tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55181221617153996572024-03-19T03:47:06.999-05:00POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Where Writing, Christianity, and Speculative Fiction Interact Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ᾽ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.comBlogger1984125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-73692890320988367852024-03-16T06:56:00.009-05:002024-03-16T06:56:52.055-05:00POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: Living In An iPod World With YA Fiction<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me7k3m9ysC1qdx4lmo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="300" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me7k3m9ysC1qdx4lmo1_500.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Eight billion people live on Earth along with 350 million iPods and 55 million iPads.<br /><br />Next year, the total number of active cell phones on Earth will surpass the total population of that same planet.<br /><br />We have seven billion people who spend more time on their phones talking to people far away than they spend physically talking to the people they live next door to.<br /><br />The generation to which my two adult kids belong to has even made a sort of “game” out of the dilemma. Ask your nearest twenty-something if they’ve ever played the game where a group of friends gets together at a bar, a restaurant or a party and they pile their cell phones in the center of the table. The first person to give in and answers their phone during the face-to-face event pays…the tab, the bill, for the next party…whatever.<br /><br />My guess is that even if they have never played it themselves, they know people who have and almost universally they find the idea offensive, horrifying, unbelievable, or ridiculous.<br /><br />It is not at all uncommon for my kids to come home with friends and have the entire group sitting in the living room not interacting with each other at all, but hunched over their cell phones incidentally not talking to each other. In fact, they are not even really communicating in English but in a dialect that has replaced “you” with U; “to” with 2; and has created LMFAO for…well, I have no doubt that you know what that stands for.<br /><br />What does this have to do with the writing life?<br /><br />Everything. While people are still reading – more and more are moving to ebooks, but that’s a completely different issue that I addressed in a published short story I wrote (<a href="http://www.perihelionsf.com/1306/fiction_6.htm">http://www.perihelionsf.com/1306/fiction_6.htm</a>) – they are reading less and reading shorter.<br /><br />It’s also nothing new. Teaching a writing class to young people, we do a brief unit on journalism. The journalistic writing style is best defined as an inverted pyramid:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.poynter.org/wp-content/uploads/2004/06/invertedpyramid.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tMTA_g8D3E5dBG-Ikw460WFjH11aDLewyEBs3t27EE_x6LB_yiKyS9on-Fd_xt1o95J6F7zN6R5--MN5tXnqdIiXPhkYTxbY1l9uiGFKGjvwRqIBWkyAGTcCygpyJWrljDoSYWeHj4=s0-d" /></a><br /> <br /> <br />It would be easy to say that today’s text language is simply a logical growth from this style. The question remains: what does this mean for writers? For me?<br /><br />What would it have meant for Tolkien? What kind of impact did it have on the Harry Potter books? How does it affect a midlist writer?<br /><br />It is my belief that among other things, the “novel” will shrink. The move to “shorter” novels has already begun as young adult fiction sales have experienced a tremendous upsurge – and the people who are buying and reading YA fiction are full-on ADULTS. Publisher's Weekly reports that, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">According to January 2023 WordsRated statistics</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">, 51% of YA books are purchased by people between the ages of 30 and 44,</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"> and 78% of those buyers said that they intended to read the books themselves." </span>My guess is that number has grown.<br /><br />There’s all kinds of speculation about why adult adults read young adult novels. Young adult author and professor of English, Marie Rutkoski summarizes them neatly: “…adults like YA because young people feel things very strongly, and the representation of this makes for a potent read…YA is ‘easy,’...adults these days live in an unnaturally prolonged state of adolescence... Perhaps the best explanation given to me, though, is that readers are drawn to stories about first experiences...readers...want to behold a transformation. First experiences draw us in because they are the crucible for change.”</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />While I’m sure all of these factors come into play, I believe that the main reason is that adults began to read “little” stories in programmed reading books; they graduated to newspapers; then online news sources mostly supplemented by Youtubes and video clips. This condition was exacerbated by television programs in which every event is compressed into a slice of thirty minutes – which is actually 22 minutes of programming. An hour-long television show like BONES (one of my favorites), solves a grisly murder in 44 minutes.<br /><br /><br />Even when directors strive for reality in movies like Warren Beatty’s REDS (compresses two years into 3 hours and 25 minutes) and Richard Attenborough’s GHANDI (compresses seventy-nine years and the lives of nearly one billion people into 3 hours and 21 minutes) or Fox Television series 24 (24 episodes, each one 44 (“one hour”) minutes long) which attempt a realistic representation of a twenty-four hour event – they compress time into watchable bytes.<br /><br />Why would ANYONE be surprised that adult adults have embraced generally short YA novels?<br /><br />If what I believe is true, then Robert Jordan’s WHEEL OF TIME is the end of an era and the Harry Potter books are the last time we’re going to experience extended stories of nearly two million words.<br /><br />What we once called a novella (17,500-40,000) will become the New Novel (surprise! This is how long the average YA “novel” is!); and the categories will change name and move backward until what we think of as a “long” novel will be what our forebears thought of as a longer short story.<br /><br />As a writer, I need to plan several things:<br /><br />1) Write shorter<br />2) Show dramatic transformation with a “first experience” sensibility<br />3) Drop big words which, while making for precise ideological communication, take too long to read and are subsequently skipped<br />4) Make the characters adult, but younger – even the old folks (oh, that’s right, there’s no such thing as “old adult” fiction – ‘cause even though they can read, they can’t see! (PS: I'm within striking distance of 70!, so don't accuse me of ageism!))<br />5) Don't do anything TOO new<br /><br />There you go. Comments?<br /><br />Resources: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iPod_models">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iPod_models</a>, <a href="http://ipod.about.com/od/glossary/qt/number-of-ipods-sold.htm">http://ipod.about.com/od/glossary/qt/number-of-ipods-sold.htm</a>, <a href="http://adrianofarano.com/2012/01/how-many-ipad-have-been-sold-in-the-us-so-far/">http://adrianofarano.com/2012/01/how-many-ipad-have-been-sold-in-the-us-so-far/</a>, <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mobile-phone-world-population-2014/">http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mobile-phone-world-population-2014/</a>, <a href="http://io9.com/the-real-reason-why-grown-ups-love-young-adult-fantasy-1172843218">http://io9.com/the-real-reason-why-grown-ups-love-young-adult-fantasy-1172843218</a>, <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090118200609AAgNayT">http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index? qid=20090118200609AAgNayT</a> ; </span><a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/93417-who-is-ya-for.html#:~:text=According%20to%20January%202023%20WordsRated,to%20read%20the%20books%20themselves."><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Who Is YA For? (publishersweekly.com)</span></a><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Image: <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me7k3m9ysC1qdx4lmo1_500.jpg">http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me7k3m9ysC1qdx4lmo1_500.jpg</a></span></div></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-16790670643237664132024-03-09T05:00:00.021-06:002024-03-10T22:39:13.752-05:00POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY AND WRITING ADVICE – Lisa Cron: Readers Expects the Protagonist Will Have a Longstanding Misbelief<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51ddbf8fe4b0bf85e2f4edd2/t/592c2f0b414fb5ddd3a1259d/1496067864402/BookImage.jpg?format=300w" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="300" height="400" src="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51ddbf8fe4b0bf85e2f4edd2/t/592c2f0b414fb5ddd3a1259d/1496067864402/BookImage.jpg?format=300w" width="271" /></a></div>In 2008, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. To learn more – and to satisfy my natural tendency to “teach stuff”, I started a series of essays taking the wisdom of published writers and then applying each “nugget of wisdom” to my own writing. During the six years that followed, I used the advice of a number of published writers (with their permission) and then applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda to an analysis of my own writing. Together these people write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Today I add to that list, Lisa Cron who has worked as a literary agent, TV producer, and story consultant for Warner Brothers, the William Morris Agency, and others. She is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences, and a story coach for writers, educators, and journalists. Again, with permission, I am using her article, “A Reader’s Manifesto: 15 Hardwired Expectations Every Reader Has for Every Story” (2/16/18 <a href="http://blog.creativelive.com/essential-storytelling-techniques/">http://blog.creativelive.com/essential-storytelling-techniques/</a>) </i><br /><br />“The reader expects the protagonist will have a longstanding misbelief that has kept her from easily achieving that goal.” <br /><br />This is a tough one for me to figure out because belief is so deeply ingrained in us, that even atheists seem to have trouble after dragging themselves free from anything not made of matter, ie, “the divine”. <br /><br />Case to point that I can support: aliens. <br /><br />Astrophysicist Carl Sagan had no patience with those who believe in any sort of invisible deity: “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?’” [Odd – he never asked me…] “Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.” <br /><br />Stephen Hawking wasn’t interested in God, either: “‘We have finally found something that doesn’t have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in,’ Hawking wrote. ‘For me this means that there is no possibility of a creator, because there is no time for a creator to have existed in.’” <br /><br />Yet, neither man has any trouble believing in aliens: beings who exist solely in the imagination of Humans. Those of you who read my blog, know I write science fiction that includes aliens. No matter how intellectual the person believing in them is, they are believing that aliens “must exist”. <br /><br />But when pushed (I teach a class called Alien Worlds for gifted and talented kids from 9-16), I have to say that the science teacher in me; the one that insists on EVIDENCE to support a position…has no response other than, “There is no evidence anywhere that there is life ANYWHERE but on Earth.” <br /><br />“None. Nothing. Nowhere. No one has anything.” <br /><br />“THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS.” <br /><br />One of these avowed atheists had no trouble writing: “If it is just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” – (Contact, screenplay by Carl Sagan). <br /><br />Additionally: “Contrary to the popular belief that aliens would be destructive to mankind, Sagan advocated that aliens would be friendly and good-natured.” <a href="https://www.famousscientists.org/carl-sagan/">https://www.famousscientists.org/carl-sagan/</a> <br /><br />Stephen Hawking said: “‘One day, we might receive a signal from a planet like this,’…referring to the potentially habitable alien planet Gliese 832c. ‘But we should be wary of answering back. Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well,’ he added…” <a href="https://www.livescience.com/62015-stephen-hawking-quotes.html">https://www.livescience.com/62015-stephen-hawking-quotes.html</a> <br /><br />So, if my protagonist has some sort “longstanding misbelief”, and the reader agrees with that misbelief, will they follow the story through to its conclusion? To THEM, the conclusion is foregone. <br /><br />What if the character has a misbelief that the readers violently disagrees with, will they assume that it was that “misbelief that has kept her from easily achieving [her] goal” and throw the story aside, assuming that it was all propaganda, so not worth the reader’s time of day or effort? <br /><br />How much leeway does a writer have when giving the protagonist a misbelief? <br /><br />For some people, “…are concerned for the wellbeing of all, are committed to diversity, and respect those of differing yet humane views. We work to uphold the equal enjoyment of human rights and civil liberties in an open, secular society and maintain it is a civic duty to participate in the democratic process and a planetary duty to protect nature’s integrity, diversity, and beauty in a secure, sustainable manner.” Others, “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Either would be guaranteed to put off some number of readers. <br /><br />Or is Cron just talking about something like, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Even so, I suppose that someone, somewhere would find that statement objectionable. Some would find it objectionable in the extreme; or biased and homophobic…And yet, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE continues to be popular and the plot foundational to literature written in English (possibly in other languages, but I could only find PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND OTHER FLAVORS (Sonali Dev), so there’s never been a groundswell of hatred and rejection of the books, so maybe my thoughts are absurd. <br /><br />Any thoughts? <br /><br />Source: <a href="https://scientificliteracymatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/carl-sagan-1024x576.jpg">https://scientificliteracymatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/carl-sagan-1024x576.jpg</a>, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/63854-stephen-hawking-says-no-god.html">https://www.livescience.com/63854-stephen-hawking-says-no-god.html</a>, <a href="https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/">https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A+21-25&version=NLT">https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A+21-25&version=NLT</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5882-it-is-a-truth-universally-acknowledged-that-a-single-man">https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5882-it-is-a-truth-universally-acknowledged-that-a-single-man</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sonali-Dev/e/B00JOSJQFO/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1">https://www.amazon.com/Sonali-Dev/e/B00JOSJQFO/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1</a> Image: <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51ddbf8fe4b0bf85e2f4edd2/t/592c2f0b414fb5ddd3a1259d/1496067864402/BookImage.jpg?format=300w">https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51ddbf8fe4b0bf85e2f4edd2/t/592c2f0b414fb5ddd3a1259d/1496067864402/BookImage.jpg?format=300w</a></span>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-11580335551024942522024-03-06T05:00:00.045-06:002024-03-06T21:58:29.306-06:00IDEAS ON TUESDAY 628<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="382" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)</i><br /> <br /> H Trope: (reference: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation</a>. I think I’m going to mine THIS idea in various ways for a while!) , more specifically covered here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld_(1985_film)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underworld_(1985_film)</a><br />Current Event: <a href="http://altimatrix.com/2012-and-your-dna">http://altimatrix.com/2012-and-your-dna</a> (Truth? I can’t imagine that ANY person would actually believe this. Really.) Let’s focus on this little tidbit: “According to what the dowsing reveals, there will be 6-9 DNA upgrades for these people before our critical juncture in the photon belt. Their ascension will take place at the same time as other people, however they will have more advanced evolutionary changes initially. In the meantime these people’s subtle energy bodies will be exposed to even higher frequencies of consciousness than the average person. This will be possible due to the individual’s higher self, having the option to do this. Once the first 3 DNA upgrades are complete, the connection to the higher self is so much less corroded that the higher self can do this type of work for individual chosen for such a role.” <br /><br />Snorri Benediktsson and Hofi Flosadóttir, late of Iceland were working together in the physics lab. "If I can get this stupid file to work with these special effects..."<br /><br />Hofi said, “<i>Komdu og líta á þetta!</i>” <br /><br />He sighed. He hated when she used Icelandic. “We’re in America now! Speak English!” <br /><br />“<i>Ekki allir hér tala ensku</i>.” <br /><br />“I know that. My roommate speaks better Spanish than he speaks English,” said Snorri. <br /><br />“Mine is fluent in Ojibwe, but she speaks English most of the time. She does use her native language when she chants at night,” said Hofi. <br /><br />“But we’re supposed to be experiencing a different culture.” <br /><br />“So why are we dating each other? Shouldn’t you be going out with a ravishing latina?” <br /><br />“And you should be hanging out with some fratboy who only wants you for your body and has no idea you’ve got a brain that’s as sharp as the curves are beautiful.” <br /><br />Hofi blushed and turned back to the window in the lab that looked north, out over Lake Bemidji and toward the frigid air of the pole. A particle collector floated in the atmosphere some hundred miles north and twenty miles up, the display near the window was connected to the college through a satellite uplink. She pointed at the rippling patterns in the sky. “That’s what I wanted you to look at.” <br /><br />For a moment, even Snorri couldn’t ignore the display. When he finally worked up the nerve to put his arm around her, she turned away. “All right. This has all been done before. Electrons, ionized gasses and the lot has been done to death.” <br /><br />“What’s that supposed to mean?” <br /><br />“I’m going to do something no one has ever done before.” <br /><br />Scowling, he walked over to her humming machine. A small box, open on the side facing them, emitted an odd, pulsing sound. He said, “What are you going to do?” <br /><br />“I’m going to really collect particles from the aurora. I’m using one of the new particle transporters from England to move some of the particles directly from the upper atmosphere to here.” <br /><br />“Is that safe? I mean, I know I’m not a physics whiz like you, but I do know that high energy particles – like UV light – can burn human skin.” <br /><br />She shrugged. “Sure. But there are other particles up there. That’s what I’m trying to measure. That’s what I want to find – the other particles up there.” She waited a moment and then said, “Stand back.” She flipped a switch. The box sparked and she fell back, covering her facing a screaming. An intensely pink colored, gaseous substance flowed from the box, coalescing on the floor around where Hofi was writhing on the floor. <br /><br />Snorri dropped to his knees, hands grabbing her shoulders and coming into contact with the pink, amoeboid gas. For a moment he froze, then the cloud began to crawl up his arms. Both of the Icelanders shivered but otherwise didn’t move. <br /><br />Instead, their skin began to crawl. <br /><br />Literally… <br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Names: ♀,♂ Iceland<br /> Image: <a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg">https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg</a></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-86872784666000319592024-03-02T05:00:00.001-06:002024-03-02T07:32:59.096-06:00POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow, and Alien Aliens<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/stsci-01gfnn3pwjmy4rqxkz585bc4qh.