Kate Rauner's Blog, page 104
October 23, 2013
Leaves #2 – a Haiku by Kate Rauner
Leaves #2 – a Haiku by Kate Rauner
Leaves that hide in green
Drop their disguise in autumn
Unmask red and gold
“Carotenoids are present in leaves the whole year round, but their orange-yellow colors are usually masked by green chlorophyll. As autumn approaches, certain influences both inside and outside the plant cause the chlorophylls to be replaced at a slower rate than they are being used up. During this period, with the total supply of chlorophylls gradually dwindling, the “masking” effect slowly fades away.” Wikipedia
October 21, 2013
Comet ISON swings around Sun
Comets are mysterious members of our solar system. ISON seemed so bright when it was discovered it excited yet another “comet of the century is coming” craze. Alas, predictions were far off, though there is still a chance for an impressive view if ISON survives its trip around the Sun. You can check out some neat pictures here http://bit.ly/17bI8Jn and in the related “gallery”.
The unpredictable nature of comets makes them a good topic for science fiction. I’m hoping to include an encounter with a comet in my next novel.
October 16, 2013
Leaves #1 – a Haiku
Leaves #1 – a Haiku by Kate Rauner
Autumn cool and damp
Fallen leaves sweet underfoot
Walk into winter
October 15, 2013
No “Eocene Park”, but Still Cool
Modern mosquito chows down
A rare mosquito fossil: “the first blood-filled ancient [46 million years old] fossilized mosquito ever found” http://bit.ly/19C1zHx . Using mass spectrometry, scientists detected “organic compounds present in hemoglobin, a protein found in blood.” The results are being published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Unfortunately, current technology can’t pick out DNA from fossils that old. (“The mosquito is from the Eocene epoch, lasting from 56 to 33.9 million years ago – about 19 million years after dinosaurs went extinct”), so no Eocene Park.
October 12, 2013
Nifty Review from a Fellow Blogger
Sciencefictionruminations recently posted a short review of Simone Caroti’s scholarly book The Generation Starship In Science Fiction: A Critical History, 1934-2001.
Joachim Boaz says:
:I highly recommend the book for all aficionados of this particular sci-fi subgenre. Be warned… it is a work of serious scholarship not a lighthearted romp.”
The post includes a list of works and the comments are interesting, too. You may want to check it out.
Old Man’s War – science fiction book review
Old Man’s War
By John Scalzi
This book ( http://bit.ly/19p4HVM ) is advertised as “continuing the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein… reads like an original by the late grand master.” I’m no expert on Heinlein, but that seems true (middle-period Heinlein, without the later pedagogical discussions of government, sex, and religion.) Scalzi starts with foreseeable technology, briefly explained, and then goes far beyond, allowing his characters to accept it all with a shrug. What Scalzi wants the reader to know is often provided by the characters directly hearing or reading an explanation.
The characters share an optimistic outlook and a wise-cracking sense of humor. The main character talks directly to the reader a couple times. The characters are all ready to take a one-way trip as soldiers in a space war based on very little information, but without regret. This type of character does remind me of Heinlein. Also like Heinlein, in Part I the characters have sex for fun (without being pornographic) and the women have remarkable libidos.
Earthly firefly – weird as any “alien”
Part I is fun with Scalzi’s universe. The war promised in the title arrives in Part II (and the sex disappears). Quite the opposite of Star Trek, the characters’ “job is to go meet strange new people and cultures, and kill [them] as quickly as we possibly can.” The humans aren’t especially noble, and while a friendly alien race is mentioned, generally everyone wants to kill everyone else to acquire worlds to colonize. Apparently, one battle on each planet is all that is needed, so the characters see many different aliens, and fight and die in a many different ways. The f-bomb is used a lot.
Battle scenes have never been my favorite reading, so I skim through them in most books. But I read Scalzi’s battles; they are not overly long and not simply gore fests designed to pack the book with pages. In addition to presenting varied action, due to the large variety of alien and human opponents, the battles contribute to the story. Part III delivers depth to relationships and to the war: some planets do require more than one battle. While this is the first book in a series, there is an ending to the story. Wikipedia says there are a total of eight books set in this universe. I plan to read the next one.
October 9, 2013
River’s Ghost – a Poem by Kate Rauner
River’s Ghost
by Kate Rauner
***
A refined river runs today,
Flows wide and calm past quaint cafes,
Flows gently past well-tended homes
Along the yards all freshly mowed.
Tourists sprawl upon its back
To float in tubes and tow six-packs.
But early in the dawn there’s still
The spirit of its ancient thrill.
Fog races water to the sea
And shows its wild side to me.
Flowing faster than the stream,
Turbulent as it careens
Against the shore in silent waves
To undercut the bank it made;
Up bridge’s footings curling high,
Silent crashing on the sides.
Watch the fog and you will see
A river’s ghost that once was free
River’s Ghost – a Poem
River’s Ghost
by Kate Rauner
***
A refined river runs today,
Flows wide and calm past quaint cafes,
Flows gently past well-tended homes
Along the yards all freshly mowed.
Tourists sprawl upon its back
To float in tubes and tow six-packs.
But early in the dawn there’s still
The spirit of its ancient thrill.
Fog races water to the sea
And shows its wild side to me.
Flowing faster than the stream,
Turbulent as it careens
Against the shore in silent waves
To undercut the bank it made;
Up bridge’s footings curling high,
Silent crashing on the sides.
Watch the fog and you will see
A river’s ghost that once was free
October 2, 2013
Worried Dog – a Poem by Kate Rauner
The dog is worried
His forehead wrinkled
Cats come in
They stalk his tail
Squat by his bowl
Leap on the table
Where he cannot go.
Foolish humans
See only plush fur
Hear only soft purrs.
Not glowing eyes
Prickly claws
Don’t hear
Creeping paws.
Foolish humans!
The dog is worried.
September 29, 2013
Doomsday? Again?! Earth’s Local Interstellar Cloud
“Researchers drew on measurements by 11 spacecraft and satellites that have recorded directly or indirectly the flow of helium atoms into the solar system” http://bit.ly/1cLNGZD to detect a change in the region of space our solar system is moving through. Changes in the Local Interstellar Cloud could change the shape of the sun’s heliosphere, a bubble of charged particles emitted by the sun that helps define the extent of the solar system. The heliosphere deflects cosmic rays, which is good for life on Earth.
I bet the doomsday books and blogs are already gearing up thanks to this news. But the change, if it persists, will be slow compared to a human life span, and not deadly. Do you remember the Internet rumors about Mars appearing as large as the moon in the sky? Last December was the end of the world? A rogue planet is sneaking up on us from the other side of the sun? Various alignments and conjunctions presage good or bad? Science rumors abound – check out http://www.snopes.com/science/science.asp Science is full of wonder and the universe is constantly changing, but be skeptical of any source WITH LOTS OF CAIPTAL LETTERS. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
The illustration is from NASA’s Hubble Telescope: a bow shock about half a light-year across, created by the heliosphere from the star L.L. Orionis colliding supersonically with the gas and dust of the Orion Nebula. Our sun probably does not produce a similar bow shock with the Local Interstellar Cloud, but it’s a cool image.
