Author name: gardensofhansen@hotmail.com

Last night my wife really wanted to watch the last half of the Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Personally, I had no interest. I dislike both candidates intensely. I’m a registered Democrat and do not like or trust Kamala Harris. The only way you know if Donald Trump is lying is if his lips are moving. So for, I have no good choice and nothing vested in this election. I expected unpleasant rhetoric from both candidates. I was not surprised. I expected misstatements galore and was not surprised. However there was one moment that did surprise me. It highlights how little respect the candidates have for the common sense of the American voter. Its been 96 years since the Chicken in every Pot campaign. In US history the practice of buying votes through offering alcohol goes all the way back to before the United States was the United States. But the overt practice of buying votes is still with us; and has never been more overt than in the Presidential Debate. I had to look up the transcript of the debate to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, but here it is: Harris then mentioned her “plan to give startup businesses $50,000 tax deduction to pursue their ambitions, their innovation, their ideas, their hard work”; her plan to create a “$6,000 [tax credit] for young families, for the first year of your child’s life;” her plan to offer “$25,000 [in] down payment assistance for first time home buyers.” What I heard was “a chicken in the pot and two cars in every garage”. What I heard was “Hey, if you want to start a small business, vote for me and I’ll give you $50,000.” What I heard was “Hey, you’re pregnant. Vote for me and I’ll give you $6,000.” What I heard was “Hey, wanna buy a house? Vote me and I’ll give you $25,000.” It doesn’t matter that there would be strings attached to this offer of $300 billion, its more of the imagery of the statement. But still it disturbed me on several levels. First, another $300 billion in taxes or government debt. Where’s the money coming from? Oh, the middle class taxpayers of course. We could pay for it with every middle-class family increasing their tax bill by $2500. That was the easy part, as I thought it would add up to more than $300 billions in chickens for the pot. Second, it is so overt in nature that I find it insulting to have been defined as a simpleton that is willing to sell his vote for a mug of rum. What else did I get out of the debate? I’m afraid of Trumps overt lying, bullying approach, and general disposition. I’m even more afraid of what Harris might do. For me, in this election it won’t be who to vote for, but rather who not to vote for. Lesser of two evils.

I have previously talked about water in the solar system. Today CNN posted an article about a current NASA mission checking out Europa for signs of life. Why? Water for one. It also has the right combination of water, energy and chemistry to support life as we know it. What kind of life are we looking for? For NASA it is any signs of life. If we are looking at the microbial level that is both exciting and scary. Could microbes from another world, developed in a totally different environment potentially create diseases by inadvertently bringing the microbes back to Earth? Or could they potentially provide new insights into extending length and quality of life on Earth. That seems to be a throw of the dice. Could we inhabit a moon of Jupiter? Drinking salt water from the ocean is not life sustaining. But can desalination occur and work? Yes. So even if the “water” in Europa is not potable, it probably can be made so. A bigger concern might be the radiation belt that Europa sits in. This is creating a challenge for the NASA exploration team with components of the mission vehicle. If we established a base on Europa would it have even more radiation problems to deal with than establishing a base on our own Moon? If you are interested in colonization outside of Earth and in the Solar System, this article is a good read. The link is: https://www.yahoo.com/news/europa-clipper-set-launch-soon-021213229.html

When I think of the 1950s and science fiction movies I’m a beat embarrassed. Most of the Syfy movies of the 50s were cheap “B” movies. One of the biggest hits in the Syfy category would be the Japanese movie Godzilla. It is now a cult favorite, but the zipper suits are a bit off-putting, and the plot? No comment. Perhaps I’m confusing the original with the dozens of subsequent films that included Godzilla in the title. Next, you could look at horror and Syfy. “The Thing” (1951) brought us James Arness or Marshall Dillon in a costume. Like most monster movies its the fear factor rather than the costume that grabs us. In 1956 we had Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which I always thing of as a version of Robert Heinlein’s “The Puppet Masters”. Two other films worth mentioning in this sub-genre are “The Fly” (1958) and “The Blob” (also 1958) that stared Steve McQueen. When it comes to adventure and science fiction (my personal favorite) one of the best science fiction movies of all time, and especially the 1950s was “Forbidden Planet”. For the period it did a fair job with special effects, had a great cast, was well-written with a very good story line. This one is worth watching if you haven’t seen it. Three others that came out in the 1950s that I will rewatch almost any time include “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” with Kirk Douglas (1954), “Journey to the Center of the Earth” with James Mason in 1959) and “The War of the Worlds” in 1953. For dystopian fans, I’d recommend “On the Beach” (1959) with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardener, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins. Okay, the 1950s wasn’t really embarrassing for Syfy, but if you pull out these and a few other exceptions it wasn’t a high point in Syfy movie making.

