I had an urge the other day to read a favorite science fiction novel from my childhood, “The Star Kings,” by Edmond Hamilton. But when I pored over my bookshelves, the tattered old paperback was nowhere to be found. I looked through my older son’s room, empty since he started studying at the University of Arizona in Tucson, to no avail. I then went to Amazon to see if I could find a copy, and they did have one: a more recent edition than mine. But the cost of around $10 seemed steep, especially since the original was only 75₵. I put off placing the order in order to sleep on it, torn between my desire to return to the exciting future world of Zarth Arn, and the order of magnitude increase in cost since I first found the novel buried in a pile of pulp fiction periodicals years ago…
Endeavor crater, Mars
NASA’s rover, Opportunity, has reached a new destination after 3 years of trekking 13 miles across the Martian landscape. One of the first images that was returned shows a bleak panorama rolling off into the distance in front of an ochre-colored sky. The scene almost reminds me of the parched cast the Arizona sky takes on when we have our periodic dust storms during the summer monsoon. Then I have to remind myself that Mars is far drier and colder than it ever gets on EarthIf your aid appears to be weak, sick, or complaining and resist cialis 20 mg devensec.com the idea of health-related therapy. Antifungal medications, such as ketoconazole, can restrain the cheap prices for viagra production of hormones. Moreover, you avoid a conspicuous wonder, which is gastric disturbance made by pharmaceutical medicines. viagra in canada acts more rapidly. Your doctor cialis prescription will determine what dosage you…
The End of the Space Age?
The June 30, 2011 print edition of the Economist magazine had an interesting cover story about manned spaceflight, saying that the last launch of the U.S. Space Shuttle marked the end of the Space Age as we have come to know it. It’s a legitimate position, despite the continued development of launch capability in China and India. The Space Shuttle Atlantis atop the solid rocket boosters lifts off into space. Rocket launches formed part of the backdrop of my entire life, so it’s a little disconcerting to think that it all may end soon, but I have to admit the authors make many good points. There is no longer a cold war to drive spending, and there doesn’t appear to be any commercially viable incentive to dump billions of dollars into the capability to put people a couple of hundred miles above the surface of the Earth. Space tourism has…