Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Monday, March 31, 2025
Sunday, March 30, 2025
President Trump’s campaign to excise Diversity Equity and Inclusion from the federal government has had some controversial effects on NASA messaging. According to Ars Technica, language referring to the “first woman and the first person of color” to walk on the moon has been removed from the Artemis program website.
In 1944, with the world convulsed with war, the Contessa Gabriella Doria haunts the piazzas and canals of Venice. Few people know that she is not only an agent for Britain’s MI6 but that she is also a 450 year old vampire. But one SS officer, Kurt Hesselman, knows and has vowed to destroy her, using the occult powers he was born with. Their battle will rage from Gabriella’s beloved Venice to occupied France, and hence to Great Britain on the eve of the largest sea borne invasion in history. The outcome of the war and the fate of the world will hang in the balance. Now also in audiobook.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Friday, March 28, 2025
Now also in audiobook
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
The Last Moonwalker – In the near future, as human explorers prepare to take the first voyage to the Moon in decades, Charles Gerald, the last Apollo Moonwalker, lends his advice to the crew of the expedition as he wrestles with his own legacy.
The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper - Colin Fraser was the first man to walk on Mars as commander of the Ares. But little did he know that his greatest adventure would take place after he returned to Earth from the Red Planet. With further voyages of interplanetary exploration curtailed due to budget cuts, Fraser joined a private company that proposed to capture an asteroid and mine it for its almost limitless wealth. The only catch was that he would have to commit the first act of space piracy in history by stealing his old ship and using it to divert the asteroid named Daedalus.
Monday, March 24, 2025
Sunday, March 23, 2025
The strangest space odyssey has finally come to an end. Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have come home. Their planned eight-day mission to the International Space Station became a nine-month sojourn on board the orbiting laboratory.
Saturday, March 22, 2025
The signatories primarily served as astronauts on shuttle and space station missions, although one, Rusty Schweickart, flew on Apollo 9 in 1969. Other notable signatories include Bob Cabana, who after his astronaut career was director of the Kennedy Space Center and NASA associate administrator; Bill Readdy, who became associate administrator for space operations; and John Grunsfeld, a veteran of several Hubble repair missions who later served as associate administrator for science and, during the 2024 election, backed a group called “Space Cadets 4 Harris” that supported Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Monday, March 17, 2025
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Recently, two events — the second attempt by Intuitive Machines to land on the moon and the eighth test of the SpaceX Starship — proved an old adage: Rocket science is really hard.
Both of these examples took place on the same day, March 6.
Brought across to undeath in the 15th Century, the Contessa Gabriella Doria has walked the night, feeding on the blood of the living. However, on occasion, she had faced foes far more formidable and certainly more evil than a vampire.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
From Book 1: July, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 has triumphantly returned to Earth. In this alternate history thriller, President Richard Nixon puts into a motion a scheme to ramp up the space race to pressure the Soviets into making diplomatic and military concessions. Thus begins a story of high adventure on the final frontier and of low intrigue in the corridors of power back on Earth. It will prove to be the fulfillment of a dream for Wendy Pendleton to be the first woman to walk on the moon. It will be a nightmare for Cal Lauren, a political operative determined to stop the space race at all costs to fund the social programs he holds dear.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Thursday, March 13, 2025
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Monday, March 10, 2025
Sunday, March 09, 2025
The next phase of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services moon exploration program began on Jan. 15, with the launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost. It continued with the launch of the Intuitive Machines Athena lander on Feb. 26. Since the Blue Ghost also had the iSpace Resilience lander as a rideshare, at one point three spacecraft were headed for the lunar surface.
Saturday, March 08, 2025
Friday, March 07, 2025
Thursday, March 06, 2025
Wednesday, March 05, 2025
Tuesday, March 04, 2025
Monday, March 03, 2025
Sunday, March 02, 2025
Musk has expressed his desire to redirect NASA to a neck-or-nothing lunge toward Mars, leaving all other priorities, including a return to the moon, on the back burner. This desire seems to have had an effect on Trump, who mentioned Mars but left out the moon in his inaugural address.