Fantasist's Scroll

Look, kids, it’s been a brutal week for your Uncle Jim, so we need us some fun.
I won’t go into the gorey details, but it seems like anything that didn’t go wrong in my life this week either went wrong in someone else’s life I know or is about to go wrong, so it’s just been a long, damn week. But, today is Friday. The weekend is almost here and you can start your fun early with some of these links.
I dipped into my collection of weird links, and boy have got some doosies, to bring you a little Friday Fun.
First, there’s an old favorite, Spamusement. This guy draws very funny cartoons based on spam that we’ve all gotten one time or another. It’s silly, goofy and always makes me chuckle.
Then, there’s this wild casemod by, well, by someone in Japan, I guess since the entire page is in Japanese. It’s a PC sphere and looks cool. I think there’s instructions for making it, or buying it, somewhere on this page. Good luck figuring out which and where!
Next, we have something to make the sinners repent: The Bible Prophecy Page! Yes, now you, too, can bring the rantings of Bible Prophecy fringe groups to the conveniece of your own home via the Internet. What will they think of next!?!
And, for those of you who are homeless wanderers, or just on vactaion and away from you computers, here’s the Cyber Cafe Search Engine. It’ll help you find your next Internet fix away from home. Of course, if you’re looking for a place to check e-mail because you don’t have a computer then you’ll have to find that first spot on your own…

Well, whatever, these were just four semi-random links I grabbed out of my mess o’ weird sites. What the heck, kids, it’s Friday and Uncle Jim says “Click the links!”

No, for a change, that’s not a metaphor.
According to The Scotsman.com, appropriately, someone is working on a “warp” drive. A physicist at the Applied Sciences University in Salzgitter, Germany, and a former chief of aerodynamics at the European Space Agency, Professor Jochem Hauser, who’s one of the scientists putting forth the idea, warned that they’re in the very early stages of this project, but indicated that an propulsion system based on ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s is possible. The drive would work by creating an intense magnetic field that, in theory, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft.
That is the catch, though. It’s all theory. Now, there is a somewhat mysterious “Z Machine” that was created by the US Department of Energy that could generate the kind of magnetic fields required to drive the engine, so it is possible that some very interesting tests might be run in the near future. Apparently, NASA and the US Airforce took notice of this work after Prof Hauser and an Austrian colleague, Walter Droscher, wrote a paper called “Guidelines for a space propulsion device based on Heim’s quantum theory”.
Now, all they need to do is get a Scot on their maintenance crew and they’ll be all set.

Ever wanted to remodel your house to look like the Enterprise?
Now, you can! Or, rather, there’s a company that you can hire who can: 24Th Century Design. Started by someone who did his own replica transporter for “something to do”, these folks are based in the UK, but available for hire. Their site is a regular wonderland of Star Trek-like visions that can become your home.
Cool.

Happy Friday!

Here’s a little hard science for you.
Ever heard of the Drake Equation? Well, among other things, it’s what good, old Gene Roddenberry used to justify all the intelligent, space-faring races on Star Trek. Mainly, though, it’s a hotly debated estimate of the habitable worlds that might have produced an intelligent species which we might possibly encounter in our galaxy. Named for Dr. Frank Drake, who devised the equation in the 1960s. The main purpose of the equation was to let scientists to quantify the uncertainty of the factors which might determine the possible number of extraterrestrial civilizations.
In recent years, the various inputs have been debated on not only their merit, but their optimisim. Many feel that they are overly optimistic, especially in light of the fact that we haven’t seen any of these alleged potential civilizations yet. Nor, really, any sure evidence that such a thing might exists. Still, as a writer, I like to err on the side of hope. The hope that one day, we may find other beings who live differently than we do. From whom we can learn, as well as we might teach. The potential synergy of such a meeting could be staggering! I imagine that’s why old Gene liked the idea so well himself.
Either way, the idea that Drake was right or wrong, can produce some great fiction.

It’s the birthday of one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century, Isaac Asimov, who was born in Petrovichi, Russia in 1920. He came with his family to the United States when he was three years old and his parents opened a candy shop in Brooklyn. Issac grew up to become a professor of biochemistry at the Boston University School of medicine and in 1950 he published his first novel Pebble in the Sky.

About the same time Asimov took part in writing a textbook for medical students and he found that he loved explaining complicated things in ordinary language, and so he set out to write about science for the general public, in language they would understand. He said, “Little by little my science writing swallowed up the rest of me.”
Asimov developed a regimen of working ten hours a day, seven days a week, producing between two and five thousand words a day. Asimov’s method was to write a book about any subject that interested him but which he didn’t fully understand. He used writing as a way of teaching himself about everything.
By 1970 Asimov had written more than a hundred books and he began branching out into areas other than science. He wrote about nuclear physics and organic chemistry, history, Greek mythology, astronomy, religion, in addition to his collections of limericks, mystery novels, autobiography and science fiction. By the time of his death in 1992 he had published more than 400 books.

Today is the birthday of two very important science-fiction writers.
The first is science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick, who was born in Chicago in 1928. He wrote many novels that pushed the edge of science-fiction a little further out, making room for the cyberpunk movement to follow him. Some of his work includes Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Minority Report (which is a collection of short stories), We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (another short story collection), and A Scanner Darkly. Since his death in 1982, many of his novels and short stories have been made into movies, including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002).

It’s also the birthday of the science fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke, who was born in Somerset, England in 1917. He’s the author of many science fiction novels, including Childhood’s End, 2001: A Space Odyssey(which was written in the year of my birth!), and Rendevous with Rama. He is also famous for inventing the concept of the communications satellite.

Yes, they’re real.
Actual autonomous robots that mimic fish are no longer just science-fiction. According to this article on the BBC, the London Aquarium not only has them, but has them swimming in a tank with actual fish. Primarily as a marketing gimmick at the moment, but, still, they’re in there just acting like fish. Currently, they’re trying to get them to “feed” like biological animals, too, but, at the moment, they’re on batteries that last rough 5 hours.
Obviously, these little blighters are part of a scientific experiment to see how the fish and robots interact, as well as representing a step in the ever popular quest for artificial life. Any way you slice it, robofish are pretty interesting.

Well, at least his fossil.
According to this article from McMaster University, an ape that was roughly three meters tall and weighed up to 1,200 pounds was running around Asia at a time when humans also existed. Gigantopithecus blackii, as the giant primate is known in archeological circles, has actually been known for over 35 years, but this is the first time that such a complete specimen has been found and accurately dated.
And, yes, I do suppose that they’re capitalizing on the recent media blitz surrounding the new King Kong movie, which opens in December. I still think it’s cool.