A young lieutenant makes a desperate last stand in the depths of an alien catacomb---only to find himself somewhere very, very familiar. (Science Fiction/Horror) (Complete)
Short Story: Coming Home to Vancouver Station
When the Veil Lifted: Glassmakers, Galileo, and the Invention of the Telescope
The absolute smallest angular distance resolvable by the human eye is 28 arc-seconds1. That's about 0.008 degrees, or the apparent size of a quarter at 132 meters, and for those of us not blessed with impeccable vision, that value will be a lot worse. Thankfully modern technology far surpasses the limits of human eyesight, seeing... Continue Reading →
Sci-Fi Film Review – Slingshot (2024)
Laurence Fishburne is aboard a creepy spaceship again. This time the destination is Titan, not Neptune, and instead of an all-out horror flick, we get something much more psychological. Today's feature: the 2024 movie Slingshot. Slingshot came out on August 30. I saw it on August 31, and I'm writing this just three hours after... Continue Reading →
Book Review – How to Mars (David Ebenbach)
How to Mars is like Andy Weir's The Martian, if The Martian had been written by a humanities major instead of an engineer. It is also, not coincidentally, a better book. Now, the subject of today's review was something of a happy accident on my part. I was at my local library---the same library where... Continue Reading →
Guest Post: The Tethered Ring and the Atlantis Project
For today's entry we're welcoming back my friend Eamon Minges---who, as an engineer, brings a welcome dose of technical rigor to this website. You can find his other pieces here, here, here, and here. I wanted to start off by saying a quick thank you to my good friend Nic Quattromani, the originator of this... Continue Reading →
Film Review – Nosferatu (1922)
Lately I've made a habit of perusing my local library for movies and television on DVD. This is mostly because I'm a cheapskate who refuses to pay for streaming services, but that's not the only reason---the library DVD shelf is also a great place for unexpected finds. While you might have a hard time looking... Continue Reading →
Apparently WordPress Comes With an AI Assistant, Now
I'll be the first to admit I've had a sporadic posting schedule. I'm trying to do better this year---which is why I'm typing this piece up on July 4, almost a month in advance---but the historical pattern of this site has been enormous gaps in between frantic bursts of writing. Eight whole months passed between... Continue Reading →
Apollo 20: The Dark Side of the Moon
Author's note: I originally published this more than three years ago, and took it down because it proved to be a magnet for genuine UFO conspiracy theorists---not exactly the audience I'm attempting to cultivate. That being said, I'm still quite proud of the piece and I want it to be part of my site. Hopefully... Continue Reading →
The Long, Dim Lives of Red Dwarfs
Below is a list of the known stars1 and stellar systems within a ten-light-year radius of the Sun. See if you can notice anything strange about them: Alpha Centauri (A and B, plus Proxima Centauri). Barnard's Star. Wolf 359. Lalande 21185. Sirius (A and B). Luyten 726-8 (A and B). Ross 154. There are familiar,... Continue Reading →
Short Story: Cathedrals
A story of family, interstellar travel, and dreams that span generations. Is it worth pouring your blood and sweat into something if you never live to see it? (Science Fiction) (Complete)
