Musings of a Babylon Lurker

Looking forward to Doctor Who

2011-09-27T21:21:00.002+02:00

Being away the past week end I missed the penultimate episode of this season's Doctor Who.
I may have to see if it is repeated before the grand finale.

Hosting my own blog

2008-08-08T20:32:00.002+02:00

From now on I am hosting my blog on my own website http://www.babylonlurker.net/

The blog itself will be located at http://www.babylonlurker.net/blog/

The posting here have been imported to the new blog, so this will be the last post from me on Blogger.

My Live Journal blog will continue, since I have some community activities there.

Thanks for reading here

Jan - The Babylon Lurker

Thoughts on "The 4400" TV series.

2008-07-24T21:40:00.000+02:00

I have been watching 4th and final season og "The 4400" - here are a few thoughts on the series.

The concept of the series :

Over a period of about 60 years 4400 people have mysteriously disappeared. Suddenly, all reappear brought back in a giant ball of light.

The scene does, to a certain extent, remind me of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", but "The 4400" continues where, "Close encounters" end with a lot of people coming back.

As some of the returnees show unusual abilities, fear and suspicion arises.

What I particularly like in this series is a continued story through the series, each season always ending with a completely new - and often surprising - situation.

Characters are believable, most episodes feel well written, produced and acted.

Some people seem to complain about short (in this case 13 episode) seasons, but I think a lot of series may benefit from the shorter seasons, giving writers - and the whole team - the possibility of giving their best without running out of steam.

Doctor Who

2008-06-28T21:58:00.001+02:00

I was just watching the last but one episode of Doctor Who for this season, and .... OMG ... I have to wait another week for the conclusion .... *what* a *cliffhanger* !!

Jekyll - a BBC TV miniseries

2008-05-25T13:17:00.002+02:00

The miniseries - written by Steven Moffat is a modern day story based on the famous classic story "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Jekyll is not really an adaptation, but a rather a present day continuation of the classic story.

The brilliant research scientist Dr. Jackman, wonderfully played by James Nesbitt, has the experience of blackouts in his life, where an alternative personality totally take control, as well as some visible physiological changes take place. The resulting Mr Hyde is (not unexpectedly) a darker, more violent personality.

The story is very well told, with some rather unexpected twists and turns, the least surprising element being that the original "Jekyll/Hyde" story is not fictional at all, and the assumed to be fictional Dr. Jekyll was a historical person, and Dr. Jackman, abandoned by his mother as an infant, is a descendant of the original Dr Jekyll - well - really of Mr Hyde, since Dr Jekyll had no (official) descendants. Even the old photos of Dr Jekyll show a stunning resemblance with Dr Jackman.

The story features an unknown organisation, claiming to have waited for more than 100 years to find and "cultivate" a "Mr. Hyde". Also we get a revelation of what really caused Mr. Hyde to appear.

At the end of the story, when we should think the story is over, there is a wonderful revelation showing that the story never really ends.

Moffat writes a wonderfully dark story - without being totally overtaken by the darkness, this is first class drama.

This is classic style science fiction - a good continuation of the classic story. A story that has entered into our cultural heritage, these days essentially everyone knows the reference to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - it has entered as a phrase in English and many other languages.

Steven Moffat to take the helm on Doctor Who

2008-05-24T11:34:00.005+02:00

I am very excited to see that Steven Moffat will replace Russell T. Davies as the lead of BBC's Doctor Who Team

BBC's own news item

I consider his episodes in the previous seasons some of the very best Doctor Who stories ever.

2005 : "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances"
2006 : "The Girl in the Fireplace"
2007 : "Blink"

I am very much looking forward to seeing his two parter this season : "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead"

While RTD has been instrumental in reviving Doctor Who, I think it is the right time to have a new head of the team , and I think Steven Moffat is the right choice. We shall see ...

Fantasticon2008, Copenhagen, 26 - 27 April

2008-04-29T22:43:00.003+02:00

This is a small Danish convention with a few hundred people attending. Only foreign Guest was Norman Spinrad. The con was held in the "Vanloese Kulturhus" (cultural house) in nice large rooms and a terrace. Even the weather cooperated and we could sit outside chatting along between the programmed events. I arrived there after a long (12 hour) drive and a few hours of sleep.

On Saturday I went to the interview with Niels Brunse who has translated a large amount of English language books into Danish, and also written stories of his own. He was, among other subjects, talking about the difficulty of making a good translation, something I can relate to in a limited capacity, having attempted translation in both directions between Danish and English. Some elegant words or phrases in one language translate *very* poorly into the other.

Sunday had a surprise guest speaker, the Danish physicist Holger Bech Nielsen, giving a presentation of his version of the "theory of everything" : "Random Dynamics". He is a *very* lively lecturer, and it is always fun to see him, his enthusiasm for the subject is just radiating from him. This was the first time I saw him "live", the other times were just on television.

Arthur C. Clarke :

For me the best part of the programme on Sunday was the panel discussion about Arthur C. Clarke, the panel consisting of 3 Danish fans and the guest speaker Norman Spinrad. Spinrad had sopme cooperation with Clarke in the 1960's and could tell us that the final scene of the movie "2001 - A Space Odyssey" was in fact not the one we saw in the movie. Clarke had envisioned a scene with very beautiful aliens, but it was not technically possible to do to his satisfaction - meaning the scene had to be rewritten.

Clarke's relatively optimistic view of the future has by some been regarded as naive, but it most probably is an expression of his dream about the future.

Finally there was a discussion of Clarke's unusual combination of hard science fiction and the "mystical" (for lack of a better word), something very prominent in "2001", but it is in much of his other work.

Of course, you cannot mention Arthur C. Clarke without talking about his strong influence on science and technology (as well as science fiction), interesting to see how many of his early thoughts have come true already.

All in all a very nice week end , I will try to make it again next year.

