ASFO 2023–03–18

Vive la France! Macron’s government does some good things, some questionable things, and some extremely stupid things. Will revulsion against the bad lead to a wiping out of the good? Can anyone explain why the French Left insists on imitating the German Energiewende, even after seeing just exactly what happens with it in practice? And what would I do, if I were in charge there? (Minor glitch at the beginning)

ASFO 2023–03–11

Toward a working definition of the “post–human”. Pithy attempts at summing up important concepts, as you expect from me. And commentary on world affairs ― if the German Energiewende is intended to make that country irrelevant in the world, the newest EU policy announcement is a bold step in that direction for the whole bloc. (Minor glitch at the beginning)

ASFO 2023–03–04

Theatre of the Atom! What is it? Even I am not sure yet. Also, Mail Call! And your periodic reminder that something is horribly wrong with the humanity of this planet, and I want off. (This is a short show, because I ran out of time to edit it ― I have a whole segment about the Oklo Phenomenon recorded for future use. And I didn’t even make a “March Forth” pun!)

“Science–Fiction : The Early Years”

This monumental work by Everett F Bleiler, the compilation of which occupied six years altogether and involved the reading of more than two thousand stories (when we consider the ones the author rejected for inclusion), many of them very difficult to get hold of before the arrival of the Internet and large-scale scanning of old books and periodicals ― and in many cases, that difficulty has not gone away ― attempts to list, categorize, and even summarize the material out of which the literature which we know as science–fiction developed.

Continue reading ““Science–Fiction : The Early Years””

ASFO 2023–02–25

Ice cream is the next frontier of “climate action” as marketing campaign. The delicious flavour of Pykrete! Also, is the Internet becoming a vast Voynich Manuscript? and a reflection on the problem of lying down with dogs and getting up with fleas. Note : owing to an error on my part, this show was done several hours late, during the 0300 Sunday OpenMic block on aNONradio. Thanks to SDFer screwtape for recording it.

“The Flying Scarab and the Seventh Heaven”

Here we have another story by Rene Mansfield from Popular Electricity magazine. This and “The Sun Victim”, which appeared in The Popular Magazine, are mentioned by Everett Bleiler in Science Fiction : The Early Years ― his comment on this one is “horrible writing”. Possibly I will be able to get my hands on that third story at some future date.

Illustrations below the cut