The Arrogance of Ignorance -- and a special offer to the RRS Community

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The Arrogance of Ignorance -- and a special offer to the RRS Community

Hello, Everyone --

 I have just posted a new essay on my blog that you might find interesting -- New Clothes for Shakespeare and Sondheim or: THE ARROGANCE OF IGNORANCE. 

 

 The essay spins off of a theme in my new novel, Traveling in Space, coming out next month from Blüroof Press (edit: now available; Amazon), which is calling it, “A unique science fiction first-contact novel from the point-of-view of the aliens; a 21st Century Gulliver's Travels with Homo sapiens as the Lilliputians.”  

 

  I would love for members of this community to read and, if they wish, comment on the essay, either on my blog or here.

 

 As Traveling in Space gives consideration to the topics of this group, and is deeply informed by my atheism, my publisher, Dave Doody (who by day is a senior flight engineer at JPL/NASA) asked me to extend an offer to the Rational Responders community. If you think you would be interested in reading Traveling in Space, Dave would be happy to make available to the first ten people who respond a free PDF download of the proof copy of the book.  All that he asks in return is that if you like the book enough to recommend it to people -- or even dislike it enough to warn them off -- please let us know how you have done this. Was it by real person-to-person word-of-mouth; emails, a post on your blog; postings on atheist/rationalist/secular websites and blog or SCI FI and fiction websites and blogs, etc.? 

 

To read my essay please go to:

 

http://stevenpaulleivasthisnthat.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-clothes-for-shakespeare-and.html

 


To get the link for the free download of a pdf of Traveling in Space, email me at
[email protected] and put “TIS Preview - RR” in the subject line.

 

Best to all!


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- - -

Yes, when lcd screens came they were passive too. You had to be precise in your positionment.
Crts instead have round dots. That's way they are cool. In reality, they have always had lower dot pitch. I don't understand what do you mean for... No, ok, a crt dot is "fuzzy", but it has a great precision and better resolution than lcd displays -- expecially when you use a high resolution. There is just no confront.

So I don't understand... A crt's sharp as a katana, I don't understand how you could say it's not crisp. Flickering? What crts did you have, from the '70s?

I can believe your laptop screen black is blackier than ink if it's led retroilluminated, if not your eyes need a revision.

But I cannot accept this:

Quote:
They have no better inherent contrast than LCD's.

A crt has like a lcd contrast x 1000.
And what about the gamut? There.is.no.comparing.of.the.colors. vs an lcd.
Seriously, OLEDs can beat anything, but a common (and I mean it, *common*, not iphone4) LCD is not better than a CRT.
You should start checking dates on crt monitors you had. See if any of them is past 1990. And please check if they have a brand. You're like the first person I see liking CRTs over LCDs. Apart from power consumption and all that... But anyway they win that too, because I live in a chilly place, and with 300+ W of monitor I don't need (I didn't need...) to turn on the stove!


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luca wrote:Yes, when lcd

luca wrote:

Yes, when lcd screens came they were passive too. You had to be precise in your positionment.
Crts instead have round dots. That's way they are cool. In reality, they have always had lower dot pitch. I don't understand what do you mean for... No, ok, a crt dot is "fuzzy", but it has a great precision and better resolution than lcd displays -- expecially when you use a high resolution. There is just no confront.

So I don't understand... A crt's sharp as a katana, I don't understand how you could say it's not crisp. Flickering? What crts did you have, from the '70s?

I can believe your laptop screen black is blackier than ink if it's led retroilluminated, if not your eyes need a revision.

But I cannot accept this:

Quote:
They have no better inherent contrast than LCD's.

A crt has like a lcd contrast x 1000.
And what about the gamut? There.is.no.comparing.of.the.colors. vs an lcd.
Seriously, OLEDs can beat anything, but a common (and I mean it, *common*, not iphone4) LCD is not better than a CRT.
You should start checking dates on crt monitors you had. See if any of them is past 1990. And please check if they have a brand. You're like the first person I see liking CRTs over LCDs. Apart from power consumption and all that... But anyway they win that too, because I live in a chilly place, and with 300+ W of monitor I don't need (I didn't need...) to turn on the stove!

I was referring to color LCD screens on the first laptops I saw.

Older CRTs all had round dots, and to me they were the worst for working with text on computer screens close up. The dots did not line up with the edges of the shapes generated  by the computer software, so they blurred the text. It's not so much that the dots themselves are fuzzy, it's that the groups of dots don't line up with the 'pixels' of the image. They can minimize that by making the dot density much greater than the 'pixel' density of the image they are displaying.

