Series of science-fiction books by Isaac Asimov
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It's time for the Comic Talk Headlines with Generally Nerdy! Killswitch Engage is all over the music sectionNetEase is confusingDC/Marvel biggest crossover in 20 yearsPrime has an answer to Star TrekDune 3 non-spoilerClayface rumorsAnd so much more...Plus, don't forget to subscribe for more fresh content. Music Follow-ups/CorrectionsBilly Corgan- The Pumpkins' vocalist has clarified his performance at Ozzy's final show. He will be playing with Tom Morello and Adam Jones from Tool. https://loudwire.com/billy-corgan-playing-ozzy-black-sabbath-show/ Black Dahlia Murder- Guitarist Brandon Ellis has left the band, forcing them to reschedule the remaining date on their current tour.https://metalinjection.net/news/breakups/brandon-ellis-quits-the-black-dahlia-murder New Music/VideoSwitchfoot- Last Man Standing feat Buddy Guy https://youtu.be/r6Rz5PvPUjATOTALLY not what I was expecting. More Buddy Guy than Switchfoot, and all the better for it.Killswitch Engage- Collusion https://youtu.be/PoApILhc7YcThis new record might just e KsE in its most unhinged in YEARS.Disturbed- I Will Not Break https://youtu.be/9YICpjeGsbETheir guitar player said they were trying to recapture the feel of their earlier records. Well the intro sounds like it was ripped right from an earlier song. Production is pretty good, a little drum heavy for me. Not bad, but not earth moving.Bhad Bhabie- Ms. Whitman https://youtu.be/yo7_px4vXYQApparently a diss track against another “rapper” Alabama. First Drake and Kendrick, now this? LOL Bhabie also jabs at Travis Barker… because reasons. (Alabama is Barker's daughter apparently…?) performance-wise… not terrible like I anticipated, but absolutely not something to waste your time on.https://youtu.be/y1M8Ea46MgU- Alabama's last diss.Ghost Bath- Rose Thorn Necklace https://youtu.be/zN6EHnfS6MgOn Nuclear Blast. Slow-ish (?) death/black metal with melody? Yeah this is interesting. Tours/FestivalsRocklahoma- Aug 29, 30, 31 (fri, sat, sun) at Rockin Red Dirt Ranch Festival Grounds in Pryor, OK. Shinedown, 5FDP, Breaking Benjamin, Marilyn Manson, Knocked Loose, Flyleaf. Full weekend passes are $200. Prices go up from there.https://blabbermouth.net/news/shinedown-five-finger-death-punch-breaking-benjamin-three-days-grace-and-many-more-set-for-rocklahoma-2025 Summer of Loud- KsE, Beartooth, I Prevail, Parkway Drive, The Devil Wears Prada, and others. June 21 in West Palm Beach FL, through July 27 in Charlotte NC. Presale is Feb 26.https://blabbermouth.net/news/beartooth-i-prevail-killswitch-engage-and-parkway-drive-to-team-up-for-summer-of-loud-2025-tour Pantera- Touring with Amon Amarth WHILE also doing those Metallica shows. The Amon Amarth shows will announce an opener soon. Tickets on sale now. Starts July 15 in Burgettstown PA through Sept 13 in West Palm Beach FL.https://blabbermouth.net/news/pantera-announces-summer-2025-u-s-tour-with-support-from-amon-amarth Punk in the Park, Denver- Bad Religion, Descendents, Dropkick Murphys, Streetlight Manifesto, Circle Jerks, The Adicts, The AQUABATS, Strung Out, Voodoo Glow Skulls, and MORE. July 18-20 in the National Western Stockyards.https://www.punkinthepark.com/ Reg ‘ol NewsBrian May- New 12 string guitar from Gibson. Brian May SJ-200. Only 100 of them have been made. https://blabbermouth.net/news/queens-brian-may-partners-with-gibson-to-release-12-string-acoustic-guitar Fyre 2.0- May 30 - June 2 in Isla Mujeres, near Cancun Mexico. The organizers are really doing their best to assure people that this time they're serious. Tickets are $1400 and only 2000 will be sold. Or you can buy a $25000 VIP ticket and meet the as-yet unannounced artists, along with other perks and accommodations. https://youtu.be/uZ0KNVU2fV0 https://www.billboard.com/pro/fyre-fest-2-dates-location-ticketing-partner-announced/ President- Mysterious new band added to Download festival this year. No music, no following, slot on one of the biggest festival dates in the world. Speculation has tried to tie this to Sleep Token and Ghost and Deftones, and even Slipknot. At the very least it has been confirmed that they have nothing to do with Sleep Token or Ghost.https://loudwire.com/president-mystery-band-2025-download-festival/ Placebo- Vocalist/frontman Brian Molko is being charged with defamation of the Prime Minister of Italy, because of comments made on stage at a recent concert. Molko allegedly called Meloni a "piece of shit, fascist, racist" and a "Nazi." At Italy's Sonic Park Festival.https://loudwire.com/placebo-brian-molko-defamation-charge/ SNL 50 Homecoming Concert- Streaming on Peacock. Lonely Island medley was great, Eddie Vedder covering Tom Petty was kind of amazing, Nirvana with Post Malone was impressive to a point. Overall a pretty fun collection of performances.The Mars Volta- Played an unreleased album live… CRAZY! https://youtu.be/_N6aVhKi384 https://metalinjection.net/video/the-mars-volta-just-played-a-whole-new-currently-unannounced-album-live SuggestsKillswitch Engage- This Consequence new album out last week. Gaming/Tech Follow-ups/CorrectionsStar Wars Eclipse/NetEase- The NetEase situation just seems to keep getting stickier. Star Wars Eclipse, the highly anticipated video game from Quantic Dream, might be facing the end of its journey. Reports suggest that its parent company, NetEase, is pulling back from overseas ventures and looking to offload studios, including Quantic Dream. Rumors of trouble aren't new for Eclipse— whispers of cancellation first popped up in 2022— but this latest move by NetEase has fans on edge. If confirmed, it'd join a growing list of scrapped Star Wars titles like Battlefront 3 and Star Wars 1313. No official word yet, so stay tuned for updates.~UPDATE~ Quantic Dream IS apparently unaffected by the restructuring at NetEase.https://cosmicbook.news/star-wars-eclipse-canceled-netease Marvel Rivals- First, to address the NetEase releasing of the development team last week… according to one of the producers the team was more in charge of logistics and HR type issues more than anything creative. “They were entitled, lazy, and woke.” But the new update is those leaked characters are “real.” Meaning that all of those character you may or may not have heard about, are in SOME level of development, but that doesn't mean they will make it to playable status.https://boundingintocomics.com/video-games/video-game-news/marvel-rivals-devs-confirms-roster-leaks-are-real-but-cautions-fans-that-datamined-characters-may-appear-or-may-not-appear-in-our-future-plans/ Fable- Delayed into 2026 by Microsoft.WB Games- WB has closed Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/warner-bros-reportedly-shuttering-monolith-productions-player-first-games-and-warner-bros-san-diego TrailersMortal Kombat 1- https://youtu.be/rRlNmFDHQw4?si=G-ddMgYIEC9vqn0nGlacius… I mean T-1000 trailer. Killer Instinct is going to have somethings to say.~ALSO~ MK Pro Tournament Mexico happened. Javier took 4th. Nicolas 3rd, his twin ScorpionProcs 2nd SonicFox 1st.Tekken 8 - Anna Williams https://youtu.be/b6hYwWoOrDkMarch 31 early access. Rocket Launcher, PLUS new moveset includes using that as a melee weapon as well as a ranged weapon. Reg ‘ol NewsMouthwashing- Indie horror game that has been QUICKLY gaining popularity, will now be jumping over to console. Not only will there be the obvious digital release, but the console releases (all current gen… even Switch 1…) will eventually get a physical release as well.https://www.engadget.com/gaming/horror-game-mouthwashing-will-land-on-consoles-later-this-year-204817692.html NVidia- 5070Ti launches and the supply issue persists. But the reviews seem to be luke warm at best.https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidia-geforce-5070-ti-review-a-sensible-4k-powerhouse-for-749-140023082.html Apple V - In an unprecedented move, Apple has completely disabled their ADP (Advanced Data Protection) in the UK. UK users no longer can encrypt their data using Apple's iCloud services. iMessage, passwords, health data, and other information Apple handles, will still be able to use end-to-end encryption. Users will have to turn their ADP off themselves in order to keep their iCloud accounts, due to the nature of end-to-end encryption, but will be allowed an unspecified “grace period.”https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-disables-iclouds-advanced-data-protection-feature-in-the-uk-173016447.html SuggestsThioJoe- YT channel that has helped me in more than a few pinches. Comic Books/Books Reg ‘ol NewsBatman relaunch- September will see ANOTHER Batman reboot. This time headed by the team of Matt Fraction (W) and Jorge Jimenez (A). Jimenez has talked about the work he is putting in on the feel of the city of Gotham. Some of the preview art feels like the Penguin a bit.https://cosmicbook.news/batman-new-costume-dc-comics-relaunch DC/Marvel Crossover- the Amalgam reprint event is, in fact leading to ANOTHER crossover event. Not a return of the Amalgam universe it would seem. Instead it will be a couple one-shot books, one called Marvel/DC and the other DC/Marvel obviously, to be released later this year. Any more details are being held very close to the chest.https://boundingintocomics.com/comic-books/comic-book-news/for-first-time-in-over-20-years-dc-and-marvel-comics-to-crossover-once-again-in-upcoming-pair-of-one-shots/ Wicked- New GN based on the original book that the stage production and subsequent movie is based on. Part 1 will be out on March 11. https://comicbook.com/comics/news/wicked-graphic-novel-first-look/ Pooluminati- New series, alongside the current Cody Ziglar run, written by Zac Gorman, Alexis Quasarano, with art from Enid Balm and Todd Nauck. Issue 1 goes on sale March 26.Deadpool and his daughter Ellie embark on an inter-dimensional adventure to prove they're worthy of joining the prestigious ranks of the Pooluminati. But what dark secrets will they unearth in the process? ~ALSO~All through March Marvel will be doing April Pool's Day variant covers for other books.https://comicbook.com/comics/news/marvel-deadpool-pooluminati-series-multiversal-deadpool-variants/ Krypto- Superman's superdog is getting his own book. A 5-issue series called Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton. First issue on shelves June 18. Ryan North (W) and Mike Norton (A).A heartfelt and moving view of humanity, good and bad, through the empathetic eyes of the ultimate outsider: a poor, lost dog, who just happens to have superpowers https://comicbook.com/comics/news/dc-krypto-the-superdog-getting-his-own-series/ SuggestsFoundation- science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the first book in the Foundation Trilogy (which later expanded into the Foundation series). Foundation is a cycle of five interrelated short stories, first published as a single book by Gnome Press in 1951. Collectively they tell the early story of the Foundation, an institute founded by psychohistorian Hari Seldon to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire. TV Shows Follow-ups/CorrectionsMoon Knight- Marvel's head of TV, Brad Winderbaum, has confirmed that the series will not be moving forward. https://cosmicbook.news/marvel-confirms-no-moon-knight-season-2 SAG Awards- Happened… Colin Ferrel won best actor for Penguin, and David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson reunited to present an award… that's all you need to know.Foundation- season 4 is happening. Though no word on when season 3 will premiere even though it is reportedly finished. https://deadline.com/2025/02/foundation-season-4-showrunner-ian-goldberg-writers-room-1236301501/ TrailersWalking Dead: Dead City- season 2 May 4 https://youtu.be/ewSY2KWW9t4 Reg ‘ol NewsMichelle Trachtenburg - Passed away this morning. She was 39. Not much is known yet, aside from the fact that she recently has a liver transplant, though it is not clear if that is connected in anyway.Avatar: Seven Havens- New Avatar animated series from Nickelodeon set to take place after the Legend of Korra series. The announcement comes on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the original series. ALSO, Nickelodeon will be producing Avatar shorts content on YT, a new season of their podcast Braving the Elements that focuses on the Korra story, releasing Book 2 Earth soundtrack, a live concert tour, with other live and in person content planned for SDCC, AS WELL AS new toys, books, and a mobile game titled Avatar Legends: Realms Collide.https://cosmicbook.news/avatar-seven-havens-nickelodeon-sequel-legend-of-korra Culture- Amazon has bought the rights for a book adaptation of the same name. From the sounds of it this will likely become Amazon's response to Star Trek.https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/new-amazon-sci-fi-series-anti-star-trek-marvel-director-involved-consider-phlebas/ SuggestsBuffy the Vampire Slayeris an American supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. The concept is based on the 1992 film, also written by Whedon, although they are separate and unrelated productions.[12] Whedon served as executive producer and showrunner of the series under his production tag Mutant Enemy Productions. It premiered on March 10, 1997, on The WB and concluded on May 20, 2003, on UPN.STREAMING ON TUBI, DISNEY+,HULUMovies Follow-ups/CorrectionsConstantine 2- Keanu Reeves has confirmed in an interview that Gunn seems to have accepted the pitch and they are ready to move into the writing stage of the production. This will reteam Reeves with original Director Francis Lawrence. The pitch is for a direct sequel with the same Elseworlds version of the character, only darker.https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/constantine-2-keanu-reeves-script Kathleen Kennedy- OFFICIALLY STEPPING DOWN! Retiring by the end of 2025. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-wars-kathleen-kennedy-lucasfilm-1235282440/ Dune 3- Jason Momoa will return for the third installment… to the surprise of no one who read the books.Punisher- “Special Presentation” on Disney+. Not a new series as was assumed. https://comicbook.com/movies/news/marvel-punisher-disney-plus-special-presentation/ TrailersThunderbolts- IMAX trailer leaked onto X over the weekend. There are some clear “course correction” elements here. Not the least of which being the focus on Bucky. The only issue, potentially is how will this team of super soldiers take on a legitimate Avengers Level Threat in the Void (Evil Sentry)? Will this also be an answer to the Marvel issue of killing off their villains?https://t.co/xblEvBpor0 Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League- The sequel to one of the craziest Batman animated movies you have ever seen just got a release date and a trailer. And this one looks like it is going to be even bigger and wilder than the first. Digital release is March 18 and physical is April 15.https://youtu.be/QleeDtH_WWE Fear Street: Prom Queen- https://youtu.be/pDvUEuZZM04?si=Bi7shjdJYmv74EssWelcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school's wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of '88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.May 23 Reg ‘ol NewsBarney- A24 is making the big purple dinosaur into a live-action movie. Yes, A24 is doing a Barney movie. Actor Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) has been developing the story for years, and now has the backing of Mattel Films, and a partner in A24. So far the actor is only attached as producer, but is in talks to act in the film as well. No solid details on production or release date windows yet.https://comicbook.com/movies/news/barney-live-action-movie-updates-daniel-kaluuya-ayo-edebiri-a24/ SuggestsFear Street- Netflix series of American horror films based on R. L. Stine's book series of the same name. Involving slasher and supernatural elements, the films' overall story revolves around teenagers who work to break the curse that has been over their town for hundreds of years. The first three installments were directed by Leigh Janiak from scripts and stories she co-wrote with other contributors Rumor Mill Confirmations/RefutationsKathleen Kennedy- But does this one really count? New SourcesStar Wars- Kevin Feige is once again being rumored to step in as the head of Lucasfilm now that Kennedy is stepping down.Avengers- New sources are elaborating on the “evil doppelgangers” rumors. Now it is said that the doppelgangers will be agents of Doom, and will not APPEAR as evil. Instead they will look just like their 616 counterparts, and hilarity will ensue… or something. New RumorsHancock 2- To feature Michael B Jordan and Zendaya? Is also happening?Marvel- Nova, Strange Academy, and Terror inc all on hold.Agatha- Now there are rumors for a second season… X-Men- First movie post Avengers Secret Wars. Won't be an origin story for the team. Will also have a Disney+ live-action show tie in.You can support this show by visiting our merch store, or by leaving us an Apple Podcasts review.
