Where’s the Cat?

My lastest short story, “Where’s the Cat?”, has just been released in issue #24 of Wesley Kowato’s Nova Science Fiction magazine.   I got my copy in the mail yesterday.

This heart-touching story takes place on a sublight freighter ship an the Earth-Saturn run. Paulina and her husband Jim, in search of the ship’s cat Benny, discover a mysterious stowaway in the engine room who is more—much more—than he seems.

Lawrence Dagstine, a fellow Satrica author, has a story in this issue as well. Larry’s work has been published over 400 times and he has become a fairly regular contributer to Nova SciFi, often appearing on the cover as the featured story. If you enjoy his work, then you can grab past additions of the magazine here. He is in issues #15, #18, #20, #22, and the new ones coming up, #24 and #25.

The artwork below, was painted by my illustrator, Chelsea Conlin, who picked the scene for the image.  It is on the back cover of this issue.

Soaked?

Well, the impact studies of the LCROSS spacecraft really did find water on the moon…lots of it.  So that means we might not have to carry so much of it up there with us when we go.  But did it really have an impact on folks here at home?

The logistics of extracting and recycling that water is expensive and troublesome.  I know it has to be done—it’s better than lifting water from here—but the focus is still on getting there, not on why.  Earth has plenty of water.

So why would we want to send someone there to spend so much time that indigenous water is useful?

Yes, I think that manned space exploration, in and of itself, has its own benefits.  And, yes, it was me that blogged earlier this week about spinoff technologies, but I am only one person.  We need something sexy, something compelling…an export industry that makes lots of folks get really, really, excited about space travel.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella didn’t fund the Columbus mission across the ocean ”‘Cause it’d be soooo cool”.   They were interested in things like gold, spices, silks, etc.  NASA is so geekily focused on how to get back to the moon, they haven’t been talking loudly enough about the bread-and-butter reasons why we should.

What about Helium-3?  There had to be some in that plume where they found water, I’m fairly certain we would be able to see it in a spectrographic analysis of the impact.  Was it there?  Did NASA even look for some?

What about a moon based space telescope?  You can’t man a space telescope that just floats freely in space, because people on board would cause too much vibration.  I know NASA talks about that, but it’s not in the news—at least not as boldly as when they yell “Hey!  We found water!”

What about…I don’t know, there’s gotta be something.  Something to compare to the gold, spices, silks, and furs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, or the medical or micro-computer industries of the twentieth century.  What we need is a proposal for a rich export industry that the folks who get to stay home on Earth can sink their teeth into, something to silence the critics and get more than just us fellow space geeks excited about going.  Something that let’s the rest of the public know what we space geeks already know—that they won’t get soaked.

That’s what we need, NASA.

Catalyst for Advancement

Look around you right now…

Are you wearing shoes?

Is there a computer in front of you?

Are you using electricity?

Do you drink water?

Is the air you breath sometimes unhealthy?

Do you use any kind of motorized rechargeable tool?

Do you wear sunglasses?

Do you have an ailment that can benefit from stem-cell research?

Do you occasionally use a toilet.

Do you take showers?

Do you use one of those way cool, 2-second, ear thermometers to take your child’s temperature?

Now, I’m not going to try and pretend that you wouldn’t have these things without space exploration, but that’s not my point anyway.  If you click on the links above you’d see that several of those industries supply NASA, and thus the people employed within those industries benefit from NASA funding.  Behind some of those links, you’ll find technology sharing groups in which NASA researchers, paid by NASA funding, participate.  Quite a few of those links will even show significant Earth-bound products, whole new industries, which were born at NASA facilities and delivered by NASA scientists.  NASA featured forty-nine of these spinoff technologies in its annual spinoff report for 2009, released earlier this month.  Since 1976, NASA has announced between 40 and 50 of these commercial products annually.

Some of the advances would have occurred just as quickly if that same funding had been applied in another direction…but most might not have.  Many sprang from someone who had to look at something from an unearthly perspective to solve an unearthly problem.

Why space exploration?  Why human space flight?  Because people need things…things which are more difficult to do in space than they are ”dirt-side”, and tools built to overcome those difficulties can later be turned back around and re-applied to do things better here at home.   Face it, a great many of the products that you use have been improved or out-right invented by space exploration.

Until mankind built boats, they could only fish from the shore, but the greater mobility and perspective available through the use of boats helped them find better places along the shore to fish.

But first they needed to wonder…

Just what is that over there, across the vast expanse?

