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Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

I love it when what I’m reading crystallizes my thoughts into something beautiful. 

Here’s one such case, where friend and fellow Writer of the Future Arthur H. Manners captured (in Analog, no less!) the essence of a question I have all the time: Even as we look ahead to the future, how will the future see us?

Looking Back

by Arthur H. Manners

When they look back at us,

stumbling on petrified arXiv

in the tombs of the

internet like a

Cretaceous mosquito

trapped in amber,

will they distinguish our

grandest theories of

quantum gravity

from red ochre bison

painted on the walls of

Lascaux caves?

Visit Analog to read the rest of the poem, and for more of Arthur’s excellent work, including online shorts and the detailed hard-science Sci-Fi Writer’s Guide to Reality, check out his site!

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Who won Hugo Awards at this’s year’s Worldcon in Seattle? So glad you asked.

Here’s the final list!

2025 Hugo Awards – The Winners | Pixelated Geek

All nominees are included, with winners in bold. Congratulations to awardees, and to everyone on the roster!

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“Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.”

― Howard Thurman

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Astronaut James Lovell, Apollo 13 commander, dies at 97

“James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 who helped turn a failed moon mission into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering, has died. He was 97.”

(If you’re curious, here’s a quick refresher on the Apollo program.)

And because so many of us know of Lovell from the excellent movie version of his most famous mission, here’s Tom Hanks’ appreciation:

Tom Hanks pays tribute to Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell

“There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the places we would not go on our own. Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy.” 

Here’s to the brave, to the can-do, to the explorers among us. Humanity is the better for you.

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I believe in kindness. Also in mischief.

— Mary Oliver

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Sometimes a picture is worth much more than a thousand words:

Andromeda Galaxy Panorama Features Over 200 Million Stars

Stitching together more than 600 overlapping snapshots, the panorama serves as the largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope observations. Across its 2.5 billion pixels are a vast and vibrant assortment of 200 million stars, a mere fraction of Andromeda’s entire population. Taken in its entirety, the panorama is not only a technological or photographic achievement, it’s also a critical glimpse into the Andromeda galaxy itself.

And here’s the video version. 

Andromeda revealed!

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Have a few minutes to let your inner child run free? 

Perhaps you have fond memories of staring up at the sky during summer break, letting clouds drift across your subconscious until “Look! An elephant! An pterodactyl! Jabba the Hutt!”

If so, this site might be just the thing for you:

Cloud Drawing Gallery – Create & Share Cloud Art

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I have a folder of interesting articles, quotes, and ideas. When the cicadas are buzzing and the temperature is too hot to think of anything particularly timely, I search that folder for stories that might interest you.

Today, this treasure trove of ideas wants you to know about a critical space station issue: water.

Water recycling is paramount for space stations and long-duration missions − an environmental engineer explains how the ISS does it

When you’re on a camping trip, you might have to pack your own food and maybe something to filter or treat water that you find. But imagine your campsite is in space, where there’s no water, and packing jugs of water would take up room when every inch of cargo space counts. That’s a key challenge engineers faced when designing the International Space Station.

Real life Dune! Ok, not really, but kind of! And this is exactly the sort of technology that can benefit the Earth-bound among us too.

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I enjoy the fact that there is always something new to learn. Some things are big, like the latest on asteroid deflection from NASA’s DART program, and some are small, like the fact that Dan Aykroyd had a cameo in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. (Did you know that? I didn’t, until last night when I did a double take and said, “Wait, the guy with the mustache and the British accent. Was that Dan Aykroyd?” It was!)

Of global importance or not, these facts are all interesting reminders that there is always something new around the corner, if you keep looking.

And that, I think, is magic.

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Here’s a fun and productive use of the internet that answers a very important question: How close are we to living in the Star Trek universe?

Check it out and see!

Are We Trek Yet?

This guide is intended to be a comprehensive look at the tech that Star Trek suggested to drive humanity forward ad astra per aspera. The emphasis is on innovations that don’t violate physics according to present consensus understanding. Go ahead and explore boldly… Just don’t waste too much time on idle speculation: there’s a whole lot to do if we’re going to get to Trek, and it’s going to take all of us.

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