To infinity and beyond

To those who have an interest in space and NASA You might be aware that NASA have been designing and will be testing the new Ares rocket system on the 31st of October. I'm sure everyone the world over wishes the Ares testing to be successful, although I'm sure some people will probably be hoping for a nice fireworks display fortunately no human life would be lost in such an event. October 31st is the first real world testing of their new rockets.



Anyway, I got to thinking after I saw the pictures of the Ares. It looks pretty standard, the actually aesthetics are pretty usual. It looks like a rocket. Now, I think, If we are putting things up into space, we gotta' represent! Earth is represented by the things we are sticking out into orbit and beyond. If an alien species observes us they are going to judge us first by our adventures into space. So instead of the generic rocket design why don't we create some aesthetically awesome rocket and shuttle designs. Such as Barad-dûr rocket and a scorpion style shuttle.

Such designs would clearly send a message to aliens not to fuck with earth. It is the best anti invasion counter measures I can think of and please if you can think of any better, tell me. It could have the opposite effects though and be seen as a galactic challenge of interstellar power...

I was holding off publishing this until I could photoshop a picture of a Barad-dûr rocket with awesome scorpion on the back but unfortunately I have had the misfortune of my laptop failing on me so I'm adobe photoshopless for the time being.

Mystery coin update

A few weeks or months ago I did a piece on a Bulgarian coin I have. Thanks to the Reddit community it's been identified as:

"This is a commemorative coin to mark The International Congress of Marscheiders that took place in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1988. Judging by the material it is made of - it is probably a 1 kopeyka denomination (1 cent)

Alexander Baklanov ( БАКЛАНОВ ) is a coin mint master in the late 1980s, 1990's."

Many thanks to the Reddit community and most notably Dubon for the help.

Sam

Obama's lies

This is gonna be a short one, I just want to voice my opinion on the Obama situation. Most notably peoples comments on his change of heart regards certain key campaign areas, e.g. closing Guantanamo.

During Obama's campaign he was only open the public level information and whatever else he can get his hands on.

When Obama entered office he became privy to higher level information regarding the country. It shows strong character to go back on his word. He used his head, read and listened to the information and then made his mind up.

Clearly Guantanamo does a good job and is essential, otherwise, Obama would have shut it down. Have some faith in your leader America.

I'm sure if the US government showed some transparency in certain areas it would make the American people a lot happier. Instead we have people with no understanding of what's going on apart from a few scraps of media twisted 'news' forming strong ideas and notions of how corrupt and evil their government is.

America - it's in the interest of national security to tell the people more. Don't keep them in the dark relying on Fox news.

Sam

My next review

Seeing as I have started doing a couple of book reviews I think I shall cary on the trend.

As I'm a lazy bastard, the order in which I will be reading books is in a rather unprofessional manner of, the smallest books first.

New reviews coming friends.

Also, an article about visiting Amsterdam will be posted at some point next week.

Take it easy, enjoy the summer.

Sam

The Book With No Name.

Due to an upcoming trip that would no doubt be mind numbingly boring i browsed my shelf for a book I had yet read. I decided on The Book With No Name, I'm not sure why; probably something to do with the rather cool name and nice cover artwork - two very important features for me.

Set in Santa Mondega, a city that the rest of the modern world would rather forget, shit is going down. The only interesting and unique feature that Santa Mondega has to separate it apart from the other dead end cities is it's peculiar lunar cycle. Santa Mondega has a full solar eclipse every 5 years.

A mythical stone: The Eye of the Moon, has been stolen by a vicious bounty hunter from the monks that guard it and has arrived in Santa Mondega. Two monks have set out to return it, five years ago the same happened - the two monks then never returned.

As the thugs, lowlifes, bounty hunters and gangsters fight for the valuable stone, the Bourbon Kid is back.

I loved this book, The many characters and plots merged together seamlessly: Two defectives trying to get to the bottom of what's going on, foreign monks trying to get the stone back to the safety of their island, the bounty hunter who has promised the gang boss of Santa Mondega the stone and has his life at stake as a result are just a few of the characters who have been thrown together in the pestle and mortar that is Santa Mondega.

Riddled with violence like bullet holes in the tapioca bar. The Book With No Name leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next - I ended up going to sleep post 2AM, three nights in a row due to this book.

A very, VERY, enjoyable read. Brilliant from the start through to the end, the only problem was I couldn't read fast enough! upon recollection I think this book would translate to film very well, it's not a very big book.

If you are looking for a modern fantasy, with a crime and investigation twist and lots of violence then you can't go wrong with The Book With No Name.

Definitely worth a read.

5/5


Here's a referral link to Amazon if you are interested:

The Steel Remains

This book was one of my Borders impulse buys and I have to say, I wasn't disappointed.

Richard Morgan has built himself a bit of a name as a sci-fi writer and this was his first go at a traditional fantasy novel. Unfortunately the Sci-fi fans in general seem a bit disappointed that it's a traditional fantasy rather than a space romp but alas, it is a pretty good first fantasy novel, in what hopefully is a trilogy at the least.