Later CRTs started to use vertical stripes, not dots, and to me always looked crisper, sharper. I think that was because vertical lines always looked sharp because they matched the vertical lines of the screen, and the vertical resolution of the display was not limited at all, unlike with dots, so horizontal lines were 'perfect'.

Actually, only the first vertical stripe screens, the Sony Trinitrons, were complete vertical lines, defined by stretched wires just behind the screen. Other manufacturers adopted shadow-mask plates like the original 'dot' screens, but with vertical lines of vertical slots, with enough links across the slots to keep the whole plate stable. They were starting to look very much like the patterns of an LCD screen.

CRT's are similarly affected by room light as LCD's, so their contrast ratio is usually no better in practice. The phosphors that glow when hit by the electrons are nowhere near black when off, so it is hard to make the unlit parts of a CRT really dark in room light. If you watch with as little light as possible hitting the front of the CRT, then yes, they can have the best contrast. 

CRT displays are less precise than LCDs or plasmas or eInk, because the position of the scanning beam is a matter of the exact currents and voltages in the deflecting circuits, and it has to be corrected to give a good rectangular display. It is not easy to get a geometrically precise display on a CRT, especially the very wide defelection angles of domestic TV's. It is much easier to get precise display when the maximum deflection angle is small, but that means the depth of the CRT has to much greater than the maximum width of the screen. Not so practical for a 24inch screen to have a six-foot box extending behind it.

The other displays have their pixels positioned when manufactured so they are inherently perfectly precise within their resolution.

CRT's do have good color range, altho initially not so good until they discovered some 'rare-earth' based materials which gave purer, brighter colors.

LCDs are now pretty good, color-wise. I watched some nature documentaries on my Grundig 84cm crt (standard definition) TV, and at the same time, for comparison, watched them on my previous laptop, which did HD. And after that, I hardly ever turned the Grundig on...

I sat in front of both high-quality triad-dot and vertical stripe CRTs for many years, as a computer programmer, and it really puzzled me for a while why the triad-dotscreens displayed text and lines, especially vertical and horizontal lines, less cleanly than the vertical stripe displays.

I am pretty sure my laptop is LED lit.

CRT's all inherently flicker at the frame rate, but the more recent TV's minimized the visibility of it by increasing the frame rate. LCD's have NO inherent flicker like that, since the pixel colors are simply changed as required, they are not being constantly refreshed as in a CRT, whether the content has changed or not. There are second-order problems in LCD's which can lead to other, more erratic kinds of flickering. They tend to have the opposite problem, blur on moving images, because they may not be able to change state fast enough.

Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality

"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris

The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me

From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology


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Vastet wrote:You guys can

Vastet wrote:
You guys can say what you want, but books are superior to technological variants of them, and I'll keep buying them. I don't care if you can put an entire library, your favourite music, and a bunch of video on your Walkman. When the battery dies and there's no way to charge it, or a problem wipes the memory, or a bug corrupts your files, I'll still be reading my books. Sticking out tongue Books are easier to read too, for me at least.

 

I like books too.  You can take a book to bed with you and the worst that can happen is that you end up with an odd cramp from sleeping on it.  I would not want to do that with an expensive electronic device.  Even so, there are many thousands of free ebooks out there.  Classic literature is obvious and there are a couple of places for that material.  Hell, some publishers even make reasonably current books available for free as a marketing tool.  One you have read the first title in a series or discovered an new author, you can get hooked and then go out and buy other material.

 

Once something is not making a whole lot of money, instead of pulling it out of print, throw it out there and see what comes of the deal.  It is good for the readers and it works well for the publishers because it increases sales of current titles.

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There is a slight risk of

There is a slight risk of falling asleep with an eReader, and maybe rolling over onto it, or dropping it onto the floor, true. I have had no trouble putting it down on the side cabinet when I feel myself getting too sleepy.

But I find the latest devices easier to hold in front of me or prop up on the side than books - one slim object, not a folding one, no need for any extra hold to keep the page open where you want.

The iPad1 which I have is still a little heavy to hold up for a sustained period, but the iPad2 and other later devices are getting lighter all the time.

Damn, I feel like I'm talking with some old codgers not impressed with all this "new-fangled" stuff, but I am pretty sure I'm definitely the oldest one here...

 

Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality

"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris

The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me

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Well, I enjoy falling asleep with a book. That and the fact that I sleep on the floor just makes the risk more than I am willing to go for.