Doctor Who 2008 has started

2008-04-12T23:15:00.001+02:00

The 4th season of the "New Doctor Who" has started on the BBC.

BBC started last Saturday with the episode "Partners in Crime" , quite a fun story, where Donna Noble from the Christmas Special 2006 reappears searching for the Doctor, misses him several times , and we see them meet again in a very amusing scene - that could have been a little shorter, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. We also briefly meet an old friend under mysterious circumstances , I will say no more , you will have to enjoy the moment for yourself.

Second episode brings us back about 2000 years to "witness" the destruction of Pompei, for the first time the Doctor Who team has been filming outside the UK. Quite a spectacular illustration of the volcano blowing up and the city buried under the ashes. As usual , when the Doctor arrives , things go awry, and he has to correct the flow of history , being put into a bit of a dilemma.

I quite enjoyed both episodes, and I am looking forward to the next ones , and solving the mystery of the first episode.

More real life space communications (2)

2008-04-10T19:31:00.003+02:00

The Soyuz spacecraft has successfully docked to the ISS today.

Yesterday I listened for radio communications from the Soyuz, and was rewarded with hearing a few exchanges in Russian. They were likely talking to the ground station in Moscow. The frequency for Soyuz is 121.750 MHz, if any of you should have a scanner receiver. The signal was quite strong, even with a wrong sized antenna, so it should not be too difficult to hear.

Good hunting if you try - They will probably be radio-active for a day or two when they leave the ISS and return to Earth.

In the meantime , if you are in Europe, you can listen for the ISS , in the rare cases when they talk back to Moscow, on the frequency 143.625 MHz.

Jules Verne has arrived at the International Space Station

2008-04-07T21:50:00.001+02:00

Yes - it is true ...

The first ATV - Automatic Transfer Vehicle - has arrived and doced with the ISS. The name given to this ATV is "Jules Verne" , honouring the famous author (1828 - 1905) of old Science fiction classics like "Around the World in 80 Days", "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", "From the Earth to the Moon" and "20.000 Leagues Under the Sea".

The ATV is a European contribution to the ISS, along with the Columbus module - launched with the Space Shuttle and added to the ISS in February. The spacecraft pioneers the use of automatic docking, absolutely no human intervention. Only option would be to break off the docking procedure with a "go away" order. The ATV is designed to transport supplies to the station , and - as its final act - be filled with the garbage from the station and sent back into the Earth's atmosphere. We could call it a cargo ship and an advanced garbage truck - combined with an incinerator.

Another function of the ATV is as a booster for increasinf the orbital altitude of the ISS, since the station is slowly being dragged towards a lower orbit due to that fact that there is still a *tiny* amount of atmosphere up there.

Read more about the ATV here

Last year I went with a friend to visit ESTEC's space exhibition in The Netherlands. During a tour of the Estec facilities we got to see the Columbus module and the ATV, as they were being tested at the time. Nice to have seen real life spacecraft - knowing that both the station module and the ATV are safely orbiting the Earth.

More info at ESA's website

My own website.

2008-04-06T19:00:00.001+02:00

My ISP has offered an "Advanced Website" to go with my subscription. Last year the speed was increadsed t the maximum possible for ADSL2+, this year they increased the max speed for the next lower level ADSL. They then had to offer something extra for mine.

So I took the offer , and moved the stuff from my "standard" homepage , plus added a few new items.

The Babylon Lurker

More real life space communications

2008-04-01T20:11:00.002+02:00

When STS122 had just been launched, I went out to see if I could spot it and the ISS. The ISS arrived right on time and was *very* bright and easy to see (I missed the Shuttle, though). I had also brought my scanner radio receiver with me, and just before the ISS went into the Earth's shadow , I heard a carrier wave for a few seconds , followed by [chorosho] (Russian for "good") and a few more words in Russian, since they were communicating with a ground station in Russia.

In the first few orbits after launch of the space shuttle(s) and the last few orbits before the re-entry (landing) the shuttle uses the frequency 259.700 MHz (AM) for clear voice communications.

A few weeks later, when the STS-123 was launched, I joined a group listening for the Shuttle "Endeavour". but since the high power (10 Watts) transmitter of the spacecraft was out, they were only transmitting with the low power (0.25 watts) transmitter. with my simple antenna and a long cable in to the receiver the signal was lost here, but a few other people around in Europe did hear them.

Since then I have had a preamplifier mounted at the antenna , so the loss in the cable has been compensated.

In the last few orbits before re-entry I listened for Endavour again - and even with their low power transmitter it was audible here. Signals were weak and noisy, but a few sentences were clearly heard here. Next time I will have to do some recordings.

Arthur C. Clarke died at 90

2008-03-29T15:24:00.001+01:00

I know this happened last week, but the preparations for going to the Eastercon/Orbital2008 have overshadowed most other things. See also previous post.

I first became aware of Atrhur C. Clarke through the movie/novel "2001 - A Space Oddyssey" which made a considreable impression on my young self.

One of my favorite longer stories by Clarke is "Rendezvous With Rama".

I have on my shelf a brick of a book with about 100 short stories by Clarke , I think I will slowly work my way through those.

At the convention I found a signed copy of "Tales From the White Hart", and despite the (understandably rather high) price I just had to get it. Should read the short stories in that one, too.

I see Arthur C. Clark as one of the giants in science fiction, and a very influential science writer - one of the few science fiction writers with a scientific writer's background.

It was good to see a last minute addition to the Eastercon programme of a panel discussion about Clarke's influence in science as well as science fiction. On top of that, one of the panelists had been the secretary for Arthur C. Clarke for about a year, and he could bring light on theless public sides of the author. Nicely done.

He will be missed in the scifi community.

Eastercon/Orbital2008 impressions

2008-03-29T15:03:00.002+01:00

Here come my entries made to my LiveJournal directly from the Eastercon/Orbital2008 - covering the first 3 days.

