Soon after Arthur C Clarke passed on, I bought The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke, and have slowly been wending my way through this improbably large archive of his short stories.

I just finished "The Other Tiger" (1953), also known as "Refutation" - I had forgotten about that one. Clarke doing HP Lovecraft. :-)

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I suspect this treatment ( Read more... )

After watching a bit of "Terminator 3" the other night, I was inspired to ask...

Poll 4th Dimensional Combat

Poll Eastercon or Worldcon
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I did not realise there was a schism in my friendlist on who was going where, but no great loss to change plans at this advanced stage, as I'm sure I can sell or swallow the costs of the Eastercon membership I paid down for.

EDIT: Dammit, my resident Montreal expert recommends Montreal in August. Grr. It'd be cheaper too.

EDIT2:

Eastercon ( Read more... )

RIP the way-better half of Roddenberry.

Is sci-fi dead?

On KQED: Fresh Air on Thomas Frank and his recent book, "The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule".

1. When Bikehood was in Flower - cool collection of neat early-era cycling in America, and worldwide.

1.1 Stories of such prominent cycle proponents like: The Hertfordshire emigre Thomas Stevens, with enlightening tales of vaulting short streams ( Read more... )

1. Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan for $9.00!

2. Bay Area Biking by Ann Marie Brown - via Moon Outdoors publishers.

3. Sci-Fi Western by Sunny Buick (and John Clute!) - from an art show at 111 Minna* in 2003, with such charmingly fun images as these. :-) Hmm, quite possibly presaged Firefly.

*actually, quite a pretentious place.

So Gabe sent me a link to Aptera, a very sci-fi car. But even if they manage to get their production line going by the end of next year, they are already entreating some significant regulatory problems with their "it's a motorcycle, but it isn't" approach to getting it licensed for the road.

Thanks, but I'll spend less money on a tried & tested ( Read more... )

John & Maria
Bernal Hill views (cold wind blows away all clouds - San Mateo Bridge visible)
Philz Coffee
Papa Lote (marinated tofu burritos & Fat Tire ale! Yum!)
Borderlands (World War Z!)
Japantown (Kinokuniya Bookstore (remodeled!), Taiyaki, + anime store. 'Memories' and others for John. 'Freedom 2' for me.)
Wolf Camera
Two (cocktails and ( Read more... )

Best part thus far... ( Read more... )