9/18: Monday Steelers Goin' Down!

Monday night, Sept 18, 2006

1) Website
2) Space/Ocean Headlines
3) Quiz
4) Radio
5) Reviews
6) Issue Notes
7) General

1) Website

http://www.sfhomeworld.org/

Did you guys know there's a science fiction museum in Seattle, Washington? Visit their website to check it out!

2) Headlines

If this blog lasts for years and years, which I hope it will, it might be interesting for some people to see what was in the news as far as space and ocean exploration was concerned. All these headlines come from my Google homepage newsfeeds: Space.com Science Daily, and New Scientist.

* Space Headlines
Milky Way's Formation Theory Questioned
Toxic spill on the International Space Station
First female space tourist blasts into space
Atlantis Shuttle's Heat Shield Looks Good After Second Look
Spacecraft to investigate cause of Sun's outbursts
OPINION: Space 'Adventurers' Paving The Way For the Rest of Us

* Ocean Headlines
NOAA Drops GOES-R Sensors
'Walking Shark' Among 50 New Marine Species Found Off Indonesia's Papua Province

3) Quiz
So all right, I never got around to putting together any quizzes this weekend - too busy getting my oceanography curriculum into shape. Nevertheless I’ll leave this spacer here, and next week it’ll be full of quizzes.

4) Radio

It’s Monday, and Sunday’s radio offerings are now available at BBC Radio 7. Final installment of Storm Warning - the Paul McGann Doctor Who, and the third installment of Jefferson 37.

5) Reviews
Sunday’ll be the day for a new movie review, on all other days, if I’ve had time to do anything, I’ll review an old movie, a book, etc. etc. Once I get the oceanography stuff out of the way, and I intend to finish the October section of it today, I’ll be able to start doing daily reviews.

6) Issue notes
Still working on Oceanography, hope to get it done today. Still working on the First Fandom annotated index...that’s going to be a long project but I hope to have it done by the October issue.

Sent off the interview to Marshall Thomas, author of The Soldier of the Legion, a sort of update of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. But whereas Heinlein’s book left you in suspense as to the fate of the humans, Thomas’ is a six book series which will bring everything to closure (and the bugs in his book aren’t *the* villains).

7) General Notes
Much as I admire US entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari for fulfilling her dream to blast into space as a tourist, I wish she would have spent the money on something more urgent..like educating the Iranian people (she’s of Iranian descent) about the human rights of women...but I suppose getting into space is actually possible...

----Then I found this webpage:

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2006/september-2006/ansari_18906.shtml

Very interesting, very good, I hope no one declares a fatwah against her...
Whenever I read about Muslim countries run by the religious types instead of a secular government, I just shudder, because women have no rights and are treated less than dirt. Of course, most people are. People in Somali, regardless of whether they’re Muslim or not, can no longer watch soccer games. Can no longer play music on their radio stations, etc.

And then politicians here in the US try to say there’s no reason why politics and religion should be separated....frankly there’s every reason. (But then, I’m someone who believes that if all the religions in the world would disappear, there’d be a lot less hatred in the world.)