Wanderers by Erik Wernquist

Terrarium. Credit: Erik
Terrarium (unnamed asteroid, Main Asteroid Belt). Credit: Erik Wernquist

This has to be one of the most inspiring short films of the year. Erik Wernquist = a digital artist and animator from Stockholm, Sweden – released this movie this past fall, and its made quite the impact already! Addressing the idea of future space exploration, Wernquist uses stunning visuals to show how human beings may one day fly to Jupiter, float walk on the surface of Mars, skate on the frozen surfaces of Europa, and fly through the skies of Titan.

One thing I myself loved was the attention to detail and little accuracies. Within each impressive visual, there are hints that give away the locations. For example, the blue sunset is from Mars, as pictured by NASA’s many rover missions over the past few years. The frozen lake where people are skating on shows Jupiter looming in the sky, indicating that it is Europa. And an overhead shot of Titan shows the “Mini Nile River” observed there by the Cassini space probe. And while the asteroid is unnamed, I would bet dollars to donuts that Vesta!

Including in these visuals are a number of speculative science fiction ideas pioneered by writers like Arthur C. Clarke and Kim Stanley Robinson, not the least of which have to do with space elevators and habitats built into hollowed-out asteroids. But above all is the contribution of Carl Sagan, who’s narration from his own book “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space” (1994) provides the voiceover for the film.

You can watch the short film below, and be sure to check out Wernquist’s website for more info and his stunning gallery of images:

Universe Today – Total Views for November

InternettrafficHey folks! As is customary on the tenth of every new month, the folks over at Universe Today do an official tally of all the articles published by their authors for the previous month. And it seems that November was a pretty good one for me, even though it wasn’t exactly much of a competition. This is only my second month working for UT, and I began almost halfway through the month of October so I published way fewer articles.

Still, going from 50,444 to 171,852 is pretty good! That’s a threefold increase, and then some. The full list appears below, along with the date of publication. If any of these sound interesting, just go click on the Articles at Universe Today link under Pages on the right there.

And to my fellow bloggers, freelancers, articlers and indie writers out there – as my friend James K Bowers would say “keep hammering away at those keys!” The breaks are coming for us all!

11/18/2014 How Do Planets Form? Semarkona Meteorite Shows Some Clues 989
11/19/2014 “Spotters Guide” for Detecting Black Hole Collisions 1,245
11/3/2014 Welcome to Mars! – Hi-SEAS and Mars Society Kick Off New Season of Missions 1,295
11/4/2014 VLTI Detects Exozodiacal Light Around Exoplanets 1,419
11/13/2014 Weather Forecasting on Mars Likely to be Trickier Than on Earth 1,609
11/7/2014 Canadian Micro-Rover and Lander “Northern Light” Aim for Launch to Mars in 2018 1,661
11/28/2014 “Eye of Sauron” Galaxy Used For New Method of Galactic Surveying 2,358
11/10/2014 NASA’s Next Exoplanet Hunter Moves Into Development 2,408
11/18/2014 Warm, Flowing Water on Mars Was Episodic, Study Suggests 2,586
11/19/2014 Elusive Dark Matter Could Be Detected with GPS Satellites 2,611
11/25/2014 Africa’s First Mission to the Moon Announced 2,669
11/1/2014 A Red Moon – NOT a Sign of the Apocalypse! 2,779
11/19/2014 Amazingly Detailed New Maps of Asteroid Vesta 3,056
11/7/2014 It’s Complicated: Hubble Survey Finds Unexpected Diversity in Dusty Discs Around Nearby Stars 3,230
11/5/2014 Where Have All the Pulsars Gone? The Mystery at the Center of Our Galaxy 3,382
11/21/2014 Subaru Telescope Spots Galaxies From The Early Universe 4,399
11/21/2014 NASA’s “Remastered” View of Europa is the Best Yet 5,411
11/14/2014 Concerns over ESA’s Data Release Policy Amidst Rosetta Comet Landing 5,816
11/20/2014 Two New Subatomic Particles Found 6,040
11/15/2014 Macro View Makes Dark Matter Look Even Stranger 6,820
11/29/2014 Astronomers Poised to Capture Image of Supermassive Milky Way Black Hole 9,210
11/25/2014 The Search for Dark Energy Just Got Easier 10,796
11/27/2014 NASA’s Van Allen Probes Spot Impenetrable Radiation Barrier in Space 18,021
11/21/2014 Earth’s Orbit Around The Sun 18,279
11/29/2014 The “Potsdam Gravity Potato” Shows Variations in Earth’s Gravity 23,686
11/10/2014 What Did Isaac Newton Discover? 30,077
Total Views 171,852

