We associate roundabouts with the British, but really, when you dive deep into it it’s surprising that Americans didn’t become the roundabout nation. After all, the first traffic circles, such as Columbus Circle (not to mention all manner of rotaries), were first developed and built … Continue readingGoing Round, and Round, and Round…
I’ve already done a short story in the urban fabric of my alternate-historical science-fiction setting, namely in “Last Light”, but that just covered one romantic date in what even in my timeline is a small city: Utqiagvik, Alaska (a.k.a. Barrow). Now I’m brainstorming a story … Continue readingA Music City for my Alternate History
In my post “Building a Better House”, I explored what I believe to be superior forms for housing, specifically the first floor being garage and the second floor being open like a loft apartment but with Japanese-style doors to partition rooms if desired: a maximum … Continue readingKudzu Among the Ruins
Hot off a very enjoyable write-up of my story of my universe’s first lunar mission (1949, not 1969), and a more tentative write-up of my Rapunzel Reinhardt story (I was thinking of releasing the latter in June, the former in July, but I think now … Continue readingA Date in the Rusty Desert
You might have heard of the Aral Sea and its “ships of the desert”. Where there once was seafloor, now there’s only dust; where there once was thriving fish and birds, now there’s only toxic clouds. All the casualty of diversion for agriculture, a plague … Continue readingThe Inland Seas in my Sci-Fi Setting
For a while I’ve posited that the most cost-effective method of traveling on Mars, after you have some people there and some outposts going, is the “road train”, large motor vehicles hooked up in tandem, much like what we see in the Australian Outback, which, … Continue readingMonowheels of Mars?
I’ve previously written about survival strategies for nations and mankind “after the doomsday shroud”, the worst conceivable nuclear war. Which got me thinking about a fascinating piece of Cold War history: the “Deep Underground Command Center”, or “DUCC”. If civilian command and control of the … Continue readingDeep Underground Launch Center
Fundamentally there are three schools of thought for spacecraft that enter and exit planetary atmospheres (spacecraft that stay in space have their own design considerations, and in any case can get much wilder): capsules, spaceplanes, and lifting bodies. Anybody who’s even passingly familiar with spaceflight … Continue readingCatching a Lift
Last year I spent a lot of time worldbuilding the far future of my space opera setting, a time over a thousand years from today when the technology for opening up wormholes to anywhere in the cosmos is invented, unleashing a revolutionary surge in exploration … Continue readingTaking my Space Opera into the Really Far Future
What would be the ideal car for me? If I became super-rich, one thing I’d like to do is custom-build my own car from the ground-up. First of all, it would have to be a convertible; I love feeling the wind and the air on … Continue readingMy Dream Car