Empire!

(click for podcast)

Reflecting on the popularity of "Empires" in Science Fiction stories.

• CoDominium (Niven and Pournelle
• Barrayar (Lois McMaster Bujold)
• Manticore (David Weber)

Do it yourself - build your own space empire with a Free "4X" (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) game:

FreeOrion - www.FreeOrion.org



Music - from the Cylinder Preservation Project:
The US Marine Band - Emperor's Manoeuvre

Hacking Your Way Into Space!

(click for podcast)

How to hack your way into space

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/how-to-hack-you.html

Way up there!

You can also find the video at http://www.archive.org/details/OrigamiAerospace-TestFilm

Play / Download (help)

64Kb MPEG4 (1.2 MB)
256Kb MPEG4 (2.9 MB)
Windows Media (6.7 MB)

Here's my first attempt at creating a film using Air Rockets. I used a snippet from NASA's Columbia Anthem Gets Grammy Nod, and two flights put together.



http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/airRocket/index.html

I recently showed off model rockets for some neighbor kids this week, and I built one of these to show off some almost free rockets that you can blast off.

I tested it indoors (big mistake) then had to work to clean the smudge off the ceiling. These are more powerful and fast than you'd expect. Out doors it disappeared (almost) higher than the trees. After two launches it was lost in the trees. No matter - a little paper and tape and I've got two more ready for flight.


More Rocket Fun!

Googling around and I found a terrific rocket simulator/design tool at NASA!
http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rktsim.html

This amazing thing does simple ballistic, water, and solid engine rockets. Even better - it does AIR ROCKETS! (pictured). Clicking on the links, it turns out there is some pretty sophisticated information and math for rocket scientists.


-----------------------
MUSIC: "Way Up There" Columbia Anthem Gets Grammy Nod

The Wheel Turns

(click for podcast version)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_jordan
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tongue

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Obit-Jordan.html
Author Robert Jordan Dies

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 17, 2007

Filed at 3:23 p.m. ET

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Author Robert Jordan, whose ''Wheel of Time'' series of fantasy novels sold millions of copies, died Sunday of a rare blood disease. He was 58.

Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., was born and lived in this southern city most of his life. He died at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston of complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy, his personal assistant, Maria Simons, said Monday. The blood disease caused the walls of Rigney's heart to thicken.

He wrote a trilogy of historical novels set in Charleston under the pen name Reagan O'Neal in the early 1980s. Then he turned his attention to fantasy and the first volume in his Wheel of Time epic, ''The Eye of the World,'' was published in 1990 under the name Robert Jordan.

Jordan's books tells of Rand al'Thor, who is destined to become the champion who will battle ultimate evil in a mythical land....

LANGUAGES!

• http://www.wotmud.org/game/glossary.html
  
• http://www.wotmud.org/directory/oldtongue.php
  

WOTMUD IV
Wheel of Time MUD

http://wotmud.org/

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/

Title:
The armourer's song

[Robin Hood. Selections]

Performer:
Frank C. Stanley.

Issue Number/Label:
8074: Edison Gold Moulded Record

Year of Release:
[1904]


The armourer's song