Christopher McKitterick's Blog, page 30
January 23, 2012
Astro-Porn of the Day: Supermassive Stars Swirling in Nebula Stew
Wowza nebula gorgeousness:
Click the image to see a larger photo and the ESA article.
This Hubble photo (touched up by the European Space Agency) shows a pair of colossal stars, WR 25 and Tr16-244, located within the open cluster Trumpler 16. The ESA describes the cluster as embedded within the Carina Nebula, an immense cauldron of gas and dust that lies approximately 7500 light-years from Earth. The Carina Nebula contains several ultra-hot stars, including these two star systems and the famous blue star Eta Carinae, which has the highest luminosity yet confirmed.
WR 25 (the brightest star in the image, near the center) is a Wolf-Rayet star and could weigh more than 50 times the mass of our Sun. It is losing mass rapidly through powerful stellar winds that have expelled the majority of its outermost hydrogen-rich layers, while its more mundane binary companion is probably about half as massive and orbits it once every 208 days.
Massive stars are usually formed in compact clusters. Often, the individual stars are physically so close to each other that it is very difficult to resolve them in telescopes as separate objects. These Hubble observations have revealed that the Tr16-244 system is actually a triple star.
Cool beans, folks! The stuff you stumble upon in the interwebs.
Chris
Click the image to see a larger photo and the ESA article.
This Hubble photo (touched up by the European Space Agency) shows a pair of colossal stars, WR 25 and Tr16-244, located within the open cluster Trumpler 16. The ESA describes the cluster as embedded within the Carina Nebula, an immense cauldron of gas and dust that lies approximately 7500 light-years from Earth. The Carina Nebula contains several ultra-hot stars, including these two star systems and the famous blue star Eta Carinae, which has the highest luminosity yet confirmed.
WR 25 (the brightest star in the image, near the center) is a Wolf-Rayet star and could weigh more than 50 times the mass of our Sun. It is losing mass rapidly through powerful stellar winds that have expelled the majority of its outermost hydrogen-rich layers, while its more mundane binary companion is probably about half as massive and orbits it once every 208 days.
Massive stars are usually formed in compact clusters. Often, the individual stars are physically so close to each other that it is very difficult to resolve them in telescopes as separate objects. These Hubble observations have revealed that the Tr16-244 system is actually a triple star.
Cool beans, folks! The stuff you stumble upon in the interwebs.
Chris
January 21, 2012
Star Wars Uncut: The Star-Wars Fan Vidder's Dream
Just WOW. Think you're a fan of the original Star Wars? The time and creativity invested by hundreds of fans on this project is immense. Wonderful!
Chris
Chris
January 17, 2012
What I did with my winter break.
Classes start tomorrow: Excited! I always love the spring "Science, Technology, and Society" course, and even the "Foundations of Technical Writing" course is satisfying (doing two sections). Also doing a couple of Advanced Technical Writing and Editing sections, but they're very small this semester, and they'll be helping on projects I need to write anyway. Plus one or two independent study SF students. So, overall, WAY fewer classes and students than last semester.
So what did I do with my winter break? First and foremost, recovered from a semester wherein I taught 10 courses (three large, three medium, and an assortment of courses with 1-3 students in them). What was I thinking? Well, I figured that, because most of them contained only a student or three, it would be no big deal. WRONG. If you are a teacher, DON'T EVER DO THIS. A class is a class, regardless of how many people enroll, and often those 1-3 person classes consumed more an hour every week. Now add three sections of technical writing (16 writing projects times 70 students) and the others, and WHOA. Oh, and I do try to have a writing career and life in there, too. I'm learning better how to say, "No." That's a toughie for me.