Syfy – Industrialization comes to the Moon? China is apparently planning to turn the streets of the Moon into brick streets and brick buildings. In “Salt of the Earth” the Arlo (spaceship headed to the asteroid belt) uses its 3-D printers to build just about anything it needs, from clothes to weapons. I suppose it is not far-fetched to build bricks out of Moon dirt and a good 3-D printer. Fortunately, I’m not claustrophobic so I still prefer turning ancient lava tubes on the Moon to home, safe from regular meteor hits. I’m not so sure a brick, even a 3-D brick would hold up well to that kind of activity. Fortunately, labor costs will be low, as the operation and construction will be done exclusively by robots. This does create an interesting scenario that was played out by Disney with Wall-E What if mankind suddenly destroys itself. Would the brick making and building process continue? Over millions of years imagine the surprise when alien explorers reach our system and find a burned out planet without an atmosphere on the third planet with a moon totally covered in bricks.

On a regular basis as I communicate with other science fiction authors I’ve invited them to provide a summary of their books for my readers. Today I’m sharing a summary of Drew Samuelsen’s book, Restart. It is a series with the second coming out in October around Halloween. TOMORROW COMPUTER VIRUSES ONLY KILL PEOPLE! When a computer virus decimates the earth’s population, four teenagers and a dog survive, searching for answers while trying to escape packs of humans wired to hunt and kill. These four teenagers must band together to find solutions that will hold the key to saving the world. Yet the most dangerous enemy of all… is betrayal. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, never seems to make noise on the world scale. That is, until now. Ulysses (Uly) is a teenager with dreams. Most of which range from earning straight A’s in school, making money, and marrying the girl of his dreams one day. None of these include saving the world, but Ulysses has learned to always keep his options open. But one day, all his dreams and hopes crash and burn when a worldwide apocalypse is transmitted through electronics such as cell phones, laptops, and TV screens, bringing the entire planet grinding to a halt. Even worse, Ulysses is now being hunted by ruthless humans called The Changed, programmed to hunt and kill survivors, controlled by a female scientist only known as Eve. Separated from his family, Ulysses teams up with his friends Xavier, Maxine, and Tyler, along with a dog named Finn McCool, determined to stop Eve’s plans and restore the world in… a Restart!

Syfy – My favorite science fiction writer I’ve written about early science fiction writers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. But my personal favorite writer of science fiction remains Robert A. Heinlein. In my pre-teen years I discovered his juvenile syfy stories mesmerized me for hours of reading. I read everything I could find, and was never disappointed. Early reads included “The Star Beast”, “Rocket Ship Galileo”, and “Have Spacesuit – Will Travel”. These were fun and low key adventures. My favorite from my earliest reading was probably the family adventure of “The Rolling Stones”. It was years later that I discovered that “Farmer in the Sky” started off as a serial for Boys Life, the scouting magazine. “Tunnel in the Sky” was a lot of fun, although I was a bit disappointed in the ending, probably because I was starting to think of girls and the protagonist doesn’t wind up with the girl in the book. It was also the first of his books that I recognized as drawing from the classic, “Lord of the Flies”. But to be fair, this storyline keeps getting remade in other forms every decade include this one. My favorite Heinlein book is “Citizen of the Galaxy”. It is quite episodic, but a grand story. Again, Heinlein draws from another classic, “Kim”. Thorby is a child sold into slavery with no clear memory of his past. His is purchased by a beggar, who turns out to be a spy investigating the slave trade. Thorby grows to the point of comfort, when his world is turned upside again, and he winds up in a culture dramatically different, the traders. Then he moves on to the military. Finally he is identified and returns to Earth for his most challenging adventures. A great story, I just relistened to it this Spring and it still holds my attention closely. It seems logical that Heinlein’s works would be great fodder for movie stories and they have been, but not very well. Starship Troopers has been the most successful, and it strays far from the imagery of the book. The Puppet Masters is a weak translation, but his vision had already been used in other more popular movies. Some of his sub-plot ideas have been well used, such as the tribbles in the Trouble with Tribbles in Star Trek. So which would I most like to see converted to a movie? For kids: The Rolling Stones with a healthy budget and Farmer in the Sky For all: Between Planets Citizen of the Galaxy Double Star Podkayne of Mars I wouldn’t be disappointed to see his other works converted, even stories like “The Door into Summer” Producers just need to discover and sell the project. But beware, some great stories have been destroyed by the writers, directors, and budgets for other past books such as John Carter.

