Contact

Yesterday afternoon, my buddy Julio Angel Ortiz quote-tweeted this to his Twitter timeline: I thought about it for a moment or three, and one scene came to mind: I ran out of characters while typing that, hence some brutal edits that resulted in the double “and” I noticed five seconds after hitting “Tweet.” The longerContinue reading “Contact”

Fifteen Influential Authors

I saw this on Facebook a few days ago, meant to answer it, and got sidetracked into other things. That happens. The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. List 15 authors (poets and comic writers included) who have influenced you and who will always stick with you. List the first 15 youContinue reading “Fifteen Influential Authors”

Cosmic Death and Rebirth: The Discovery of Supernova ASASSN-15lh

Let’s talk today’s big science news! I remember — or I think I remember — Carl Sagan saying in the original Cosmos, “We are made of starstuff.” That’s true. We are. The Big Bang produced a lot of plasma and a lot of hydrogren. The hydrogen came together and formed the first stars. As starsContinue reading “Cosmic Death and Rebirth: The Discovery of Supernova ASASSN-15lh”

On Carl Sagan’s Message to Martian Explorers

There’s a link that’s making the rounds on my Facebook and Twitter timelines — io9 has an article about a message recorded by Carl Sagan to future Mars explorers. I shared the link on my Facebook wall. This is the comment I appended to it: Carl Sagan did a lot when I was very smallContinue reading “On Carl Sagan’s Message to Martian Explorers”

On Childhood Memories and the Christmas Sensawunder

As I left the office Monday evening, the moon, a waxing crescent, held in the sky to the south southwest. There was a planet nearby in the sky, I presumed it was Jupiter, just from its brightness, but I didn’t honestly know. In general, the sky was remarkably clear. Monday had been a brutally windyContinue reading “On Childhood Memories and the Christmas Sensawunder”

On Venturing Forth to the Moon

Plinky asks today: "If you were offered a free trip to the moon, would you go?" And there's a part of me that wants to say, "Well… duh." 😉 And then there's the part of me that wants to say, "Now that I've gotten the snarky answer out of the way…" Who hasn't dreamt ofContinue reading “On Venturing Forth to the Moon”