So after recovering a bit (this included watching the box-sets of Harry Potter, among other things), I did a lot of neglected house, garage, and yard-work; tinkered with the vehicles; hung out a bunch with people; and did finally build up enough reserves to get some writing done. This included tons of outlining, scene-writing, and other work on The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella; lots of thinking and outlining on my keynote talk for the University of Central Oklahoma's Liberal Arts Symposium on science fiction and the liberal arts; and even resumed work on my memoir, Stories from a Perilous Youth. I didn't finish any writing projects, but them's the breaks when working on book-length things.
Yesterday I got my 1978 BMW R100S up and running again! Took some create effort to reassemble the frame (I had to disassemble it to remove a dead battery), do some rust and wiring repairs, and get the fuel system operational again, but it was still in the 50s yesterday afternoon when I went for a ride. ON MY MOTORCYCLE. IN JANUARY. I'm just sayin'. Awesomeness. Even got a photo when I visited some friends who had never seen the bike running before. That's satisfying. Next up: painting and installing the vintage Hannigan fairing I picked up a couple of years ago. I've decided to go with red to match the tank and seat frame rather than the color-fade orange of the front fender (and side-panel lettering, thus likely the original color). I have other (evil) plans in mind, too, that involve giving this bike a bit of Mad Max character... bwahahahaha!
A few days ago I had to carve the lock out of my back door. Long story. Let's just say that a variety of power tools, pry bars, and other implements were involved. This could have been an awful experience, but thanks to![[profile]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380438300i/901231.png)
chernobylred
, it actually turned out to be an adventure. One I needn't repeat, mind you, but an adventure nonetheless. I can't tell you how much fun it is to Sawzall a much-despised sliding-glass door. The having-to-replace-it-now part is less fun, but I'm thinking of going all Mad Max with this, too, using steel plates and an absurdly over-the-top lock while I consider back-door options. Video of the carnage to come (seriously).
And in honor of a winter we have yet to see 'round these parts, this: A crow sledding down a snowy rooftop:
Hope your holidays were wonderful, too. Happy New Year!
Best,
Chris
So what did I do with my winter break? First and foremost, recovered from a semester wherein I taught 10 courses (three large, three medium, and an assortment of courses with 1-3 students in them). What was I thinking? Well, I figured that, because most of them contained only a student or three, it would be no big deal. WRONG. If you are a teacher, DON'T EVER DO THIS. A class is a class, regardless of how many people enroll, and often those 1-3 person classes consumed more an hour every week. Now add three sections of technical writing (16 writing projects times 70 students) and the others, and WHOA. Oh, and I do try to have a writing career and life in there, too. I'm learning better how to say, "No." That's a toughie for me.
So after recovering a bit (this included watching the box-sets of Harry Potter, among other things), I did a lot of neglected house, garage, and yard-work; tinkered with the vehicles; hung out a bunch with people; and did finally build up enough reserves to get some writing done. This included tons of outlining, scene-writing, and other work on The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella; lots of thinking and outlining on my keynote talk for the University of Central Oklahoma's Liberal Arts Symposium on science fiction and the liberal arts; and even resumed work on my memoir, Stories from a Perilous Youth. I didn't finish any writing projects, but them's the breaks when working on book-length things.Yesterday I got my 1978 BMW R100S up and running again! Took some create effort to reassemble the frame (I had to disassemble it to remove a dead battery), do some rust and wiring repairs, and get the fuel system operational again, but it was still in the 50s yesterday afternoon when I went for a ride. ON MY MOTORCYCLE. IN JANUARY. I'm just sayin'. Awesomeness. Even got a photo when I visited some friends who had never seen the bike running before. That's satisfying. Next up: painting and installing the vintage Hannigan fairing I picked up a couple of years ago. I've decided to go with red to match the tank and seat frame rather than the color-fade orange of the front fender (and side-panel lettering, thus likely the original color). I have other (evil) plans in mind, too, that involve giving this bike a bit of Mad Max character... bwahahahaha!
