The Sudden Curve

My Coat of Arms

This is my family coats-of-arms. I've always found it interesting. "Pro libertate" means "For liberty," which only comes from having a shield (on which the coat-of-arms was imprinted) and a sword to defend yourself, and a lion (called a rampant lion) with it's claws out, ready to strike.

To keep your liberty you must always be on guard, and have the ability to strike and defend.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who sez, a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

Dwellers in the Mirage

I think the first novel I remember reading was Abraham Merrit's Dwellers in the Mirage. I was 11.

I've read two of his other novels but Dwellers is the best one. It's not science-fiction but Lost World science-fantasy.

It's got tenacled monsters who want maidens sacrificed to him, seductive witch-women, and battles galore. Blood, Beasts and Breasts, as Joe Bob Briggs said is essential to good movies and good literature.

He was of course right!

Posted by Bob Wallace, who still dreams of Kalk-ru.

 

Project Thor

A kinetic bombardment is the act of attacking a planetary surface with an inert projectile, where the destructive force comes from the kinetic energy of the projectile impacting at very high velocities. The concept is encountered in science fiction and is thought to have originated during the Cold War. Non-orbital bombardments with kinetic projectiles, such as lobbing stones with siege engines such as catapults or trebuchets are considered siege warfare, not kinetic bombardment.

Project Thor is an idea for a weapons system that launches kinetic projectiles from Earth orbit to damage targets on the ground. Jerry Pournelle originated the concept while working in operations research at Boeing in the 1950s before becoming a science-fiction writer.

Posted by Bob Wallace, who heard about this from Jerry Pournelle

My Favorite Artist

I'm not particularly a fan of art but one artist I do like is Gerrit Dou, who painted pictures like this. Who can not like it?

Posted by Bob Wallace, who has no artistic ability at all, except for stick figures.