How do I get a closer look?

Ares I-X Launch

Earth, from the Ares I-X rocket.

That was nice—the Ares gave us a smooth, simple launch.  It looks like a very nice rocket.  I’ll miss the Space Shuttle when it goes, but I won’t miss the technical problems, safety concerns, or launch delays.  I have to admit that, even though I have been an enthusiastic fan of the Space Shuttle program from its inception, I was deeply disappointed when I found out they were launching what should have been a space plane vertically, like a rocket.  Instead of building a true Earth-to-Orbit aircraft, they strapped their aircraft onto a YAR (Yet Another Rocket), and an uber-complicated, troublesome YAR at that.

Of course, in the Ares I-X they’ve also built a YAR, however it seems they’ve built a YAR that takes a welcome step toward simplicity.  All stages can be recovered like shuttle boosters, and maybe it’ll be less expensive than the human-launch systems of the past.  If it gets replaced by a commercially owned, horizontal-launch system, then I’m still way good with that too.

That’s the thing isn’t it.  This rocket won’t be ready for actual use until after the space station is “deorbited” and new commercial ventures operating true “space planes” take over low Earth orbit, so why did they spend the money to launch Ares I-X at all?

To learn.

Why do we study space and space flight in general?

To learn.

What good is all that expensive stuff anyway, what with a financial recovery, healthcare costs, and starving people all over the world?

To learn.

The Saturn V breaks the sound barrier en route to Earth's first manned Moon landing.

You see, it was worth it, even if Space-X and similar ventures grow to become the low Earth orbit, man-launch vehicle of choice and we never see this rocket in this configuration again.  Space-X couldn’t reach into space today without the lessons learned from the NASA launches of yesterday, and the Space-X-like ventures of tomorrow will feed off of this launch.  Ares I-X is also our first step in the direction of manned spaceflight outside of low-Earth orbit.  This test is part of the ongoing development of the rocket configuration that will take humankind back to the Moon and off to Mars.  I watched the first Moon landing as a kid, sitting cross-legged in front of the TV.  I still remember it, and it’ll be great to go back.

Folks may ask what good those programs will do, why go to those places?

To learn some more.

What will we learn that will actually benefit humankind?

I don’t know—yet.  Ask me again later, after we’ve learned it.

But I’m still gonna miss the shuttle.

UN and Rights of the Child

I couldn’t believe it.

No really, I thought it wasn’t possible.  It seemed to me at first like those who told me about it were jumping at shadows.  In fact, this is an issue whos proponents seem to actually like the shadows.

I have a couple of relatives who are further over to the right than I am politically–which is actually saying quite a lot.  Several months ago they told me about the UN circumventing U.S. laws and parental rights by signing a treaty with the U.N. to allow the United Nations to set laws with regard to how we raise our children here in the U.S.

The news media seems to ignore the issue.  It seems that Madelyn Albright of the Clinton administration signed this treaty which circumvents U.S. laws and lets folks in the U.N. hold sway in matters of child rearing.  They didn’t try and ratify it then because it wouldn’t have passed…duh!

Now it seems they are trying to pass it.  The treaty, apparently, would allow an unelected, unaccountable foreign commission to trump the decisions of parents in this country though our courts on several issues.  Including:

-Teen abortions and parental notification of abortions, pregnancy, illegal drug use and other health concerns.

-How and when parents can punish their children.

-How much church children have to attend.

-The presence of firearms in a home with children.

-Where and how children are to be educated.

Ironically, even though this legislation seems to be on the docket for this session of congress, I’ve been having a really difficult time locating information about in the local media.  I mean, I see lots of foreign new talking about how it effects them, now that they are bound to it, but not a peep out of news sources in this country. 

After much searching, I did find a brand new article in the Watertown Daily News which talks about this. 

You know, I really hate commenting on something until I’ve had a chance to readup on all sides of it, but in this case only the opponents of this treaty seem to want folks to know about it.  Folks like the above named online newspaper, Mikehachabee.com, homeschooling advocacy groups, and the like are talking about this, and it looks like it really does exist and that it really is an issue

Something inside me makes me wonder why the folks who like this idea are hushing it up.

Could it be that only those people who don’t want it want other people to know about it?

Wow.  That sounds like something everyone should know about!

So here it is.  I saw a uTube video on FaceBook with Mike Huckabee, referencing his website for info on this, but when I went there I couldn’t find the information.  There is also an advocacy group which opposes the ratification.

