Steven Lyle Jordan's Blog, page 9

Firefly: Why wasn’t it a hit?

[image error]Firefly was a highly-innovative and beautifully-produced sci-fi series, with an innovative world setting, realistic technology designs, clever writing, quality scripts, equally quality acting and a clear dedication of its crew.  But because the Fox network wasn’t enthused about the show (“Space ships and cows?  And where are the Klingons?  We don’t get it.  Next!“), they constantly messed with its network scheduling, often pre-empting it for sports programs, and as a result, viewers hardly had a chance to see it before it was yanked altogether from the network lineup.  Case in point: I, myself, only saw two episodes before it was pulled.

Nonetheless, the show found a greater following when DVD sets were released with all thirteen produced episodes.  There was enough support to merit a feature-length motion picture which, unfortunately, didn’t do as well in theaters as many thought it would (“Space ships and berserker zombies?  We still don’t get it.  Next!“).

Why has Firefly never made it big in the American mainstream market?  It’s certainly not the production itself… nor are there any issues or controversies about the actors.  The issue surrounds the show’s setting: It’s just not considered… science-fiction-y enough for audiences.  And that’s a shame, because Firefly is set in a natural period of human expansion into space that we should be spending more time in, for a lot of reasons.

[image error]Before Firefly, there were many other sci-fi series, but most notably the TV and movie empire that is Star Trek.  Over many decades and multiple TV series, Trek has shown us the Federation’s exploration of the cosmos, full of the discovery of new planets, new races, unknown phenomena, hostile forces, dangerous artifacts and newfound knowledge of our place in the universe.  In many ways, it was a dramatic reflection of the early exploration of the American continent by Europeans, forging out into the wilderness (which turned out to be a wilderness only to them) and discovering human natives, strange animals, varied landscapes and valuable resources.  This format was picked up by many other TV series and movies since, as the idea of exploration and discovery has a romantic and exciting resonance with viewers.

As opposed to the format of Star Trek et al, Firefly‘s setting reflected a later era in American history.  In Firefly‘s universe, humans had finished exploring their world (a large solar system full of planets), and had a drawn-out civil war that set planet against planet and left many citizens upset about the outcome.  Of said planets, some became major living, cultural and financial hubs, while the rest became sources of commercial and industrial resources for the other planets.

[image error]In other words, Firefly reflects the period after the American Civil War, when people began to expand and settle into the American landscape, building major transportation hub cities like Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Kansas City, and dotting the spaces in-between with small towns and settlements that primarily provided goods to the wealthier people in the hub cities.  This was the period known as the Old West, the also-romanticized period of fancy cities and dusty remote settlements, isolated farmers, gun-wielding cowboys, “savage” Indians, rustlers, prospectors, mining and company towns, and varied levels of lawfulness.  The American Western movies built upon this romanticized image and, with public support, helped build a Hollywood-based industry.

Today, a lot of the sheen has come off that Old West image: Between recently-uncovered evidence of the actual racial landscape of the west (where many more African Americans and Mexicans worked as cowboys, bossed by rich European men), the continuation of pockets of racial hatred and violence in the aftermath of the war, the complete fabrication of many of the trope’s most popular elements (the street duel, the “cowboy code,” etc), and even the revelation that many of Hollywood’s cowboy actors weren’t as upstanding as their public personas suggested (did you hear that John Wayne was a white supremacist?), the Old West is a lot less admired and adored today than it was 50-plus years ago.  But it still has its fervent adherents of the old tropes and traditions.

[image error]And so we come back to Firefly, a show set in a futuristic version of an Old West that has lost its fascination with some, though not all, viewers.  This show presents an amalgamation of a sci-fi future and the Old West mostly as it was supposed to be—the romanticized, Hollywood version—with only a few tropes removed.

Firefly does present us with a female first mate and female engineer—a bit rare in the past, probably more to do with gender inequality affording few women with professions that were so male-dominated—and an inter-racial marriage, something rarely discussed but was surely prevalent in an Old West that was much more racially varied than Hollywood ever hinted at.  Both represent the kind of thing that is a lot more open today, and would be expected to be just as common in the future.  But it also features the Old West trope of women as companions—prostitutes—as a slightly more empowered, but nonetheless quietly-tolerated part of the landscape.