Friday:

Arrived safe and sound at the Eastercon in London.

Friday meeting up with a lot of new people.

Having a Babylon 5 Ranger pin helps finding other B5 fans - or they spot me ...

In the morning a nice discussion about the future of the Star Trek franchise. In the end we agree that tere is indeed a future for Star Trek (no real surprise there)

Being in London, which con will be without Doctor Who in its programme? Friday had a discusion about Russel T. Davies : Fanboy let loose ?

Of course he is both a fan and the one who revived the Doctor Who as a series.

Sunday Babylon 5 is on the programme , "The Lost Tales will be on the programme - my only regret it that it is at the same time as the Neil Gaiman as Guest of Honour. difficult choice. Well , I want to meet some B5 fans here , so I guess "The LOst Tales"it will be.

Just hope to Get to have my "Day of the Dead" script book signed by Neil Gaiman.

Saturday:

Morning panel : "Doctor Who - Trickstergod ?"
Paul Cornell , writer of the double episode of the new Doctor Who : "Human Nature/Family of Blood"

Paul Cornell is a very lively panelist , lots of fun to see/hear. the discussion touched on a similarity with the Doctor and the Shadows from Babylon 5 - both being a sort of "Agents of Chaos" - quite a thought.

Lots of people reacting to the Ranger Pin , so had lots of B5 talks. Sunday "The Lost Tales" will be shown in the video room, I will be there and hopefully get some more good B5 talk.

Got some pictures - will come later - of Ranger Hilary in a very well made costume.

How about a B5 Ranger meeting a Klingon - good fun (got a pic of that as well).

In the afternoon a good panel discussion of "Religion in SF" , always a subject to generate a good discussion.

Had the "Day of the Dead" script signe by Neil Gaiman . Asked him about his position on a collection of non JMS B5 scripts , his reply sounded positive to me.

Sunday morning now - so writing this directly from the con.

This afternoon a programme point not foreseen : A tribute to Arthur C. Clarke - Have to be there.

Sunday:

Essentially no people came to watch "The Lost Tales today , so I went to the Neil Gaiman Guest of Honour performance with the author reading a bit of his work , and questions from the floor. I was slightly surprised by the reply to the question of "free circulation" of his works. He apparently has no personal objection to that as such , since it gives more people the opportunity to read his works . You could see it as free advertising. On the other hand , some of the works, like audio books are not his own property , so he can not just say :"go ahead".

A hastily panel discussion has been organised in the response to the death of Arthur C. Clarke's influence in science, space exploration and science fiction. He was one reason for me - and many of the panelists/audience - to get into science fiction, as well as igniting the interest for space travel and science.

I have always had an interest in astronomy, and I could not resist going to a video presentation playing the two editions of BBC and Patrick Moore's program "The Sky at Night".
I have always found that he possessed an enthusiasm for the subject, and a very good sense for making the complicated scientific more understandable to the general public.

Of course - lots of talks to other fans - meeting people ... very enjoyable.

Eastercon/Orbital2008

2008-03-20T10:16:00.000+01:00

I am off to the Eastercon/Orbital 2008 in London this Easter.

If I get the opportunity , I will write some posts directly at the con.

The only Babylon 5 related guest I know of is Neil Gaiman , who wrote the script for the 5th season B5 episode "Day of the Dead".

If anyone reading this is coming to the con, my Nickname will be on my badge.

Real Life Space Communications

2008-02-03T21:58:00.000+01:00

As we all know, a lot of science fiction involves space travel. We sometimes tend to forget that real life space travel already takes place, albeit on a somewhat limited scale.

This week end I did a little listening to spacecrafts on the radio. You may not believe it, but space communications is not as difficult as many people would think.

I was finding out when the ISS came over the horizon here and started listening to a relay station for ham (amateur) radio situated on the ISS. If there is not any spacewalks going on, the relay station is active listening on the 435MHz (uplink) band (70cm) and transmitting on the 145MHz (downlink) band (2m).
The downlink on 145.800MHz was clearly audible with a scanner radio and a simple whip antenna, as soon as I went out on the balcony of my apartment. On average the period with audible signals is 10 minutes per pass, shorter when the pass is near the horizon and longer when the station comes over my head.

Many years ago I sometimes set my receiver to 143.625MHz in order to listen for the MIR space station (yes - the Russian one), and have heard that one talking to the Earth station.

On some occasions it is possible to have a contact with one of the astronauts on the ISS, if they have the free time and interest. Almost all the astronauts have the license to transmit from up there.

In fact, the radio hams have several satellite relays orbiting the Earth, giving them the opportunity to try out space communications. Most of those are in a low Earth orbit, and therefore they are only useable for a short time. Some have a very elongated orbit (not really any right now), giving the opportunity for longer communication periods.

Most of us know about TV and communications satellites in the geostationary orbit (the satellite follows the Earth's rotation and seems to be stationary over a certain point on the Earth). The dream of some radio hams is getting their satellite out there, giving 24/7 communications.

Just a dream ... but maybe not any longer. There seems to be negociations going on between the AMSAT (Amateur Satellite) organisation and Inmarsat, about getting a lift with one of their satellites, and even sharing the power from the solar panels. We never know if this will come true, but I sure hope so.

Do not forget that the Space Station is a rather big satellite and is very easy to see when above the horizon. So - even if you cannot receive it on the radio you can go outside and observe a *real life* manned spacecraft. if you want to know when it can be observed at your place , go to Heavens Above and find out. it is a good idea to register, so you can have your location recognised when you log on.

Eastercon/Orbital2008

2008-01-29T22:15:00.000+01:00

Recently I registered for the Eastercon/Orbital2008 in London (Heathrow) .

I have been reading Neil Gaiman's "Stardust", since he is one of the guestes of honour at the con.
I like the story. For the signing I intend to bring the script book for the Babylon 5 episode "Day of the Dead" that he wrote.