 

Then too, as I said earlier, I like my hand held tablet because it can go in a pocket. As long as I hold it so the accelerometer keeps the screen wide, e-books are quite readable to even my old man eyes. Glasses do help but despite what the eye doc says, reading glasses are not really needed yet.

 

As I told luca earlier, everyone has different needs/preferences. For me, having one device to carry around is way cool. Well two actually as it is not a phone. The only time it becomes an issue is when I go out kilted. I can only carry what I really need in a sporran. Wallet, smokes and lighter is about it.

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in piedi

I don't read in bed. That's maybe why I never felt asleep while reading.
Also I'm sort of a "champion" in weird reading positions. I never tire keep a book, even the most "solid" one, in my hands because I have year of experience reading in buses, trains, and above all in stations while keeping jackets, bags, all the stuff on me! Oh, obviously there's never place to sit down at the stations, so that's to exclude.

---------------

 

Quote:
Older CRTs all had round dots, and to me they were the worst for working with text on computer screens close up. The dots did not line up with the edges of the shapes generated  by the computer software, so they blurred the text. It's not so much that the dots themselves are fuzzy, it's that the groups of dots don't line up with the 'pixels' of the image. They can minimize that by making the dot density much greater than the 'pixel' density of the image they are displaying.
Yes... The last crt (last only because it caught fire and I did not find another) I used was from the '80s, it was a 20" destined to graphic use (it had vga d-sub, r/g/b separate BNCs, settings everywhere...), and if I remember well it had round dots, that's why I said that. Still if you use a high resolution there is absolutely no problem. Rectangular dots, expecially on lcds, have the problem that the font results pixelated, but again with a high resolution the problem disappears. The fact is, very important, that crt are extremely flexible: you can have 1600x1200 on a 15", if you want, and with every resolution I found the image on a crt perfect. Lcds have ONE resolution, and if you try to set another the result is usually crap (they are digital, and they have no filters because it costs -- only the professional ones have scaling algorihms).

So I see the softness of the crts as a pro, not as a con.

Quote:
CRT's are similarly affected by room light as LCD's, so their contrast ratio is usually no better in practice. The phosphors that glow when hit by the electrons are nowhere near black when off, so it is hard to make the unlit parts of a CRT really dark in room light. If you watch with as little light as possible hitting the front of the CRT, then yes, they can have the best contrast.
Yes, the black of crts is not pure black, and you can see it shows some lighting if you watch the pixel itself, but it's indoubtly better than any backpanel lit lcd.

Quote:
CRT displays are less precise than LCDs or plasmas or eInk, because the position of the scanning beam is a matter of the exact currents and voltages in the deflecting circuits, and it has to be corrected to give a good rectangular display
Technologically it may be, but it was effectively not a problem. I don't think I ever saw a good functioning crt tube that doesn't hit well in the phosphors. I had a crt that was crap, it was blurred like it had half the resolution, but it was malfunctioning. It's like to say that lcds have the problem of the pixels that burn off. You don't care until it happens.

Quote:
It is not easy to get a geometrically precise display on a CRT, especially the very wide defelection angles of domestic TV's.
Yes, but to be honest I don't care about TVs, and trinitron did make a pretty flat screen. I don't know how it was, tho.

Quote:
LCDs are now pretty good, color-wise. I watched some nature documentaries on my Grundig 84cm crt (standard definition) TV, and at the same time, for comparison, watched them on my previous laptop, which did HD. And after that, I hardly ever turned the Grundig on...
I know some lcds have good colors, there is even a 24" 1-billion colors panel (*panel*, not just circuit) lcd, but you have to consider what is accessible to us now. In time obviously all LCDs (if they will persist) will beat CRTs, like then all OLEDs will beat LCDs, and so on.

Now there are some peculiarities of the LCDs you have to consider... I think you know that there is the overshoot technology, and in general LCDs manifacturers try to make the image as vivid (saturate, bright, iper-real) as possible to get clients, but this flasifies the colors. Note that I don't care about "beauty", I care about "real" -- also please I am not saying you have been swindled, you are evidently well knowledged and it seems you know what you want. But it seems you were comparing two different things... or better, what was, for example, the resolution at which you was watching the documentary on that laptop? Because if it was like double of the tv it's obvious you don't care about tvs anymore -- and you are right, I'm not absolutely against it, I would not watch it on the tv in that case, but still... I just want to be sure you meant "colors" in the right way.

