loxia-contorta asked:

Hi so I read "Spock's World" a while ago and really liked it and I was very surprised to find your blog. Also because of that book(unless it was in canon previously) Vulcan's star is my middle name so that is very cool. Thank you for your wonderful writing!

dduane answered:

Thank you! You’re very welcome. :) That book was a ton of fun to write, despite the trouble it caused me. (I had a disk crash when I was 80% done and coming up against deadline, and had to recreate about 60K of words out of seven days’ time and an access of sheer adrenaline while typing in a straight-back chair.)

As for my blog: everybody’s surprised to find it. I have never once run into anyone who’s said, “Yeah, of course you’d be on Tumblr, after all they’re largely skewed to the age of people you’re best known for writing for.”  :) (Not that that was the reason why I started here, mind you. But certainly it’s a fact.)

Anyway, thanks! :)

[dduane]

Yeah, this happened to me all the time on nights. :/

From Pulp Librarian on Twitter.

Problems you can encounter in pulp #nursing: - ethical dilemmas - petty rivalry - folk music - pirates

Remembering Gene Cernan

[spaceexp]

NASA logo.

Jan. 16, 2017

Euguene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died Monday, Jan. 16, surrounded by his family.

Astronaut Eugene Cernan

Cernan, a Captain in the U.S. Navy, left his mark on the history of exploration by flying three times in space, twice to the moon. He also holds the distinction of being the second American to walk in space and the last human to leave his footprints on the lunar surface.

He was one of 14 astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963. He piloted the Gemini 9 mission with Commander Thomas P. Stafford on a three-day flight in June 1966. Cernan logged more than two hours outside the orbiting capsule.

In May 1969, he was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 10, the first comprehensive lunar-orbital qualification and verification test of the lunar lander. The mission confirmed the performance, stability, and reliability of the Apollo command, service and lunar modules. The mission included a descent to within eight nautical miles of the moon’s surface.

Image above: Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan and the U.S. flag on the lunar surface.
Image Credit: NASA.

“We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” – Cernan’s closing words on leaving the moon at the end of Apollo 17.

In a 2007 interview for NASA’s oral histories, Cernan said, “I keep telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the Moon down to 47,000 feet so he wouldn’t get lost, and all he had to do was land. Made it sort of easy for him.”

Cernan concluded his historic space exploration career as commander of the last human mission to the moon in December 1972. En route to the moon, the crew captured an iconic photo of the home planet, with an entire hemisphere fully illumnitated – a “whole Earth” view showing Africa, the Arabian peninsula and the south polar ice cap. The hugely popular photo was referred to by some as the “Blue Marble,” a title in use for an ongoing series of NASA Earth imagery.

Cernan and Schmidt in Apollo 17. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 17 established several new records for human space flight, including the longest lunar landing flight (301 hours, 51 minutes); longest lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours, 6 minutes); largest lunar sample return (nearly 249 pounds); and longest time in lunar orbit (147 hours, 48 minutes).

Cernan and crewmate Harrison H. (Jack) Schmitt completed three highly successful excursions to the nearby craters and the Taurus-Littrow mountains, making the moon their home for more than three days. As he left the lunar surface, Cernan said, “America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. As we leave the moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”

“Apollo 17 built upon all of the other missions scientifically,” said Cernan in 2008, recalling the mission as the agency celebrated its 50th Anniversary. “We had a lunar rover, we were able to cover more ground than most of the other missions. We stayed there a little bit longer. We went to a more challenging unique area in the mountains, to learn something about the history and the origin of the moon itself.”

“I Was Strolling on the Moon One Day”

On their way to the moon, the Apollo 17 crew took one of the most iconic photographs in space-program history, the full view of the Earth dubbed “The Blue Marble.” Despite it’s fame, the photograph hasn’t really been appreciated, Cernan said in 2007.

“What is the real meaning of seeing this picture? I’ve always said, I’ve said for a long time, I still believe it, it’s going to be – well it’s almost fifty now, but fifty or a hundred years in the history of mankind before we look back and really understand the meaning of Apollo. Really understand what humankind had done when we left, when we truly left this planet, we’re able to call another body in this universe our home. We did it way too early considering what we’re doing now in space. It’s almost as if JFK reached out into the twenty-first century where we are today, grabbed hold of a decade of time, slipped it neatly into the (nineteen) sixties and seventies (and) called it Apollo.”

