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Index to our previous shows
Shows from April, 2002
Shows from March, 2002
Shows from February, 2002
Shows from January, 2002
December 24, 2001 - Suzanne Gibson Reads You Holiday Stories
December 21, 2001 - Karen Willson and Jeremy Bloom
December 7, 2001 - Mitchell Burnside Clapp
Shows from November, 2001
Shows from October, 2001
Shows from September, 2001
Shows from August, 2001
Shows from July, 2001
Shows from June, 2001
Shows from May, 2001
Shows from April, 2001
Shows from March, 2001
Shows from February, 2001
Shows from January, 2001
Shows from November - December, 2000
Shows from September - October, 2000
Shows from July - August, 2000
Suzanne Gibson Reads You Holiday Stories
On Monday - December 24th, 2001 - we continued our longstanding tradition of bringing you holiday readings with a flair of fantasy. So curl up with a glass of eggnog or some other traditional holiday drink while we read you some classic stories.
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Our first reading is an essay by Henry Van Dyke called Keeping Christmas. It's about practicing the spirit of the holidays, instead of merely celebrating them. While the title mentions Christmas, the message is truly timeless and applies to all the different ways we honor the winter holiday season. This is a nonfiction piece without our usual fantasy or science fiction slant, but in this post September 11th time, many of us are reviewing our lives and actions, and this essay expresses these ideas perfectly.
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Little Roger's Night in the Church by Susan Coolidge is a fantasy tale that retells a classic theme. Little Roger is accidentally locked in the church on Christmas Eve, and at the stroke of midnight, all sorts of magical things happen. This story is gifted with talking owls, Christmas elves and Christmas angels.
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In Florence Holbrook's story, Why the Evergreen Trees Never Lose Their Leaves a wounded bird looks for a tree to give him shelter through the winter. Thankfully, in this tale, good deeds have rewards.
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In Oscar Wilde's fairy tale, The Selfish Giant, quite the reverse is true. The giant is punished for his selfish behavior. When he bars the children from playing in his garden, Spring refuses to come and his garden lives in continual Winter until he shares it with others.
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A note about copyright All these stories and the illustrations are believed to be in the public domain. Hour 25 has the greatest respect for the rights of all writers and artists. However, the challenges of producing a show with an international audience require research into the copyright laws throughout the world, and these are constantly being revised, especially since the formation of the European Union. Should you have specific knowledge that any of these materials are still in copyright, please contact us immediately.
The Hour 25 "Give Karen Willson a Five Word Challenge" Event
Karen Willson has offered to write an original song for Hour 25, but you folks will have to help out. Send in any five words and Karen will use them in a song. {"Naked Polynesian Island Slave Girls" has already been used, so think of something else.} The field is open so use your imagination. Send your five words to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I'll pick the winning entry and send it down to Karen. Then it will be up to her to craft a song using those words. You can hear more about this event by listening to our interview with Karen. {Don't ask me how I'll pick the winner, cause I can't answer that question. But I'm sure I'll recognize the winning entry when I see it.} BTW, I will declare that for purposes of this event "Hour 25" is one word. And for the person who comes up with the entry that I send down to Karen, I'll find something special and send it along to you as my way of thanking you for your part in this escapade. The timing for this event is rather open - you know how I am about time and deadlines - so this event will go on until the right five words come in. That might happen in a day or it might take a few weeks. So get busy, if you snooze, you lose. How hard can it be to think up five words?
Listen to this show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {42:56}
or
- Click here for the show's intro music.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening. {3:30}
- Click here for Keeping Christmas. {3:05}
- Click here for Little Roger's Night In the Church. {19:31}
- Click here for Why the Evergreen Trees Never Lose Their Leaves. {4:21}
- Click here for The Selfish Giant. {9:45}
- Click here for the show's closing.{2:03}
or
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Due to Holiday driven schedule constraints we've had two shows go up within the span of a couple of days. Make sure you don't miss our show featuring Karen Willson and Jeremy Bloom. Click here to go listen to these folks talk about their work and to learn more about the Hour 25 "Give Karen Willson a Five Word Challenge" event.
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Links for more information relating to this week's show
For On-Going Updates on Space News
The Space Today web site is a great place to find space news from all over the 'net.
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
Concerning Ways of Responding to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks
First, be careful. Vultures have already established scams to bilk people of their money under the guise of helping those harmed by this terrorist attack. Make sure you are giving money to real causes and not scams. That said...
Govenor George Pataki of New York has announced the launch of an official state fund to help the victims of this attack. The New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund was accepting donations three ways: at P.O. Box 5028, Albany, N.Y., 12205; through the state web site or via phone at 1-800-801-8092.
Amazon.com has set up a web page for making donations to the American Red Cross.
