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Offworld Report: Weird Science, November 2004
Iran's first satellite, the X Prize is won, a fossil dragon, robot
fish, why space access costs must, and can, drop dramatically, and
has the Great Galactic Ghoul lost its appetite for Martian probes?
 No
Space in this Election
Why hasn’t space policy drifted into the recent US Presidential
Campaign?
The
Muslim Satellite
The implications of Iran’s plans to launch a satellite using its
own rocket system.
An
X-Prize for a Moon Base?
Promoting space settlements via an X-prize-like challenge.
The
Moon. Going once, going twice …
Auctioning off-world real estate? What’s that about?
Nearly
there
Why we are on the threshold of public space travel.
X-Prize
for world's 'Holy Grails'
Why a string of X-Prizes for science to crack the world's supreme
challenges are being lined up.
Russian
and US crew arrives at the ISS
Stuck on how to get to the International Space Station? Kazakhstan
can help.
Sleeping
Dragons
A fossil dinosaur caught acting like a bird is found in China.
Humanity
is a Man-Bacteria Hybrid?
Why people should be viewed as hyper-cooperative composed of a hotchpotch
of human, bacterial, fungal and viral life.
Robo-Fish
Swims for It
Why a robot fish is now swimming the oceans.
NASA
on Autopilot
Why NASA’s next space ship will be able to fly itself.
What
next for the X-Prize?
Now that SpaceShipOne has won the Ansari X Prize, where can we go
next?
The
X-Prize Significance
Now the X-Prize has been won our life will never be the same again,
argues this article.
SpaceShipOne
Photo opportunity
Gallery of pics from the X-Prize-winning flight.
Lottery
to the Star
Will there be a lottery for members of the public to win trips to
space?
The
Real Space Race
Does a race to the stars offer a better deal than an auction?
UK
– the next NASA?
The UK wants in on the space race with its Aurora programme to Mars.
The
Walking Lab
Look at NASA’s plans for a walking space lab for the Moon and Mars.
X-Prize:
the Bit Players
Who are the legions of geeks who have helped grab the X-prize?
SpaceShipOne
Wins
Rocket-ship SpaceShipOne grabs the $10m X-Prize for private space
travel.
Going
Sub-atomic
Gross, Politzer and Wilczeck scoop the Nobel Prize for their work
on the structure of matter.
Lowering
launch costs
Space access costs are being inflated by intuitional barriers, reckons
this article.
Space
Tourism Deadly?
Commercial space flight could be real risky for the travellers in
the early days.
Moore's
Law For Spaceflight?
Will space transport now be on a semiconductor-like ride of cheapness?
China
in Space
China turns up at the International Astronautical Congress in Canada,
and they are hungry.
2004:
A Vintage year for space
What a fab year this one’s been for space travel.
The
Drama of the Win
SpaceShipOne gets its prize but it had a few blips on the way.
Galactic
Ghoul loses appetite?
The Great Galactic Ghoul has been killing Mars-bound spacecraft
for a long time, but perhaps it is now losing its taste for human-sent
ships?
Time
in the Sun
Solar satellites and fusion may be while off yet, even with an energy
crisis brewing.
UFO
Genius Dies
The UFO world loses a champion in a mysterious crash.
Martian
Evian
If Mars had oceans in the past, where is all that water now?
Hubble's
still Surprises
The Hubble Space Telescope gives the scientists a bit of a deep
space surprise.
Oxygen
Generator Failure
Why the International Space Station’s O2 generator keeps on breaking
down.
Virgins
In Space
Richard Branson gets into the commercial space race.
Plasma
Beam to the Stars
A new way of travelling into space is being developed in the US.
Robo-Scope
Looks into the world of RoboNet, the AI-driven search for Earth-class
planets and other astronomical wonders.
Flying
Cars Back Again
Once again, flying cars are being touted as the next generation
of personal transport.
Grumman’s
Jupiter probe
Northrop Grumman gets the job of building the Jimo Jupiter space
probe.
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OTHER CONTENT - November 2004
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Terry
Brooks gets Tanequil
Fantasy author Terry interviewed about his new novel, Tanequil, the second book
in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, on growing as an author, and his plans
to return to his earlier Word & Void series.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Sea,
Sky by Rosemary Kirstein
The author of The Language Of Power ruminates about world creation and comes
to the conclusion that there are basically two ways to do it. You can begin
from the top down, or from the ground up.