So: Given a TV series that not only presents a well-thought-out and realistic science fiction future, but includes many of the old, romanticized tropes of the Old West, why wasn’t this genre-bending show more popular?  The other half of the answer lies with the tastes of American viewers, and what they have been taught to expect from both sci-fi and western media.

Simply put, the typical tropes of both sci-fi and westerns have always been so far apart that it can be difficult for the fans of either genre to imagine a mix of both, in the same way that it’s hard to imagine a mixture of classical music and hip-hop.  Remember how the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials went?  “Hey… you got peanut butter in my chocolate!”  “Hey… you got chocolate in my peanut butter!”

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But unlike so many candy aficionados, many science fiction fans never developed a taste for the mix of sci-fi and westerns, significantly reducing the potential audience for the show; and outsiders, particularly western fans, wouldn’t even consider trying it.  With its audience thus reduced (and added with Fox’s efforts to effectively conceal the show from its overall audience), Firefly struggled to be found, and was not accepted by a significant part of its own fan base.

But we haven’t heard the last of Firefly, nor its genre-bending setting.  Sci-fi has given us so few programs (or movies) about humanity in a post-exploration galaxy, a period when we have set down our roots and live our daily lives much like we do today (or maybe very differently than how we live today).  Instead of continuing to romance about shooting up our future frontiers, we could start thinking about the period after that, when humanity is settled down and putting its efforts into maintaining the lives and prosperity of its citizens.

My own series, The Kestral Voyages, is set in such a post-exploration future; if you’re interested in how interesting and entertaining such stories can be, take a look at the Kestral pages and try them out sometime.

Under the Skin: An allegorical journey

I don’t know why it took me so long, but I finally had the chance to see Under the Skin, the science fiction motion picture by Jonathan Glazer.  I say I don’t know why, because it’s not as if I was avoiding the movie… and a lot of people made sure they saw it, principally, because it starred the lovely Scarlett Johansson playing an alien who preyed on males using sex as bait… sounds hard to go wrong with a premise like that.

[image error]Under the Skin also left a lot of viewers, and reviewers, confused and perplexed.  I didn’t exactly know why, until I saw the movie for myself.  As it turns out, there’s really not much of a science fiction movie in there; the movie was actually an allegory, a storytelling tool which tends to perplex modern US audiences that expect every plot element to be blindingly obvious, and every question answered at a fifth-grade level, or their little heads explode in anguish.  Much like TV series like The Prisoner, Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, the audience must look past the set pieces to figure out what’s really being presented.

To me, the story was quite clear: I see Johansson’s character (listed in credits as The Female) as acting out the quintessential journey of young women discovering their sexuality and growing into adulthood.

***Spoilers follow; some non-sensationalist nudity is shown, ye perverts***

[image error]The movie opens with a man on a motorcycle.  The motorcyclist pulls off the road, walks into the nearby woods, and carries out a woman, who looks exactly like Scarlett Johansson, apparently paralyzed.  The Female appears, in a stark white space.  She and the motorcyclist strip the body and the Female takes her clothing.  I immediately imagined every young woman (or man) deciding to refashion themselves into the identity of someone they idolize, and the captured and paralyzed body representing their Idol, their essential nature captured in photospreads, interviews and appearances, which is how most people “get to know” their idols.

The paralyzed Idol sheds a tear as she is being stripped; maybe the tear represented the sadness, or maybe pity, the Idol feels upon realizing her life has ultimately been left unfulfilled; maybe she was crying for herself, as she had been reduced by pop culture to being a commercial object fit only to copy and steal from.

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So adorned as the image of her Idol, the Female drives away in a van provided by the motorcyclist, and the motorcyclist stashes the naked Idol’s body and rides away.  I would later name the motorcyclist, whose face we never see, as the Enabler, for he tends to show up to help the Female or clean up after her.  To me, he represented the protective parent, watchful and concerned for her safety.

[image error]The Female drives into town and starts watching men from her van—her safe space—until she decides to entice a stranger into her van and back to her home, presumably for sex.  In her dark home we see the Female stripping and drawing the man to her, but before he actually reaches her, he sinks into a featureless black floor and disappears.  She immediately leaves to find a new conquest.

Her next man suffers the same fate as the first, but as he sinks into the blackness, he sees the first man, floating nearby, until his body suddenly collapses upon itself, his life essence flowing to who-knows where.  I see this as the Female using the promise of sex as a commodity to win blind loyalty and subservience from the men, and in the process sucking them dry.  The Enabler disposes of the empty skin of the body.