It's time for the Comic Talk Headlines with Generally Nerdy! Killswitch Engage is all over the music sectionNetEase is confusingDC/Marvel biggest crossover in 20 yearsPrime has an answer to Star TrekDune 3 non-spoilerClayface rumorsAnd so much more...Plus, don't forget to subscribe for more fresh content. Music Follow-ups/CorrectionsBilly Corgan- The Pumpkins' vocalist has clarified his performance at Ozzy's final show. He will be playing with Tom Morello and Adam Jones from Tool. https://loudwire.com/billy-corgan-playing-ozzy-black-sabbath-show/ Black Dahlia Murder- Guitarist Brandon Ellis has left the band, forcing them to reschedule the remaining date on their current tour.https://metalinjection.net/news/breakups/brandon-ellis-quits-the-black-dahlia-murder New Music/VideoSwitchfoot- Last Man Standing feat Buddy Guy https://youtu.be/r6Rz5PvPUjATOTALLY not what I was expecting. More Buddy Guy than Switchfoot, and all the better for it.Killswitch Engage- Collusion https://youtu.be/PoApILhc7YcThis new record might just e KsE in its most unhinged in YEARS.Disturbed- I Will Not Break https://youtu.be/9YICpjeGsbETheir guitar player said they were trying to recapture the feel of their earlier records. Well the intro sounds like it was ripped right from an earlier song. Production is pretty good, a little drum heavy for me. Not bad, but not earth moving.Bhad Bhabie- Ms. Whitman https://youtu.be/yo7_px4vXYQApparently a diss track against another “rapper” Alabama. First Drake and Kendrick, now this? LOL Bhabie also jabs at Travis Barker… because reasons. (Alabama is Barker's daughter apparently…?) performance-wise… not terrible like I anticipated, but absolutely not something to waste your time on.https://youtu.be/y1M8Ea46MgU- Alabama's last diss.Ghost Bath- Rose Thorn Necklace https://youtu.be/zN6EHnfS6MgOn Nuclear Blast. Slow-ish (?) death/black metal with melody? Yeah this is interesting. Tours/FestivalsRocklahoma- Aug 29, 30, 31 (fri, sat, sun) at Rockin Red Dirt Ranch Festival Grounds in Pryor, OK. Shinedown, 5FDP, Breaking Benjamin, Marilyn Manson, Knocked Loose, Flyleaf. Full weekend passes are $200. Prices go up from there.https://blabbermouth.net/news/shinedown-five-finger-death-punch-breaking-benjamin-three-days-grace-and-many-more-set-for-rocklahoma-2025 Summer of Loud- KsE, Beartooth, I Prevail, Parkway Drive, The Devil Wears Prada, and others. June 21 in West Palm Beach FL, through July 27 in Charlotte NC. Presale is Feb 26.https://blabbermouth.net/news/beartooth-i-prevail-killswitch-engage-and-parkway-drive-to-team-up-for-summer-of-loud-2025-tour Pantera- Touring with Amon Amarth WHILE also doing those Metallica shows. The Amon Amarth shows will announce an opener soon. Tickets on sale now. Starts July 15 in Burgettstown PA through Sept 13 in West Palm Beach FL.https://blabbermouth.net/news/pantera-announces-summer-2025-u-s-tour-with-support-from-amon-amarth Punk in the Park, Denver- Bad Religion, Descendents, Dropkick Murphys, Streetlight Manifesto, Circle Jerks, The Adicts, The AQUABATS, Strung Out, Voodoo Glow Skulls, and MORE. July 18-20 in the National Western Stockyards.https://www.punkinthepark.com/ Reg ‘ol NewsBrian May- New 12 string guitar from Gibson. Brian May SJ-200. Only 100 of them have been made. https://blabbermouth.net/news/queens-brian-may-partners-with-gibson-to-release-12-string-acoustic-guitar Fyre 2.0- May 30 - June 2 in Isla Mujeres, near Cancun Mexico. The organizers are really doing their best to assure people that this time they're serious. Tickets are $1400 and only 2000 will be sold. Or you can buy a $25000 VIP ticket and meet the as-yet unannounced artists, along with other perks and accommodations. https://youtu.be/uZ0KNVU2fV0 https://www.billboard.com/pro/fyre-fest-2-dates-location-ticketing-partner-announced/ President- Mysterious new band added to Download festival this year. No music, no following, slot on one of the biggest festival dates in the world. Speculation has tried to tie this to Sleep Token and Ghost and Deftones, and even Slipknot. At the very least it has been confirmed that they have nothing to do with Sleep Token or Ghost.https://loudwire.com/president-mystery-band-2025-download-festival/ Placebo- Vocalist/frontman Brian Molko is being charged with defamation of the Prime Minister of Italy, because of comments made on stage at a recent concert. Molko allegedly called Meloni a "piece of shit, fascist, racist" and a "Nazi." At Italy's Sonic Park Festival.https://loudwire.com/placebo-brian-molko-defamation-charge/ SNL 50 Homecoming Concert- Streaming on Peacock. Lonely Island medley was great, Eddie Vedder covering Tom Petty was kind of amazing, Nirvana with Post Malone was impressive to a point. Overall a pretty fun collection of performances.The Mars Volta- Played an unreleased album live… CRAZY! https://youtu.be/_N6aVhKi384 https://metalinjection.net/video/the-mars-volta-just-played-a-whole-new-currently-unannounced-album-live SuggestsKillswitch Engage- This Consequence new album out last week. Gaming/Tech Follow-ups/CorrectionsStar Wars Eclipse/NetEase- The NetEase situation just seems to keep getting stickier. Star Wars Eclipse, the highly anticipated video game from Quantic Dream, might be facing the end of its journey. Reports suggest that its parent company, NetEase, is pulling back from overseas ventures and looking to offload studios, including Quantic Dream. Rumors of trouble aren't new for Eclipse— whispers of cancellation first popped up in 2022— but this latest move by NetEase has fans on edge. If confirmed, it'd join a growing list of scrapped Star Wars titles like Battlefront 3 and Star Wars 1313. No official word yet, so stay tuned for updates.~UPDATE~ Quantic Dream IS apparently unaffected by the restructuring at NetEase.https://cosmicbook.news/star-wars-eclipse-canceled-netease Marvel Rivals- First, to address the NetEase releasing of the development team last week… according to one of the producers the team was more in charge of logistics and HR type issues more than anything creative. “They were entitled, lazy, and woke.” But the new update is those leaked characters are “real.” Meaning that all of those character you may or may not have heard about, are in SOME level of development, but that doesn't mean they will make it to playable status.https://boundingintocomics.com/video-games/video-game-news/marvel-rivals-devs-confirms-roster-leaks-are-real-but-cautions-fans-that-datamined-characters-may-appear-or-may-not-appear-in-our-future-plans/ Fable- Delayed into 2026 by Microsoft.WB Games- WB has closed Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/warner-bros-reportedly-shuttering-monolith-productions-player-first-games-and-warner-bros-san-diego TrailersMortal Kombat 1- https://youtu.be/rRlNmFDHQw4?si=G-ddMgYIEC9vqn0nGlacius… I mean T-1000 trailer. Killer Instinct is going to have somethings to say.~ALSO~ MK Pro Tournament Mexico happened. Javier took 4th. Nicolas 3rd, his twin ScorpionProcs 2nd SonicFox 1st.Tekken 8 - Anna Williams https://youtu.be/b6hYwWoOrDkMarch 31 early access. Rocket Launcher, PLUS new moveset includes using that as a melee weapon as well as a ranged weapon. Reg ‘ol NewsMouthwashing- Indie horror game that has been QUICKLY gaining popularity, will now be jumping over to console. Not only will there be the obvious digital release, but the console releases (all current gen… even Switch 1…) will eventually get a physical release as well.https://www.engadget.com/gaming/horror-game-mouthwashing-will-land-on-consoles-later-this-year-204817692.html NVidia- 5070Ti launches and the supply issue persists. But the reviews seem to be luke warm at best.https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidia-geforce-5070-ti-review-a-sensible-4k-powerhouse-for-749-140023082.html Apple V - In an unprecedented move, Apple has completely disabled their ADP (Advanced Data Protection) in the UK. UK users no longer can encrypt their data using Apple's iCloud services. iMessage, passwords, health data, and other information Apple handles, will still be able to use end-to-end encryption. Users will have to turn their ADP off themselves in order to keep their iCloud accounts, due to the nature of end-to-end encryption, but will be allowed an unspecified “grace period.”https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-disables-iclouds-advanced-data-protection-feature-in-the-uk-173016447.html SuggestsThioJoe- YT channel that has helped me in more than a few pinches. Comic Books/Books Reg ‘ol NewsBatman relaunch- September will see ANOTHER Batman reboot. This time headed by the team of Matt Fraction (W) and Jorge Jimenez (A). Jimenez has talked about the work he is putting in on the feel of the city of Gotham. Some of the preview art feels like the Penguin a bit.https://cosmicbook.news/batman-new-costume-dc-comics-relaunch DC/Marvel Crossover- the Amalgam reprint event is, in fact leading to ANOTHER crossover event. Not a return of the Amalgam universe it would seem. Instead it will be a couple one-shot books, one called Marvel/DC and the other DC/Marvel obviously, to be released later this year. Any more details are being held very close to the chest.https://boundingintocomics.com/comic-books/comic-book-news/for-first-time-in-over-20-years-dc-and-marvel-comics-to-crossover-once-again-in-upcoming-pair-of-one-shots/ Wicked- New GN based on the original book that the stage production and subsequent movie is based on. Part 1 will be out on March 11. https://comicbook.com/comics/news/wicked-graphic-novel-first-look/ Pooluminati- New series, alongside the current Cody Ziglar run, written by Zac Gorman, Alexis Quasarano, with art from Enid Balm and Todd Nauck. Issue 1 goes on sale March 26.Deadpool and his daughter Ellie embark on an inter-dimensional adventure to prove they're worthy of joining the prestigious ranks of the Pooluminati. But what dark secrets will they unearth in the process? ~ALSO~All through March Marvel will be doing April Pool's Day variant covers for other books.https://comicbook.com/comics/news/marvel-deadpool-pooluminati-series-multiversal-deadpool-variants/ Krypto- Superman's superdog is getting his own book. A 5-issue series called Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton. First issue on shelves June 18. Ryan North (W) and Mike Norton (A).A heartfelt and moving view of humanity, good and bad, through the empathetic eyes of the ultimate outsider: a poor, lost dog, who just happens to have superpowers https://comicbook.com/comics/news/dc-krypto-the-superdog-getting-his-own-series/ SuggestsFoundation- science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the first book in the Foundation Trilogy (which later expanded into the Foundation series). Foundation is a cycle of five interrelated short stories, first published as a single book by Gnome Press in 1951. Collectively they tell the early story of the Foundation, an institute founded by psychohistorian Hari Seldon to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire. TV Shows Follow-ups/CorrectionsMoon Knight- Marvel's head of TV, Brad Winderbaum, has confirmed that the series will not be moving forward. https://cosmicbook.news/marvel-confirms-no-moon-knight-season-2 SAG Awards- Happened… Colin Ferrel won best actor for Penguin, and David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson reunited to present an award… that's all you need to know.Foundation- season 4 is happening. Though no word on when season 3 will premiere even though it is reportedly finished. https://deadline.com/2025/02/foundation-season-4-showrunner-ian-goldberg-writers-room-1236301501/ TrailersWalking Dead: Dead City- season 2 May 4 https://youtu.be/ewSY2KWW9t4 Reg ‘ol NewsMichelle Trachtenburg - Passed away this morning. She was 39. Not much is known yet, aside from the fact that she recently has a liver transplant, though it is not clear if that is connected in anyway.Avatar: Seven Havens- New Avatar animated series from Nickelodeon set to take place after the Legend of Korra series. The announcement comes on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the original series. ALSO, Nickelodeon will be producing Avatar shorts content on YT, a new season of their podcast Braving the Elements that focuses on the Korra story, releasing Book 2 Earth soundtrack, a live concert tour, with other live and in person content planned for SDCC, AS WELL AS new toys, books, and a mobile game titled Avatar Legends: Realms Collide.https://cosmicbook.news/avatar-seven-havens-nickelodeon-sequel-legend-of-korra Culture- Amazon has bought the rights for a book adaptation of the same name. From the sounds of it this will likely become Amazon's response to Star Trek.https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/new-amazon-sci-fi-series-anti-star-trek-marvel-director-involved-consider-phlebas/ SuggestsBuffy the Vampire Slayeris an American supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. The concept is based on the 1992 film, also written by Whedon, although they are separate and unrelated productions.