It's a little hard to explain, but we may have actually proved the existence of a fourth spatial dimension (i.e., not time). Sorry, Susan Foreman.
Ironically, you demonstrate the existence of the fourth dimension by restricting electrons to movement in two dimensions. It has to do with quantum effects and magnetic fields. If you understand it better than me, give it a go.
No practical uses yet except that it may explain the behavior of quasicrystals in metal alloys - and it may eventually allow us to access properties of certain metals we haven't touched yet.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Monday, January 8, 2018
Golden Globes
As usual, the Golden Globes tended to favor "mainstream" work, but genre fiction did get some nods.
The Handmaid's Tale took two awards (this is a series I badly want to watch, but not enough to buy a streaming membership for) - Best TV Series (Drama) and Best Actress In A TV Series (Drama) (Elisabeth Moss).
The Shape of Water - not my thing but I'm told Lovecraft is making quite some electricity - took Best Original Score and Guillermo del Tormo took Best Director.
(I have heard great things about that movie, but it seems a bit too much romance for my taste).
The Handmaid's Tale took two awards (this is a series I badly want to watch, but not enough to buy a streaming membership for) - Best TV Series (Drama) and Best Actress In A TV Series (Drama) (Elisabeth Moss).
The Shape of Water - not my thing but I'm told Lovecraft is making quite some electricity - took Best Original Score and Guillermo del Tormo took Best Director.
(I have heard great things about that movie, but it seems a bit too much romance for my taste).
Friday, January 5, 2018
CW Crossover - and Romance Plots
Romance in TV shows has traditionally taken one form.
Couple meets. Couple falls in love. Couple breaks up. Couple gets back together.
Couple gets married. In the finale. Alternatively, actor leaves the show, character dies, survivor is heartbroken. If they both leave the show, then you get the wedding in their last episode. (For extra fun, they have the wedding then kill one of them off, like...)
Outside of the soaps, which are more like comic books in their format, this is extremely prevalent.
Truth is, that there's a tendency for the vows to be at the end. And the message that sends is that your story ceases to be interesting when you get married. It's over. Maybe you'll get to come back, much later, as the mentors (or maybe you'll get the Han/Leia treatment and be split up off camera).
But married folks aren't interesting. They don't have stories.
So, I was quite surprised that in the CW crossover they finally let two of their leads tie the knot with their love interests, in the middle of a season, with no rumors at all about anyone leaving the show. I hope...hope...this doesn't mean anyone is about to die. (I wish I could trust them more, but it's hard given the record television has in this area).
I want to see Barry and Iris working together as a married couple. And I want to see Felicity becoming ever more badass.
(Also, I didn't ship Alex and Sarah before. Dang you people. Also, Alex is a superhero. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise).
Couple meets. Couple falls in love. Couple breaks up. Couple gets back together.
Couple gets married. In the finale. Alternatively, actor leaves the show, character dies, survivor is heartbroken. If they both leave the show, then you get the wedding in their last episode. (For extra fun, they have the wedding then kill one of them off, like...)
Outside of the soaps, which are more like comic books in their format, this is extremely prevalent.
Truth is, that there's a tendency for the vows to be at the end. And the message that sends is that your story ceases to be interesting when you get married. It's over. Maybe you'll get to come back, much later, as the mentors (or maybe you'll get the Han/Leia treatment and be split up off camera).
But married folks aren't interesting. They don't have stories.
So, I was quite surprised that in the CW crossover they finally let two of their leads tie the knot with their love interests, in the middle of a season, with no rumors at all about anyone leaving the show. I hope...hope...this doesn't mean anyone is about to die. (I wish I could trust them more, but it's hard given the record television has in this area).
I want to see Barry and Iris working together as a married couple. And I want to see Felicity becoming ever more badass.
(Also, I didn't ship Alex and Sarah before. Dang you people. Also, Alex is a superhero. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise).
Thursday, January 4, 2018
A small update
I sold my flash piece "Sun and Memories" to the Twenty Two Twenty Eight blog. Planned release for this is tomorrow (I'll let people know on Facebook when it's actually up).
Plans are in progress for the Farpoint mass launch party. I will be there to celebrate book three (I know book four would be better, but it's not done) of Lost Guardians, with copies and a pen in hand. I'll post more details when the con finalizes the time and room.