So the Female continues on in her mission to catch and consume men, with the Enabler cleaning up after as needed.  But as she spends more time among other people, she realizes that there is more to them than simple chattel.  People express kindness for others (and for her), risk their lives to save others, and except hardship in service of others.

[image error]The Female’s life finally changes when she encounters a disfigured man for whom she develops sympathy.  She decides, at the last moment, not to have sex/kill him, abandons him and runs off to rethink her life and mission.  In the meantime, the Enabler captures and drives off with the disfigured man anyway, witnessed by neighbors.  This suggests parents or friends unsuccessfully acting to cover up the Female’s actions.  The Enabler meets up with fellow Enablers, and they ride off in search of the Female.  But the Female has given them the slip, and the Enablers will never find her again.

After she finds herself out in the country, the Female encounters a male who shows her hospitality, and after a few days, she develops honest feelings for him.  But an attempt at actual lovemaking goes wrong—she examines her own vagina, as if she doesn’t seem to have the right equipment to finish the act, an analogy for an unexpected discovery that actual love-based sex wasn’t what she expected.

[image error]Confused, she runs again, but now she shows a newfound distrust for the men she meets; she recognizes now that she isn’t in control of her situation.  One man she encounters seems to help her with directions, but when she takes his advice and finds a place to rest, he returns while she sleeps and tries to rape her.  There is a struggle, and she escapes, but not before the rapist discovers she is not normal.  The Female’s real nature is frightening to the man, and he decides to destroy her.  Before the Enablers can find her, the rapist catches her and sets her afire, burning off her human appearance and revealing her true nature as she dies.  The Female, originally the predator, becomes the prey of men, and is finally laid bare.

Does the Female’s death in the movie represent her forced absorption into male-dominated society, or her actual consumption by society?  Would either outcome be considered much the same thing for women?  I’ll let you decide.

***End spoilers***

This story seems to represent director Jonathan Glazer’s empathy, or perhaps sympathy, for the Female’s plight in the world: Trying at a young age to define a sexually-alluring persona and use it to bend the world to their will; coming to the realization that invented personas, and even sex, will not make them happy; and finally becoming another victim of Man’s world as their essential natures are revealed, usually by the desires and actions of Men.  The Enablers aren’t much more sympathetic, trying to shield the Female from her careless life and costly mistakes, but eventually failing to protect her.  And the males she encounters are almost all pitiable specimens of manhood, being led by their genitals, many of them being threatening to the Female, and few of them exhibiting any other redeeming qualities.

[image error]Even Scarlett Johansson’s nudity, attractive as she is, does not titillate as it would if she had been wearing sexy clothing and makeup, posing alluringly, switching her hips and uttering sweet nothings to her conquests.  She intentionally assumes neutral stances and expressions that suggest cold calculation rather than warmth; the movie suggests that all she really needs to attract a man is to possess a vagina… and that possession is the sole instrument of her ultimate downfall.

Maybe Under the Skin would have been more popular if it had been filmed in a more salacious and over-the-top style, as is standard today for most sci-fi flicks; but Glazer’s low-key direction, lack of distinct soundtrack and grainy palette gave the movie an almost documentary style that most movie audiences simply can’t appreciate these days.

I realize most of my regular visitors, upon reading this post, will understand what I’ve just described (and may have opinions or challenges about my conclusions, or points I missed); whereas many other people wouldn’t get much further than the second paragraph.  C’est la vie.  My opinion is that stories like this are too few and far between, unfortunately because of their unpopularity with general audiences and unsophisticated critics who get confused about anything beyond the concept of aliens and other planets standing in for other nationalities.  Ultimately we’re better off with more movies like this, so we as an audience have more to consider and discuss than the value of a joke or the size of an explosion.

 

Fanfic or conversion?

I have a list of story ideas.  Whenever I think of a new idea, I’ll take down anything between a few sentences’ worth of a basic story concept, and a paragraph or two of story and character details.  I keep them close, so I can study or embellish on them when thoughts occur.  It’s become an extensive list… mainly because I haven’t wanted to write anything new for a while.  But in case that attitude should change, I still maintain and add to my ideas list.

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Which brings me to this week, when I thought of a new idea and took down some notes.  And immediately realized that if I ever planned to write it, I’d have to make a decision.

