Well, then

A box, an isotope and a laundry hamper go water skiing. The driver of the boat with the engine that pulls them along had already drunk six servings of Jack Daniels and was in no condition to clearly monitors the water skiers he was dragging behind him. Fortunately, the box disintregated shortly, the isotope was not visibile and the landry hamper bounced around involuntarily but safely, so the driver didn't have anything to worry about until he crashed his boat into the pier at high speed.

a box kite spelling out a

A robot once asked a question. A sturdy close to retirement street police man attempted to answer.

A raindrop fell at so precise a time, speed and location as to fall on the bridge of the nose of that police man. No one other than him noticed, certainly not the robot.

The question the robot asked caught the police man off guard, which is a little disconcerting considering the job description of the police man.

The robot was not perturbed in the least by the rain that fell; the police man was only slightly so. The apparel the police man was wearing was mostly water proof.

sordid thoughts about chemistry agents

Malevolent shoe lace sales people without earrings that plague smoted voice rehearsal subordinates make strange bedfellows with the arcane. That not all of the richness of the carrot cake was spread iridescently on the four year old dusty floor placards comes as little surprise to the adjacent facilities janitorial supervisory person as she trimmed ever so slightly her left Chico finger. Who could possibly have guessed that one of the malevolent shoe lace sales persons went on a date with the adjacent facilities janitorial supervisory person; they ate together at a nearby food truck on a lunch break that took place in the late afternoon. Latent observers of this public display of casual interlocution combined with edible consumption would not have noticed the fluttering insides of the malevolent shoe lace sales person.

It isn't particularly comfortable to have fluttering insides; however, sometimes it is a required step in a process.

the strange effort of building a

I have been rereading Isaac Asimov's most popular science fiction books lately, not in the order they were written, but rather, in the order the stories are set. I'm on the last book now, 'Foundation and Earth'.

Up until this reading, I hadn't ever read the Empire books:
The Stars, Like Dust
The Currents of Space
The Pebble in the Sky

These three stories didn't really connect with each other, or with the preceding Robot series books, however, in one or more of the foundation books that came after, there was some mention of the Synapsifier, Bel Arvadan, and the Florinian situation.

What was odd was how 'The Stars, Like Dust' ended by showing that an important lost document that was finally unearthed happened to be the US Constitution. This seemed really odd to me, it was totally disconnected from the series and from the story too. Throughout the story there was reference to a document that could pose a serious threat; finding out what it was in the end was a disappointment.

In advance of reading 'Caves of Steel' I read 'I, Robot' so that I would have the explanation as to how hyperspace travel was invented. On Earth, robots and other computers were getting more and more advanced, to the point that there was such a thing as a 'robot psychologist' the most respected one being Susan Calvin. Eventually a competitor to US Robotics and Mechanical Men had had their main Brain computer, the highest intelligent one they had, try to solve the problem of hyperspace, but it crashed and effectively destroyed their computer.

So that competitor gave to US Robotics all of the documents they fed into their computer with the hopes that US Robotics would have their own 'Brain' computer crash. Before feeding the documents, however, Susan Calvin spoke with the brain and prepared it for the situation. The issue is that it wasn't known what happens to a human being during the travel through hyperspace, it was thought they might cease to exist but then re-exist once they exit hyperspace. This broke the first law of robotics and so it crashed that first company's computer. Susan convinced the USR brain computer that no people would be involved, and that is how hyperspace was invented - it was a computer that did it.

I wonder if in the real world it will end up being a computer that solves the interstellar travel problem in a way not too different from how Asimov portrays it in his story.

Hyperspace makes it possible to cross hundreds of parsecs in an instant; this makes intergalactic travel possible. Being limited by light speed it takes eons to get anywhere.

Golan Trevize's ship, the Far Star, runs by gravitics, which really isn't explained too much. We learn that it takes the force of gravity from space and uses that to make the ship move; that the whole drive is built within the hull of the ship, that because of using the gravity in space it has an almost infinite supply of fuel and needs not carry any onboard. Also, that the passengers inside the ship have no sense of motion, so when accelerating, decelerating, landing or taking off from a planet, they have no g-forces whatsoever. They would only hear the wind blowing along the ship's surface.

It is the most highly advanced ship that the Foundation has produced; it is really great that the Foundation kept moving technology forward, rather than the stagnating situation with the Galactic Empire which Hari Seldon (with the help of Eto Demerzel) noted had been decaying and was destined to fall.

breach reach search birch

Simultaneously wanting to count to eleven, while the burlap lined carriage mucked about ceaselessly, the rider bent down to inspect the laces on her left shoe, attempting to verify if the visible tightness matched the sense of tightness she felt in the foot within the shoe. After having done this for but a moment, the rider straightened up and looked out the window.

why else would she have kept from not doing something

Not all of the solutions presented themselves to the winner all at once.

