Friday Round-up

My thoughts and prayers are with Japan today.  Here are some options for helping them.

Space/Science
Secret Space Shuttle Blasts Off for Second Mission
Alien Microbe Claim Starts Fight Over Meteorite
Solving the Mystery of the Most Violent Event in the Universe
Voyager Continues to Explore Edge of Solar System (Soon it will find the Borg and be transformed into V’ger and wreak havoc)
Picture of Saturn and Titan
Real Life Transformer (They programmed it to dance!  That’s awesome, but…why?)
Amazing photo of ISS/Discovery in front of the sun

Scifi/Fantasy
Interview with Robin Hobb
Giveaway for Sonia Gensler’s The Revenant (Plus other fun swag – enter by Sunday)
Review of The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
3 Ways George Lucas’s Wife Helped Star Wars
Brandon Sanderson muses on the Suvudu Cage Matches
Review of Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey
Favorite Undercover 80s Aliens
Interview with Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert about Hellhole
History of Science Fiction (graphic)

Misc Books
Science Fiction Author Declares War Against Literary Fiction

Writing
Query Letter Critique Contest (focused on YA)

Things of Interest
National Geographic builds House from Up! (Awesome, but…why?)

Friday Round-up

Science/Space
Pictures of Discovery Approaching the ISS
Henry Morgan’s Cannons Found in Panama (Yay, pirates!)
Picture of Discovery docking with the ISS taken from Earth!

Scifi/Fantasy
2010 Stoker Nominees
Review of Elizabeth Bear’s Grail
Review of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol 5
Excerpt from M.M. Buckner’s The Gravity Pilot
Massive book giveaway
Release Date for New George R. R. Martin Book
Creepy Apollo 18 Poster
Star Wars Fans Trying to Save Lars Homestead

Misc Books
Mystery Novelist telling Story Page by Page on Lamp Post
Kindle Gives Thriller Writer a Plot for Success

Writing
Get Wired In (Not writing specific, but helpful for focusing)
Revisiting the Fantasy Hero

On We Blindly Stumble
Cats with Thumbs
Alice, the Saddest Whale in the Ocean

Friday Round-up

Space/Science
The Extraordinary Face of the Moon
Picture of Discovery on the Launch Pad
Interactive James Webb Telescope (launches in 2014)
Photos of Discovery Launch
Sotheby’s to Auction 1961 Soviet Capsule

Scifi/Fantasy
Endurance wallpapers
Locus Magazine Recommends Some of Tor’s Short Stories from 2010
Review of Ian McDonald’s Ares Express
What does poor showing of I Am Number Four mean for Scifi Movies in 2011?
Video Excerpt of The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Apparently there is also a movement at the moment to help Nathan Fillion buy Firefly.

Misc Books
Borders’ Footprint
Notes in Margins
Tim Burton’s Children’s Book Rejection
Indie Alternatives to Closing Border Stores

Writing
Dark Fairytales Writing Community
Seven Stages of Critique Grief

The Boat, It Floats
100 Best Protest Signs from Wisconsin
China Bans Reincarnation  (I just…what?)

Friday Round-up

Space/Science
Private Company to put Robot on Moon (For some reason, this sounds like a terrible idea to me.  Sounds like a good way to leave trash everywhere and mess up scientific missions.)
Last Rollout of Space Shuttle Discovery (video)
Recycling the Space Program
Trying to Prove the Multiverse (The quantum physics at the bottom kind of hurts my head.)
All 1200 Possible Exoplanets Found by Kepler Visualized
NASA’s New Technique to Find Alien Life
Pictures of Space Shuttle Discovery’s Building

Scifi/Fantasy
The Furniture of Steampunk
Winners of the 2010 British Fantasy Awards
Chance to win a signed copy of Maria V. Snyder’s Inside Out
The Unreal and Why We Love It Part 6: Recognition
Star Wars Characters – Who Got Better?  Worse?
New #Torchat on Twitter
What Star Wars Job are you suited for?  (I’m a Jedi! \o/)

Misc Books
10 Greatest Child Geniuses in Literature

Writing
Stop Thrashing

Odds and Ends
Who to blame for the snow?
Science Valentines
If Social Media was High School
Headless Monk Forces Move of Amusement Park Ride
IKEA Instructions for the Large Hadron Collider

Also, this is awesome: Zombie Choose Your Own Adventure, all across the interwebs.

Friday Round-up

Thank Landsquid it’s Friday, amirite?

Space/Science
Extreme Planet Makeover (Might be fun for world-building scifi/off-world fantasy)
Some confusion over the existence of the Triceratops
First One-Fingered Dinosaur Found (It is apparently Dinosaur Week.  But that’s okay, because dinosaurs are awesome.)
Picture of how deep into the universe we can see versus time

Scifi/Fantasy
Thundercats Cartoon Network Redesign  (Whhhhhhy leave my childhood alone)
Excerpt from The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
5 Astronomical Goofs in Scifi Movies

Writing
Outlining
Find and Replace (Sweet!)
Best Tweets from WDC11
Query Vocab Lesson
Being a good critique partner

Miscellaneous
Today is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger Disaster. :\