Other than that, your on your own.  Sorry.  Even FoxNews seemed blank.

If you find any good fresh meat on this issue, please comment.

This Obama Flag is Our Obama Flag

Now before you blow a gasket, let’s just analyze this for a minute–and yes, this image angers me too.

But beware the target of your anger, because anybody can hang a flag on a flagpole.

Did someone do this in Photoshop? Possibly, and possibly not—apparently there really is someone who makes and sells these flags, and that person’s politics may or may not agree with the Obama administration’s policies.

Assuming this really is real, then someone actually hung it there. Maybe they intended it as a joke, or a way to embarrass the person responsible for that flagpole and the house displayed in the picture.  If so, then this is simply vandalism, and the flag portrayed here is no more.

Maybe the resident hung it there to express support for President Obama in these rocky times. If so, then I think it’s a highly irresponsible form of expression. I’m sure such a thing is illegal at some level, and if not then it should be.  I hope they’ve already realized that and taken it down.

If someone, anyone, did this to make the statement which this image seems intended to portray—that Barrack Obama should be some kind of dictator over this country—then pox on them.

There is another possibility too. Someone opposed to Obama’s policies might have put this flag up to scare folks—because of where they think those policies could lead the country. It’s also conceivable, that certain fringe groups opposing Obama did this to discredit him in the eyes of the public, or annoy their fellow conservatives into getting involved.

If so, then pox on them too.

I don’t agree with Obama very often, but I’ll give him this much…I think this image sickens him as much as it sickens me, and unless he says anything to contradict that opinion, I’ll continue on that assumption.

No single president in the history of this country has the right to have their face on our flag—none. If the free winds of this nation are currently blowing over an abomination like this, then I want the person responsible to come forward, give us their name, and explain why they did this.

Then they need to take it down and replace it with the true symbol of our liberty that so many have lived and died to preserve.

Bill Housley’s newest SciFi shortstory in issue #24 of Nova SciFi.

My lastest short story, “Where’s the Cat?”, will appear in the upcoming edition of Wesley Kowato’s Nova Science Fiction magazine.

This heart-touching story takes place on a sublight freighter ship an the Earth-Saturn run.  Paulina and her husband Jim, in search of the ship’s cat Benny, discover a mysterious stowaway in the engine room who is more—much more—than he seems.

Click on over to NovaSciFi.com and subscribe to get your copy.

Lawrence Dagstine, a fellow Satrica author, has a story in this issue as well.  Larry’s work has been published over 400 times and he has become a fairly regular contributer to Nova SciFi, often appearing on the cover as the featured story.  If you enjoy his work, then you can grab past additions of the magazine here.  He is in issues #15, #18, #20, #22, and the new ones coming up, #24 and #25.

The artwork provided above was painted by my illustrator, Chelsea Conlin, who picked the scene for the image.

So now we boomers have messed up Twitter

We finally did it.

Our sweet children use social networking for, like, you know, social networking…duh!

But us boomers…too many of our generation like porn and money.

We seem to think that anything that attracts lots of eyeballs needs to have porn and spam on it.

I’m not completely innocent in all this. After all, the biggest reason I have this blog, Facebook, Twitter, and one of my two MySpace profiles is to help promote my Science Fiction writtings…to make money.  I don’t use or promote porn.  I think porn is an abominable, habit-forming, family destroying pestilence.  But most of my time online is spent trying to make money. 

That includes Tweets.   I wouldn’t have time to spend with Twitter or Facebook (or here on WordPress for that matter) unless there was at least the distant potential of making it pay.  Not everything I post on these sights are money-making related mind you, I do the fun stuff too, but a lot of the times I find myself doing that to make it look like I don’t think of the Internet as strictly business.  Sad, but true. At this stage in my life, family life support is where my priorities are.  Sorry, kids.  Some day when you’ve got a house and children, and more than one car, you’ll understand.

There is an article I read once somewhere that talks about this tendency of parents to embarrass their children online, but now there’s an article in Technotica on MSN.  It says that it’s Twitter’s turn.  So watch out, some of your followers might be porn bots.  Twitter’s people are aware of the problem, and have confronted it with a wave of filters and account deletions.

It’s not just Twitter either.  I sometimes get comments here on this WordPress blog that make me tip my head and say, “Huh?”. Just so you know, if you comment here, and the comment doesn’t seem to me to be relevent enough to the article I posted, I’ll probably dump it as spam. I have ten comments in my Akismet spam queue right now, and it has filtered seventy-two comments in the life of my blog space.  Seventy-two? Holy smokes, I have a total of five legit comments on this site. Five…with seventy-two spams.  I don’t think I’ve even been at this a full year yet (I’ll have to run and check later).

