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Index to our previous shows
December 25, 2013 Christmas Readings
October 31, 2013 Halloween Readings
February 22, 2013 David Brin
Shows from 2012
Shows from 2011
Shows from 2010
Shows from 2009
Shows from 2008
Shows from 2007
Shows from 2006
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Shows from September, 2003
Shows from August, 2003
Shows from July, 2003
Shows from June, 2003
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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
The Shows
Christmas Readings - 2013
On Wednesday - December 25th, 2013 - Hour 25 joined you for a Christmas celebration featuring holiday readings with a twist of the fantastic.
So grab some egg nog and sit by the Christmas tree and go straight on till tomorrow with Hour 25.
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L. Frank Baum is best known for his story "The Wizard of Oz" and the 'Oz Universe' that he explored in its sequels. However, he also wrote a number of other charming stories flavored with whimsy and a love of the fantastic. As befits an author who was enchanted by the magical side of life he more than once ventured into the realms of Santa Claus and Christmas.
Our first reading for tonight is a story from the pen of L. Frank Baum in which a small girl wonders what bunnies see on Christmas Eve. And who better to answer that question than a bunny who has been to the North Pole to help Santa make toys for the children of the world.
It is interesting that the little girl in this story is named Dorothy and that she lives in the country. Perhaps this is the first appearance of the little girl who found adventure and wonder on the other side of the rainbow.
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Now we know what our pet bunny, Precious, was watching for last night.
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Perhaps Precious thinks Warren is Santa and wants to tell him a secret.
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The Christmas Masquerade by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
You think people would learn, don't you. Especially during a season filled with magic and the occasional mischief. But no, they don't. You think they'd think twice when a strange little man - whom no one has seen before - offers them something for nothing during the holiday season.
Oh well, their bad judgement is our entertainment as Mary Wilkins Freeman crafts a story about "The Christmas Masquerade" and, more importantly, what happened afterwards.
And from all of us at Hour 25, we're wishing you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years.
Listen to this show
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Click here to listen to the entire show. {54:29}
Or
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- Click here for the show's intro music. {0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening. {2:02}
- Click here for Suzanne's reading of "Little Bun Rabbit" by L. Frank Baum. {20:05}
- Click here for Warren's reading of "The Christmas Masquerade by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. {26:19}
- Click here for a Christmas greeting from the moon. {2:46}
- Click here for the show's closing. {2:36}
- And to add some music to your holiday season you might want to listen to our show featuring holiday carols with a Lovecraftian twist.
- Click here for links to all of our previous Shows that you can listen to on the Hour 25 Web Site.
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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.
A note for our listeners who are Mac users - I have just discovered what appears to be an incompatibility between our audio feed, which uses standard internet audio formats and protocols, whilst listening to the show via Safari running under OSX Mavericks. I will be investigating this issue and will have an answer for you shortly.
Until then, it is noted that I have not encountered any such problems with listening to the show under OSX Mavericks when using the latest version of the Firefox browser.
If you want to download the free Firefox browser you can find it here.
Halloween Readings - 2013
On Thursday - October 31st, 2013 - Hour 25 was a part of your Halloween celebration when we brought you readings of old and new stories about things that go bump in the night.
So settle in and let us tell you some stories while you decorate your Halloween tree and enjoy your other seasonal pleasures as we go straight on to tomorrow with Hour 25.
California Halloween by Larry Niven
Science fiction author Larry Niven has graciously granted us permission to read a charming Halloween story heŐs written this year. ItŐs a charming futuristic vignette of children trick or treating in Southern California, slightly reminiscent of Ray BradburyŐs story Usher II.
The Gateway of the Monster by William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson is one of our favorite authors for stories of the supernatural. In previous readings shows we have brought you some of his supernatural stories with a nautical setting and tonight we're pleased to bring you his first story featuring Carnacki 'The Ghost Finder'.
Sherlock Holmes focused on solving crimes with natural causes but Carnacki, whose work is set just after the time of the Holmes stories, works with those problems that might best be explained by supernatural causes. And although he is 'The Ghost Finder' he approaches his cases with a rationality and appeal to the scientific method that would serve Holmes proud. The stories about Carnacki's investigations are a delight for fans of the supernatural as well as fans of detective stories.
To learn more about Carnacki's adventures you might check out this fine article or these notes on the series or these notes on The Gateway of the Monster. You can download an electronic copy of Carnacki The Ghost Finder with more of these stories here.
The Rose Garden by M.R. James
Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther arenŐt the first persons to find that the setting for their new rose garden causes some startling nightmares. But are these just dreams, or are the locals not telling all they know?
M.R. James - Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) was an author, medieval scholar, antiquarian. HeŐs definitely our kind of writer. He's best known for his ghost stories, many of which were originally written to be read to friends at Christmas time.