In the pile of books I got just before Christmas I found China Miéville's "Perdido Street Station", since he is another guest of honour at the con. I have got through the first couple of chapters, but have not yet been caught up in the story. I have decided to work my way through the first part, and then decide if I want to continue. .... I know - I try not to judge a book by its first chapter , but I am afraid it is not really my type of story. The initial chapters are a little too much Dystopian for me.

Happy New Year 2008

2007-12-30T12:48:00.000+01:00

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year 2008.

I will be visiting a friend with no internet , so will be off for some days

Here's to a lot of posting in 2008 ...

...no worries - my friend is a scifi afficionado, so I will have my fun. probably going to watch second season of "The 4400" and some other stuff.

My early Christmas.

2007-12-22T14:29:00.000+01:00

Count me lucky.I just got a really good early Christmas present.

I talked to a friend of mine on the phone the other day and mentioned my interest in scifi, and he promptly said he probably had something for me. He had collected a pile of books for an English speaking lady in Denmark, but it turned out most of it was SciFi, and she was not really interested. But they both thought that the books should find a home and not simply be dumped. So I received 4 shopping bags full of SciFi/Fantasy books, about 100 books by authors like::

Tad Williams, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Asimov, Heinlein, Alfred Bester, Stanislaw Lem, Michael Stackpole (Fortress Draconis), Frederik Pohl, Joe Haldeman, Robert Jordan, Larry Niven, Greg Bear, David Brin, Philip K. Dick, George R.R. Martin, Kim Stanley Robinson (the full Mars Trilogy) and more ...

Most of the books I did not have already, so a very neat addition to my collection. Many of the books were even unread.

Another bag had some "normal" classic stories from Alexander Dumas and others.

Wow for an early Christmas gift! Now for finding some new shelf space.

I wonder when I get the time to read all this ...

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and a Happy New Year 2008.

"The 4400" is over

2007-12-19T20:52:00.000+01:00

Just came across this info from Entil2001

Sad news as I have come to like "The 4400" as a solid story.

Let's hope (there is always hope) for a speedy end to the writer's conflict - and that the writers will get the recognition needed.

The Golden Compass

2007-12-17T22:03:00.000+01:00

After a pause the posts begin again. Time has been a bit crazy, both at work and at home.

Yesterday I went to see "The Golden Compass" at the movies.

The movie is based on the first novel in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy "Northern Lights" - also known as "The Golden Compass", a fantasy adventure story.

The orphan girl Lyra , played by Dakota Blue Richards , sets out to save a friend kidnapped by the Gobblers, something that happens frequently, the children never returning.

Since I have not (yet) read the novels, I can not compare the movie with that, this may come later. After all a movie is never the same as the book it may have been made from.

I liked the movie , found the story captivating. The spiritual (some may say religious) aspects of the film were well treated and came through with a good balance. just that you know - I distinguish between (organized) religion (dogmatic beliefs in texts) - and spirituality (wisdom coming from within - the soul ?)

From the creepy Christopher Lee - and Nicole Kidman for that matter, to the support characters it is well played, including the very young Dakota Blue Richards. Special effects are made to tell the story, not effects for the sake of effects, making the film a pleasure to watch.

The universe Pullman has created is rather different from ours - yet has so much in common.

Very recommended for young and old alike.

Comet hunt .... Success tonight.

2007-10-29T22:23:00.001+01:00

After what feels like an eternity of cloudy weather I got to see comet Holmes.

A bit of clear sky appeared , and the comet was just visible to the unaided eye here (the sky is heavily light polluted where I live).

Without any optical instruments it looks like a star to me - maybe it would be fuzzy in a darker sky.

Using a pair of binoculars at 15x magnification the comet is much like the pictures as seen here , with the exception of the faint green haze outside the brighter disk.

It looked bigger than I expected, and I noticed thet in order to get the most from the view, I had to use "averted vision" that is focusing the view a bit away from the comet. The brighter core is a little elliptic looking and a little offset from the centre of the disk.

If you have a pair of binoculars, you should go out and take a look. The Sky and Telescope link above gives you what you need to find the comet.

This is the third comet I have seen, only Hale-Bopp in April 1997 was bright enough to be clearly seen in the heavily light polluted skies of the western Netherlands, but this unexpected view is much better with a pair of binoculars , or better a telescope using a not too high magnification 20 - 50x should be fine.

Good luck comet hunting.

Comet hunt

2007-10-26T18:08:00.001+02:00

As my luck goes : clouds - clouds - clouds

Comet bursting into the sky.

2007-10-25T11:24:00.000+02:00

Two days ago Comet 17P/Holmes was an insignificant piece of ice barely visible in amateur telescopes under dark skies.

Yesterday all that changed . If you have a clear sky, take a look in the constellation Perseus, there you will find an extra "fuzzy star" - visible to the unaided eye. With a visual magnitude og between 2.5 and 3 it should be about as strong as the stars in the "Big Dipper", "The Plough", "The big Wagon" or whatever you may call the most well known constellation in the Northern sky. The increase in brightness is about a million times in about 24 hours - quite amazing.

Take a look at Spaceweather.com for more information - and a star map to find the comet, and Cometography for a bit of history of this comet.

Stop Press: Latest estimates are now magnitude 2 .... even brighter ... so the outburst is still in progress.

Here's hoping for a little clear sky at my place i The Netherlands ...

Good luck with comet hunting.

Radio Astronomy and SETI

2007-10-22T22:24:00.000+02:00

On 11 october a new radio telescope started operation. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Hat Creek, CA is planned to be extended to an array of 350 dish antennas with a diameter of 6m (20ft) The inauguration was done with the first 42 of these dishes.

The ATA is built to do simultaneous radio astronmical observations and SETI work.