Plans are in progress for the Farpoint mass launch party. I will be there to celebrate book three (I know book four would be better, but it's not done) of Lost Guardians, with copies and a pen in hand. I'll post more details when the con finalizes the time and room.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
It's not aliens
Once more, it's not aliens. (I keep holding out for aliens. Give me some aliens).
Scientists are now pretty sure that Tabby's Star is not surrounded by a Dyson's sphere. The lead theory now is space dust - space dust which preferentially absorbs blue light for some reason.
Hrm.
Truth is, we're only pretty sure it's not aliens. What we are sure is that something very strange is going on with that star. We like the more plausible explanations, but given we haven't encountered anything like it, maybe it's something weirder.
Like, say, an orbiting black hole.
Or aliens.
I'm holding out for aliens.
Scientists are now pretty sure that Tabby's Star is not surrounded by a Dyson's sphere. The lead theory now is space dust - space dust which preferentially absorbs blue light for some reason.
Hrm.
Truth is, we're only pretty sure it's not aliens. What we are sure is that something very strange is going on with that star. We like the more plausible explanations, but given we haven't encountered anything like it, maybe it's something weirder.
Like, say, an orbiting black hole.
Or aliens.
I'm holding out for aliens.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Things falling from space...
...but don't freak out.
1. The Chinese space station that is, yes, definitely falling out of the sky. The station weighs much less than Mir - however, Mir was intentionally de-orbited and the Chinese have more-or-less admitted they have lost control of Tiangong-1. The station will hit the atmosphere in March, and they will update on its course closer to the time. Even if it does come down on land (less likely than ocean) the only real danger is that some of the debris may be contaminated with hydrazine, which is toxic. In other words, don't touch the space debris.
2. Yes, an asteroid the size of a semi is whizzing past Earth, well, tonight or tomorrow. It's going to miss, it's within the "hazardous" zone but it's not on a collision course. Even if we're wrong and it does hit, you'd have to be close to it to do damage. If it is at the largest end of the size estimation then it is similar in size to the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk in 2013. If you recall, it damaged a few buildings and broke everyone's windows. And that would be if it directly hit a city. It's more likely to hit the ocean somewhere and make a light show. If it hits. Which it won't.
So, yeah. No need to worry about things falling from space.
1. The Chinese space station that is, yes, definitely falling out of the sky. The station weighs much less than Mir - however, Mir was intentionally de-orbited and the Chinese have more-or-less admitted they have lost control of Tiangong-1. The station will hit the atmosphere in March, and they will update on its course closer to the time. Even if it does come down on land (less likely than ocean) the only real danger is that some of the debris may be contaminated with hydrazine, which is toxic. In other words, don't touch the space debris.
2. Yes, an asteroid the size of a semi is whizzing past Earth, well, tonight or tomorrow. It's going to miss, it's within the "hazardous" zone but it's not on a collision course. Even if we're wrong and it does hit, you'd have to be close to it to do damage. If it is at the largest end of the size estimation then it is similar in size to the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk in 2013. If you recall, it damaged a few buildings and broke everyone's windows. And that would be if it directly hit a city. It's more likely to hit the ocean somewhere and make a light show. If it hits. Which it won't.
So, yeah. No need to worry about things falling from space.
Monday, January 1, 2018
The (Not Quite) Last Jedi and Identity
The haters are wrong. It wasn't as good as The Force Awakens, but it was a good movie and good Star Wars.
Honestly, I think a huge part of the issue is, of course, that TLJ (spoiler alert) killed off the last straight white man for the audience to either identify with or want to be with.
Because, the truth is, young white boys get to see themselves all the time.
And because of that, they don't actually learn to do the mental shift required to identify with a protagonist who is not like you. They don't know what to do when the lead is a girl and the love interest is a black man. The Last Jedi threw them no bones - the added hero character is an Asian woman and, furthermore, an unattractive Asian woman. Kelly Marie Tran is a brilliant actor who deserves all the breaks she can get, but she is not what Hollywood would call beautiful.
So, older straight white men (and yes, I'm generalizing, because I know plenty of straight white men who did like the movie) see nobody to identify with except the villains. And the villains, to be honest? They're inept. Ren only wishes he was as cool as Vader, and that's the point. Ren is toxic masculinity incarnate, a whiny manchild who has never been pushed to grow up. Who (spoilers again) genuinely assumes that the white woman will choose him and his path of evil and has no idea what to do when she refuses him. The entire arc of Rey and Kylo (apologizes to Reylo shippers) is about a woman looking at a typical, sexist, whiny man and going "No thanks," albeit wrapped in fantasy trappings.