She had to try, then try again. Sometimes, the solution would evolve only after a handful of trial and error episodes.

What was a key ingredient to her success was the perseverance and dedication towards getting to the end. If we all could have that commitment, a whole lot more would get accomplished in the world today.

I guess that's about all there is to be said about that.

In other news, more exo-planets are being discovered, I just read an article about one having been found 73 light years away. 73 ly is about 69E+13 km. Some of our fastest moving man made celestial objects can go about 100km/s which is 360,000km/h. To travel 69E+13 km at 360,000km/h would take 191667000 hours.

191667000 hours is 7986125 days which is 21865 years which is 219 centuries.

I guess we won't be getting there any time soon.

air freshener made of water or fire

A weary rickshaw driver, a middle-aged unshaven man wearing only a barrel and a semi-retired lawn care team leader were all brought together to be asked a simple question.

They did not answer in unison, though, their responses were eerily not dissimilar.

The person who asked the question took a note of their responses and wished them all well.

That an attribute of this whole inexistential description would be withheld comes as no surprise to the author.

If you were to have been the simple question, how would you have reacted to their collective responses?

When tempestuousness cries foul at the baseball game

Much to her surprise, the underwear she purchased was exactly three shades off the colour she had originally intended to purchase. As she went ahead with it anyway, it became significantly less surprising.

Much to his surprise, the underwear he purchased was exactly three mm off the size that he had originally intended to purchase. As the difference in size was so minimal, it became significantly less surprising.

That he and she were purchasing underwear together and at the same time was a surprise to both of them.

when reciprocity is unequal

Without knowing what you'd think about a post like this one, all of the left brain attributes deteriorate only slightly. The right brain attributes vary little, at least noticeably, rendering the balance teetering only to the slightest based on their original alignment.

Not all of the sports played at the millipede gathering were playable by the outcast centipedes who crashed the event. Of course, us bipeds didn't stand a chance, well, not until we accidentally wiped out the gathering with an inadvertent step.

That the outdoor temperature here today is presently 31C has little or no influence on the number of times I will have ended up tying my shoes by the end of the day. I should know.

like a limerick painted black and orange

When unexpected reciprocity reminded the banker of her left shoe's broken heel, the calamity that would have put asunder the sympathizer was dealt a terminal blow. All subversive witnesses kept a log of the event into which they wrote nothing; as logging such things is against the policy.

Blandly flavoured rice as a side dish to fledgling excellence makes hungry those starved of both food and relentless ambition.

The Witch Doctor prescribed exaggerated elocution, twice a day, while reciting the alphabet both forwards and backwards.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba

Green is a colour that only two thirds of a fifth would pick for the ideal fragrance used by a sturgeon fisherman who paints his perennially hidden toenails.

A silhouette once chased me down the length of a tunnel that traverses the highway and train tracks from the south to the north. Once I turned the corner at the north end of the tunnel, the silhouette disappeared; as they so often do. Perhaps it was never there to begin with. I suppose I will never know with certainty.

If people from the after life go bowling do they also get a 'turkey' symbol if they get three strikes in a row?

I have used a Galatian sword to open up unwelcome postal mail exactly zero times in the last six minutes. I am not certain whether it was because I have no Galation sword, or because I received no unwelcome postal mail.

Do remember to think twice before reacting.

dirigibles coming out of my tibia

A raspberry jam filled doughnut, a ringworm and a beer bottle cap walked into a saloon, grabbed a table and hunkered down. The serving person approached the table and then recoiled, much the way a well worn spring curses at the September rain. The cap offered a nickel for a thimble of JD; the ringworm went straight to the Tequila while the doughnut, feeling grand, ordered a pitcher of mint taffy grenadine. The server took the orders with an odd look on his face; like he'd just seen a doughnut, ringworm and bottle cap speak to him. The bar tender, seeing the order and the patrons, decided their first round would be on the house - especially given the quantities that were being requested.

breaking the wrist watch into one piece

A soliloquy and a radish went on a date, eating dates. They discussed the parenthetical meaning of braces, in between other topics of lesser importance. They ended the date by ending it.

The soliloquy, to herself, thought the date went enigmatically.

The radish was eventually consumed.

wow, a tube

Amazingly, the thing I noticed off the port side on the way in to Proxima Centauri, I've just passed through on the way out; it is a worm hole that put me smack dab into the orbit of Earth. This made the trip home way faster; it is too bad I didn't see this end of the wormhole on my way out to the Proxima Centauri system.

