| |
|
|
Index to our previous shows
Shows from April, 2002
Shows from March, 2002
Shows from February, 2002
Shows from January, 2002
Shows from December, 2001
Shows from November, 2001
Shows from October, 2001
Shows from September, 2001
August 29, 2001 - Harry Turtledove
August 17, 2001 - Brad Peebler & Lightwave 7
August 10, 2001 - Pat Murphy and Michaela Roessner
August 3, 2001 - Poul Anderson
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
Harry Turtledove
On Wednesday - August 29, 2001 - our guest was Harry Turtledove and we chated with him about his new book American Empire: Blood and Iron.
|
Harry Turtledove seems to be a one-man "book of the month club", at least it seems that every time I turn around he's got a new book out. {It is a sad commentary on our country that Harry writes more books each year than the average American reads.} But more than being a veritable 'book-factory', Harry writes at a standard that most of us can only hope to achieve.
Harry's newest book, American Empire: Blood and Iron, is set in the universe of his just-finished Great War series and follows the lives of the characters who survived that war as they live with its repercussions. To say that I enjoyed this book a great deal is an understatement of first order. It was well written, thought provoking and filled with believable characters. This book is most highly recommended. Don't miss it.
|
|
|
|
|
I think that American Empire: Blood and Iron, may be Harry's best book yet. I know that it is his most important.
Most important? Yes, because in this book Harry shows us just what a fragile institution democracy is and how thoughtless actions at the end of one war can create the conditions needed to insure the next one. {Though the book has a hopeful note by also showing us the fragility of demagoguery.}
Although many of the events described in this book are modeled after the events that occurred in the post-WW1 Germany of our universe, it has a universality that speaks to events happening in our world today. Because as much as we want to deny the possibility, "it can happen here".
|
SPOILER WARNING : During tonight's interview we have tried to not provide any spoilers for American Empire: Blood and Iron. However, that book is set after the events chronicled in Harry's Great War series and depends upon events in the first series to establish its problems and conflicts. Thus, knowing the setup for American Empire will answer a number of questions about events in the Great War. If you haven't finished reading the Great War series, then you might not want to listen to this interview until after you have finished it. So go hurry up and finish reading the Great War series so you can read Blood and Iron. It's well worth it.
Listen to this week's show
|
|
- Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:09:20}
or
- Click here for the show's intro music.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening and news. {17:08}
- Click here for the Harry Turtledove interview.{49:32}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:59}
or
- Click here to listen to our previous interview with Harry in which we talk about his other books and the subject of Alternate History in general.
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
|
Links for more information relating to this week's show
Harry Turtledove
Click here to go a really good web site about Harry Turtledove and his books. This site has a great deal of biographical and bibliographical information as well as a large number of his book covers.
You can read transcripts of several on-line chats that Harry has participated in here at Cybling. {Check out his chat from July 2001 to view the question about the 'reality' of Earl Warren.}
You can read an interview with Harry from ChiCon here or from the Military Book Club here.
Science and Space News
You can learn more about the hole in the ozone layer by visiting this web site from the Centre for Atmospheric Science at Cambridge University or this ozone depletion web site sponsored by the EPA.
The New York Times published a very nice obituary about Sir Fred Hoyle written by noted science writer Walter Sullivan.
The Shenzhou Project
Click here to go to the Go Taikonauts! web site, an unofficial web page covering the Shenzhou project and other aspects of China's space program.
The Encyclopedia Astronautica is a fabulous reference source for information about various space projects, including China's current activities. You can read more about the Shenzhou spacecraft and view many pictures of it at their Shenzhou web page. Check our their Chinese Lunar Base web page to learn about China's plans for Lunar exploration in the coming decades.
This web site has some great pictures of a model of the Shenzhou spacecraft.
Click here to go to the web site for the China Great Wall Industry Corporation to learn more about the launch vehicles used for China's space program.
Solar Sailing
Be sure to go to the Planetary Society's web page for the solar sail project they are conducting with Cosmos Studios. There you will learn about the design of this solar sail spacecraft and its upcoming mission. You can also get on their email distribution list for project updates.
You might also want to look at this Solar Sail web page which has information and links concerning solar sailing.
For more information about Solar Sail you should visit the web site operated by the Union pour la Promotion de la Propulsion Photonique. They have news and information about solar sails - including a comic based on the Arthur C. Clarke story "The Wind from the Sun". {This site is available in many languages including English, French, German, Italian and others.}
Information about the Planetary Society and their various activities can be found at their home page
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.
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.
|
Return to the Index for this month's shows
|
Brad Peebler & Lightwave 7
On Friday - August 17, 2001 - our guest was Brad Peebler, the Vice President for 3D Graphics at NewTek and we'll be chatting with him about Lightwave Version 7 - which was just released this last Monday at the SIGGRAPH computer conference.