Okay, I admit it, the only time I’ve seen a good brother/sister story in science fiction is Podcayne of Mars by Robert Heinlein. Ryder and his sister don’t always get along, but what is their true relationship. Many elements of the story are drawn from my own five children, including the tv controller incident in this excerpt. Ryder is certainly an introvert by nature. Debbie is the polar opposite. Friends who have read the book indicate they can clearly identify who Debbie is based on. As you read the book you may not believe anyone could really be like that, but she is more real than fictional. In the previous excerpt we saw how Debbie stands up for Ryder, but how about the other way around? Ryder was surprised how easily his parents had gone along with his going abroad for a year. They sounded almost as if they had been expecting the trip to Europe. Mom had gone so far as to say, “We knew it had to come up sooner or later.” They had been more hesitant about Debbie going along. “She’s too young,” Mother had said. “I’m not so much worried about her age as her sense of adventure,” Dad had stated. “She’s not afraid of anything, and I don’t think she has the judgment to avoid mischief. I just don’t think she’s ready for Europe and all that goes with it.” Ryder would never admit it to Debbie, but he had finally sold his parents on letting her come. She had been in tears when she ran to her bedroom. “I’ll take care of her,” Ryder volunteered. “I’ll make sure she stays out of trouble.” Ryder tossed and turned as he tried to get to sleep that night. The excitement of visiting a far-off land had him contemplating the things he might see, the places he might visit. He rose three different times to check out information about the Swiss Alps, the Prado, and finally the Black Forest. He could not seem to get his mind to shut down. Finally, he decided to get up and grab a snack from the refrigerator. As he reached the kitchen, he could overhear voices in the dining room. “Elise, we knew this day would come. We’ve been planning on it for what, six years now?” he heard his father console. “But it wasn’t for another year. William isn’t even sixteen yet.” His mother sounded on the edge of tears. “And Deborah? You know the troubles I had. She isn’t even close to old enough to go.” “Yes, I was surprised that Debbie was invited too. But it makes some sense. She’ll have William to keep an eye on her. I’d rather she went the same time he goes,” his dad replied. “It isn’t safe,” Mother stuttered. Ryder felt embarrassed. He never liked to be around when she, or anyone else for that matter, was crying. “Frankly,” Ryder’s dad interjected, “after what William experienced at that ridiculous excuse of a school, I think they will both be safer at Europe. Who knows, maybe they’ll bring us back some dewsnips?” Ryder heard his mother laugh halfheartedly as he slipped back down the stairs. He decided he would have to bring some dewsnips home. He spent the next hour trying to find the word online, but despite using every combination he could think of, he came up empty. The search did get his mind off the upcoming trip, and eventually he dozed off at his computer. Over the next few weeks Ryder frequently regretted talking his parents into letting Debbie come along. She seemed twice as irritating as normal, and her confidence seemed to be expanding beyond reality. “I’ll bet I can get the pilot to let me fly the plane,” she boasted. She would then go on to say she was going to be a pilot when she grew up. Later, she was going to join the Air Force. Then she was going to be the President of the United States. “After that I assume you’ll be an astronaut and become a multi-millionaire selling energy drinks,” Ryder responded sarcastically. The fire in Debbie’s eye warned him in time, and he ducked as the TV controller sailed past his head and broke against the far wall. “Dad’s going to kill you.” Ryder laughed as he fled to his room, locking the door behind him as Debbie’s body slammed into it.

