Interested in exploring some of the linguistic problems involved in communicating with aliens? Check out "How to Learn Martian", a nonfiction essay written by American linguist Charles F. Hockett that was published in the October 1955 issue of Astounding Science Fiction (British edition). Access is a bit cumbersome, as the issue is part of a huge library of old pulp magazines that have been scanned in CBR format.
The third (August 2010) issue of Lightspeed Magazine, a new, free, online science fiction publication edited by John Joseph Adams, has several pieces related to Mars. First, is “How to Become a Mars Overlord,” a sweeping short story written by Catherynne M. Valente that features some stellar writing and casts Mars in a brilliant metaphorical light. Here are the opening lines:WELCOME, Aspiring Potentates! We are tremendously gratified at your interest in our little red project, and pleased that you recognize the potential growth opportunities inherent in whole-planet domination. Of course we remain humble in the face of such august and powerful interests, and seek only to showcase the unique and challenging career paths currently available on the highly desirable, iconic, and oxygen-rich landscape of Mars....Interestingly, “How to Become a Mars Overlord” is also available as a podcast, narrated by Robin Sachs (mp3, 32 minutes).
Here's a cool eco-sustainable catamaran yacht named Marvin the Martian. Designed by Maria Malindretou-Vika, an architecture firm in Thessaloniki, Greece, this 50-foot concept boat is both autonomous and energy self-sufficient. The fiberglass hull employs vacuum infusion epoxy resins and Kevlar laminates, so it’s both lightweight and inexpensive. The deck has 35 square meters of photovoltaic panels and hatches throughout the yacht allow for natural air conditioning. With a kitchen, dinette and living room, eight people can fit comfortably aboard!
Well, the Task Group for Mars Nomenclature at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has just reinforced the glass dome on the Red Planet by naming another crater in honor of a male science fiction writer. Crater Greg, about 68 km in diameter and located east of Hellas Planitia basin, is named for 19th-century science fiction author Percy Greg (1836-1889), who wrote the influential Mars novel Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record (1880).
Radio host and best-selling author Richard "Cydonia" Hoagland, who wrote the infamous 
The FBI’s “Electronic Reading Room” has scores of case files and thousands of documents that have been scanned from paper into digital copies, including more than 300 pages from the file on famed German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who was a proponent of a manned mission to Mars back in the 1950's. At quick glance, the file contains information about von Braun's personal life, his involvement in secret Nazi science projects, death threats against von Braun and President Nixon, protests of von Braun by groups representing Holocaust survivors, and possible sabotage of the United States space program! Some things have been redacted, but this still makes for fascinating reading.
Hugo Award-winning SF&F artist Frank Wu has embedded several of astronomer Percival Lowell’s infamous early 20th-century maps of the canals on Mars in a panel of his forthcoming Guidolon graphic novel.
Space.com reports that the “international” crew of mock astronauts that will be sealed in a fictitious spaceship & landing site environment at Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow on June 3, 2010, for Mars500, a 520-day simulated mission to the Red Planet, has been finalized. The volunteer, six-person team, which is composed of three Russian men, a French man, an Italian man, and a Chinese fellow, will allow scientists to study the psychological and physiological effects of small-group, long-term confinement. Apparently, over 6,000 people from 40 countries applied to join the $15 million mock mission, which includes a 250-day outbound journey, 30 days of exploring and colonizing, and a 240-day return flight. No word on why the mission does not include any women.
The Moscow Times and SatNews.com report that Russian space corporation Energia has received preliminary approval from a United States bankruptcy court to provide $30 million in financing to fund the operating costs of Sea Launch Co., a bankrupt satellite launcher, possibly with the intention of purchasing the California-based company. About $19 of the $30 million will replace funding that Sea Launch was expected to receive from Space Launch Services LLC and the Heinlein Prize Trust.
Martian science fiction writer and SFWA member Bud Sparhawk is scheduled to attend Launch Pad 2010, an astronomy workshop funded by NASA and hosted by University of Wyoming professor Michael S. Brotherton that seeks to improve science literacy through words and media, this summer. Sparhawk is the author of “Olympus Mons!”, a novelette published in the January 1998 issue of Analog magazine, and “Winds of Mars,” a novella published online in 2009 by Baen Books.
There’s a cool 1950's space age Californian pottery lamp with Martian motif and tripod legs for sale on eBay. Only $750. Beware this portion of the seller’s return policy:
While some of the largest and most powerful financial institutions down on Wall Street were pushed to their deaths in 2008, events were a bit less tragic up on Broadway, where annual compensation for the administrative manager of the Mystery Writers Association (MWA) cracked $100,000. Check out the numbers, based on MWA’s recently-filed 2008 IRS Form 990:
There’s an insightful hour-long video posted on YouTube of acclaimed Martian science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson giving a 2007 Google Tech Talks lecture on climate change. He discusses strategies for decarbonizing our civilization, “focusing on social questions, cleaner energy and transport, mission architectures, possibilities of geo-engineering, and the important role that Google can have in all these as world leader in information technologies.”
Lawrence A. Clopper III is not only co-founder and co-owner of PublishAmerica, a controversial vanity press based in Frederick, Maryland, he is also co-inventor of the hexadecimal abacus. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Clopper and a colleague were granted patent number US4812124 in March 1989 for inventing the hexadecimal abacus. Here’s the abstract from the USPTO:
Thanks to Doc Mars of the amazing French website Mars & la Science Fiction, you can read Ray Bradbury’s beautiful 1976 poem “Why Viking Lander, Why the Planet Mars?” as it originally appeared in the pages of Star*Reach #6, complete with awesome artwork!
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times profiling award-winning Martian science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson piqued my interest in the ecological nature of Mister Robinson’s neighborhood, Village Homes of Davis, California. A seventy-acre subdivision designed in the 1970s to “encourage both the development of a sense of community and the conservation of energy and natural resources,” Village Homes features all kinds of neat features, such as the solar orientation of streets, bike paths, natural drainage, edible landscaping and open space. And, according to the neighborhood’s website, nearly all of the streets are named for people or places in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth fantasy series!
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1. As of January 2010, Wal-Mart's presence in Maine includes 16 Supercenters, 6 Discount Stores, 3 Sam's Clubs and 1 Distribution Center.
The Boston Globe reports that Amy Bishop, the biology professor at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, who shot three of her colleagues to death last Friday, attended a writers group in the Boston area in the early 1990s in which she wrote a dramatic novel titled Martians in Belfast. According to one member of group, the novel “recounted the life of a girl growing up during the Troubles of Ireland.” No word on whether or not Bishop sports a tattoo of Marvin the Martian.
Hugo Award-winning science fiction author and Portland resident David D. Levine, who recently participated in a two-week simulated Mars mission as a member of Crew 88 at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, was just interviewed at OregonLive.com. In answering an array of questions, Levine revealed his favorite Martian SF novel: Mars Crossing (2000), by Geoffrey A. Landis!
According to New York City public records (ACRIS) and other online sources, Macmillan CEO John Sargent’s $3.8 million home at 37 Garden Place in Brooklyn was once owned by renowned photographer David B. Eisendrath, who served as a consultant in technical and scientific photography to the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA, Reports) in the mid 1970s. Eisendrath lived at 37 Garden Place, a brownstone built in 1901, for several decades until his death in 1988. His widow, Barbara T. Eisendrath, sold the house to John Sargent and his wife Connie in 1992.
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