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="462" height="400" src="https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/stsci-01gfnn3pwjmy4rqxkz585bc4qh.png" width="231" /></a></div>On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Sixteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things with my blog. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, the oldest of which just became a teenager. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories <a href="https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/">https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/</a>.</i></div><br />These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.</i></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i>The movie, Edge of Tomorrow, with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt came out a decade ago. My wife and I watched it a few nights ago and I came away AMAZED. (I also found out tonight from Dale, that I’ve seen the movie, albeit several years ago.) <br /><br />By the way – this is NOT a movie review! If you’ve never heard of the movie, I suggest you watch it. I was able to check out the DVD from my friendly neighborhood library. I could probably ((WILL, probably), pick it up for a couple bucks somewhere eventually. <br /><br />A couple of things impressed me. <br /><br />First of all, it was startling to see Mary Poppins as an enhanced mechanized soldier who easily blew alien monsters away! It reminded me of a scene from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2, where “Yondu [is] yelling ‘I'm Mary Poppins, y'all’ while using his arrow to float back to the ground. It turns out that wasn't originally in the script. When [the writer] was visualizing the scene, it didn't look quite as heroic as [he] intended it to be. So then [he] put the Poppins line in Peter Quill's mouth. And Yondu, of course, not knowing the name Mary or Poppins might think he's sort of a Lee Marvin type and he owns it.” <br /><br />Of course, I mean actor Emily Blunt. My wife and I discovered we’re a pair of Emily Blunt fans! Besides playing Mary Poppins, a fashion magazine secretary (alongside Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci); she has played memorable characters as diverse as Young Queen Victoria, Miss Piggy’s Receptionist, the mother of a psychic child marked for execution by a time-traveling agent, a Baker’s Wife, an Amazon River adventurer, a nuclear physicist’s wife, and a pharmaceutical executive-then-whistleblower… <br /><br />And, of course Sergeant Rita Vrataski, (also known as the Full Metal Bitch) a mech-suited Army soldier. Amazingly, the movie is considered a horror “comedy”, mostly for the repartee between the Sergeant and Major/Private William Cage. While the die repeatedly in variously gruesome ways ranging from Vrataski shooting Cage to start the loop cycle again, to both of them being violently torn to shreds by the…sort-of-micro-tornado of tentacles of some sort, to crashes, crushing, and literally dozens of creative ways someone can die on a battlefield. <br /><br />How she comes across as HUMOROUS in this splatter-gore movie escapes me – though I personally believe that while the humor is sometimes slapstick, it leans more heavily on sarcasm between Vrataski and Cage. That’s my FAVORITE form of humor.<br /><br />At any rate, Blunt’s performance and her and Cruise’s increasing skill at blowing the Mimics away leads me to contemplate the aliens themselves. <br /><br />It’s bluntly (no pun intended) stated pretty much from the beginning that they want Earth. But WHY? They LOOK absolutely alien – but to me, they make no sense whatsoever. Created for their “creep factor”, they’re typically nothing more that flailing tentacles that kill Humans. <br /><br />Why? Why do they even CARE about Earth or Humans? Their blood is obviously not iron-based so they’re not going to use Earth as a cattle ranch (so to speak) – how do they breathe on Earth? They don’t have suits – at least not suits a Human would recognize. They don’t even really have weapons, except slashers and hard skin: they can only be destroyed by intense, high-speed machinegun fire. Also, there’s no way they can really SEE, as there are no obvious eyes. I believe at one point, the movie alludes to them having psychic powers. But that’s even MORE ridiculous! In order to telepathically link with a life form, your electrical/psychic system would have to be able to synchronize – and based on what we see, Human-Mimic psychic link would be impossible: they aren’t even the same SPECIES – and the Mimics don’t appear to have any kind of central nervous system. <br /><br />The following discussion online offers some interesting insight into the Mimics: <a href="https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/24557/what-is-the-origin-of-mimics-in-edge-of-tomorrow">https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/24557/what-is-the-origin-of-mimics-in-edge-of-tomorrow</a> <br /><br />So, let me take a stab at it – as the Mimics obviously come from an entirely alien environment and we know their either evolved there or were created there – then they must have some kind of environment that they were designed for. Their ability to “spin through soil” might point to their origins or life as a…sort of mole-like creature. As they originally attacked from the oceans, like us, they might have a saline internal fluid like blood. You get a better sense of the tentacles if you scroll through this link: <a href="https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Mimic_(Edge_of_Tomorrow)">https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Mimic_(Edge_of_Tomorrow)</a>. <br /><br />Despite their wild appearance, their movement would suggest that they not only originated on a high-gravity world, but they were, at one time, “prime prey”. To survive, they would have had to develop defenses against their main predator. Humans became SMARTER than just about everything that hunted them. Did the Mimics do the same – or are they simply “animals”? Maybe the drone Mimics are, but the Alphas and Omegas are NOT – they’re a hive organism, somewhat like a beehive, though NOT precisely… <br /><br />Anyway, this is getting long. I think I’m going to stop here and continue later. Have a good day! <br /><br />Inspiration: “Live. Die. Repeat.” or EDGE OF TOMORROW<br />Links: <a href="https://bleedingcool.com/movies/james-gunn-reveals-im-mary-poppins-yall-wasnt-script/#google_vignette">https://bleedingcool.com/movies/james-gunn-reveals-im-mary-poppins-yall-wasnt-script/#google_vignette</a> ; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Blunt">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Blunt</a> <br />Image: [Webb image of the Horsehead Nebula…looks like dragons to me!]<br /><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/stsci-01gfnn3pwjmy4rqxkz585bc4qh.png">https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/stsci-01gfnn3pwjmy4rqxkz585bc4qh.png</a></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-58516926025360468312024-02-27T05:00:00.001-06:002024-02-27T15:02:55.202-06:00IDEAS ON TUESDAY 627<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg" width="382" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.</i><br /><br />F Trope: (reference: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation</a>. I think I’m going to mine THIS idea in various ways for a while!) , more specifically covered here: “…sexual transmutation, is the attempt, especially among some religious traditions, to transform sexual impulses or "sexual energy" into creative energy. In this context, sublimation is the transference of sexual energy, or libido, into a physical act or a different emotion in order to avoid confrontation with the sexual urge, which is itself contrary to the individual's belief or ascribed religious belief. It is based on the idea that "sexual energy" can be used to create a spiritual nature which in turn can create more sensual works, instead of one's sexuality being unleashed “raw.” The classical example in Western religions is clerical celibacy. As espoused in the Tanya, Hasidic Jewish mysticism views sublimation of the animal soul as an essential task in life, wherein the goal is to transform animalistic and earthy cravings for physical pleasure into holy desires to connect with God. Different schools of thought describe general sexual urges as carriers of spiritual essence, and have the varied names of vital energy, vital winds (prana), spiritual energy, ojas, shakti, tummo, or kundalini. It is also believed that undergoing sexual sublimation can facilitate a mystical awakening in an individual.”<br />Current Event: <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080428062406AAqmB2e">http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080428062406AAqmB2e</a> <br /><br />“That’s ridiculous!” Beatriz Velastagui T. exclaimed. <br /><br />“No! Really, I read it online!” replied Kaew Savane Xiong (“precious” “mountain” “bear”) <br /><br />“I KNOW you don’t believe everything you read online, so why this thing?” Her lids narrowed as she looked at him through her long lashes.” <br /><br />“Are you trying to seduce me?” Kaew [she said it like she’d say ‘cue’; he’d snap, ‘keh-oo’. She’d reply with the same word and he’d roll his eyes] said. <br /><br />She sniffed and said, “No, I’m trying to send you into godhood so you’ll get out of my hair.” She stepped around him and hurried on her way to chemistry. He followed and she said, “I’m gonna call the deans and charge you with stalking!” <br /><br />“You can’t because you know I’m going to physics.” <br /><br />“Then it’s amazing that you believe in something like,” her voice dropped, “sex making someone into a god or goddess.”<br /><br />He shrugged, “That’s what these crazy Americans think.” <br /><br />“We’re crazy Americans now!” she said as she turned in to her class. <br /><br />He sniffed and shook his head. The teasing had gone out of him, snuffed like a candle in a harsh wind. He passed her, head down and slipped into his own classroom. Beatriz was certain she heard him say, “You might be, but me?” <br /><br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">They met for lunch like every other day, but Kaew seemed as depressed as he had been when she’d started teasing him. She dropped her books on the table, startling him. “Why’d you do that?” he exclaimed. <br /><br />“All right, I’ll listen to your theory. How CAN a Human use sex to transmute themselves into a god or goddess?” <br /><br />He shook his head, “Supposedly it all has to do with focusing the sexual energy tightly enough.” <br /><br />“Like how are we supposed to do that?” She pulled an orange out of her string pack and peeled it, making a neat little pile of rough fruit skins at her elbow. <br /><br />Kaew opened his own bag and pulled out a notebook. An odd figure had been scratched into the green ink that used to cover it, leaving a white circle-within-a-circle and a bunch of odd lines and curlicues. “With this.” <br /><br />Beatriz closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. “So we hold this magical circle between us and think about sex and, ‘poof!’ you’re a god and I’m a goddess?” <br /><br />Kaew made a face then said, “You promised you’d listen to me.”<br /> <br /> “This isn’t just some cheap trick to get into my panties, is it?” She was rewarded by his deep pinkish-pale blush. <br /><br />He always stammered when he was nervous, so she knew she’d pricked him as he said, “N…n…no! It’s real! I’ve been studying this for a long time!” <br /><br />She shook her head, eating three sections of the orange then saying, “Why do you want to be a god?” <br /><br />He glanced both ways, then prairie-dogged to get a view of the whole lunchroom, then leaned forward and said, “There are people here who deserve to come under the wrath of a vengeful god!” <br /><br /> Names: ♀ South America ; ♂ China (Hmong)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Image: <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg">https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg</a></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-20727274935346236542024-02-24T05:00:00.003-06:002024-02-25T08:31:02.079-06:00JAX LUNAR LUMBER Chapter 4: The Judge’s Descendant and the Coconut Tree<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.insider.com/6285a7720fdb180018cc15a3?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://i.insider.com/6285a7720fdb180018cc15a3?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp" width="400" /></a></div>On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stored. Know was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways</a> The rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered. <br /><br />When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what?” <br />I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox?” <br />We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes!” <br /><br /></i></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>Inspired by Matt Weir, the result of my musings continues below. <br /></i><br />We got the email from Earth a few days ago, from the last living Lunar Walker. He wants to come and see the Tree. <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 107%; padding: 0in;">We got the email from Earth
a few days ago, from the last living Lunar Walker. He wants to come and see the
Tree. You know the Lunar Trees? “…the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 14
mission, [brought] a small canister containing about 500 seeds aboard the
module in 1971. [When they returned, they were germinated at NASA, then sent to
people around the US and a couple other places on earth.] “In 1996, a
third-grade teacher, Joan Goble, and her students found a tree in their local
area with a plaque identifying it as a Moon tree. Goble sent an email to NASA and reached employee Dave Williams. Williams was unaware of the trees'
existence, as were most of his colleagues at NASA. Upon doing some research,
Williams found some old newspaper clippings that described the initial actions
taken by Roosa to bring these seeds to space and home to be planted.[6]
Williams posted a page on NASA's official website asking for public help to
find the trees. The page also contained a table listing the locations and
species of known Moon trees."</span><br /><br />So, yeah, we have our Tree. It’s a redwood and it’s been growing for the past seven years not far from Jax Lunar Lumber. Oh! Don’t worry, we’re not planning to cut it down or anything. It’s sort of our mascot, actually…if you can have a tree for a mascot. It’s on our website. I should know, cause I’m the one who put it there. I’ve been planting trees on the Moon for the past two years. I leased a lava tube and using some plans I found on the internet, I started to create a habitat that they can survive in. <br /><br />I know saying that I’ve been planting trees for the past two years makes it sound like I’m some sort of Johnny Appleseed – though that would be Cedric Allen Easternpine, which kind of sounds cool, but my real last name’s just Allen. <br /><br />Anyway, travel from Earth to the Moon and back has become sort of routine – as routine as taking a vacation in the Antarctic is back on Earth…weird if not impossible. But like I was saying before I got sidetracked, the Last Lunar Walker wants to come up here, look around, and I guess he wants to die here. <br /><br />Creepy, but I had an aunt in my hometown of Crosby, Minnesota who wanted her body entombed in a casket carved from iron ore, and sunk to the bottom of one of the old iron mine lakes. She was rich, and threw enough of her money at it while she was still smart enough to manage her own affairs, that they eventually gave up resisting her and named the lake after her and called it the Ceilia Anne-Johnson Usorituen Water Cemetery. <br /><br />I will say a few of my relatives nearly had heart attacks of their own before she ended up getting what she wanted. <br /><br />So, she’s there, and the Last Moon Walker is using HER case (and law team) to make it so that he can be buried on the Moon. <br /><br />Of course, Lunar Law being so new and all, there’s a statute that says you can’t technically bury anyone in a hole in the surface. It’s got to be part of some sort of structure. While the Last Moon Walker hasn’t named himself, we have a fair idea who it is and so I wrote to the whole group and offered the possibility of being made into humus and being used to grow another tree of their choice – though they have to bring several seeds with them when they leave Earth. <br /><br />The thing is, the Last Moon Walker picked a coconut tree to be buried under. Just so happens to be one of the larger species of coconuts – the Cocos nucifera. You’ve seen it, I’m sure. It’s pretty much the “coconut” tree everyone imagines when they think of a coconut palm.<br /><br />The problem is that Moon soil is totally wrong and the only way we can grow trees on the Moon is if they are actually planted in the soil… <br /><br />Resources: The Moon Trees, <a href="https://www.urbanforestdweller.com/we-almost-forgot-about-the-moon-trees/">https://www.urbanforestdweller.com/we-almost-forgot-about-the-moon-trees/</a>; <a href="https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.html">https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.html</a> ; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut</a> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Image: <a href="https://i.insider.com/6285a7720fdb180018cc15a3?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp">https://i.insider.com/6285a7720fdb180018cc15a3?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-60503946669484298632024-02-17T05:00:00.054-06:002024-02-18T10:46:37.107-06:00MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 20: The DAWN of Asteroid Mining May Be THIS Year! (And a few random thoughts)<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://everydayastronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/Post-Launch-Reviews/CNSA/Long-March-2C_Xinhua-1200x800.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://everydayastronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/Post-Launch-Reviews/CNSA/Long-March-2C_Xinhua-1200x800.