Remember when conspiracy theories were fun? Pepperidge Farm remembers. So does Escaping Denver, a new novel by Teague Bohlen that is based on the popular podcast.
Właśnie skończyłem oglądać na Amazonie film The Vast of Night. Jeśli ktoś lubi może nieco niskobudżetowe, ale ambitniejsze kino science-fiction, to zdecydowanie polecam. Film ma swoje powolne, nieco leniwe tempo, ale ogląda się bardzo dobrze i wygrywa autentyzmem (oczywiście z poprawką na to, że to jednak sf)
Je suis un #libriste convaincu, j'administre des serveurs. J'utilise #debian depuis très longtemps. Je chante dans une #chorale, et j'apprends le #piano. Je regarde beaucoup de #SF. Je suis #autiste#gay et #TDAH.
Ma photo de profil, c'est Nao, notre petit chat écaille de tortue.
The thing about a base on the moon is that everyone underestimates the amount of support the Earth provides. Even with a so-called sealed environment, there is considerable support provided by the outside.
So when they established the first moonbase, it was very short lived. To be fair, it was only really intended as a temporary establishment, but it only lasted just over one and a half times the design life. Which for a NASA project is abysmal. So 36 months after being established, it was abandoned. The next one, an ESA project, lasted about the same.
The third was a Chinese military one. It was meant to be permanent, but they abandoned it after two years because of the cost of resupply.
The fourth one was an attempt at a lunar hotel. It lasted three months before the company running it went bust, and a joint NASA/ESA rescue mission had to be sent to bring the staff home.
The fifth one was a genuine attempt at colonisation, headed up by a multi-billionaire. They were well funded, and established a large semi-underground city space. Several hundred people moved there. Most of them died there. The oxygen plant worked, the CO2 scrubbers worked, but the small population did not have enough depth in skills to keep it running safely. Eight people survived the catastrophic cascade that destroyed the biome and the containment. Only seven of them made it back to Earth. The last one remained behind to manage the launch of the one remaining earth-return ship.
The sixth and seventh ones followed similar patterns, at great loss of life.
This cooled the idea of a permanent moon base for several decades.
Eventually someone tried again. This time it was an international consortium of space agencies. Their objective was to try and determine what would be needed for any sort of permanent non-terrestrial colony.
The answer was shocking to everyone.
Over thirty thousand people ended up needed to provide the required depth of skills. And for each of them approximately two hectares of wild space was needed, in addition to the farmed areas.
What was the extra space for? It provided sufficient complexity to the support biomes to ensure that they could not easily go into a systemic collapse. It provided for pollinators to breed, for detritus processors to grow, and all the millions of little things that were needed for an actual ecosystem.
It took them nearly thirty years to build it. And it remains the only one that Earth has ever successfully built.
The Selenites, as they call themselves, have, however, built two more as their population has grown.
Il y avait un moment que je n'avais pas mis à jour mon #introduction - alors voilà
Fedi depuis 2020, ici je me sens légitime de déblatérer sur le #cinema (de genre), les #nanar et la #ScienceFiction plus particulièrement • les #Monstre • le #Cyberpunk. Mon autre passion étant le #Funk, la culture du #sample, et les sonorités électroniques des 60s-80s
Il y avait un moment que je n'avais pas mis à jour mon #introduction
Fedi depuis 2020, ici je me sens légitime de déblatérer sur le #cinema (de genre), les #nanar et la #ScienceFiction plus particulièrement • les #Monstre • le #Cyberpunk. Mon autre passion étant le #Funk, la culture du #sample, et les sonorités électroniques des 60s-80s
Bienvenue sur le compte du Bout des Bois, un projet éditorial par @lou.lueder.ecriture et @plumedserves !
Au programme : la publication de textes par et pour les Monstres au fond des Bois.
On vous prépare depuis des mois une campagne de financement pour notre premier livre, et on a très hâte de vous en dire plus !
Abonnez-vous pour ne rien rater !! 👀
Le logo de notre projet : on y voit deux mains proches de se toucher, l'une faite en branches, l'une normale, le tout devant plusieurs stries de type "tronc d'arbre".
Sous le logo, est inscrit la phrase "on vous dévoile bientôt ce qui ce cache derrière ce projet éditorial indépendant"
Adele came over and handed him a mug of tea. He nodded a thank-you and breathed deeply from it before taking a sip, followed by a larger swallow. As they watched, they could see as he made himself relax. Finally he looked up again.