[12] Whedon served as executive producer and showrunner of the series under his production tag Mutant Enemy Productions. It premiered on March 10, 1997, on The WB and concluded on May 20, 2003, on UPN.STREAMING ON TUBI, DISNEY+,HULUMovies Follow-ups/CorrectionsConstantine 2- Keanu Reeves has confirmed in an interview that Gunn seems to have accepted the pitch and they are ready to move into the writing stage of the production. This will reteam Reeves with original Director Francis Lawrence. The pitch is for a direct sequel with the same Elseworlds version of the character, only darker.https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/constantine-2-keanu-reeves-script Kathleen Kennedy- OFFICIALLY STEPPING DOWN! Retiring by the end of 2025. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-wars-kathleen-kennedy-lucasfilm-1235282440/ Dune 3- Jason Momoa will return for the third installment… to the surprise of no one who read the books.Punisher- “Special Presentation” on Disney+. Not a new series as was assumed. https://comicbook.com/movies/news/marvel-punisher-disney-plus-special-presentation/ TrailersThunderbolts- IMAX trailer leaked onto X over the weekend. There are some clear “course correction” elements here. Not the least of which being the focus on Bucky. The only issue, potentially is how will this team of super soldiers take on a legitimate Avengers Level Threat in the Void (Evil Sentry)? Will this also be an answer to the Marvel issue of killing off their villains?https://t.co/xblEvBpor0 Batman Ninja VS Yakuza League- The sequel to one of the craziest Batman animated movies you have ever seen just got a release date and a trailer. And this one looks like it is going to be even bigger and wilder than the first. Digital release is March 18 and physical is April 15.https://youtu.be/QleeDtH_WWE Fear Street: Prom Queen- https://youtu.be/pDvUEuZZM04?si=Bi7shjdJYmv74EssWelcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school's wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of '88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.May 23 Reg ‘ol NewsBarney- A24 is making the big purple dinosaur into a live-action movie. Yes, A24 is doing a Barney movie. Actor Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) has been developing the story for years, and now has the backing of Mattel Films, and a partner in A24. So far the actor is only attached as producer, but is in talks to act in the film as well. No solid details on production or release date windows yet.https://comicbook.com/movies/news/barney-live-action-movie-updates-daniel-kaluuya-ayo-edebiri-a24/ SuggestsFear Street- Netflix series of American horror films based on R. L. Stine's book series of the same name. Involving slasher and supernatural elements, the films' overall story revolves around teenagers who work to break the curse that has been over their town for hundreds of years. The first three installments were directed by Leigh Janiak from scripts and stories she co-wrote with other contributors Rumor Mill Confirmations/RefutationsKathleen Kennedy- But does this one really count? New SourcesStar Wars- Kevin Feige is once again being rumored to step in as the head of Lucasfilm now that Kennedy is stepping down.Avengers- New sources are elaborating on the “evil doppelgangers” rumors. Now it is said that the doppelgangers will be agents of Doom, and will not APPEAR as evil. Instead they will look just like their 616 counterparts, and hilarity will ensue… or something. New RumorsHancock 2- To feature Michael B Jordan and Zendaya? Is also happening?Marvel- Nova, Strange Academy, and Terror inc all on hold.Agatha- Now there are rumors for a second season… X-Men- First movie post Avengers Secret Wars. Won't be an origin story for the team. Will also have a Disney+ live-action show tie in.You can support this show by visiting our merch store, or by leaving us an Apple Podcasts review.
This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. There were three authors who were considered the Big Three in the Golden age: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert A. Heinlein. We will look at all three, but this episode is a look at Asimov, from his beginnings to the writing of his most famous work, the Foundation series. We will see what this series was saying in its original form of the Foundation Trilogy, then at the expansion of the series in the 1980s when Asimov took it up again. We will also mention the trilogy assigned to three other writers in the late 1990s, and to the audio and video adaptations. Links: https://medium.com/@Sarnav/the-top-3-sci-fi-authors-who-revolutionized-the-genre-ea6d2e49f5e1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_Science_Fiction_and_Fact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marooned_Off_Vesta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Stories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(Asimov_short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_Writers_of_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Galactica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation%27s_Edge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_and_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude_to_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_the_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation%27s_Fear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Bear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_and_Chaos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation%27s_Triumph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foundation_Trilogy_(BBC_Radio) https://archive.org/details/foundation-trilogy_bbc-radio_1973_complete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_History_(Heinlein) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_E._Smith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien https://www.palain.com/science-fiction/the-golden-age/isaac-asimov-the-foundation/ Provide feedback on this episode.
We begin our conversation about Pebble in the Sky with Chapters 1 through 6. Isaac Asimov is famously prolific; if you know one thing about the Great and Glorious Az it might be that he wrote more than 500 books. Asimov-Reviews.net puts the number at 514 counting the Good Doctor's dissertation. Asimov.Fandom.com puts the number at a much more modest 506. Why is this relevant? Well, Pebble in the Sky is Asimov Book #001; it's the first thing he wrote that got stuck between its own two covers (unless you count his dissertation, which he did not). It's also only his first novel even though he had already been writing professionally for eleven years. Most of I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy were in the rearview mirror; those quickly became books 002, 004, 006, and 009. Pebble in the Sky is also a lot of fun! Don't miss it as we delve into this significant moment in Asenion history! Let's GO!
Subscribe to https://www.crisisInvesting.com to learn what Doug's investing in and get access to Phyle, our private member community, for free. Books mentioned in this episode: "180 Degrees: Unlearn the Lies You've Been Taught to Believe" book (00:06:28) Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth: Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (00:08:53) "What If" book series (00:12:17) Isaac Asimov's short story "The Final Question" - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:27:03 Robert Heinlein's science fiction works - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:28:03 Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:28:03 Jules Verne's science fiction works - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:28:03 Olaf Stapleton's book "The Last and First Men" - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:28:03 Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:28:03 Larry Niven's "Ringworld" - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:29:11 Neil Stephenson's "Diamond Age" - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:29:11 Cixin Liu's "The Three-Body Problem" - mentioned by speaker 2 at 00:29:11 John Taylor Gatto's books on education - mentioned by speaker 1 at 00:37:44 Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov - mentioned at 00:51:00 Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler - mentioned at 00:55:12 Chapters: 00:00 Intro The suggestion to move to Argentina (00:01:04) Doug explains the differences between moving from California to Arizona and moving from Europe to Argentina. Owning land in Paraguay (00:03:13) Doug discusses the unique characteristics of Paraguay and why he does not own land there. Questions about the 9/11 building collapse (00:06:28) Doug shares his thoughts on the controlled demolition theory of Building 7's collapse and the lack of awareness about it. Historical events and numbers (00:12:17) Doug discusses the questionable historical numbers related to the H**** and the disappeared people in Argentina. Political and societal narratives (00:15:40) The conversation delves into the simplification of historical events and the creation of false narratives. Current political climate and potential civil unrest (00:21:39) The discussion touches on the potential for civil unrest and the escalation of political tensions. The right to bear arms and recreational nukes (00:21:56) Doug addresses the question of individuals' rights to possess nuclear weapons, emphasizing the impracticality and risks involved. The proliferation of dangerous weapons (00:23:13) Discussion on the potential dangers of modern warfare, including computer hackers and bio-weapons. Trump's solution to de-dollarization (00:25:02) Critique of Trump's economic ideas and comparison to the current government. Influence of science fiction literature (00:27:03) Doug Casey's appreciation for science fiction literature and its impact on his views. Libertarian ideals in science fiction (00:29:18) The presence of libertarian ideals in science fiction and the elite's disdain for the genre. Airlines as an investment (00:30:22) Warren Buffet's perspective on airline industry and Doug Casey's stance on airline stocks. Rising costs of public education (00:32:40) Discussion on the increasing costs of public education and the inefficiencies in the system. Biden's tax proposal (00:38:41) Analysis of Biden's tax proposal and its potential impact on the capital system. Economic war with Russia (00:44:07) Discussion on the economic conflict with Russia, including the repo act and potential consequences. The Ukraine Conflict (00:47:51) Discussion on the US funding and prolonging the war in Ukraine, contrasting it with Israel's defense spending. Israel and Palestine (00:49:29) Debate on the US government's support for Israel and its impact on the Palestinian conflict. Psychopathic Leadership (00:50:29) Analysis of the US government's upper levels being populated by psychopaths and sociopaths. Economic and Trade Wars (00:52:03) Discussion on US-China relations, including Blinken's visit and Yellen's comments on China's industrial capacity. Hopeless Situation (00:54:04) Reflection on the current state of affairs and pessimistic outlook for the future.
An Analysis of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy.
Welcome to Episode 5 of the BioHackers Podcast!In this episode, David and Alex welcome famous inventor and systems theorist Ken Matusow to the show. Together, they discuss the emergence of quantum mechanics as a tool for curing cancer, the power of imaginary numbers, the New Renaissance, quantum weirdness, and valuable life lessons learned from Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Watch the Video Podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/isBLpZwArgc Here is a list of topics: Welcome to Episode 5 (00:00)Complexity: The New Renaissance (01:32)How Can Quantum Mechanics Explain Biology? (06:21)Welcome Ken to the Show (09:50)Ken's Story: Serendipity and Silicon Valley (11:50)The New Renaissance and Deeper Truth (18:05)Quantum Mechanics as a Tool for Curing Cancer (25:14)Tricorder: 4-Dimensional Tools to Understand Complexity (35:10)Foundation 2022: Paper 1 – Uncertainty (39:25)Quantum Weirdness: Nature Isn't Weird (44:29)The New Renaissance: Education Transformation (47:26)Foundation 2022: Paper 2 – Nentropy (54:47)How To Roll 20,000 Dice (01:00:47)Foundation 2022: Paper 3 – Predicate (01:07:01)Psychohistory: Ability to Understand our New Reality (01:12:45)Supercomputer-powered Systems Biology (01:14:40)What is a BioHacker to You? (01:19:20) Closing Thoughts (01:24:00)Enjoy the Show! Link to Alex's Paper on Quantum Mechanics in Cancer: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29802335/
Dan, Peter, and Jason discuss the Isaac Asimov novel Second Foundation, Part II: Search by the Foundation, Chapter 19-22. Is Peter's House on fire?....many answers in these last chapters, the re-emergence of the "sardonic," a bit of a roller coaster ride, and a conclusion to the original Foundation Trilogy.
ROADTRIPPIN' co-hosts Robert Meyer Burnett and Mike Bawden respond to a letter from a listener who asks why producers spend the money necessary to purchase established, science fiction intellectual property and then develop projects that have very little in common with that IP. Two examples include the recent FOUNDATION series (based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy) and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (developed by Alex Kurtzman's Secret Hideout production company).This "Extra" is a segment from the ROADTRIPPIN' with RMB podcast recorded on June 1, 2022 (Episode #35).