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div></i></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><i>Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me… </i><br /></span><br />That DAWN may be starting with a secret destination…<br /><br />Can you say “California Gold Rush”? <br /><br />Cloaked in secrecy, asteroid mining forerunner, AstroForge, won’t be doing anything flashy to get to its secret destination. In fact and in order to save money, it “will hitch a ride alongside the Nova-C IM-2 lunar landing mission by Intuitive Machines. The Odin mission (previously Brokkr-2)”…will ride a ways with the IM-1, then depart for Asteroids Unknown. <br /><br />In fact, IM-1 launched successfully yesterday (February 15, 2024)! Has the era of asteroid mining now begun? Maybe! <br /><br />OK – I need to take a deep breath. Odin WON’T be landing on any asteroid, but will be doing flybys of not ONLY Secret Asteroid #1, but perhaps others along the way. <br /><br />At any rate, while I’d love to think that Humanity is looking to the planets again out of the sheer joy of exploring our Solar System, the thrust is also being driven by some of my least favorite philosophical activists – the Climate Change lobby is slowly getting behind the idea of mining moving off of the rock that has a breathable atmosphere that’s already been polluted and trashed by a few hundred years of Human abuse. <br /><br />Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt that our activities have had an impact on the planet’s atmosphere. BUT I also don’t think that our tiny scratches on the surface have somehow magically DESTROYED the ecosphere. Just the air on Earth weighs some “5.5 quadrillion tons, or roughly one millionth of Earth's mass.” Humanity as a whole “390 million metric tons, which is slightly less than the weight of domesticated cattle at 420 million metric tons.” So…COWS weigh more than we all do. <br /><br />I think it’s an adventure in hubris to claim that stuff that is two orders of magnitude LESS has an Earth-DESTROYING force. But if it makes people feel better and more powerful, then that’s fine with me. <br /><br />But, our Green Friends may have some power in driving the mining of asteroids – in fact, now that I think of it, maybe their time would be better spent going door-to-door to collect money for asteroid mining companies like AstroForge rather than spraying the glass boxes that protect priceless works of art and documents like the US Constitution (the documents the right they have to spray the document with damaging red dust in a really vain attempt to stop Anthropogenic Global Warming…which they contributed to by driving to the exhibit in order to spray it) with red dust… ( <a href="https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02/15/watch-climate-punks-dump-on-the-constitution-national-archives-rotunda-in-dc-evacuated-after-climate-activists-dump-pink-powder-on-case-holding-us-constitution/">https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02/15/watch-climate-punks-dump-on-the-constitution-national-archives-rotunda-in-dc-evacuated-after-climate-activists-dump-pink-powder-on-case-holding-us-constitution/</a> ) <br /><br />I dunno. I’m wondering if the Climate Folks and the Asteroid Mining Folks shouldn’t get together and coordinate their efforts and get mining off Earth faster? At any rate, AstroForge – and other companies – are actually making the move to change science fiction into not only science fact, but FINANCIAL fact. They’ve initiated exactly what the first gold miners had to do in order to stake a claim – they had to do a SURVEY of the land. And isn’t that what AstroForge is ON THE WAY TO DOING? <br /><br />Next time - “Should Private Companies Reveal Their Space Activities? What Does Space Law Say?” <br /><br /><b>New Source:</b> <a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/astroforge-space-mining-company-headed-for-asteroid-but-wont-say-which-one#:~:text=AstroForge%20is%20a%20private%20asteroid,aren" one="" t="" telling="" which="">https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/astroforge-space-mining-company-headed-for-asteroid-but-wont-say-which-one#:~:text=AstroForge%20is%20a%20private%20asteroid,aren't%20telling%20which%20one</a>. ; <a href="https://www.mining.com/asteroid-mining-startup-to-launch-mission-in-early-2024/">https://www.mining.com/asteroid-mining-startup-to-launch-mission-in-early-2024/</a> ; <a href="https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/01/06/wyoming-could-be-a-space-pioneer-when-not-if-we-start-mining-asteroids/">https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/01/06/wyoming-could-be-a-space-pioneer-when-not-if-we-start-mining-asteroids/</a> ; <a href="https://www.milkenreview.org/articles/mining-in-space-is-coming">https://www.milkenreview.org/articles/mining-in-space-is-coming</a> ;<br />IM-1 Mission Nova-C Lunar Lander Successfully Enroute to the Moon Following SpaceX Launch, <a href="https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-1">https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-1</a> Surveying for Gold: <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/05/homestead-and-mining-claims-in-19th-century-america/">https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/05/homestead-and-mining-claims-in-19th-century-america/</a><br /><b>Fundamental Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining:</b> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining</a>)<br /><b>Noted Resources:</b><br /><a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/how-much-does-earths-atmosphere-weigh#:~:text=While%20mass%20and%20weight%20are,one%20millionth%20of%20Earth" mass="" s="">https://www.britannica.com/story/how-much-does-earths-atmosphere-weigh#:~:text=While%20mass%20and%20weight%20are,one%20millionth%20of%20Earth's%20mass</a>. ; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth</a>, <a href="https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html">https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html</a>, <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/">https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm">https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm</a>, <a href="https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/">https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/</a>, <a href="https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission">https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission</a> <b>Image:</b> <a href="https://everydayastronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/Post-Launch-Reviews/CNSA/Long-March-2C_Xinhua-1200x800.jpeg">https://everydayastronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/Post-Launch-Reviews/CNSA/Long-March-2C_Xinhua-1200x800.jpeg</a></span><div><div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"></span></div></div></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-64483956716742768182024-02-13T05:00:00.001-06:002024-02-13T18:23:31.983-06:00IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 626<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="220" height="368" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg" width="220" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”</i><br /> <br /> SF Trope: Dystopia Is Hard<br />Current Event: <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/28/us-korea-north-pyongyang-idUSBRE96R0BB20130728">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/28/us-korea-north-pyongyang-idUSBRE96R0BB20130728</a> <br /><br />Adéla Stoica hung her head. She’d practiced abject submission just like all the other teenagers in the Orientation Class did. Beside her, Enio Cassar did the same thing. <br /><br />What the Master before them didn’t see was Adéla open her eyes and shoot a sideways glance. <br /><br />This time she beat Enio to the punch and could barely hold in the giggle that bubbled up inside of her when he opened his eyes an instant later. They were supposed to be contemplating the worthlessness of their own lives in submission to the Great Cause. She sighed – an acceptable sound – because the Masters of the Great Cause thought they’d beaten everyone down. <br /><br />Standing before the class, Master Farkas scowled at her. He said to the class in Esperanto, the Language of Submission, “<i>Estas bone ke vi kontempli vian propran senvaloreco ĉiutage, kaj konsideru la grandecon de la Lando anstataŭe.” </i><br /><br />This time Enio sighed. It was the motto of the regime, “It is good that you contemplate your own worthlessness every day, and consider the greatness of the Country instead.” The education of the youth after fourteen years of the Society of the Great Cause was predictable. Master Farkas continued, “It should make you feel the weight of that responsibility so deeply that your spirit groans with the burden of it. It is only through sacrifice to society that the individual might live best. It is only through society that all wisdom, all knowledge and all discovery might be directed by the National Science Foundation. Through that wisdom, humanity might live again in the luxury to which it had become accustomed.”</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />Enio muttered, “<i>Ai mund të marrë zbetë e tij idiot horseshit gojën dhe të fus atë deri gomar e tij, ku ai erdhi nga</i>." Like everyone else at the camp, their mother language was the one they cursed and made love in; Esperanto was the language they learned to mock in; English was the language everyone could communicate across ethnic walls in. Of course, there were to BE no ethnic walls because the Great Cause united all of North America into one Cause – the betterment of humanity. <br /><br />It was too bad Master Farkas was also a linguist from the Old Order. His gaze arrested Enio and he said in the same language, “Merrni ass tuaj i dobët këtu lart tani, ju mut pak.” Enio’s eyes bulged as Master Farkas added, “Your girlfriend can come up here, too.” <br /><br />“She’s not my girlfriend,” Enio blurted. <br /><br />Adéla elbowed him and they stood their ground. The line behind theirs shoved them forward and the lines in front of them opened up. She looked at them and said, “Cowards.” But none of them looked the slightest bit afraid. They looked bored. Like they wanted something interesting to happen; kill the mold growing on their lives of dull sameness. Like jackals. When Master Farkas looked up at them though, their faces transformed to slack idiocy then morphed into hanging heads. <br /><br />He gestured to them and led them out of the classroom, his white lab coat flapping behind him. Two other technicians wearing the shorter, lower-ranked blue lab coats went into the classroom to take his place. Leading them down a half dozen short flights of stairs, he stopped at a metal door and used his passkey to unlock it. Pushing it open, Adéla and Enio could see that a huge screen covered one wall and that a face filled the screen, looking at them. Master Farkas grabbed Enio’s arm and shoved him into the room. Enio sighed and walked in. “I can’t believe you’re doing this…” The door slammed ponderously. <br /><br />He touched Adéla’s shoulder and said, “You’re next.” <br /><br />She knew exactly what was coming and shook her head, remembering the really fascinating books she’d read as a precocious two-year-old. First, she grabbed her older brother’s copy of THE HUNGER GAMES and read it, then the other six sequels. She fell in love with Scott Westerfeld’s UGLIES books. Devoured Haddix’s THE HIDDEN. Every dystopian book she could find from HG Well’s TIME MACHINE to the seven LAST SURVIVORS books; she read and cherished in her heart. <br /><br />Then the Great Cause overtook the countries of North America – and her life had been tedious boredom ever since... <br /><br /> Names: ♀ Czech Republic, Romania ; ♂Albania, Malta<br /> Image: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg</a></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-5636920593058162342024-02-10T12:00:00.002-06:002024-02-11T11:45:48.545-06:00WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #25: Adam-Troy Castro “& Me”<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="320" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=w400-h295" width="400" /></a></div>In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.” <br /><br />I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!</i></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i>Without further ado, short story observations by Adam-Troy Castro – with a few from myself…</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /><i>You write both short and novel-length fiction. Do you have a favorite? Are the tools required different for each? Depending on its length, a short story can be just a feeling, an idea, a place invoked with evocative prose; a novel has to start somewhere, travel somewhere, and arrive somewhere, and I’ve learned from terrible personal experience that it’s dreadful to get over a hundred thousand words into an epic and then realize you have nowhere for the characters to go. Putting it another way, in science fiction a short story can be a diagnosis. A novel has to be the course of treatment, whether or not the patient is fated to live. </i><br /><br />I’ve learned this through (as he wrote) “from terrible personal experience”. The first time I tried to write a novel (a long, long, long time ago. It was called PLANET OF STORMS). I shudder to remember what I wrote. It’s absolutely true that writing long HAS to bring the reader to the denouement – a satisfying conclusion to the problem that you started with. <br /><br /><i>A short story can look at a problem that the writer sees. I just started a short story (currently) called “The Miscreated School of Trade and Technology”. I started to wonder what would happen once genetic engineering reached for its full potential by creating Humans for specific purposes. It sounds interesting – but it would also be fraught with problems and challenges. In the story, Canada (along with most countries) has started engineering soldiers. The US has done the same thing. Then the collective Canadian conscience objects – the practice is abolished and becomes illegal. </i><br /><br /> But what do they do with the individuals who are already living with their enhancements? The government has declared them non-persons (similar to what the Federal government and California’s Governor Culbert Olson (D) did to Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor). At the time of the story, many are marked for disposal. Two characters cross over into the US. BUT – the story doesn’t offer a solution. It’s just about particular characters in a particular situation. <br /><br /><i>“As for being discouraged: I agree with Theodore Sturgeon that if you can be discouraged, you should be discouraged. This needs to be something you MUST do. But if the passion ebbs for short periods, that’s a different animal. That’s normal. Go jump in a swimming pool or go out and meet people. See a movie. You need fuel.” </i><br /><br />I confess I go through periods of discouragement. I don’t get published as often as I’d like to, and as of the end of the 2023 (though my records vanished with the death of my ROM – which I had stubbornly NOT saved to the web), I had been pretty consistently getting about 10% of my work published. Since 1997, when I started keeping records. So I think I have the “discouragement” thing under control! <br /><br /><i>“My career has been a series of light bulbs going on, some brighter than others. I still remember the thunderbolt, the absolute thunderbolt, that stories couldn’t be just clever ideas, but had to be about something. I knew this intellectually but had not internalized it. I also recall the thunderbolt that surprise endings were usually not worth the trouble and that I should give up the effort I was putting into concocting them. (Sometimes, they arrive naturally.) The light bulbs will go on in varying order, depending on the order in which your own skills develop.” </i><br /><br />It may seem strange, but I only REALLY figured this out about two years ago. Before that, I’d just write the story and send it out. When I reviewed what was ACTUALLY PUBLISHED (look over on the right and scroll to the bottom – you can follow links to my on-line stories. If you read the oldest and newest, you can best see what he’d writing about here. <br /><br />My CURRENT struggle is to better integrate a story that’s entertaining with my “message”. That’s a hard change to make – how can I integrate message and be entertaining at the same time? Someone who HAS done it is my “teacher” up above. His “message”, if anything, stems from something he said in an online interview with Emily Hockaday at ANALOG. It’s a place he calls, “‘AIsource Infection’ future history”. Now, coming into the computer age from the back door (I graduated from high school in 1975. We DID get to play with computers, indicating I have to lay off my grandkids, as they spend an inordinate amount of time playing games on their phones – I spent my ONLY time on a computer when we had to “call” a mainframe computer in downtown Minneapolis; there was no “computer screen”; and we “shot cannon balls at a target by adjusting the angle of fire” – and the end result PRINTED OUT on a very long sheet of off-white tractor-feed paper…like this only WAY less fancy: <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuneH0r_aq851yuJDbjzFJR3aDKLWXxS8iXkrmt6z9uiNpabg_wYbPI9l9FYqtlLt7ilutUDobk7EANjtmBM0Wuul8cwGVGdVhLPdZUo1JNqbCOoyWGG0yORb89lxrgfwY263_7OOpFKddvJQbMuXt8ulcNUhGXt_WGycx_2b2EMITnt8i4zuCeTwt2Lc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="862" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuneH0r_aq851yuJDbjzFJR3aDKLWXxS8iXkrmt6z9uiNpabg_wYbPI9l9FYqtlLt7ilutUDobk7EANjtmBM0Wuul8cwGVGdVhLPdZUo1JNqbCOoyWGG0yORb89lxrgfwY263_7OOpFKddvJQbMuXt8ulcNUhGXt_WGycx_2b2EMITnt8i4zuCeTwt2Lc" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />I have no idea what an AIsource infection is, though this is Adam-Troy Castro’s explanation: “a substantial alteration in the nature of humanity”.<br /><br /><i>“I have written three novels and three novellas about far-future murder investigator Andrea Cort, whodunnits on space habitats and the like, and they cannot be even begun unless I already know the nature of the crime, what clues exist for Andrea to find, how she will follow these clues to the eventual solution, and so on. There are similar planted clues, involving the mysteries of the character’s world, in each volume and in the mega-story of the series, within the GUSTAV GLOOM middle-grade books. I have to know these things going in. The destination is always clear; it’s just the path there designed to invite discoveries in the telling.” <br /></i><br />After almost completing my 250,000 word novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY, I have discovered what NOT to do next time. It involves extensive plotting BEFORE writing (though in my defense, the book was written as a series of blog entries over several years…) <br /><br /><i>“My favorite advice to writers is to wring the emotional reaction from yourself, first. When writing humor, you need to barely stand how witty you’re being; when you’re writing tragedy, you need to weep; when writing horror, you need to be appalled that this monstrous stuff is coming out of you. Hell, if you’re writing a thriller, you need to fear for your characters. Honestly, if you don’t react yourself, if it’s just a technical exercise, no one else is going to care either.” <br /></i><br />This is also a fairly recent discovery! I put a story away and move on to my next. I quickly forget the specifics of that story. When I return, if my reaction is to snicker, feel horrified, appalled, or SOMETHING, I know I’ve been successful. When I don’t feel anything, I computer trunk the story and figure I can come back to it at a later time and figure out what I DIDN’T do. I recently did that to another piece, “The Suicide of AutoTech #35469” and saw the problems right away. I repaired them and the story is awaiting one final read to see if it hangs together. <br /><br />And THAT is that for today! <br /><br />References: <a href="https://www.adamtroycastro.com/about/">https://www.adamtroycastro.com/about/</a> Who he is and where his website is: Adam-Troy Castro made his first non-fiction sale to SPY magazine in 1987. His 26 books to date include among others four Spider-Man novels, 3 novels about his profoundly damaged far-future murder investigator Andrea Cort, and 6 middle-grade novels about the dimension-spanning adventures of that very strange but very heroic young boy Gustav Gloom. Adam’s darker short fiction for grownups is highlighted by his most recent collection, Her Husband’s Hands And Other Stories (Prime Books). Adam’s works have won many awards.<br /><a href="https://odysseyworkshop.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/interview-adam-troy-castro/">https://odysseyworkshop.