Terminator Genisys Trailer

Terminator-Genisys-posterRumors have been flying for over a year now as to what the new Terminator relaunch will look like, and what the plot will entail. We knew in advance that Anrie would be back (sorry!), that the movie would be set in the future and the present, and that it would be rebooting the plot after the last few abortive sequels. Well, they finally released a full-length trailer that answers all the nagging questions, it seems!

From what is shown, the film starts in 2029, where John Conner is leading the resistance to their victory of Skynet and the Terminators. Consistent with the original movie, they overrun the machines base, only to find that they have sent a machine back in time to kill John mother, Sarah. Reese steps through the portal with the intent of saving her, only to find that the past has changed drastically.

In this version of the past, Sarah is the militarized, ass-kicker we remember from T2, Arnie is an aged T-101 John sent back in the second movie to protect himself, and a newfangled T-1000 is hunting them. And in the course of it, Sarah explains to Reese that the past he thought he was traveling to no longer exists. Apparently, this past is a mashup of the previous timelines covered in the first two movies… interesting.

TG_arnieAnd of course, there’s a ton of shooting and shit getting blown up! We also get to see from this trailer who will be playing whom, and the cast looks pretty good. Arnie reprises the role of the good Terminator (interesting that he’s aged),  Emilia Clarke (of GOT fame) plays Sarah Conner, Jason Clarke is John Conner, Jai Courtney (Sam Worthington’s less-talented clone) is Kyle Reese, and Byung hun Lee (of G.I. Joe fame) is the evil T-1000.

I do wonder how they plan to explain the aging Terminator angle. But I imagine it will be something along the lines of Arnie saying “you know how I explained how I’m a cybernetic organism, living tissue over a robotic endoskeleton? Well, the tissue part get’s older and saggier with time. Go figure!”

The movie is set for release in August of next year. Enjoy the trailer!

Retweeted by NASA and Inside Space!

Our watery Earth. Credit: NASA
Our watery Earth. Credit: NASA

Good news everyone! After about two months of working for Universe Today, it appears that some of what I say is actually being read by the big names in the bizz! It started three days ago when NASA Earth retweeted an article I wrote entitled “What Percentage of Earth is Water?“, which was part of UT’s Guide to Space section that deals with general knowledge questions about astronomy, geology, the universe, etc.

The second came yesterday when Inside Space retweeted an more recent article I did about the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, and how scientists anticipate that they will be able to view it for the first time in the near future. They were doing a list of the top ten recent news stories of space in recent days, and apparently, my story made the list (I was number 9).

All in all, it’s been a pretty cool week! 🙂

Archer Season 6 Trailer

archer-fxIf, like me, you’re a fan of the show Archer, you’ve been wondering when the hell Season 6 is going to premiere. Luckily, FX released the first season 6 trailer a few weeks ago, and indicated that new episodes will be on the air starting in January. That’s good news, for those of us who’ve been waiting since April to find out what’s coming next and when.

Who do you think you are, you Archer producers, Game of Thrones?

To be fair, a couple of hints have been leaked over the past few months as to what will be happening in the new season. For starters, it’s been made clear that after events in the last season, the spy agency will be back at work. Only this time around, they’ve dropped the name ISIS thanks to a certain group of terrorists scumbags who’ve been roving around Iraq and Syria of late.

Second, Lana is busy raising her and Archer’s daughter, Pam is off the wagon as far as binge-eating goes (at least she kicked her massive cocaine habit), and everybody else is pretty much the same. Cheryl is a pyromaniac, Cyril is a boring accountant, Ray is a champion skier, Krieger is still trying to master YYZ, and Malory is still a horrible shrew.

