May 27, 2024
“I look forward to flying cars becoming a normal means of transportation.” (Gov. Koike)
“Normal means” for whom, exactly? I can’t imagine the average worker in Tokyo will be able to afford this thing. Even if they had a physical space to store in.
And, you know, I think I’ve seen a “flying vehicle” like this somewhere already… 🚁
(FWIW it was part of a conference on technology and sustainability, cheekily called “SuShi High Tech”: https://sushitech-startup.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/)
May 13, 2024
“The truth is that nuclear is the only option to power a moonbase,” says Simon Middleburgh from the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University in Wales.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240417-the-nuclear-reactors-that-could-power-moon-bases
So far there are two major consortiums that have plans for moon bases:
The Artemis Accords, with 36 countries (the US, Japan, South Korea, UAE, India, etc.)
The countries that don’t like the US, the UK, and Canada (China, Russia, Belarus, Venezuela, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Ajerbaijan)
OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, granted.
But there is no doubting the political ramifications of two competing groups of astronauts (cosmonauts, taikonauts) on the Moon.
And just wait until they get to Mars.
Imagine what might happen. (I did!)
“May you live in interesting times…”
May 11, 2024
My short story “Two Strikes Against” was selected as the Winner in the inaugural Next Generation Short Story Awards! (Official list to be available next week.) UPDATED: Link here https://shortstoryawards.com/winners.php?year=2024
Basically it’s a story about a Japanese baseball player on Mars, with a twist. It got rejected a couple of years ago by several scifi magazines, so I figured why not try the sports category.
Especially since there was no scifi category.
Just grateful and thankful for the award. I hope you all get a chance to read the story!
(FWIW “Marsball” is mentioned by characters in an early chapter of Bringer of Light. In fact, I was going to call the story that. Very glad that I didn’t in the end!)
May 10, 2024
Technology is becoming marvellously intuitive. After booking a holiday with friends, we were surprised to discover Google had already added the dates…
When Google Gets it Wrong
Google Maps initially listed our house with the correct address but also my family name —- because it thought it was a company.
It took them half a year after I complained about privacy violations to take the name off…
And they also took off the address!
And there is an abandoned house repurposed as an arts and crafts society event place that has the same address as us!
Annoying.
Not the arts and crafts society folk. They’re pretty cool. 🖼️ 📷 🎨
April 30, 2024
Japanese space company Astroscale Holdings Inc has unveiled what it calls the world’s first publicly released close-up image taken of space debris, hailing it as progress toward understanding the challenges posed by trash orbiting Earth.
https://japantoday.com/category/tech/update1-japan-startup-reveals-world%27s-first-close-up-space-debris-image?
Hmm.🤔 what will happen to the rocket and the satellite that took this picture?
March 27, 2024
How NOT to look at their smartphone while zombie walking on a train platform or stairs.
Smartphones should be programmed to send tiny electrical shocks into your hand when you walk while reading them. Put the thing in your pocket until you clear the field.
March 8, 2024
Hello, everyone, and thank you for reading!
This is a short (~8 minute) video I made to introduce the story Bringer of Light.
I’ll be posting a couple more videos in the near future about the characters, location, and science behind the story.
Check it out, and share freely!
March 6, 2024
What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.
“Where are you from?”
I never understood why this question might rankle some people…until I moved to Japan.
I’ve been in Japan since 1999. “Where are you from?” was one of the first questions people asked me at the time, when I was teaching in junior and senior high schools.
No problem, I thought. I’m from Upstate.
“I’m from New York.”
Nods of understanding. “Ohhh, the Big Apple.”
Uh, no. Upstate.
“New York is a state?”
🤦♂️
February 4, 2024
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
I would say “yes.”
How?
Failure influences my perspective on life.
Successes influence my perspective on life.
Deaths influence my perspective on life.
Births influence my perspective on life.
Travel influences my perspective on life.
I would list the above five as “significant events” in life. But “the passage of time” is a little more vague.
Four years doesn’t seem like a long time to me now, but it sure did when I was 18.
Even six years doesn’t seem all that long now. But to my daughter who graduates from elementary school this March, six years is half her life.
My perspective on this question is that it’s the people in my life that have changed my perspective.
Even my daughter gets this. She wants to visit Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the US again because, as she put it, “a little piece of me is still there.”
But that’s just her perspective. Or is it?
January 31, 2024
The craft is at a very awkward angle. A picture, captured by the small baseball-sized robot called Sora-Q – which was ejected from Slim moments before touchdown – showed the lander face-down on the lunar surface.
That left its solar panels facing away from the sunlight and unable to generate power. The decision was taken to put the lander into sleep mode – and conserve what power remained – less than three hours after it landed.
That tactic appears to have worked. A change in the direction of the sunlight has now “awoken” the craft.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68131105
As previously reported, JAXA did achieve its goal of a “precision landing” — as some put it, a “pinpoint” touchdown within 100 meters of the intended target — within 55 meters, although if all had gone as planned, it would have been within 10 meters.
That’s far, far closer than previous Moon landings.
Too bad SLIM is essentially standing on its nose. But at least this is a beginning. Japan has now become the fifth country (US, USSR, China, India) to successfully “soft land” an object on the Moon.
And the robots it brought with it are pretty amazing. And tiny.
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