heinleinblog

Phobos Books has posted a list: 100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have To Read.

I find the list short on any real insight into why these paritcular books were chosen or why they are ranked as they were.

[tag]Robert A. Heinlein[/tag] made the list three times. Peoria native [tag]Philip Jose Farmer[/tag] made it twice.

As I read the list, I was as first struck by how many of these books I’ve read. But then I realized that some of them I haven’t, but simply say too many movies based on them.

NOTE: An interesting discussion just getting underway on this topic on alt.fan.heinlein.

This article from TCS Daily makes a good case for a government-paid space elevator made out of carbon nanotubes:

Most importantly, however, space elevators could save us from going the way of the dinosaurs. Sixty-five million years ago an asteroid probably crashed into the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. Space elevators would greatly facilitate the detection and deflection of earth-bound asteroids. Space elevators would also make it far easier for humans to colonize space and thus survive any world-destroying disaster. As Robert Heinlein said “The earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.”

[tags]space elevators,carbon nanotubes[/tags]

From ilikemusic.com:

Sebastien Tellier, Parisian musical maestro and performer extraordinaire returns with a brand new version of ‘Broadway’ on February 6th 2006 on Lucky Number.

Taken from his highly acclaimed album ‘Politics’, ‘Broadway’ is a shout out to good ol’ Private Rico from Robert Heinlein’s 1959 Science Fiction novel, & later the Paul Verhoeven-directed futuristic military thrill ride movie, “Starship Troopers�.

The call is for irresistibly primal hero Rico to come save us as outside chaos reigns all around. Once again Sebastien captures the bittersweet dichotomy of life within his own unique melodic multi-layering, soothing empowerment & vocal assurance that deliver us all safely back into the here & now.

If Sebastien Tellier is a Heinlein fan, believe me, he’s doing a shout-out to Rico from the book, not the movie.

[tags]Sebastien Tellier,Broadway,Juan Rico,Starship Trooprs[/tags]

SyFy Portal has a decent interview with George Lefferts, a Hollywood writer and producer who once worked on Dimension X radio program:

Between them, [Ernest] Kinoy and Lefferts wrote over 40 scripts for “Dimension X.” Many were adapted from works by well-known science fiction writers, including Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut. Lefferts made a point of calling the authors to get their feedback. He also tried to stick as closely as possible to their original work.

Hmmm … can anyone tell me which Heinlein work was adapted to radio on “Dimension X?”

And isn’t it a shame someone like this guy wasn’t put in charge of “Stormship Troopers?”

[tags]George Lefferts,Dimension X,Ray Bradbury,Robert Heinlein,Isaac Asimov,Kurt Vonnegut[/tags]

Granted: I have NO reliable information about a movie based on ‘Friday.” I don’t know if one is being wirtten, cast or just being discussed.

But my referal logs report more than a few hits to this site from Google and Yahoo searches for “heinelin friday movie.”

[tags]heinlein,friday,movie[/tags]

I nominate Jessica Alba for the lead role.

The list of words you can use in Scrabble just got longer:

Globalization is fueling many changes. “Chai” and “ahi” are additions from Asian culture. The Internet provides “blog” and “email.” “Grok” is a verb in the Robert Heinlein 1961 sci-fi classic “Stranger in a Strange Land.”

The words are in the latest Official Scrabble Dictionary, but that is not the tournament list.