The story idea I’d concocted was intended to be written within the settings of a famous and popular television franchise (which, for the record, isn’t the one hinted at in the featured image.  Nyah!).  Since I don’t have the rights to the franchise, I can’t actually sell stories set within its trademarked universe.

And as it happens, I’d been in this situation before: Years back, when I first conceived of The Kestral Voyages, my original story, settings and characters were designed for the Star Trek universe; my intent at the time had been to send the idea to Paramount, when the studio was supposedly soliciting story concepts for future Trek series.  But after I realized it was just a studio-engineered PR stunt, I knew it would be a waste to offer it to Paramount, because they would not use it (neither would they pay me for my trouble), but I wouldn’t be able to use the property myself, either.

There were only three options open to me.  One was to just toss the story. Another was to write the story in its Trek setting and offer it for free as Fanfic.  Free fanfic sometimes boost’s a writer’s renown and popularity, but also sometimes generates lawsuits from the property holder, so that option was tricky.

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I opted for the safer third option: I rewrote the story, changing the settings and characters to remove the primary elements of the trademarked property and converting it into a fully original story.  I created my own universe, using bits and pieces from my own notes and ideas.  I wrote the first Kestral story, and the original setting and characters turned out to be popular enough with readers to merit the writing of three more stories.  I never made a lot on the series, but I did make something.

So, if I decide to pursue this new idea, I can write it as fanfic, but I’ll only be able to give it away and hope for a public embracing of the material, which may or may not result in increased interest in my other books.  I’ve given away free books in the past, but never fanfic attached to a popular franchise, so I honestly don’t know how well that would work.  Maybe if one of the characters was popular in the franchise’s universe, then I gave that character some serious romance and sexual opportunities.  Sex with popular characters; that’s fanfic catnip for fans.  (Though the franchise itself can get a bit peeved if they get wind of it.)

Or I can adopt the story to my Kestral universe—which wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, as I’ve done that before—and therefore be able to sell it outright.  And expect that it will have minimal sales, like the rest of my work.

[image error]But wait; there’s another option.  If I go ahead and write it as fanfic, and it somehow becomes enormously popular… I could then convert the story to the Kestral universe and sell that outright, allowing me to profit off the actual story in an altered setting.  (Hey, it worked for 50 Shades of Grey.)  I mean, I wouldn’t expect to get a 3-movie deal out of it, but maybe I’d make enough money to afford taking my wife out for a decent dinner.  With drinks.

I don’t have any immediate plans to pursue this story idea, for reasons stated elsewhere.  But if I did—and I’m just stupid enough to maybe think, at some point, that it’s worth pursuing—it would be a good idea to work all this out before I put fingertip to keyboard.  We’ll see.

Frau Im Mond: Clever SF from 1929

[image error]I recently had the chance to finally see an SF classic, Frau Im Mond (The Girl in the Moon), via Amazon Prime Movies.  Director Fritz Lang and writer Thea Von Harbou’s next SF movie after Metropolis, Frau im Mond is about an expedition to the Moon to find out if a scientist’s theory of gold on the Moon is true.  It’s a melodrama with SF elements, and recent remastering has resulted in a nice-looking silent film.

Frau Im Mond is realistic in design, unlike the expressionist style used to such mastery in Metropolis, and more grounded in a present-day world (the city settings don’t seem to have any elements that stand out as futuristic-looking… but then, I wasn’t alive in 1929, so I can’t be sure here).  That realistic look would effectively disappear in SF, not to re-emerge significantly until the 1960s or so.  It also has a measurable amount of humor, something totally lacking in Metropolis, so it’s a lot less stuffy.  It lacks the overall drama, showiness and gravity of Metropolis, but it makes up for it in its more realistic story.

[image error]Maybe the best thing about it is its assumption, in 1929, that there was no reason a woman couldn’t be included on a voyage to the Moon… and that Friede, the titular frau, volunteers for the trip. I loved the moment when one of the men committed to taking the trip to the Moon tell her to reconsider such a dangerous trip, and she urges him not to “shame all womanhood” by questioning her resolve.  In 1929, some eighty years after the beginnings of the suffragette movement, and eight years before the ill-fated flight of Amelia Earhart, such a thing was still considered daring and brazen for a woman.  Most importantly, Friede does not play the damsel-in-distress or flighty, panicky eye-candy so common to adventure and SF material, at least until the last two decades; she is as involved in the voyage as the rest of the crew, a refreshing reminder that women weren’t always treated as complete inferiors to men in early movies.

