More Old Line Science Fiction authors. Poul Anderson.

He wrote a lot of stuff.  I have 17 Poul Anderson books on my bookshelf and I dare say there are more such books out there. Andersen wrote good fantasy, good historical novels and good hard science fiction. Some of my favorites are Three Hearts and Three Lions, War of the Wingmen, The Star Fox, and The High Crusade.  All Poul Anderson books, not just my favorites, are good reads.  Anderson stories have a protagonist who also serves as the view point character.  In the eyes of the protagonist, his friends are noble and good, his enemies are evil.  A very simplified world view but this is fiction, and a straight forward and not too complicated world view makes for a good story.

   Anyhow if you are looking for a good science fiction and fantasy writer you cannot go wrong with Poul Anderson.

 

Are we in a recession?

 The usual description of a recession is two quarters (half a year) of declining GNP.  We got that today.  The Biden Administration is saying “No we don’t.  We have to have something else before it is a recession.”  They never said what “something else” might be.  This story doesn’t convince many people, but it soaks up hours of TV time debating the worthless issue. While this fruitless debate goes on, the Administration doesn’t have to answer real questions, like “Will you reauthorize Keystone XL?”, or “When will you start leasing land for oil and gas exploration?” Or “When will you tell the banks and finance houses that it is OK to lend for oil and gas drilling?”,  The Wall St Journal simply mentioned that most people believe two negative quarters is a recession and then they moved on. 

 

400 Parts per Million of CO2 is nothing.

 The earth takes in a flood of solar energy on dayside.  To keep the world’s temperature fairly steady the world has to radiate as much heat from the night side as the Sun pours in on the dayside.  Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb heat radiated from the sun warmed ground, rather than allowing the heat to radiate into outer space. 

  CO2 is a green house gas.  So is water vapor.  There is a lot of water vapor in the air; you can see it with the naked eye in the form of clouds.  The amount of water vapor varies with temperature but it averages around 4000 parts per million.  That is ten times the current amount of CO2 which is 400 parts per million.  The part the Greenies natter about is the rise from 300 parts per million to 400 parts per million over the time since the Industrial Revolution.  That is an increase of 100 parts per million or 2.5% of the amount of water vapor.  Real people (not Greenies) don’t believe that a 2.5% increase in greenhouse gases makes any difference to the temperature of the world. 

  As far as real people are concerned, the Greenie push to stop using oil and natural gas is just a political scheme to let them control a large part of the US economy and squeeze money out of that control.  The Greenies love $5 a gallon gasoline.  And at this point it looks like the Greenies are controlling Biden.

His Dark Materials

 Unsatisfying.  Audio is terrible; I could not understand most of the dialog.  Casting is mediocre, Lyra and Will Parry are too tall, and look to be 18 or 19.  They speak to each other, and I would enjoy hearing what they are saying to each other. The books, (which I have read) have both characters as 15 or 16.  Mrs. Coulter just looks plain, not romantic enough to attract Lord Asreal.  This made for TV version is nowhere near as good and the movie Golden Compass. 

TV is going crazy about a heat wave.

  I am getting old but I can remember summers going back maybe 75 years.  At home (New England) summer weather was mostly warm and pleasant.  We went swimming in Lake Cochichuate, we played with neighbor kids, and we ran around in the woods surrounding Lake Cochichuate.  Every summer we had a hot spell, a few days or even a week, of really hot weather, 90F and more.  Mother coped.  She would take us to an air conditioned movie, or out to eat somewhere, or just do a nice big steak on the outdoor fire place.  And the hot spell would be over.  And we didn’t have radio and TV commenting that this hot spell was global warming and would end the world.  It was just a hot spell. 

Really old science fiction writer. Edgar Rice Burroughs

Although Edgar ice Burroughs is best known as the creator of Tarzan, he started his writing career with “A Princess of Mars” way back before WWI.  The only reasonable science fiction author older than Burroughs is Jules Verne.  In this romance, Mars is habitable, with breathable air, little water, lots of strange animals, and multiple races.  All Martians go around armed, long sword, short sword and radium revolver. Red Martian princess Dejah Thoris meets up with Earthman John Carter.  They fall in love; they escape captivity by the Green Martians riding double on the back of a thoat. They lead the forces of Helium and Thark to the destruction of Zodanga. 

   Burroughs wrote another dozen Martian novels over his life.  The first three, Princess of Mars, Gods of Mars, and Warlord of Mars are the best reads. The later ones, not so much.  Burroughs influenced later science fiction stories.  For instance Star War’s Princess Leia owns a lot to Burrough’s Dejah Thoris. 

Men and Women

A woman is a human being who can get pregnant, bear live children and nurse them after birth.  A man is a human being who can impregnate a woman.  There are some men who wish they were women or think they are woman but I would merely call them men with delusions.   Likewise there are women who wish they were men or think they are men, but I would merely call them women with delusions.  It is beyond the capabilities of medicine to actually change a man into a woman or vice versa.  Attempts to do so can render the individual sterile or infertile, which can be a great sadness in later life.  I would call attempts to change a person’s sex by drugs or surgery to be medical malpractice, especially in the case of young persons.

   People with delusions about their sex are called “transsexuals” by some.  I will stick with calling them delusional. 

    I feel much of the talk about “transsexuals” comes from people who want another identity group to politic with.  We already have identity groups of whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and LGBTQs,  Adding “transsexuals”  expands the number of identity groups to politic with or for.