Check with your local Red Cross for information about when and where you can donate blood or call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543). It is needed. For more information call 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-4357-669). You can also go to the Red Cross web site to find more information. {If that Red Cross site is busy you can find much of its information at this site.
Check with the web sites for America's Second Harvest and the Salvation Army to find more ways you can help.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has an online list of organizations to contact to help the victims and their families.
The FBI has established a toll-free telephone number for anyone with information regarding the incidents on September 11 in New York City and the Washington, D.C.. Please call (866) 483-5137 if you have any information. Click here for an FBI form to use when providing information about these crimes.
MP3Pro Links
To learn more about the new MP3Pro format you can check out this press release from Thomson multimedia and can download an MP3Pro encoder/decoder from their main web site.
You can download an encoder/decoder for MP3Pro audio files at the RCA web site.
You can learn more about the technology behind MP3 files by going to the web site for the Fraunhofer Institute where much of the work behind the MP3 file format originated.
Note: I have not had the chance to try the new MP3Pro encoder/decoder and so I can offer no opinions about how well the software works. But I will be paying close attention to it. Anything that will let us cut the storage requirements for the Hour 25 audio files in half sounds like a good thing to me. I'll let you know more as things get sorted out with this new audio format.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Return to the Index for this month's shows
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Karen Willson and Jeremy Bloom
On Friday - December 21, 2001 - our guests were Karen Willson and Jeremy Bloom.
Karen Wilson is a multifaceted individual whose work makes the world a nicer place in which to live. She is perhaps best known as a singer with a voice that sparkles like fine crystal on velvet and whose songs speak to the hearts of those persons who imagine 'might be futures' and dream of exploring the worlds that lie beyond our sky.
She is also an accomplished writer for TV and other media. And for the last few years has been working on A Girls World web site. Here, she and her colleagues have created a safe place for girls from around the world to come together for support, fun and learning.
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Karen's album, Children of the Future, was the first collection of filk music that was available to the general public. I ran across it many years ago when it was first released on cassette and fell in love with it instantly. Here were songs that spoke to my heart and that were sung with angelic clarity. I tell you, it sent shivers up my back it was so wonderful. And now, this album has been released as a CD. Life is good. As you can imagine I highly recommend this CD to you. You can order this CD as well as many other filk titles from the DAG productions web site. {If you have any sort of interest in filk music, i.e. music with an SF bent, then you really should check out the DAG web site because it's a wonderful compendium of information about that subject.}
And don't forget about the Hour 25 "Give Karen Willson a Five Word Challenge" event. As Karen and I discussed in this week's interview, she is willing to write an original song for Hour 25 but you folks have to help out. Send in any five words and Karen will use them in a song. {"Naked Polynesian Island Slave Girls" has already been used, so think of something else.} The field is open so use your imagination. Send your five words to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I'll pick the winning entry and send it down to Karen. Then it will be up to her to craft a song using those words. {Don't ask me how I'll pick the winner, cause I can't answer that question. But I'm sure I'll recognize the winning entry when I see it.} BTW, I will declare that for purposes of this event "Hour 25" is one word. And for the person who comes up with the entry that I send down to Karen, I'll find something special and send it along to you as my way of thanking you for your part in this escapade. The timing for this event is rather open - you know how I am about time and deadlines - so this event will go on until the right five words come in. That might happen in a day or it might take a few weeks. So get busy, if you snooze, you lose. How hard can it be to think up five words?
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When you think of it, audio is a natural medium for science fiction. Film is fine but to show amazing things requires special effects that can be amazingly expensive. But in an audio medium, all you have to do is describe what's happening and let the listener's imagination fill in the details. But more than that, film and television are passive mediums, someone else creates the images that you see. But audio is not, indeed it cannot be, passive. When you listen to a story your mind has to be active. And that makes the experience engaging, personal and wonderful.
And that is where our next guest, Jeremy Bloom comes in. He is the producer of Frequency, a bi-monthly audio science fiction publication. Think of this as an audio science fiction magazine, though he won't call it that because of quirks in how publications get distributed. But no matter what you call it, Frequency is a science fictional delight for the mind as well as the ears.
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I highly recommend Frequency to you. Its stories are good and it gives you a new medium in which to enjoy original science fictional speculations. You can find Frequency at book stores or you can visit their web site and order it on-line. Enjoy.
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Listen to this show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:21:19}
or
- Click here for the show's intro music.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening and news. {7:32}
- Click here for the interview with Karen Willson. {45:50}
- Click here for the interview with Jeremy Bloom. {23:48}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:48}
or
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Links for more information relating to this week's show
For On-Going Updates on Space News
The Space Today web site is a great place to find space news from all over the 'net.