[image error]Frau Im Mond is renowned for its early depiction of a rocket launch, with a multi-stage rocket, a giant railway moving it from assembly building to its launch site, a course that takes speed and trajectory into account, the first depiction of a rocket countdown, strapping the crew into acceleration beds, and the lack of gravity experienced during the voyage.  This was due to the involvement of actual German rocket scientists in the production, including Hermann Oberth, and seems to be a direct source of inspiration for modern rocket launches.  (Think of how the original Star Trek series inspired youthful engineers and scientists to recreate its technology in cellphones, tablet computers and other modern marvels… then consider Frau Im Mond did the same years before.)  Less renowned but equally prescient are elements like an advance robot “probe” that orbits the Moon, takes photos and sends them by radio back to Earth for the astronauts to pick out a landing spot.

[image error]The movie isn’t without its scientific flaws, mostly about the Moon itself: The astronauts discover there is a breathable atmosphere on the far side; and the crew does find huge chunks of gold, ready for the picking, in nearby caves.  But considering the state of knowledge of the Moon at the time, most of this is forgivable.  As I said, this is primarily a melodrama, and honestly, it ultimately could have taken place in a desert, jungle or deserted island for all the difference it makes to the story itself.  And speaking of which, the story includes a chase scene… a fight scene… a boy stowaway… a spy who coerces the astronauts to take him on the trip (perhaps the original inspiration for Lost in Space‘s Dr. Smith?)… a scientist who brings his pet mouse along on the voyage… and the accidental murder of a plant (would that be considered herbicide?).  And, of course, the love story that comes to a satisfying conclusion by the end.

So Frau Im Mond is realistic, sophisticated, funny, woman-empowering and prescient of real science and rocketry procedures… something most science fiction can’t say.  In many ways, it’s a movie every SF fan should see, if only to remind us that smart, quality SF was indeed being made so early in the history of cinema.

Frau Im Mond is available in DVD and on Amazon Prime movies, and probably other sources.

Frau Im Mond

[image error]I recently had the chance to finally see an SF classic, Frau Im Mond (The Girl in the Moon), via Amazon Prime Movies.  Director Fritz Lang and writer Thea Von Harbou’s next SF movie after Metropolis, Frau im Mond is about an expedition to the Moon to find out if a scientist’s theory of gold on the Moon is true.  It’s a melodrama with SF elements, and recent remastering has resulted in a nice-looking silent film.

Frau Im Mond is realistic in design, unlike the expressionist style used to such mastery in Metropolis, and more grounded in a present-day world (the city settings don’t seem to have any elements that stand out as futuristic-looking… but then, I wasn’t alive in 1929, so I can’t be sure here).  That realistic look would effectively disappear in SF, not to re-emerge significantly until the 1960s or so.  It also has a measurable amount of humor, something totally lacking in Metropolis, so it’s a lot less stuffy.  It lacks the overall drama, showiness and gravity of Metropolis, but it makes up for it in its more realistic story.

[image error]Maybe the best thing about it is its assumption, in 1929, that there was no reason a woman couldn’t be included on a voyage to the Moon… and that Friede, the titular frau, volunteers for the trip. I loved the moment when one of the men committed to taking the trip to the Moon tell her to reconsider such a dangerous trip, and she urges him not to “shame all womanhood” by questioning her resolve.  In 1929, some eighty years after the beginnings of the suffragette movement, and eight years before the ill-fated flight of Amelia Earhart, such a thing was still considered daring and brazen for a woman.  Most importantly, Friede does not play the damsel-in-distress or flighty, panicky eye-candy so common to adventure and SF material, at least until the last two decades; she is as involved in the voyage as the rest of the crew, a refreshing reminder that women weren’t always treated as complete inferiors to men in early movies.

[image error]Frau Im Mond is renowned for its early depiction of a rocket launch, with a multi-stage rocket, a giant railway moving it from assembly building to its launch site, a course that takes speed and trajectory into account, the first depiction of a rocket countdown, strapping the crew into acceleration beds, and the lack of gravity experienced during the voyage.  This was due to the involvement of actual German rocket scientists in the production, including Hermann Oberth, and seems to be a direct source of inspiration for modern rocket launches.  (Think of how the original Star Trek series inspired youthful engineers and scientists to recreate its technology in cellphones, tablet computers and other modern marvels… then consider Frau Im Mond did the same years before.)  Less renowned but equally prescient are elements like an advance robot “probe” that orbits the Moon, takes photos and sends them by radio back to Earth for the astronauts to pick out a landing spot.