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/interview-adam-troy-castro/</a>; <a href="https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/author-spotlight-adam-troy-castro-24/">https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/author-spotlight-adam-troy-castro-24/</a> ; <a href="https://theastoundinganalogcompanion.com/2019/08/28/qa-with-adam-troy-castro-3/">https://theastoundinganalogcompanion.com/2019/08/28/qa-with-adam-troy-castro-3/</a> ; <br />Image: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320">https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-12276773163609338872024-02-06T07:34:00.004-06:002024-02-06T07:34:26.400-06:00IDEA ON TUESDAY 625<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="382" height="400" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)<br /></i> <br /> H Trope: “Alucard” – Dracula Written Backward as a way of disguise…<br />Current Event: <a href="http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/50-scariest-monsters-movie-history/">http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/50-scariest-monsters-movie-history/</a> <br /><br />“The word ‘monster’ comes from the Latin word monstrum which is an aberrant occurrence, usually biological, that was taken as a sign that something was wrong within the natural order,” read Wyndham D’Aquino. <br /><br />“So, what are you trying to say?” said Charlotte Mogwai. <br /><br />“Nothing,” said Wyndham, looking out the window at the house across the street. Small, run-down, it was just like the rest of the neighborhood. Pathetic. It was easier than looking at Charlotte. But he added, “You know, the fact is that it’s an aberrant occurrence.” <br /><br />“Are you saying Dejario is a monster?” She snorted – a most unladylike sound, Wyndham thought – and said, “You’re just jealous!” <br /><br />He shrugged and put down his tablet computer. “Yeah, but that doesn’t make Dejario any less a monster.” <br /><br />“There is nothing wrong with the natural order! It’s just that...” <br /><br />“It’s just that he’s not natural?” <br /><br />“It’s not like he’s a vampire or a werewolf...” <br /><br />“Those things aren’t even ‘monsters’ according to this definition! They were just made up in Hollywood to make money for the studios…” Wyndham said. <br /><br />“So you’re saying that Godzilla was part of nature?” asked Charlotte. <br /><br />He opened his mouth, paused to reconsider, then said, “Inasmuch as mutations are natural, Godzilla was.” <br /><br />“Dracula’s natural?” <br /><br />He shrugged, “Based on a real villain with as taste for bloody impalement of his enemies, then ‘yes’. Perverse but natural.” <br /><br />Charlotte scowled, whipped out her tablet computer and said, “Cyclops, Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolf, Invisible Man, Mummy, Bigfoot, Dinosaurs, Zombies, King Kong, the Blob, CHUD, Cthulu, Kraken, Medusa, Triffid, Trolls, Freddy Krueger, Ghost, Hulk, Evil Clown, Leprechaun, Megalodon, Predator, Wolfman, Wyvern...” <br /><br />“Stop! No, they’re not all natural!” <br /><br />“So, he’s not a monster.” <br /><br />“He is a monster!” Wyndham said. “Besides, his name is Namel B. Isivnieht, from Russia.” <br /><br />“So? Lots of people have strange names! Especially when they come from Russia.”<br />“His name is The Invisible Man, backwards – what? You failed spelling and grammar in school as well as math?”<br /><br />“I</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> didn’t fail math!”</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />“I was there – you did! Big time!”<br /><br />Charlotte was ready to slap his silly face off his silly head and raised her arm to do it when something gripped her wrist – and another part of her body – and said with a Nigerian accent, “You don’t have to worry about him anymore, girl!” <br /><br />As she struggled against the unseen hands, Wyndham suddenly crumpled across the room, blood spattering out from the back of his head as he pitched forward. A woman’s voice said, “Get your hands off her, Name – or the next bullet will be for your head!”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Names: originate from LOTS of places</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Image: </span><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg" style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg</a></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-73825048458095980062024-02-03T05:00:00.002-06:002024-02-06T13:19:34.533-06:00CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 33: Alien Mindscapes<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="600" height="329" src="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. <br /><br />Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction. <br /><br />After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado... </i><br /><br />I’m going to START with a quote from the END of article cited below, Alien Mindscapes—A Perspective on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: <br /><br />“Ultimately, SETI's (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) vision should no longer be constrained by whether ET has technology, resembles us, or thinks like us. The approach presented here will make these attributes less relevant, which will vastly expand the potential sampling pool and search methods, ultimately increasing the odds of detection. Advanced, intelligent life beyond Earth is most likely plentiful, but we have not yet opened ourselves to the full potential of its diversity.” <br /><br />So…let’s unpack this one sentence at a time FROM MY POINT OF VIEW AND IN MY OPINION… <br /><br />“SETI’s vision should no longer be constrained by whether ET has technology…” <br /><br /> I’d like to start by defining exactly what a mindscape is. A mindscape is “all the things that a person, or a particular type of person or group of people, thinks about and believes” (Yourdictionary); “A mental landscape; the world of the mind” (Wiktionary); “The landscape of thoughts, a reification [definition (Merriam-Webster): “to consider or represent something abstract as a material or concrete thing; to give definite content and form to a concept or idea of imaginary entities, memories, feelings, ideas, fears or any other object in the mind, seen together as making up metaphoric features: forests, jungles, deserts, rivers, valleys, cloudy mountains, etc.] <br /><br />So, in the alien mindscape we “should” be looking for, the aliens we’re seeking may or may NOT have technology. We shouldn’t be concerned whether they have it or not. <br /><br />How about we define “technology” then? (For a lengthy definition of the word, follow this link: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology</a>) For the purpose of my discussion, I’m going to define it a bit more broadly that I’d normally use it: “…a systematic treatment’, craft, art, study, knowledge’, ‘knowledge of how to make things’, ‘a way of doing – including dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments; the academic discipline studying the methods of arts and crafts, or to the political discipline’ ‘intended to legislate on the functions of the arts and crafts,’ as a result of scientific progress and the Second Industrial Revolution, technology stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and became ‘the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends.’” <br /><br />I think these authors – and most of the rest of us – have started using “technology” in an extremely narrow way. Especially in that by SETI no longer concerning itself with “whether ET has technology”, you’ve excluded us looking for ANYONE “like us”. <br /><br />But if we use the broader definition that, as it comes from the PAST, it includes a far more inclusive range of what we can look for AND INTERPRET as a “technological civilization”. <br /><br />An example from past science fiction (which I read starting from when I was 13), included a story by Spider and Jeanne Robinson, is the novel STARDANCE (I encountered it first as a series of stories in the issue of ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact ). This synopsis from GOODREADS reads as follows: “Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on the Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. Then the aliens arrived, and there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance.” <br /><br />By the narrow definition of technology, the aliens in STARDANCE would be excluded. But if we step back to an OLDER definition of technology, we get “a way of doing – including dancing, navigation…” <br /><br />The question I would ask the authors here is HOW can we search the cosmos – or even the stars within twenty light years? That 20-light-year bubble of stars contains 83 star systems holding 109 stars; and around those stars, we would find at least 18 planets. Those are the ones we HAVE DETECTED. <br /><br />If we can’t look for technology as we narrowly defined it above, how can we EVER tell if there are other civilizations out there? If the stardancing aliens of the Robinson’s stories are included in the larger definition of sapient aliens who communicate via DANCE, how can we FIND them (in the novel, of course, THEY found US).<br /><br />I profoundly hope that the sentence “we have not yet opened ourselves to the full potential of its diversity” is NOT hinting at some sort of psychic or telepathic contact with aliens – or that it is not supposing that the (more than a few) ufologists who claim, like Spike from the movie “Notting Hill” to “be in contact with some quite important vibrations”…<br /><br />I have no tolerance at all for woo-woo – how can two aliens communicate telepathically with each other (sorry, Vulcans) instantaneously? Language itself is hard – interpreting the mindscape of a being who perhaps processes the world around themselves in a way that is not even remotely similar to how a Human would process it strains the edges of CREDULITY!!! <br /><br />So, let’s assume that the authors of the paper meant something else – possibly more metaphorically speaking that we have to sort of “open our hearts and minds” to include more that just Humanoid-like intelligence. Yet…how helpful is that injunction? <br /><br />Given interstellar distances (and my resistance to telepathic woo-woo) how COULD we communicate with aliens at a long distance without some sort of two-way-compatible technology of SOME SORT? <br /><br />Food for thought as I begin heading in new directions using the paper as a jumping off point! <br /><br />Sources: <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5111820/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5111820/</a> ; <a href="https://astronomical.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_nearest_terrestrial_extrasolar_planets">https://astronomical.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_nearest_terrestrial_extrasolar_planets</a></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Image: <a href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg">https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg</a></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-4551116514446417692024-01-31T05:00:00.001-06:002024-01-31T10:18:52.686-06:00IDEAS ON TUESDAY 624<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="400" height="419" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail. <br /></i><br />F Trope: dark lord<br />Current Event: “In November 2012, satellite photos revealed a half kilometer long propaganda message carved into a hillside in Ryanggang Province, reading, ‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’. The message, located next to an artificial lake built in 2007 to serve a hydroelectric station, is made of Korean letters measuring 15 by 20 meters, and is located approximately 9 kilometers south of Hyesan near the border with the People's Republic of China.” (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/23/north-korea-hillside-homage-kim-jong-un">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/23/north-korea-hillside-homage-kim-jong-un</a>) <br /><br />Ardian Goodpaster tapped on his tablet-computer – t-comp – and said, “Look, you have to read this!” He held it out to her. <br /><br />Noemi Zweifelhofer grunted, hunched over her own t-comp. She said, “<i>Doar stai un minut</i>!” <br /><br />Ardian’s eyes grew wide and he whispered in German, <i>“Ich denke nicht, dass Sie Rumänisch in diesem Augenblick sprechen sollten! Wir sind in genug Schwierigkeiten, wie es ist!” </i><br /><br />Noemi finally looked up, her dark eyes flashing and said, “Do you think speaking in English would be all right?” <br /><br />Ardian snorted, “Better than speaking Romanian. We can get in trouble for that…” <br /><br />“You don’t think believing that Kim Jong-un is an incarnation of The Dark Lord will keep us out of trouble?” <br /><br />“I didn’t say I believed it – just that it seems…logical given what Mom and Dad say about how he acted when he went to school here.” <br /><br />“Your mom and dad were his friends! He hated my dad!” <br /><br />Ardian shook his head, “I’d probably dislike your dad, too if he stuck my head in a toilet and flushed it…” <br /><br />“That was a kid’s prank!” <br /><br />“…fourteen, fifteen and sixteen times on ten different occasions in honor of the illustrious North Korean leader’s birthdays?” <br /><br />Noemi glared at her best friend, then burst out laughing. Finally she said, “All right, it wasn’t a kid’s prank. But all of our parents agree he was creepy and mean.” <br /><br />Ardian tapped the t-comp and said, “You really believe that the inscription means what they say it means?” <br /><br />“‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’?” He stared at it then slowly shook his head. Noemi continued, “I know my Korean is adequate…” Ardian snorted, but she overrode him, “But I’ve cross-referenced this in half a dozen dictionaries.”<br /><br />“So what do you think?” <br /><br />She zoomed in on the image of the inscription then swung to the right, saying, “When it’s written like this, left-to-right and with the order of the characters – and given that the archaic form was used intentionally, it reads, ‘Long dominate Kim Jong-un, Darkest of the Dark Lords’.”<br /><br />“And no one else in the world reads it that way?” <br /><br />She held out her t-comp, “I wouldn’t say that.” Their eyes met and for a moment locked. Ardian felt the blood drain out of his face. She handed him her own t-comp. “Read it.” <br /><br />He kept his eyes on hers then finally looked down. The headline was in German, from a recent edition of Die Welt. “Different Interpretation of North Korea’s Paean of Praise?” He read, looked at her. <br /><br />“Scroll to the next document. Two weeks later.” <br /><br />He did and read, “Interpreter Found Murdered”… <br /><br />Names: ♀; ♂ Today, both are entirely Swiss names Image: <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg">https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg</a></span>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-80002997192334597922024-01-27T05:00:00.004-06:002024-01-27T05:00:00.213-06:00WRITING ADVICE: What Went RIGHT With EMERALD OF EARTH – Part 1<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wkIu_DpLnaFB2yjq4X3YnvAvEzwcZJOOK3TzgCKKywORs9jp3WIildNcogqeBLdV-QPYDzxk3v_BL3Gl69lE-v7SgL51Hx_GZjScxC0-gZceokvCaAKyzcAQkhRSBTB2jO3yn4IeEbZKrMThrybDgl6slD4XkPbrxmILRfkj4PnPH1vVqMHtuJwGuVw/s2000/Emerald%20of%20Earth%20Preliminary%20cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="2000" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wkIu_DpLnaFB2yjq4X3YnvAvEzwcZJOOK3TzgCKKywORs9jp3WIildNcogqeBLdV-QPYDzxk3v_BL3Gl69lE-v7SgL51Hx_GZjScxC0-gZceokvCaAKyzcAQkhRSBTB2jO3yn4IeEbZKrMThrybDgl6slD4XkPbrxmILRfkj4PnPH1vVqMHtuJwGuVw/w400-h291/Emerald%20of%20Earth%20Preliminary%20cover.png" width="400" /></a></div>In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right” and I’m busy sharing that with you. </i><br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see!</i><br /><br />EMERALD OF EARTH has got to be the single greatest exercise in writing persistence in my long and varied writing career (see “Writing and Air Quotes” for a discussion of my writing career: <a href="http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2016/02/writing-advice-31-writing-and-air-quotes.html">http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2016/02/writing-advice-31-writing-and-air-quotes.html</a>). <br /><br />As my kids and wife will attest, I started EMERALD twenty-one (!!!!) years ago in response to the wave of dystopian science fiction aimed at young adults. Of COURSE there has always been "dark" science fiction -- HG Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS springs to mind! In fact, I was really and truly hooked on science fiction by the grim future in John Christopher’s THE WHITE MOUNTAINS books. Lois Lowry’s THE GIVER came when I was in high school, and Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE rose to the top NOT as teen lit, but as subversive science fiction – not for teens, but for adults who were looking for MORE after rereading the HARRY POTTER fantasies a dozen times. <br /><br />Then came the deluge of the “book-to-movie” best sellers like THE HUNGER GAMES and MAZE RUNNER following on the heels of what I think of as “teen carnage” novels where, like the Harry Potter series after GOBLET OF FIRE – teens slaughtering each other and being slaughtered by evil adults became totally normal for YA fiction – because while they were ostensibly for teens and YA, adults were reading them in DROVES. <br /><br />There’s been some serious research on this as well: “Why Do Adults Read Young Adult Novels?" Monica Hay, Portland State UniversityFollow, Portland State University. Department of English Publication Date 6-2019 <br /><br />Subjects: Book industries and trade, Publishers and publishing, Young adult literature (Abstract)<br /><br />“Young adult books are widely read by adults. Through interviews with publishing professionals and a survey of 2,139 participants, several reasons were discovered regarding why adults read young adult literature. <br /><br />“In the research, the most common reasons were the influence of Harry Potter and Twilight, the relatability for millennials, the social media presence of YA online, and the success of women writers in the category. Survey participants had more to add. The survey themes were nostalgia, ‘less pretentious,’ ‘faster reads,’ diversity, escapism, ‘less graphic,’ and perhaps most importantly, hopeful.” (<a href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/eng_bookpubpaper/35/">https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/eng_bookpubpaper/35/</a>) <br /><br />So I started to look at a DIFFERENT future than the doom-and-gloom presented by some of the books even adults were reading. What if Humanity launched into a serious exploration of the Solar System? I was compelled to give my novel a title that would draw in YA readers expecting carnage in their reading. I changed it to HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES, with the intent of writing a series. And I still WILL if sales of the first book go well. If it comes out in March 2024 like I’m HOPING IT WILL, it will be EMERALD OF EARTH. <br /><br />It takes place in a future where Humans have launched into an exploration of the Solar System thoroughly and methodically. Using a hollowed out asteroid called the SOLAR EXPLORER (SOLAREX for short!) as a base, they will spend a year at each planet, probing, landing on, collecting samples, data, and answering questions without having to worry about shipping tiny amounts of material “home” to be analyzed by experts. The experts were right there. <br /><br />But at one point, I thought EMERALD OF EARTH was boring and would have had a hard time finding advocacy among the more exciting titles (except THE GIVER; that was hardly self-explanatory, nor was THE HANDMAID’S TALE or even Butler’s 1979 masterpiece, KINDRED). Flashy titles had replaced subtle, so I had to do the same. I came up with EARTH ATTACKED! <br /><br />Ugh. Then I tried LEGACY OF THE WOUNDED WORLDS…Worser and worser! <br /><br />Finally, I resorted to something I’d never done: I sat down with a thesaurus and the “Legacy” title and found synonyms for all of the words and wrote them on slips of paper. Then I went to a table and began to rearrange them, speaking them out loud countless times until I found one title that held up under the stress of repetition. <br /><br />HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES. Instead of a single book, though, I suddenly had an idea for a SERIES. <br /><br />Emerald’s story would be its own story, separate from eleven others but intertwined with them because they all live aboard the ship, , but hers would be the first of a much, much larger story. I wouldn’t have her defeating Inamma in one fell swoop. She needed to fight for her existence, so I made Inamma smarter than it had been before and more subtle. <br /><br />Even more though, I needed Emerald to have “kid problems”. She needed to deal with issues every kid on Earth needed to deal with. So I gave her friend problems. She wanted them but couldn’t seem to keep them. But what began as a nebulous “I can’t get friends”, needed a firmer foundation. <br /><br />As a guidance counselor, I’d started working closely with several autistic students and had come to understand them just a tiny bit. The ones I dealt with were brilliant – but challenged by the world they lived in. I realized that my growing understanding of these young people might be an aspect of Emerald that I hadn’t really developed. <br /><br />Once I started to understand Emerald, other things fell into place – things like answering the question, “What do teenagers DO on a spacecraft called SOLAREX, committed to a twelve year mission?” Next time, I’ll look at the development of “school for teens in space”… <br /><br />Image: From Author's File, Bruce Bethke, Rampant Loon Press</span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-84189079011940785452024-01-23T09:24:00.003-06:002024-01-23T09:24:35.220-06:00 IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 623<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="220" height="368" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg" width="220" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”</i><br /> <br /> SF Trope: Humans are Something Special in the universe<br />Current Event: <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/08/15/interactive-infographic-of-the-worlds-best-countries.