That family tree show with Chris O'Donnell

Took an oddly objectively pro-Napoleon view of the Failed Attempted Land-Grab of 1812.

There is nothing quite as attention getting as the sound of someone knocking on a door

An internal door in a house you thought you were alone in.

Fig has apparently worked out how to make a rapping sound on doors he wants through. I hope he isn't literally using his head.

If only history had been a little different

We would be talking about that time NASA send astronauts on a pointless flyby mission to Venus during a period that, as I recall, turned out not to be as flare-free as they hoped.

ariner 2 also found that the radiation environment approaching Venus is no more damaging than anywhere else outside the Earth’s magnetic field.

But how damaging is that?

Adding to the appeal was the belief (still tenable in the mid-1960s) that Venus’ clouds might hide a surface that astronauts could land on and explore.

Comments from people more familiar with the history of planetary studies?

So, about that idea I had for a Jack Williamsonian space as written in the manner of Milk Morinaga

That I talked about here.

It seems to me if it's really a space opera, it needs at least one ( Read more... )

The Science Fiction Book Club Reviews Revisited: 1983 (fourth quarter)

List courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.

Contents from Contento.

No attempt to avoid spoilers will be made.
( Read more... )

Later this week I will be using a lawnmower for the first time in 33 years.

[Poll #1930259]

[currently I have ten toes, all mine, all originals]

I still have all ten

And I got to use a branch cutter of stupendous effectiveness. You could take a finger or thumb off with them with no effort at all.

Gosh

That probably didn't end the way he planned.

Clarkesworld Podcast July 2008: When the Gentlemen Go By (Margaret Ronald)

When the Gentlemen Go By (Margaret Ronald)

Read by Cat Rambo. Not sure when this was first published.

A young woman comes of age in an isolated hollow, the source of whose prosperity is a glorious celebration of the unrestricted free market system.

I liked this a fair bit (although I am kind of pooped and don't have much to say about it). Hit rate on this series so far is pretty good.

Clarkesworld Podcast August 2008: Blue Ink (Yoon Ha Lee)

Blue Ink (Yoon Ha Lee)

First published in Clarkesworld Magazine, August 2008. Available in this collection. Read by Cat Rambo.

A young girl finds herself taken to a terrible battlefield in a war between armies fighting for and against entropy, there to make a decision.


And I enjoyed thisas well.

(I may come back and redo this. Tired)