"I'll start again" he said, and took a deep breath before continuing, "I don't really have many friends back home. There's Iain, but that's different. And me and my family, well, aside from my uncle Joe, we don't get too well. And Indi always seemed so with it and happy and everything. I wanted to see what that was like."
Alice frowned "Colin, did they hurt you at all?"
He shook his head "No, nothing like that. They just, well, I love the sea and boats and all, but I hate the fishing and the by-catch and all of that. They just don't get that. The family's been fishing for centuries, so I just don't fit. And then there's Iain."
"Iain is?" asked Iris.
"He's me best mate. He had some trouble with a teacher at our old school, and that's why we moved back to town. I couldn't survive without him, though. He's what has kept me going. Him and Indi."
"So you're travelling together?" continued Iris.
"Yeah, we look out for each other. He keeps people off me back, and I pull him away from the obvious red lights."
Alice tipped her head, "So you ... what, are you together?"
Colin gave a snort "Nah, people keep thinking we are, cause Iain's as gay as they come and not shy about it. But me, I'm not. We're just good mates."
"So you wanted to see if you could make something with Indi?" she pressed.
"No! No, when I said I'm not. I meant it. I'm simply not."
Indigo nodded "And I bet your family couldn't deal with that too well either."
He nodded sadly "Yeah, I think they'd have been happier if I'd been gay."
Adele shook her head "You happy travelling with Iain like that? How about him, is he happy with it?"
"Yeah, he knows I don't swing at all, and is good with it. He knows that if I'm warning him off someone there's good reason, and doesn't get snippy. And I like seeing him happy. Maybe one day I'll get to be his best man."
"Right. We can hold off departing for a couple of days can't we?" Adele asked, and then turned to Colin, "Can you leave Iain alone for a couple of days?"
"Yeah, he's with a good bloke right now. It's not going to last, but they'll be OK for the next couple of weeks."
"Did you bring your wetsuit?"
"It's back at the backpackers, but I can get it."
"Ok, we'll delay our trip for two or three days, take you out to a couple of dive spots. You can stay aboard, and then we'll bring you back," Adele looked around again, "Everyone good with that plan?"
Iris and Indigo nodded, then so did Alice.
"Right then. Off you go, and remember the rules. We'll set off when you get back."
#scifi nerds, I need your help identifying an #SF novel I read decades ago.
The main characters each possess some sort of device which gives them essentially infinite power. They use it to create and destroy whatever they want, to travel all over the planet, basically anything.
They don't understand how the devices work. Turns out they're connected to giant machines—maybe originally for terraforming?—that are starting to break down, and the knowledge of how to fix them has long since been lost.
Ici Critiks Moviz. Passionné par le cinéma qui dépote : #Action, #SF, #Thriller et #Horreur. Je ne suis pas très fan du cinéma français, mais j'adore décortiquer les classiques et les nouveautés sans concession.
Ravi de vous rejoindre pour partager mes analyses et mon #HEBDO !
✨ Le parcours d'un autodidacte vers la souveraineté numérique
Un Marseillais transforme son invalidité en moteur pour construire un écosystème numérique #Libre et auto-hébergé, défiant les GAFAM.
Maintaining an interstellar community is extraordinarily hard. Even within the human worlds, it is difficult.
The hardest part is disease.
Not so much massive plagues - they are easy to quarantine. The tricky thing is the endemic bugs of each world. The things that could run riot in other biospheres.
Smoothing the spread of such bacteria and virii is initially handled by the scout service, who introduce the most common microflora and fauna to new worlds in a well controlled way. They also manage the outward spread of the new world's biome to neighbouring worlds.
But what about after that? How do you maintain a biome that is not going to kill travellers across tens, let alone hundreds or thousands of worlds?
The answer lies in one of the least formal parts of any major interstellar community.
The tramp trade network.
Small independent traders that move from world to world in small ships, moving relatively slowly, and almost always visiting the surface. Picking up the latest mutations in the local microflora and fauna as an incidental, and releasing the latest from the nearest neighbours.
Keeping the local group more-or-less in sync. And the trade routes overlap, and operate in overlapping spheres.
Yes, if you were to catch a fast ship from one end of a large polity and travel to the other end, you might well get very sick. But if you did it slowly, you would get gradually adapted.
The downside is that most travellers over large distances tend to spend much of their time vaguely unwell.
"Space Flu" they call it, and it is something that affects many long-distance tourists. People discuss solutions for it on the news boards almost constantly, and new treatments are always being touted.
What only a few very well informed people know is that this travelling malaise is a sign that things are working as expected. There will never be a complete cure for it, and it would be a disaster if one were found.