Friday Round-up

Space/Science
Discovery Astronaut Hurt in Bike Accident (Poor shuttle astronauts.  They are having a bad month.)
Darkness on the Edge of the Universe
First Mammoth Cloning Experiment Officially Underway (Poor mammoths.  They are going to look around and wish they’d just been left alone to stay extinct.)
Dark Matter Galaxy Detected (bonus gorgeous picture of the Milky Way) 
NASA’s Kepler Discovers First Rocky Exoplanet (Video)
How Deep the Universe
Business Case for Mining Asteroids

Scifi/Fantasy
Fantasy and Steampunk Debuts for 2011
Excerpt: Among Others by Jo Walton
Interview with Gene Wolfe
Science Fiction Musicals (Personally, I rather liked the Simpsons’ parody of Planet of the Apes)
What Apocalyse Scenario are You Best Cut Out For? (Terminator for meeee)
Vader vs. Voldemort

Misc Books
11 Books That Take Place in a Single Day
Babysitter’s Club: Where Are They Now?

Writing
Head-Hopping

Whatever Floats My Boat
Fractal!
You have an accent on Twitter

Twitter friends, don’t forget to track hashtag #wdc11 to keep track of the Writer’s Digest conference this weekend.

Friday Round-Up

I’m moving the round-up to Friday this month as I’m trying out a new posting schedule.  Let me know if you prefer Thursday or Friday.  I work on the round-ups all week long, so it doesn’t much matter to me what day they go up on.

Science/Space
Zambia’s Forgotten Space Program
Last week’s solar eclipse from space
Creation of Hanny’s Voorwerp
Problem with Discovery’s External Tank Determined

There’s a Delta Heavy rocket launch scheduled for next Wednesday from SLC-6 (pronounced Slick-6 by those of us in the industry) at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California.  SLC-6 is interesting because it was intended for West Coast space shuttle launches but was never used for such, though the link above has pictures of the only time a shuttle ever stood on the pad.  (Interesting to note is that the shuttle is the Enterprise, which was purely a mock-up and was never intended for actual spaceflight.)

I am a space neeeerd.

Scifi/Fantasy
Science Fiction Novels to look forward to in 2011
Be a character in John Scalzi’s new book
World-building

Misc Books
Most Literate US Cities

Writing
Lyrical Press is looking for editors (I thought about it, but I don’t have the time)
Suturing Readers into your Characters
5 Situations Where it’s Better to Tell Than Show
Are you using “there” as a crutch?
Naked Writers
Query Letters – Hooks
Steampunk Writing Contest – Fairy Tales

Happy New Thursday Round-up!

Greetings, friends!  Here’s what exciting in the new year thus far:

Science/Space
Round-up of Space Science Performed in 2010
Titan May Be Capable of Creating DNA
Awesome Solar Eclipse Picture (with bonus ISS)
Mars Rovers Celebrate 7 Years on the Red Planet
Odd fact about why the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters are the size they are
Solar System Missions for 2011

Scifi/Fantasy
NASA Rates the Best/Worst Science Fiction Films (by SCIENCE)
11 Scifi/Fantasy Books To Look Forward to in 2011
11 Scifi/Fantasy TV Shows To Look Forward to in 2011
Contest to win a copy of Gena Showalter’s Intertwined

Misc Books
New York Times’ Bestsellers from week of your birth (#1 for me? Space by James Michener)

Writing
Writing vs. Storytelling
Writing in the Age of Distraction

Whatever Else I Thought Was Neat
Detroit in Ruins
Map of US Dialects
Steampunk Pen
Lovely Steampunk-y Art

And for those who are interested, Hidden Worlds (fantasy adventure novella extraordinaire) is now available for Barnes and Noble’s Nook.

Thursday Round-up

Things have been a bit slow this week.  I suspect everyone’s eaten too many cookies.

Science/Space
NASA’s New Idea on Cheap, Easy Launches
Discovery is returned to the VAB in an attempt to figure out external tank issues
Time lapse video of the lunar eclipse for those who missed it

Scifi/Fantasy
Win a Phin and an ARC of A Brush of Darkness
Tor brings you the Twelve Doctors of Christmas

Misc Books
The Library at Pooh Corner

Writing
Does Your Writing Pass These 10 Tests?
10 Ways to Tighten up Your Writing

Just so everyone knows, the likelihood of there being blog posts next week are extremely slim.  So I wish everyone cheer and joy this holiday season, and I shall see you in 2011!

Thursday Round-up

Science/Space
NASA Continues Investigating Cracks in Space Shuttle Discovery’s External Tank
Ice Age Boneyard Find in Colorado Yields Treasures
NASA Discovers Youngest Nearby Black Hole
NASA Starts Thinking About Interstellar Travel
Martian Sunset
Thinking Like an Octopus
CERN Creates and Traps Antimatter

Scifi/Fantasy
Review of Anthony Huso’s The Last Page
John Scalzi gives us Misleading Descriptions for Scifi/Fantasy movies

Misc Books
Bookstore Receives Marijuana in the Mail
15 Unfilmable Books
Books come from Bookland

Writing
John Scalzi’s plea to MFA programs and students
Strengthening Your Writing by Not Writing
Journalists and Novelists Defecting to Video Game Industry
National Book Awards Do Not Consider Fairy Tales
Why I Quit NaNoWriMo But You Shouldn’t

Randomness
Fourth Annual Quidditch World Cup
Super Grandma