Category Archives: Space

Texas scope testing 68 candidate earths

“We also go to the really big telescopes, and we get very sharp images to see if there’s anything around that star that could explain it. When we’re through with all those tests, we go to the Keck or the HET or another large telescope and we measure the spectra.

“If the spectra show that the star is wobbling, we get the mass of a planet. In particular, we can go to the Keck, get the period of the planet and get the epoch (where the planet is on its orbit). And that should exactly match what we have with Kepler. If they have the same orbital period and they occur at the same time, we can say yes, we have a confirmation and can announce it.”

Fool’s War

This is a wonderful hard science fiction story, marred only by occasional repetition (characters show tension so often by running their hands through their hair that I finally decided they all needed a change of shampoo) and, in the Kindle edition, at least, enough typos, misspellings, and grammar mistakes to make an honest proofreader turn to drink.

Seriously, folks, the $6.99 price is just right, the story very surprising and well done, but the publisher (Little, Brown and Company) should be ashamed for this many text errors in one file. I suppose they consider the ebook a throwaway, which is remarkably shortsighted, even for a mainstream book publisher stupidly wedded to paper in the face of rising ebook sales. It’s also a pity because  author Sarah Zettel deserves praise and respect for her intriguing tale of machine intelligence run amok.

But no reader deserves to have to wade through so many mistakes in a text, particularly in the last half of the story. I was constantly trying to decide which word or tense was intended. Even the characters’ names are repeatedly misspelled. Not even a homicidal AI would be so cruel!

To boldly wish

I think it was science fiction writer Charlie Stross who said that anyone wishing to settle Mars should first try settling the Gobi Desert in the winter while wearing a fireman’s respirator.

Somehow I doubt these folks would want to do that, but at least they have more imagination than the wretched politicians who have grounded the idea for so long. Meanwhile, we can hope the intrepid don’t go entirely alone either.

Hatemongers

No, not the garden-variety nutjob who shot the Arizona congresswoman and a string of others Saturday in Tucson, but professional political haters like the Kos Kidz who airbrushed their hate file on her hours later to hide their true nature.

And especially Paul Krugman who is always seeking political advantage from mass murder. This time they’re all bashing Sarah for alleged instigation, since the gunman was not, alas for them, of the Tea Party.

Well, here’s some Dem instigation from the top: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” – Barack Obama. Was that influential?

The Tucson shooter seems to have missed the Right-wing bus but caught the socialist/communist trolley, as well as being paranoid about government mind-control. Could be displays of his tinfoil hat any hour now.

Interesting that the moderate Dem congressperson victim is married to a NASA astronaut who is assigned to command the last space shuttle flight in April. I hope she recovers as fully as possible and wish the survivors the best.

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE:  Making it explicit: “They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.”

With the liberal media’s (sorry for the redundancy) full cooperation, I might add.

Little Martian corpse in Aurora

That’s Aurora, Texas, son, also styled “the town that almost was,” population just 1,144 as of two years ago. Northwest of Fort Worth.

The truth of the, uh, space alien depends on to whom you speak. The chamber of commerce, if there is one, will have its confirmation, too, I’m sure. If only by word-of-mouth. Heck, they already have “the world’s talking bird.”

Via The Orange Orb.

Beggars In Spain

This first of a Nancy Kress sci-fi classic trilogy could as readily be titled Beggars In Dallas, even though it was only a metaphor in the first place. Some of the rest of the book, despite its focus on genetic enhancements, has a sort of outdated feel to it, as well. Well, it was written several decades ago.

But the philosophical argument the story and characters illustrate, between Ayn Rand individualism and the Russian immigrant author’s despised forced altruism is as fresh as the deficit-reducing Tea Party versus Obamacare.

In the end, Kress’s main protagonist decides a compromise between producers and beggars works best and that seems wise. It’s also rather obvious, but in the author’s deft hands, getting there is well worth the journey.

Lunacy

“For the first time in many years, northern winter is beginning with a total lunar eclipse.  On Dec. 21, 2010, the date of the northern winter solstice, the full Moon will pass through Earth’s shadow, turning the lunar orb a delightful shade of coppery-red.

“Sky watchers in North America are favored with an overhead view as the eclipse unfolds on Tuesday morning between 02:41 am and 03:53 am EST.”

Obviously, only the very earliest bird will catch this eclipse.