The Galilean Moons
“The Galileon Moons” makes me think of swashbuckling science fiction or the old Victorian fantasy fiction, the sort of stories that HG Wells wrote, or the pulp fiction of the 1920s.
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Out There
My Take on Dune: Part One & Two
I know I’m really behind on this! I saw Dune: Part Two a while ago and even wrote a post about how excited I was to see it here. But hey, at least I’ve had time to mull it all over. First off, let me start by saying that Dune is one of my all-time
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Giving Worldbuilding a Human Touch
In the last few days The Economist ran a story reporting that wind turbines keep getting bigger, which causes all sorts of interesting transport issues. Even if you’re not subscribed to The Economist, you should click through to the story using the link above, just to check out the image of the huge turbine blade
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Solar Power from Space Isn’t Going Away
My post earlier this month, “A Step Closer to Unlimited Power“, got a strong reaction from you. Lots of comments that pointed out that solar power beamed from space was a stupid idea, that it was essentially a weapon and no one would put a weapon like that in space, where it could attack any
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We Don’t Need Spaceships to Find Strange New Worlds.
A couple of years ago, I watched a short video on YouTube that compared the depths of the oceans. I found it again today. It’s quite mind-blowing seeing how puny human efforts are to reach the greater depths. And it’s equally as jaw-dropping to see how truly deep the oceans run. Both times I’ve watched
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Why Utopias Don’t Work…anywhere!
Farnam Street recently posted one of the clearest explanations for why utopias can’t work in real life. Apart from being super interesting reading, the post also made me reflect on utopias in fiction. I don’t like utopian fiction and tend to avoid it. Even before I read the Farnam Street post, I thought most of
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A Step Closer to Unlimited Power
The article is a bit old, now, but the breakthrough it reports on is a highly positive one. Perhaps that was why it didn’t get more coverage than it did. (Yes, I’m a bit cynical!) Space.com reported back in June that, “Scientists beam solar power to Earth from space for 1st time ever.” The article
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The Immoveable Object and The Irresistible Force
If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion. Robert A. Heinlein – The Notebook of Lazarus Long Say what you will about Robert Heinlein, he does make you pause to think at least once in every book. His The Notebook of Lazarus Long is stuffed full of thinkers. I’ve
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And sometimes AI is actually useful…
Any talk about AI tends to be radically polarized. The lovers and the haters seem to have zero middle ground in common. I’m personally cautious about AI…for now. There are copyright issues yet to be sorted out, and most of the tools like ChatGPT (which I’ve tried) produce generic pablum that requires just as much
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Self-Sustaining Life on Mars
I’ve been subscribed to ARS Technica for years. They’ve always been light and superficial, and just a bit clickbaity. Lately, I’ve drifted away because the ads were so numerous, I often couldn’t read the post at all. It’s because of sites like theirs that I finally installed an ad blocker. I know, I know…ad blockers
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