A few days ago I had to carve the lock out of my back door. Long story. Let's just say that a variety of power tools, pry bars, and other implements were involved. This could have been an awful experience, but thanks to
chernobylred
, it actually turned out to be an adventure. One I needn't repeat, mind you, but an adventure nonetheless. I can't tell you how much fun it is to Sawzall a much-despised sliding-glass door. The having-to-replace-it-now part is less fun, but I'm thinking of going all Mad Max with this, too, using steel plates and an absurdly over-the-top lock while I consider back-door options. Video of the carnage to come (seriously).And in honor of a winter we have yet to see 'round these parts, this: A crow sledding down a snowy rooftop:
Hope your holidays were wonderful, too. Happy New Year!
Best,
Chris
January 11, 2012
Goodbye Tatsuko.
My frail and charming old kitty, Tatsuko, has finally passed. For the past few years, Kij has had custody of her first in Seattle and then in Raleigh. I am grateful for the time I got to live with her, and grateful that Kij and several friends took such nice care of her after she moved.
We got her in the late summer of 1995. At the time, Kij's ex Bob was working in an emergency vet clinic in Oregon, and she had been run over by a truck. This encounter left her with a skewed pelvis and various other health issues, plus a hatred of change. Just moving across the hall to a brighter apartment (she was about a year old) made her panic - I remember her running back into the old (now empty) apartment and howling even louder to discover that even her old home looked different now. When we first brought her home, she lived under the covers for weeks, maybe even months, venturing out only when no one could see her for food, water, and the litter box.
Here she is in Seattle in 2001 - even then not a young kitty, but with the softest bunny-fur I have ever touched:
Eventually she grew braver and ferocious. She loved to wrestle, and for those of you who've raised kittens, you know this is code for "tear the skin of her humans." I learned to wear gloves when playing with her, and she learned that gloves = "I get to really attack!" She had asthma, though, so eventually she'd get to wheezing and gasping, so I'd leave her alone for a while until she settled down. This was especially fun when she was a little older: Her favorite toy became a dressage whip, which she'd chase for hourse if I'd let her, except for that she'd collapse from lack of oxygen at some point. Heck, sometimes she'd purr so profoundly that she would end up gasping for breath between each purr.
Oh, that kitty! What a joy she was. EDIT: Don Glover (![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380916456i/3231018.gif)
corwynofamber
) posted several charming videos in his response, below. Here's one I thought I'd share, in which you can hear some of the aforementioned purring:
Tatsuko was simple at heart. She didn't have complicated feelings; in fact, even those not particularly good with animals could pretty much read her thoughts, which consisted mostly of "Pet me," "Play with me," "Feed me," and "Ooh, that looks tasty," the last usually in reference to rodents. She was never demanding except of play when she was very young; as an older kitty, she was patient with other animals, letting them eat and drink first, and seemingly okay with waiting for attention. She loved the heat, going so far as to lie in the sun upstairs during the Kansas summer, as in this shot:
I have fond memories of laughing myself silly watching her climb the walls in our old apartment after we finally gave up trying to discourage her. She literally clawed her way up the drywall to above head-level. Drywall can be repaired (and I did repair it later), but that was priceless. Later I realized she just needed an alternative, so I screwed a big carpet sample to the wall for her to use. She loved that, leaping up and sideways whenever I stood in the hallway near her "climbing wall," trusting that I would support her weight as she scrambled side-to-side. She loved to use her body, and watching her do so provided great joy - perhaps especially since that body was so damaged. Never have I lived with an animal who actually asked for her daily prednisone pill, because she knew she'd be rewarded with her kitty treat (chicken-flavored laxatone)... which also served as anti-hairball medicine. Win-win.
One of her paws at each end was butterscotch-colored, and she'd attack it mercilessly. I suspect she enjoyed the humans' reaction to this behavior, as she'd kick and bite almost abstractedly, watching us laugh. Or maybe she was just confused as to why we were behaving this way. Here she is on one of her favorite pillows, ready to attack:
In her novel, Fudoki , Kij used Tatsuko as the basis for the protagonist, and this is perhaps even more true with the story, "The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles." (The art even looks a little like her.)
