Fantasist's Scroll

The new trend in cars?

Smaller than a Mini-Cooper and more fuel efficient, too, the Smart line from Mercedes may be the next wave in car technology. According to this article on Wired News, the Fortwo is a new breed of car that is not only high-tech, but “cool”, too. Made from primarily recycled plastics and designed to be super fuel-efficient, boasting up to 70 miles per gallon. The car itself is tiny. In fact, it is almost literally half the size of a Hummer and two Fortwo’s can park in a regular parking spot quite comfortably. You can squeeze in three, if you park sideways. Is it the car of the future? Possibly. Of course, we won’t know in the US until sometime in 2006, which is when they plan on breaking in over here. Hmm, can I wait that long? Well, in the mean-time, go take a look at this what Wired News has to say about the Smart Fortwo.

I’ve always loved these.

I always used to get a “Word A Day ” calendar for my desk, because I loved the idea that I was building my vocabulary. Of course, I probably never used those words in actual conversation, but it was fun learning about them anyway. Well, if you like that sort of thing, too, then the A Word A Day site is for you. You can sign up to recieve, via e-mail, a word a day, just like the book or calendar. How cool is that?!

Anyway, it was cool enough for my Friday Fun Link. Go check it out.

No, I’m not talking about Iraq or George W. Bush!

Thankfully, I don’t have to talk about politics on this weblog at all. But, I did find this particular article so interesting, I had to mention it. The SanFrancisco Gate on-line has an article about a fairly quiet U.S. Air Force project to make anti-matter weapons. Apparently, the U.S. Government has been studying anti-matter since the 1930’s with a bent toward military technology. At first, it may seem frightening, but it’s no worse than nuclear weapons or power, as far as I’m concerned. And, no matter your politics, any intelligent person has got to see that things developed for the military eventually find their way to the public sector, after all, look at the history of computers and the Internet.
In any case, the article goes on to talk about various applications, including, but not limited to: miniature bombs; tiny, but long lasting, engines and batteries; and electro-magnetic pulse weapons. More interesting, I think, is the neccessary advance in containment technology and the potential energy that we might tap. The potential is, quite literally, limitless. As a fan of science-fiction, I have to say that this is very, very exciting to me. Combine this with all the recent advances in private spacecraft and the future seems like an interesting place to be again. I hope it will inspire more science-fiction writers to start writing about it again!

Well, I guess it’s serious!

At least, the US Government thinks it’s enough of a possibility that they need to regulate space tourism, according to this article on CNN. That’s probably a good thing, I think. I’m all for free, open space, but a little bit of regulation for public safety is probably a good thing. Besides, how can you have a profitable industry without some government regulation to contend with?
In any case, I thought it was interesting that they’re looking into it. It’s nice that our government is forward thinking for a change, eh?

Hey, I always like free!

I’ve had a PalmIIIc for years and years. Originally, I got it with the idea that I could use it to play games and read books, too. The problem was that there just weren’t a lot of books available in a Palm readable format. Problem solved: ManyBooks.net. Not only do they have literally thousands of books in multiple formats, including several for the Palm, but they’re all free!
Well, they do ask for donations, but it’s not absolutely required. I’ve just started to explore their titles, but they seem to have quite a few classics, so it’s worth checking out. Besides, it’s Friday, what else are you going to do?

(This entry also appeared last week on my other blog, Diary of a Network Geek.)

No, not the Jules Verne novel.

In this case, it’s actually someone going into the deepest cave on Earth. At least, according to this article on the Sydney Morning Herald, it’s the deepest cave known to mankind. (Based on this article over at Politiken.dk, I’d be impressed if they found something deeper!) It’s a cave in Georgia, the former Soviet block country, not the American State. And, the current expedition is going further down than anyone has before. They’re litterally miles down into the Earth where the whole ecology is different and sunlight has never penetrated. Cool. Of course, when I posted the review of Descent, it should have been apparent that I dig strange stuff like this. If the articles on the real cave intrigue you at all, get Descent. You’ll love it!

Wow, there’s been a lot of space-travel news lately.

And, that’s a good thing, I think. It means people are talking about it and doing things about it. Yesterday, I posted a story about India’s moonshot and last week I mentioned a couple of things about the X-Prize and SpaceShip One. Well, now I’ve read about Bigelow Aerospace and their work on inflatable space modules. The article is over at Spaceflight Now and is worth the read. One of the things that is mentioned is that Robert T. Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, says that he’s planning to announce a new $50-million space launch contest called America’s Space Prize. That’s five times the size of the current X-Prize.
What I think is cool about all this is that it’s about private industry working on getting into space. It’s something we really need to do. We’re slowly choking this planet and pushing her resources to the limit, so we need to find more room to expand. And, before everyone starts sending me nasty e-mail, that will also teach us conservation and better resource management. How? A space mission has to use its very limit resources extremely carefully or everyone dies. The improvements in technology will spill over into the private, non-space, sector, just as they’ve done since the first launch.
Also mentioned on the same page as the article is a book that looks quite good: Moonrush: Improving Life On Earth With The Moon’s Resources. It certainly seems like an appropriate topic based on all these news stories. All you budding science-fiction writers better bone up on this stuff!

This was a GREAT book!

Okay, regular readers of this blog know that I’m an amatuer writer with delusions of granduer. But, for those of you who are new, I want to write. What that means, though, is that I’m always reading books to help me with my writing, in one way or another. This past week I read Creating Short Fiction : The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction, by Damon Knight. This book is an all-around, kick-ass writing book. Damon Knight, though famous for his science-fiction writing, really hits all the bases in this one book. He covers, if lightly, everything from the creative process to editing to submitting your work. If it relates to writing, it’s in there.
I admit, I got this book because it was: a) on sale, b) short, and c) written by Damon Knight, who’s a great science-fiction author. But, this book only touches on science-fiction, as well as several other genres. Mainly this is just a really good book on writing short fiction. And, let’s face it, most authors start in short ficition before they get anyone to look at their longer work. It’s just how it is. So, writing short fiction is something that almost every fantasy or science-fiction writer will do at some point in their career.

So, if you’re looking for a refresher, or if you’re just getting started writing short ficiton, this is a great place to start. In fact, I got so excited about this book, I wrote a “So you’d like to…” guide over at Amazon.com, called So you’d like to write “speculative fiction”. Check it out!