Carl Sagan Owes Percival Lowell An Apology

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I saw Carl Sagan's Cosmos in the seventh grade thanks to my science teacher. She had VHS copies (bootlegs) that we watched. I really liked them for the most part. The Mars episode really stuck with me in part because Sagan talked about Edgar Rice Burroughs and Barsoom and it was all backed by Holst's Mars: The Bringer of War.
It moved me.
Then he talked about what Percival Lowell thought he saw, the canals on Mars and such, the receding of seasons and movements of a dying race - and what a load it was and how deluded Lowell had been to think he saw such things.

And then last Thursday NASA up and says looking at these pics it seems that maybe Mars has flowing briny water on the surface. They did also say that the water would have to be briny to be flowing in the Martian cold.

With all of that in mind, I think Sagan gave Lowell a bum rap and he ought to be giving him a posthumous apology, at least now that he can do it in spirit.

Still overall it doesn't really look like they found anything after all, they won't go looking closer for fear of contamination but then isn't the Rover's very presence equal contamination. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against checking things out but lets be realistic, we already have alien robots on the planet go take a closer look!

I read some articles saying how this was all grandstanding in a way to help promote the new The Martian movie and I'm just cynical enough to wonder if that isn't the case. Personally I'd rather they just do another John Carter of Mars.

And while I don't personally put any stock in the Martian face, pyramids etc I do heartily think they should be looking closer at a lot of things!

I am a traveler of both time and space,

It always amazes me how as-if performing self-hypnotism, a favorite song can reprogram you out of any number of doldrums. Good music inspires you to get to work, it is a catalyst and a magnifier that fires the brain to create and explore the hidden worlds lurking deep in the recess's of the brain-to bring them out and tell the tale.



It doesn't hurt either that an anticipated film is using one of my all time favorite songs as a theme for the trailer.

J. Edgar

J. Edgar directed by Clint Eastwood

I've seen three movies in the last two weeks (for work ironically) and this is the only one I feel like admitting to. I don't normally care for Leonardo DiCaprio but I do like historicals and Clint Eastwoods films. A bit slow and ponderous, the film still carried itself with interesting insight into an enigmatic almost mythic character of American 20th-century history. Though a historical film I found it to be rather timely, it's hard not to look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters and the other bad news bears and not see the similarities between the early days of Hoover's dealing with communist insurgents and our own uncertainty today. It's like I always say people don't change that much.

Still this wasn't something I think I need to ever sit down and watch again and there wasn't as much sheer entertainment as there is in some other bio pics such as JFK, Hoffa, or even Nixon, but it is worth viewing at least once. It did grant some humanity to an otherwise atypically vilified (perhaps not unjustly) character and I couldn't help but chuckle at some of the hinted secret files. I also had to wonder if Eastwood made a few of his own digs in the movie.

I usually avoid traffic cops like the plague but I have to respect how much Hoover actually brought to the FBI, the innovations in forensic science, national fingerprinting, the man was a visionary in his field. Also Stephen Root was especially enjoyable as one of the first forensic scientists that Hoover utilized. The rumored aspects of Hoover's secret life were also dealt with in a believable and reasonable manner. The costumes were great but the makeup was atrocious, I thought DiCaprio as an old man looked more like Gordon B. Hinckley than J. Edgar Hoover.



You tell me.



Book Review: Wings Over Talera

Wings Over Talera, by Charles Gramlich

I was introduced to Barsoom and the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs through Carl Sagan and NOVA. Holst's epic Mars, The God of War blared behind Frank Frazetta's gripping images of John Cater and Dejah Thoris battling alien monsters-it was fantastic, the only thing wrong with any of it was Sagan and his monotonous condescending tone of how there was no such thing ERB's vision of Mars, his science was ridiculous and Percival Lowell could not have seen any canals on the face of the red planet.

This from the guy who is asking me to accompany him on his spaceship of the imagination, no thanks, I'm gonna stick with the Sword & Planet stories, that's what I want to hear more about-which brings me to Charles and his Talera series.

Ruenn Maclang, a 19th century Earthman is mysteriously transported to a strange new world, he escapes slavery at that hands of a reptilian race and finds new love-that's book one that I reviewed last year. This is book two in the series and deals with Ruenn searching for his lost brother and a strange new threat to the peace that he and his own Taleran princess are about to enjoy. Treachery and twists send Ruenn reeling from fire to frying pan.

Molded akin to the best of my favorite pulp novels like ERB and Robert E. Howard, Gramlich's Talera books are not to be missed. His writing descriptions and action are par excellence, the kind of 'I wish I wrote that'. The creatures that inhabit the strange artificial world of Talera evoke both a mythic and Darwin gone wrong ethos, granting a familiar and exotic locale for our narrating hero. I highly recomend that if anyone has an inkling that they will enjoy the upcoming John Carter movie, they check out Charles work as well.

And without spoiling anything, the last line in Wings Over Talera is a killer for the setup of book 3: Witch of Talera.

Grab Charles books here