I had the same thought. Powell wasn't clear about who he is targeting - the Golden Age did not last through the New Wave and into the late sixties and seventies; New Wave actually began as early as the mid-fifties, with Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (or Tiger, Tiger).

Sigh.... Life in The Kingdom. Who we choose as friends and who we brand as enemies certainly does not depend greatly on shared cultural traits, ideas or values.

There's a confabulation of issues in the Slate article - one is the effect of "personality aging juxtaposed on continuing physical youth" on society, and the other is the rise of isolating barriers between individuals enhanced by technology. Both are relevant to The Caves of Steel, but only because Asimov postulated…

Right on Forster's The Machine Stops. A nuanced look at the effects of a population aging into "great age" - active physically, but aging in personality - can be had in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars series, along with associated works like Ice Henge and A Memory of Whiteness.

The question is, which Smaug -

Forgive the long post, but there are problems here.

First, how exactly would France and Britain have prevented the German (and Soviet!!) conquest of Poland? At the time, Britain had a very small army, no ability to transport large units by air or sea, and no integrated units capable of defeating German air/armor-based…

At the Mountains of Madness could be done well, but Del Toro is neither the screenwriter nor the director to accomplish it. I like Del Toro's work, but his strengths lie in other directions; the early material he produced on ATMOM suggests that he didn't have a handle on it.

Classic Twilight Zone episode ("King Nine Will Not Return").... In some British hospital, ex-Sergeant Dennis Copling has recently emptied sand from his shoes.

Thanks for the attempted correction, but no - I'm thinking of the Jade Emperor, 玉皇 - exactly as I said. It's a question of pragmatism. Employ a strictly material anthropomorphism, and Yuanshi Tianzun wouldn't quite cut the mustard, either:

I dunno if #7 is unintentionally funny or a universally accurate depiction of female cynicism regarding objectification and the male libido (which I think the episode strove for, nowhere near successfully). Couple it (no pun intended) with Robert Picardo's expression just after - and it's both complete and entirely…

"It's the only major religion that doesn't believe in God or the soul, and it considered by some to be the 'religion' of the future."

I sense a whole new industry on the horizon - low carbon footprint, sustainably-green drones.

Nice to know lunar physics is active and well-supported - I count two major particle accelerators on the surface, with a huge laboratory-dome complex between them....

Michael Caine would have been a near-perfect choice - he can play nearly anything - but I daresay his age will be problematic if the film has any emphasis (as it should) on Tolkien's First World War experience. In completely different directions, I'll say Hugh Laurie or Ralph Fiennes, as well.

One notable statue to add here: Mao Zedong at Changsha, China, completed several years ago. While it's "only" 116 feet high, it's the largest bust in the world - and demonstrates that "mega-sculpture-ness" depends as much on proportion as on mere height.

One notable statue to add here: Mao Zedong at Changsha, China, completed several years ago. While it's "only" 116 feet high, it's the largest bust in the world - and demonstrates that "mega-sculpture-ness" depends as much on proportion as on mere height.

One notable statue to add here: Mao Zedong at Changsha, China, completed several years ago. While it's "only" 116 feet high, it's the largest bust in the world - and demonstrates that "mega-sculpture-ness" depends as much on proportion as on mere height.

Interesting article/blog/discussion spread over several sources, in that no one mentions Gardner Dozois, who actually edited the magazine for decades. Wonder about that. And no mention of the fact that the mag is dying - as are the other print/sub format mags - even Analog, now that Stan Schmidt has retired and his…

"Not hearts," his father replied, when the boy asked him about the room at the bottom of the elevator shaft, beneath the compound's huge, dimly-lit cellar.

The boy shrugged. "Then what? They look like hearts beating under glass domes."

His father stared past the compound fences toward the west desert horizon. The dry
br…

I think Spielberg and Lucas did this same schtick a few months ago - or some blockbuster version of it - the "death of the film industry".