Science Fiction
- Opinion | The Darkness Where the Future Should Be – The New York Times. This article is about how hard it is to envision positive futures when the present is so dark. The Golden Age of SF was created by the Greatest Generation when we were in the dregs of the Depression which made our recent “Great Recession” look like a boom and when Hitler was blitzkrieging Europe with an initially unbroken string of smashing successes. The casualties to humanity in those years numbered in the millions. And then we went to the Moon just like we had in SF. What’s the present time’s excuse? What’s our problem? Buck up and get back that “vision thing.” We may all die tomorrow and there is much in the world driving us that way, from the corporations to Russia to China to aspects of the United States, itself. Without vision, hope, ideals, and appreciation for what is good in us and those who came before us, we would be doomed. But, with creativity, we may get over the oppression, hate, fear, and unreason after all. Mars, here we come. And then, per aspera ad astra!
Science
- Making air from Moon dust: Scientists create a prototype oxygen plant | Astronomy.com. If I recall correctly, something like this was mentioned in John W. Campbell’s The Moon Is Hell (1951).
- Looking Back at the Spitzer Space Telescope. Some of the highlights of a great project which also made a personal impact on the author of Centauri Dreams.
- DART & Hera: Changing an Asteroid’s Trajectory. A tiny little thing, but perhaps part of one of the most important things we can do.
- Sabine Hossenfelder: Backreaction: Does nature have a minimal length? It doesn’t take long to walk this Planck.
Other
README
- Ukraine’s fate will shape global security – and Americans should care – Atlantic Council. The only thing wrong with this article is the ludicrous understatement that we are “on the brink of a new Cold War” when Russia is already doing to us what they’re doing to Ukraine, adjusted for physical distance. We are in a war; we just don’t know it. (Two wars, actually.) The first step to solving a problem is to identify it.
History
- Mount Vesuvius blast turned ancient victim’s brain to glass. More braaaiiinns! In the last “Links” post, we had soft tissue after a zillion years – now we have very hard tissue. What’s even worse than a glass jaw?
- The History Blog » Vesuvius turned a man’s brain to glass. Second, even better, write-up of the above.
- The History Blog » Mummy was stabbed in the back, study finds. That’s one weird mummy.
Humor
Music
Featured Futures 