As for the white women who hate the movie? White women are raised to want to be with the lead. The original trilogy threw us a twist there, but Leia still ended up with the dashing white guy, just as we're raised to dream of. Even if our parents don't do it to us, society does.
So? I suspect a lot of what's really behind the hate is people who don't know what to do with a lead who is not a straight white male (Poe is not white and probably, to be honest, not straight). They don't know what to do with a woman who chooses a black hero over a white villain. (Even if Finn somehow ends up with Rose, which seems unlikely, Rey has still chosen Finn. Hence the "Everybody Loves Finn" meme circulating).
They don't, in fact, know what to do with a black lead who is loved by everyone. Rey loves him. Rose loves him. Poe probably loves him, even if it's being kept low key.
The white women, especially those raised by more racist families, see a lead they aren't "allowed" to dream about being with - well, two leads, because they're both wrong in some way.
The white men can't relate to a woman or a black guy because they've never had to.
Meanwhile, those of us who had to wait until our twenties to see a major character who matched our demographics, who spent our childhood having to compromise, to accept that all the cool stories were about boys except the ones who were about straight girls...we've always had to make that mental shift and learn to relate to the other. For those who have never had to, the movie is a cognitive disconnect, something they don't know how to handle. And for those who's best hope is to love the lead...well...
So they hate it.
(Note: If the reason you hate it is because you can't drop bombs in space, I rolled my eyes at that one too).
Honestly, I think a huge part of the issue is, of course, that TLJ (spoiler alert) killed off the last straight white man for the audience to either identify with or want to be with.
Because, the truth is, young white boys get to see themselves all the time.
And because of that, they don't actually learn to do the mental shift required to identify with a protagonist who is not like you. They don't know what to do when the lead is a girl and the love interest is a black man. The Last Jedi threw them no bones - the added hero character is an Asian woman and, furthermore, an unattractive Asian woman. Kelly Marie Tran is a brilliant actor who deserves all the breaks she can get, but she is not what Hollywood would call beautiful.
So, older straight white men (and yes, I'm generalizing, because I know plenty of straight white men who did like the movie) see nobody to identify with except the villains. And the villains, to be honest? They're inept. Ren only wishes he was as cool as Vader, and that's the point. Ren is toxic masculinity incarnate, a whiny manchild who has never been pushed to grow up. Who (spoilers again) genuinely assumes that the white woman will choose him and his path of evil and has no idea what to do when she refuses him. The entire arc of Rey and Kylo (apologizes to Reylo shippers) is about a woman looking at a typical, sexist, whiny man and going "No thanks," albeit wrapped in fantasy trappings.
As for the white women who hate the movie? White women are raised to want to be with the lead. The original trilogy threw us a twist there, but Leia still ended up with the dashing white guy, just as we're raised to dream of. Even if our parents don't do it to us, society does.
So? I suspect a lot of what's really behind the hate is people who don't know what to do with a lead who is not a straight white male (Poe is not white and probably, to be honest, not straight). They don't know what to do with a woman who chooses a black hero over a white villain. (Even if Finn somehow ends up with Rose, which seems unlikely, Rey has still chosen Finn. Hence the "Everybody Loves Finn" meme circulating).
They don't, in fact, know what to do with a black lead who is loved by everyone. Rey loves him. Rose loves him. Poe probably loves him, even if it's being kept low key.
The white women, especially those raised by more racist families, see a lead they aren't "allowed" to dream about being with - well, two leads, because they're both wrong in some way.
The white men can't relate to a woman or a black guy because they've never had to.
Meanwhile, those of us who had to wait until our twenties to see a major character who matched our demographics, who spent our childhood having to compromise, to accept that all the cool stories were about boys except the ones who were about straight girls...we've always had to make that mental shift and learn to relate to the other. For those who have never had to, the movie is a cognitive disconnect, something they don't know how to handle. And for those who's best hope is to love the lead...well...
So they hate it.
(Note: If the reason you hate it is because you can't drop bombs in space, I rolled my eyes at that one too).
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