Interview at Mystic Visions

I don't think I've posted this here before, so here's me being interviewed by Eposic for their Mystic Visions blog:

http://eposic.net/blog/archives/178

Hopefully, we'll get to see that book pretty soon. In the meantime, here's a link to The Book of Exodi. I should warn you that, because my contribution constitutes a much smaller portion of its total word count, Exodi is necessarily inferior to the upcoming Out of Order, but it's still worth taking a look.

Walking Home

Hey, look! Snow is pretty again when you ride the bus!

Fantastic Astronomy

I stumbled across a couple of articles today that really fired my sense of wonder.

As you read this article about early galaxies, think about what these people are doing.  Compare the number of years ago to the number of years after the Big Bang.  They're looking back at galaxies that existed before anything that even seems real to us existed, and they're telling us what those galaxies are made of.  Then they go on to talk about some of the many things we still don't know.  I'm reminded of some of the other early-universe cosmology stuff I've read, descriptions of an unbelievably alien reality.  It's thrilling stuff.

Earliest Known Galaxies Spied in Deep Hubble Picture
Anne Minard for National Geographic News, January 5, 2010

Compact, ultra-blue galaxies spied for the first time in the deep universe are the most distant—and therefore the youngest—galaxies anyone has ever seen, astronomers announced today...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100105-earliest-galaxies-hubble-deep-universe.html

On this next one, check out some of the anomalies they found.  My mind runs to wildly fantastic explanations, like maybe the "styrofoam" planet is a living thing with a complex cell structure circulating hot, light gasses like blood throughout its enormous body.  Somewhere out there, though, is the real answer, which I expect to be less rich in comic-booky fun, but just as interesting.  In any case, it's awesome that there are so many planets out there, and that so many other solar systems are so different from our own.

Five New Planets Found; Hotter Than Molten Lava
Victoria Jaggard in Washington, D.C., National Geographic News, January 4, 2010

Five new planets have been found orbiting distant stars—the first confirmed new worlds from NASA's recently launched Kepler space telescope mission, astronomers announced today...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100104-new-planets-kepler-nasa.html

The universe is fantastic.  It burns my brain trying to put even the watered-down details into one imaginary construct but, I have to say, I love the runner's high that the effort brings.

Funny Things Overheard at the Office #2

"I have a mission for you. When you get out to Arizona, take [name deleted] into the desert and leave him."

Enraged Bookworm Terrorizes Helpless Border Guards

America, when will you wake up to the dangers of sci-fi encroachment?  How many poor defenseless border guards have to be choked by nerdofascists before our bleeding heart government takes action?  We are at war, people!  And I bet it's not just science fiction writers.  We should really be taking a close look at academics and journalists, too.  This guy is a biologist, and I'd be very interested to hear why the liberal media didn't think that was worth including in the first paragraph.  Not one of their organizations has ever officially stood up to condemn the doctrine of customs-guard strangulation, you know.

Here's the story:
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/738143--u-s-border-guards-arrest-author-peter-watts

What is the Code?

Sometimes I just can't help but add a few lines to these presentations:

Asimov on Wrongness

Here's a great response to the all-too-familiar "scientists used to say ___[insert superseded theory here]___ so science don't know nothin" argument.

http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm

You really should read the whole article, but this paragraph sums it up beautifully:

My answer to him was, "John, when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."

Not that I have any illusions here.  This essay is not exactly breaking news, and yet we're still hearing the "science don't know nothin" argument echoed on a regular basis.  If anything, it's more virulent now than ever.  These people are not going to abandon a favored quip just because it's dishonest.