Here is what Kij wrote today about Tatsuko. The photo below is from about five years ago, when she was watching some mice playing in their cage:
"When I wrote Fudoki, it was Tatsuko I wrote about: 'Her fur was at first a blurred darkness. As she grew it changed to black flecked with gold and cinnamon and ivory, like the tortoiseshell of a hair ornament. Her eyes when they opened were gold, like a fox's. She was small but fierce: in no way but size a runt, for she lacked the gentle resignation of the weak.' She had a butterscotch chin and three of her feet (but not the fourth) had butterscotch toes. She never weighed more than seven pounds. She had a chronic respiratory infection and a damaged pelvis from when she had been hit by a truck as a baby. She had the loudest purr I have ever heard.
"She was a dragon-baby at first – small but fierce, indeed. She scrambled five and six feet up the bedroom walls, using her claws the way an ice climber uses her axe and crampons. When we left that first apartment, Chris had to fill hundreds and hundreds of tiny, claw-shaped holes. She also liked Monster Atomic Cat and Devil Paw, but as she aged she settled down and became a mannerly little dowager, bird-boned, pleasant and elegant.
"I travel a lot and lots of people took care of her in Seattle and then in Raleigh: Nisi, Don and Vicky, Lorelei, Peter, Shelly, Kessel, Lew, Caroline, Eric, and so many others I can't recall at the moment. She loved big hands and low voices. She also loved the water from canned tuna, roasted chicken, salsa, sleeping under the covers, sleeping on my head, sleeping on the couch, sleeping in the second bedroom, sleeping sleeping sleeping. Except for the salsa, she was a very traditional little cat."
I got to see Tatsuko a few times via Skype since she went to live with Kij - including yesterday - which was so nice. Her purr was still so loud as to rumble the speakers on my computer, even the day before she died. She was so sweet and her affection so important to me during the rough years when last she lived with me, as I'm sure was true for Kij, as well.
I don't really have the heart to write any more about my sweet kitty right now.
Goodbye, Tatsuko. I love you.
Chris
We got her in the late summer of 1995. At the time, Kij's ex Bob was working in an emergency vet clinic in Oregon, and she had been run over by a truck. This encounter left her with a skewed pelvis and various other health issues, plus a hatred of change. Just moving across the hall to a brighter apartment (she was about a year old) made her panic - I remember her running back into the old (now empty) apartment and howling even louder to discover that even her old home looked different now. When we first brought her home, she lived under the covers for weeks, maybe even months, venturing out only when no one could see her for food, water, and the litter box.
Here she is in Seattle in 2001 - even then not a young kitty, but with the softest bunny-fur I have ever touched:
Eventually she grew braver and ferocious. She loved to wrestle, and for those of you who've raised kittens, you know this is code for "tear the skin of her humans." I learned to wear gloves when playing with her, and she learned that gloves = "I get to really attack!" She had asthma, though, so eventually she'd get to wheezing and gasping, so I'd leave her alone for a while until she settled down. This was especially fun when she was a little older: Her favorite toy became a dressage whip, which she'd chase for hourse if I'd let her, except for that she'd collapse from lack of oxygen at some point. Heck, sometimes she'd purr so profoundly that she would end up gasping for breath between each purr.
