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My new book [in German] has been published! You may order it online ↑via amazon or directly ↑via Peter Hammer Verlag. Offline every decent bookshop can get it for you, too.
«Ceci, Messieurs, disait-il, c’est du Xirdalium, corps cent mille fois plus radioactif que le radium.»
—Jules & Michel Verne 1908
a blog ...
... in the strict sense of the term ...
by alexander knorr
aka zephyrin_xirdal
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or the calendar.
Monthly Archives: December 2011
sphere from above
what goes up must come down Do you remember ‘↑The Gods Must Be Crazy‘ (Uys 1980)? That old comedy movie telling the story of Xi, a Kalahari bushman, who undertakes an epic journey to bring an artefact which fell from … Continue reading
a murder of quality
The cold was crisp and sharp like flint. (Le Carré 1962: chpt. 1) For a moment Fielding thought of Hecht pasturing in that thick body: it was a scene redolent of Lautrec. Yes, that was it! (Le Carré … Continue reading
cold war cyberpunk
In my ↵post on John le Carré I somehow tried to vindicate my erupted interest in cold war spy fiction and my subsequent digesting of according novels and movies. Now ↑Bryan Alexander sent me excerpts from a ↑recent interview with … Continue reading
cybernetic revolutionaries
In ↑Cybernetic Revolutionaries, Eden Medina tells the history of two intersecting utopian visions, one political and one technological. The first was Chile’s experiment with peaceful socialist change under Salvador Allende; the second was the simultaneous attempt to build a computer … Continue reading
advanced building techniques
A common trait of technoludic online scenes and communities are the efforts undertaken to document, preserve and redistribute specific knowledge. The afols [adult fans of lego] have developed many building techniques beyond those found in official instructions. Back in 2007 … Continue reading
atlantis
Quite vividly do I remember when I sat in my parents’ living room on 12 April 1981, watching the launch of ‘Columbia’ on television. The ↑first flight of a ↑Space Shuttle into orbit. During the years when men walked the … Continue reading
seterra
No, this is nothing out of a science fiction movie, but details of ‘↑Seterra,’ a moc [my on creation], more precisley a ↑SHIP [seriously huge investment in parts], by afol [adult fan of lego] ↑Thomas Haas. The huge construction (not … Continue reading
whose arm?
zeph’s pop culture quiz #8 Whose arm is that? The name of the actor will ring a big bell within the science fiction enthusiast—the story of this (today hardly known) movie a whole orchestra. Just leave a comment … Continue reading
Posted in cinema, motion_pictures, quiz
Tagged androids, body, cyberpunk, cyborgs, robots, sci-fi, time travel, vintage
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the machine stops
‘↓The Machine Stops‘ is a science fiction short story or novella by ↑E. M. Forster, first published in 1909. Here is the story’s setting as ↑Wikipedia’s plot summary has it: The story describes a world in which most of … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, literature, motion_pictures, television
Tagged ai, cyberpunk, infotech, sci-fi, technology
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call for the dead
[...] academic excursions into the mystery of human behaviour, disciplined by the practical application of his own deductions. (Le Carré 1961: chpt. 1) This part of him was bloodless and inhuman—Smiley in this role was the international mercenary … Continue reading