Just received the DVD set of series 4 of the new Doctor Who
Now I need some time to watch it. In any case I am bringing it to a friend to watch it.
Yay!
Doctor Who
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Author Archives: The Babylon Lurker
Hubble Directly Observes a Planet Orbiting Another Star
This is the kind of thing that can excite me. Imaging a planet 25 light years away in visible light. The Hubble Space Telescope ha done just that.
Around the star Formalhaut Hubble found a ring of dust, corresponding to the Kuiper Belt in our own solar system. an Anomaly in the shape of the ring indicated that the gravitational pull of a planet influenced the ring. The hunt was on.
Two images taken 21 months apart show an object following the star and apparently orbiting Formalhaut in about 870 years.
Before we get too excited, there is no real chance of finding any ET’s in the Formalhaut system. The star is only 200 million years old and burning fast – the life expectancy is only 1000 million years, not enough for life as we know it to develop.
There are indications of further planets around Formalhaut, this time inside the dust ring, but none are observed yet.
More details from ESA’s website
Escape Pod : “The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham”
One of the fiction podcasts I listen to is Steve Eley’s “Escape Pod”. Every week a new short story reading in the Science Fiction genre. previously they had a mixture of Scifi, Fantasy and Horror, but Horror is now done by the sister podcast “Pseudo Pod” and Fantasy by “Podcastle”. If you go back into the archives you will find all three genres represented.
With so many stories it is impossible to find a story I like every week, occasionally I drop the listening after beginning listening to an episode, but mostly I listen through the story.
Some highlights for me would be Mur Lafferty’s “I Look Forward to Remember You” and the Escape Pod 100th episode was a good reading of Isaac Asimov’s classic short story “Nightfall”, first published in 1941
Episode 182 brought H.G. Wells’ “The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham”, the first time the podcast has brought a story from the public domain.
Mr Elvesham, an old and frail philosopher, takes up contact with a young student and offers him to become his heir. The youn man is, of course, cautious but is slowly drawn to the belief that this could be something.
Let’s just say, the intention of the older man is not quite what it appears, there is no happy end, but simply a cautionary tale – “no one is exactly what he or she appears to be”.
In some ways a similar story could be told today (and has been), it is interesting to note that this story is more than 100 years old. For a story publishes in 1896 it feels surprisingly modern. It makes me want to read more og H.G. Wells’ stories.
On another note : The podcast has been coming out every week since May 2005, but due to family (and other) circumstances there will be a hiatus for the rest of the month of November. Steve has a rather long entry in his blog telling the story. The main point, I think is that he may have been pushing too hard to get this going, and needs a breather to regain the fun of doing the podcast. “Pesudo Pod” and “Podcastle” are not affected.
Link :
Chandrayaan 1 lets Lunar impactor on the loose
The Indian Moon probe Chandrayaan 1 has successfully entered into its operational orbit about 100km over the surface of the Moon.
On Friday the Moon Impact Probe was released for a crash landing near the Moon’s South Pole. While diving the impactor sent images and telemetry back to the orbiter, those will be relayed back to Earth at a slower pace. The descent took about 25 minutes and the data will be relayed in the next few days.
Instruments are beginning to be activated, and a new chapter in the lunar exploration is beginning.
The probe has already sent some very good images back, see link below.
Full story from
H.G. Wells, Orson Welles : “War of the Worlds” radio play
On 30th October 1938 a radio play caused mass panic in the U.S. I am, of course “talking” about the famous play “War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles based on H.G. Wells’ equally famous story.
Well, well, 70 years since that happened.
I have listened to the play a few times, and I find it fascinating story telling. OK – this is not a character piece, but the radio play is so well organised, as if a normal musical entertainment program is interrupted by news flashes, telling the story.
Some may ask, why the panic ? In order to understand that we must remember that at that time there was no mobile phones, no internet, no hundreds of tv (or radio channels) – even fixed telephones were not that common. What *was* available ? I should think one – maybe two radio programs. It was just not possible – like it is today – to go and check on the net, or CNN/BBC/whatever news channel you wanted. Information was just not there to find.
True, a radio play made in a similar way today simply could not have this effect. It is too easy to check news items for that.
Shuttle launch
20 minutes to launch – problem with a door
we’ll see if they can launch in time
lots of launch related traffic via satellite (261.575 FM)
Shuttle going up tonight
I am sitting here at the computer with NASA TV running. The final preparations for the launch of STS-126 with new living quarters and other items.
I will set my receiver at 259.700 MHz (AM mode) listening for the possibly few seconds of communication to the ground.