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/08/15/interactive-infographic-of-the-worlds-best-countries.html</a> <br /><br />While this doesn’t rank HUMANS, it does rank COUNTRIES on Earth. What if there were a list like this of planets with intelligent civilizations – and Earth was last? It would explain The Fermi Paradox, wouldn’t it? Fermi Paradox: “In an informal discussion in 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi questioned why, if a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exists in the Milky Way galaxy, evidence such as spacecraft or probes is not seen.” A clearer definition would be: “The apparent size and age of the universe suggest that many technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations ought to exist. However, this hypothesis seems inconsistent with the lack of observational evidence to support it.” <br /><br />“What are you doing here?” Bintou Kogda asked in French. <br /><br />Ouedraogo Ye replied in the same language, leaning closer to her than he’d ever done to woman – excepting his mother and sisters – and said, “The same thing you’re doing here. I’m bored and this sounded exciting.” <br /><br />Bintou leaned away. She’d managed to maintain her sense of modesty despite the crazy American obsession with sex. She shook her head. She should have known that Ouedraogo would want to embrace that insanity. <br /><br />Even so, she bumped his shoulder as a young man stood at the front of the room and clapped his hands, saying, “Let’s get this gig hummin’!” <br /><br />Bintou puzzled for a few moments. Though she spoke English as well as anyone who completed high school in Burkina Faso, American idioms still left her totally confused. Especially when they piled them on top of each other. She could only deduce that it meant “This meeting will now come to order!” because others started taking seats. No one sat in ordered rows, it was more like a circle without any definition. <br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">After the chairs were done scraping across the floor, the young man said, “Hey! My name’s Edgar Bailey and I’ll be the moderator tonight for this first meeting of the ET Discussion Society. If you’d tell us your name before you speak, it’ll help us get to know each other. To start things off, I’d like to toss this out to the group.” The lights dimmed abruptly and a projector hanging from the ceiling flicked on, projecting a web article. <br /><br />Ouedraogo groaned. Bintou had managed to sit across the group from him. She also kept her dismay to herself. Edgar stood on his tiptoes to locate the source of the groan. He snapped, “What’s wrong with this article?” <br /><br />Ouedraogo stood up and replied in English. Bintou shook her head. It was unlikely that his heavily accented English would impress the people in this room as he said, “First of all, the article is almost twenty years out of date – the information is patently wrong...” <br /><br />Edgar cut him off by saying, “The information is unimportant...” <br /><br />Ouedraogo fired back, “It’s important to some of us! You’re perpetuating a stereotype!” <br /><br />Bintou sighed. So much for keeping a low profile. She stood up and said, “What Ouedraogo is trying to say is that he and I are from Burkina Faso and this list places our former country at the very bottom as the worst country in the world from 2008 to 2009. Unflattering, to say the least. But what you’re implying by using this is that Earth has somehow gotten on the bottom of some interstellar ‘worst place to live’ list and that that’s the explanation of what puzzled Fermi and Hart?” <br /><br />Edgar blinked slowly, massively as Bintou sat down. A moment later, there was a crash as Ouedraogo knocked over his chair and stormed out of the room. Beside her, a young woman with wildly uncontrolled, curly red hair nudged her and said, “Nice going! I’m glad someone shut down the pompous windbag before he went on his superior rant about Fermi.” She snorted, “You even mentioned Hart.” She raised an eyebrow and added, “You probably made his most-hated person list today!” <br /><br />“I didn’t mean...” Bintou began. <br /><br />“Don’t worry, you just made it on to about sixty people’s ‘OMG, I have absolutely GOT to get to know this woman!’ list. You’re certainly on mine. I’m Ginny Phleger. What are you doing after the meeting?” <br /><br /> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Names: ♀,♂ Burkino Faso, America<br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Image: </span><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg" style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg</a></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-29021330903329303092024-01-21T05:00:00.035-06:002024-01-21T05:00:00.252-06:00RECONCILIATION BLOGS, MOVIES, AND TV SHOWS -- all the links you could ever want!<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvUxs7zVvNDfk_HtcyEwJOmrhfUvWfxWGGss8-bY4Oda42BtawUl5FJSE2yMZ1Ho16o3tO7KHOmxCgbV9i7-X53nTzSgsyiy-yBXlFlOK0ODMWHitW6EMmDgjsSRgtJWAcpupy6CL62tO1eJn0-ip3uLEivPN1Qpo70IGTMV3sftZ76T7zL0C1bQtz-7s/s1066/National%20Reconciliation%20Day.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="1066" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvUxs7zVvNDfk_HtcyEwJOmrhfUvWfxWGGss8-bY4Oda42BtawUl5FJSE2yMZ1Ho16o3tO7KHOmxCgbV9i7-X53nTzSgsyiy-yBXlFlOK0ODMWHitW6EMmDgjsSRgtJWAcpupy6CL62tO1eJn0-ip3uLEivPN1Qpo70IGTMV3sftZ76T7zL0C1bQtz-7s/w640-h250/National%20Reconciliation%20Day.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>I never realized -- until now -- how important the subject of reconciliation is to me. Below you'll find the several POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS I've written over the years that deal with reconciliation.<br /><br />Enjoy...though I'm not sure that's QUITE what this is about...</i><br /><br />SPIDERMAN 3 AND RECONCILIATION<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/01/possibly-irritating-essay-spiderman-3.html">https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/01/possibly-irritating-essay-spiderman-3.html</a><br /><br />STAR TREK, ALZHEIMERS, AND RECONCILIATION<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2019/02/slice-of-piemaybe-alzheimers-star-trek.html">https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2019/02/slice-of-piemaybe-alzheimers-star-trek.html</a><br /><br />INTERSTELLAR AND RECONCILIATION</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/11/possibly-irritating-essays-interstellar.html">https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/11/possibly-irritating-essays-interstellar.html</a><br /><br />"ONE MILLION NINE-HUNDRED THOUSAND" - a short story of mine that was not published...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2016/08/writing-advice-can-this-story-be-saved_28.html">https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2016/08/writing-advice-can-this-story-be-saved_28.html</a><br /><br />"A QUANTUM ECHO AT TACONITE HARBOR" - another short story of mine that was not published...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2023/04/writing-advice-can-this-story-be-saved.html">https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2023/04/writing-advice-can-this-story-be-saved.html</a><br /><br />Site and Image: <a href="https://nationaltoday.com/national-reconciliation-day/">https://nationaltoday.com/national-reconciliation-day/</a></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><br /></span><br /></div></div></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-27538077903922734232024-01-20T05:00:00.148-06:002024-01-21T08:29:39.342-06:00 PIE: Sentimental Flicks? Spider-Man, Men In Black, Guardians of the Galaxy, Adam Project, Free Guy<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UboCEt8vXOUq2dNMjFkVAODXCZ8bdA9l2yfYlIwSmSpQbQr1daDtvYVI_qQHIjlZexKNntUNXvrc10oW0SUHuTGWNaBa2iY3Epsh2xJa-46FZINzEA8kXDEDV1YkfSbxZ2v0ccRRmunnwMx0Aqyw5rQOW8clFt8ofe7WW4xEDlfsPZqKacccixCuz18/s615/Old%20guys%20hugging.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="615" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UboCEt8vXOUq2dNMjFkVAODXCZ8bdA9l2yfYlIwSmSpQbQr1daDtvYVI_qQHIjlZexKNntUNXvrc10oW0SUHuTGWNaBa2iY3Epsh2xJa-46FZINzEA8kXDEDV1YkfSbxZ2v0ccRRmunnwMx0Aqyw5rQOW8clFt8ofe7WW4xEDlfsPZqKacccixCuz18/w400-h245/Old%20guys%20hugging.png" width="400" /></a></div>I WILL NOT use a Program Guide from a World Con to jump off, jump on, rail against, or shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…</i><br /><br />Do you find yourself tearing up or weeping uncontrollable whenever you watch Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Back To The Future Trilogy, AVENGERS: Infinity War, Men In Black 3, the Adam Project, or Free Guy?<br /><br />No? It’s only me?<br /><br />Maybe if I just explain a bit, you’ll recall the time you found yourself crying during these emotionally charged movies and you’ll agree with me!<br /><br />OK, I’m starting with Spider-Man: No Way Home (herewith: NWH). First of all, we all know that Peter Parker is a young man with no real male role-model left in his life. His mom and dad were killed (mostly in a plane crash, though sometimes murdered) and he was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. In NWH, we find three versions of Peter who show up in HIS universe via Ned creating multidimensional portals and them hopping through. Their meeting is convenient at first, until they start “sharing” and they all find out they’ve lost someone important to them. (PS: Apparently ALL the Spider-Mans in this movie are weepy, too). But the scene that gets to me is the very end when they all say “Goodbye” to each other and Peter NWH knows what’s coming. He tells Doctor Strange that he wants EVERYONE to forget that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, and the look Strange gives him – and the understanding on Peter NWH’s face make me weep harder, until I’m using my hanky to wipe my eyes.<br /><br />In Men in Black 3 (MIB3), J (Will Smith) has been bitter his entire life because he grew up without a father. Sadly, the reason I never questioned this is because I fell prey to the “Black Father” meme – that “all black men are bad fathers and leave their families”. While my personal experience KNOWS it's not true, if you ask honest White people, they’ll usually admit that they’ve subconsciously bought into the lie. It's so insidious that even J in the movie has bought into it.<br /><br />MIB3 wouldn’t work if anyone watching it assumes that J’s dad is gone for a noble reason. If we're honest, few of us THINK that J’s dad, Colonel James Darrell Edwards Jr. died a hero, protecting his country. When J witnesses that, realizes that HE was the little boy that K neuralizes…I weep.<br /><br />In the Back-To-the-Future Trilogy (BTTFT), Marty McFly’s dad is a spineless, fawning twerp whom NOBODY, not even Marty can respect. Instead, Marty has latched onto Doc Brown as a father figure and willingly follows him through alternate timelines and helps him fix the past, present, and future that MARTY screwed up by creating a terrified but BRAVE George (his dad) and altering the timeline. He and Doc spend the rest of the first and the next two fixing the timeline…<br /><br />The place where I find myself weeping every time is when Marty tries to keep Doc Brown from being murdered by the “Libyan terrorists”…but fails, even AFTER stealing the DeLorean and working so hard to fix everything. He sees Doc gunned down and runs up to the (bloodlessly) dead Doc Brown and break down, weeping. As I do…then Doc wakes up, show Marty his Kevlar vest, and shrugs off the slight tweak to the timelines…of course, saving Doc Brown from being murdered by Mad Dog Tannen merely changes the PERSON who dies. Horrified, Doc Brown sets out to save Marty…<br /><br />In Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (GG2), Quill thinks he’s found his father, and has! The problem is that Dad is a psychopathic god who only wanted a child so he could create another creature that was half himself. The purpose of that, is to get his DNA and then recreate himself forever…or something stupid like that. Yondu, the alien with the head fin, who both told him the only reason he kept Quinn around was because he “was a runt and could get into small places” and constantly kept Peter in terror by threatening to eat him”. What we eventually find out is that Yondu saved Quill from certain death when he found out about Ego siring children on every sapient life form in the known universe, then murdering the resulting, “disappointing” child when they proved they didn’t carry his “god genes”. When he realizes the truth, he honors Yondu as his true father.<br /><br />Then there’s the relationship between Tony Stark and Spider-Man NWH: and this is one where BOTH of them became a true father and son team. Stark’s father, while he DID have strong feelings about Tony, was totally incapable of sharing them with his SON. He had no trouble sharing those feelings with the adult Tony when they shared a “two-men-whose-wives-were-expecting” moment in the past. Nor did he have any trouble sharing those feelings on a movie made about his “vision” of the future of humanity – but ending with “I built [Stark Expo] for you…it represents a whole lot more than people's inventions…one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is, and will always be, my greatest creation…is you.” Tony’s need to repair his relationship with his father was IMPOSSIBLE TO DO as his father was long dead by the time he found the film.<br /><br />Spider-Man NWH/Peter Parker NWH was in desperate need of a strong father figure. Him and Tony were a match made in Heaven – or the Multiverse (feel free to choose according to your belief system!) And it worked. Tony Stark turned Stark Industries over to a much more caring and responsible Peter Parker NWH; and he saved the world by using the Infinity Stones he snatched from Thanos to put it back to a time BEFORE Thanos had eliminated half of all life in the UNIVERSE…<br /><br />That cost him his life, but he was almost happy to pay the price. He certainly “won over the Woman”, and he certainly received a son’s adoration from Peter Parker NWH. When he dies at the end of Infinity War…I cry every time.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Two more recent movies have also come to exemplify the idea of "reconciliation" between fathers and sons, and "best PALS where one has ALWAYS been in love with the other".</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The first of course, is "The Adam Project" -- and this is complicated! "Fighter pilot Adam Reed crash lands in 2022 after getting injured while stealing a time jet, and meets his 12-year-old self in the process, who had been dealing with the loss of his father Louis the year before. All-the-while, Maya Sorian, defacto "owner" of the dystopian world and head of her company <i>Sorian</i>, plans to monopolize time travel. After crashing his ship, he not only meets his younger self, he meets his wife and a fellow time pilot left stranded in 2018 after a failed attempt on her life." So, we have Adam's lost wife discovered; we have a Boy Adam (B-Adam) who's lost his father -- and holding on to his anger, becomes the extremely irresponsible and dysfunctional Adult Adam (A-Adam); a scientist lost in his research -- A+B Adam's father; and the Adam's terrifying possibility of losing everything. After working through several issues, the last, most important issue is resolved: BOTH Adam's learn that their father loved them more than anything else and he apologizes for losing that focus...I weep every time A-Adam, B-Adam, and Dad embrace. Reconciliation!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">"Free Guy" also deals with reconciliation -- and AI, and geekdom, and scoring off a jerk who stole a pair's idea and made bazillions of dollars. Free City is a shooter game that's immensely popular -- which is to say, exactly WHAT I PERSONALLY BELIEVE is the least-common-denominator of the entirety of video gaming. While I also believe that SOME of our current world's politics and interpersonal relationships can be laid at the feet of the industry. There is absolutely NO REASON that such an experienced industry can't work positive world views into their games. Why NOT a character who...OH! how about a character who does GOOD? Sound like the plot of a MOVIE? So, the fact is that the INDUSTRY knows what the meme is -- though I suppose to admit that they could create a Blue Shirt Guy in a video game and with their advertising clout, they would also have to admit that most of the industry is made up of wimps like Mouser whose only concern is bringing home a paycheck as well as mega-bazillionaires like Antwan. Millie, the strong woman struggles against the status quo wishing Keys would join her and bring down Antwan and <i>Soonami </i>Studios. It takes a chat with the AI who appears as Blue Shirt Guy to see into her soul and points her to the fact that Blue Shirt Guy is a love note to Millie from Keys...reconciliation between them leads to a date for a cup of coffee -- impressing Mouser to say, "FINALLY!"<br /><br />So, there you go! Everything you need to know!<br /><br />“Excuse me?” I listen, then reflect the question back to the Asker, “You still don’t know why I’m the one who weeps at all of these scenes?” (and I’m sure I’ve missed many others). I nod, then reply, “I was hoping that you hadn’t noticed me dodge that bullet.” Listen, then nod sagely, “I suppose I DO owe you that.” I purse my lips, breathe in deeply through my nose, release the breath slowly, conjure up a stool, sit and say: My relationship with my own father AS SEEN BY ME was fraught. I was born when Mom and Dad didn’t have much money, and after mom quit (it WAS after all, 1957) to stay home and “raise the children”, Dad go another job. He was a general laborer, who’s someone in the construction job site hierarchy whose rank is virtually 0, with 10 being the Site Supervisor (aka The Suit In The Hard Hat). He needed another job to feed his growing family, so he worked oil changing and “whatever” at a local, NON-Chain garage (Tony’s, if you must know). He bowled in the winter, played softball in the summer, and all-in-all, put food on the table in the Best Of Times, and did scab work (non-Union carpentry) when we had to use food stamps in the Worst Of Times.<br /><br />He didn’t seem to have much time for me; and as I loathed organized sports (after a DISASTROUS attempt at Little League Baseball when I was seven: I was always the right fielder (as it was the position that saw the least action). Remember the scenes in MEET THE ROBINSON’S when Goob (Michael Yagoobian) plays baseball, drops the catch in the Championship Game? That was me at 7…only our team wasn’t that great – and I was the worst of them. Even the coach was disparaging. (Which I realize as I write this on January 18, 2024 is ALSO a reconciliation movie!)<br /><br />I’m pretty sure Dad was embarrassed. I have a picture of me at about two years. Mom and Dad had dressed me up in a baby-sized football helmet, shoulder pads, and put a football in my hands. Scrawled on the back in my mom’s feminine script are the words, “No interest at all!” Yep. Those words might as well have been tattooed on my forehead. My dad had played basketball and football; brother #1: football, hockey (school, traveling, college with scholarship), baseball; brother #2: (choir) football, hockey, track and field (State Record shot-putter); sister: ?, volleyball, softball, Mom: college fencing (!!!).<br /><br />Me? Reading; just call me a square peg in a round hole.