Oh, that kitty! What a joy she was. EDIT: Don Glover (
corwynofamber
) posted several charming videos in his response, below. Here's one I thought I'd share, in which you can hear some of the aforementioned purring:Tatsuko was simple at heart. She didn't have complicated feelings; in fact, even those not particularly good with animals could pretty much read her thoughts, which consisted mostly of "Pet me," "Play with me," "Feed me," and "Ooh, that looks tasty," the last usually in reference to rodents. She was never demanding except of play when she was very young; as an older kitty, she was patient with other animals, letting them eat and drink first, and seemingly okay with waiting for attention. She loved the heat, going so far as to lie in the sun upstairs during the Kansas summer, as in this shot:
I have fond memories of laughing myself silly watching her climb the walls in our old apartment after we finally gave up trying to discourage her. She literally clawed her way up the drywall to above head-level. Drywall can be repaired (and I did repair it later), but that was priceless. Later I realized she just needed an alternative, so I screwed a big carpet sample to the wall for her to use. She loved that, leaping up and sideways whenever I stood in the hallway near her "climbing wall," trusting that I would support her weight as she scrambled side-to-side. She loved to use her body, and watching her do so provided great joy - perhaps especially since that body was so damaged. Never have I lived with an animal who actually asked for her daily prednisone pill, because she knew she'd be rewarded with her kitty treat (chicken-flavored laxatone)... which also served as anti-hairball medicine. Win-win.
One of her paws at each end was butterscotch-colored, and she'd attack it mercilessly. I suspect she enjoyed the humans' reaction to this behavior, as she'd kick and bite almost abstractedly, watching us laugh. Or maybe she was just confused as to why we were behaving this way. Here she is on one of her favorite pillows, ready to attack:
In her novel, Fudoki , Kij used Tatsuko as the basis for the protagonist, and this is perhaps even more true with the story, "The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles." (The art even looks a little like her.)
Here is what Kij wrote today about Tatsuko. The photo below is from about five years ago, when she was watching some mice playing in their cage:
"When I wrote Fudoki, it was Tatsuko I wrote about: 'Her fur was at first a blurred darkness. As she grew it changed to black flecked with gold and cinnamon and ivory, like the tortoiseshell of a hair ornament. Her eyes when they opened were gold, like a fox's. She was small but fierce: in no way but size a runt, for she lacked the gentle resignation of the weak.' She had a butterscotch chin and three of her feet (but not the fourth) had butterscotch toes. She never weighed more than seven pounds. She had a chronic respiratory infection and a damaged pelvis from when she had been hit by a truck as a baby. She had the loudest purr I have ever heard. "She was a dragon-baby at first – small but fierce, indeed. She scrambled five and six feet up the bedroom walls, using her claws the way an ice climber uses her axe and crampons. When we left that first apartment, Chris had to fill hundreds and hundreds of tiny, claw-shaped holes. She also liked Monster Atomic Cat and Devil Paw, but as she aged she settled down and became a mannerly little dowager, bird-boned, pleasant and elegant.
"I travel a lot and lots of people took care of her in Seattle and then in Raleigh: Nisi, Don and Vicky, Lorelei, Peter, Shelly, Kessel, Lew, Caroline, Eric, and so many others I can't recall at the moment. She loved big hands and low voices. She also loved the water from canned tuna, roasted chicken, salsa, sleeping under the covers, sleeping on my head, sleeping on the couch, sleeping in the second bedroom, sleeping sleeping sleeping. Except for the salsa, she was a very traditional little cat."
I got to see Tatsuko a few times via Skype since she went to live with Kij - including yesterday - which was so nice. Her purr was still so loud as to rumble the speakers on my computer, even the day before she died. She was so sweet and her affection so important to me during the rough years when last she lived with me, as I'm sure was true for Kij, as well.
I don't really have the heart to write any more about my sweet kitty right now.
Goodbye, Tatsuko. I love you.
Chris
Updates!
Just finished the massive task of updating all my class syllabi, websites, handouts, online readings, and so forth for the coming semester. This included at least 10 hours of converting legacy Word .doc format syllabi to more-useful and appopriate Web .htm format... which made my eyes bleed. 'Nuff said.
Getting over a little flu. I love being healthier overall, when "I have the flu" means "My nose is runny and I feel a little weaker" for a day or so.
Last weekend, I installed a couple of solar-powered motion-detector lights to illuminate the dark areas of the back yard. More on that in a moment.
