Arabic Star Names and Science Fiction

I’ve known for quite some time that major star names used in science are Arabic in origin, a testimony to the work of Muslim astronomers between the 9th and the 12th centuries, but I’ve never found an extensive list of current star names and their Arabic origin until I stumbled across the Jordanian Astronomical Society’s website with its great Arabic Star Names page. Since I read and watch a lot of science fiction, I found it interesting that some of the names have appeared in contemporary SF. Not the well-known ones like Betelgeuse or Vega or Rigel, I’m talking about the not so well known star names. Referring the the JAS list in the link above: #133 Rukbat is the star which Anne McCaffrey’s Pern revolves around. It’s known as Alpha Sagittarii, so she did her homework by referring it to be in the “Sagittarius sector” although in the wiki […]

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Navcomputer.com is ROTS Complete

As far as positions of movie planets are concerned, the incredibly detailed galaxy map of the Star Wars universe is complete. Webmaster Eric Przybylski has also done a great job placing the planets of the EU in the massive map he made, with inserts of the Corellian Sector and the Si’klaata Cluster, among others. Also included are several smaller maps of sectors such as Kuat, Kathol, Brak and Elrood. Check out Navcomputer.com if you want to know how far it is from Hoth to Bespin (the Millennium Falcon‘s flight in The Empire Strikes Back), and where Polis Massa (where Luke and Leia were born) is located in relation to the volcanic world of Mustafar (where Vader was immolated); or if you’re hardcore what route did Quinlan Vos take to relocate his clone army from Saleucami to Boz Pity (as mentioned in passing in Revenge of the Sith); or if you’re […]

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The Unspeakable Cat

Hastur (the Unspeakable One from the depths of the Cthulhu-mythos pantheon of ancient and powerful gods bent on the destruction of the world and mass insanity of its inhabitants) has not only manifested itself as a cat… it has also started blogging. Here’s an excerpt: [[image:hastur.jpg:The Unspeakable Cat:left:0]] In addition to my slaves and Merlin, there is also a young child living here. I don’t care what his name is. I know that the only reason my slaves continue to care for him is so that they may offer him to me as a humble sacrifice. I await the day of this offering with much relish, for the boy appears quite tender. Does he not? A final observation of note is that Hastur seems to be looking much more agreeable and pleasant to the eye than it was when it was an all destroying amorphous blob of flesh. Click here […]

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Some Neil, Some Saddy

Briefly here are several things on the net that made me go “Wow! Cool!” in the last 48 hours or so. Well, the first is pretty cool. The second made me laugh out loud so hard, my nostril hairs complained. But then, many people have complained about my strange sense of humour. The Neil Part Gaiman is his surname. The news isn’t that the follow up to his novel American Gods, Anansi Boys, is out. It’s that the nice people at Harper Audio has allowed Neil to post the first track of the audiobook of Anansi Boys (read by Lenny Henry) on his site. It’s a 16mb mp3 file, if anyone’s interested. Mr. Nancy’s back, yo. The Saddy Part Dumpington is his surname, and he’s the, uh… folk hero created by everyone’s favourite depressed character, Strong Sad. [[image:dumpington.jpg:Isn’t that great?:center:0]] It’s a tragic lttle tale, but tragedy seems to wrack […]

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Superman: A Dick and Loving It

When you think of Superman, the first thing that comes to you mind is a virtuous, heroic, superbeing who strives to save innocent lives from disaster, and defeat the devious plots of super villians and invading aliens. But Superdickery.com has a collection of images from early Superman comics (some not so early) of Superman being a dick. Not just an annoying dick, but a real self-centered and dangerous asshole, even to his closest friends. And not once or twice, but repeatedly. For instance, can you imagine Lois Lane actually finally marrying him in the 90s after putting her through things like this dozens of times? [[image:superdickery1.jpg:Superdickery1:center:0]] There must be an easier way of not wanting to get married. Which, of course, would lead Lois to fabricate mind-bogglingly bizzare schemes in order to get Superman to notice her as shown thusly: [[image:superdickery2.jpg:Superdickery2:center:0]] For God’s sake… deal with the devil??!? Haven’t she […]

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Hishgraphics H

Illustration Friday

Last week Lilian brought my attention to Illustration Friday. It’s a website that posts an idea for an artwork every week, and links the artwork you made in that particular week. Sounds like a great exercise for me and the Wacom. According to the Welcome page: Illustration Friday is meant to challenge participants creatively. We believe that every person has a little creative bone in their body. Illustration Friday just gives a no-pressure, fun excuse to use it. No clients looking for a particular thing. No one judging the outcome of the work. It’s a chance to experiment and explore and play with visual art. Curious about collage? Try it here. Never even picked up a colored pencil? Why not now? Just have time for a doodle? That’s okay, we’d love to see it. You don’t have to be an illustrator or an artist to participate. Just pick up a […]

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Stephan Martiniere Concept Art Gallery

In addition to Ryan Church in my post before this, I’ve also noticed that Stephan Martiniere, the illustrator that was employed on a freelance basis by Lucasfilm for Revenge of the Sith, has also started to display his production paintings from the movie. Apart from that, you can also see samples from other movies he worked on, such as I, Robot, The Astronaut’s Wife and Red Planet. [[image:mart1.gif:Mygeeto:left:0]][[image:mart2.gif:Mygeeto:left:0]]

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Ryan Church’s ROTS Concept Art Gallery

Looks like Ryan Church’s official site has updated with new Revenge of the Sith concept artwork in his pro gallery. As with his Attack of the Clones pieces lower down in the same page, his stuff here are spectacular displays of digital painting. I miss Ralph McQuarrie‘s and Joe Johnston‘s (among others) concept art from the original trilogy as much as the next fan, but I think Ryan’s work make up for the former masters’ absence in the prequel trilogy. Click on his pro gallery link above to see some of his work on the movie. [[image:rc1.gif:Utapau:left:0]][[image:rc2.gif:Mygeeto:left:0]]

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Valley Orchid

Valley Orchid

It’s not much to look at, but there’s something that barely looks like an orchid in the picture below. No, I don’t know which species it is, only that it’s yellow. And yes, there’s a water-filled valley beneath it. This is my second piece using Painter Classic, scratched out with dry media mostly. Using the program is more difficult than I thought. Oh, by the way, check out this amazing colour-based optical illusion. It’s quite amazing, especially the third one.

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Baen Free Library

There are many reasons why I love the intarweb. One of them is free cool stuff you can get from various sites, and legal too. Baen Books is a publisher of science fiction books, and it has now jumped onto the freebie net goodies bandwagon by unleashing upon its readers the Baen Free Library. Check out the free science fiction stories written by professional authors. You can read in several formats which is kind of cool. Cause if say, HTML format gives you an allergic reaction, you can always switch to RTF. I’m just gonna pick out which story to read. I’ll go get my dice now.

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