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Can You Figure Out What this Science Fiction Novel is Trying to Say?

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

This is passed on from a friend of a friend, who is a Spanish teacher using a science fiction novel (I don’t know which one) in her class, and had this question:  I’m working on a sci fi novel to use in class and there is a reference to (translated):  the reflection point of the […]

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What Personnel Are Needed on a Spaceship Exploring Strange New Worlds?

Wednesday, July 11th, 2012

I like to write stories set in outer space on space ships, and I think a lot about stupid things like what is the necessary crew size and their expertise.  There are some guides based on long duration seafaring, but those are somewhat imperfect in the space environment. So far, we haven’t had space missions […]

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Three Crimes of Cliche Modern Superhero Movies Commit

Monday, July 9th, 2012

I have enjoyed the last decade of plentiful, quality superhero movies very much, and the few winners from earlier than that.  After watching The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man recently, both of which I enjoyed, I was reminded of some things I see too often in such movies that is starting to annoy me whenever […]

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Walt Whitman Listened to, but did not Hear, the Learn’d Astronomer

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

In my opinion, anyway. Here’s the poem, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (and “heard” does rhyme with “Learn’d” better than “listened to”), from Leaves of Grass. WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, […]

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How a Bad Relationship with Encyclopedia Brown Screwed Up Prometheus

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

Encyclopedia Brown is a fictional boy detective in a series of stories by Donald J. Sobol, and one of my heroes, who uses facts and logic to solve mysteries.  The stories about him always ended with him telling you the solution to the mystery, with a note to turn to the back of the book […]

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Fixing Prometheus (Spoilers)

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

It’s too late now, but it was possible, so let me explain how. Before I do that, let me note that some people loved Prometheus, like Roger Ebert, even though he takes issue with Creationist commenters who think the movie is pro Intelligent Design.  There are some who are willing to ignore the bad science, […]

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Why We Need Science Fiction

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

Real life. We’re already living in a science fiction future, but we’ve still got too many things that suck. I spent three hours waiting for tires today.  I spent four hours on this task a few weeks ago.  I don’t mind waiting as long as I have something constructive to do — some work, reading, […]

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“Science” in The Astronomy Book

Monday, May 28th, 2012

My personal feeling is that religion is incompatible with science, but there have certainly been religious scientists capable of doing good science.  People compartmentalize and turn off their critical brains when it comes to certain topics.  I don’t see the difference between being critical about astrology and being critical about any supernatural claims.  Still, a […]

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After I’ve Considered That…

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

I’ve seen this on facebook recently, and another friend just emailed it to me, so let me post it here to launch a couple of points for discussion:   So how about if I knew all that already? And could even make some minor corrections? Do I get to be certain? A quick google fails […]

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My Perfect Science Fiction Novel

Monday, May 21st, 2012

My perfect SF novel, the kind I love to read, and that I’ll probably always be struggling to write, contains: -One or more heroes who use, primarily, their intelligence to reach toward their goals. -Spaceships in space. -Aliens, usually to serve as a mirror for ourselves. -Big stakes, at least life and death, and some […]

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Top Ten Superhero Movies

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

I’ve seen a bunch of these lists on the heels of the success of the Avengers movie.  Forbes has their top twenty (which dips into some bad ones in my opinion).  io9 has their top ten comic book movies, which is unfortunately not restricted to superheroes (comparisons are apples and oranges too often).  IGN has […]

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Another Issue with Peer Review

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

I’ve written in the past about peer review (and links therein), particularly my annoyances with how some referees don’t seem to be constructive about it, and in fact can be condescending assholes.  I made my suggestions about improving it while keeping it anonymous.  Another option is to remove anonymity, which I think does have drawbacks, […]

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