Science fiction quote of the day from H.G. Wells:

While there is a chance of the world getting through its troubles, I hold that a reasonable man has to behave as though he were sure of it. If at the end your cheerfulness is not justified, at any rate you will have been cheerful.

Attributed

Science Fictiona author quote of the day from Neal Stephenson (author of Cryptonomicon, among other works):

For a Westerner to trash Western culture is like criticizing our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere on the grounds that it sometimes gets windy, and besides, Jupiter's is much prettier. You may not realize its advantages until you're trying to breathe liquid methane.

Wired 2.02: In the Kindom of Mao Bell

The transcript of a lecture on the origins of anti-Semitism by the German academic, Dr. Matthias Kuentzel at Leeds University:

Despite common misconceptions, Islamism was born not during the 1960s but during the 1930s. Its rise was inspired not by the failure of Nasserism but by the rise of Fascism and of Nazism.

It was the Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 in Egypt, that established Islamism as a mass movement. The significance of the Brotherhood to Islamism is comparable to that of the Bolshevik party to communism: It was and remains to this day the ideological reference point and organizational core for all later Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda and Hamas or the group around Sidique Khan.

It is true that British colonial policy produced Islamism, insofar as Islamism viewed itself as a resistance movement against "cultural modernity." Their “liberation struggle”, however, had more in common with the “liberation struggle” of the Nazis than with any kind of progressive movement.
Thus, the Brotherhood advocated the replacement of Parliamentarianism by an “organic” state order based on the Caliphate. It demanded the abolition of interest and profit in favour of a forcibly imposed community of interests between capital and labour.

The whole thing is worth reading.

Having had several letters to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times, and generally getting most of the letters I write them published, I thought I would share what I think makes for a letter that the L.A Times will publish. This may or may not work for other newspapers.

1. Get angry.

The only time I write letters to the editor is when I'm really mad. Therefore, I don't write letters very often. If you're not mad, why bother?

2. Keep to a single point.

Don't ramble. Figure out what you want to say and then say it clearly and simply. Logic helps.

3. Keep it short.

They will probably cut your letter even if you keep it short; so the less work they have to do, the better your odds.

4. Be inflamatory and colorful.

You're expressing your opinion, so be opinionated. Embrace your angry inner child. Saracasm seems to be something they go for.

5. If you're responding to a front page article, your odds improve.

If a single paragraph article on page D-12 has pissed you off, go ahead and write the letter--it will make you feel better--but your odds of seeing it in print match the original prominence of the piece.

Two reletively recent letters of mine they published, just to give you examples of what has worked:

Published October 13, 2007 in response to a puff piece on Che Guevara on the front page

It shouldn't surprise me, but it always does. Why do you write glowing articles about communist thugs guilty of mass murder? I doubt you'd write nice things about the German doctors and teachers who fanned out from Hitler's Germany to "help" in neighboring countries. I really find it difficult to comprehend why you can't understand that all totalitarianism, whether left or right, is equally evil.

Published March 13, 2005 in response to a front page article on Communists in a retirement community

Such a sweet story about old Communists in a retirement home. What's next, a puff piece on a Nazi country club in Idaho? No? Why haven't the millions of victims of the communist ideology not been enough for you to denounce it as fiercely as you rightfully denounce Nazism? Communism and those who sympathize with it deserve no more respect or sympathy than we offer for any who sympathized with such jack-booted thugs. Care you not for the blood of its millions slaughtered or oppressed in the name of that vile cause?

Obviously I'm not fond of Communism or Nazism or any form of totalitarianism.

Another Douglas Adams Science Fiction quote of the day:

"What to do if you find yourself stuck with no hope of rescue: Consider yourself lucky that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far, which given your present circumstances seems more likely, consider yourself lucky that it won't be troubling you much longer."

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Today's science fiction quote of the day is from Philip K. Dick:

I, for one, bet on science as helping us. I have yet to see how it fundamentally endangers us, even with the H-bomb lurking about. Science has given us more lives than it has taken; we must remember that.

"Self Portrait" (1968)

Interesting article in this morning's Los Angeles Times about Doris Lessing, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last week: Doris Lessing's Nobel: A victory for science fiction. Science Fiction has often been dismissed as of no importance by mainstream literary critics. That odd attitude will now be harder to justify.