[image error]The movie isn’t without its scientific flaws, mostly about the Moon itself: The astronauts discover there is a breathable atmosphere on the far side; and the crew does find huge chunks of gold, ready for the picking, in nearby caves.  But considering the state of knowledge of the Moon at the time, most of this is forgivable.  As I said, this is primarily a melodrama, and honestly, it ultimately could have taken place in a desert, jungle or deserted island for all the difference it makes to the story itself.  And speaking of which, the story includes a chase scene… a fight scene… a boy stowaway… a spy who coerces the astronauts to take him on the trip (perhaps the original inspiration for Lost in Space‘s Dr. Smith?)… a scientist who brings his pet mouse along on the voyage… and the accidental murder of a plant (would that be considered herbicide?).  And, of course, the love story that comes to a satisfying conclusion by the end.

So Frau Im Mond is realistic, sophisticated, funny, woman-empowering and prescient of real science and rocketry procedures… something most science fiction can’t say.  In many ways, it’s a movie every SF fan should see, if only to remind us that smart, quality SF was indeed being made so early in the history of cinema.

Frau Im Mond is available in DVD and on Amazon Prime movies, and probably other sources.

Quatermass? They’re rebooting that!

In a world of sci-fi entertainment filled to the brim with reboots, it’s not surprising to hear this news from The Nerdist:

He’s a fussy and fastidious, supremely intelligent, thoughtful and determined, brave man of science and action. He’s an icon of British science fiction and an explorer of alien life the world over. In fact, he’s the very first sci-fi hero in the United Kingdom. No, it’s not the Doctor, though you’d be forgiven for thinking it was. We’re talking about Bernard Quatermass, the star of three hugely influential series on the BBC in the mid-’50s, beginning with The Quatermass Experiment in 1953. Now, Legendary and Hammer Films are teaming up to bring Quatermass to the big screen for a whole new generation.

[image error]Yes, Hammer Films is working with Legendary to bring back Bernard Quatermass… and I, for one, love this particular reboot idea!  Not particularly because it’s a reboot, mind you… but because it’s Quatermass.

As the copy above indicates, Quatermass is a science hero, not a caped superhero or hyperactive adventurer or robot or some kid who takes on the system and improbably wins.  He’s a scientist, the head of a rocket group and an investigator of alien activity.  Over the years, writer Nigel Kneale’s character has appeared in numerous series and played by a number of actors in film and television series.

I was introduced to Quatermass, the way most Americans were, through the movie Quatermass and the Pit, aka Five Million Years to Earth in the states.  In it, Quatermass is summoned when human skulls and strange, insect-like corpses are dug up in an excavation for the London Underground.  Quatermass soon determines that the insects are alien in origin, and finds he must help when exposure of the corpses spawns some strange psychic energy that threatens to tear London apart.

[image error]Most Americans’ exposure to Quatermass starts and stops there, but the impact of the movie continues to this day.  In addition to Quatermass and the Pit, there have been two other movies and five TV series, as well as books and newspaper serializations.  He predates the Doctor (Who) as the preeminent sci-fi character in Britain, and was himself introduced only 3 years after Dan Dare, the British science fiction comic hero.  His 50-year run in Britain has resulted in higher renown and popularity there.

I’ve said before that I have a particular love of science heroes over most adventure and comic book characters (also well-represented by Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr and Dr. Alan Grant), as it’s always my hope that such characters will inspire young people to further explorations into real science.  Admittedly, Quatermass’ adventures are best known for his explorations about aliens, but there’s no reason his adventures can’t delve into more realistic subjects.  Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing the new movie(s) if this project works out.

Opportunities for energy-efficient homes

[image error]This week’s news is reporting on Pacific Gas & Electric, the southern California utility company that has applied for bankruptcy amidst blame for the devastating wildfires that have ravaged the region and the resultant damage to their power infrastructure.  The bankruptcy process is designed to protect them from lawsuits and legal penalties, as well as the expected cost of rebuilding their power transmission systems.  But the rebuilding process is expected to mean higher prices for customers throughout their coverage area.

This situation provides a unique opportunity… not for the utility company, and not just for the area residents, but for the many organizations and universities that have participated in the Solar Home Decathalons in the U.S. and overseas.