<br /><br />Near the end, Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and because I was closest physically, much of the day-to-day contact with Mom and Dad fell to me. No problem, but by then, my feelings of animosity toward my dad was pretty much a hard shell. I find myself wishing the picture above was Dad and me reconciling...but by the end, he hardly knew me, and I was exhausted.<br /><br />And then, to add insult to injury, I NEVER had a substitute Dad…no male figure ever tucked me under his wing and made certain I was being nurtured and he was genuinely interested in whatever it was I was doing. I became very bitter – and I’m quite certain some psychologist would find a goldmine of various and sundry psychological neuroses, etc. to dig up and confront me with and prescribe treatment. But, the fact is that, I’m not interested because I’ve found my own comfort.<br /><br />Besides those I note above, IMDb lists some 1300 “sci-fi, father-son relationship” movies. If you drop the sci-fi, the number LEAPS to over 21,000. I’m clearly NOT the only person who has experienced and tried to reconcile this relationship. When I type in, “sci-fi, father-son reconciliation”, I get 70 hits…of which, three are sci-fi (two are actually horror), and one episode of an old TV show…and then the list repeats the 35 selections again to give a nice 70…FWIW, none of the entries are the movies above…<br /><br />So, why did I write all of this? It’s all fantasy, right? I all of a sudden realized that<br />I’ve been looking for a reconciliation with my father most of my life. He died of complications of Alzheimer’s three-and-a-half years ago, so there’s no chance that I’ll EVER reconcile in reality, but now I understand why, when I see that happening in movies – and I react with grief.<br /><br />Now that I know that, perhaps what I’ll start doing is WRITING my way into reconciliation by focusing my narrative on creating those kinds of stories. The kinds of stories I'd LIKE to see…<br /><br />Sources: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_and_Mary_Parker#:~:text=Richard%20and%20Mary%20Parker%20appear,Uncle%20Ben%20and%20Aunt%20May">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_and_Mary_Parker#:~:text=Richard%20and%20Mary%20Parker%20appear,Uncle%20Ben%20and%20Aunt%20May's</a>.,<br />Image: <a href="https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/two-old-men-exchange-a-brotherly-hug-picture-id156894368?s=612x612">https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/two-old-men-exchange-a-brotherly-hug-picture-id156894368?s=612x612</a></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-90483514671082398022024-01-16T05:00:00.023-06:002024-01-16T22:28:45.331-06:00IDEA ON TUESDAY 622<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="382" height="320" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)</i><br /><br />H Trope: <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndIMustScream">http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndIMustScream</a> <br />Current Event: <a href="http://nypost.com/2013/10/15/brother-of-missing-autistic-teen-searches-on-his-own/">http://nypost.com/2013/10/15/brother-of-missing-autistic-teen-searches-on-his-own/</a> <br /><br />Yarelis Smits held up her tablet computer and shouted to the mass of people, “My foster brother has been missing since yesterday! He’s autistic and he can’t speak! A friend of his from school saw him in this neighborhood late yesterday,” she stopped shouting as the crowd had quieted. “Please remember that even though he can’t speak, Ray Cantú can hear us.” <br /><br />A girl from school, a year older than Ray, who was in ninth grade, said, “This is a really bad neighborhood. What if we can’t find him?” <br /><br />Yarelis’ heart felt as if it had stopped in her chest. She looked around the crowd, hoping to see Dorian. The high school police liaison officer had showed up after most of the volunteers had arrived, hanging back, supposedly separated from them all, but still part of them. No one else had noticed him yet. <br /><br />She was also pretty sure no one had noticed that he was an android. The only reason Yarelis knew was because her Mom was a detective with the local peakers – peace keepers and Yarelis had stumbled across a stray text message that hinted at it. When she’d asked Mom, who never lied outside of work, she’d admitted it. <br /><br />So to find her missing brother, she had a bunch of people she went to school with, and a robot cop. All she was really missing was her best friend, the mysterious, supposed reincarnation of the late Turkish singer, Selda Bağcan. <br /><br />Warm breath brushed her ear as a voice mimicking a Turkish accent said, “What, you think I was going to leave you all alone with these insane muggles?” <br /><br />Yarelis rolled her eyes, the whole HP phenom was so four decades ago. Jane Eyre – which was her real, actual name – was the only one Yarelis knew who still read the things. Except for her, but Yarelis only read them because Jane was her best friend. That’s what she told everyone, anyway. <br /><br />The girl shouted again, “Isn’t it dangerous here?” <br /><br />“Dangerous for who?” called a low, bass voice. Yarelis didn’t recognize it and stood on her tiptoes, scanning the crowd. On the edge opposite Darius, there was movement as people who had actually heard the voice turned, then parted between the speaker and Yarelis. <br /><br />“You’re not from school,” she said, scowling. <br /><br />“No, I’m from the neighborhood.” <br /><br />“What are you doing here?” <br /><br />“You might call me a vigilante.” <br /><br />“What? My brother’s harmless – he’s autistic, mute. He’d never say anything to anyone!” <br /><br />The man, who wore a faded, black cowboy hat, pushed up the rim then looked at her intently from under it. He said, “They say it’s the silent one’s is the most dangerous.” <br /><br />“He’d never hurt anyone!” <br /><br />“Then how do you explain this?” the man said and pulled his hat off. The blood mixed with his gray hair had been concealed by the back rim of the hat. “I was on my way here and he attacked me with a broken board. He...” <br /><br />“You must have done something to frighten him, then!” Yarelis cried. <br /><br />“He ain’t the one scared here, missy. I am.” <br /><br />Names: ♀Puerto Rican, Dutch, ; ♂ Mexican<br /> Image: <a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg">https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg</a></span>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-38524204261919479822024-01-13T05:00:00.011-06:002024-01-14T07:48:40.476-06:00MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 19: The TRUE Reason We're Shying AWAY From Mining the Asteroids…<p><i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…</i><p></p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I've done lots of reading on the Human mining of the asteroids, and the single most frequent objection I run across is that it will be far too dangerous. The TECHNOLOGY is here; now. NOT refined to the point that Earth's mining industry has it today - but as it BEGAN on Earth a long time ago.<br /><br />OK – I’m going to run with this theme for a few pieces and I’m going to take a step back. One of the biggest objections to mining the asteroids is that “it’s going to be hard; maybe even impossible”.<br /><br />I’d like to use a different template to this. I live in Minnesota; iron mining has been (and still is!) a large part of our state’s character and history.<br /><br />Some of you reading this may roll your eyes and mutter, “Who the heck cares about iron mining? That’s a dead issue! Even in your ‘special’ state, your iron is pretty much played out. The whole idea of mining is so passe as to be pretty much irrelevant!”<br /><br />I might point out to you that without Minnesota’s mining and manufacturing history – both past and CURRENT – your personal life would be quite different. First of all, “Minnesota's rich iron deposits were a vital component of America's [World War II] war effort. About 70% of the iron ore that America devoted to the war came from Minnesota, amounting to more than 333 million tons.” I believe it might be safe to say that without the iron from Minnesota, there wouldn’t have been much of an American response to the Nazis and the Emperor of Japan.<br /><br />Secondly, in case you missed it, a company that formed out of Minnesota’s iron mining was Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.<br /><br />You know the company? No? Are you SURE you have no idea what stupidly obscure company I’m referring to? Maybe it’s other name would jog your recognition: 3M…you know a couple of their totally irrelevant products – PostIt Notes; Scotch Brand Tape…well, I’ll stop as they manufacture some 60,000 products.<br /><br />“I think we’d live without paper products!” you snap with irritation. I’ll point out that among those products, there is at least ONE that conceivably saved countless lives of Humans on Earth: “The N95 respirator mask was developed by 3M and approved in 1972. Due to its ability to filter viral particulates, its use was recommended during the COVID-19 pandemic…the U.S. government asking 3M to stop exporting US-made N95 respirator masks to Canada and to Latin American countries…President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to require 3M to prioritize orders from the federal government.” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M</a>)<br /><br />So let’s move on. “Historically, much of the iron ore utilized by industrialized societies has been mined from predominantly hematite deposits with grades of around 70% Fe. These deposits are commonly referred to as "direct shipping ores" or "natural ores". Increasing iron ore demand, coupled with the depletion of high-grade hematite ores in the United States…” read there, 70% of the iron ore available to the world prior to WWII came from Minnesota.<br /><br />The iron mined in Minnesota didn’t spring out of the earth in fully formed iron ingots.<br /><br />It had to be dug out. “On the Cuyuna Iron Range…mining began in 1907. In the early 1880s, federal surveys noted magnetic anomalies near what would become the Cuyuna Range. No visible outcrops of iron ore were present at the surface…buy surveyors suspected the anomalies could be buried iron ore deposits. By 1902, Adams began seeking outside investors to develop mines…in June 1907, the Rogers–Brown Ore Company opened the first active iron mine on the Cuyuna Range. Around 1910, immigrants from northern and southern Europe settled into newly built mining communities with the hope of finding work at mines.”<br /><br />“Demand for iron ore in the United States surged during World War I. Over thirty iron mines were operating at that time; most were underground operations. After the war, many of these Cuyuna Iron Mines closed. The few new mines of the 1920s were open pits that used large earth-moving equipment rather than shafts and tunnels to reach the ore. By the early 1930s, the economic woes of the Great Depression affected mining in the Cuyuna Range [which held] manganese-rich iron ores important for making very hard steel. The Cuyuna Range held the largest domestic supply of this ore. Demand for iron and steel continued throughout World War II and the Korean War. In 1953, production on the Cuyuna Range reached its highest point, at a little over three-and-a-half million tons. The early 1960s saw a rapid decline in iron ore from the Cuyuna Range as seventeen mines closed between 1961 and 1965. By 1982, the last reported shipment of iron ore from the Cuyuna Range was made, ending the period of active mine operations in the district.” (<a href="https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2016/04/very-brief-history-mining-cuyuna-iron-range/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOSt0UhiZ2WaXl-6EI4yaEdcj89-g1Nd0qdvanbAhe1BaUYtMibg-LhoCHHYQAvD_BwE">https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2016/04/very-brief-history-mining-cuyuna-iron-range/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOSt0UhiZ2WaXl-6EI4yaEdcj89-g1Nd0qdvanbAhe1BaUYtMibg-LhoCHHYQAvD_BwE</a>)<br /><br />“There is evidence that meteorites were used as a source of iron before 3000 BC, but extraction of the metal from ores dates from about 2000 BC. Following the discovery of high-quality iron on the island of Elba, iron became an important commodity of Roman Empire.”<br /><br />How many people died attempting to develop the technology for extracting metal ore from underground? Apparently that’s a virtually unknown number. Recently, all I can get are general numbers: “Although there are no accurate figures, estimates suggest such accidents kill about 12,000 people a year.” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-11533349">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-11533349</a>. That’s for 2023…<br /><br />If the argument against mining the asteroids is that too many people will die…I suggest to you that since underground mining started…well, that number isn’t available, either. So, let’s just start with 1900-2023. If 12,000 people a year die in mining accidents, that means in the past 123 years, 1,470,000 humans (mostly males) have died; that is, from the beginning of the Industrial Era to the Colonization of Space Era, a million plus people have died.<br /><br />Why do we think that mining in space will be ANY EASIER? Objecting to mining is space based on an imaginary “injury report” is…not entirely rational – and if that is the objection, then perhaps we should stop mining on Earth altogether.<br /><br />No?<br /><br />“12,000 lives – and some of those are probably just slaves! – is the price we have to pay in order to have the way of life we do.” And what about some of those other specialized metals the Western Climate Mitigation People need? How many deaths have there been while mining lithium for electric car batteries have occurred? We don’t know: <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.5399491/tech-giants-sued-over-appalling-deaths-of-children-who-mine-their-cobalt-1.5399492">https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.5399491/tech-giants-sued-over-appalling-deaths-of-children-who-mine-their-cobalt-1.5399492</a> BTW – in the event that your argument is that “we don’t have mining accidents anymore. We’re technologically advanced!”, I suggest you follow this link: <a href="https://www.mining-technology.com/features/featureworld-worst-mining-disasters/?cf-view">https://www.mining-technology.com/features/featureworld-worst-mining-disasters/?cf-view</a><br /><br />My premise is that using “it’s dangerous” as an excuse to refrain from mining the asteroids carries little weight. The technology itself is making rapid advances, plus we’re not talking about sending asteroid miners to the farthest reaches of the Solar System. Asteroids swing by Earth all the time. We have the technology to support life in space – the ISS has been “live” for the past 24 years. We have ways to reach space that are gradually getting both easier and more accurate.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“But we don’t have any mining machines!!!”<br /><br />Obviously, we can’t use diesel-powered machinery! How about battery powered? Maybe take a few of those lithium batteries and repurpose them?<br /><br />I’m just saying: mining the asteroids isn’t impossible – and every member of the IPCC, every democrat in the US, and Green Party members everywhere, should be backing asteroid mining programs EVERYWHERE!<br /><br />New Source: <a href="https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/01/06/wyoming-could-be-a-space-pioneer-when-not-if-we-start-mining-asteroids/">https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/01/06/wyoming-could-be-a-space-pioneer-when-not-if-we-start-mining-asteroids/</a><br />Fundamental Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining</a>)<br />Noted Resources:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth</a>, <a href="https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html">https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html</a>, <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/">https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm">https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm</a>, <a href="https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/">https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/</a>, <a href="https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission">https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission</a>; <a href="https://www.earthsystems.com/history-mining/">https://www.earthsystems.com/history-mining/</a> </span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Image: <a href="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg">https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg</a></span></div></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-10502365494370427122024-01-06T05:00:00.019-06:002024-01-06T05:00:00.149-06:00POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: SPIDERMAN 3: No Way Home and My Favorite SciFi Subject: Reconciliation<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.goldderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home.jpg?w=640" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="620" height="232" src="https://www.goldderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home.jpg?w=640" width="400" /></a></div>NOT using the Programme Guide of the 2022 World Science Fiction Convention, ChiCON 8, which I WOULD have attended in person if I had disposable income, but I retired two years ago, my work health insurance stopped, and I’m now living on Social Security and Medicare…I WILL NOT use the Programme Guide to jump off, jump on, rail against, or shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…</i><br /><br />This isn’t going to be a rant…enough people have ranted about this movie that there’s really nothing else I can say. Besides, I loved it, just…not in the way most people probably do.<br /><br />The redoubtable Roger Ebert, with whom I grew up as half of the fabulous pair of movie reviewers “Siskel and Ebert” and their “four thumbs up” rating system – had this to say: “'No Way Home' is crowded, but it’s also surprisingly spry, inventive, and just purely entertaining, leading to a final act that not only earns its emotions but pays off some of the ones you may have about this character that you forgot.”<br /><br />I’m sure it does, but for me, the movie was about one thing: reconciliation. It has several incidents that reconcile characters with each other, with themselves, and even, in the end, he universe.<br /><br />I also has another of the themes that move me to tears: sacrificial love…I hesitate to mention this, but it’s the kind of love Jesus had for US. He surrendered to Jewish and Roman authorities not to save his friends, but to save the MULTIVERSE! (Not in those precise words, but if He had seen SM: No Way Home, I think He would understand my point.<br /><br />Clearly the writers intended to say something more than just, “Spider-man fights the bad guys, converts them to Good, and then retires to his well-earned respite.” Consider the title: “No Way Home”. Spider-man gets home in the end, right? He returns to his proper universe, MJ and Ned are safe and going to MIT; Dr. Strange is safe and continues to be as sarcastic as ever; even Peter is safe from J Jonas Jameson. His identity is safe. NO ONE KNOWS THAT PETER PARKER AND SPIDERMAN are the same person.<br /><br />Or was there a bigger change in the Multiverse? Did something happen where not only didn’t anyone know Peter was Spider-man…there were people who didn’t know him AT ALL – like MJ and Ned. They both knew Peter BEFORE they knew him as Spider-man. J Jonas Jameson knew Spider-man and not Peter (though in the comic books, he does know Peter as like a journalism intern or something…or not).<br /><br />But because of what happened, it appears the NO ONE KNOWS PETER PARKER either, and the one person who loves him most is <i>still </i>dead.<br /><br />Peter gave up EVERYTHING for everyone; for the people he loves. They don’t know him anymore.<br /><br />Note that in his box as he’s moving into a cheesy New York apartment, there’s a <i>GED book on top</i>; which means that he never graduated from Midtown Smartypants School…in fact, he didn’t graduate from anywhere. Clearly, he has a job or he wouldn’t have been able to put down a security deposit and the first month’s rent to even get the place (which, you have to admit, for a New York apartment isn’t exactly a cold water, walk up, tenement. I don’t hear any gunfire in those tail-end shots, either.)