Lightwave has long been the program of choice for doing CGI for TV, having been used in Sequest DSV, Babylon 5, Star Trek and many other shows. The powerful features of Lightwave have let special effects wizards do amazing things, while its low cost has made creating those effects affordable. Lightwave is now used on many TV shows and movies and is a true Industry Standard. And as you'll hear in this interview, the newest version of Lightwave has just given us a whole new bag of tricks to use for creating Science Fiction shows.
Brad joined NewTek about 10 years ago and has done just about everything there, from tech support to managing the development of Lightwave and now he now leads all of NewTek's 3D graphics efforts. Brad and I sat down to chat about Lightwave 7 today in his hotel lobby and as a result there's a fair bit of background noise but I think you'll find that Brad has many interesting things to say about the newest version of Lightwave.
If you listened to last week's show you might remember that we said that our guest this week was going to be Harry Turtledove. Well, we decided to rearrange our schedule so we could bring you this late breaking news about the release of Lightwave 7. This will be one of the first reports out there about this new software and we couldn't resist bringing it to you just as soon as possible. And I promise you, Harry will be our guest next week.
|
Listen to this show
|
|
|
- Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:18:21}
or
- Click here for the show's opening music.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening.{3:21}
- Click here for the show's news.{17:56}
- Click here for the my comments about the Lightwave 7 tapes from Desktop Images.{6:03}
- Click here for the interview with Brad Peebler. {48:09}
- Click here for the show's closing.{2:11}
or
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
|
Links for more information relating to this week's show
Lightwave
To find out what NewTek is up to you should consult their Web Site.
To learn more about Lightwave 7, you can consult this web page from NewTek or go directly here to view a list of its features.
If you are interested in learning more about using Lightwave 7, you should check out the instructional tapes produced by Desktop Images. They have a set of new tapes that feature Brad Peebler showing you how to get the most out of LW7. They also have tapes covering earlier versions of Lightwave and have some wonderful tapes hosted by Ron Thornton discussing CGI Special Effects and Digital Cinematography. These tapes are most highly recommended.
Be sure to check out the 2001: A Space Odyssey, 3D Modeling Archive for downloadable models of various spaceships from that film. Many of these models are in the Lightwave format and the rest are in other formats that can be imported into Lightwave. This other archive has many more 3D models of various science fiction subjects.
Like Brad said in the interview, the Lightwave community is big on sharing its tips and tricks. Here's a list of links to LW tutorials on the 'net. Here's a tutorial on writing LW Plug-ins. Here's another list of links to LW tutorials on the 'net. Here's a link for a tutorial that shows you how to model the Whitestar from B5. And here's yet another list of on-line LW tutorials.
Interested in how various hardware platforms perform while running Lightwave? Then go to Chris's Lightwave Benchmarks page for an exhaustive list of benchmarks covering various hardware platforms.
For more information about things going on in the 3D universe, be sure to visit the Flay.com web site
Science and Space News
The Russian Space Web has some new information about the Angara family of launch vehicles which use the Baikal booster.
More information about the Galileo mission to Jupiter can be found at the Project's web site. Here is some additional information about Galileo's Probe that entered Jupiter's atmosphere.
Scientific American has published a great on-line article about Galileo.
You can go here to view a Scientific American article from 1998 about the discoveries that suggest that some of the 'constants' of nature may not be constant after all and about what this means or go here for more recent information about that subject.
Extrasolar Planets
The Astronomy.com web site has has a good article about the recent discovery of a second planet circling 47 Ursae Majoris.
The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia is a fantastic source of information about the planets outside our solar system. It is highly recommended.
Click here to learn more about an observing program that is discovering extrasolar planets.
The Planetary Society maintains a web page about extra solar planets that is a good source of additional information. {Please note that their page is currently being revised so don't forget to check it out in the future.}
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.
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.
|
Return to the Index for this month's shows
|
Pat Murphy and Michaela Roessner
On Friday - August 10, 2001 - our guests were Pat Murphy and Michaela Roessner. When they were in town for the LA Times Festival of Books and the 2001 Nebula Awards ceremony we were able to get a few minutes with them to chat about writing and related subjects before they had to run off to the airport and go home. This isn't a long interview, just think of it as a quickie with a couple of Brazen Hussies.
Brazen Hussies???
Well, that's how they refer to themselves. Pat and Michaela, along with Lisa Goldstein, decided a while back that the hardest thing about writing was doing the self-promotion needed to get their books noticed. So they banded together to promote each other's books. And they decided that as long as they were going to be out there brazenly promoting their books they might as well adopt that as a name for themselves. Works for me. And they've got a way cool blimp.
