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John Cooper Fitch, 1917-2012

John Cooper Fitch died yesterday. I had never heard of Mr. Fitch either–he was a race driver most active in the 1950s–but you probably see his work every time you travel the freeway: He invented the system of sand-filled plastic barrels you see at bridge pillars and the end of jersey barriers facing oncoming traffic […]

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The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation – Intro

Enrico Fermi was various kinds of brilliant. His estimate of the yield of the Trinity nuclear test by measuring the displacement of confetti by the shock wave is surprisingly accurate. In science fiction circles, of course, he is best known for the Fermi Paradox. The Fermi Paradox, for those unfamiliar with it, can be stated

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Con report: Apollocon 2012

Last weekend I spent Saturday at Apollocon, Houston’s leading sf/f convention. As usual, it was held at the Doubletree near IAH, so my three-year-old son had an exciting moment when a jumbo jet went loud and low overhead on takeoff. A fine hotel, free cookies on checkin, and passable service for drinks and meals in

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First World Problems

I understand the dismissive sentiment behind the phrase “first world problems.” If you can read this blog post, there are a huge number of ways in which you are more fortunate than most people who have ever lived. Even kings, popes, and emperors of centuries past would envy you. The death of your child is

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SFWA Grand Masters

As you may know, Connie Willis will be named an SFWA Grand Master at Nebula Awards weekend this May. She joins a long, distinguished list of recipients going back to the first honoree, Robert Heinlein, in 1975. (Sorry for the link to La Wik, but the link from Google’s search results to SFWA’s page of

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Driverless cars

Via Virginia Postrel, an op/ed piece by Bob Bruegmann has some thoughts on driverless cars’ impact on urban life.  Since sf colors how I think, I found the lack of thought-through details disappointing. The main take-away is “driverless cars wouldn’t necessarily lead to more sprawl,” which suggests to me the piece is intended to lodge

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