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Grant LaFontaine is the Founder & CEO @ Whatnot, the fastest-growing marketplace in the US, empowering people to make a living off their passion. To date, Grant has raised over $225M for Whatnot from the likes of CapitalG, a16z, YC, Scribble Ventures and Wonder Ventures to name a few. Prior to Whatnot, Grant was a PM @ Facebook working on the Oculus App Store and before that was the founder of Kit.com, ultimately acquired by Patreon. In Today's Episode with Grant LaFontaine You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding of Whatnot: How did Grant make his way into the world of tech and startups? What were some of his biggest lessons from Facebook? How did that impact how he has built Whatnot? 2.) Impossible To Hire Product Managers: Why does Grant believe it is impossible to hire product managers today? How does this impact the decision-making powers of engineers? How does Grant test for this product knowledge in all engineers he adds to the team? What are clear signals of 10x engineers in hiring processes? 3.) A/B Testing and Risk Mindset: Why does Grant not believe in the effectiveness of A/B testing? Why does it not work? Why does Grant believe one of the biggest reasons for startups failing is they do not take enough risk? How does Grant try to ensure that his team takes as much risk as possible with everything that they do? How does mindset to risk change with scale of company and with leadership? 4.) AMA: Why does Grant disagree with founders angel investing? What are the biggest challenges Whatnot has faced in scaling? CEO coach? Who? When? What is the biggest lesson? What is the single driving metric of Whatnot? How does Grant advise founders to determine their North Star metric? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Grant LaFontaine Grant's Favourite Book: Foundation: 1/3 (Foundation Trilogy)
This week The TV Boys sit down to discuss Apple TV's Foundation. This adaptation of Issac Asimov's award winning series may just be the most interesting Sci-Fi production of the year.
Episode 57 I Think To Tomorrow: An Audio Interpretation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation An imagined reconstruction of the Spy-Beam technology from the novel The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, using randomly selected phrases in different tones and voices. Playlist Isaac Asimov read by William Shatner – Foundation: The Psychohistorians. (1976 Caedmon Records). Passages the 1951 edition of the novel comprising page 14 plus the Spy-Beam passage from page 34. 1:40 and 0:18 Isaac Asimov, “Psycho History And Encyclopedia” from The Foundation Trilogy (1990 BBC Enterprises Ltd.). Passages the 1951 edition of the novel comprising page 14 plus the Spy-Beam passage from page 34. 1:37 and 0:17 Isaac Asimov, miscellaneous passages, The Mayors From Foundation Read By The Author (1977 Caedmon Records). Additional audio processing and synthesis created by Thom Holmes using WavePad, Logic Pro, MetaSynth CTX 1.2, Arturia ARP 2600 V, Arturia Moog Modular, Arturia Pigments, Madrona Labs Aalto, and various audio processing applications. The piece is organized as follows: Part 1: Foundation “Spy-beam” passage from page 34, dramatized readings from the BBC and Caedmon (with William Shatner), with audio processing. 4:00 Part 2: Foundation page 14, computer-voiced versions, randomized, plus synthesized sounds. 20:00 Part 3: Foundation page 14, computer-voiced versions plus myself recorded and played back using the Bell & Howell Language Master, randomized, with synthesized sounds and audio processing. The Bell & Howell 1757B Language Master was made in the 1970s and was Language Card Teaching System using magnetically striped cards that could record and playback sounds that were about 5 seconds in length. It could only play or record one time at a time that was manually fed into the transport system, essentially a capstan with a magnetic head like a reel-to-reel tape recorder. It was used in classrooms to teach language skills, vocabulary, and so forth. 11:00. Part 4, Foundation page 14 plus read by William Shatner plus random passages from The Mayors section read by author Isaac Asimov. Both dramatized readings from the Caedmon records, with audio processing and synthesis. 6:00 Background Music Isaac Asimov read by William Shatner – Foundation: The Psychohistorians. (1976 Caedmon Records). Passages page 14 including Encyclopedia Galactica 4. 1:40 Isaac Asimov, miscellaneous passages, The Mayors From Foundation Read By The Author (1977 Caedmon Records). 2:60 Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz. Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes. For additional notes, please see my blog Noise and Notations.
This week in the Security News: Dr. Doug's Favorite Threat of the Week, Apple, Apple, and Apple, NanoMQ, geofencing, FamousSparrow, VMWare, the Foundation Trilogy, as well as all the show Wrap-Ups for this week! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn152 Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/securityweekly Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secweekly
This week in the Security News: Dr. Doug's Favorite Threat of the Week, Apple, Apple, and Apple, NanoMQ, geofencing, FamousSparrow, VMWare, the Foundation Trilogy, as well as all the show Wrap-Ups for this week! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn152
This week in the Security News: Dr. Doug's Favorite Threat of the Week, Apple, Apple, and Apple, NanoMQ, geofencing, FamousSparrow, VMWare, the Foundation Trilogy, as well as all the show Wrap-Ups for this week! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn152 Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/securityweekly Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secweekly
Can cancer, and the knowledge that the end is near, sharpen our perspectives on change? Is war ever glamorous? Should an enemy continue to be an enemy after a war? Might our thoughts be clouded when trying to picture a near future that we might never see? Is there a role for creative visualisation in changing the outcome of change? Do we need technologies not yet developed to contain climate change? Can science fiction throw a light on changes that might happen or have already happened? What's Adam and Eve got to do with how a Christian perceives death? Was it stifling the expression of my brother's feelings to show concern that I might be upsetting him with the way our conversation had gone? This episode raises these questions and I hope the answers are apparent to listeners through these chapters:A visit to the past and forgiving opponentsImagination, Narnia and Careful with that Axe EugeneA visit to the future, technology, working at home and climate changeScience Fiction, psychohistory and predictive psychologyDeath from a Christian perspective; expressing feelingsAlong with episode 1, the episode is framed around the second and final part of a discussion with my brother, Phil. I described him and the background to our discussion in Episode 1 of Time is Sliding - Time sliding away: viewing change from cancer's helter skelter . The discussion was recorded almost exactly three months before Phil experienced the biggest change that everyone will experience: the end of life. The result shows Phil's humour shining through the fact that he was very ill, tired and weak. It also provides a series of soundbites, with commentary, illustrating the changes experienced by one person and the society around him over the last 50 or so years. Books mentioned by Phil:C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, First published between 1950 and 1956.Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A World Tour Underwater, translated from the original French by F. P. Walter, 1869Isaac Asimov, The Robot series & Foundation Trilogy including Phil's thoughts on psycho history.Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah, 1969Frank Herbert, Children of Dune,1976Arthur Aldridge with Mark Ryan, The Last Torpedo Flyers. The True Story of Arthur Aldridge, Hero of the Skies, 2013Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, 1997 was also relevant.Films (a.k.a. movies) Phil mentioned:Midway, 2019.Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet, Netflix Documentary, 2021Phil's Desert Island Disc:Careful with that axe Eugene_ from the Pink Floyd album ‘Ummagumma' released November 1969Photo of Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia: K. Mitch Hodge on UnsplashThanks for listening. Rob's on Mastodon @leafn4give@mastodonapp.uk
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded in New York City on August 10, 1983. Isaac Asimov, who died at the age of 72 in 1992, was considered, along with Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein, one of the three great masters of American science fiction in the 20th century. Isaac Asimov began sending in stories and getting published in science fiction magazines at the age of nineteen, and at the age of 21, with the publication of the short story “Nightfall” in John W. Campbell's Astounding Stories magazine. moved into the first ranks of science fiction writers. That status was confirmed a year later with the publication of the short story, “Foundation,” later renamed “The Encyclopedists,” which would be the first of several short stories and novellas republished as the three volumes of the Foundation trilogy. In the 1940s, he turned to a series of stories focused on robots, which became the collection I Robot and then in the 1950s turned to novels, including Pebble in the Sky, The Caves of Steel and The End of Eternity. Along the way, through his entire career, he wrote dozens of non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics, along with young adult novels, and mystery novels and short stories. In the end, the number of books he wrote or edited exceeded 500, not counting separate short stories and articles. This interview was conducted in a New York City bookstore Asimov was visiting to sign copies of a new collection, The Union Club Mysteries, a year after his return to the world of the Foundation trilogy, Foundation's Edge, was published. Because his two –volume autobiography had come out a couple of years earlier and dealt with the plots and themes of his fiction, the interview focused instead on his life as a writer and his work with editors and publishers. A miniseries adaptation of the Foundation Trilogy is due to be released on the Apple + streaming app in September, 2021. The post The Probabilities Archive: Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), 1983 appeared first on KPFA.
Acknowledgements:Jeremy MacKinnon, Video Editing and Podcast Support (Linkedin | Twitter)Tom Barnes, Theme OrchestrationMike Topping, Graphics (Despotica)Inspiration:Trojan War the PodcastOdyssey the PodcastLiterature and History PodcastPlanet and Sky, the Deeper Story (my first audio-drama podcast)Tobias Cabrol - New Eyes review (Goodreads)Listener Resources:Foundation Era - Asimov Future Timeline (Youtube)William Woolard - Asimov Chronology ProjectInterview callouts:Isaac Asimov - Nightfall (Wikipedia)Isaac Asimov - The Last Question (Youtube)Eric Cline - 1177 B.C., Revised Edition (Amazon)David Deutsch - After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up (Youtube)Mike Flynn - In the Country of the Blind review (Goodreads)Transcript:[music intro with voiceover by Nathaniel Goldberg:“Philosophy and Science-fiction have this particular thing in common and that is that they're both really good at thought experiments”“The Galactic Empire is falling… so here's a thought experiment... civilization is falling, what do we do?”]Welcome to a very special episode of Seldon Crisis – The Podcast! We won't be diving in to the first chapter of Foundation and Empire, The General quite yet, so I am sorry to disappoint you on that front. Instead, we have something of an entirely different order – an actual guest appearance by someone very familiar with Foundation and Asimov who has studied the core trilogy in depth and has some special insights to offer (without breaking our no spoiler rule). Before introducing our guest, however, I want to briefly thank some of the people who have made this podcast a success beyond my wildest dreams in only a few months.First, I want to thank someone in my own family who's contributed more than anyone else, my own son Jeremy MacKinnon. When I started re-reading the Foundation series last summer I felt I had to share it with someone and was thrilled to find an accomplice in the joy of reading it in someone under my own roof. He started reading it before I'd even finished and read all seven volumes to my complete delight. He became a big fan of the idea of creating a podcast and lent his talents as a video editor in producing the video trailer for season 1 and designed and produced each of the mini-preview videos I've been posting on the Seldon Crisis video channel. He's also been a great sounding board for podcast ideas and offers much needed constructive criticism of each episode. I hope to be able to leverage his creative talents throughout the series.Another wonderful collaborator has been a friend I've known since high school and a long time musical companion named Tom Barnes. I came up with a simple melody idea for the theme music and shared it with him last fall and he enthusiastically transformed it into the evocative and magical theme music that begins and ends each show along with variations to use to link the sections together. It wouldn't have the same feel without his excellent work and I look forward to more from him in future seasons if I can maintain his interest in contributing his efforts. I am extremely grateful for all he's done.A creative effort like this needs visual representation, and I knew I needed something special to honor the power of Isaac Asimov's vision. Who better to create such a look than someone who had demonstrated success in the past? I reached out to the artist who had created book covers for all but one of the seven Foundation novels and all four novels in the Robots series, a guy named Mike Topping and asked him if he could create an original logo for the series. I asked him if he could incorporate a raven into the graphic to represent Hari Seldon and somehow imply the magic and mystery of the galactic empire and the Foundation all in one graphic and boy did he deliver! I've been thrilled to post his graphics dozens of times and never get tired of seeing it. Mike can be found online at despotica.com if you would like to engage his services.Lastly, I want to thank all of the listeners and dear supporters who have made it possible to continue this series. I love doing it and get a lot of joy from it, but especially love hearing from all of you out there who appreciate the effort. There's one guy in particular I want to call out by name. I had the pleasure of virtually meeting this writer of vibrant and super futuristic science fiction named Tobias Cabral in the past year and read a couple of his works, including a gripping tale called New Eyes filled with nail-biting action sequences and featuring romance crossing the boundaries of cybernetic and biological lifeforms. You can find my review on Goodreads and I'll add a link in the show notes. Tobias is a wonderful guy and - though I've never met him in person - he's one I can call a true friend. He lent his enthusiastic backing of my intentions to make this podcast and I am very grateful for his support. Without further ado, let me introduce another friend and supporter of the show who I had the privilege of meeting online even before the first episode dropped. Let's meet our distinguished guest for this episode.