Patrick Chiles's Blog, page 32
March 7, 2012
EU Death Watch, Part Deux
The EU continues its descent into Monty Python-esque self-parody. In what must be the live-action adaptation of the invincible Captain Euro, here's some lame propaganda an ode to Europe's superior negotiating skills. If you think the heroine is about to go all "Kill Bill" on these scary ethnic bad guys, guess again. These are the [...]
February 24, 2012
Serf's Up
Some thought-provoking…thoughts, on the current state of affairs from National Review. Think you're a free citizen of a government that exists for the will of the people? Think again, silly person. Come see the violence inherent in the system! Quick, quick! I'm being repressed!
February 23, 2012
They'll Take My Les Paul…
…when they pry it from my cold, dead hands! Reason TV reports on last summer's raid by jackbooted thugs Federal agents on the Gibson guitar factory, in which armed law enforcement shut down the plant, confiscated about a half-million bucks worth of product, and as of yet refuses to charge the company or return the [...]
February 22, 2012
Why I'm Such a Space Geek
Wicked cool stuff like this, for starters: The upper reaches of the atmosphere are still not as well understood as the rest underneath. That's because while it may technically be "space", there's still too many trace molecules to orbit any satellites up there, and sounding rockets can only peek at it for a few minutes [...]
February 17, 2012
Time to Buy that Tin Foil Hat
Stories of Aurora sightings have been around the web almost since before there was a web. Most of them have been relegated to the category of Bigfoot hunters or UFO stalkers outside Groom Lake (Area 51 to those of you who only know about it through Discovery Channel). But when an editor of Flying magazine [...]
February 16, 2012
PERIGEE in Paperback
It took a lot longer than I'd planned on, but that's how it goes. The important thing is that Perigee is finally out in dead-tree format. Interested readers can find it at the Createspace e-store and get it for $9.99 with this discount code: XCFJYUVC An updated edition of the e-book is also available from [...]
February 8, 2012
Wow. Just…Wow.
Yet another awe-inspiring time lapse video from the International Space Station. It's about 1 frame per second, which is apparently close to a real-time view. So watch, and imagine you're chillin' in the observation cupola of the ISS. Which, by the way, looks an awful lot like the windows on a Star Wars TIE fighter: [...]
January 31, 2012
Yes, I'm Still Here
Been busy finishing up the paperback version of Perigee and there just hasn't been much time for anything else, at least if I want to keep my family relationships intact. I'm still figuring out the balance between work, family, writing, and marketing. Until recently, the latter concern didn't really enter into my mind. But it's [...]
January 26, 2012
PERIGEE for FREE
That's right, everyone's favorite four-letter word: F-R-E-E. I'm running a promotion, today only, where you can download Perigee for your Kindle for exactly $0.00. They say stuff is worth what you pay for it, but in this case I think you'd be getting a whole lot of value for nuttin'. You can find all that [...]
January 22, 2012
The Zombie Apocalypse: Coming To Your Neighborhood!
A Reuters story on preparing for societal collapse has been getting a lot of blog attention this weekend. The piece is mostly even-handed, considering the source. I guess the survivalist image has come a long way from that of gun-totin' hilljacks squirreled away in their mountain cabins. The new term is "prepper", thank you very [...]
