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Showing posts from September, 2015

The Year the HEAT is On.

#HeatNATION

Flowing Water on Mars

NASA announced this news today, but the title is not quite right. It's evidence of flowing water on Mars. It's briny so it doesn't evaporate. Briny makes me think of the presence of microbes, so I think the next big Martian news may make us all reach for David Bowie: That's Mike Garson on the keys. :-) Presence of water below the surface and frozen at the caps has been known for quite some time. This is the Google doodle for today.

Luna Park

In one of my stories, this old amusement park is visited:

Sept 27 2015 Lunar Eclipse

Photo by NASA

Project Humor

An Imgur Exploit.

An opportunistic exploit of images by injecting java script during an upload stores malicious script on the Imgur server that is downloaded to the computers of unwitting users. If you love pokemon foot porn, clear your cache. Want to know more?

My review of The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir My rating: 4 of 5 stars Yeah, this was a great romp. Good story, well told, and left me dreaming of space travel. It's really rare to find a good science-fiction book that relies on good science, but it sure is a pleasure when it happens, and it's done right. The Martian is really special in this regard, but that alone wasn't what made it work so well for me. I also really enjoyed Watney and the others on the crew. Yeah, I agree that we didn't get to see everyone fleshed out as much as I'd like, but the concentration of the book is on the individual vs (lack of) nature conflict, not issues of individual vs government bureaucracy or individual vs individual (though those both came into play at some point). It's always a bit tricky to talk about books without giving spoilers, and, of course, there is a movie with Matt Damon that is out October 1, so everyone will know the plot anyhow, but there is enough to say about style, humor,

The Deed of Paksennarion - my review on Goodreads

Such a good book. One that I fought with, but came out loving it even more because of the challenge. Do you want to see how to do polytheistic cultures? The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon My rating: 5 of 5 stars It’s pretty hard to talk about a book of over 1000 pages that sprawls across a continent and cataclysmic heroic events without spoilers, but that’s my goal here. Before I start, I want to say that I fought with this book for the longest time, but resistance was futile. I ended up in love with the characters and the world-building impressed me tremendously. Elizabeth Moon, your imagination is amazing. Your story will live in my mind, if I am lucky, until my last breath. Thank you for writing it. I bought these 3 books on sale at Amazon. I read the first one in an 2 week period last year (that’s trudging for me) and bitched the entire time. My first impressions were that Paks is some perfect, order-following recruit that gains favor by brown-nosing relentlessly. J

Animal Collective Live At 9:30 Club Released

It sounds great. Here's the track listing: Live at 9:30 :  1. Amanita  2. Did You See the Words  3. Honeycomb  4. My Girls  5. Moonjock  6. New Town Burnout  7. I Think I Can  8. Pulleys  9. What Would I Want? Sky  10. Peacebone  11. Monkey Riches  12. Brothersport  13. The Purple Bottle 

Don't Let Life Get You Down - You Aren't Very Important Anyhow

The Galaxy Song

I am a Goodreads Author now.

Here is a link to my Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14247287.Michael_Gouker The best part is the photo I use so I'll reprint it here: This was a gift from Roger Misteli and Sandra Just! :-) That's a real picture of me eating wasabi.

Pato Stays!

Alexandre Pato vai ficar no São Paulo FC pelo menos até Dezembro 31. Pato stays in SP! :-)