Quote:
I sat in front of both high-quality triad-dot and vertical stripe CRTs for many years, as a computer programmer, and it really puzzled me for a while why the triad-dotscreens displayed text and lines, especially vertical and horizontal lines, less cleanly than the vertical stripe displays.
Yes, they are twisted, because the group of dots are not allineated between the lines. They are offsetted.

Quote:
CRT's all inherently flicker at the frame rate, but the more recent TV's minimized the visibility of it by increasing the frame rate.
Yes, that's why I asked you to check the dates... Now I don't care a bit about TVs, but computer screen can go easly over 60 Hz... Most at least can be setted to 75/72 Hz. Now I'm not going to say that flickering has never been a problem, but it's very rare, and it happens only with weird lights, or when you move an object in front of screen. Or if you use extremely weird angles.There is another thing, though. I don't know what frequency has the eletric network where you live, but mine is 50 Hz, so lights and monitor (if it at 60 Hz) don't interferee much.

Quote:
They tend to have the opposite problem, blur on moving images, because they may not be able to change state fast enough.
Yes, but only bitween near r/g/b components (and obviously separated, each for itself). Switching very diverse voltages for a liquid crystal is ok. That's why overshoot has been invented.

 

 


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“You know, it’s

“You know, it’s just that English teachers and intellectuals tell you Shakespeare is great, so everybody has to believe it, when, really, his plays are crap, I know, I’ve done some Shakespeare, I’m telling ya, ya can’t understand what the hell he’s taking about.”

 

Ye Olde English does that to some people.

" and has never considered for a minute wasting time suffering “higher” education"

I'm almost ashamed to say this, but your friend, how ever much of a plebian circus entertainer he may be, has a note of sympathy in this one regard (if no other.) However, I suspect he adopts this attitude for all the wrong reasons. The right reasons would be humanities classes, too many majors with "pointless electives", Greeks/spring breakers, and lackluster/irritating professors.

I feel compelled to make this a vanity post, however. You see, I'm a bit of an anti-intellectual myself, specifically regarding logic as it is often used in science. I resent the doctrines of logic, and every instance they are brought up here while discussing science and philosophy. Especially philosophy, because it epitomizes 'Ivory Tower' academia. Either way, I'm not willing to wrap my head around it, however useful it is to actual scientists. In my view, the human mind does not function linearly, so it does not go to reason that it functions well or efficiently utilizing a linear (often mathematical) system of examination and demonstration. Reality is not terribly linear, either, or else you end up with things like Niel Bohr's Uncertainty in quantum mechanics, and people like Einstein remaining staunchly convinced of there being underlying determinism and realism in quantum mechanics.

To wit; "Do you really think the moon isn't there if you aren't looking at it?"

Classy. In any case, your essay is an excellent read.

“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)


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luca, when I said CRT's are

luca, when I said CRT's are not precise, I was not referring to lack of focus or sharpness, but to geometric distortion, such as the following:

There can also be variations in the spacing of the scan lines, such as having the top part of the picture 'squashed' vertically.

Those problems are inherent in any CRT design, in one form or another, and need specific circuits to correct for, in both monochrome and color displays. Being analog, they will never be 100% perfect, unlike a digital display.

 

 

 

Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality

"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris

The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me

From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology


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I read another two chapters

I read another two chapters of the book, in bed. I have found a comfortable way to position it - curled up on my side, with the iPad propped against my knees. Not so easy to do that with one of those silly paper things, need something to hold it open.

 

Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality

"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris

The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me

From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology


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E-books and bed

BobSpence1 wrote:

I read another two chapters of the book, in bed. I have found a comfortable way to position it - curled up on my side, with the iPad propped against my knees. Not so easy to do that with one of those silly paper things, need something to hold it open.

 

 

Bob, that's great!  It's cool to think you are taking my characters to bed with you! I like to lie in bed on on a couch with my Kindle -- which is in a case that I can prop up -- resting on my chest.  I's reader's heaven!

Steven Paul Leiva


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C/2

BobSpence1 wrote:
luca, when I said CRT's are not precise, I was not referring to lack of focus or sharpness, but to geometric distortion, such as the following:

There can also be variations in the spacing of the scan lines, such as having the top part of the picture 'squashed' vertically.

Those problems are inherent in any CRT design, in one form or another, and need specific circuits to correct for, in both monochrome and color displays. Being analog, they will never be 100% perfect, unlike a digital display.

