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Storytime: “Going to Gimli” part 3

 My Fiction, science fiction, spacecraft  12 Responses »
Jun 052016
 

Here is Part Three of the story of Sarah, Zane, Loff and George transporting a shipload of rich folk to Gimli, a place where regular folk just don’t get to go. If you want to catch up in advance, Part One is available HERE, Part Two is available HERE, and the previous story, “Mass Disappearance,” is available HERE. A couple story fragments starring this crew are available HERE and HERE.

If you like it, feel free to tell your friends, family, co-workers, random strangers, whoever. Like it, hate it or meh it, I’m interested in your thoughts via comments. In particular: do you read it in EPUB pr PDF??

EPUB version

PDF version

 

 Posted by at 9:15 am

Well, it’s all downhill from here…

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  41 Responses »
Jun 042016
 

The political left is starting to show its true colors. I imagine the next few months will get pretty nasty now that leftists and their allies have realized that they can physically assault Donald Trump supporters in front of the police and not be stopped or arrested.

Given that a Chavez-like Socialist stood a realistic chance of getting the Democratic nomination, it shouldn’t be surprising that the sort of violence flaring up in Venezuela will become popular on American streets.

The funny thing is, this sort of thing will probably only make Trump more popular, since the criminals are showing themselves to be what they are, and making Trumps point for him.

This is hardly unique. Racist groups/Sanders supporters (but then, I repeat myself) are using disruption and assault and threats to prevent people from being heard

 

 Posted by at 9:54 pm

Spoon bending is still a thing

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., news, religion, science, wisdom, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 042016
 

Who knew?

Spoon-bending workshop, widely ridiculed online, pulled by university

Behold:

After a healthy dose of online ridicule, the University of Alberta has cancelled a workshop at which doctors were supposed to learn to bend spoons.

With their minds.

Oy.

It’s good that the university eventually cancelled this rubbish, but it’s sad that the “class” got beyond the initial “laughing-at-and-roundfiling” stage.

 Posted by at 5:03 pm

Men Into Space ship

 art, models, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  20 Responses »
Jun 042016
 

Well, here it is. There’s still a bit of time yet before it needs to be shipped off to be 3D printed, so if you see something that you think needs to be added or changed, let me know. Not shown here is the airlock door (fits flush). Also not shown is a yet-to-be-sculpted *probable* astronaut doing a spacewalk. A metal rod would connect the spaceship to the base.

This model is to be made available through Fantastic Plastic and will be 1/48 scale, a bit over 9″ long.

2016-06-04

UPDATE: turns out there’s a book about “Men Into Space.” Anybody know if it’s any good? Specifically… good imagery, diagrams, etc.?

 

 Posted by at 12:29 pm

I am reminded of Bruce

 AARRRGH, cats, ಠ_ಠ  4 Responses »
Jun 042016
 

Kind People Saw a Photo of Abandoned Cat Crying on the Street and Did Something Incredible

Well, not really *that* incredible, but still. In short, this cat was clearly abandoned out on the street, his litter box and other cat stuff piled up; the cat stayed near his stuff and cried to passersby. Sadly a street sweeper scared it off, but a search was put together and he (and one other cat) were found and are being treated at the vet and being readied for adoption.

I guess I can understand that fr0m time to time people might need to let go of their pets. But given how many people there are who would happily take them in, just dumping them out on the street, as was done With Bruce and with “Nostrand” here, just doesn’t make the slightest damn bit of sense to me.

 Posted by at 10:16 am

That’s not how you science, kid

 Crazy, dumbassery, Hmm..., news, science, ಠ_ಠ  13 Responses »
Jun 032016
 

Remember the kid who found a “lost Mayan city” that turned out to more likely be an old corn field? He seems to be taking the Donald Trump approach to dealing with criticism.

Teen Who ‘Discovered’ Lost Maya City Says Scientists Are Jealous

“I think scientists are jealous,” the teen declared. “Sometimes they are scared of new ideas. They’re afraid to have their established ideas criticized.” Ultimately, Gadoury wants scientists “to have more open minds and to listen to other ideas.”

Oy. I’ve heard this sort of response many, many times. And from adults, it’s virtually always a prelude to scientific crackpottery. Some goofball has some idea about why Newton or Kepler or Einstein was wrong, his ideas don’t pass basic scientific and/or mathematical scrutiny, and then he goes apoplectic. Scientists don’t promptly believe them because the scientists are idiots, or jealous, or closed-minded, whatever.

 Posted by at 9:18 pm

Half a Kiloton

 awesomeness, news, youtube  2 Responses »
Jun 022016
 

Fireball Lights Pre-Dawn Sky over Arizona

Based on the latest data, a small asteroid estimated at 5 feet (1-2 meters) in diameter – with a mass of a few tons and a kinetic energy of approximately half a kiloton – entered Earth’s atmosphere above Arizona just before 4 a.m. local (MST) time. NASA estimates that the asteroid was moving at about 40,200 miles per hour (64,700 kilometers per hour).

Neato. Kinda weak compared to the ones that keep whackin’ Russia, though.

 Posted by at 8:24 pm

Yay! We’re doomed! Ahead of schedule.

 news, science  8 Responses »
Jun 022016
 

Evidence, as yet un-backed-up, is starting to come in suggesting that the universe is expanding faster than previously thought. If true, this would tend to support the concept of “phantom energy,” creating an anti-gravity force that’s going to blow the universe into a vanishingly thin haze of sub-elemental particles.

NASA’s Hubble Finds Universe Is Expanding Faster Than Expected

The improved Hubble constant value 45.5 miles per second per megaparsec. (A megaparsec equals 3.26 million light-years.) The new value means the distance between cosmic objects will double in another 9.8 billion years.

Better start scratching off stuff on your bucket list, time’s runnin’ out.

 Posted by at 8:03 pm

Find the humor in tragedy

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, wisdom, ಠ_ಠ  12 Responses »
May 312016
 

So, the kid climbs into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnatti Zoo, gets dragged around by one of the gorillas, who gets whacked by the zoo personnel in order to save the kid. There is a whole lot of stupid to go around here… the zoo that made an enclosure easily breached, the parents who couldn’t or wouldn’t keep track of their kids. Lots of stupid, but little actual humor. In the end, the basic story is jsut sad… the gorilla pretty much *had* to die once it started dragging the kid around, but the kid didn’t *have* to be in the position to be dragged around. Stupid. Not funny.

But right on schedule, leave it to politically minded idiots to inject humor into the situation. Gentlemen, behold:

Killing a gorilla to save a ‘white boy’ was a ‘racist’ move, according to outcry

The Twitterstorm of racist dumbassery includes:

And there are a great many more in this vein. That in and of itself is funny, in a kind of predictably sad, pathetic way. But you know what brings the story to the point of high comedy? Here’s the kid and his parents:

Now, I admit that I’m not as “awakened” or “enlightened” to racial issues as many people, but there seems to be something here that makes me scratch my head in confusion about this white kid.

 Posted by at 8:56 pm
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