Check out this link to A Podcast to the Curious which is produced by Will Ross and Mike Taylor and is dedicated to the fiction of M.R. James. In this episode, they discuss this story in depth, including the possible actual location of the house in the story, and whom M.R. James was REALLY writing about.
There is a reference in the story to a 5th of November mask. If you arenŐt from England then you may not know what this is all about. This is a reference to a uniquely British holiday, Guy Fawkes Day also known as Bonfire Night, that celebrates when Guy Fawkes and 12 co-conspirators were foiled of their gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament and kill King James I on November the 5th, 1605. For a discussion about this date and celebration, check out the websites here, here and here.
Listen to this show
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Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:43:47}
Or
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- Click here for the show's intro music. {0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening. {0:53}
- Click here for Suzanne's reading of "California Halloween" by Larry Niven. {4:43}
- Click here for Warren's reading of "The Gateway of the Monster" by William Hope Hodgson. {55:50}
- Click here for Suzanne's reading of "The Rose Garden" by M.R. James. {39:40}
- Click here for the show's closing. {2:00}
- For more readings and interviews you can listen to our Halloween shows from
2012,
2011,
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007,
2006,
2005,
2004,
2003,
2001 and
2000.
- And to add some music to your holiday season you might want to listen to our show featuring holiday carols with a Lovecraftian twist.
- Click here for links to all of our previous Shows that you can listen to on the Hour 25 Web Site.
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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.
David Brin
On Friday - February 22nd, 2013 - Hour 25 brought you an interview with noted author David Brin talking about his newest book Existence. It was a great pleasure to have the chance to sit down with David for an extended interview about his newest book, the art of writing and the role of science and storytelling in shaping the world we live in.
It has been far too long since David's last book - Kiln People - but his new book was well worth the wait. He paints a realistic picture of the world that many people alive today will eventually live in and populates it with believable people who are trying to cope with a discovery that shakes the very foundations of their civilization. From flooded cities where scavengers look for treasures to sell to the boardrooms of global megacorporations to spacecraft visiting the asteroids we are treated to a look into the world we are creating with every choice we make.
Existence is a very good and thought provoking book which is most highly recommended. But really now, would you expect anything less for a new book from David Brin?
So settle in and click on the links for the interview and prepare to have your world view expanded as we go straight on to tomorrow with Hour 25.
A Fire in the Sky
Image copyright © Don Davis, All Rights Reserved. Used with the artist's permission.
Don Davis has created the above image showing what you would have seen had you been hovering 10 kilometers above Chelyabinsk on the morning of February 15, 2013. Like all of his work, this painting blends technical accuracy with considerable artistic skill. To view more of his astronomical art and learn more of the technical details behind this painting be sure to visit his website.
Astute vistors to the Hour 25 site will note that although the show's audio dates to February 22 the web site was not updated with this show until a few weeks after the show was recorded. This is due to the fact that we had to stop working on the show so that I could complete the preparations for my part of a briefing on asteroid mining that was presented at the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts seminar in Chicago in early March. This talk showed that asteroid mining is both technically and economically feasable using technologies that are within our grasp today.*
And in showing just what a small world we live in... one of the persons on the review panel orchestrating that NASA seminar was.... wait for it now..... David Brin.
In any case, I apologize for the delay.
* I am currently a Co-Investigator on a NIAC study looking into asteroid mining where I do spacecraft and mission design. My colleague Marc Cohen is the Principal Investigator on the study and we are joined by Kris Zacny of Honeybee Robotics and Brad Blair. We've been looking into what would be required to make asteroid mining an economicially viable venture. So far the results look very promising.
Our presentation at the NIAC Spring 2013 seminar was recorded on video and you can watch it here. Below is an illustration of a design concept for an asteroid mining spacecraft that we presented at that meeting.
Listen to this show
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Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:56:27}
Or
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- Click here for the show's intro music. {0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening. {20:53}
- Click here for our interview with David Brin. {1:32:56}
- Click here for the show's closing. {1:57}
- Click here for links to all of our previous Shows that you can listen to on the Hour 25 Web Site.
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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.
Links For This Show
David Brin
Learn more about David Brin and his books - including a great trailer for Existence - at worlds of DAVID BRIN.
David talks here with Wired about Existence and other topics.
In the link above David notes, quite rightly, that the current generation of tablets don't ship with a built-in computer language that kids can use to program those devices and that this is not a good development. But I'll note that this is a problem can be fixed through the TechBASIC app which puts a powerful BASIC interpreter on your iOS devices and will let kids or other people write interesting and useful programs on their iPads and iPhones. These programs can even be sold at the iTunes app store. Highly recommended.
Another discussion about Existence can be found at io9 .