[musical break]Joel McKinnon: My guest today is Nathaniel Goldberg. Nathaniel is a professor of philosophy at a university in Virginia. Besides more traditional classes, he teaches a special-topics course on philosophy and science fiction, in which he has his students read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy against the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato's most famous work, The Republic. Welcome, Nathaniel!Nathaniel Goldberg: Thank you, Joel. It's a pleasure to meet you and to be here on your podcast? JM: Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself, including your introduction to Asimov? NG: Sure, it would also be my pleasure. So I first discovered Asimov when I was a teenager, I was visiting my grandmother in New York. I've got that little bit in common with the good doctor, we're both New Yorkers, deep down.And she had in her bedroom, a book anthology collection. Golden age science fiction, short stories. I later learned it was my aunt's. She had done a science fiction class in college, and lo and behold, as I started reading through it, I came upon this short story called Nightfall by this author named Isaac Asimov.And it was years later. Years later when I was in high school my high school 10th grade English teacher happened to have sets of the Foundation trilogy. And I talked to him and he lent them to me. And the rest is galactic history. JM: So yeah, I'll tell you how I found it. I guess, you know, since you've listened to the podcast. As a teenager, I just discovered science fiction ‘cause my dad was into it and my dad had lots of science fiction on our bookshelves at home. So I read as much of that as I could. And I'm not sure what the first Asimov I read was - it wasn't Foundation. But when I found Foundation that changed my life. NG: Well, I remember when I was reading Nightfall, learning that as Asimov had written it, I think when he was 19 or so, he published it when he was 21.And at the time I was 13 or 14 and I thought, no worries. I've got years to be that successful because the golf from 13 to 19 is like eternal when you're a 13 year old. And then as I creep closer and closer in time, time started running short. I'm now in a spot where I teach college students who are roughly Asomov's age when he wrote that story and I liked to needle them a little bit – like what have you done with your life? Have you written a world changing science fiction short story that's the segue to a world changing trilogy or haven't you? And you know, they look at me and think that I'm goofy, but they usually think that anyway. So some more Asimov in my background.JM: I'm really curious about your class and would love to hear you talk more about it. Because I would have loved to have taken that class when I was in college. So I'm really curious what the students, how they respond to it, to the syllabus. NG: Sure. So, uh, I guess to fill in a little bit beyond my, the Asimov part of my life, I wound up getting a PhD in philosophy, and then I ended up teaching at three different universities. I started in Maryland and then I was in Ohio and now I'm in Virginia, and where I currently am I was encouraged to do a special topics course. We all are asked occasionally to do something like this. So as you said in your kind intro, I'm doing one called Philosophy and Science Fiction. And the idea was each time I taught it, to pair a different work of philosophy with a different work of science fiction.But Joel, I've got to tell you, the first pairing of Asimov and Plato just stuck because it just works so well. JM: Hard to beat that one.NG: Yeah, for both reasons. And I don't want to say too much about it because the course relies on having read the whole trilogy and your listeners, including myself since I'm a listener too, have so far only got through the first book in the trilogy with you. But that was the connection and the motivation. JM: How did they react to this? We have to read this Asimov guy. I mean, I would think, like really? I get to read Asimov? Not sure how how students react to that now. NG: Asimov is somewhat dated. The trilogy, as you mentioned, was composed of short stories that were written, I guess, in the forties, at least initially. Is that right? Joel? Am I getting that chronology right?JM: Yeah, he wrote them in the mid to late forties, I believe. NG: And even though the trilogy was so influential and it's hard once you read it and not to recognize its influences, it does come across somewhat stilted sometimes to students, or at least they wouldn't have heard of him, but like you I'm really excited about the Apple TV dramatization or interpretation of the trilogy to get more people interested in it.JM: Yeah. But we also have our misgivings about what we might find, how they might treat the subject matter. NG: Well, we, we absolutely do. In fact, if I can share an anecdote between the two of us on, I forget what social media platform, but on one of them I've for years used the alias Gaal Dornick. I don't even remember where, but I commented on your podcast after you and I had already met, but I used the pseudonym Gaal Dornick and you replied something like, uh, well thank you for commenting Gaal, you're one to know or something like that. So yeah, I've used that for years and I was excited to learn that I'm a woman in the new trailer and in the Apple TV, because we all should learn to walk in other people's shoes. But at the same time I was reminded, and you asked how did my students react to the trilogy?They do wind up really liking it. They really do by the end. One of their criticisms though, is that there are so few women in it, and I'm glad that a relatively minor character like Dornick, it doesn't really matter what gender, but that's one of the criticisms of Asimov that my students have. So, I feel like I've talked a bit now about philosophy and Asimov, and of some of the pros and cons and reactions of my students, at least on that subject.I really appreciated when you had talked a couple episodes ago about Asimov's handling of women and his sort of background and how that influenced or didn't influence his portrayal of them. So I'm curious, and maybe your listeners are too, if you could say a little bit more.JM: I'm glad you brought this up because I wrote that part a few months ago, that I read off on a podcast a couple of episodes ago about his treatment of women and his lack of women in Foundation up to that point and complete lack. And I wondered about it and I hadn't really done my homework enough to know why he was the way he was in that area. But since then, I've really plunged into his autobiography called I, Asimov, which is a pretty thick tome and covers a lot of the feelings about how he felt about himself and how he related to different people. He was definitely aware that he had shortcomings in the area of dealing with women, and a lot of it was that when he was young, his parents had a candy store and he had to work there from dawn to dusk. He never got to meet women much. He never got to date. He went to boys schools, and his first date with a woman was a double blind date and he ended up falling in love with the woman he was set up with, and that was Gertrude. He said she looked like Olivia de' Haviliand, she was so gorgeous – and he fell in love with her. She never really reciprocated the love he was feeling for her, he thought, so he always kind of had a chip on his shoulder about it, I guess.NG: And he did, he did marry her. Isn't that right? JM: Yes, he married her and he lived with her for 24 years, which was quite a while for what felt in the autobio like a mismatch. They were very different. And she actually resented one of his major character traits, which was that he just loved to write and write and write all the time.He didn't like to travel. He didn't like to socialize. He just liked to write and write and write and she felt neglected, you know? And you can tell from the bio that he felt that he neglected her. And also his family. He once asked his daughter (Robyn), who he just obviously adored, he said, have I been a good father? And she said, you've been a busy father. And that really stuck with him. He realized something from that.NG: That reminds me of a description I read once of Frank Herbert. So his son, Brian, was asked about his father and maybe you know this, that Brian and Kevin J. Anderson had written prequels and sequels to the Dune saga. So he, Brian, was once asked about his father and he described him in somewhat similar terms. He said that he remembers his father not spending time with him as much as he would like, and he remembers his father working on Dune, at least Brian didn't know at the time. Then when he finished the first draft, he just locked himself in his room for a couple of days and slept. And that makes me wonder if there's something about passionate people and passionate writing. JM: Well, you were just referring to your feelings of when are you going to be able to catch up with Asimov when you were young? And I probably had that same feeling and sometimes I've thought, wow, I'm such a slacker compared to people like Asimov. When I think about it in these terms, you know, at least my wife and son don't feel completely neglected by me, constantly writing and doing something other than being with them.I do travel and spend time with them. So, you know, being a real human being, it has its place. NG: I endorse that. My wife's glad I'm a real human being too.JM: I can't say I'm a perfectly real human being. Sometimes I'm too much like Asimov in my own self obsession. Like having a podcast and spending a lot of time working on it.NG: Well, speaking of obsessions in a way, this lets me answer or continue to answer an earlier question you asked me, actually the first one about me and my introduction to Asimov, and I can say a word about philosophy and Asimov too. So one of my obsessions, surprise surprise, is thinking or overthinking or over-analyzing sometimes to my detriment, and I discovered relatively early in life, probably the time when I started reading Asimov, that it was a more productive use of my time to explore – I can't resist to explore – strange new worlds and thoughts rather than obsessive about actually things in real life. So there's that bumper sticker something like reality is for those people who can't handle science fiction.JM: Yeah, I always liked that one. NG: Yeah, and I found philosophy too, because they're both intellectual exercises. And one ding that philosophers always get is that it's only intellectual and to some extent that's fair. To some extent, it's not – that is – there are applications. There are ethics boards at hospitals, and there are philosophers who basically invented logic.And once upon a time everybody, Isaac Newton, called himself a philosopher. So there are connections that are practical at the same time, philosophy and science fiction have this particular thing in common. And that is, they're both really good at thought experiments. So a thought experiment is like a lab experiment where you have a control, you have an environment where you're trying to tweak just one thing and keep everything else the same.Then you see what happens if you tweak that one thing, you know, increase the pressure, add radiation, you know, deprive the bacteria of sunlight, whatever it is, you don't do everything. You do one thing. And I found that science fiction, at least good science fiction usually does things like that as well.So Asimov had a thought experiment, well he's got lots in the foundation trilogy, but the big one, I suppose, is the Galactic Empire is falling. So here's a thought experiment. Civilization is ending. What do we do? And then of course he proposes and he proposes more than just a simple straightforward thing to do.There's the founding of the First Foundation. There's the mysterious Second Foundation we'll find out about. There's the working through of this thing called psychohistory, but in a way, these are all sort of thought experiments that work together for making a really engaging story. So it's that kind of thing that I had my students think about as well. So I think it's a pretty good fit. JM: Do you learn much from your students and their reports? Do they sometimes give you insights that you hadn't expected? NG: I do. I do. Well first, it's always good as a, I guess as they say, I've got a face for radio or for podcast. JM: I know the feeling.NG: Yeah, well maybe your listeners can figure out I'm a guy like you are and it's always great to have women react because I learn different perspectives. Which is why I always knew that Asimov had very few female characters – he has some, but I always knew he didn't have many. But it wasn't until I started teaching this that I realized how that makes it harder for female students to get into the story, because they don't really have characters that they can identify with.So I learned that, particular things in the story, there's some things that come up later in the books, so I won't mention them now, but there are just certain passages I had never read a certain way and that they did. And you know I think they're right.JM: I know that there are female fans of Foundation, I've heard from them already and it's really nice to hear of that. For any out there who have listened to the first five episodes and don't know what's coming, there are definitely more engaging female characters to come, and I'm horrified that I have to voice them to stay with my pattern – unless anybody out there wants to sign up and be my female character voice, that would be wonderful. NG: But on a, on a more uplifting note, something else I've learned about them or that they've reminded me is, as you were saying, just how prolific Asimov was. Students, at least the better ones, are inquisitive. So they would google around, and “google around,” basically, is our word for consult the Encyclopedic Galactica. And they would look up the Asimov entry and then they'd be all spoiled and pretend not to be. But before that happened, they would see that the guy wrote on what is it, every topic under the Dewey decimal system. Philosophy and history and literature and the Bible. So yeah, I wanted to ask you Joel, since you're recently reading his autobiography, what's your take on that? JM: I definitely have a take on that because in a lot of ways, that's how I felt I bonded with him because I felt we have so much in common, and the main thing is the boundless curiosity and everything. Yeah, every direction, what they now call ADHD, I believe, and he may very well have been diagnosed with that if that was a thing back then, and they probably would have stuck him on Ritalin or something, and it might've changed completely who he was. He might've been a successful lab scientist, suffering with not doing what he wanted to really do. And I'm really glad that he did what he did. What I think about this is that he needed a release for those mental wanderings and writing was just what he needed.He was never a drinker. He didn't do drugs when he needed therapy, when he was depressed or anxious, he wrote. He said this often happened in, that there were plenty of times when he would run into something just horrific in his life and some terrible pressure. And all he would do is sit down and write and he said that was great therapy. So I think that's really nice. That's a nice example of how to treat things instead of taking drugs and drinking. Podcasting makes me feel better – doing anything creative makes me feel better. It had a downside, obviously, this pattern, and we talked about it a little bit about how I think it really ruined his first marriage to Gertrude. He talked about her asking why don't you just spend some time traveling? When you're on your deathbed you're going to be horrified with all the things you didn't do. And he just kind of trolled her and responded by saying that when I'm on my deathbed all I'm going to be thinking is, why didn't I write more? And that's Asimov. NG: Yeah. I know there's also a connection that Asimov had with a different area that I know almost nothing about, so I can go on and on to some extent about his interest in history. So Joel, maybe you or your listeners know that he, at one point had contemplated getting a second PhD, one in History. His PhD was in chemistry, but he had contemplated it. YJM: I know he had regretted not getting a PhD in history. A couple of times he thought that was, that would have been better for him. NG: In fact, that's something else that my students, I hope you'll forgive me if I'm weaving around a bit in answering, but something else that I've learned from my students, I've had classics majors and history majors who filled me in on the actual parallels that as an office drawing on. So, we know, or at least some of us know that Asimov loved Edward Gibbon's decline and fall of the Roman empire, all upteen volumes of it. JM: Read it twice. NG: Yeah. Read it twice. And I've actually looked at it. I haven't read it other than I read, like the first paragraph and, you know, spoilers the last paragraph… it's not a spoiler if it's in the title, right. Um, Rome falls. There, I gave it away. Hope you don't get too much hate mail for this. But what I did appreciate was it's really well-written and it's got these big overarching themes. And Asimov was approaching his writing, trying to model some of his writing on the decline and fall. And there were some… well, I don't want to say too much, but your very next episode on Belriose, the general apparently was modeled on a historic Roman general, and Cleo II, the Emperor, was modeled after a historic Roman emperor. So these kinds of things I just didn't know. I do want to say one other thing on that history context that was really interesting to me. I know you're a history buff and in my misbegotten youth, I was a history major before I saw the light. But somehow I had missed this entire historical epic called the Greek dark ages or the Bronze Age collapse. It's just a story. JM: Amazing!NG: It's amazing. So maybe I'll stop babbling if you want to describe…JM: I do want to call out a great book on the Bronze Age collapse, by Eric Cline, it's called, 1177 BC. I hope I got that year right. That book was awesome to me. It really brought to life what an amazing era it was. Just a couple of hundred years before then was the most cosmopolitan era humanity had ever experienced, with trade crossing the Mediterranean in all directions and major empires interacting with Egypt and the Hittites to the north and the Mycenaeans to the west and Crete fell a little bit earlier.The Minoans... some amazing stories that we'll never know out of that period, because the collapse was so total and so much happened so quickly. So much of it was just so devastating. Entire cities just burned to the ground. And an ironic thing is that how we know some of what we know is from those cities burning to the ground because when clay tablets get exposed to extreme heat, it makes them harder and they become more durable and we would have forgotten a lot of that stuff if it hadn't been for them burning down. So some of the most disastrous sites are where we get our knowledge. You know, the ones who succeeded didn't give us the knowledge. NG: So that's the silver lining, but the cloud is that it was a complete collapse of Mediterranean civilization that set, set them back centuries.JM: And I'm sure as they were approaching that collapse, they thought it was unthinkable. NG: Exactly what I was going to say. I don't know the specifics, but I had a classics major student who's getting a PhD, I think, at Oxford in classics. So he knew the material better than I did, but he would say things like there were whole sorts of industries or techniques that were just lost. People forgot how to do X, Y, or Z, whatever that is. They forgot how to make this kind of pottery or they forgot this. There were whole things that were lost and something I try to impress upon my students is, yeah, it might seem like Asimov, you know, the decline and fall of the Galactic Empire is far-fetched – it's science fiction after all, you know, emphasis on the fiction and yeah, there was this decline and fall of the