More detail can be found at the website for the SETI institute ATA ppress release.

I am quite excited, since the data collected from the ATA is *much* more than from traditional single dish telescopes , and more than will come from the VLA (Very Large Array) - and for a cost much loser than for older (traditional) radio telescopes.

For more about SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), take a look at at the websites :

SETI Institute

SETI League

SETI@home

50 years of the Space Age

2007-10-15T17:26:00.000+02:00

October 4th, 1957 saw the first successful launch of a satellite into space.

The (then) USSR lauched "Sputnik 1" becoming the first country entering the Space Age. Its characteristic "beep-beep" sound was heard by radio enthusiasts all over the world on approx. 20 MHz and 40 MHz. MOre information and a recording of the beeps can be found at the Wikipedia page concerning Sputnik 1 . (link at the bottom of the page)

One month later, on November 3rd, a second launch of Sputnik 2 with the first living being put in orbit. The dog Laika, unfortunately, had no way of returning alive to earth.

The first satellite launched by the US was Explorer 1 , on January 31st, 1958.

This marks the beginning of the "Space Race", which continued through the 1960's and 70's.

The Space Age has had a lot of "ups and downs" , and I will come up with some highlights in later posts.

My little contribution to the Eurocon

2007-10-04T21:11:00.000+02:00

A family member of mine in Denmark is a young writer (my niece). It does not come from strangers, both her parents have books published.

She writes short stories in the SF and Fantasy genre - and as far as I know, she is writing on a fantasy novel. She has had a few short stories published in Denmark - in collections with other writers.

In 2004 and 2005 she won a Danish SF award in the category 17 - 20 years old writers - and in 2006 at the Eurocon in Kiev the Danish delegation made a presentation on her behalf, and she was awarded an Encouragement Award for New Writers. I had to find thet out by looking into the list of award winners, because she never told me. Imagine my surprise at seeing only two Western European names among the long list of Eastern European writers, one of them hers.

At the Eurocon 2007 she was asked to contribute an English language short story for a "Fanzine" short story collection to be released in connection with the Eurocon. Since she does not write very well in English, she asked me to assist with a translation. The story is only 6 - 7 pages long, so I got started. Not as easy as most people would think, since I wanted to translate the sense of the story, not just the words.

So there you have it - my own little contribution to the Eurocon 2007.

The book has the title "Science Fiction - The Danish Fanzine!" (Issue 15/2007)

On another note, I was talking to another participant of the 'con and, since he had the book, I mentioned the story and he immidiately went to my young niece and asked her to sign the book. He argued that young writers should be encouraged. I should have been quick with the camera (I wasn't), because this was a first time experience for her.

As an aside, she had another short story in a book released at the 'con , albeit in Danish. That book is titled "Lige Under Overfladen" (Just Below the Surface) and is a collection of short stories from young European writers (not yet well known, but who knows if and when ?)

Actually I made a second contribution by taking photos at the convention and delivering 2 CDs with all pics taken on the Friday and Saturday of the convention.

A large selection of those have been published here .

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (5)

2007-09-30T21:22:00.000+02:00

Sunday : Anne McCaffrey and Zoran Zivkovic readings :

Anne McCaffrey chose to read the short story "The Ship Who Sang" (is the title afaik) , a beautiful and very emotional story that I had not yet heard or read. The story, she told, was written in response to the too early death of a close relative, and she told the audience that this was the first time she could read through the story without breaking down.

For me the surprise of Sunday was the reading of Zoran Zivkovic from Serbia. A BBC recording of his story about a conversation with God (though strictly speaking not quite Science Fiction) was very humorous, and I will try to get some more of his work for reading.

Finally a talk by Lene Kåberbøl, a Danish author of childrens books and fantasy books. What she said about the role of translators of stories struck a cord with me, since I have attempted such a thing myself - and know some of the difficulties of making a good translation - not of the words - but of the essence of the story.

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (4)

2007-09-30T21:06:00.000+02:00

Saturday (2) : More Anne McCaffrey :

An hour long Q&A session and the speech as Guest of Honour with Anne McCaffrey again showing us a *very* lively "Dragon Lady", telling her story as an author and as a person.
I took the opportunity to get a single book signed by this excellent author : "The White Dragon" , the 3rd book of the Dragonriders of Pern series, and in my view one of the very best of the extensive series.

Also the "Trekkies.dk" had an open coffee meeting . The rest of the day - until the banquet was spent chatting along with other fans - getting to know some new people.

Since I did not have a ticket for the banquet I was watching a quite amusing film about convention goers and their quirks. The title esacapes me, but it was a BBC production.

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (3)

2007-09-27T12:03:00.000+02:00

Saturday :

A good lecture on the mysterious "Dark Energy" , which is thought to take up ab0ut 70 % of the Universe . Most of the remaining part of the Universe is "Dark Matter" , so all we can see of the totality is about 5 % of it . A bit scary, isn't it ?
In the presentation we heard that two teams had - at the same time - found some surprising results during surveys of supernovas in the furthest corners of our universe. This particular type of supernova was known (or assumed) to have a rather limited range of luminousity - and a lot of light coming from them - meaning that the distance to them could be estimated with a rather good certainty. Other sources of error (such as dust clouds) could be eliminated, and the result was that the expansion of the universe looks like accelerating in stead of slowing down - as we would expect due to gravity. So what we have is a sort of anti-gravity - but only on very large distances. Later other surveys in different fields gave similar results , so the scientists are rather certain that the effect exists. There is just no clue as to the cause of it. Rather exciting to listen to.

More on the Saturday later ...

Jan from Denmark

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (2)

2007-09-26T13:16:00.000+02:00

This was only my second Scifi convention, the first one being a Star Trek convention in Fresno,California about 15 years ago.

Thursday night :

Already on Thursday evening at the pre-registration there was convention activity. The organisers were quite happy that I offered to make some photos at the con, so they are receiving a CD with photos for every day of the con.