A Fire in the Sky
The BBC had several very good reports of the Chelyabinsk event including maps, pictures and videos which can be found here , here , and here . And in the aftermath of this event thousands of people from that area have fallen into the grip of 'meteor fever'.
The Mail Online has an article with several pictures of the hole punched in a frozen lake by some of the debris from this event.
The Wall Street Journal has an article with a number of linked videos along with a very good chart that compares the sizes of various objects that have hit the Earth.
Here is a Russian language site with tons of pictures and videos.
This compilation video pulls together many very striking videos of this event.
What are the odds that you might die as a result of an asteroid impact? The answer may surprise you.
You can learn more about the risks from asteroid impacts and how to prevent them in this article.
Useful Space Related Links
Space News - Dawn - A Mission to the Asteroids
Updates and additional information about the mission of the Dawn spacecraft can be found at the project's Home Page at JPL or at this NASA Web Site.
Additional information about asteroids can be found at the NASA Near Earth Asteroid (NEO) Web Site.
Dawn is a part of the Discovery Program of deep space missions. Information about Dawn and other missions can be found at the Discovery Program Web Site.
Space News - Mars
Much information about the Phoenix mission to Mars can be found at this JPL Web Site or at this Web Site from the University of Arizona or this NASA Web Site. Additional information about various past NASA missions can be found here.
For more information about the Mars Exploration Rovers be sure to check out the MER Web Site at JPL or this Mars Rover site at Cornell University. You can also get information about the MER mission by reading the News Updates posted by Dr. Steve Squyres, the project's Principal Investigator.
To learn more about the Mars Express mission you can go to this ESA Mars Express Web Site, this Mars Express Web Page from JPL, this NSSDC Mars Express Web Page, or this Web Page from Mars News.Com.
For more information about the Exploration of Mars be sure to go to the JPL Mars Exploration Site, the Center for Mars Exploration at NASA Ames, or the Mars Missions Web Site at the Planetary Society.
Information about the data returned by previous Mars missions can be found at this Mars Web Page at the NSSDC.
Information about the Phoenix Mission to Mars can be found at this Press Release from the University of Arizona. You can view a 3D picture of the Mars Phoenix spacecraft here.
For more Mars news be sure to check out the Mars News.Com Web Site.
Percival Lowell did much to shape our ideas about Mars in the early years of the 20th Century. You can learn more about his work by reading this on-line copy of his 1895 book Mars.
Space News - The Cassini Mission to Saturn
Much information about the Cassini mission can be found at the Project's Official Web Site at JPL.
JPL is constantly releasing pictures from Cassini. You can find them by going to this JPL Web Page.
Additional information about the Cassini mission can be found at this ESA
Web Site.
The University of Arizona Web Site for the imaging system used to take the Huygens pictures of Titan has much information about how they were obtained and processed as well as a collection of processed and unprocessed images.
The Huygens probe carried a microphone and recorded the various sounds that it heard while descending to the surface of Titan. You can listen to those sounds at this Web Page sponsored by the Planetary Society.
For On-Going Updates on Space News
Links relating to the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia can be found here.
The Reusable Launch & Space Vehicle News Web Site Web Page that is part of the Hobby Space Web Site is a really good place to watch for news about, well... Reusable Launch Vehicles and related subjects. I check it out just about every day and often find news there that doesn't show up anywhere else. Give it a look. {And while you're there be sure to check out some of the site's other pages. Wow! Is there a lot of information there.}
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.
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.
Space Related Organizations
If you are interested in learning more about current space activities there are many local and national organizations you might want to know about. Joining these organizations and taking part in their activities is a good way to stay abreast of things going on in space as well as a way to show your support for those activities. Listed below are some of those organizations.
The Organization for the Advancement of Space Industrialization and Settlement has long been place for persons living in the Los Angeles area to gather and discuss the promise of space. Be sure to check out their Web Site for information about their meetings and other activities.
The Orange County Space Society is another Los Angeles area organization that provides a focal point for persons who are interested in space developments to get together and share their ideas. They have created a number of displays explaining the history and importance of space exploration that have appeared at various public events. Be sure to check their Web Site for information about their meetings and other events.
The National Space Society has a long history of being an advocate for a vigorous space program and provides much information to its members through their magazine and Web Site.
The Space Frontier Foundation is a strong advocate for a non-governmental space program and serves as a focal point for much activity in that arena. Their annual conference in Los Angeles during the Fall is a great way to find out what is happening in the non-government space arena.
The Space Access Society is focused on reducing the cost of going into space by promoting non-governmental launch vehicle programs. Their annual conference in the spring is a major source of information on non-traditional launch vehicle activities.
The Planetary Society is focused on the exploration of the Solar System and has a wealth of information for its members and others.
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