Just a few more months, people!

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens Trailer!

star-wars-episode-vii-force-awakensIt finally happened, Lucasarts and J.J. Abrams have released the very first trailer for the upcoming Star Wars sequel. For months, tidbits of news has been trickling out of the studio – casting info, tentative info on the plot, official posters; and of course, the name. But otherwise, everyone involved in the movie’s production has been pretty tight-lipped about it.

Word is, the studio even ordered a “drone shield” to protect their sets from anyone trying to obtain aerial footage of the production. Pretty neat huh? In any case, the trailer is pretty good at giving us drops that will only make us thirsty for more!

Star-WarsVIIThese include the familiar locale of Tatooine, actor John Boyega in the role of a Stormtrooper, a Sith with a newfangled lightsaber (above), actress Daisy Ridley riding a bulky speeder on Tatooine, actor Oscar Isaac flying a squad of X-wings across open water, Stormtroopers preparing for an assault, and the good ol’ Millennium Falcon dog fighting with TIE fighters above Tatooine’s surface.

All the while, we hear a baritone voice asking us if we can feel it, and by “it”, he means the Force! I tell you, this puts me in mind of the days when trailers for Star Wars Episode I were first coming out. I remember how us Wars geeks were all atwitter and couldn’t wait to see it. Perhaps it’s because I’m older now, or that the prequels have left me a bit jaded and cynical, but I do wish I could recapture that feeling.

star-wars-episode-vii-force-awakens(1)Basically, I think that like many childhood fans, I’m hoping that these sequels will be what the prequels should have been – an exciting and awesome return to the Star Wars universe we all knew and loved. Before the dark times… before Jar-Jar and midechlorians!

For f*** sakes, MIDECHLORIANS!

Check out the trailer below:

Busy, But Getting Back to ‘er!

Mindfulness-and-Living-a-Busy-LifeHey folks. As you may have noticed, I’ve been pretty absent in recent weeks. And as always, it’s because life intervened. Nothing bad, just a busy schedule with all the new writing assignments. At the same time, I’ve been busy with Tae kwon-Do since the Grand Master was coming for a visit. And on top of that, the wife and I have been house-hunting lately and that’s taken up a lot of our attention.

As you can imagine, this has not left much time for personal writing or blogging. But in and around all that stuff, I have managed to make a bit of time for my works-in-progress. For instance, I finally started making some progress on Oscar Mike the other day. I left that story in the midst of a cliffhanger chapter, so stopping short of completing it was a bit silly on my part.

Oscar MikeAlso, I got back to editing Flash Forward, which I also stalled on, and managed to get a few more stories polished and ready for publication. I was really hoping to have of these stories ready for publication by now, but professional writing and my preoccupation with one other story kind of put a hold on that plan. That would Reciprocity, which I went into some detail about a little while ago.

Ever since I decided to redo that idea this past summer, I’ve been pretty much obsessed with it. This is typical of me, always hopping from idea to idea and becoming fixated the latest one. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that I suffer from a peculiar condition when it comes to writing. It’s known as Literary-Attention-Deficit-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder (or LADOCD, for short).

Yuva_coverOr at least it would be, if it were recognized by any medical authority on the planet. But I digress! The point is, I’ve managed to shake myself loose from that story long enough to commit to work that needs my attention more. And I really, REALLY need to get back to my writing group and get the boll rolling again on the Yuva anthology. People are working, and waiting for direction. I cannot abandon them!

Well, that it’s for me right now. What’s up will all you fine folks? What’s new and interesting? Or, failing that, what’s just new? Any plans for the holiday season? And to my American cousins, how’s Thanksgiving treating you?

Universe Today – Total Views for October

internet_trafficGood day all! Recently, I got some good news. It seems that one of the perks of writing for a major website is that they keep tallies on how your articles did. And in addition to getting paid for all the submissions I wrote for the month of October, I was also sent a list with the official numbers.