Yeah, I understood that, in fact I said trinitron tried to produce flat screens. I'm sorry if sometimes untidy in the response. Anyway I do not find it disturbing.

----

I came just to announce that apparently there has been another death:

Dennis Ritchie

http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/

All the computer geeks here should know who he was.


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Those problems can be made

Those problems can be made worse by trying to make the screen flat. That tends to make the picture stretch as you get further away from the center. 

Of course, the basic reason for having CRT screens curved was to make it easier to resist the atmospheric pressure against the vacuum inside.

The Trinitron had to be flat vertically because it used a grid of stretched wires to guide the beams onto the different color stripes - they weren't particularly trying to go for a flat screen otherwise. They had to use thicker glass on the front to compensate for not being as curved.

We got early Trinitron monitors, made by Tektronix, at the company where I where I worked in 1974, as part of having to monitor the quality of the color TV signal we were responsible for sending between major cities. That was leading up to the introduction of color TV broadcasting in Australia in 1975. They were only 12inch screens, and not particularly high resolution, but they were considered very accurate in color quality. I frequently found 'reasons' to go up to the microwave relay station where they were used, to watch color tv programs being sent along the microwave links before they had actually started broadcasting them in color.

I also designed some electronic circuits to correct for some of the more serious problems we had in handling the color signals to the required quality. The microwave equipment was really only designed to handle US standard TV (NTSC), but ours (PAL), with the color subcarrier at a higher frequency was significantly distorted, and I designed a circuit to correct it.

I find pictures clearly distorted in such ways 'disturbing' to my enjoyment of them, far more so than possibly having slightly less than optimum contrast or color. Wouldn't matter so much just for reading text, but not good if you are using a monitor for doing graphics, especially for graphic design and technical drawing.

 

Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality

"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris

The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me

From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology


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Back to main topic:Steven, I

Back to main topic:

Steven, I just finished Chapter 4;

Fascinating imagining of an alien mind-set and 'world-view', can't remember seeing it done to quite this depth.

Requires treading a tightrope between having them come across as so 'alien' we just can't relate to them, and being not alien enough to create a real feeling of 'strangeness'.

 

Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality

"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris

The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me

From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology


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Well, fwiw, my last crt was an 18 inch viewsonic trinitron that I bought back in 2002. I can tell you that it was quite good.

 

Very high resolution and great color. It also had a front panel menu system for adjusting all of the possible geometric distortions. The initial set up took quite a bit of time as changing one thing might affect another, so getting all the settings properly balanced was a bit of a chore. Once that was done, no real problem with that again.

 

Because a decent sized monitor that you sit right up against commands a somewhat wider field of view that a much larger TV which is across the room, that became my DVD viewing screen.

 

The one thing that was a bit odd was that when you have a white background, you can see the wires. So wordprocessing or graphics work was a bit odd at first. Eventually the effect does fade into the background like every other minor annoyance in life though. Also, if I changed any settings through my graphics driver, it usually copied them to the monitor but if I did the same from the front panel, I could get a timing mismatch. You do not want to see flicker that bad if you can avoid it.

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Vastet wrote:You guys can

Vastet wrote:
You guys can say what you want, but books are superior to technological variants of them, and I'll keep buying them. I don't care if you can put an entire library, your favourite music, and a bunch of video on your Walkman. When the battery dies and there's no way to charge it, or a problem wipes the memory, or a bug corrupts your files, I'll still be reading my books. Sticking out tongue Books are easier to read too, for me at least.

And when some Chinese Emperor or fascist burns all of your books, I'll be reading my pdf files. [/Godwin]

“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)


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Saw a smallish Sony e-ink

Saw a smallish Sony e-ink eReader on display in a store today. I feel 'e-pencil' would have been a more accurate description of its not-very-black blacks.

Just for balance, there was a LCD-type pad , by Motorola, I think, which was a similarly bad example of that technology. Luckily they had Apple iPads on an adjacent table showing how it should be done.

 

Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality

"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris

The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me

From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology


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requiem for a pc and a crt

Quote:
Those problems can be made worse by trying to make the screen flat. That tends to make the picture stretch as you get further away from the center. 