For some reason (perhaps to get published) scientists are always hemming us in. We cannot go faster than the speed of light. There is no potable water outside of Earth. Civilization as such has only been around for 6,000 years. Those are just some of the more obvious hems. Recently investigators have revealed a manmade bridge inside a cave on the island of Mallorca. They are theorizing that this means that cognizant humans occupied the island hundreds if not thousands of years earlier than thought. Interesting guess. The under the sea discoveries of sunken cities and full civilizations we did not know existed expand beyond just theory. When did these civilizations actually exist? Were they earlier, or even the earliest civilizations or are they just earlier civilizations we now know existed. Buried under those cities are there cities even more ancient? Now we believe that life, as we know it, probably existed on Mars. That there was an atmosphere, that there were above ground water resources, and that there are massive amounts of water buried under the surface of the planet. What if a dying civilization on Mars Martian-formed Earth so that they could flee to that planet as their own planet died? What if, instead of evolving from single celled life on Earth, we are actually immigrants from Mars? It seems far fetched, but is it more far fetched than current scientific theory. And if so, is it reasonable to assume that scientific theory may evolve from one that believes traveling faster than the speed of light is not possible for mass? Another interesting “theory” about the universe is that it started with Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. Yet, now we are finding galaxies over 60 billion light years from Earth. Scientists create theories to explain that away, but simple math implies that regardless of direction there should not be anything further away than 2 times 13.8 billion or 27.6 billion light years. So which part of the math is wrong? Meanwhile, futurists such as Robert Heinlein, seem to have a better track record (not perfect) of forecasting the future than scientists. I think I’ll vote for the syfy authors who had great vision.