Here’s what it looked like:

10/13/2014 Bigelow Inflatable Module to be Added to Space Station in 2015 3913
10/16/2014 NASA Investigating Deep-Space Hibernation Technology 7032
10/20/2014 Water On The Moon Was Blown in by Solar Wind 1811
10/21/2014 How NASA and SpaceX are Working Together to Land on Mars 3871
10/22/2014 Is Dark Matter Coming From The Sun? 6857
10/23/2014 The Physics Behind “Interstellar’s” Visual Effects Was So Good, it Led to a Scientific Discovery 14318
10/27/2014 Small Spacecraft Ejected from Space Station Airlock Will Provide Same-Day, On-Demand Parcel Delivery 2303
10/27/2014 Make a Deal for Land on the Moon 1420
10/28/2014 100,000 Ice Blocks Mapped Out at the South Pole … of Enceladus 3124
10/28/2014 Just In Time for Halloween: Jupiter Gets a Giant Cyclops Eye! 4386
10/29/2014 Cassini Probe Spots Methane Ice Crystals In Titan’s Atmosphere 1009
Total Views 50044

Judging from this table, it seems that far more people will pay attention to you when you write about space news – instead of a combination of zombies, guns, star wars and gynoids. Who knew?

ESA’s Rosetta Mission Lands on Comet!

Rosetta_and_Philae_at_comet_node_full_imageOne hundred years ago, Europeans were engaged in the most brutal, inhuman struggle in history – one that saw millions of people killed and entire countrysides devastated. Today, Europeans stood together, hand in hand, to witness the momentous occasion of the Philae Lander setting down on the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. Not only was history made in this one act, it put a whole lot of history into perspective.

And my good friends over at Universe Today have been covering this news in a very as-it-happens fashion. So have countless other news sources all over the planet, and for good reason. This is the first time human beings have ever landed a robotic rover on a comet’s surface. Due to the high-speed, transitory nature of these celestial bodies, we’ve been forced to sit back and watch up until now.

Mars_comet_flybyIn fact, comets have been around for billions of years and date back to a time when the Solar System was still in its early stages of formation. For human beings, the sight of a comet in the night sky was often seen as a bad omen. For example, the presence of Halley’s Comet in the Inner Solar System is still believed by many to be a bringer of doom. During it’s last appearance in 1986, it became the first comet be observed in detail by spacecraft.

But with the Rosetta space mission, we finally have the opportunity to study the surface of a comet in detail, and up close! Who knows what mysteries lie beneath that icy surface. Most likely, there’s a whole lot of dust that is billions of years old and can tell us things about what our Solar System looked like way back when. But you never know…

Nice to know that humanity has made some progress in the past century.

Are You a Writer-in-Waiting?

sb10067155f-001A little while ago, I was having a conversation with a colleague about my writing. I found myself trying to describe what I was before I made the decision to go the indie route. And the term that came to me was “writing-in-waiting”. At the time, it was just something I came up with in an attempt to be cheeky. But it actually summed up what my problem was for all the years that I toiled away in anonymity.

And truth be told, it applies to a whole lot of aspiring writers I’ve talked to over the years. What do you call yourself when you’re a writer who has a manuscript, but is stuck in the “what do I do now” phase? These are not the same people have an idea in their head and are undecided on what to do about it. Those people are “aspiring writers”, people who haven’t made the big leap yet.

novels“Writer’s-in-waiting”, on the other hand, describes the people who have taken that leap, put the pen to paper and given their idea life, but aren’t sure what to do next.  I do believe every independent writer has gone through this phase at one point or another. Somehow, the concept of publishing your own works just doesn’t come naturally. We all still believe that there’s a publisher out there who will give us our “big break”.

You know what I’m talking about, right? The cash advance, the contract, the royalties, and all kinds of promotion and publicity. But alas, this is a very hard thing to come by, and it seems to be getting harder all the time. Lucky for us, the very things that are making it harder to get a publishing deal are also providing us with the tool to publish, promote and publicize ourselves.

But I digress. Does this description, a “writer-in-waiting” describe you? If so, the good news is that there are plenty of people who’ve taken that next step and can let you know how and where to make it. And even though there is no such thing as a “big break” anymore, or at least a very slim chance of one, there’s plenty of opportunity for people with an idea and the will to take it public.