[image error]The Solar Home Decathalons have been held in the US since 2002.  More than 150 collegiate teams, many aided and supported by leaders in the solar and sustainable technology industries, have participated in the Decathalons, either in the U.S. or in Decathalons held in Europe, China, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, involving an additional 160 teams and nearly 19,000 participants.

I’ve attended many of the Decathalons held in Washington, DC over the years.  And as a fan of solar power and sustainable design, I have regularly been impressed by some of the innovative and efficient designs I’ve had the chance to walk through and ask questions from the design teams.  I discovered that, although most of the homes were test-beds intended simply to compete in the Decathalon’s ten competition areas, some of the homes were built move-in ready, and many of the design teams hoped to be able to ultimately create home designs that would be made available to the public.  (My wife and I have already agreed that one of the home designs by University of Maryland, shown below, would be ideal for our retirement home.)

And here’s where the opportunity arises: Many of the homes in regions of southern California affected by the wildfires have been completely destroyed, so many homeowners who decide to stay in the area will have to have their homes rebuilt from the ground-up.  If they stay, they can also expect to pay higher utility prices from PG&E.  If ever there was a time and place to apply energy-efficient and sustainable home-building, this is it.

[image error]Here’s how it could work: A Decathalon participant university or industry supporter could approach homeowners and offer the plans of their Decathalon home (modified as needed to be move-in ready) for no cost, with an appropriate discount on materials, to build on their property.  The same deal could be made, even if the family decides to move elsewhere.  Most of the Decathalon homes have a smaller footprint than average homes, as well as being energy-efficient and sustainably-built, and with materials discounts and support from insurance companies and state and federal incentive programs, the homes should be lower in cost compared to recreating the original home.

[image error]The major advantage is that the home would produce its own power and therefore save on energy costs, either partially or totally, allowing homeowners to minimize their utilities costs paid to PG&E… and maybe allow homeowners to disconnect from PG&E, or even generate surplus energy that can be sold back to PG&E and pay the homeowner.  Its energy independence and efficiency would also allow the home to be lived in and fully functional, well before PG&E can restore its infrastructure in that area.

The other advantages are the rollout of numerous sustainably-built and energy-efficient homes, allowing more of the public to see them in a real-world environment and share information about them.  Those lived-in homes would supply copious amounts of real data about their performance, making it easier for future homeowners to research and choose between different designs and aspects, and for prospective designers and home-builders to learn and build similar and better homes in the future.

Admittedly, there won’t be too many advantages for PG&E in this scenario.  But there is one: The more energy-efficient and energy-independent homes in their customer area, the less of an immediate demand is put on their energy infrastructure, potentially making it easier for them to rebuild and recover.  The existence of so many independently-powered homes, potentially supplying power back to the utility company, could also spur a new power paradigm in the US, decentralizing power production and making the regional power system more robust and less threatened by power demands and regional disasters.

There’s nothing good about the regional damage caused by the California wildfires disaster.  But the need to rebuild presents a valuable and unique opportunity to help homeowners get sustainable, energy-efficient housing, saving them money, and adding to the nation’s sustainable infrastructure.

Announcing: The Shorts

I’d like to officially announce the availability of The Shorts—various of the short stories I’ve written over the years.

I don’t write a lot of short stories; but over the years, I’ve accumulated a few, written for myself, or for other web sites and writing projects.  After a number of years in limbo, I’ve decided to present them, free to read,  on my site.  These stories are mostly science fiction, but some are designed to showcase what would be considered my idea of humor.  Each story has its own page for your reading enjoyment.  If you like them, feel free to point others to them and get some buzz going.

More shorts may follow in the future, but for now, you have:

Denial of Service—five stories

The saga of IT guy Mike Schitzeiss and his adventures in the magical world of San Diego.

Monster

A scientist plays with sexual identity, and gets taken down a peg.

The First Expedition

The second expedition to Mars arrives at the final resting place of the first expedition.

The Never-Ending Battle

Brothers, at opposite ends of morality, have their final battle.

To the Other Side

Scientists hope to rewrite the end of the universe, but haven’t taken everything into account.

Drop me a line about any of these stories, to let me know what you think.  Enjoy!

Wow… a Rocketeer figure at Mondo!

[image error]I haven’t visited Mondo lately, which is why I hadn’t known that they have a Rocketeer figure in their collection now.

