Xmas Salutations

A tumultuous year, with lots of things happening, both good and bad.  So it will be interesting to look back at things in a year's time and see what has happened.  Until then, enjoy the holiday.

BigDog

BigDog is a quadruped robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics in conjunction with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station.

One day, after watching You Tube videos of BigDog in action, a phrase popped into my head, “It’s all Big Dog’s fault that I died yesterday under a mountain in Afghanistan.”  At that point I was in the middle of writing another novel called The Bureau, my H P Lovecraft meets The Professionals as a Cthulhu Mythos story mash-up.  However, the phrase stuck in my head, and the only way to get it out was to sit down and write the story.

It's set about 60 years in the future, and tells what happens when Sergeant Lara Atsuko Tachikoma, of Second Platoon, Bravo Squad, of the Confederated States Marine Corps 1st Combat Armored Suit Reconnaissance Company are sent on a Search & Rescue mission.

My blurb for the back of the book:

For Sergeant Tachikoma aboard CSN Hornet it was just another day in the Corps.

Then an order came down the chain-of-command proving the truth of the old adage that the only easy day is yesterday. Now the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Company is preparing to fly into Afghanistan and rescue an Alpha Detachment of Special Forces Snake-Eater that had crashed their Aries sub-orbital space-plane during a Top Secret mission.

After dying in a nuclear explosion, she wakes up the next morning to find herself going crazy reliving the same day all over again. She decides it's better to get even with those who blew her and the rest of the Company up. Her plan is simple; stop the bomb going off, and get on with the rest of her life.

How hard can it be?

Let me know if you think the blurb is lame.  I'm to close to the story to be able to tell.

New Scientist Articles

I found a couple of New Scientist articles that are I think quite interesting, though I will add the caveat that this is the scientific equivalent of the tabloids or broadsheets i.e.: newspaper journalism reporting.

The first is on bigotry called, Super-you: Use your better instincts to crush your inner bigot.

This article spoke to my core professional interests, and I recommend it as a starter to understanding human behaviour.

The second article is on superstition and is called, Super-you: You have a superstitious mind – to protect you.

Yes, but no was my reaction to reading this. Yes true for 95% of the human race, but not true for about 5% of the human race.