Good thing we have Akismet.

Maybe our children are right.

Writing Addiction

Ok.  I just experienced a shift in addictions.

You know, you read about folks who, intent on ridding themselves of one addiction, replace it with a less destructive one?

Well, I just finished writing my first novel, “Into the Dark—Escape of the Nomad”.  I sent it to the publisher last week.  I have worked on it on and off for five years, but over the past year, since the publication of my story in Satirica, I have been sort of on the sprint to the finish with my book.  I have shelved a variety of important projects and things to give me the time I needed to get this done.

I also have, for the most part, have had no time for computer gaming.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do have a busy life outside of my Science Fiction writing.  However, those other things are mostly those critical “gottados” that cannot be neglected by any responsible person.  The things I am talking about are the  “shouldadones” and “liketodos” that normal married men do; repair the extra car/s, plant tomatoes, build a deck, go fishing, clean the office, etc.

I kept saying, “Once the book is done, then I’ll have more time to…”

Well now the book is done.  As well as it can be done right after sending it off to the publisher, waiting on the next step.

So I read the third Twighlight novel, and enjoyed it.  There sit over almost a dozen more novels, piled up on my “must read soon” list, including the Guardian of the One, The Eragon series, The Inkheart Series, and Breaking Dawn.

But I have grown tired of reading.

And the computer is calling to me.

Backoning to me.

StarCraft is spinning in the CD drive.  It has sat there for months, but I ignore it.

I want to write.

I need to write.

It is early in the morning.  Everyone is asleep.  My most productive writing time.

My hard drive is crammed with partial writing projects of various types and sizes, in many stages of completion.

They want me, they cannot grow without my care.

Let’s see. 

Which one shall consume my life next?

Hmmm…

Historic Motor Convoy Treks the Lincoln Highway

I’ve always had an interest in history and historical reenactments. Well, I took a long lunch from work the other day and went to one the likes of which I’ve never attended.

Evanston Wyoming, where I live, lies along the route of he old Lincoln highway, the first transcontinental road system in the country.

In 1919, the Transcontinental Motor Convoy , a military expedition, used the Lincoln High to cross the country from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, California.  They averaged fifty-eight miles per day to test the U.S. Military’s ability to move material and personnel across the country overland using moterized vehicles, in the event of war with an “Asiatic Enemy”.  Another convoy took place the following year to San Diago.  Along the way they improved roads, built bridges, etc., and treated it as a military exercise—as if they were passing through potential enemy territory.  They experienced the trials inheriant with the movement of equipment through unimproved areas, including mud, quicksand and breakdowns.  Several vehicles were lost, and the convoy arrived at their destination late, but still set a world record by breaching the 3,000 mile distance in just 60 days. 

One of the participants in the endeavour was Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower who later, as President of the United States, began the Interstate Highway System when he signed the Federal Highway Act of 1956.  He described the conditions through Southwest Wyoming at the time as “very poor dirt roads” and said that much of the path through Utah and Nevada were little more than wagon ruts through the desert.  Much of the original Lincoln Highway through Uinta County here is still dirt road.

On Wednesday, July 1st of this year, a 90th anniversary re-enactmentof this convoy, using vintage antique military vehicles, stopped here in Evanston for lunch and the vehicles sat on display for the public.  It was a hot day, but I went and looked around, asked some questions and took pictures.  Most of the vehicles in the re-enactment are WWII vintage, or around there, but I did see one period vehicle on a trailer.  I was told that it runs great and that they only take it out and drive it around at overnight stopovers.

The event is sponsored by the Military Vehicle Preservation Association.  They left Washington D.C. on June 13th and are scheduled to arrive in San Francisco on July 8th.  If you live along the Lincoln Highway, check with your local community for the details and get out and witness this historic occasion.  If the convoy is scheduled for a stopover near you, check it out.  Otherwise, just be somewhere they will pass by so you can take some pictures and give them a wave.  Maybe you cn make it part of your July 4th celebration.

If you write a blog or post your photos online, leave a comment here with the URL and I’ll include it, and I’ll even even link it in if I post a followup article.

I gleaned the historic pics, the map, and some of the factoids above from various articles on Wikipedia, the pics below came from my Samsung i760 smartphone.