I wasn't disappointed but I had better clarify; I wasn't disappointed at the end. I did feel however that the start was rather weak, fortunately it got progressively stronger towards the finish ending on a very strong note that just left me wanting more.

Morgan has a nice writing style, he's not afraid to be blunt, say things as they are and be as crude as possible and I like that. What I didn't like however was Morgans lack of detail in certain areas. I assume this is to build a sense of mystery and lure readers in, I however got frustrated with it very quickly and just felt cheated.

For example:

1) The main character Ringil will have a 'flashback' of sorts, he will be half way through visualising what happened and then the train of thought and story is just dropped.

2) Throughout the whole story we are told he is the hero of Gallowsgap. I would have liked some information on what Ringil did, little scraps are given here and there but there were plenty of opportunities for the story to be told in full.

The Steel Remains was a very enjoyable book, definitely worth a read if you can battle past the rather boring start you are in for a treat.

Note to readers: This book has a strong theme of violence, coarse language and scenes of a sexual nature.

3/5

Mystery coin.

I bought this coin in Bulgaria from a street merchant. I know nothing about it but it caught my eye.

If any Russians can translate and maybe give me some information on this coin it would be brilliant.

It's pretty big 6CM (2.4 inch) 0.5 cm thick and made of bronze.

Markings, on the sea front right side there is a number 87. (I assume that is the year it was made) and the makers mark which is an oval with what looks like the world Liml (or siml)

On the left hand side there is a long word: БAK^AHOB A (the ^ is an upside down V, ^ is all i could represent it with)

Thanks for any help.


EDIT: Here is a better picture of the text, I thought they could be viewed full size.



P.S. Sorry about the white crap at the bottom.

Dear Atheists

The Atheist community, i find, is an annoying one. Pretentious, almost like an elite club of enlightened individuals who are above the petty beliefs stemming from thousands of years of human culture.

Now that i have covered my little introduction and 90% of the atheists have navigated away i will talk a little about my own point of view so you can get a better understanding of my reasoning and logic.

I am Agnostic but let me evaluate, I do not believe in a personal god. I say that with 99% certainty. There is no 'god' being/force watching over us individually and guiding us - the very notion is ridiculous but as the logical human I am, i would also like to state that if there were a god i would be unable to contemplate it's complexity. The god being/force could watch over us all individually or at least time share like a CPU.

But is there a god? That is an entirely different question. The idea of a god as a creator is an entirely plausible one, just look at human research right now. In the next few years Synthetic life will be created by humans. To those synthetic organisms we are their god. Their biology is created by us and will be developed for tasks. Will we know what they think? No we wont - The humans who create the synthetic life will be a creator god but not a personal god. Will they know what we think or have a fraction of the understanding that we have? No.

the problem facing synthetic life is the potential damage it will do to our planet - the results of an artificial life form being introduced are impossible to imagine. What would be the the solution? a closed off environment is the only solution.

Now lets upscale this to an advanced species - our planet is a controlled environment in that no life forms leave it (apart from humans)

Could we be synthetic organisms created by an advanced species? if we are, then our creator is our god.

This is just an idea to illustrate my point, the term god is a vague one. I don't believe in any of the worlds religions gods because it's a human creation from thousands of years ago and they are illogical personal gods.

Could we have been created by a god? Anyone that says no with 100% certainty is simply ignorant which is why i dislike Atheists. If you want to proliferate the type of ignorance you are supposed to be 'fighting' by thinking that, then you are just fucking yourself.

The fact is we know nothing about our existence, what came before us, what lies ahead of us.

The best we have are theories and history cant tell us that allot of theories don't pan out. We act like we are an advanced species but all we have to compare with is other animals on our planet. Before i navigate away from the subject of how superior we believe our self to be remember that if an alien where to fly by earth in his little saucer scanning earth for radio waves 150 years ago he would fine nothing - zero existence of intelligent life.

Now I'm going to jump back to how superior we are to other life on our planet. How many animals have wars, torture, murder, prison, religion and execution? None, humans are the only species on earth that are so destructive.

Humans suck, I've said it before and I will say it again.

To summarize this sloppy message. I honestly think Agnostic is the only stand point a human can have at this stage in our existence. The creation of us and our universe is a topic that is very hard for us to understand from our minuscule view point. We can make predictions and do our calculations and come to the conclusion that the universe is expanding in a uniform pattern and as a result their must have been a big bang... blah blah blah.

Is that the truth or what actually happened - Nothing, a singularity and then everything. Sure that might be it, or it might not be. We could just be trying to apply our laws to a lawless individual. We can think and say what we want but at the end of the day it means nothing.

If you are atheist in the sense that you do not believe in a christian or other world religion's god then, i believe you are right as those religions all believe in personal gods (the bearded white man watching/judging us)

This was suppose to be a short one.

Have a nice day

Sam