Alice was really annoyed. She had absolutely wonderful news, and there was absolutely no-one she could share it with. None of her classmates knew about her mother or her best friend. They couldn't. It would not be safe for anyone.
So there was no-one that she could tell. Indigo, her best friend was the one who told her, so she was out. Her mum already knew. There was no. No, wait. There was someone else.
Siobhan was marking history assignments when there was a knock on her door. Final bell had been a few minutes ago, so probably another teacher. "Come in!" she called.
Alice opened the door, and stepped in.
"Miss Ringly!" Siobhan was surprised to see her, given how low a profile Alice kept.
"Hi Ms Embrason. Um, can we talk?"
"Of course, but you're not in any of my classes this year."
"It isn't about school. It is a private thing."
Siobhan frowned. "Are you sure you should be talking to me?"
"Absolutely! You're the only other person who knows."
"OK, but you will have to leave the door open. School policy."
Alice paused, and looked up and down the corridor. No-one. She sat down. "OK."
"So, what is it? Is there some trouble?" As soon as she had spoken, Siobhan could tell that it wasn't. Alice was practically vibrating with excitement.
"No! It is really good news! Iris, that's Indigo's mum, is pregnant! Indi is getting a sister!"
"So another mermaid in the family?"
"No, Iris said that was only because of the fish. Long story. No, Dave, that's Indi's sort-of-dad, is the father, so she'll be a Naiad like Iris."
"And she'll be a girl?"
"Yep, all Naiads are!"
Siobhan smilled. Alice had had a rough life, really, having to cover for her mother's past, and being unable to explain her absent friend.
"Well, I am certain you'll be the best Aunty for her!"
Alice froze. "Aunty?" she asked in a small voice.
Siobhan revised rapidly "Well she'll be your best friend's sister, and there's going to be nearly seventeen years between you. So, yes, honorary Aunt."
Alice relaxed.
"Oh. Cause Indi isn't like that, not that that would be a problem, she'd still be my best friend, but um" Alice's words came out in a rush, tumbling over each other. She stopped.
The teacher smiled, "Well, that is wonderful news. I'll send a card via your mother. Off now, you don't want her to worry."
"Yes, Miss" was the meek reply, and Alice fled.
Resting her head in her hand for a moment, Siobahn smiled. Alice had it bad for her friend, she could tell. Ah, teenagers. All drama and angst. She picked up the assignment she'd been marking. Yep. Drama and angst.
Czarnobiały rysunek humanoidalnej postaci swobodnie unoszacej sie w kosmosie w spiczastym kapeluszu z wielka glowa polaczona przewodem z kosmiczna rakieta w oddali
Dzień 16.
Napisałem humorystyczne SF o rockendrollu, kosmitach i sztucznych inteligencjach. Jest tam duch Keitha R. Który nawiedza pewna gitarę i mnóstwo innych fajnych rzeczy. "Wyślijcie więcej Chucka" W najnowszym numerze O!Fki zupełnie za darmo. #sf#książki#science-fiction #Humor https://ofka.okffenix.pl/download/ofka-19-melodie/
Okładka zinu przedstawiająca grupę ludzi i humanoidalnych zwierząt bawiących się do muzyki na średniowiecznym jarmarku.
It is a popular mathematical experiment to try and work out just how fast Santa has to be to reach every house with a child in a single 24 hour period.
The calculations always end up with a significant fraction of the speed of light.
There then usually follow discussions about what the collateral damage from Santa's passing would be. And cargo limits, and so on.
All of these are wrong, and ignore another end-of-year tradition. The portrayal of the ending year as an old man.
Now that I've put these two traditions side-by-side, I think you can see what is really going on.
It is possible for one man to visit every house in a night, with no shock waves or any of that silliness. But it comes at a cost.
For that man, the night lasts many years, as he travels back in time after each visit. Even with time travel, he does not get much time to eat - so the snacks you leave out are essential to him surviving the night.
But he only just survives. By the end of the night he will have aged over forty years. And then he hands the reigns of the time-travelling sleigh to a younger man, warning him of the cost.
Someone always answers the call, despite the cost, because there is always someone willing to sacrifice everything to bring joy and light, even just a little, even if only for a moment.
So leave the snacks, and, if you catch a glimpse of him, give him a bow of respect. He deserves it.
#introduction : repost et mise à jour French
#introduction Coucou ! Moi c'est Fouad (Carlos c'est mon chat, je vous ai eu hein ?). ...