All in all it was a great trip. I haven't any plans for another any time soon, so I am considering donating my golf cart space ship to the Canadian Aviation and Space museum.

Of course, it being fall now, as soon as I got home I had to rake five bags of leaves. This is the first time I do this, this fall, so the total leaf bag count so far this fall is five bags.

brok vlok sock

Heading home, at last.

It's been a great trip to visit the Proxima Centauri system, and it was quite the adventure to see Proxima Centauri B so close, but for the most part the trip was pretty dull as there isn't a lot to see in the empty space between celestial systems. The probe came back on schedule two days ago and reported that within the 10km circle it found was mostly Granulite with a small but significant portion of Phyllite with hints of Calcium, Chromium, Iron and Nickel. It is possible that there are large deposits of some of these deeper down, or elsewhere on the planet, so likely in addition to being a candidate for terraforming due to its gravity, pressure and temperature, it may have large deposits of minerals that make it resourceful.

About five days out from 'B' on the way in I noticed something peculiar off my port-bow, so now on the starboard side I'm going to veer off a little to investigate.

image

I've arrived! I'm safely in orbit around Proxima Centuari B; here's a photo with Proxima Centauri in the distance:

With my rather elaborate array of sensors I am pleased to tell you that B has the slightest of atmospheres made up mostly of Argon with traces of Hydrogen. The surface is completely barren and devoid of any life, well at least, none that my sensor array can pick up. There are numerous shallow craters and vast areas of uninterrupted flatness. It seems that Proxima Centauri is grabbing all of the asteroids in its gravity well, leaving B in peace. The very thin atmosphere over these last billions of years has smoothed it all out. Gravity on the surface is about 0.64g and the pressure is about a twelfth of an Earth atmosphere. It is all pretty good as a candidate for terra-forming except for the light - only about 15% of the insolation of Sol is landing here on B from Proxima Centauri. So the 'Sunny' side of B feels like it is in a bit of a perpetual twilight. I've sent down a probe to check on what the ground of B contains; it will move around in a 10km circle to take samples. This isn't great as it is only a really small portion of the entire planet, but it is about all I can do with what I've brought with me.

I've got enough supplies to stick around here for another day or two, but will then have to head back.

bot and cot

I'm slowing down a little more aggressively now to come down to a proper orbit speed. B is noticeably getting larger now, I should be in orbit on Sunday at around 11h13 Proxima Centauri B time.

I'm really glad that my TRS-80 (Model 16) is working out great to calculate the engine burns and guidance systems. I've got this clunker up on the dash of the golf cart on the passenger side, giving me a better view out the front on the driver side. I have a number of backup diskettes in case any one of the 'production' ones fails; these I've stored under the dash, beneath the TRS-80 in a radiation protective sleeve.

image

So, only five more days and I'll be orbiting Proxima Centauri B; I've already started a very gradual slow down so as not to zoom right by it.

My scatterometer picked up something of note just a few light-microseconds off my port bow; it may be a shortcut for me to return home. I'll check it out on the way home from B.

It is good to know that my food supplies are holding out. I still have plenty of Doritos and celery.

Here's Proxima Cenaturi:

Proxima Centauri B is on the other side when I took the photo.

transit pairing

While idling away on this voyage to Proxima Centauri to see how nice Proxima Centauri B can be, I thought back to a recent morning commute to work.

I take the train each day and in the morning am generally in the second passenger car from the front, standing in the vestibule part. In the vestibule there are five seats along one side of the car that face the aisle with opposing seats on the other side and a standing area that is adjacent.

Often, on the 7h27 train, I see two ladies that sit next to each other, who are always talking. While it may seem inconsequential to them, and perhaps even hardly worth noting to most people, I am rather impressed with this ability to have an ongoing non-stop conversation that seems it can go without end. I am not usually close enough to them to actually hear what they are saying, so I don't know the mechanics of how they move from topic to topic or how much time they spend on any one topic.

This unremarkable talent is one with which I am not particularly skilled.

image

With only about 12 days to arrive, I can finally get a glimpse of the Earth-sized (1.3 times the size of Earth) planet going around Proxima Centauri. I must tell you, from this distance it doesn't look like much, just a dark ball. These little red stars do not give off much light.

Here is a comparison for you.

image

So I was chopping my cucumbers (the last ones left on this trip to Proxima Centauri B) when I inadvertently sliced into my thumb.

Fortunately it did not go deeper and in time it will heal okay.

I am now closer to Proxima Centauri B than I am to Earth, but still, the little red sun is barely a smudge in the distance. The two Alpha's are starting to brighten, however. Soon I'll need to put my sunglasses on.