Douglas Adams. "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. " Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans. He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity — distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless. The chances of finding out what's really going on in the universe are so remote, the only thing to do is hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied "A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. "I'd far rather be happy than right any day" "The Answer to the Great Question... Douglas Adams. Last Chance to See. Last Chance to See is a 1989 BBC radio documentary series and its accompanying book, written and presented by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine. In the series, Adams and Carwardine travel to various locations in the hope of encountering species on the brink of extinction.
The book was published in 1990. Radio[edit] The Observer project[clarification needed] was successful, and Adams and Carwardine developed a radio series around the same concept for BBC Radio 4. Carwardine later said "We put a big map of the world on a wall, Douglas stuck a pin in everywhere he fancied going, I stuck a pin in where all the endangered animals were, and we made a journey out of every place that had two pins The journeys undertaken were to see: Book[edit] In 1990, an accompanying book was published in the UK, describing the various adventures that duo had encountered on journeys, often with a comic tone.
CD ROM[edit] Television series[edit] References[edit] Further reading[edit] External links[edit] The Meaning of Liff. 1984 US edition 1990 US edition Content[edit] The book is a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet".[2] Rather than inventing new words, Adams and Lloyd picked a number of existing place-names and assigned interesting meanings to them;[3] meanings that can be regarded as on the verge of social existence and are ready to become recognisable entities.[4] All the words listed are toponyms and describe common feelings and objects for which there is no current English word.
Examples are Shoeburyness ("The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat that is still warm from somebody else's bottom") and Plymouth ("To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was they who told it to you in the first place"). The book cover usually bears the tagline "This book will change your life", either as part of its cover or as an adhesive label. Origin and publication[edit] The book was released in the UK in November 1983, in time for the Christmas market. Dirk Gently. Dirk Gently (born Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams and featured in the books Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. He is portrayed as a pudgy man who normally wears a heavy old light brown suit, red checked shirt with a green striped tie, long leather coat, red hat and thick metal-rimmed spectacles.
"Dirk Gently" is not the character's real name. It is noted early on in the first book that it is a pseudonym for "Svlad Cjelli". Dirk himself states that the name has a "Scottish dagger feel" to it. Holistic detective[edit] Dirk bills himself as a "holistic detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. Gently is psychic, though he refuses to believe in such things, insisting that he merely has a "depressingly accurate knack for making wild assumptions". Novels[edit] Adaptations and portrayals[edit]
Cookies by Douglas Adams. Don't Panic.
Isaac Asimov. I have read a lot about Isaac Asimov over the years often written by Isaac Asimov himself, but last night when I was browsing the web I came across a very interesting piece of information that I had never heard. It seems that Isaac Asimov had AIDS and it contributed to his death. According to what I read he had contracted aids from a blood transfusion during a heart bypass in 1983, largely due to the inability of the tests to find HIV and a general misunderstanding of AIDs which kept him from being diagnosed as early as he could have been.
He also kept his disease a secret on the advice of doctors who likely recognized that the fear of AIDS at that time would make everyone knowing he had it a bad idea. As everyone who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s I heard a lot about AIDs, and there were celebrities which had AIDS, but the truth is that they were people I had no connection to.
I don’t really care about sports. Three Laws of Robotics. This cover of I, Robot illustrates the story "Runaround", the first to list all Three Laws of Robotics. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.[1] The original laws have been altered and elaborated on by Asimov and other authors. Asimov himself made slight modifications to the first three in various books and short stories to further develop how robots would interact with humans and each other.
In later fiction where robots had taken responsibility for government of whole planets and human civilizations, Asimov also added a fourth, or zeroth law, to precede the others: 0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. History[edit] Asimov attributes the Three Laws to John W. Asimov. Asimov. Nightfall. By Isaac Asimov. Read by Stephen Eley. First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, September 1941.
“Of the six suns, only Beta is left in the sky. Do you see it?” The question was rather unnecessary. Beta was almost at zenith, its ruddy light flooding the landscape to an unusual orange as the brilliant rays of setting Gamma died. Beta was at aphelion. Lagash’s own sun, Alpha, the one about which it revolved, was at the antipodes, as were the two distant companion pairs. Aton’s upturned face flushed redly in the sunlight. Rated G. Philip K. Dick. There are few more science fiction authors with a more interesting personal story that Philip K. Dick and in part that is why the images of him are so interesting. As for the last image I have two questions. One dose the Philip K. Dick robot know its a robot and secondly is there something disturbing about choosing this author to make into an android.
Philip K. Dick - Science Fiction Author - Official Site. Philip K. Dick. Personal life[edit] The family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. When Philip turned five, his father was transferred to Reno, Nevada. When Dorothy refused to move, she and Joseph divorced. Both parents fought for custody of Philip, which was awarded to the mother. Dorothy, determined to raise Philip alone, took a job in Washington, D.C., and moved there with her son. From 1948 to 1952, Dick worked at Art Music Company, a record store on Telegraph Avenue. Dick was married five times: Jeanette Marlin (May to November 1948)Kleo Apostolides (June 14, 1950 to 1959)Anne Williams Rubinstein (April 1, 1959 to October 1965)Nancy Hackett (July 6, 1966 to 1972)Leslie (Tessa) Busby (April 18, 1973 to 1977) Dick had three children, Laura Archer (February 25, 1960), Isolde Freya (now Isa Dick Hackett) (March 15, 1967), and Christopher Kenneth (July 25, 1973).
