G.L. Breedon's Blog, page 19
August 30, 2011
Source Code Review
My wife and I watched Source Code last night. It's been a while since we watched a movie. We've been watching HBO's Carnivale and the BBC crime drama Waking the Dead. But, we finally ran out of episodes of both. I have to say, I enjoyed Source Code much more than I expected to. Here's [...]
Alternate Histories
I found a really fun site today via the Chicagoist. Artist Matthew Buchholz has created a series of alternate history images with a sci-fi twist. They're great fun. As you can see.
August 22, 2011
Doomsday Book Review
The winners of the 2011 Hugo Awards were announced over the weekend. Founded in 1955, the awards are named for Sci-Fi legend, Hugo Gernsback, publisher of Amazing Stories among many other magazines. Connie Willis has won the 2011 Hugo Award for best novel for her two volume travel novel, Blackout/All Clear. While I haven't read [...]
August 19, 2011
DARPA Seed Money for Starships
There is a good article in today's New York Times announcing a new program by DARPA to invest in research for human interstellar travel. Talk about forward thinking investment. The awarding of that grant, on Nov. 11 — 11/11/11 — is planned as the culmination of a yearlong Darpa-NASA effort called the 100-Year Starship Study, [...]
August 18, 2011
Reading Your Future
After yesterday's post on the notion of Apocalypse vs. Utopia, I thought a reading list might be fun. The following suggestions aren't an exhaustive list, but a fun place to start. For the philosophical, there's Plato's Republic, which is interesting to read alongside H.G. Wells' A Modern Utopia and his The Shape of Things to [...]
August 17, 2011
Apocalypse vs Utopia
(Viktor Vasnetsov 1848-1926) "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal; and, lo, there was a great Earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto Earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is [...]
August 16, 2011
Doctor Who – The Writer's Tale
I absolutely loved this book. I've been a big fan of the Doctor Who reboot since I caught an episode of season one on BBC America. When I came across this book during a search on Amazon, I snapped it up. I was always impressed with the storytelling in the series and I knew that [...]
August 15, 2011
Kennedy Space Center Summer of Sci-Fi
I missed this earlier in the summer. The Kennedy Space Center is having a Summer of Sci-Fi featuring various Star Trek tie-ins and Starfleet guides, including a Vulcan. From the KSC website: Experience the maiden voyage of Sci-Fi Summer: "Where Science Fiction Meets Science Fact." Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex launches Sci-Fi Summer on June 11, [...]
August 12, 2011
Doctor Who Experience and Tour
I saw his a few days ago and it seems absolutely geekalicious. The Doctor Who Experience. It's an immersive interactive experience inside the TARDIS with video participation by the Doctor (Matt Smith). From the web site: Packed with amazing special effects and exclusive filming with Matt Smith this multi-sensory experience is fun for the family [...]
August 11, 2011
Postcards from Mars
Cool new photos from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity as it finishes a nearly three year journey across the surface of the planet to the Endeavor crater. It makes me long for the days when we talked with straight faces about sending humans to Mars.
