Now if my internet connection goes down, at least this post is up!Just as a conversation starter, does good science fiction still exist? I remember reading a lot of it when I was young, but it seems that recently sci-fi has been taken over the the fantasy genre.
The picture is from the NASA image of the day.
Scientists have made the first conclusive discovery of water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet beyond our solar system, or exoplanet.
This artist's rendering shows a gas-giant exoplanet transiting across the face of its star. Infrared analysis by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of this type of system provided the breakthrough.
The planet, HD 189733b, lies 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. It was discovered in 2005 as it transited its parent star.
Blakes 7 was one of my all time favourites, although admittedly, Series 4 was a little disappointing.
ReplyDeleteTHERE ARE STILL SOME OF US WRITING IT!
ReplyDeleteI still enjoy Dr Who.
ReplyDeleteThough I missed most of the 'new' Dr Who second series.
Is it cold down Wellington way.
You have a bigger fire this eek, Lucyna.
DarrenG
Sometimes I think we live in a Theodore Sturgeon novel.
ReplyDeleteYou know odd things like men marrying other men and women having children without a man being part of the process.
Andrei, that's because as each eek goes by, you need a bigger fire otherwise spontaneous procreation takes over the world.
ReplyDeleteSorry, couldn't resist. Hell o everyone. HAd a very pleasant beer this evening with Darren. We drank to Panty Boy Slut and gave two minutes consideration to the peace and tranquility of his family. Both families actually. His natural family and his unanatiral family down at Kinx or whatever they call themselves, whenthey are talking to each other , that us.
ReplyDeleteYes, well he's more time now to do what he really enjoys.
ReplyDeleteHe might not even get selected for Dunedin South - I wonder if they'd let him into teaching again. Somehow I think he'd have trouble with that one.
The most disgusting part of the thing is the fact that he's only chucked because he lied the the PM - he'd already lied to everyone else last time.
Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.
ReplyDeleteor it's cabinet...
Evening all.
ReplyDeleteI like the picture;
The sun is hot
The universe is large
Death is unfortunate
Benson-Pope was demoted
He didn't think it professional
To talk to some-one who talked
to National.
It would have restricted his ability to act in civility. No doubt he would have felt if a figurative tennis ball was in his mouth
preventing rational discussion.
Evening everyone!
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a lovely drink or two with Adolf in a new "English" bar that was right next to a Chinese health centre!
Anyway , I see Panty Slut Boy will have time for the "munchies."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10412063
He has been a very naughty boy and I bet he is hungry too.
I so would like Ian Wishart or someone get to the bottom, as it were, of his nocturnal activities.
DarrenG
Yes, we have a Sci Fi writer in our midst, and I recommend a gander at Oswald's online story!
ReplyDeleteRemember, BP has only been 'demoted'. Who knows how long that will last?
ReplyDeleteBook Three- not on-line yet is the 'Hard' Sci-fi one!
ReplyDeleteWell Zen the South Dunedin labour party electorate committee is in an emergency meeting even as we enjoy our fireside free for all.
ReplyDeleteOh to be a fly upon the wall.
or maybe a cockroach...
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking the *announcement* that they are having an emergency meeting is all bark and no bite.
ReplyDeleteBeing the Dunedin Labour party, they'll have a whip 'round of course, and then discuss what they can do to get BP back in Cabinet in such a way that everyone appeared suitably outraged for 5 or 6 minutes.
Then they'll crack open the Tui and have a good party. Charged to Parliamentary Service somehow.
surely that would be a speights~
ReplyDeleteBut then we are talking Liarbour...
Maybe a warm rheineck
I see the new recruit over at No Minister has discovered a potential opening for Benson Pope.
ReplyDeleteAnd by opening I don't mean someone's rear end.
DarrenG
I don't think you can get anything warm in Dunedin this time of year, let alone a Rheineck?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the give them 10 seconds in a microwave first?
It wold be warm if one-...no-let's not go there!
ReplyDeleteWoops! Forgot to sign off and say good night all. Oh weel, good morning anyway.
ReplyDeleteLucyna, check your e-mail for a reeply to your question.
Yes, in Star Trek, the fiction used to be : Beam me up Scotty , now has become a reality. This has been achieved via a field of physics known as Quantum Teleportation.
ReplyDeleteApparently, there has been a successful teleportation of a bunch of atoms from point A to a different location point B by physicists at Neil Bohr Institute, Copenhagen , Denmark over a year ago.
I think that we're still far far away from teleporting a huge object such as a human as depicted in the Star Trek movie, however I will keep an open mind on this. Perhaps it might be something possible in the next 500 years (long after we've all gone), but again it might be impossible at all to achieve teleportation of any object larger than a bacteria.
Quantum Mechanics (QM) is only about a hundred years old, and it has achieved a phenomenon explosion in the growth of modern technology (lasers, transistors, micro-electronics semiconductor devices, fibre-optic telcommunication systems, etc, etc) in that short time span. Image what QM would be like in 1000 years from now and may be all the science fictions of today will become science facts, including the capability such as , Beam me up Scotty.
Recent sci fi novels that appealed to me:
ReplyDeletePeter F Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction trilogy (even though it has a lame deus ex machina) and his Pandora's Star.
Tad Williams' Otherland.
Kurt Vonnegut's Siren's of Titan.
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.
Tried to read Dan Simmons Endymion Rises but couldn't and so exchanged it for Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
In all matters I recommend Balzac.
If you like computers and chatting etc, I recommend Idoru, by William Gibson; in fact, the whole 'Bridge' trilogy is good (Idoru, Virtual Light, All Tomorrow's Parties).
ReplyDeleteGibson's 'Sprawl' trilogy (Neuromancer et al) is much harder going - happens further in the future and takes the head a while to get around.
Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson is also excellent cyber-fiction, but I didn't like some of the religious aspect of it (the Nam-shub stuff, etc), but I also recommend his 'The Diamond Age', which is kind of Victorian cyber-punk.
I think Stephenson was the first to come up with the term 'Avatar' as it applies to, well, an avatar or graphical representation of a person chatting. The chat environment he talks about has almost been realized with Second Life.
Other than that, you can always rely on the likes of Stephen Baxter or Greg Bear for real science-based sci-fi.
Neal Stephenson is great.
ReplyDeleteAs Fletcher says above Snowcrash is seminal and Cryptonomicon and Diamond Age are also wonderful imganitaive works.
Gimme Banjo Paterson any bloody day. Keep yer feet on the ground, I say!
ReplyDeleteNow we'll have a competition for the next two lines.
"Gimme Banjo Paterson any bloody day. Keep yer feet on the ground, I say!
ReplyDeleteNow we'll have a competition for the next two lines."
The colt from Old Regret had got away,
And all the cracks had gathered for the fray :)
JC
Iain M Banks.
ReplyDeleteUse of Weapons, Algebraist, Look to Windward etc.