<br /><br />But to return to something I’m discovering is a theme I WANT to explore in my writing – reconciliation. I can’t help but weep when two individuals, separated by anger, or in fact ANYTHING that works to separate us from the people we care about. I find that I have some very…strong, angry feelings when I think about my dad. Because I was the sibling who lived closest to where he lived after Mom died. Much to his dismay, he lived two-and-a-half years longer than she did. He’d mutter about that sometimes; he was lonely and he knew he was dependent on us kids – particularly me for his everyday needs. I’d take him to the doctor, reset his television set (because he grew up with NO TV as a child, then a flip knob into adulthood…he NEVER understood how his 166 channel television worked. The staff in the Assisted Living facility he lived in were too busy to reset his channels over, and over, and over again – no bad on them! It just meant I had to return to his apartment five to ten times a week.<br /><br />Nothing else made sense to him, either. He tried to get out of the building. He actually hit one of the CNAs. He hated what he ate. He just hated being alive without my mom. As his memory deteriorated, he became more and more confused. It was torture to watch him wildly vacillate every day (I was pretty much there every day). At the end, I was getting phone calls in the middle of the night…at any rate, because of his Alzheimer’s, he and I never really reconciled our relationship. There were times he’d be angry with me for coming to help him. Other times he’d be weepy. I grew to very much dislike this…person my father had become. He died without any reconciliation for me.<br /><br />So, I’ve come to have strong emotional attachments to stories and movies in which ANYONE reconciles ANY relationship. I get teary-eyed at the end of “The Other Woman”; “Guardians of the Galaxy 2”; “Enchanted”; “Star Trek: Wrath of Khan”; “Free Guy”; “A Goofy Movie”; “First Wives Club”; "The Adam Project"…according to IMDb, there are 882 movies with the theme of reconciliation.<br /><br />I’m not taking the time to see if it’s there, but Spider-man: No Way Home is a movie all about reconciliation. Even so, it’s on MULTIPLE levels. There’s a reconciliation of the time line that Mysterio screwed up; there’s the reconciliation between Tony Stark and Peter Parker…(or was that Spider-man: A Long Way From Home? Hmmm); there’s the chance that Peter and Ned and MJ can go to MIT – even WITHOUT SPIDER-MAN changing the time lines! He’s stunned when the MIT Administrator says she’ll reconsider all of them, I get all excited about that simple reconciliation…<br /><br />But the true focus of the movie is (of course) the three Spider-mans coming together TO FIX THEIR ENEMIES! Sandman, Doc Octopus, the Green Goblin, and Electro, all were healed and reconciled with their appropriate Spider-men. Even Andrew Garfield noticed how reconciliation fit naturally into the story: “ Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man “…was interested in exploring the idea of a tortured Parker [and] how lessons from those events could be passed to Holland's character…[Garfield] was grateful for the chance to ‘tie up some loose ends’ for his incarnation…and described working with Holland and Maguire as an opportunity to have ‘deeper conversations... about our experiences with the character.’”<br /><br />There was even the smaller storyline of the relationship between the Current Spider-man as he’d been dealing with the death of Tony Stark, who, I imagine, he’d seen not so much as a mentor, but as a father-figure. Even Tony Stark was drawn into that relationship – and it helped that he had a daughter who was still growing into herself. He, in fact, led the way for Spider-man/AVENGERS UNIVERSE to sacrifice his life for the good of others when Tony died restoring the AU and brining back people lost in Thanos’ demented desire to “balance the universe”.<br /><br />While he didn’t lose his life and his horrific ostracism from Human society was nearly unbearable, he deemed allowing his friends to return to a life without him as the much greater good. He also reconciled his relationship with Steven Strange; perhaps his “new father-figure”…except that even Strange has had his memory wiped of Peter’s existence as Spider-man…and THAT, people, is why I weep at the end of that movie: the fact that he finally knows he’s truly not alone and that the other Spider-men are his real brothers; knowing that those he loves – Ned and MJ – can grow in the way they were meant to; and even though he misses May and will be a stranger to Happy, he can move ahead and make new friends and a new life…one that might even hold MJ, Happy, Dr. Strange and a career as a scientist…<br /><br />And so, I weep time and time again. Excuse me while I set about to face my unrecognized, inadmissible love (because that would be painful to tell the BEFORE story that leads up to the thing that touches my heart): reconciliation.<br /><br />Resource: <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/spider-man-no-way-home-movie-review-2021">https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/spider-man-no-way-home-movie-review-2021</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_No_Way_Home">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_No_Way_Home</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=reconciliation">https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=reconciliation</a><br />Image: <a href="https://www.goldderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home.jpg?w=640">https://www.goldderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home.jpg?w=640</a></span>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-29136798363244972562024-01-02T05:00:00.003-06:002024-01-03T15:37:57.535-06:00IDEAS ON TUESDAY 621<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="400" height="419" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail. </i><br /><br /> Fantasy Trope: Heroic Fantasy (Conan The Barbarian) <br />Current Event: <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/fantasy-fighting-takes-modernday-gladiators-back-in-time/article6178357.ece">http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/fantasy-fighting-takes-modernday-gladiators-back-in-time/article6178357.ece</a> <br /><br />Sukhjeev Hegde adjusted her brass brassiere and said, “Do you know why they make us wear these things?” <br /><br />Shrugging, Vrishab Brahmbatt pulled up steel supporter and said, “Same reason I gotta wear this thing.” <br /><br />“And that is…” she hefted the broadsword, swung it – and nearly chopped Vrish’s head off. <br /><br />“Would you watch out with that thing!” he cried, then added, “It’s verisimilitude.” <br /><br />“How can dressing this way be ‘an appearance or semblance of truth’ if it’s all fake anyway? We act like it’s true...” <br /><br />“Why? So it will become truth? That’s the most fantastic thing you’ve said on this entire date!” <br /><br />He pursed his lips, then said sullenly, “It’s not a date.” <br /><br />“Sure it is!” Sukhjee said. “You asked me to come with you on this adventure thing and I said yes, if we can have a good cup of coffee afterwards.” She glared at him and added, “You’re not thinking of reneging on the coffee, are you?” <br /><br />“No, we’ll still do the coffee, it’s just that I forgot to tell you something about this simulation.” The ground trembled suddenly and the rest of their mutuality turned to the castle gate as it wound down on heavy chains. The computer-generated images – Sukhjee had called them barely adequate shimmered and seemed to take on the weight of reality. <br /><br />Without looking at Vrish, she said, “You forgot to tell me that at some magical command or when the Moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars that peace won’t be guiding the planets – those gigantic monster sheep with glow-in-the-dark scarlet eyes will?” <br /><br />“You took the words right out of my mouth.” <br /><br />“So, do we run or fight?” she asked. <br /><br />What he assumed were the ‘real’ people had dropped their weapons and were running away from the sheepsters. “It’s a first date, I’m open to whatever you’d like to do.” <br /><br />Sukhjee tossed her sword from one hand to the other, almost dropped it then grinned at Vrish then said, “Let’s go fight us some sheepsters, sweetie!” Along with the once-simulated army, she charged the creature who’d been joined by four others. <br /><br />“Don’t call me ‘sweetie’,” Vrish said as he charged after his date. <br /><br />Names: ♀ Sikh, India ; ♂ Hindu, India Image: <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg">https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg</a></span>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-30992290600660601692023-12-30T05:00:00.003-06:002023-12-30T07:36:16.880-06:00POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Lonely Planets V - In Space No One Can Hear You...<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/s244/Unknown-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="162" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/w265-h400/Unknown-4.jpeg" width="265" /></a></div>I know I’m a few years behind, but I just checked out a copy of LONELY PLANETS: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (2003) by David Grinspoon. He does, of course, have a “doctor” in front of his name, but it appears that he doesn’t use it very often. He also has the endorsement of Neil deGrasse Tyson – the quintessential new face of astronomy and the immediate successor to Carl Sagan.</i><br /><br />Tyson said of Grinspoon’s book “…brings together what has never before been synthesized…he is a planetary scientist as well as dreamer, born of the space age.”<br /><br />As is apparent to anyone who reads my blog, I LOVE aliens! I write about aliens! I do (guardedly) believe that there is intelligent life “out there, somewhere” – HOWEVER, I don’t believe that we have any real proof yet and that it is, at this point, an intellectual and philosophical exercise.<br /><br />Be that as it may, I finished Grinspoon’s book and have skimmed his website (<a href="http://funkyscience.net/">http://funkyscience.net/</a>) several times. While it’s been “frozen” on his newest Pluto/Horizon book, I find myself looking forward to following this guy for some time to come!<br /><br />I’m well into the book now (page 229) and I got my own copy on Wednesday through a Half-Price Books near me. After (*gasp*) dog-earing my Library copy, I transferred the noted pages to my own book.<br /><br />So now I’m at the end…Dr. Grinspoon has titled this part of the book simply, “Belief” and he patiently teases apart the rationale of the SETI. However, outside of Grinspoon’s 2003 book, we have this: <a href="https://www.space.com/39474-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence-needs-new-name.html">https://www.space.com/39474-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence-needs-new-name.html</a><br /><br />Twenty years past the book’s publication date, and even so a year old, Dr. Jill Tartar, the current “name” in the Human search for life beyond Earth, believes we need to leave behind the acronym to indicate the real search that is currently underway – the search for technological signatures that would be evidence of life off of Earth, a rebranding of SETI into something like the Search for Extraterrestrial Technology Signatures – SETS so to speak.<br /><br />Dr. Tartar explained that the phrase “‘…search for extraterrestrial intelligence’ generates an incorrect perception of what scientists in this field are actually doing. A more appropriate title for the field, she said, would be ‘the search for technosignatures,’ or signs of technology created by intelligent alien civilizations.”<br /><br />Grinspoon tentatively poses a sort of caveat to this idea in this part of LONELY PLANET: “The problem of survival is not fundamentally technological. It is spiritual and moral. It is evolutionary. Technical solutions may provide temporary Band-Aids, but they do not save us from our nature. If we want to be one of the survivors, we must create a global society where curiosity is tightly bonded to compassion, and where (this is hardest to picture) not a lot of people want to do violence to others. You’re probably not going to like this next though, but one solution would be to just surrender to the machines.”<br /><br />Another thing that has happened in the fifteen years since the publication of the book is the call by scientists to throw out the Drake Equation as well as its successor in 2013, the Seager Equation (Sara Seager, MIT), which looks for BIOLOGICAL traces of life in the atmosphere of planets. At the time of her adaptation of the Drake, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite was in the works. TESS launched this year (April 18, 2018), but as I write this, there have been no real releases of data except for a scan of Southern skies and images of comet C/2018 N1 snapped by the craft (<a href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13030">https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13030</a>). There are plans for future conferences however: (<a href="https://tess.mit.edu/news/tess-science-conference/conferences/">https://tess.mit.edu/news/tess-science-conference/conferences/</a>)!<br /><br />So we’ll be seeing more data regarding the SETS or, alternately, the Search for Extraterrestrial Biological Signs – or SEBS.<br /><br />Looking for technosigns based on the philosophy of Dr. Tatar; looking for signs of atmospheric modification via biology based on the philosophy of Dr. Seager; or looking for something else…<br /><br />In a recent article, “Alien Hunters, Stop Using the Drake Equation” by Paul Sutter (Astrophysicist, Ohio State University; Chief Scientist at COSI Science Center. PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Paris Institute of Astrophysics, research fellowship in Trieste, Italy.) (<a href="https://www.space.com/42739-stop-using-the-drake-equation.html">https://www.space.com/42739-stop-using-the-drake-equation.html</a>). He points out that “…the Drake equation's power is more as a philosophical treatment, to help guide our thinking and help us navigate the murky waters of a deep and fundamental existential question…huge uncertainties in the parameters, the unknown ways those uncertainties mix, and the absolute lack of any guidance in even choosing those parameters robs it of any predictive power. Prediction is at the heart of science. Prediction is what makes an idea useful. And if an idea isn’t useful, why keep it around?”<br /><br />Grinspoon has an article of faith that more or less incorporates all three of the views above: “We calculate and speculate about finding others that are slightly spiffed up versions of ourselves and take it as an article of faith that such a stage will arise soon after the one that we are in now...it takes more than technology to be a broadcasting society. It requires that you survive with high technology for many thousands of years…they ‘must’ have solved many of the great social, political, and spiritual problems we now face.” (p393)<br /><br />I’m not confident that ETs have “solved…the great…problems we now face.” That seems to ME to be in the province of spiritual changes that (at least as it appears to me) God in man in the form of Jesus Christ can cause (lectures about the Crusades, the Reformation, the Inquisition, and Manifest Destiny are not appreciated unless they acknowledge the POLITICAL aspect of all of the above, which, as politics always does, coopts whatever belief system is useful to create places for the majority of politicians to gain as much money, power, and influence. Call me whacko if you’d like. That’s where I stand. Grinspoon points out, “We blame spreading irrationality on scientific illiteracy. Yet, in my opinion, it is alienation from science, not science illiteracy that is the root problem…if we want the world to see us as wizards, not muggles, then we can’t sell our services to the highest bidder, and we need to spread the magical (and spiritually evocative) story of Cosmic Evolution…Technical advancement without spiritual progress creates a dangerous and unstable condition that will be selected against.” (pp411-412).<br /><br />Hmmm…<br /><br />“So say we all,” (Battlestar GALACTICA) or in Earth English, “Amen”.<br /><br />Part I: <a href="http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/11/possibly-irritating-essays-philosophy.html">http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/11/possibly-irritating-essays-philosophy.html</a>, <a href="http://www.openexoplanetcatalogue.com/">http://www.openexoplanetcatalogue.com/</a><br />Part II: <a href="http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/11/possibly-irritating-essays-part-2-state.html">http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/11/possibly-irritating-essays-part-2-state.html</a><br />Part III: <a href="https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/11/possibly-irritating-essays-part-three.html">https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/11/possibly-irritating-essays-part-three.html</a><br />Part IV: <a href="https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/12/possibly-irritating-essays-part-iv.html">https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/12/possibly-irritating-essays-part-iv.html</a><br />Image: <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/s1600/Unknown-4.jpeg">http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/s1600/Unknown-4.jpeg</a></span>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-62321466089098930412023-12-27T13:14:00.000-06:002023-12-27T13:14:04.507-06:00IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 620<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="220" height="368" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_(3).jpg" width="220" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”<br /> SF Trope: Time Travel <br /></i><br />Current Event: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2665781/Could-time-travel-soon-reality-Physicists-simulate-quantum-light-particles-travelling-past-time.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2665781/Could-time-travel-soon-reality-Physicists-simulate-quantum-light-particles-travelling-past-time.html</a> <br /><br />Anton Naoumov shook his head. “You’re not going to get me into that thing. I signed aboard this ship to practice being a paramedic, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by this gadget.” <br /><br />Piia Takala grinned, “You’re not going anywhere in space, Anton! It’s...” <br /><br />“I know – it’s a time machine. But didn’t Einstein have some theory that space and time are related? Intimately.” <br /><br />Piia blinked in surprise and managed to say, “I’m sure you got that wrong. You never had a physics class, did you?” <br /><br />“I didn’t need the class. I’m not a total idiot, you know! Medical majors can dabble in other stuff, so I did. And I didn’t get it wrong,” he said, tapping his handheld computer. “It says right here that Einstein wrote about it and W. K. Clifford described the effect of gravitation on space and time. He figured out it was easily visualized as a ‘warp’ in the geometrical fabric of space and time, in a smooth and continuous way that changed smoothly from point-to-point along the fabric of space and time.” <br /><br />Piia pursed her lips. She’d never get him into the thing to go back with her if she let him dig any deeper. She said, “Granted. Space and time are intimately connected. But this isn’t going to be scattering your atoms anywhere. The only things that will be scattered are the quanta that make up the atoms. Those are only going to be shifted a little...” <br /><br />He held up his hand and said, “What do you want me to do this for anyway? What’s so all-fired important about me doing this?” <br /><br />She sat down on the stool in front of the control board. The time-shift chamber wasn’t really a chamber at all – it was a platform made of ultradense matter that was so massive, it was making a tiny dimple in local space-time. Above, a bank of high energy lamps pointed downward to an EM lens that would focus them on the head of the subject with enough force to shove the person through the dimple and into another time. The time period was pinpointed by the tightness of the focus and the depth of the dimple. Piia’d done the calculations three times. She took a deep breath and finally said, “I want you to stop the Finnish Civil War of 1918.” <br /><br />He scowled then said, “How am I supposed to do that?” <br /><br />“You have to let the one man who can stop the whole mess die.” <br /><br />“What?” <br /><br />“It has to look like a natural death, too. I figured all you paramedics know how to keep people alive when they’re on the brink of death, you probably know how to push them over, too.” She slipped the stun gun from her pocket, flicking it on to maximum strength and minimum dispersion. <br /><br />“You want me to commit murder?” <br /><br />“Don’t worry about it – if you’re successful none of this will ever happen.” <br /><br />“What?” <br /><br />“I want you to let my great, great, great grandfather die,” she said as she stunned him. <br /><br /> Names: ♀Finland, Thailand ; ♂ Bulgaria, Iceland <br /> Image: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg</a></span>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-5724208991849719622023-12-24T05:00:00.004-06:002023-12-24T05:00:00.140-06:00Blessed Christmas Eve and MERRY CHRISTMAS<p><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://entail-assets.com/artzabox/Screenshot_20221201_122637-1669890417600.