A nice talk with frequent convention goer - and volunteer - Wilf from the UK was already a good start for me. A quite knowledgeable fellow with a solid scientific angle as well.

Friday :

Panel with Guests of Honour. Anne McCaffrey arrived a little late and, when asked, insisted on going up the stairs to the stage (in spite of the handicap) - hats off. A few words from the guests of honour. Harry Harrison is a veteran guest of con's and has quite a few stories to tell.
Anne McCaffrey, too is very experienced in conventions and could tell of her first con's where she had good advice from (then) experienced writers, and expressed her advice to new writers : in short , if you want to write , make youself sit down and write ... every day.

Scientific lecture on Solar eruptions. This has had my interest for a long time, being a licensed radio amateur. For me the content was not new, but a condensed version of what I already knew. Only difference was - this came from a scientist's point of view.

There were lots of other presentations during the day , but these stand out for me. A lot of time went with meeting other fans and discussing science fiction, science and fantasy .

A little fun thing is a photo I made : Anne McCaffrey is also involved in the "Writers of th Future", a quarterly competition, where the winners get their stories published in collections. One moment a Star Wars Stormtrooper in full gear was "standing guard" right behind the famous author, link to the picture .

more to come ...

Jan from Denmark

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (1)

2007-09-23T22:17:00.000+02:00

I have been attending the Eurocon 2007 in Copenhagen this year , and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The con had just over 400 registrered members , and some people just came and registrered on the spot, so possibly about 700 - 1000 people in total attended.

For me the main reason was the visit by Anne McCaffrey, who appeared on a panel discussion, at an interview, for a book signing and finally a reading by the author herself.

I took quite some photos at the con and will post a few of them when they are ready.

Other Guests of Honour were Stephen Baxter and Zoran Zivkovic and the artist David A. Hardy. Harry Harrison was there as well.

Several lines of presentations, readings and also scientific lectures were in the program.

I enjoyed lots of talks with other fans en between , but after 3 days of 10-24 (or more) con activity I am rather tired and will continue my "Impressions" in the coming days.

"The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester

2007-09-17T22:52:00.000+02:00

Back online after a few days (travel and a visit to a friend)

On a long trip by car I listened to Alfred Bester's novel "The Demolished Man".

The story depicts a society where the police has telepathic detectives ("esper"s) solving crimes - or even act to prevent crimes.

The "Esper's Guild" divides telepaths into firsts , seconds and thirds according to the strength of the telepaths.

Ben Reich, who is very critical of the Esper's Guild, decides to eliminate a financial competitor and attempts to escape the telepathic detectives by hiring another telepath to block his thoughts.
After many twists and turns the prosecutor (a computer) dismisses tha case because of insufficient evidence.
In the end he is, after all punished by the Esper's Guild (in spite of the aquittal) , and has his mind wiped and reprogrammed - a process called "Demolition"

The story has some nice twists and turns , and a surprising "inner journey" which I like.

The story was published in 1953 and exhibits some of the predudices opf the time, eg relating to women's "place" in society , but if you can see through that´, the story works on its own premise , though seems a bit dated in our day and age. Also - Venus is depicted as a habitable world , something which is now known to be incorrect.

In any case I enjoyed the story, notwithstanding those weaknesses

Also - in the Series "Babylon 5" JMS (J.M. Straczynski) pays hommage to the story by naming his villain telepath ("Psi-Cop") Alfred Bester.

I would rate the story 7/10.

Wikipedia entry for "The Demolished Man"

Second Hugo Award (2007) for Doctor Who

2007-09-09T14:58:00.000+02:00

Last year the Doctor Who series received a Hugo Award for the double episode "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" . The award was for the best short dramatic presentation (less than 90 minutes).
The episodes were written by Steven Moffat, and are among my favorites from the new Doctor Who series.

They have done it again ...

This year's Hugo award for the best short dramatic presentation was awarded the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" - also writen by Steven Moffat - and also one of my personal favorites.

The same TV series receiving Hugo awards for two years in a row is quite rare - the last time I know of was when the "Babylon 5" series did that in the 90's.

It will be interesting to see if The Doctor can make it to a third consecutive award....

You can find the complete list of Hugo winners 2007 here

Live Journal

2007-09-01T16:08:00.000+02:00

From now on I will be posting occasionally to Live Journal as well as here - some entries may be identical , but not all

link to my Live Journal page

I like the "adding a friend system"

Eurocon 2007

2007-08-30T21:00:00.000+02:00

The European Convention on Science Fiction and Fantasy takes place in Copenhagen on 21 - 23 September.

For me the most interesting guest of Honour is Anne McCaffrey. The "Dragonriders of Pern" series is one of my favorite SciFi book series, well written and with an interesting plot.
The first book of the series ,"Dragonflight" was published in 1968 , and since then a steady flow of sequels (and prequels) have come out.

You can find out more at their website Eurocon 2007

If I can find the time (and an Internet connection) I might make a few posts during the days of the Eurocon

Stephen King in defense of Harry Potter

2007-08-16T19:25:00.000+02:00

Stephen King has nice article about the Harry Potter books here where he critisizes the critics reviews of the latest book of being made on a very hasty reading of the book in order to be first to publish a review.

The hasty reviewers , according to King, do not get the full benefit of the book by such a fast reading. I tend to agree.

Further he talks about the appeal of the books to children and adults alike, and stresses the develpoment of the main characters from children into young adults as an advantage of the books , the young audience grew up with the characters. Good point.

Finally he noted the magic of the books that keeps the children interested in reading, clearly showing that the (paper) book is certainly not dead, even in this age of electronic media.

Read the article and decide yourself.