Last night I rewarded myself for a 12-hour day by watching disc #2 of the Star Wars saga (I refuse to call it "Episode 2"). It was much cooler than I remembered, not nearly as irritating as disc #1, and very pretty. Gorgeous sound, of course, what with this being Lucas and all, who frakkin' invented modern movie sound.
During the show, the light mounted on the wall of my shed came on repeatedly. Apparently, I was ignorant of the variety and frequency of urban wildlife who visited me at night. The list, just during the movie:
fat opossum
large coyote (!!!)
little opossum
more visits from the coyote; every time I went for my camera, it would turn and trot away.
raccoon
red fox
another large opossum
tortoise-colored kitty
Here is the best of several awful photos of said coyote:
As soon as I moved to within ten feet of the sliding-glass door, it would trot back out into the alley. It stood about two feet at the shoulder - didn't know they got so large in town! Or that they even lived here. Wow.
About 30,000 words into my next novel, The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella .
And I just emailed all the students in my large classes with links to their syllabi and online resources. All set for the semester!
Best,
Chris
Getting over a little flu. I love being healthier overall, when "I have the flu" means "My nose is runny and I feel a little weaker" for a day or so.
Last weekend, I installed a couple of solar-powered motion-detector lights to illuminate the dark areas of the back yard. More on that in a moment.
Last night I rewarded myself for a 12-hour day by watching disc #2 of the Star Wars saga (I refuse to call it "Episode 2"). It was much cooler than I remembered, not nearly as irritating as disc #1, and very pretty. Gorgeous sound, of course, what with this being Lucas and all, who frakkin' invented modern movie sound.
During the show, the light mounted on the wall of my shed came on repeatedly. Apparently, I was ignorant of the variety and frequency of urban wildlife who visited me at night. The list, just during the movie:
fat opossum
large coyote (!!!)
little opossum
more visits from the coyote; every time I went for my camera, it would turn and trot away.
raccoon
red fox
another large opossum
tortoise-colored kitty
Here is the best of several awful photos of said coyote:
As soon as I moved to within ten feet of the sliding-glass door, it would trot back out into the alley. It stood about two feet at the shoulder - didn't know they got so large in town! Or that they even lived here. Wow.
About 30,000 words into my next novel, The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella .
And I just emailed all the students in my large classes with links to their syllabi and online resources. All set for the semester!
Best,
Chris
December 24, 2011
Holiday Astro-Porn of the Day: Xmas Wreath Nebula & Darth Vader Flash Mob Choir
Ah, the internets, how I love thee. Here are two only-on-the-internet ways of saying Merry Xmas! First up, a nebula in the colors and shape of a wreath:
[image error]
Click the image to see the NASA story on Discovery.
And next up, Darth Vader conducts a Christmas Choir Flash Mob in "Carol of the Bells." No, seriously. Watch it!
Click the image to see Darth Vader conduct a Christmas Choir Flash Mob in "Carol of the Bells."
PS: For some crazy reason, I woke up before full sunrise this morning, and lo and behold Saturn stands bright directly overhead about then! So I recommend to thee that thou get thyself up while it's still dark, just before sunrise, and point your binocs or telescope at the brightest "star" overhead to see Saturn in its full glory!
Merry Xmas!
Chris
[image error]
Click the image to see the NASA story on Discovery.
And next up, Darth Vader conducts a Christmas Choir Flash Mob in "Carol of the Bells." No, seriously. Watch it!
Click the image to see Darth Vader conduct a Christmas Choir Flash Mob in "Carol of the Bells."
PS: For some crazy reason, I woke up before full sunrise this morning, and lo and behold Saturn stands bright directly overhead about then! So I recommend to thee that thou get thyself up while it's still dark, just before sunrise, and point your binocs or telescope at the brightest "star" overhead to see Saturn in its full glory!
Merry Xmas!