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="800" height="366" src="https://entail-assets.com/artzabox/Screenshot_20221201_122637-1669890417600.jpg" width="640" /></a></i></div><i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">It occurred to me that many bloggers, have somewhere stored, a Christmas blog they trot out each year to look at and revisit. Below is my offering for this venerable tradition…</span></i><p></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">L</span></i><span style="font-size: medium;">ike many people, I have Christmas traditions.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I watch Jim Carrey’s HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS. I check out a copy of Dicken’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL (the version with Patrick Stewart, Star Trek:TNG’s Jean-Luc Picard playing Ebenezer Scrooge). I snuggle up to the TV to listen to Burl Ives sing in the animatronic version of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Of course, I read the Christmas story from Luke 1:1 – 2:20, but I dig out my old December 1997 issue of ANALOG and reread “Easter Egg Hunt: A Christmas Story” by Jeffrey Kooistra. I also find time alone to watch the video tape of a Christmas musical I scripted with music and lyrics by an old, old friend of mine, Lynn Swanson. The musical was called “Just In Time For Christmas” and was a children’s time-travel version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL with a couple of twists. Performed twice by a huge cast of kids from my church, it included both my son as an Outsider-sort of angel and my daughter as a shepherd who was watching her fields by night.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I conclude then that for me Christmas is about the past. It ranges from ancient times in far-away Israel to present day kerfuffles about what to do Christmas day when my sister is in Virginia with her “other” family and our get-together last Saturday was postponed because of a frigid blizzard and moved to January sometime and will include celebrating my mom’s 75th (As of this update, Mom passed away five years ago this past July) birthday and the fact that I’ll be working most of today at Barnes & Noble and Mom and Dad are coming for Christmas Eve dinner and I won’t be around to help get ready. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">This past includes my daughter’s concern about the commercialization of Christmas that led her to ask us to spend the money we would have used on her to get a sewing machine for an organization that teaches women in northern India to sew for a living. On the other hand, my son loves to seek out just the right gift for each person and disdains gift cards – he loves the giving part of Christmas. He started the small avalanche of gifts under the tree right now when he set out his college-student-meager presents.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">My wife was talking to a cashier at a local warehouse grocery story a few hours ago and asked what the day held for her. The woman said that she hated working Christmas Eve because people were so crabby – they yell at cashiers because the store is out of “stuff” and if anyone bumps their cart, they explode into anger. As we walked out into a flurry of gently falling, diamond sparkling “crystal rain” (see Tobias Buckell’s fabulous book, CRYSTAL RAIN to discover the origin of that phrase), we talked about the cashier’s observations.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Under the guidance of Our Father Below (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters</a>)</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">, we have taken a simple attempt to remember the birth of the Son of God and have turned it into a tension-filled extravaganza of over-spending, over-eating and secular glitz that eclipses the original pagan ritual from which it sprang.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The original event also included a kerfuffle as well as a brush with governmental bureaucracy, so maybe it was only natural that we perpetuated Mary and Joseph’s search for a place for her to have Jesus by our searches for the perfect gift, food or event.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Take a deep breath, Guy. Perhaps I need to go a bit further back in time; maybe to the announcement the angel made to Mary: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37. Maybe that’s the message I’ll take from this season – that no matter what happens: kerfuffles, angry shoppers, divergent gifting and traditions; nothing is impossible with God. Peace on Earth? He can bring it. Deep security? He can give it. Salvation for everyone? He did it. “For nothing is impossible with God.” Amen. (First published December 25, 2008, updated December 22, 2021)</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Image: <a href="https://thetylt.com/attachments/5c3590919e588b7110f3debff6f620a34446d685/store/fill/992/661/4de1aab3834876c0e96b75ecf4bd8b71a50d566c67eb401afb5643f64eee/XmasCarol2.jpg" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;">https://thetylt.com/attachments/5c3590919e588b7110f3debff6f620a34446d685/store/fill/992/661/4de1aab3834876c0e96b75ecf4bd8b71a50d566c67eb401afb5643f64eee/XmasCarol2.jpg</a></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-27286048723602636582023-12-19T13:26:00.009-06:002023-12-19T13:27:05.358-06:00IDEAS ON TUESDAY 619<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c4dfe127d4bd8ca39d3511/1508166190572-GLTT4CIQG9U30G5ST0NF/laos_house_lao_ghost_kasu.jpg?format=1500w" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="515" height="320" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c4dfe127d4bd8ca39d3511/1508166190572-GLTT4CIQG9U30G5ST0NF/laos_house_lao_ghost_kasu.jpg?format=1500w" width="274" /></a></div>Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)<br /></i><br />Horror Trope: “Another Man's Terror. This trope takes place where one character is thrown into the shoes of a dead man to experience his final moments....or he has to complete a dead man's task, witnessing and experiencing what killed the person before you.”<br />Current Event: Though I can't find this idea exactly, I'm sure it's out there somewhere...“Sister dies, deadbeat brother channels her dreams” <br /><br />Chengpao Yang stared at his mother and said, “What?” She explained again in Hmong this time, because her English was so bad, even his sister couldn't understand Mom right now. If Mom was saying it right, Victoria would never be able to try and understand her mother again. He said, “Are you trying to tell me that Victoria is dead?" <br /><br />The affirmative was a wail of grief. <br /><br />What followed was both a long explanation of what happened and an accusation that if he’d been home, she never would have tried to protect her mother against the robber and died of a knife wound that had looked like a nick, but turned out to be from a poisoned knife. <br /><br />“You mean you would rather have had me die than her?” Mother looked at him for a long time, then buried her face in her hands and wept harder. She collapsed to the floor in a puddle of her house clothes and hair. Chengpao stared down at her for a long time, torn between the urge to kick her, break out into tears and weep, or curse the world, his mother, his dead father, and his overachieving sister. <br /><br />She rolled over on to her back, staring through him and at the ceiling. Shaking his head, he felt tears welling and finally said, “Fine then. If that’s what you want,” he raised his arms into the air and shouted at the ceiling, “If the spirit of Victoria is hanging out anywhere nearby, go ahead, take over my...” <br /><br />Without missing a beat, his voice abruptly pitched higher, his posture shifted, and he made a motion with one hand that would have pushed a long strand of hair from his face – if he didn’t have a crew cut. He’d had a crew cut since his thirteenth birthday. He said, “Don’t worry Mom, I’m baaaack…” <br /><br /> Names: ♀ England, Laos; ♂ Laos, Laos<br /> Image: <a href="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c4dfe127d4bd8ca39d3511/1508166190572-GLTT4CIQG9U30G5ST0NF/laos_house_lao_ghost_kasu.jpg?format=1500w">https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c4dfe127d4bd8ca39d3511/1508166190572-GLTT4CIQG9U30G5ST0NF/laos_house_lao_ghost_kasu.jpg?format=1500w</a></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518122161715399657.post-69931341807436041482023-12-16T05:00:00.001-06:002023-12-16T05:00:00.253-06:00POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS Part IV – Contacting Aliens (Oh, NO!) and A Living World Idea…<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/s244/Unknown-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="162" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/w266-h400/Unknown-4.jpeg" width="266" /></a></div>NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, CA in August 2018 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…<br /><br />I know I’m a few years behind, but I just checked out a copy of LONELY PLANETS: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (2003) by David Grinspoon. He does, of course, have a “doctor” in front of his name, but it appears that he doesn’t use it very often. He also has the endorsement of Neil deGrasse Tyson – the quintessential new face of astronomy and the immediate successor to Carl Sagan.<br /><br />Tyson said of Grinspoon’s book “…brings together what has never before been synthesized…he is a planetary scientist as well as dreamer, born of the space age.”<br /><br />As is apparent to anyone who reads my blog, I LOVE aliens! I write about aliens! I do (guardedly) believe that there is intelligent life “out there, somewhere” – HOWEVER, I don’t believe that we have any real proof yet and that it is, at this point, an intellectual and philosophical exercise. Be that as it may, I’m approaching the end of Grinspoon’s book and have skimmed his website (<a href="http://funkyscience.net/">http://funkyscience.net/</a>) several times. While it’s been “frozen” on his newest Pluto/Horizon book, I find myself looking forward to following this guy for some time to come!</i><br /><br /><br />I’m well into the book now (page 229) and I got my own copy on Wednesday through a Half-Price Books near me. After (*gasp*) dog-earing my Library copy, I transferred the noted pages to my own book.<br /><br />Grinspoon flits effortlessly between history, the present, and the future. Occasionally, all three collide as when he begins to talk about the shift from the “wacky” field of exobiology to what that same field has become today: Astrobiology. It’s legitimized and not only is it part of NASA, it has its own Homepage (<a href="https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/">https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/</a>)<br /><br />What is it? Grinspoon defines it this way: “Astrobiology…is not for profit…We explore space for reasons that are romantic and idealistic…[it is] a scientific movement that is justified fundamentally on spiritual grounds…also potentially revolutionary in its attempt to reverse the slide toward increasing scientific specialization and isolation. We want to blur the borders and tear down the walls that modern academia has erected. Astrobiology at its best is a step toward the reunification of science and, perhaps, the rebirth of natural philosophy.” (p243)<br /><br />Wow.<br /><br />Astrobiology, the concept of discovering life somewhere besides Earth, is the foundational belief of NASA's astrobiology program. With it comes a strong belief: “I think we’re going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we’re going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years,” said NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan."<br /><br />While the science of astrobiology has no detractors, what happens once we DO discover life elsewhere and in particular if we discover intelligent life elsewhere does indeed seem to have provoked dissent among the ranks. Some individuals have taken to the blogosphere and conference circuit with extreme confidence that their opinion alone is the correct one. To ME, they seem to flail wildly and appear to be close relatives of Chicken Little. One of their names became instantly recognizable by a large portion of the English-speaking world several years ago, and even before his recent passing, was spoken in the same sentence as Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and...Stephen Hawking; who said a bit before his death, that contact with aliens will be BAD: “One day, we might receive a signal from a planet like this, but we should be wary of answering back. Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn’t turn out so well”.(<a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/stephen-hawking-warns-that-we-might-not-want-to-reach-out-to-aliens">https://www.sciencealert.com/stephen-hawking-warns-that-we-might-not-want-to-reach-out-to-aliens</a>)<br /><br />Another, not-so-well-recognized-name, a science fiction writer popular in the 80s and 90s, David Brin has added his voice to Hawking's warning, “Optimistic scholars may be right that we have nothing to fear from that eventual encounter with wise beings from the stars. Still, we cannot be reminded often enough to look back on our own history of contact among humans here on Earth, a litany of dire cautionary tales. We are, all of us, descended -- only a few generations back -- from folk who suffered horribly because they weren't ready for the challenges brought on by new vices, new technologies, new diseases, new ideas, new opportunities, new people. And those ancestors were the lucky survivors! Many peoples and cultures – including every species of hominids other than our own – left no descendants at all...How ironic that this reminder should come from someone who is a dedicated believer in the new!...Ironic, and yet somehow apropos. For I would rather bet on a horse that I know – human improvability and progress -- than on salvation from some hypothetical super-beings high above...We have tried that route, countless times before, and the lesson has always been that we should rely (mostly) on ourselves...In this article I've only touched on just a few of the dangers conceived by various gloomy thinkers and writers over the years. I could go on, but a complete listing isn't necessary. What matters is the lesson, one of circumspection and caution. The worst mistake of first contact, made throughout history by individuals on both sides of every new encounter, has been the unfortunate habit of making assumptions.<br /><br />"It often proved fatal.” (<a href="http://www.setileague.org/iaaseti/brin.pdf">http://www.setileague.org/iaaseti/brin.pdf</a>, page 22)<br /><br />While he doesn't talk specifically about first contact, the general sense I gather from his writing is that he isn't quite to negative as the two quoted above...<br /><br />Once we reach chapter 17, Grinspoon takes a decidedly spiritual turn – not Christian, certainly, he has the most respect for Buddhism: “Although I’ve never found a religion that seems a perfect fit, I love what I know of the teachings of Buddhism. Its most important principle seems to be compassion. If there is a perfect spiritual principle, I would vote for this.” (p384)<br /><br />He takes time explaining complexity theory, though the book was published in 2003 and in 2018, Wikipedia has this to say: “The term complex adaptive systems, or complexity science, is often used to describe the loosely organized academic field that has grown up around the study of such systems. Complexity science is not a single theory—it encompasses more than one theoretical framework and is highly interdisciplinary, seeking the answers to some fundamental questions about living, adaptable, changeable systems. The study of CAS focuses on complex, emergent and macroscopic properties of the system. John H. Holland said that CAS ‘are systems that have a large numbers of components, often called agents, that interact and adapt or learn.’” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system</a>)<br /><br />It’s hard to summarize briefly what Grinspoon lays out in this chapter, but let me take a stab at it. Grinspoon wonders, (I think this is gist of it) if Earth itself is alive in a unique way.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />The idea stems from the observation that not only does the planet – it’s temperature, composition, distance from the Sun, mass, and every other factor that we used to call the abiotic factors of an ecosystem – affect the biotic, but that the biotic factors are intimately entangled with the abiotic factors. It certainly seems logical, but in 2013, Toby Tyrrell, professor of Earth System Science (<a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/oes/about/staff/lrtt.page">https://www.southampton.ac.uk/oes/about/staff/lrtt.page</a>) seemed to drive a stake through the heart of the hypothesis: “I believe Gaia is a dead end. Its study has, however, generated many new and thought provoking questions. While rejecting Gaia, we can at the same time appreciate Lovelock's originality and breadth of vision, and recognize that his audacious concept has helped to stimulate many new ideas about the Earth, and to champion a holistic approach to studying it”. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis</a>)<br /><br />I'd never run across this more science-based Gaia theory. Grinspoon's presentation and enthusiasm for it won me over and the idea that biotic and abiotic factors are more intertwined than we thought is compelling. Even so, I'm not going to begin to worship Mother Earth. My basic belief is that while they have trouble stomaching any sort of supreme being or supernatural guidance, many scientists seem to hold with the idea that there's "something beyond us".<br /><br />While I call that "something" a Someone, they struggle to give it a different name and add concrete proofs to construct a something to believe in. I am a realist -- I suppose, except in my belief in God and in the Redemption of Humans through his sacrificial death on the Cross. Was his sacrifice on the Cross for ONLY Humans, or was it for ALL beings who broke covenant with Him and chose disobedience over obedience? No idea.<br /><br />I suppose in that, as well as in the argument over the efficacy of shouting out our presence to a universe that holds malevolent Intelligences who will soon come to stomp us out...I can only join with the rest of Humanity and wait and see.<br /><br />Whew…lots to think about. Lots to consider.<br /><br />Lots to figure out how to incorporate into my writing! I’ll take up the end of the book next week!<br /><br />Image: <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/s1600/Unknown-4.jpeg">http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvBJ-0Cc1G4/UuMOA98-RJI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/r5JUlNiN2Tw/s1600/Unknown-4.jpeg</a></span><div><br /></div></div>GuyStewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268114053763665577noreply@blogger.com0