Roman empire, but there were Roman states and then there was the rise of early modern Europe. And depending upon how you want to read the middle ages, they maybe weren't so-called dark because there was still progress and advancement.In fact, the dark ages is a term obviously retroactively applied to it. So my students sometimes think, yeah, the Asimov story thing, that can't happen. And then, then we do talk. Well, actually the Roman fall was serious and even potentially more serious was the Bronze Age collapse and Asimov is focused not just on, on those historical examples, but on the possibility that this could always happen, that there could always be a fall. And what do we do? So, one reason that I have them read the short story Nightfall is that it's about that. It's about the fall of civilization and that is the fall of night, the literal and the metaphorical.And then I have them read that right before we start the Foundation trilogy. So they think as they start reading the trilogy, the Encyclopedia, it's the very first part of book one I think. I see... I see this is how we started the fall of civilization. You know, the Bronze Age collapse and the Roman fall and Nightfall and, you know, in his short story, we just gathered lots of smart people and have them write books.Because that seemed to be after all, they think that's what's lost. Right? We lose libraries... the Library of Alexandria later, but we lose libraries. We lose information. Science turns into religion Asimov talks about in Nightfall. He doesn't disparage religion, but he says it's a repository where people don't always know what it's a repository of, but still it's a way to hold onto some knowledge.So, yes. Wonderful! Seldon has these encyclopedists. Right? These however many families, you know, they're the men with their, you know, those women and children. There's another case where Asimov could have had women encyclopedists too. But anyway, they're writing an encyclopedia. So you asked me, you know, whether I have any anecdotes, that's maybe the biggest anecdote, just how gung ho you know, three cheers for Encyclopedia Galactica they are are until they get to the very end of the Encyclopedists and they learn that it was all a lie. JM: Yeah. That's a great turn and that's only one of the first of many great twists that Asimov delivers, going forward and coming up in future volumes for anyone listening to the podcast who hasn't read it. Foundation and Empire has some amazing twists.But going back to what you were just saying, Asimov also was a huge history buff. Going back to the Greeks, going back to further, he wrote an entire history of the Bible, old and new Testament two complete volumes, and I read them just not that long ago. Finally got around to it and found them in the library, just brilliant stuff, and it's so much more readable than the Bible. He doesn't do it in a contentious, you know, anti-religious state of mind. He doesn't say, listen to these silly people thinking this or that, you know, he puts it in the cultural context and he's really just trying to get at the real stories that were going on behind all that.And it's obvious that the residents of that area, the Hebrews were able to write their history so eloquently, was enormously powerful and that's driven so much of what's happened to the current time. He really respected that. And I think there is a lot he respects in religion without being a believer and that comes up again and again in the subtext of the Foundation. But then another thing I wanted to mention related to that is in his love of history, he also came to love theater and he saw history as just an endless succession of very entertaining stories and very entertaining characters and the rise and fall of power was always a huge part of that. And that's what Foundation is built on. You know, it's taking that history of human sociology and the waxing and waning of power and the kinds of temperaments that leaders and megalomaniacs have and putting that 20,000 years in the future. Nothing's really changed. NG: Yeah. Well, that's one of the beauties of science fiction going back to the thought experiment idea instead of talking about, well, for him, maybe it was World War II Europe, and then cold war Europe, right? It's the era during his formative life. Instead of talking about the Axis and the Allies or the communists and the so-called free west, he talked about emperors on distant planets in the distant future who controlled countless stars and countless star systems. So it was a way to explore these issues with them, without the nitty-gritty, you know, politicking of what was going on around him.Now, I'm not saying he was exploring the cold war issues in the original trilogy though maybe some of that comes up in the later books where he seems to return to the themes of freewill and the right way of organizing our government. Just for him, the government's the size of the galaxy, but it's still the same kind of questions it's still playing in thought, instead of playing in act, right?.JM: Do you know anything about David Deutsch? NG: I don't.JM: Oh, you should look into him. I just discovered him just recently. I saw a YouTube video where he talks about the great monotony in cosmology, which is the time starting after the Big Bang, which was the most significant moment of innovation in cosmic history, and what came right after it with the development of the first stars and the first galaxies. But that once that was finished, for the next 14 billion years nothing much was new. It was just a replication of those things. Very simple patterns that just replicated on this colossal time and distance scale until a few hundred million years ago, when multicellular life appeared on this planet – actually even before that, when the first photosynthesis started and the planet changed dramatically based on life.And he claims that now humans are the first species to develop explanatory power and explanatory power. He thinks is a mechanism by which humans can change the galaxy and eventually move, move out into the entire galaxy and become a dominating powerful force and modifying what is going on there.NG: The first species we know of. I'm still hoping. JM: Yeah, and he qualifies with as we know of through the whole thing. But it's a really fascinating topic. NG: Right, well it's got shades of Carl Sagan who would talk about how, with the dawn of intelligence, the universe finally came to know itself. As reality created or gave rise to the sort of thing that can know reality, whether we call it explanation or self knowledge. And that also reminds me of the short story that I end my Plato-Asimov class with. For almost the whole class we're reading the foundation trilogy, we start with Nightfall because that primes students to worry about what happens when things fall. And then we get the response and the trilogy, you know, spoilers because we're not done on your podcast with it, but we get Asimov's answer. And then I end the class with the story I've shared with you called The Last Question where the last question asked is basically what happens when entropy increases, when the universe, when disorder takes reigns over order and the universe comes to an end and I'm not going to give it away either, but the way I read Asimov…JM: It's a short story that everybody should read…NG: And google it, it might be public domain at this point.JM: There's a YouTube version of it that's very nicely narrated. I found it but haven't watched it yet. I've been meaning to. I've read it a while back and want to re-experience it.NG: Yeah, it's a great story. So, sort of the meta question that I ask in my class is, what do we do with these cycles of history? So in, in Nightfall the short story it seems like they're inevitable and then in the Foundation trilogy, hey, we've got psychohistory that can help predict the future, and hey, we have the Foundation that can help limit the interregnum between decline and fall. And hey, as we're going to see, we've got some other things that may prevent future declines and falls, right? That comes up in the book called the second foundation and it involves the entity known as the Second Foundation.But then by the time we get to the last question, Well, I'm not sure, I'll let your listeners find that for themselves. We're a ways off from that. JM: I hope I have the endurance to make it through podcasting out seven novels, because there are two sequels and two prequels, which I hadn't read until the last summer and I was really blown away by them because they're different in that he wrote them 40 years later. He took a long break from science fiction and wrote mostly fiction nonfiction for most of the middle of his life, with a few exceptions but he got back to it eventually, and I'm so glad he did because, he realized, I think, that the story wasn't complete in terms of it was supposed to last a thousand years and it didn't go that long. And also that he wasn't entirely satisfied with how he'd wrapped it up, and that it didn't feel right to him.He spent the last few novels really pondering how it should have wrapped up and I think it's a fascinating introspection that he takes us on in those last novels. If you read them, they're quite something. And after the sequels, you get the prequels and you get the backstory on Hari Seldon and the beginning of the story, which turns out there's a ton of material.NG: Yeah, there is. But, but maybe some of my final thoughts as I'm privileged to be talking to you, but I don't want to overstay my welcome too much is just to say the special place that the original trilogy has for me personally, I take it for you personally, for the whole genre of science fiction.So, I can share an anecdote, not from my students, but I've got a colleague who teaches English literature, and his particular research area. It's really interesting, is the effect or the influence of the decline and fall of the Roman empire on English literature. So there were many authors who took it, got the idea of decline and fall and worked it into their novels. And I can't name too many of them, but I can name two. One is Isaac Asimov. And one is J.R.R. Tolkien. There are others as well. Well, but they both have... those two have the decline and fall, Frank Herbert has it or other people have it, but as, as my colleague pointed out... So does Star Wars, right? The empire is falling and what's going to follow it.JM: Yeah, yeah.NG: Yeah, but there was one particular line that really fit, just clinched it for me in the prequel trilogy, in Revenge of the Sith. That moment when the Republic does fall in the Empire is announced in his book. Right. Shortly before Darth Vader manifests his suit, maybe you or your listeners know the moment I have in mind and Chancellor Palpatine is at the head of the Galactic Senate and he declares before everyone that the Republic will be reorganized as... do you remember what he says, Joel? JM: I do not. I've watched it, but it's been a while.NG: As... the first galactic empire. And my colleagues said to me, why the heck would he say the first? Right, when Geroge Washington and so on became, I don't know when Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence, he didn't say, oh, I'm now signing the first declaration of independence. Right? I mean, when I don't know, the United States chose Washington, DC or struck the Washington monument and built it. They didn't say aha. Here's the first Washington monument. So why would he say the first galactic empire? And my colleagues' response is, because he'd read Asimov! Because everybody had in the back of their minds, if they're into science fiction and the idea of galactic empires, that of course there was a first and then there was going to be a second. So you have to say the first, because it just became part of the parlance of sci-fi. JM: Right, and he was just such a powerful influence on…NG: Such a powerful influence.JM: Yeah. One thing I want to add before we go, this just occurred to me. You were talking about names and such in the book and… Cleon the First, the emperor, the last or the second to last emperor, I believe, that we know about – then there were some unnamed ones in the fall, but I read another book on psychohistory that was placed in the mid 19th century. And the idea -– it's by Michael Flynn and it's called In the Country of the Blind, but the premise is fascinating. It's basically Charles Babbage, came up with the design of the first computer,, early 19th century and never built it. But the premise of the book is he did build it or it was built and somebody got ahold of it. And basically they became psychohistorians and they became the driving forces behind the modern world. By knowing what was happening and guiding the evolution of things. And they have splinter groups that break off and they fight against each other and that's going on into the modern day.So it was really interesting, but the point I was going to make about Cleon the First is the science of psychohistory was called Cleology from the Latin, which is the study of history. NG: Right, because Cleo was the Greek muse of history, I think. JM: Yeah, I believe you're right. So I'm thinking Cleon was not entirely a coincidence.NG: Oh goodness. There's so many names once you start thinking in the trilogy. JM: I love his names.NG: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that makes one of us. I think they're, I think they're kind of clunky, but here's why here's one I'll share because I listened to your podcasts... JM: Maybe it's because I have to be all those names!NG: That's true., that's true. But, do you remember Joel you just mentioned it in, in your most recent episode, who was person who was the high priest of the church who was at the same time, the head of the…JM: Publis Manlio?NG: No, the generation before that.JM: Oh, you mean Poly Verisof.NG: Right. Do you know what Poly Verisof means? JM: Uh... many truths?NG: Many truths. That's what he was. JM: I didn't really think about that. NG: He spoke, we need the truth, right? Yeah. JM: That's right. Yeah. I imagine that you could probably analyze a lot of his names and figure out what…NG: Some of them, I haven't figured out. Some of them, I think he just made up.JM: He seemed to like these two syllable first and last names. Hober Mallow, Salvor Hardin, Hari Seldon. Most of them are like that, but I don't know where he came up with them, but they worked for me. All right. Well, uh, anything else that we need to talk about or are we just gonna move on or I think maybe we should save some things for later after we finish another season of Seldon crisis. Maybe we can come back and talk again?NG: I'd love to, as I said, in my initial email to you, which you kindly read aloud, I'm happy. I'm flattered to participate. There's nothing like the trilogy, but if a way to help you is to be quiet and never bother you again, Joel, that's okay, too. So I would love to come back. I'm at your discretion.However you think I would be interesting for your listeners. JM: Well, thank you very much for taking part in this and letting our listeners know about this amazing course you teach and your insights that I think are really powerful and really fascinating. So, thanks for being a part of this change of pace between seasons and before we get back to just me reading.NG: My pleasure Joel, and thank you.Well, I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did! I'm very grateful and honored to have Nathaniel on the show and I hope I can have him back for similar appearances later on when he can more freely discuss some of the philosophical implications of the later volumes of this series.Before wrapping up, I want to acknowledge a couple of podcasts that I have found hugely inspirational and would encourage my listeners to sample. First, as a big fan of ancient history, I've been entranced by some of the earliest stories humankind has produced. Some of the most epic story cycles came down to us from the works of the mysterious author or authors known as Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey - the first of which tells the tale of the semi-mythical Trojan War some thousand or so years BCE. If you like stories like that, you'll love Trojan War – the Podcast as well as the later Odyssey – the Podcast. Jeff Wright is an amazing storyteller and I modeled some of my approach to the re-telling of Foundation off of his wonderfully dramatic recreation of these ancient tales including a lot of the backstory with expert analysis. They're both really fun shows and I encourage my listeners to dive in.My favorite podcast, however, without a doubt is Literature and History, hosted by Doug Metzger. No one in podcasting works harder than Doug at putting together extremely polished productions covering the history of anglophone literature starting with the earliest tales of the ancient near east up through the works of classic Greece and Rome and including some twenty episodes on the most influential work ever produced, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and many of the apocryphal works. Besides being a master storyteller and analyst, Doug is also an amazingly talented and creative musician. He composes and produces all of the background music for his show and includes a fun comedy song at the end of almost every episode. I was extremely fortunate to engage Doug's awesome narrative talents with my very own first podcast, Planet and Sky, the deeper story.Oh, did I forget to tell you about Planet and Sky? I guess I did. This was a podcast version of a rock opera I composed and performed in – a cosmic love story between a planet and its atmosphere told in a science fiction context. Yeah, it's a little weird, but it came to me and I had to tell the story. The music is available online credited to the Max Wyvern Band, a group headed by my alter ego from my days playing bass in a band called Jupiter Sheep. I'll add links in the show notes for this as well. The podcast is a deeper exploration of the story than the lyrics of the songs provide, and Doug graciously contributed his prodigious talents in editing and narrating my story.Back to Foundation, and a couple of items directly related to Asimov. I want to mention a couple of great resources you'll want to know about that might be helpful in understanding Asimov's literary history and the future history timeline he created. A guy named Luigi Dimeglio has produced an amazing series of videos at his YouTube channel Foundation Era focused mostly on previewing the upcoming Apple TV+ series on Foundation. He does an amazing job of deconstructing the limited hints available in the official teaser trailer and a recent sizzle reel unveiled at Apple's WWDC conference. A recent video, however, covers Asimov's future timeline in detail, including books outside of the Foundation series, notably the Robots and Empire series that mostly coexist in the same universe as Foundation. I'll link to this video in the show notes, but I encourage listeners to enjoy all of Luigi's excellent videos.Lastly, a listener named William Woolard emailed me recently and shared a very cool resource he's put together; a google sheet listing every book Asimov wrote in chronological order to assist him with his very modest aspiration of reading every single thing the great master has written! This might be just a little too ambitious for most of us - it certainly is for me - but the doc is a great guide to what is available and a wonderful view into Asimov's prodigious output. He's given me permission to post it publicly, and I'll share this link in the show notes as well. William also blew my mind recently by taking Mike Topping's artwork and applying it in the video game Gran Turismo to show a car rolling around the globe emblazoned with gigantic Seldon Crisis logos. He surely knows how to tickle a podcasters heart! By the way - this also inspired me to order some Seldon Crisis stickers, so email me at joel@seldoncrisis.com if you want one.Hopefully I've given you all a few distractions to indulge in while I prepare the second season of Seldon Crisis for release in just a few weeks. When we return, we'll be back to the standard format as we launch into the amazing Foundation and Empire, and meet another classic batch of Asimovian characters including Ducem Barr - the surviving son of Onum Barr described in his sad tale in The Merchant Princes, the heroic Foundation trader Lathan Devers, and the man who will pose the greatest existential threat to the growing Foundation yet in the Imperial General BelRiose. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to be sure to be informed when the next episode drops, and if you can, please review the show on Apple Podcasts to help spread the word. Until then, perhaps read a little Asimov![music outro]
These talks were given in the Sunday morning session of General Conference by Elders Jose A. Teixeira, Taniela B. Wakolo and Chi Hong (Sam) Wong. Together they weave together a beautiful "Foundation Trilogy" about how to make Christ our perfect foundation. Music acknowledgementsMusic: In Dulci Jubilo Michel Rondeau (trumpet)Performers: Marthe Jobidon (trumpets), Eric Vaillancourt & Steve Guerin (trombones)Publisher Info.Michel RondeauCopyright Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Misc. Notes These file(s) are part of the Werner Icking Music Collection.
Hangin With Web Show Radio Hour Host GW Pomichter brings you interviews from amazing creators: authors, actors, filmmakers...creative minds of all kinds! This week, he's talking with Futurist & Science Fiction Author David Brin!.....Who are YOU Hangin With?David Brin is a scientist, futurist, tech speaker/consultant, and NYT Best Selling author. A film by Kevin Costner was based Brin's The Postman. His novels about our survival and opportunities in the near future are EARTH and Existence. His 16 novels, including NY Times Bestsellers and Hugo Award winners, have been translated into more than twenty languages. Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and the world wide web. David appears frequently on shows such as Nova and The Universe and Life After People, speaking about science and future trends. His non-fiction book -- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Make Us Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? -- won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. David Brin is also one of the authors chosen to finish the Epic Foundation Series begun and created by Science Fiction Great Isaac Asimov: Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is one of the highwater marks of science fiction. The monumental story of a Galactic Empire in decline and a secret society of scientists who seek to shorten the coming Dark Age with tools of Psychohistory, Foundation pioneered many themes of modern science fiction. Now, with the approval of the Asimov estate, three of today's most acclaimed authors have completed the epic the Grand Master left unfinished.Find Our Guests/Panelists On The Web:David Brin On The Web:Web: http://www.davidbrin.com/ Amazon: https://amzn.to/2NxpPKqTwitter: https://twitter.com/DavidBrinHangin With Web Show On The Web:Web: https://www.hwwswebtv.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HWWSWebTV/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_C2z2k60d6lOj8DFMWDGEA**Find Hangin With Web Show T-shirts, Coffee Mugs and more at https://www.hwwswebtv.com/hwws-merch-shopTonight’s Hangin With Web Show Radio Hour is brought to you by:Iradius, a location based social app.https://iradius.app/index.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/iRadius.mobileJoanne Fisher's Christmas in Venice:Amazon: https://amzn.to/3fx5PRKFamous Faces and FunniesLINK : https://www.facebook.com/FFFComics/Jeremy Mosby’s ICoinAmazon: https://amzn.to/2u5g5d7**Find Hangin With Web Show T-shirts, Coffee Mugs and more at https://www.hwwswebtv.com/hwws-merch-shop
LeVar Burton is an actor, producer, director, writer, podcaster, and education advocate. In this segment of WHATRYADOIN', LeVar shares with us his thoughts on representation in fiction, his memories of his friend and fellow advocate Fred Rogers, and why the Holodeck will one day be realized. For more information about LeVar and everything he's doing, check out his website here. Links to all the authors LeVar mentions in this segment: Octavia Butler Samuel R. Delaney Nnedi Okorafor - Her Binti Series can be found here. Ken Liu Lesley Nneka Arimah Cat Rambo Amal El-Mohtar Isaac Asimov - you can find his Foundation Trilogy here. Extra music for this episode was provided by The Twin Atlas under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-a-Like 3.0 United States License. You can find out more about them and their music at their official website.
Shelf Love:Sign up for the email newsletter listWebsiteTwitterInstagramEmail: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.comGuest: Penny ReidWebsite: https://pennyreid.ninja/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReidRomanceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/reidromance/We read:A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maashttps://sarahjmaas.com/court-of-thorns-and-roses/Books mentioned:Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe (Web comic)A Well-Timed Enchantment by Vivian Vande VeldeMarriage Games by C.D. ReissThe Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti BowlingBook recommendation requests:Penny’s 12-year-old-going-on-75 year old son has read All the Books. His favorite books include The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov and he recently enjoyed The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin. He didn’t like Dune. How do we introduce him to the romance genre?Penny is looking for recommendations for awesome romance books to gift her daughter on her 16th birthday (6 years from now).Penny is looking for character-driven erotica suggestions, along the lines of C.D. Reiss.Miscellaneous:Grief is a spiralZeus is toxicOutgrowing a relationship is OKThere’s strength in being a marshmallowWould you trade your freedom for a golden cageDid you know that Ripley in Alien was originally written as a man? (Anyone have a paper on this?) “The reason it still resonates with women today in the industry is how real Ripley is, Weaver adds. "So many people in the business would have said, ‘Well now we have to make her more sympathetic.’ And then it’s suddenly this token scene that shows we’re actually feminine after all, and that’s frankly bulls---, because that doesn’t happen in real life. Ripley doesn’t have time to try to be sympathetic, you know?” she added.”---Shelf Love is part of the Frolic Podcast Network.
Happy new year, welcome to the first episode of the year; we hope everyone is safe and enjoying themselves. This week we are bringing you stories about the new horizon project with pictures of MU69 or as it has been dubbed, the Ultimate Thule. This could be the perfect piece of real estate for those wanting to avoid those door to door sales people. We discuss the distances to it, the distance the New Horizons travels near the Ultimate Thule, the fact it travels in what is low earth orbit, also the lunar distance just for a laugh.Next up is a discussion about the new season of Stranger Things, and we don’t mean the crazy movie named Mad Max Fury Road either. Which Buck says was an ok movie but not a ‘Mad Max’ movie by any stretch of the imagination. We have a laugh of at the poster and the atomic wedgie of one of the kids, ah the eighties and bad fashion, thank goodness it is over. Also once again it appears that Hollywood is copying Australia instead of creating origional IP. It appears that ‘Stranger Things’ is copying the movie and series ‘Puberty Blues’ folks; that’s right you heard it here first.Then we talk about tattoos and gaming with the recent lawsuit regarding LeBron James and his appearance in various video games. We then wonder about who owns the artwork on your body. Also the levels of insanity, with people selling advertising on themselves by getting tattoos for organisations such as Golden Palace. Some of these people are all kinds of crazy with where they get these tattoos. Once again, happy new year and keep listening as we approach our first birthday in a few weeks.EPISODE NOTES:New Horizons space program- https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/nasa-spacecraft-readies-new-years-rendezvous-primordial-object-far-beyond-plutoStranger Things Season 3- https://au.ign.com/articles/2019/01/01/stranger-things-season-3-release-date-premiere-netflixTattoos and Game development- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/27/style/tattoos-video-games.htmlGames currently playingBuck– Red Dead Redemption 2 - https://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption2/Professor– Bandersnatch - https://www.netflix.com/title/80988062DJ– Injustice 2 - https://www.injustice.com/Other topics discussedFirst picture of Ultima Thule- https://imgur.com/wmY1LXdMore news about the New Horizons program- https://spacenews.com/new-horizons-ready-for-ultima-thule-flyby/How far is the Moon?- https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/moon-distance/en/Deep Space Network- https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.htmlMoons of Jupiter- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_JupiterSpace events that occurred in January- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_3- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_4Mars Polar Lander- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Polar_LanderHappy Feet 2 movie- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Feet_TwoMad Max the movie franchise- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_(franchise)Stranger Things Season 3 poster- https://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2018/12/pasted-image-0.pngThe Runaways- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaways_(TV_series)Puberty Blues- 2012 TV Series - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty_Blues_(TV_series)- Novel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty_Blues_(novel)- 1981 movie - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty_BluesCensored tattoo from Madrid Art Tattoo- https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQFTD3f0_gJSUkNb2Me3ea89WA1VQAvpJc7BCAgylmHW5Av-vTgawHangover 2 Mike Tyson tattoo lawsuit- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-bros-settles-hangover-ii-203377Woman gets Golden Palace tattoo- https://www.casino.org/blog/did-womens-forehead-casino-tattoo-gamble-pay-off/Cat Stevens’ multiple lawsuits on various songs- https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090504/1649054744.shtmlMen at Work Kookaburra riff lawsuit- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-02-04/men-at-work-plundered-kookaburra-riff-court/321624Controversial Red Dead Redemption 2 feature- https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/red-dead-redemption-2-news-the-controversial-game-economy-of-red-dead-online-explainedCourt stops GTA cheating programs- https://www.kotaku.com.au/2018/08/court-blocks-maker-of-gta-online-cheating-programs-from-selling-them/Local airsoft field runs live action PUBG games- https://www.reddit.com/r/PUBATTLEGROUNDS/comments/7av8l1/my_local_airsoft_field_runs_pubg_games_regularly/Battle Royale - 2000 Japanese movie- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_(film)Donald Trump’s hair meme- https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/donald-trumps-hair/photosTrapped in a Video Game trope- https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=5uwcwznf9eze3y1ffsasdrnaHoover Dam- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_DamPacific Rim 2013 movie connections- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/movieconnectionsShoutoutsDec 30 2018 – Don Lusk passed away - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/don-lusk-dead-pinocchio-fantasia-charlie-brown-animator-was-105-11720271 Jan 1992 – Grace Hopper passed away - https://www.onthisday.com/people/grace-hopper1 Jan 1994 - Cesar Romero passed away - https://www.onthisday.com/people/cesar-romero2 Jan 2018 – “Mean” Gene Okerlund passed away - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_OkerlundGeneral Queeries Podcast- https://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/generalqueeriespodcast/Famous Birthdays1 Jan 1895 - J Edgar Hoover, American law enforcement administrator and the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover1 Jan 1912 - Kim Philby, British intelligence spy who worked as a double agent before defecting to the Soviet Union in 1963. He served as both an NKVD and KGB operative. He was a member of the spy ring now known as the Cambridge Five, born in Ambala, Punjab- https://www.onthisday.com/people/kim-philby- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Philby2 Jan 1920 - Isaac Asimov, Russian scientist and sci-fi writer (I Robot, Foundation Trilogy), born in Petrovichi, Russia- https://www.onthisday.com/people/isaac-asimov- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_AsimovEvents of Interest1 Jan 2019 - Blade Runner Day - https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/01/blade_runner_today/2 Jan 1906 - Willis Carrier was granted U.S. Patent 808,897 for an Apparatus for Treating Air, the world's first spray-type air conditioning equipment. It was designed to humidify or dehumidify air, heating water for the first function and cooling it for the second.- https://patents.google.com/patent/US808897- https://www.onthisday.com/people/willis-carrier5 Jan 1797 – Top Hats disturbed the peace - https://www.onthisday.com/articles/designer-throws-his-hat-into-the-ring-and-creates-a-sensationIntroArtist – Goblins from MarsSong Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJFollow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.comTwitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamatedSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrSiTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss
We've read Children of Time (https://amzn.to/2QqYKII), and boy do we have a lot to say about it! This episode we discuss the structure of the book, whether novels need strong characters, how animal consciousness might differ from our own, and how to stock a ship designed to re-seed the human race on another planet. Adrian gets to jabber on about the Baldwin Effect & octopuses, and Matt makes some sharp points about the importance of empathy. Truly this podcast represents the future liberals want. As always, here's a list of stuff we discuss in the episode. If the links don't show up in your podcatcher, they will on spectology.com. All links are referral links. * Startide Rising by David Brin * The Bees by Laline Paull * The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy * Watership Down by Richard Adams * The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov * Goedel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter And finally, a few books on consciousness, language, and evolution that weren't mentioned by name, but which Adrian recommends: * Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith (octopus researcher mentioned)* Adam's Tongue by Derek Bickerton (language evolution & the Baldwin Effect)* The Crucible of Consciousness by Zoltan Torey (language & consciousness) * The Perplexities of Consciousness by Eric Schwitzgebel (essays on the difficulty of introspecting consciousness) * The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger (laying out the ideas behind the phrase "consciousness is an illusion" for a lay audience) --- We'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter at @spectologypod, sending us an email at spectologypod@gmail.com, or submitting the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment. And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends! Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.
