Michael Flynn's Blog, page 78

Evil in the E-book World!

This is Important

If you go to buy UP JIM RIVER on Amazon, you will find this: www.amazon.com/Up-Jim-River-Michael-Flynn/dp/0765322846
together with a link to "tell the publisher I'd like to read this book on Kindle"

Apparently, Macmillian, of which Tor is a part, has balked at the $9.99 price for Kindle books, that it is not enough to recoup the costs of buying the rights from the authors, editing, and publishing it.  In retaliation, Amazon has pulled all it's "buy" buttons from all Macmillan b...

Demons from the vasty deep

Chance and Cause

In the  previous post, we looked at the question of how can something immaterial [gravity:] could affect something material [matter:]. 

This was bound up in the problem of whether gravity is a substance, composed of matter and form, that swims outward from a mass (like sperm, perhaps) to attract other masses.  But if gravity were a substance, then a gravitating body would lose mass over time as the gravitational fluid left the body.  It would also be hard to explain how the gra...

Why Gravity is not a Force

Against Gravity

The question has been raised in the comm box regarding Aquinas' proof from motion as to how an immaterial First Mover can affect anything material.  This asks for a physical explanation of a metaphysical relation.  The difficulty arises from Cartesianism which, if we may be unfair to Descartes for a moment, holds that life (the "soul" or anima) is a substance in itself.  This led to all sorts of problems now known as the "traditional" problems of philosophy, but are actually th...

Finally

Up Jim River
Cover art is up on Amazon!

BEHOLD....

Found at:
www.ifanboy.com/images/ifanboy/geekchartbig.gif

What if the Earth Had Rings Like Saturn?

Now This is Kool


(H/T: Spider Robinson)

Beware the man of one book

The Feast of Thomas Aquinas

Today is the feast of Thomas Aquinas!  Do something reasonable in his honor!>

Some Thomistic Quotes:
(I've added sources where I know them, but did not chase them down.  If anyone knows the source text, let me know.)

1. Beware the man of one book.

2. It is better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.

3. By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.
(Not even Thomas Jefferson said it ...

On Fair Yuts'ga

In the Lion's Mouth

An excerpt from In the Lion's Mouth, a sketch of the world of Yuts'ga, whose name derives from the Cantonese for "Second Earth." 

There is an introductory poem, followed by the sketch:

VII A Role, in the Hay

Fair Yuts’ga, whose star once spied from Earth
In nameless twinkle, whose seas once swam
With proto-life prolific, joined in metazoic joy,
Her skies well-crossed by many streams, convulsed
At times by strife to seize them, have now in gentle peace
Reposed these slumb’rous y...

Something Fishy This Way Comes

 
He's Dead Jim

The 18-inch-long Atlantic salmon lay perfectly still for its brain scan. Emotional pictures —a triumphant young girl just out of a somersault, a distressed waiter who had just dropped a plate — flashed in front of the fish as a scientist read the standard instruction script aloud. The hulking machine clunked and whirred, capturing minute changes in the salmon’s brain as it assessed the images. Millions of data points capturing the fluctuations in brain activity streamed into...

New Hollywood Remakes

With Imaginations Running Rampant

in Hollywood, remakes are the order of the day. 

Gritty, noir remakes.  The latest:


















from cracked.com