Chris
December 23, 2011
Guess who's done with Fall semester? WOOHOO!
* Final projects and final tests for all 10 courses graded? CHECK!
* Final grades for all aforementioned courses turned in? CHECK!
* All students with outstanding projects contacted (and given incompletes - you know who you are)? CHECK!
You know what this means? WRITING TIME BEGINS NOW! Well, after a glass of wine and maybe the first LotR movie, methinks mayhaps. Tomorrow, then.
Happy holidays!
Chris
* Final grades for all aforementioned courses turned in? CHECK!
* All students with outstanding projects contacted (and given incompletes - you know who you are)? CHECK!
You know what this means? WRITING TIME BEGINS NOW! Well, after a glass of wine and maybe the first LotR movie, methinks mayhaps. Tomorrow, then.
Happy holidays!
Chris
December 21, 2011
Most amazing vehicle designer ever.
I am not ashamed to say that I am now in love with the automotive and motorcycle designer Michail Smolyanov. I am SO INSPIRED by so many of his works! For example:
YOU MUST CLICK the image to go look at this and dozens more designs. GO NOW. The internets will still be here when you get back. GO!
Must. Resist. Building custom bike. Until after getting well underway on The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella (which, by the way, is about 12,000 words of random snippets and scenes along...).
Never have I seen so many awesome vehicle designs that inspire in so many ways - and all by one guy!
Just wow.
Chris
YOU MUST CLICK the image to go look at this and dozens more designs. GO NOW. The internets will still be here when you get back. GO!
Must. Resist. Building custom bike. Until after getting well underway on The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella (which, by the way, is about 12,000 words of random snippets and scenes along...).
Never have I seen so many awesome vehicle designs that inspire in so many ways - and all by one guy!
Just wow.
Chris
December 14, 2011
Awesome physics stuff - and novel progress!
Hooray for my friend Phil Baringer and the KU quantum-physics team at CERN, who have made the leap of actually observing what they believe is the signature of the Higgs boson, the most fundamental particle in the universe.
This is especially cool for me, because Phil and I teach a spring course "Science, Technology, and Society: Examining the Future Through a Science-Fiction Lens," and this very morning I finally worked out the basic physics of how the cool physics-based tech in my next novel ( The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella ) will work!
Because Jack and Stella come from Lawrence, one of them will speak with Phil for advice while developing the tricksy physics of her stardrive/world-killer device. Can't Wait! By the way, progress on the book has reached the point where I'm ready to begin writing the first few chapters over winter break: Writing notes is now more difficult than writing the actual prose, so I've reached the stage I call "critical mass" in a writing project. Boom! Here it goes! Stay tuned for updates.
Congratulations, people, and Rock Chalk Jayhawk, go KU!
Chris
This is especially cool for me, because Phil and I teach a spring course "Science, Technology, and Society: Examining the Future Through a Science-Fiction Lens," and this very morning I finally worked out the basic physics of how the cool physics-based tech in my next novel ( The True-Life Space Adventures of Jack and Stella ) will work!
Because Jack and Stella come from Lawrence, one of them will speak with Phil for advice while developing the tricksy physics of her stardrive/world-killer device. Can't Wait! By the way, progress on the book has reached the point where I'm ready to begin writing the first few chapters over winter break: Writing notes is now more difficult than writing the actual prose, so I've reached the stage I call "critical mass" in a writing project. Boom! Here it goes! Stay tuned for updates.
Congratulations, people, and Rock Chalk Jayhawk, go KU!
Chris
December 12, 2011
James Gunn's Ad Astra journal call for submissions
Just unveiled: The Center for the Study of Science Fiction's newest project, "James Gunn's Ad Astra," a multidimensional journal and magazine of speculative fiction. Now open for submissions. Check it out!
Click the image to see James Gunn's Ad Astra website.
Chris
Click the image to see James Gunn's Ad Astra website.
Chris
Christopher McKitterick's Blog
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