Unless …. the launch is canceled at the last moment.
“When the Power goes …. Chaos Reigns” (J.C. Hutchins)
– or at least the Internet connection disappears.
This evening I have been powerless for a few hours. I was just taking a break and should be starting my daily post when the lights first faded for a few seconds – then went out. DSL-Modem, computers radio and TV etc – the whole house was dead.
Now what ? since this is quite unusual for this area I first looked out of my windows, and the flats in the next street had lights on – looked to the other corner – more lights. Went to the other side of the flat : a dark area for some miles/km – where there would normally be a sea of lights.
I found myself in one corner of a dark area, with light on two sides. Hmmm. I do not know exactly what happened, but my guess is that a transformer station went up in smoke – likely due to an overload – it can happen if someone digs into a cable (seen that before).
Find a flashlight – I have one or two LED flashlights around , talk to neighbours, one had a non working flashlight – fortunately it just needed new batteries, and she had spares.
No lights, no reading, no tv , no computers, and certainly no internet.
Actually, I don’t mind the dark, then the stars become visible. Unfortunately the stars are blocked by “The Great Northern European Nebula” , aka clouds, so no luck there. Well – I was a little tired, so had an excuse to take a rest.
It took a few hours for the power to return here, so no real harm done.
Funny how much we depend on electricity for our daily activities nowadays. Make me think that I should have some backup power system. Not easy in the flat, but at my house “back home” – that is another matter. I should plan to make some kind of renewable energy generation there, so it is ready when I return to my home country.
To read or not to read …
That is the question.
Since the job requires a lot of reading, mainly technical, I have been reading less than I did when I was growing up. At thet time I was considered a “book worm” – eating stories by the page …. most of it science fiction. The first major fantasy work I read was the classic “Lord of the Rings” (no introduction necessary).
After moving to The Netherlands and having my present job I got to read less, but found more science fiction on video/TV, in the beginning Star Trek TNG, later much more.
I did read the occasional Star Trek and Star Wars book, but not much more, and sometimes had a series of books.
The first series I “discovered” was Raymond E. Feist’s “Riftwar Saga” which I loved. After one or two more sequel series the interest waned, and I have not read the later ones.
About 5 years ago a friend in Denmark introduced me to Anne McCaffrey’s writing. As a birthday present I received “Dragonflight”, “Dragonquest” of the “Dragonriders of Pern” series and the first of the “Acorna” series. Out of those I like the “Pern” series the best, but the other one is not bad at all. This lead to another bout of reading for me, then another hiatus.
In between all this came the “Harry Potter” series and I found that it appeals to the child in me as well as the more grown-up.
About a year ago I was talking to a friend I had not seen for a while. When I mentioned the blog and he heard the keyword “science fiction” he interrupted me and asked “You interested in books ?” well – yes, a few days later he arrived with 5 shopping bags full of books in the scifi and fantasy genre. I ended up with about 70 new titles – a considerable increase of my sf/fantasy book collection, some of which I may never get to read.
It looks like I am going to take a bit more time to do some reading, probably some short stories and an occasional novel. (Remember what I said the other day – time is a limited resource). Actually I have started this, having read a few novels lately. Some of the podcasts I am listening to are scifi/fantasy stories/plays, so I do get some fiction “reading” done. Listening to a podcast while walking to and from work sure beats trying to read a book in the traffic 😉 .
Arthur C. Clarke : “Travel by Wire” short story
“Travel by Wire” was published in 1937 in “Amateur Science Fiction Stories” in December 1937. According to Clarke it was his first story ever published, and for that reason alone I would consider it historical. It has later been published in the “The Best of Arthur C. Clarke 1937 – 1955”, and later again (2000) in the book I found it in : “Arthur C. Clarke – The Collected Stories” with about 100 of his short stories.
The story is only 4 pages long, in spite of that I quite like it. It concerns the possibilities of sending not just voice, but also matter as signals through wires. To be sure, it also mentions “the radio transporter”, but considers it less reliable. a bit of rivalry between labs where the “wire transporter” and other things are researched gives the story a bit of humour as well. I also liked the final statement of the story.
In such a short story you do not find any character development, it is all about the idea.
I have no doubt that this story was inspiration for the “beaming” transporter in “Star Trek”.
I have recently learned that Clarke and Roddenberry had a long lasting friendship.
Now I have to read some more of the stories of this book. It also contains (no surprise) “The Sentinel” which in part is the basis for Clarke’s most famous work “2001 – A Space Odyssey”