Science Fiction author quote of the day, from Douglas Adams:

All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.

The Salmon of Doubt, 2002

The Los Angeles Times made it to my house today and they delivered Saturday's paper along with today's paper, so I was able to read my letter to the editor. One can also view it online.

Science Fiction quote of the day from Brian W. Aldiss:

I was hardly fit for human society. Thus destiny shaped me to be a science fiction writer.

The Twinkling of an Eye: My Life as an Englishman (1998)

There was a horrible accident on the freeway that leads to the Antelope Valley. As a consequence, the Los Angeles Times was not delivered, so I didn't get to see my letter to the editor. The Times indicated that they might deliver Saturday's paper with Sunday's tomorrow, assuming they are able to get the paper up here even then.

Harlen Ellison, the science fiction quote of the day:

That's [a] good question. More than likely it will never be answered to your complete satisfaction. But then, how many questions ever are?

"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (1965)

I wrote an email to the L.A. Times earlier this week. I rarely write letters to the editor; I have to get really angry in order to do so. The Times had done a front page puff piece on Che Guevara, the Communist who was a murdering thug. I pointed out that they probably wouldn't have done such a piece on a Fascist who was a murdering thug. I got a call this afternoon from someone at the L.A. Times. My letter will be in tomorrow's paper.

I received the colorproofs of my book, The Bible's Most Fascinating People, by "courier" as my editor would say; that is, it came by DHL this morning. It included the cover of the book as well:



The colorproofs of the interior of the book are the actual pages of the book, printed on one side. The paper is thick and glossy. I think the book is gorgeous. I'm very pleased.

And on the teleportation front....

"Quantum entanglement is valuable in transmitting particles such as atoms and photons where the most delicate properties are significant and where simple approximation is not enough," he explains.

"Teleporting a person, on the other hand, would not require reproducing the quantum state anything like as exactly.

"Everything we know about biology and how molecules fit together to produce a living being, including the brain, indicates that creating some level of approximation would give you a real person who was a serviceable replica of the original in terms of looking the same and thinking the same thoughts, without necessarily being a perfect quantum replica.

"The teleported person would end up slightly different, but not in a biologically important way."

The implication of this is that you could scan a person using some advanced form of the technology used to perform MRI scans, and transmit that scanned information somewhere else -- using normal electrical or sound signals -- where it would then be reassembled into an approximation of the original.

"It's the same principle as a fax machine," says Bennett. "When you fax something what comes out the other end obviously looks like the original and contains the same information. It's not the same paper, however, or the same type of ink.

"It's the same, but not the same.

"We already have three-dimensional fax machines, so the basic theory is there."

From CNN.com "Beam me up: Just how close are we to teleportation?"

A quote from S.M. Stirling, science fiction author of Island in the Sea of Time, among other works:

There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.

from Conquistador

The Allen Telescope Array begins operation today. Paul Allen, who also helped bankroll SpaceShipOne, donated large sums to a radio telescope project designed to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Currently made up of 42 6 meter dishes, it will eventually have 350. For details, there's a good article at Space.com.

Science Fiction Quote of the Day:

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The Russian Soyuz rocket launched on time this morning at 6:22 AM PDT, carrying the new Expedition 16 crew toward the International Space Station. Now in orbit aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft are Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson, flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. They'll dock with the space station on Friday.

The International Space Station has been continuously inhabited since November 2, 2000 when the first group of three astronauts, William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev became the station’s first inhabitants.

The current inhabitants of the space station, the Expedition 15 crew has been busy readying the station as they prepare to greet their replacements and Malaysian guest. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov set up a work space in the Zvezda service module that will allow the visiting Shukor to perform several experiments over nine days. Flight Engineer Clay Anderson also resized U.S. spacesuits for Whitson and Malenchenko for an upcoming spacewalk.

Yurchikhin and Kotov are scheduled to leave the station on Oct. 21, officially ending the Expedition 15 mission. The Malaysian astronaut Shukor will go home with the two cosmonauts. Anderson will remain onboard with Expedition 16 and return to Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on its STS-120 mission which is scheduled to launch on October 23.

Today's quote from a science fiction author. Jerry Pournelle:

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

From Chaos Manor View 408, April 3-9, 2006