Heroes on the BBC TV

2007-08-16T11:10:00.000+02:00

The series Heroes is now being shown on BBC television (BBC2) on Sunday nights and (this week : Thursday night - it seems to move a little around)

I like what I have seen until now on the local (Dutch) channel RTL5, but still a lot of eps to go in the first season.

Babylon Podcast - "The Lost Tales"

2007-08-14T19:35:00.000+02:00

The Babylon Podcast is having a Party in the month of August.

Due to the release of the first direct-to-DVD "Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales" (TLT) the whole month is dedicated to TLT. Starting on 8. August there was an interview with Bruce Boxleitner who played President Sheridan in the second episode of the DVD.

Following later will be interviews with Tracy Scoggins who played Colonel Lochley in the first episode - and Peter Woodward as the technomage Galen in the second episode.

Who knows - maybe we will get more insider interviews from the TLT cast and crew.

No Spoilers Harry Potter 7 short review

2007-07-29T19:59:00.000+02:00

***NO Spoilers*** Just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , the finale of the story of the young wizard growing up.

The final year , not at Hogwarts but in a perilous adventure for Harry, Ron and Hermione - and everybody they know. Harry turns 17, and the protection, of his home, against the Dark Lord Voldemort is over.

The trio attempts to fulfill the task set out by Professor Dumbledore, and they have to do everything on their own.

The story is well written and has some very nice twists and turns, and shows the courage and resourcefulness of everybody, as they must solve the riddles they are left with.

There has been a lot of rumors/spoilers around, and I have avoided them until now.Finally, now I can go to the forums etc and discuss the story.

I would rate the book 4/5

Books to read, DVDs to get

2007-07-26T22:06:00.000+02:00

Just got the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" book and have started reading. Travelling a bit, so not that much time to finish it, but what I have read so far is promising.

In my book "queue" I also have some Babylon 5 books , the three trilogies :
Centauri
Technomage
Psi Core
and a few single books like "To Dream in the City of Sorrows"

Next on my list is getting the new "Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales" (TLT) on DVD. The official release in the US is 31 July , in Europe (Region 2) it is some time in September - I do not like the "regionalisation" of DVDs , spoilers are all over the place as soon as the DVD is release in just one place. This tempts many people to download the films (etc), even if they will buy the film in any case. I will buy it, but the delay is *very* annoying.

It looks like "The Babylon Podcast" will make August this year a "TLT" month, so spoilers are almost inevitable.

Edit (14 August) :The Babylon Podcast is indeed making August the month of "The Lost Tales" Last Wednesday they had an interview with Bruce Boxleitner (President Sheridan), and interviews with Tracy Scoggins (Colonel Lochley) and Peter Woodward (Techmomage Galen)

Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer

2007-07-26T21:31:00.000+02:00

A movie based on the Marvel comic "Fantastic Four"

I went to see the movie today with some friends. *No Spoilers*

An unknown force (The Silver Surfer) arrives to Earth, threatening to destroy all life on the planet.

In my view, this movie comes out better than the first one. Lots of fun moments as I remember them from the comic, including the teasing and rivalry in the "family". I loved the cameo appearance of Stan Lee. While I know many of the hardcore fans of the comic will be disappointed with the depiction of Galactus, to me it worked quite well on the big screen.

While the story may not be very subtle (after all it has its origin in a comic book) I found the unfolding fine - not dragging too long, actually the movie is relatively short. Still, one nice aspect, it is about having a choice , even at times you think that you do not.

Very nice special effects in creating the Silver Surfer

I would recommend go seeing it, even if you are a fan of the comics, in my book I would rate it 4/5.

PS. I have heard that the Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Stracynski is working on the script for a Silver Surfer movie, sounds interesting.

7th Son

2007-07-12T15:42:00.000+02:00

I started listening to a podcast book a few days ago:

7th Son by J.C Hutchins

I have only listened to the first few chapters and will decide later if I continue till the end.

more info at J.C.Hutchins' website

Pulsar Measurements - Radio Astronomy Podcast

2007-07-05T22:15:00.000+02:00

Just heard this on the podcast "Mountain Radio Astronomy". Their podcast of 8 October 2005 was an interview with pulsar hunter Scott Ransom at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville. Scott had - at the time of the interview - found about 30 millisecond pulsars in a globular star cluster called Terzan 5.

A pulsar is believed to be a quickly rotating neutron star, a supernova remnant, most of them rotating in less than a second. The pulsar has a rather small and directional radiating area that can only be registered when it is facing us.
A second type of even faster rotating pulsars - known as millisecond pulsars - rotating more than a 100 tomes per second, are found in globular star clusters.

The rotation period of the millisecond pulsars is extremely precise, approaching that of an atomic clock , and this means thatsome interesting measurements of pulsar orbits can be made.

About 20 minutes into the interview he talked about a measurement of a pulsar orbit with an accuracy that really surprised me.

The example here is the Hulse-Taylor star system two pulsars orbiting each other in an orbit smaller than the Sun.This can demonstrate Einstein's general theory of relativity, the interaction between spacetime and gravitation and an indication of gravity waves.

One other of the pulsars, Terzan N is orbiting a massive companion in an almost exact circular orbit about the size of the Sun.there is a little eccentricity, that is difference in the long axis and the short axis of the orbit, is measured as 48 cm +/- 6 cm. Less than half a meter ! Measured at a distance of 20 000 light years. Mind blowing ...

Science stranger than fiction ...

Link to Mountain Radio Astronomy

Link to The podcast MP3 file

The SciFi Smackdown Podcast

2007-06-30T11:27:00.000+02:00

A podcast with people having fun comparing similar aspects of different Science Fiction stories.

Their very first episode had a match between the Battlestar Galactica and the Enterprise. Follow the debate about differences, advantages and disadvantages of the two flagships.

Each episode is followed by a voicemail show or two with listener feedback of the match.

