Punditry has taken a hit this election season, so it might be foolish  to speculate as to how space science might flourish (or not) with a new Trump administration, but I figured that with all the time I spend thinking about speculative fiction, I might as well think about some speculative non-fiction. The Republican congress […]

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We’ve seen some stories this year that at first glance look like they might be pointing in the direction of an as yet undiscovered alien civilization. In one case there was the radio signal from the HD164595 system. This is a Sun-like star located a little less than 100 light years from Earth. Previously, this […]

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I was just watching the 1997 film, The Ice Storm. Its not science fiction by any stretch, but I noticed at least three references to/from or sightings of Irwin Allen productions from the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Can you name them? I mention them below since I promise my next post, which will be soon […]

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Shimon Wincelberg’s last contribution to episodic TV sci fi was with the  Logan’s Run episode, “Half Life.”

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Shimon Wincelberg (who sometimes wrote as S. Bar-David) was a contributor to many sci-fi television series as a writer. He’s probably best known for his contributions to Lost in Space and Star Trek: The Original Series in the 1960’s. To which science fiction television series did he make his last contribution in that genre? (note: […]

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I just managed to watch the 2014 sci fi spoof,  Space Station 76. While clearly not meant to be as all out hilarious as Galaxy Quest and certainly not as ridiculous as Spaceballs, it’s definitely a darkly humorous addition to this genre. Managing  to poke fun at 60s and 70s sci fi icons such as […]

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So, what does sci fi have to do with the Kennedy assassination? In a recent novel by Stephen King (also now a mini series on Hulu), the protagonist  is told about an accidentally discovered time portal in his home town. Without going into too many details or spoiling the ending, he is urged to go […]

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Check out Steve Bloom’s new book, Physics and Astronomy of Science Fiction, available in both paperback from McFarland Publishing.

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 Henry Jones.  Both Clifton Jones (who played Kano in Space: 1999)  and Nick Tate (played Alan Carter)  had guest roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation

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NASA recently announced that the most powerful meteor strike since Chelyabinsk occurred  in early  February 2016 exploding over the Atlantic Ocean. Nobody was harmed, so why should we care? It turns out that this small asteroid (probably less than 10 meters across) yielded an energy  equivalent to about 12 kilotons of TNT as it exploded, making it […]

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