THE MARCHING MORON

I’ve Moved!

rimworlder — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:28:37 +0000

The move to New Hampshire (from Florida) is finished.

Now all that remains is to sort everything out and partially unpack; I’ll be moving again in 6 months or so, once my wife and I purchase a new home.

I like having money in the bank during a buyer’s market…

Once the sorting out is all sorted out, I’ll be posting more regularly.

Klaatu, Barata,… what was that last word that turned the killer robot off…?

rimworlder — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 13:39:36 +0000

One of the many ways the world might end is at the hands of extraterrestrial policemen. One of my favorite all time SF movies – The Day the Earth Stood Still – brought that message home in thrilling black and white. Now they’re doing a remake and have apparently cast Keanu Reeves and John Cleese! for various parts. A comedy?

Andromeda Strain?

rimworlder — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:05:08 +0000

A US satellite is decaying in orbit and will might hit the Earth within a couple of days. From the NY Times/AP - “The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down…” “…officials spoke on condition of anonymity…”

Not with a bang, but with a flush

rimworlder — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:25:47 +0000

Foxnews reports that a blob is taking over the sewers of a city in Maine. Not that I watch Fox mind you. My wife pointed it out to me. Really.

Armageddon in 3D

rimworlder — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:00:17 +0000

Kow Yokoyama, a Japanese designer and model maker, created a series of powered-armor fighting suit models back in the early 80s. Entitled SF3D, the back story involves the return of space colonists to an Earth recovering from nuclear war and features the New German forces versus the Australian forces. Fred, over at Texas Best Grok, brought my attention to an illustrated article that had appeared in Galaxy magazine in 1968 and featured powered armor fighting suits. The resemblance between Kow’s imaginings and some of the ’68 visions is remarkable.

The model kits, originally produced by Nitto of Japan, are once again being produced under the new name of Ma.k. 25. If you’re interested in more, pay a visit to the (un)official site here.

More on Chandler

rimworlder — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:54:20 +0000

Paul Collins pointed out that I have left people with the erroneous impression that it is his company FORD STREET PUBLISHING that will be producing Jack Dann’s anthology containing the new Chandler story.

The anthology – Dreaming Again (a follow-up to Dreaming Down-Under, a collection of stories by Australian authors) will in fact be published by HarperCollins Australia.

***

Mr. Collins also informs me that Ford Street’s titles can be purchased in the US. All you need is a paypal account to obtain award winning fiction from Down Under. Despite the economy, Australia is still accepting US dollars…

Today has been chockfull

rimworlder — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:09:16 +0000

of armageddon news.

After cometary impacts, biological disasters are among the most common causes given for the fall of mankind.

Our ability to create life is reportedly one step closer according to an article in the NY Times here.

This is my favorite part:

“But there are concerns that synthetic biology could be used to make pathogens, or that errors by well-intended scientists could produce organisms that run amok.”

That’s the well-intended scientists. They never even mentioned the evil ones.

NE asteroid may be visible to amateur astronomers

rimworlder — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:39:54 +0000

Nancy Atkinson at Universe Today reports that 2007 TU24 a pockmarked rock 150 to 160 meters in diameter may approach Earth closely enough to be visible to amateur astronomers.

This is right up my apocalyptic alley. Nancy warns the alarmists not to get all bent out of shape, this thing isn’t going to come anywhere close to hitting us. But I’ll bet we see a rescheduling of asteroid & comet impact movies on cable…

A. BERTRAM CHANDLER STORY TO BE PUBLISHED

rimworlder — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:58:05 +0000

I am VERY happy to be able to announce that a new A. Bertram Chandler story will be published in an upcoming anthology being edited by Jack Dann.

Paul Collins, Australian author and publisher, obtained the rights to a Grimes and Kitty Kelly story back in the early 80s (Grimes was Chandler’s most popular character; Kitty Kelly interviewed Grimes on numerous occassions about his various adventures. All of the Grimes-Kelly stories except for this one were collected in the SFBC omnibus edition) and had hoped to do something with it, but those opportunities never eventuated.

I’ll not spoil Paul’s afterword (get the anthology) about how the story eventually got into Jack Dann’s hands, but I can say that Chandler fans and Chandler websites – including my own Rimworlds site and David Kelleher’s Chandler site – were at least partially responsible.

Once publication information becomes available, I’ll post it here and will also hopefully be adding ordering information to the website.

The Big Idea

rimworlder — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:31:30 +0000

I’ve got another blog on an entirely different subject which has been getting decent and growing traffic. This one, although still new, is dead as a doornail. So, I started doing a little research and found some good, if obvious, advice.

One bit of obviousness is “post every day, two or three times a day and never, ever stop”. Well, lord knows I’ve got enough to say about everything, so that shouldn’t be too big a problem. I’m starting that now.

Another bit was ‘pick a subject you know and like’. Again, obvious, but true nonetheless. Well, SF is something I know and like. But there’s 50 gazillion SF oriented blogs, many of them with built-in name recognition, so I need to be a little more focused than the entirety of an as yet undefined genre.

In thinking about what ‘kind’ of science fiction I enjoy the most (on a visual scale the differences between enjoy the most and and simply enjoy is measured in nanometers), I’d have to come down on the side of dystopian futures. You know, the world is falling apart, or has fallen apart, either from ecological disaster, alien invasion, runaway technology, disease, famine, pestilence or war. Or, the survivors are barely eeking out a living in the ruins or hiding in the walls of a conquering alien species.

Just off the top of my head, examples of this you may recognize: The Sheep Look Up by Brunner, Armageddon 2419 by Nowlan, Farnham’s Freehold by Heinlein, Alas, Babylon by Frank, The Postman by Brin, etc., etc. Not to mention numerous short stories that have mostly been passed over for decades (Tumithak of the Corridors by Tanner, for one).

So I like apocolyptic, armageddon-inspired, dystopian science fiction. I can’t be the only one judging by the number of successful novels and movies that have shared these themes.

I’ll be sharing more thoughts on this subject. At least three times a day…