 Of course, the basic reason for having CRT screens curved was to make it easier to resist the atmospheric pressure against the vacuum inside.
It occourred to me that the screens are curved because they are a solid angle projected from the center of the eletronic cannon...And that the problem with flat screens or with reducing the length of the crt is with the beam, for example in the extreme angle the deflectors have to impress to it. 
Quote:
The Trinitron had to be flat vertically because it used a grid of stretched wires to guide the beams onto the different color stripes - they weren't particularly trying to go for a flat screen otherwise. They had to use thicker glass on the front to compensate for not being as curved.
Didn't someone developed a technology with two cannons? I seem to remember something like that... 
Quote:
We got early Trinitron monitors, made by Tektronix...
Oh yeah, Tektronix... Their CRT oscilloscopes are flat, for example. Sure, those CRTs are small, but we have a precedent in precision and flatness. 
Quote:
I find pictures clearly distorted in such ways 'disturbing' to my enjoyment of them, far more so than possibly having slightly less than optimum contrast or color. Wouldn't matter so much just for reading text, but not good if you are using a monitor for doing graphics, especially for graphic design and technical drawing.
Cool, anyway, but I don't know where such distortion could happen today, CRTs are (were, sigh) pretty stable, and there are the settings (obviously that if these are low quality settings you are not gonna solve the problem...).Instead, that kind of issues are clearly present on projectors. ---- I understand that there are 10 copies of PASOB's book to get? How many are left, is there space for me? Things are getting interesting.

----------

Quote:
Saw a smallish Sony e-ink eReader on display in a store today. I feel 'e-pencil' would have been a more accurate description of its not-very-black blacks.

Just for balance, there was a LCD-type pad , by Motorola, I think, which was a similarly bad example of that technology. Luckily they had Apple iPads on an adjacent table showing how it should be done.

Out there should be a pad/tablet called Fury, someone heard something?

 


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A curved screen does mean

A curved screen does mean you need less correction of the scanning to get an undistorted picture with wider scanning angles, but it also means you can use thinner glass, which becomes more important as you make the screen bigger.

Oscilloscopes use much smaller screens, so making the front glass thick enough to withstand the atmospheric pressure without significant curvature is not such a problem.

And of course they make those tubes much longer relative to the width of the screen, which reduces the maximum scanning angle, and so reduces, but does not eliminate, the need for correction to get a precise display.

Originally they used three separate electron-guns, but I think they developed ones where one source of electrons could be split into the necessary three beams that were then focussed toward the screen from three different directions. I don't recall any with two, that would not work for full color.

Projection TVs do not involve scanning in the actual projection, that is an optical imaging process, where an image of a small, flat and already precise image is simply projected in an enlarged form onto a flat screen. Originally, they tended to use small bright CRT's as the original image source, which involved all the same distortion issues already mentioned,, but since they were small, they could be shaped more like CRO tubes. Now they use small flat digital panels (not LCD's ), so distortion is not an issue.

Such distortion happens today whenever the circuitry in a CRT monitor goes faulty. I had it in one of the last CRT computer monitors I used. The laws of geometry haven't changed. The need for correction has nothing to with stability, except that modern solid-state circuitry is more stable, so once the corrections are set, they tend to stay put. But the need for correction is the same. The stability means you are less likely to see one that has drifted out of adjustment.

I am still interested to see a really good e-ink display, after our discussions. I was genuinely surprised that the Sony one was not better than that.

 

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BobSpence1 wrote:There is a

BobSpence1 wrote:

There is a slight risk of falling asleep with an eReader, and maybe rolling over onto it, or dropping it onto the floor, true. I have had no trouble putting it down on the side cabinet when I feel myself getting too sleepy.

But I find the latest devices easier to hold in front of me or prop up on the side than books - one slim object, not a folding one, no need for any extra hold to keep the page open where you want.

The iPad1 which I have is still a little heavy to hold up for a sustained period, but the iPad2 and other later devices are getting lighter all the time.

Can you hang your iPad above the bed, right in front of your face? I made a few provisory contraptions to do that. Despite of what they look, they do the job. But for you I'd advise you to make a real holder out of something like people use for making airplane models. Because if Kindle falls on my nose it's not such a problem as when iPad falls on your nose. I had the job easier, because either I sleep on a bunk bed or there's a shelf above my head where it can hang from.

But if you do it right, it's one of laziest things you've ever seen. You can lie on your back, read, (you still need to reach your hand to flip pages) and fall asleep as you like. 

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Luminon wrote:BobSpence1

Luminon wrote:

BobSpence1 wrote:

There is a slight risk of falling asleep with an eReader, and maybe rolling over onto it, or dropping it onto the floor, true. I have had no trouble putting it down on the side cabinet when I feel myself getting too sleepy.