Almost Cancelled discuss this week's TV news which includes some casting news for Arrow and Star Trek Discovery along with a title for the new Bad Boys spin off.USA Network orders several pilots including a Jason Bourne spin off and is developing Alice Isn’t Dead based on the fictional podcast.Plus plenty more streaming/network TV dramas and comedies are in development including science fiction adaptation 'Foundation,' and Joe Hill based series NOS4A2 (Nosferatu).patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mildfuzztv twitter: https://twitter.com/Mild_Fuzz
- US Kids Are Still iPhone Crazy: Take 1 - US Kids Are Still iPhone Crazy: Take 2 - GlobalData: iPhone X Most Desired Phone in UK - RBC Analyst Expects Fewer iPhones Built in 2H2018 - (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 Disappears in Wake of RED iPhone 8 - Israeli Agency Investigating Apple Over ThrottleGate - Apple Loses Court Case to VirnetX (Again) - iOS App Store Still Rules at Making Money - Variety: Apple Developing Asimov’s “Foundation” Trilogy for Video Push - Eero - Home wifi that goes anywhere and covers everywhere! Get free overnight shipping in the US and Canada at with offer code macosken - Power Mac OS Ken through Patreon at ! - Send me an email: or call (716)780-4080!
Space, But Messier! Podcast Episode 001 News: 1st SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch / Asimov Secret Payload Trump’s Budget Request for NASA 2019 Topic: Why Space? Recording Date: Thursday, February 15, 2018 Publish Date: Thursday March 1st, 2018 News: SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch On February 6th, SpaceX launched their Falcon Heavy Rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a course for Mars. The Falcon Heavy Rocket, complete with 27 rocket engines, lifted a Tesla Roadster into space, which is now on a journey to orbit the Sun forever. Better yet, reports recently surfaced of another secret payload aboard the Tesla, not the Hot Wheels model of the Tesla roadster (for which it’s price is skyrocketing on ebay)but, a library. Not your ordinary Library, but one that can withstand millions of years in an environment like space. It’s called the Arch. It’s like a CD, but it’s a small disc of quartz crystal, not much larger than a coin, built for long-term data archiving and has the ability to hold troves of information, like up to 7,000 Blu-ray discs. This specific Arch was loaded with Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy ... But why? If you’ve read Foundation, the first novel, you’ll know that this was exactly the goal of mathematicians in the Galactic Empire, to compile all knowledge that Humans have accumulated until then, and store it in libraries across the galaxy before a predicted threat could destroy it all in the next 500 years. The Arch’s co-founder says to "Think of it as a ring of knowledge around the Sun. This is only the first step of an epic human project to curate, encode, and distribute our data across the Solar System, and beyond." The Trump Administration’s 2019 Budget Request The Trump Administration has done it again… literally. The White House released its budget request for Fiscal Year 2019 and it looks a lot like last years. Disclaimer: Before you hear what was published, know that the budget still needs to be approved by Congress, so these are not final decisions. Areas that stayed funded were: Mars 2020 Lander Europa Clipper SLS Rocket Orion Capsule (both sum to 3.7 billion) Areas to lose some funding: The Environmental Protection Agency Centers for Disease Control National Science Foundation Areas to be completely defunded: 5 Earth science missions, all meant to measure the planet’s climate WFIRST - Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the mission that was voted into development by American astronomers NASA’s Office of Education - This office centralizes NASA education effort, including the distribution of grants to schools, Universities, and museums. Includes programs such as the NASA’s Community College Aerospace Program that I participated in 2 years ago. We will do our best to keep you updated in this area, so stay tuned. Topic: Why Space? Why do we as humans have this desire to explore and discover? NASA “Humanity's interest in the heavens has been universal and enduring. Humans are driven to explore the unknown, discover new worlds, push the boundaries of our scientific and technical limits, and then push further. The intangible desire to explore and challenge the boundaries of what we know and where we have been has provided benefits to our society for centuries.” Cosmos - Carl Sagan “Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.” Elon Musk “Life has to be more about solving problems, if life is all about solving problems, why get up in the morning? There have to be things that inspire you, that make you proud of being a member of humanity. We need more of those things. Space Exploration is the greatest adventure that you could ever embark upon.” Stephen Hawking (not a quote) One of our greatest gifts, and that of Albert Einstein, is imagination. With today’s technology, humanity’s knowledge, and our imagination, we can explore space and time in our own minds, wherever we are. But the universe is a violent place, stars engulf planets, asteroids hurdles at hundreds of miles per seconds, but we should venture out because the laws of physics guarantee that it will eventually happen to us. However, we already know of a advanced civilization for a tendency to destroy species, ecosystems, atmospheres, perhaps entire planets and it happens to live on earth. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. We are also explorers by nature. Whenever we make great leaps like landing on the moon, we elevate humanity, bring people and nations together, usher in new discoveries and new technologies. Voyager launched in 1977 at 11 miles/second, it would take 70,000 years to reach nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, 25 trillion miles. Projects like Starshot could reach Alpha Centauri in 20 years. Me - We explore because we learn more about who we are. Remaining where we are is comfortable, but growth and greatness is only obtained through trial and adversity. Putting yourself through something greater than anything you have endured before. Exploration promises that. Exploration progresses our species and marks it with greatness. I cannot explain this, but humans simply have a deep-seeded desire to be great and to achieve what no man has before. That, mixed with the the imagination of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Carl Sagan, Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, George Lucas, creator of Star Wars; everything we have seen or read that makes the promise of space real and attainable feeds our curiosity and transforms it into action. Jenna, that is why we go to space. Why is Space good for us? Inspires youth Informs humanity Studying planets like Venus give us a glimpse of what our planet would turn into if we lost control of our Climate. Venus is currently in what we call a Runaway greenhouse effect, a terribly inhabitable world, but one that mirrors what Earth will arrive at if we continue at our current rate. It brings us new technologies that help humanity. We call these Spinoffs and we’ve improved ambulances, depression, diagnosing cancer, flight safety, increasing farming yields, you name it. Keep an eye out for an entire episode dedicated to this. International Cooperation Long Term Survival Space is humbling. Looking beyond and realizing how small we are is good for humanity as a whole. Carl Sagan was instrumental in helping us realize this. Outro CTA If you enjoyed this podcast, and if you like free stuff, then please support us by subscribing, rating, and reviewing our podcast. How? First, click on the Library tab of your Apple Podcast app, then click “Shows” at the top. Click on Space, But Messier! Then, scroll to the bottom to the Ratings and Reviews Section and rather than tapping to rate it immediately, click the “Write a review” link at the bottom. We really want to hear what you want to hear about, what you think about the show, and you’ll be put in the running to win a Space, But Messier! T-shirt every month! Reviews are the best way to support us because it helps to spread the word of our podcast, especially while we’re so new. So consider being an important part in launching our podcast to the rest of the world! IF you’d like to receive updates, news, and hilarious videos from yours truly, Like, and Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @spacebutmessier Support us on Patreon For as little as a dollar a month Tagline:....
From design intent to the elements of good RPG IPs we cover enough ground for TWO shows. Your feedback about Alien Intelligence, different ‘punks’, and making faces carries us along on a merry discussion that leads us to a very serious realization.… Continue reading →
Legend - wait for it - dary. This is why we can't have nice things. Net Neutrality: How to send comment to FCC. Net Neutrality: What you need to know. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Project Fi. Actually why we can't have nice things. Chattanooga has nice things. One Plus 5 looks look iPhone. Apple repair dude. Apple Aux Conspiracy. A Few Good Men. Nuremberg Trials. Paths of Glory. My Lai Massacre. Pardon me, Mr. Snowden.
We're back with a new episode of the podcast, I had a fantastic conversation with Allan Cohen, a strategy consultant I had the pleasure of hearing as a keynote speaker at Landmark's recent Conference for Global Transformation in beautiful Monterey, California. I loved the two sessions I had the chance of checking out and thought it would be great to talk about business consulting with Allan and the kind of creativity involved in determining and solving a variety of business challenges of the kind he has experience with. Little did I know our conversation would take us into talking about artificial intelligence, self driving vehicles, and complex adaptive systems. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, and if you do please subscribe to the podcast, take the time to write a rating or a review on your favourite podcast app as it helps more people discover and enjoy the show. Alternatively, you can go and tell a friend whatever traditional way you would choose to do so. Thanks! Mentioned in this episode: Allan Cohen, Strategy Consultant Landmark Worldwide Conference for Global Transformation Pong (video game) Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov Star Trek Dr Who Business Processes Reengineering Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Learning Algorithms Structure Linear Programming / Object Oriented Self-driving cars Swiftkey Google's AI beats a top player at the game of Go TED: "What a driverless car world could look like" (video) Google's AI "Project Magenta" just created music (video) Turing Test Chatbot / messaging bots Big 4 Accounting / Consulting Groups Amazon to acquire Whole Foods Israel The Mastery Foundation Werner Erhard Northern Ireland Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams Pizza flavored ice cream (in Philadelphia) World of Warcraft Complex adaptive systems Rain of Gold, Victor Villaseñor Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity, John Holland
On Thursday August 1st, 2013 The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on Science Fiction classics that have influenced the modern occult revival. Our special guest will be Professor Curtis Shumaker who teaches a course in science fiction in the State University system. We'll cover Clarke's "Childhood's End" (UFOs and Fallen Angels), Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy" (Scientology, the Process and CIA mind control), Herbert's "Dune" the psychedelic movement, Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" (the Hippie movement and CAW), H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" (post modern demonology). Philip K. Dick's "Valis" (God is information) and several titles that Dr. Shumaker will mention. This will be a fascinating look into what our great imagineers have predicted and inspired. Tune in and Scotty will beam us up for an hour on the Final Frontier.
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