding broadcasts from other countries. Well, thanks to some enterprising folks over in the Netherlands, you can do some globetrotting yourself without leaving the comfort of your Internet browser. Radio Garden is a project that allows you to tune into all sorts of small radio stations all across the globe. Be warned, it can be a bit of…
With the prospect of pandemic restrictions being lifted, thoughts of vacationing further afield have come to mind… but am I thinking far enough? Thanks NASA.
It’s probably obvious that I’m a science fiction fan and, if you look at my own series, Rogue Tyger, a fan of the “crew on a ship and mayhem ensues” sci-fi sub-genre. And while it’s a very different show from what I’m trying to do, the landmark anime series Cowboy Bebop was and is a huge influence — and not just in terms of the title. So, of course I’m going to check out the…
I could say it’s the recent big-screen adaptation of Dune, but really any time is a good time to muse about the state of space exploration. And the space race is evidently heating up in Earth’s orbit, as per Eric Berger’s article for Ars Technica. Several groups, both national and commercial, are looking to have a permanent station in orbit. Well permanent for a while, since nothing gold can stay, due to wear and tear…
There’s several feature film ideas incubating in various corners of my brain from fanciful takes on family history to delving deeply into local history… and now I have another idea that anyone is welcome to take, but by gum I’ll have to write it if someone doesn’t: a tale about the wild zebras of Maryland. That’s right. Zebras. Creatures more familiar to African savannas and grasslands have found that the state just below the Mason-Dixon…
I’d previously pointed out that this week is the ALA’s annual Banned Book Week where you to can stick it to censors by reading books they feel would be better left unread or perhaps burnt to a cinder. There’s so many books to choose from, you may wonder where to start, so I’d suggest checking out the ALA’s list of most challenged books that goes back over a decade. You’re sure to find a book…
It took a little doing, but the corporate marketing machine has finally gone to warp in trying to create Event Days for Star Trek, with “First Contact Day” earlier this year and “Star Trek Day” honoring the first broadcast of the original series lo these 55 years ago. Case in point, this slick, satisfying montage: I’ll come back and update this post with some highlights, but in the meantime, here’s the schedule, conveniently staged for…