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
Concerning Ways of Responding to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks
First, be careful. Vultures have already established scams to bilk people of their money under the guise of helping those harmed by this terrorist attack. Make sure you are giving money to real causes and not scams. That said...
Govenor George Pataki of New York has announced the launch of an official state fund to help the victims of this attack. The New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund was accepting donations three ways: at P.O. Box 5028, Albany, N.Y., 12205; through the state web site or via phone at 1-800-801-8092.
Amazon.com has set up a web page for making donations to the American Red Cross.
Check with your local Red Cross for information about when and where you can donate blood or call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543). It is needed. For more information call 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-4357-669). You can also go to the Red Cross web site to find more information. {If that Red Cross site is busy you can find much of its information at this site.
Check with the web sites for America's Second Harvest and the Salvation Army to find more ways you can help.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has an online list of organizations to contact to help the victims and their families.
The FBI has established a toll-free telephone number for anyone with information regarding the incidents on September 11 in New York City and the Washington, D.C.. Please call (866) 483-5137 if you have any information. Click here for an FBI form to use when providing information about these crimes.
MP3Pro Links
To learn more about the new MP3Pro format you can check out this press release from Thomson multimedia and can download an MP3Pro encoder/decoder from their main web site.
You can download an encoder/decoder for MP3Pro audio files at the RCA web site.
You can learn more about the technology behind MP3 files by going to the web site for the Fraunhofer Institute where much of the work behind the MP3 file format originated.
Note: I have not had the chance to try the new MP3Pro encoder/decoder and so I can offer no opinions about how well the software works. But I will be paying close attention to it. Anything that will let us cut the storage requirements for the Hour 25 audio files in half sounds like a good thing to me. I'll let you know more as things get sorted out with this new audio format.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Return to the Index for this month's shows
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Mitchell Burnside Clapp
On Friday - December 7, 2001 - our guest was Mitchell Burnside Clapp from Pioneer Rocketplane. We chated with him about his experiences on the DC-X and his plans for making space launch systems operate more like aircraft.
Mitchell has done some pretty cool things during his life. He's been a student, graduate, and instructor at the USAF Test Pilot School and was checked out and certified to operate the DC-X experimental rocket.
He is now the CEO of Pioneer Rocketplanes and is working to develop low cost rocketplanes that can be used for launching satellites and for high speed transportation over large distances on the Earth.
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Mitchell Burnside Clapp |
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The DC-X {Delta Clipper Experimental} was a small rocket built on a limited budget by McDonnell Douglas to show that it was possible to operate a rocket powered vehicle in a manner analogous to a high performance aircraft. The ground crew needed to service and launch this vehicle was a small fraction of the number needed to operate conventional rockets.
The test program for the DC-X started on August 18, 1993 and ended on July 7, 1995. The vehicle was subsequently modified into the DC-XA configuration and resumed flight test on May 18, 1996. The test program was ended on July 31, 1996 when the vehicle was destroyed in a crash caused by a landing gear that failed to deploy.
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Mitchell Burnside Clapp has championed the idea of using aerial refueling as an enabling technology for low cost space access. By using this technique the rocketplane used to launch satellites can be made small and affordable. And just as important, this vehicle can be tested incrementally. This would allow testing of the rocketplane in the manner of a high performance aircraft and gradually opening its operating envelope as the normal flight test issues get resolved.
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Aerial Propellant Transfer Operations Profile |
Artist's Conception of the Pioneer Rocketplane XP
Image Copyright © 2001 Pioneer Rocketplane and Foundation Imaging |
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The Rocketplane XP is the first step in this process. The XP would take off using jet engines and then use a rocket engine to boost it onto a sub-orbital trajectory. This vehicle, and its follow-ons, will be used to demonstrate many of the technologies, such as aerial propellant transfer, that will later be used by the operational satellite launchers and long range transports.
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Listen to this week's show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {2:09:40}
or
- Click here for the show's intro music.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening and news. {25:45}
- Click here for the interview with Mitchell Burnside Clapp. {1:41:25}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:49}
or
- Click here to listen to our interview with former astronaut Carl Meade and learn what it's like to fly into orbit onboard the Space Shuttle.
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Links for more information relating to this week's show
Pioneer Rocketplane
More information about Pioneer Rocketplane can be found at their web site. {Please note, this web site has not been updated for a while because Mitch and company are in the business of actually designing rocketplanes, not creating web sites about them.}
Here is a web site with testimony that Mitchell gave to Congress discussing how the government can help make commercial space launch a success.
Here is a web site that discusses the Blackhorse concept. {Note: This web site seems to be down now, but was working a few days ago. Hopefully, it will be back online soon.}
Information about the X-prize can be found at their web site.