But I find the latest devices easier to hold in front of me or prop up on the side than books - one slim object, not a folding one, no need for any extra hold to keep the page open where you want.

The iPad1 which I have is still a little heavy to hold up for a sustained period, but the iPad2 and other later devices are getting lighter all the time.

Can you hang your iPad above the bed, right in front of your face? I made a few provisory contraptions to do that. Despite of what they look, they do the job. But for you I'd advise you to make a real holder out of something like people use for making airplane models. Because if Kindle falls on my nose it's not such a problem as when iPad falls on your nose. I had the job easier, because either I sleep on a bunk bed or there's a shelf above my head where it can hang from.

But if you do it right, it's one of laziest things you've ever seen. You can lie on your back, read, (you still need to reach your hand to flip pages) and fall asleep as you like. 

That might indeed be nice, but I quite often sleep on my side, and this position is working well for me. I like to stop reading when I feel I am no longer giving the text full attention, so putting the reader safely to the side at that point is my preferred way.

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Well, if you are into that level of creativity, you could get three friction hinges that will connect to threadded pipe. With enough nuts to set them just right, you can make sure that each hinge is at nominally right angles to the other two so that you have all three axes of movement.

 

That is basically recreating the arm of a crab, so it can be anywhere in the volume you would like. Put a bit of gooseneck cable on the end and you are good to go.

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Or you could hire a a

Or you could hire a a stripper from the stripper factory to hold your iPad up for you, and another stripper to bring you pitchers from the beer volcano! Praise FSM! rAmen!

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scotch and lego

Come on, it's not like there are not ipad holders or pedestals

--------

Quote:
A curved screen does mean you need less correction of the scanning to get an undistorted picture with wider scanning angles, but it also means you can use thinner glass, which becomes more important as you make the screen bigger.
Yes, it becomes important with a bigger screen, and obviously it's also a limiting factor in respect to the maximum dimension the screen can be manifactured, still I would say that the curved surface of a tv is not so important because you watch it for far, it's a little bit more annoying with a computer screen, which you keep decidedly nearer to your eyes. I would add that a thicker glass could also let pass less light. Curious also that in english you call it the electric "gun", we call it "cannon".

But in the end, just to be clear, are you saying that a flat crt screen has a distortion that annoys you?

Quote:
Originally they used three separate electron-guns, but I think they developed ones where one source of electrons could be split into the necessary three beams that were then focussed toward the screen from three different directions. I don't recall any with two, that would not work for full color.
It's that I had a reminiscence from my studies, but if it's true then it was about oscilloscopes, not common monitors. (I was thinking if it really could not function that way, because in the end the trasmitted colors are 2 (2 differences), but then there is the third black and white signal, so no, it would not function, but I was really talking about the entire electron guns block replicated in another position, so you have all the three colors two times)

So "someone" said what I cared for, that

Quote:
CRTs are useful for displaying photos with high pixels per unit area and correct color balance. LCDs, as currently the most common flatscreen technology, have generally inferior color rendition(despite having greater overall brightness) due to the fluorescent lights commonly used as a backlight.[44]

CRTs are still popular in the printing and broadcasting industries as well as in the professional video, photography, and graphics fields due to their greater color fidelity, contrast, and better viewing from off-axis (wider viewing angle). CRTs also still find adherents in video gaming because of their higher resolution per initial cost, lowest possible input lag, fast response time, and multiple native resolutions.[45] 

After that there is about a page of cons of the crts, but who cares Sticking out tongue By the way it doesn't seems very up to date, because it says nothing about led lit lcds, oh jeez.

About the brightness I would like to do some search because I'm not so persuaded, for now, that a lcd could be brighter than a crt. I'll see.

 


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It is not the curvature of a

It is not the curvature of a CRT glass itself that annoys me, it is when the adjustment or correction of a CRT is not so good and straight lines in the image become curved, or the spacing of lines becomes uneven. That simply cannot happen in any form of digital display, LCD, eInk, plasma, etc.

If you look at it from straight in front, it shouldn't matter if the actual glass is flat or curved.

Oscilloscopes would normally only have one 'gun', because they are not usually using color.

I recall some CROs (not monitors or TVs) got colored traces by using special phosphors on the screen that varied in color when hit with stronger or weaker electron beams. That would be much better than using dot matrix for color, which would limit the sharpness. But that was a long time ago.