Of course it helps that they've written some really good books. They'll tell you all about them in the interview.
|
| |
 Pat Murphy picture copyright ©2001
by Suzanne Gibson |
|
 Michaela Roessner picture copyright ©2001
by Suzanne Gibson |
Listen to this week's show
|
|
|
- Click here to listen to the entire show. {45:25}
or
- Click here for the show's introduction.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening.{3:19}
- Click here for my remembrance of Poul Anderson.{3:54}
- Click here for this week's news.{14:06}
- Click here for the interview with Pat Murphy and Michaela Roessner. {21:19}
- Click here for the show's closing.{2:06}
or
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
|
Links for more information relating to this week's show
Pat Murphy, Michaela Roessner and the Brazen Hussies
To learn more about these ladies you should go to the Brazen Hussies Web Site. There you will find information about them and their books, individual web sites for each of them, information about where they will be appearing and links to lots more information about them.
You might also want to check out this Locus On-Line interview with Pat Murphy or this other interview with her.
To find out more about what Pat has written consult this bibliography of her work.
You can learn more about Michaela Roessner by reading this interview with her or this other interview.
To find out more about what Michaela has written consult this bibliography of her work.
Poul Anderson
More information about Poul Anderson and tributes from many people can be found at a special SFWA web page or at Greg Bear's web site.
You can listen to Poul talking about his writing in an interview that we did with him last year.
You can read an interview with Poul Anderson at Locus On-Line at this location.
Click here to view a bibliography of the Poul Anderson's work.
You can view a gallery of paintings done by Michael Whelan illustrating Poul Anderson's stories at this web site or view other cover art from his stories {including many magazine covers featuring his stories} at this web site.
Earlier this year Poul Anderson very kindly gave us permission to do readings of several of his stories. Two of those have already appeared here {Kyrie and Call Me Joe } and more will be coming.
Science and Space News
More information about the Genesis mission can be found at this NASA web site, at this CalTech web site or at this JPL web site. Information about the Discovery Project and its other missions can be found here.
More information about the Galileo mission to Jupiter can be found at the Project's web site. Here is some additional information about Galileo's Probe that entered Jupiter's atmosphere.
Scientific American has published a great on-line article about Galileo.
The Shenzhou Project
Click here to go to the Go Taikonauts! web site, an unofficial web page covering the Shenzhou project and other aspects of China's space program.
The Encyclopedia Astronautica is a fabulous reference source for information about various space projects, including China's current activities. You can read more about the Shenzhou spacecraft and view many pictures of it at their Shenzhou web page. Check our their Chinese Lunar Base web page to learn about China's plans for Lunar exploration in the coming decades.
This web site has some great pictures of a model of the Shenzhou spacecraft.
Click here to go to the web site for the China Great Wall Industry Corporation to learn more about the launch vehicles used for China's space program.
New Launch Vehicle Developments
More information about Japan's Reuseable Launch Vehicle work can be found here {including a movie of it in flight} or here {featuring a really clear photo}.
Here is a web site with some information about India's AVATAR project.
To learn more about the now defunct X-33 Project you can consult this NASA Web Page or view these images from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.
To learn more about the aerospike engine that was developed for the X-33, you can consult this NASA Web Page or this Rocketdyne Web Page
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.
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.
|
Return to the Index for this month's shows
|
Poul Anderson - A Terrible Loss and A Great Sadness
|
It is with a great sadness that I must tell you that Poul Anderson died on Tuesday evening, July 31, 2001. He was one of the finest Science Fiction authors of our time. But more than being a great writer, he was a fine and noble man. In an era characterized by excesses of unsocial behavior he showed grace and understanding to all who met him. His writings shared with all his love for the beauty and majesty of the world we live in and were a celebration of life and all its joys. I will miss him more than words can express. But I will remember him and celebrate his existence every time I look out into the night sky and feel my spirit being drawn into the vast spaces between the stars.
A memorial gathering is planned for 2pm, Saturday, August 4 at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th Street, Oakland. A small wake will follow at Greyhaven, starting around 5 pm. Attendees for the wake are asked to bring food or drink.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to:
SFWA Emergency Medical Fund
c/o Chuck Rothman, SFWA Treasurer
1436 Altamont Avenue
PMB 292
Schenectady, NY 12303-2977
More information about Poul and tributes from many people can be found at a special SFWA web page or at Greg Bear's web site.
You can listen to Poul talking about his writing in an interview that we did with him last year. Earlier this year Poul Anderson very kindly gave us permission to do readings of several of his stories. Two of those have already appeared here {Kyrie and Call Me Joe } and more will be coming.
There will not be a new edition of Hour 25 this week because Suzanne and I will be out of town celebrating Poul's life and memory at his memorial service. We will upload the next edition of Hour 25 on or about August 10, 2001.
|
Return to the Index for this month's shows
|
Back to Hour 25 Home Page
Unless otherwise noted the entire content of this web site is Copyright © Warren W. James, 2000-2002.
All rights reserved.
|
|