And if you enjoyed this show and would like to know when other interviews are uploaded to the Hour 25 web site, then send an email to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I will add your name to the free Hour 25 Newsletter mailing list. That way you'll get a brief notice in your email every time a new show gets uploaded to the web.
Mars Missions
Additional information about the Mars Global Surveyor mission - including images showing large changes in the polar landscapes of Mars - can be found at the Project's Official web site.
A comprehensive catalog of images of Mars taken by the MGS spacecraft can be found at the web site for Malin Space Science Systems.
The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) carried by the MGS spacecraft has returned some fascinating information about Martian topography and other subjects, including measurements of large seasonal variations in Martian Polar Cap thickness. The MOLA web site has a lot of information about this experiment and its discoveries.
Information about the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission can be found at the Project's Official web site.
More information about the 2003 Mars Rover Mission can be found at this Rover web site at Cornell University.
And for those 'Weather Channel' addicts who just can't get enough weather information. Here's a link to The Daily Martian Weather Report.
A Mission to Pluto
Information about the science behind a mission to Pluto and reasons for why delaying a Pluto mission means science lost, not science delayed can be found in the interview I did with astronomers Dave Tholen and Bill Bottke last year. Click here to listen to that interview.
The Planetary Society has been working to get the Pluto mission reinstated with a timely mission profile. Click here to learn more about the Planetary Society or here to learn more about their work to save the Pluto mission.
The plutomission.com web site was responsible for getting thousands of people to write to their congresspersons in support of a mission to Pluto. This web site now serves as a focal point for interest and activities associated with this mission.
Space Telescopes - Large and Small - and Extrasolar Planets
For more information about the Canadian Space Telescope, called MOST, checkout the Project's web site or view this site produced by one one the companies working on MOST. To learn more about the Canadian Space Agency, you should go to their web site.
The MOST spacecraft will be carried to orbit by a ROCKOT launch vehicle, i.e. a launcher derived from SS-19 Soviet ICBM, operated by EUROCKOT Launch Services Providers. You can learn more about EUROCKOT and the ROCKOT launch vehicle by going to their web site.
Information about the discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope can be found in the public information area of the Space Telescope Science Institute web site.
You can read about the Hubble Space Telescope's discovery of an atmosphere around an extra-solar planet by going to this web site at the Space Telescope Science Institute or by viewing this NASA web site.
Additional information about Extrasolar Planets can be found at the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
or at the Extrasolar Visions web site. An informative history of the search for Extrasolar Planets can be found here and information about the search sponsored by the University of California, along with a wealth of information about the currently known Extrasolar Planets, can be found here.
Other Space News
To learn more about Space Tourism you can consult the web site for Space Adventures.
More information about the Genesis mission can be found at the Project's Official web site.
ISS News
The Florida Today web site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.
Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.
For On-Going Updates on Space News
The Space Today web site is a great place to find space news from all over the 'net.
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
Concerning Ways of Responding to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks
First, be careful. Vultures have already established scams to bilk people of their money under the guise of helping those harmed by this terrorist attack. Make sure you are giving money to real causes and not scams. That said...
Govenor George Pataki of New York has announced the launch of an official state fund to help the victims of this attack. The New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund was accepting donations three ways: at P.O. Box 5028, Albany, N.Y., 12205; through the state web site or via phone at 1-800-801-8092.
Amazon.com has set up a web page for making donations to the American Red Cross.
Check with your local Red Cross for information about when and where you can donate blood or call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543). It is needed. For more information call 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-4357-669). You can also go to the Red Cross web site to find more information. {If that Red Cross site is busy you can find much of its information at this site.
Check with the web sites for America's Second Harvest and the Salvation Army to find more ways you can help.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has an online list of organizations to contact to help the victims and their families.
The FBI has established a toll-free telephone number for anyone with information regarding the incidents on September 11 in New York City and the Washington, D.C.. Please call (866) 483-5137 if you have any information. Click here for an FBI form to use when providing information about these crimes.
MP3Pro Links
To learn more about the new MP3Pro format you can check out this press release from Thomson multimedia and can download an MP3Pro encoder/decoder from their main web site.
You can download an encoder/decoder for MP3Pro audio files at the RCA web site.
You can learn more about the technology behind MP3 files by going to the web site for the Fraunhofer Institute where much of the work behind the MP3 file format originated.
Note: I have not had the chance to try the new MP3Pro encoder/decoder and so I can offer no opinions about how well the software works. But I will be paying close attention to it. Anything that will let us cut the storage requirements for the Hour 25 audio files in half sounds like a good thing to me. I'll let you know more as things get sorted out with this new audio format.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Return to the Index for this month's shows
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Back to Hour 25 Home Page
Unless otherwise noted the entire content of this web site is Copyright © Warren W. James, 2000-2001.
All rights reserved.
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