Episode 2: Captain America vs Batman

Episode 3: Heroes vs. X-men This time with another approach: The smackdown is played out as a role playing game match, playing over a few podcasts.Very Entertaining.

Episode 4: second part of the Heroes vs. X-men

Episode 5: X-wings (from StarWars) vs Starfuries (from Babylon 5). This time with a guest participant known from the Babylon Podcast - since they wanted a knowledgeable representative for the Starfuries. Yet another approach : The "combattants" are to make a sales pitch for their respective fighter. Their guest made quite a pitch for the Starfuries.

Link : Scifi Smackdown Podcast

Heroes on Dutch TV

2007-06-28T22:50:00.000+02:00

I have been watching the first two episodes of the "Heroes" series , "Genesis" and "Don't Look Back".

This looks promising, I must say , but will wait a few more episodes and see where this leads.

In the first two episodes we meet people from all over the world, discovering that they have unusual abilities, such as flying (levitating), controlling time and telepathy, as well as a professor (and his son) studying genetics and predicting that some people will develop those abilities - and what looks like a peek into a disaster in the future

Babylon Podcast fan fiction

2007-06-21T10:35:00.000+02:00

It looks like the Babylon Podcast voice mails are being dominated by a piece of fan fiction (or two) Some contributors send in pieces of talks , like captain's log or whatever , creating a story within the podcast.

If you know the series well, you will appreciate the humor of these voice mails.

If you are a Babylon 5 fan , listen to the podcast , or better to the live feed. In my opinion it is well worth it.

The Babylon Podcast

2007-06-19T21:22:00.000+02:00

The Babylon Podcast is a podcast dedicated to the TV series "Babylon 5" created by Joe Michael Straczynski (also known as JMS).

In this the hosts Summer Brooks and Tim Callender (two dedicated fans) and Jeffrey Willerth (producer on the series) deal with news about the series, have interviews with people relating to the series - cast, crew, authors etc as well as (in many of the podcasts) deal with a specific episode of the series, a section of the podcast dubbed "Deep Geeking", where the episode is analyzed, and they talk about what worked for them or not etc., and finally a voice mail section.

I have been following the podcast since September last year, when I got started in a big way listening to podcasts, and was very happy to find this one. Having some time at hand, I spent two weeks listening to the preceding 42 (one hour long) podcasts in order to get up to date.

They also record live every Wednesday evening at 18 pm Phoenix Arizona time, rather inconvenient for Western Europeans (3 am), but sometimes well worth it.
Simultaneously they have an IRC chat running, so live feed listeners can comment live. Find all info about the live feed on their website (link : Listen Live). The live feed is , of course unedited so if you join in, you get bloopers, banter and all - can be very entertaining.

Their latest show #69, released last week, was a little different : Members of the chatroom were invited to call in and contribute - they had 3 contributions, and I participated in the second section.

Today I (re)watched the final episode of Babylon 5, Season 2, "The Fall of Night" . the subject of this Wednesday's "Deep Geeking".

Link : Babylon Podcast

Heroes coming up on Dutch TV

2007-06-18T15:09:00.000+02:00

This coming Thursday "Heroes" begins a run on the Dutch commercial TV channel RTL5, running the pilot episode this Thursday. Hope I can make it through the commercials.

I have heard a lot of good about that one and look forward to see it.

Heroes the Series

Doctor Who

2007-06-18T13:59:00.000+02:00

I have been watching the new (2005 onwards) series of Doctor Who, and found it very good. Generally good story lines, often a subtle arc going through a whole season.

I am much more impressed by the new series than the old one. This should not be a surprise, since a lot has happened to scifi TV in the last 20 years. No wonder we sometimes find the older tv series a little lacking. Not just special effects, but in general.

Watched episode 11 , Utopia, of the 3rd (new) series in the week end and found it extremely promising for the 2 concluding episodes. I am not going to give any spoilers yet.

The Babylon Lurker - science fiction and fantasy

2007-06-15T19:40:00.000+02:00

This blog will predominantly deal with Science Fiction and Fantasy that I have seen/read/heard.

Expect my love of the TV series Babylon 5 (just look at the title) to dominate this blog , especially in the beginning.

Also expect some excursions into the realm of real science and mythology, both related to SciFi/Fantasy - and probably a lot of other diverse stuff

Jan , The Babylon Lurker

Musings of a Babylon Lurker

Looking forward to Doctor Who

Hosting my own blog

Thoughts on "The 4400" TV series.

Doctor Who

Jekyll - a BBC TV miniseries

Steven Moffat to take the helm on Doctor Who

Fantasticon2008, Copenhagen, 26 - 27 April

Doctor Who 2008 has started

More real life space communications (2)

Jules Verne has arrived at the International Space Station

My own website.

More real life space communications

Arthur C. Clarke died at 90

Eastercon/Orbital2008 impressions

Eastercon/Orbital2008

Real Life Space Communications

Eastercon/Orbital2008

Happy New Year 2008

My early Christmas.

"The 4400" is over

The Golden Compass

Comet hunt .... Success tonight.

Comet hunt

Comet bursting into the sky.

Radio Astronomy and SETI

50 years of the Space Age

My little contribution to the Eurocon

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (5)

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (4)

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (3)

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (2)

Impressions from Eurocon 2007 (1)

"The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester

Second Hugo Award (2007) for Doctor Who

Live Journal

Eurocon 2007

Stephen King in defense of Harry Potter

Heroes on the BBC TV

Babylon Podcast - "The Lost Tales"

**No Spoilers** Harry Potter 7 short review

Books to read, DVDs to get

Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer

7th Son

Pulsar Measurements - Radio Astronomy Podcast

The SciFi Smackdown Podcast

Heroes on Dutch TV

Babylon Podcast fan fiction

The Babylon Podcast

Heroes coming up on Dutch TV

Doctor Who

The Babylon Lurker - science fiction and fantasy

No Spoilers Harry Potter 7 short review