Tag: Human nature

  • Evoke

    Evoke

    From the Latin ex-: out of, and vocare: to call out evocare, to call out of, to call from… I’ve been watching the conversation about art these last several weeks with interest. This is hardly the first time the art world has been set on it’s ears. I suspect that the Egyptian art community’s response…

  • Past Reflects Future

    Past Reflects Future

    I always feel a little hesitant to offer any analysis of current events. For one thing, it seems that these days, everything is political, will I, nil I. For another, it’s outside my realm. I am not that erudite and intellectual as to think that my observations are weighty and worthy of proclaiming. Besides which,…

  • Relentlessly Cheerful

    Relentlessly Cheerful

    Never give up, never surrender. Never let the despair drag you into the falsehood of believing there’s no hope.  It’s a lie, for one thing. There is always hope, and joy, and humans are more resilient than we give them credit for. For another thing… We, speaking in the very broad human voice here, are…

  • Bibliophilia: Don Camillo

    Bibliophilia: Don Camillo

      I have to thank Peter Grant for allowing me free rein in his library for this. I think I mystified him when I was trying to explain what I’m trying to achieve with the Bibliophilia posts. However, in the process of trying to sum it up, I realized I’ve been saying the wrong thing…

  • Human Nature and the Progress of Lying

    Human Nature and the Progress of Lying

      I’ve been having a fascinating conversation this morning with friend and fellow writer Tom Knighton. It started out discussing the article on mouse utopias I’d used as a platform for my Mad Genius Club post today, and then it wandered as these things do into the human pysche and how it affects science. This…

  • Putting the Story in Science

    Putting the Story in Science

    One of the biggest challenges I face as a science fiction writer – and one of the biggest reasons I tend to write Space Opera rather than Hard SF – is staying ahead of the science. As a scientist, most of my work is very industrial. I’m not in research, nothing bleeding-edge is going on…

  • Decent Human Beings

    Decent Human Beings

    I’m digging into research for a post, which I will probably put up tomorrow, and as I am, I’m contemplating something. I’m researching the possible toxic effects of a home remedy, because people I know and love are interested in taking the remedy to help them. I’m not at all opposed to the placebo effect…

  • Retrogression

    Retrogression

    What do Environmentalists, JRR Tolkein, Luddites, and Progressives all have in common? The answer is both easy and complicated all at once. The core of it is fear, but the roots lie deeply embedded in the human psyche, all the way back to a time when something out of the ordinary in the environment surrounding…

  • Curmudgeon’s Corner: BFP War Party

    Curmudgeon’s Corner: BFP War Party

    This Blast from the Past was originally published in September 2012 at Classical Values. The War Party by Sanford Begley I’ve been listening to both sides since 9/11/01. There is a group who want to go to war with Islam, a group who want to ignore it and hope it goes away, and a group…

  • Review: Forge a New Blade

    Review: Forge a New Blade

    I picked up the first book that Peter Grant had written after meeting him at LibertyCon two years ago. It hardly seems that it has only been two years… in that time, I have been reading his books and watching him grow as an author, to my delight as a reader. It’s also been a…