Image above: This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on December 7, 1972. Image Credit: NASA.

On July 1, 1976, Cernan retired from the Navy after 20 years and ended his NASA career. He went into private business and served as television commentator for early fights of the space shuttle.

Full oral history interview with Eugene Cernan: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/CernanEA/cernanea.htm

Photo gallery of Eugene Cernan: https://www.nasa.gov/content/images-of-astronaut-gene-cernan

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Brian Dunbar.

R.I.P., Orbiter.ch
Full article

• Male Scifi and Fantasy writers: Look at this !Strong! female character! She can fight and solve puzzles, and ends up with the sidekick not the hero! Isn't she a great character?
• Everyone: No, she's one-dimensional and still only exists to please the hero's ego
• Male scifi and fantasy writers: You're never happy! This is how characters are written! Besides, it's much harder for us to write women because we are men!
• Terry Pratchett: *creates a female character who is literally the embodyment of a dog, sets her up to be the love interest of Protagonist Hero Man.* *writes her as clever, emotionally tortured, lonely and powerful* *uses her to explore difficulties of bisexuality and masculine dominated workforces*
• Terry Pratchett: *Creates a pair of old witches, one of whom is a virgin and the other who has slept with lots of men.* *makes them best friends, never dismisses one lifestyle of the other, explains lifestyle choices based on characters history and personality, uses this to develop each character as the books progress*
• Terry Pratchett: *Writes Sybil Rankin* *makes the powerful rich lady heavy set but beautiful, never plays her by her looks, develops her as she ages, acknowledges the way society views such people and then spits on their attitudes* *does it again with Agnes*
• Terry Pratchett: *Writes a book about an entire army secretly being women, creates complex female relationships, introduces same sex relationships completely naturally*
• Terry Pratchett: *takes old joke about female dwarves and uses it to explore gender identity without making it seem forced or unnatural, carefully discusses some of the issues and complextities whilst still making funny and witty observasions and maintaining genuine fantasy tropes*
• Terry Pratchett: *DOES THIS ALL OVER AND OVER AGAIN, DEVELOPING CHARACTERS AS HIS VEIW OF THE WORLD DEVELOPS AND CAREFULLY APOLOGIZES FOR EARLY MISTAKES*

[necromorph-slayinglovemachine]

missmonstermel:

“Built for stealth and speed, these units were both feared and admired during the Last War. Their gracefully arched profile and long ears earned them the nickname “Anubot”. Efficient single unit snipers, they did not need a spotter as their secondary eyes and ear units were designed to measure wind, distance, earth curve and projectile arc while the primary eyes focused on their target. Their long cable bundle tails serve as a cat-like counterbalance and as a tool to interface with other machines. Quiet and reserved, they have not taken to their decommissioned life as easily as the Robodogman units they served with. Some still wander, trying to find their place in a new world….“

DIY Anubot kits are live: http://missmonster.myshopify.com/

PLEASE read everything provided in the listing before committing to your pre-order. Thank you!

Modern Kukri graciously provided by Josh Eamon @monstertruckdriver01

[vgjunk]

Mega Man 6, NES.

[exeggutor]

We like to think the internet within the past half decade or so has honed shitposting down to a science but racing horse names have us beat by decades

[zoreta]

This is a case of necessity is the mother of invention- for both race horses and purebred show animals, every.single.animal. needs to have a unique name for record keeping purposes.

Imagine trying to come up with a cool username if you aren’t allowed to add random numbers and underscores- only pronounceable words. Now imagine that this website has had tens of millions of users, and even after someone leaves the site their username can never be recycled.

WELCOME TO PEDIGREE SHITPOST BINGO

[steelplatedhearts]

Pedigree Shitpost Bingo would make a great horse name

[ultralaser]

okay but all the fake benedict cumberbatch names in a horse race together

[picoide]

normally wouldn’t share something this silly/rough, but it brought me some peace to make- might bring it to someone else too. Be well!