Career[edit] Paranormal experiences and mental health issues[edit] Pen names[edit] Style and works[edit] Themes[edit] —Steven Owen Godersky. Philip K. Dick Award. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. First published in 1968, the book served as the primary basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner. The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, where Earth and its populations have been damaged greatly by nuclear war during World War Terminus. Most types of animals are endangered or extinct due to extreme radiation poisoning from the war. To own an animal is a sign of status, but what is emphasized more is the empathic emotions humans experience towards an animal. Setting[edit] Overview[edit] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The remaining populace live in cluttered, decaying cities in which radiation poisoning sickens them and damages their genes.
Androids[edit] Earlier androids were easier to detect because of their limited intelligence. Plot[edit] The entire Northern California area is the territory of the district's senior bounty hunter Dave Holden. Adaptations[edit] Film[edit] Blade Runner (1982. BladeZone: The Online Blade Runner Fan Club and Museum. Blade Runner. All Critics (96) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (9) | DVD (30) This is perhaps the only science-fiction film that can be called transcendental. As a display terminal for the wizardry of Designers Lawrence G. Paull, Douglas Trumbull and Syd Mead, the movie delivers. This definitive print should be the last little push that "Blade Runner" needs to complete its 25-year journey from box office failure to cult favorite to full-blown classic.
The film still represents the cutting edge of dark science fiction. Blade Runner: The Final Cut plays better now than ever. Open the champagne: Blade Runner is finally just the way Ridley Scott wanted it. They all plod along while sometimes dazzling, sometimes boring special effects whiz by and Ford's climactic confrontation with Hauer approaches.
A motion picture masterpiece on the short list of Reasons Why This Medium is Worthwhile. [VIDEO] Blade Runner is one of the most enigmatic yet problematic science fiction films ever made. January 4, 2008. Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury bibliography. The Illustrated Man. The Illustrated Man is a 1951 book of eighteen science fiction short stories by Ray Bradbury that explores the nature of mankind. A recurring theme throughout the eighteen stories is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the psychology of people. It was nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952.[1] A number of the stories, including "The Veldt", "The Fox and the Forest" (as "To the Future"), "Marionettes, Inc. Story summaries[edit] A mother and father in a futuristic society begin to worry about their children's mental health when the three-dimensional nursery they bought for them begins projecting a veldt in Africa populated by hungry lions feasting on a set of carcasses.
"Kaleidoscope" A group of astronauts are sent floating helplessly through space after a malfunction in their ship. "The Other Foot" Mars has been colonized solely by black people. "The Highway" "The Man" "The Long Rain" "The Rocket Man" "The Fire Balloons" "The Last Night of the World" "The Exiles" The Martian Chronicles. Structure[edit] Like Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, The Martian Chronicles follows a "future history" structure. The stories, complete in themselves, come together as episodes in a larger sequential narrative framework. The overall structure is in three parts, punctuated by two catastrophes: the near-extinction of the Martians and the parallel near-extinction of the human race. The first third (set in the period from January 1999—April 2000) details the attempts of the Earthmen to reach Mars, and the various ways in which the Martians keep them from returning.
Publication history[edit] The book was published in the United Kingdom under the title The Silver Locusts (1951), with slightly different contents. The book was published in 1963 as part of the Time Reading Program with an introduction by Fred Hoyle. In 1979, Bantam Books published a trade paperback edition with illustrations by Ian Miller.
Influences[edit] Contents[edit] Rocket Summer (January 1999/2030)[edit] Ray Bradbury - Biography. By Chris Jepsen & Richard Johnston Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920. He was the third son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg Bradbury. They gave him the middle name "Douglas," after the actor, Douglas Fairbanks. He never lived up to his namesake's reputation for swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Instead, Bradbury's great adventures would take place behind a typewriter, in the realm of imagination. Today, as an author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, lecturer, poet and visionary, Ray Bradbury is known as one of America's greatest creative geniuses.
Bradbury's early childhood in Waukegan was characterized by his loving extended family. In Bradbury's works of fiction, 1920s Waukegan becomes "Greentown," Illinois. Between 1926 and 1933, the Bradbury family moved back and forth between Waukegan and Tucson, Arizona. In 1934, the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles, California. Bradbury attended Los Angeles High School.
Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451. Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. Le titre fait référence au point d'auto-inflammation, en degrés Fahrenheit, du papier. Cette température équivaut à un peu moins de 233 °C. Résumé[modifier | modifier le code] Première partie : Le foyer et la salamandre[modifier | modifier le code] Dans la nuit, le pompier Guy Montag marche sur la route pour rentrer chez lui.
Il rencontre une jeune fille de 17 ans, Clarisse, qui habite dans une maison voisine de la sienne avec son père et son oncle. Celle-ci est différente des gens qu'il côtoie habituellement : elle observe son environnement, elle réfléchit. Arrivé chez lui, il trouve sa femme Mildred étendue sur le lit sans connaissance et à ses pieds gît un petit flacon de cristal vide : elle vient d'absorber son contenu, une trentaine de comprimés d'un somnifère. Le lendemain, elle ne se souvient plus de rien. Montag croise régulièrement Clarisse dans la rue.
Depuis quatre jours, Montag ne voit plus Clarisse. Montag se rend à la caserne. Site Officiel. Robert A. Heinlein. Robert A. Heinlein. Double Star Robert Heinlein. Farmer in the Sky (1951. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1960. Stranger in a Strange Land (19. Robert A. Heinlein, Dean of Science Fiction Writers.
Robert A. Heinlein. Larry Niven. Nevinyrral - MTG Salvation Wiki. Larry Niven. Ringworld. The Mote in God's Eye. Larry Niven. Larry Niven (Goodreads)