(ARTICLES)
Third
World
One of our famous one page stories by GF Willmetts.
(FICTION)
Black
Cat Investments Ltd. - Your Money Is Safe With Us
One of our famous one page stories by Rod MacDonald.
(FICTION)
San
Diego Comic-Con '04
So, it looks like half the people who voted in a Crowsnest poll a couple of
months back have never been to a convention. Which is a little sad when you
come to think of it - there's really nowhere else on earth you get to indulge
your genre weakness like a Con. If only because everyone else there is doing
exactly the same thing.
(CON REPORTS)
One
Page Stories Submissions (or What To Do, What To Write And How to Submit)
This is an experiment on the website for all of you writers and neo-writers
out there. One of the criticisms that I raise when working my way through our
slush pile is that writers need to learn how to tell a story with a limited
word count to make everything count and tell a good story.
(ARTICLES)
I
Remember Superman
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004 - a lament by: GF Willmetts.
(ARTICLES)
Offworld
Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 2004
Interviews with Stephen R. Donaldson, Clive Barker, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,
Clark Kent's foster father, and John Clute, Dell Magazines' SF boat cruise,
fiction by Peter Crowther, and getting laid at a science-fiction convention.
(NEWS)
Offworld
Report: Weird Science, November 2004
Iran's first satellite, the X Prize is won, a fossil dragon, robot fish, why
space access costs must, and can, drop dramatically, and has the Great Galactic
Ghoul lost its appetite for Martian probes?
(NEWS)
Resident
Evil: Apocalypse (Frank's Take)
Director Alexander Witt takes over this elaborate gory gaming gimmick by ushering
out the second installment Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The labored formula remains
the same regarding a curvy and calisthenics cretin-kicking cutie leading the
charge in eliminating some serious zombie butt.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Frank's Take)
DreamWorks tries awkwardly in their blind ambition to continue the delightful
digital-animated ditties in the celebrated spirit that has been previously so
vastly successful at the box office. As a result, the DreamWorks creative machine
conjured up a spry but uneven underwater adventure in the derivatively upbeat
animated feature Shark Tale.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Frank's Take)
In the stylistically ambitious sci-fi fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
Conran concocts a colorful creation dripping with cheerful arty set designs
armed with a refreshing old-fashion storytelling sentiment that drives this
opulent noir to its creative core.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Frank's Take)
The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead certainly fits the
bill as a monstrously subversive parody that delivers the ghoulish goods. With
its British-oriented sense of stinging wry wit coupled with some truly genuine
gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest
that captures the twisted imagination.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Ghost
In The Shell 2: Innocence (Mark's Take)
Mark checks out this popular Japanese anime flick and discovers the animation
is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees of dimensionality, frequently
within the same frame.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Hero
(Mark's Take)
China tries to make its own Crouching Tiger with a story of an enigmatic stranger
who has killed a triad of assassins for the benefit of China's first Emperor.
The stranger tells the emperor multiple versions of how he killed the emperor's
enemies. Visually Hero is stunning. The telling is operatic in style but becomes
muddled.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Les
Revenants (Mark's Take)
A creative and intelligent recycling of the horror concept of the dead returning,
but this time it is used for non-horror purposes. Les Revenants runs into pacing
problems toward the middle.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Primer
(Mark's Take)
This SF film gets the research environment and the baffling scientific techno-jargon
just about right. The story is hard to follow, but that might not be so unrealistic
either. Definitely this is a demanding and puzzling film that does a lot with
its minuscule budget.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Mark's Take)
Dreamscape's latest animated film is set in a sort of undersea urban environment
and should entertain the whole family. The story is familiar but the jokes come
in a rapid fire.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Mark's Take)
This film is like a crossbreeding of George Romero and Mike Leigh. Oblivious
lower-middle-class Londoners slowly become aware that the dead are returning
at trying to eat the living. This satire laughs at the tropes of the zombie
movie, but even more at the foibles of English life today. The first half is
very funny and the second half is at least witty.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Mark's Take)
The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is the background for
this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The plot is just a chain of action sequences,
one leading to the next, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork
is a little too dark, but the images are genuinely exciting and they are what
make the film worth seeing.
(FILM REVIEWS)
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