Chapter 1 of Demeter introduces us to three of the main characters and tells us a lot about their personality. At this point they are still in junior high school. Ryder has a crush on a girl, Cynthia Flores and although more of a nerd, he decides to attend the school dance. His younger sister Debbie, true to form, crashes the dance and is hanging out with Cynthia while Ryder is holding up the wall. Deciding to eave the dance he is confronted by his nemesis of sorts, a school bully. And then… “Well, if it isn’t Spider Ryder,” Barry Hales sneered from somewhere behind him. Ryder knew that responding was a waste of time, but he couldn’t help himself. He turned around. Barry wasn’t as tall as Ryder, but he had the build of a football player. Barry was a star player on the junior high team, and was already the talk of the high school coaches. Ryder wasn’t sure what position he played, but knew it had something to do with knocking people over and trying to hurt the quarterback in any way possible. “Wow, Barry, did you stay up all night thinking that up?” Ryder knew he shouldn’t bait Barry. “You’re gay!” Barry taunted, but started to turn away. Ryder was ready for this one. “If you mean happy, carefree, merry, bright…not really.” Barry turned back. Ryder knew he should have let Football Head move on to harass someone else. “Come on, show me what you got.” Barry’s knuckles were folding, not a good sign. “Let me see, you’re what, a blue belt in aikido?” Ryder asked. “Aiki what?” Barry was starting to boil. “You know, the Japanese self-defense art using principles of non-resistance to debilitate the strength of the opponent.” “No! I’m a black belt in karate,” stormed Barry “Ah, the art of the empty hand.” “Empty hand!” Barry exploded. “I’ll show you empty hand.” Ryder received a double jab from Mr. Karate. He fell back two steps, trying to get his breath back. “Impressive,” he said, choking. “You’re going down, punk. I’ll turn you into a punching bag.” Barry sent another punch at Ryder’s solar plexus. Ryder shifted enough to take the punch as a glancing blow, then dropped to the floor. “You win, I’m down. Congratulations.” Ryder hadn’t counted on the mocking laughter from the growing audience. This unexpected turn was bad news. Ryder noticed Barry’s pointed-toe cowboy boots as one came flying at his stomach. The connection knocked the wind out of him, and he could hear the laughter cut off. That was the last moment he was aware of the surroundings for the next several seconds. Repeated blows came to his face, back, and stomach, depending on how he turned to avoid further contact. He was starting to fade in and out when a chaperone (he thought) arrived and broke up the “fight.” The throbbing pain started to overcome him. “That didn’t turn out so well,” he mumbled as he threw up, then passed out. Ryder wasn’t sure how long he was out, but he was still on the floor in the same position, so it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. As shapes started to come into focus, he was wishing he was still unconscious. The throbbing pain was starting in. He’d felt pain like this before. When was it? Oh yes, when he fell out of that tree and cracked a rib. But in this case, he couldn’t make up his mind which hurt worse, his face or his back or his ribcage. Yup, that same cracked rib. Ryder wondered whether the rib was cracked or broken this time. Meanwhile, it felt like someone had gone over his face with a hammer. No, that was cowboy boots, wasn’t it? he thought. With his vision back into focus, he saw Mr. Small standing over him in an almost protective crouch and trying to check his pulse at the same time. There was some sort of altercation going on beyond his vision, and screaming, he thought. “Mr. Small, I’m alive,” Ryder croaked. He realized he must have been kicked in the throat as well. “We’re calling an ambulance. Lie still.” Mr. Small was using his reassuring voice. “I’m fine.” Ryder tried to get up, but the throbbing made it easy to relent to Mr. Small’s severe look. “Come on kids, the show’s over. Back away. We need some air here,” Mr. Small commanded. The crowd seemed to disperse quickly as there was something else going on just out of Ryder’s vision. Finally, he was able to make out something that made him wonder if he was delirious. Debbie seemed to be flying in circles and he caught glimpses of Cynthia swinging just below her. Suddenly, Debbie seemed to disappear, and there was a great deal of laughter. Ryder thought, I must really be fading. Maybe I’m dying. Then he heard another sharp voice. Was that Mrs. Peterson? “Get off him you two!” There was an abrupt screech. Ryder had never heard anything quite so terrifying in his life. It sounded like…well nothing Ryder could imagine. Then his senses came to him quickly. Barry was obviously beating up Debbie. The adrenalin kicked in, and Ryder rose to his feet, holding his side. What he saw made him start to chuckle. His ribs just couldn’t take it. Barry Hales’ voice could now be heard distinctly yelling, “Get them off me! Get them off me!” Mrs. Peterson seemed to be taking her time removing Cynthia and Debbie from Barry, who was now collapsed on the floor. Debbie had two handfuls of hair that had apparently belonged to Barry in her clenched fists. Ryder saw a glaring bald spot on one side of Barry’s head. Cynthia’s foot was retracting from one of those spots guys just don’t like to think about getting kicked. Ryder started to laugh, then spluttered, “Oh no,” and fell unconscious to the floor. In these few paragraphs you get

Aloha – Regularly I intend to add excerpts from the Orion’s Spur series that I especially like. What better way to start than to share the prologue to the first book: Ryder sat on the cold, rocky ground leaning against a boulder. He was holding a single shot Taser. The bleeding in his right leg was staunched by the rock shard that had ricocheted off the wall in the last round of fire and embedded in his flesh. “Who would have thought,” Ryder muttered to himself, then fell silent as he realized the noise might pinpoint him to the alien who wanted him dead. Who would have thought eight months ago that I would be sitting in a cave a hundred light years from Earth waiting for an alien to kill me? He almost laughed, but held it in. If he wasn’t careful, he might lose consciousness too soon. If I can just hold on a few minutes longer. UFOs, aliens, garden planets within rocky shells, galactic wars, all real and all little consequence if he did not survive the next few minutes. The clatter of loose rocks to his left drew his attention. It would be over soon. The first thing Ryder noticed as his assailant turned the corner were the boots, and for an instant his mind flashed back to a dance that seemed a hundred years ago.