And what a figure!  Actually, I should say “what figures,” because this one includes Cliff Secord/the Rocketeer and his best gal, Betty… who looks as sexy-cute as Cliff looks dashing and heroic (from every angle… va-va-va-voom, y’all).  The figure features them flying, Betty in Cliff’s arms, with a plume of rocket fire and exhaust supporting them.

[image error]The figures are based on the comic book art by Dave Stevens, the creator of the Rocketeer.  Cliff looks like the character many are familiar with from the Disney movie The Rocketeer, but Betty looks like Bettie Page, the popular 1950s model and pinup girl who Stevens based her character on, and dressed in one of the—did I say va-va-voom, y’all?—outfits she wore in the comic.  If you’ve seen the movie, but never the original comic books by Stevens, this may be your first indication that you’ve missed something significant.  And not that there’s anything wrong with Jennifer Connolly’s appearance in the movie, because there sure ain’t, but… Bettie Page, guys.  There are two figures available, a basic figure and one with an interchangeable head for Betty, looking surprised instead of excited.

[image error]Although there’s a real good chance that if you get this figure, you won’t be spending that much time looking at Betty’s head.  Yeah, the guys at Mondo clearly had fun putting this model together… and we do appreciate their attention to detail.  (Pretty sure I said va–va-va-voom, y’all.)  There are even more photos of the figure on the site, for you to feast your eyes on until you get yours (and I get mine, I hope!).

[image error]Okay, fine: One more.  Va-va—well, you know.

Clarke would have been elated

Last weekend, I’m pretty sure I felt something under my seat: Arthur C. Clarke, fist-pumping from his grave, over the recent conjectures about Pluto.

[image error]The New Horizons probe provided scientists with the best ever photos and readings of the dwarf planet, and with those readings came a lot of confusion.  The photos suggested that Pluto’s surface was not just a frozen shell of some chemicals or other, but an active surface, in motion that suggested subsurface activity.  How could that be?

Scientists put their heads together, and a theory was formed based on an odd property of water ice: When ice freezes, it can actually give off small amounts of latent heat.  In a large enough area, that can mean measurable heat.  This property applies to other chemicals besides water, and scientists surmised that all the frozen materials on Pluto may also be giving off latent heat below the surface as they freeze.  This heat is enough to liquify some of the chemicals on Pluto’s surface, causing convection-based movement of the type observed by New Horizons.

[image error]And where there is heat and liquified elements, there is often the potential to support life.  This is not to say there is life on Pluto… merely that it is entirely possible that Pluto could support life.  Scientists previously assumed a planet so far from the Sun could not support liquid elements, and therefore could not support life.  In other words, it was well outside of the so-called “habitable zone” within which it was believed there would be enough heat and liquid water for life to survive.  In the Solar System, planets from Venus outward to some of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons were considered within the boundaries of that habitable zone, and no planets or moons outside of the zone could support life.

The discovery that Pluto has the right elements to support life essentially widens that habitable zone by a significant distance.

[image error]Clarke was an avid diver for a significant part of his life, and spent a lot of time under the waves, where some of the more extreme forms of life exist, many essentially unchanged for millennia.  He was elated when scientists, investigating undersea hydrothermal vents, discovered bacteria that managed to live off the incredible heat and toxic minerals ejected from the vents, in areas previously assumed to be hostile to life.  This bolstered his opinion that life was much more likely to exist off Earth and throughout the cosmos than had been accepted by scientists.  Evidence of microorganisms that manage to survive in in the cold and dark deep under the Antarctic ice were discovered five years after Clarke’s death, but surely he would have been further encouraged by the news.

The news about Pluto, further widening the habitable zone by about 2.8 billion miles (2.8 billion miles is roughly the distance from the Sun to Neptune… so another 2.8 billion miles past the orbit of Saturn), could have been enough to cause Clarke to rise out of his grave and give a whoop of joy.  As I learned of this through a program on the Science Channel, I was sure I could feel Sir Arthur’s hand pushing up at me through my sofa as he said, “Told you.  Didn’t I tell you?  Told you.”

[image error]Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum, Jurassic Park)

As the esteemed Dr. Ian Malcolm once coined, “Life—uh—finds a way.”  And if there are much wider ranges where planets can conceivably support life, there is a much larger possibility that there is life out there, possibly in a wider variety of forms than previously thought possible, within this Solar System or beyond it in other star systems.  Our expected chances of someday finding extraterrestrial life have gone up significantly.