I have an oscilloscope now which uses a black-and-white LCD screen. Digital memory and screens makes what used to be very expensive, namely storage oscilloscpes, which can capture and keep displaying the shape of a single pulse, very easy. As an electronics engineer, I used oscilloscopes a lot, and still occasionally use the one I have for testing electrical/electronic equipment I have.

The angle of view variation with LCD's is annoying, but is now mainly a problem with laptops, because to make the variation small they need to use stronger (denser) LCD filters, which means stronger back-lighting is needed, which means more power, which would reduce battery life quite a bit. I can see it on my laptop, but with the LCD on my desktop computer, I can see no obvious variation of color even looking at it from well off to the side.

I am very familiar with color accuracy problems, because I have worked with programs for adjusting the dsiplay of color images for printing, and used color measuring and calibration devices, and even written programs which used them to color-calibrate displays and printers.

 

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I doubt that an LED back light is going to give you better color.

 

This is an issue which comes up in the aquarium community from time to time. Basically, “white” LEDs are not really white. Most commonly, white LEDs are really blue and yellow on the same silicon.

 

I suppose if someone makes an RGB matrix for the back light, then the colors would be about as close as you can get to CRT reproduction but I have not heard of anyone doing that.

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Answers in Gene Simmons

Answers in Gene Simmons wrote:

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }

I doubt that an LED back light is going to give you better color.

 

This is an issue which comes up in the aquarium community from time to time. Basically, “white” LEDs are not really white. Most commonly, white LEDs are really blue and yellow on the same silicon.

 

I suppose if someone makes an RGB matrix for the back light, then the colors would be about as close as you can get to CRT reproduction but I have not heard of anyone doing that.

 

The main color difference between LEDs and CRT phosphors is that the LED's tend to be narrower in spectral width, but as long as they each (R, G, and B) independently stimulate the appropriate color cells in the eye. they should be capable of being adjusted to give just as good a color reproduction of images as CRTs. That would indeed require that separate red and green LEDs were used rather than a single yellow one.

The narrow band certainly does mean that most 'white' LEDs do not give 'natural' illumination. It is the same with ordinary flourescent lamps, which have very irregular spectra.

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I understand that Bob. That human perception can be fooled is not the point that I was addressing to luca though.

 

While a CCFL back light tends to have whatever spectrum it is engineered to have, at least the white ones do have the correct values present to work with the RGB LEDs in front of them. However, the “peakiness” if I may, of white LEDs will possibly become relevent when trying to back light the color generating layer as the red and green light is not present in the back light source.

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radofin aquarius?

Quote:
It is not the curvature of a CRT glass itself that annoys me, it is when the adjustment or correction of a CRT is not so good and straight lines in the image become curved, or the spacing of lines becomes uneven. That simply cannot happen in any form of digital display, LCD, eInk, plasma, etc.
Ok

Answers in Gene Simmons wrote:
I doubt that an LED back light is going to give you better color.

 

This is an issue which comes up in the aquarium community from time to time. Basically, “white” LEDs are not really white. Most commonly, white LEDs are really blue and yellow on the same silicon.

 

I suppose if someone makes an RGB matrix for the back light, then the colors would be about as close as you can get to CRT reproduction but I have not heard of anyone doing that.

This was for me?

I was not talking about illumination and color, but brightness. By the way I effectively saw some data and concluded that lcds are brighter than lcds. A little strange, it seemed to me, but hey that's true.


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Can someone here explain how

Can someone here explain how I get an image from my files in a post.  I drew a picture of what a genetically enhanced human might look like inspired by the book, I want to see what you guys think. 

 


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NoMoreCrazyPeople wrote:Can

NoMoreCrazyPeople wrote:

Can someone here explain how I get an image from my files in a post.  I drew a picture of what a genetically enhanced human might look like inspired by the book, I want to see what you guys think. 

You need to get it onto a server that you can link to. I have access to space on my ISP's server, which is how I do it.

I just checked, and you can upload images to a separate area on RRS - look in the list at the top left of the RRS page, under 'Create Content', and you should see "image' as one of the options. 

Once you get an image posted there, it is possible to link to it from a normal post.

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I'm a guest on Ardent Atheist tonight!

 

Hello, Everybody!

 

I wanted to let you all know that I will be a guest tonight on New Dissident Radio’s Ardent Atheist show hosted by comedian and filmmaker Emery Emery at 7 PM PST. The other guests will be the very funny stand-up comics, John Fugelsang, Taylor Williamson and Matt Kirshen! I hope I can get a word in between the laughter about Traveling in Space! Be aware that this is a no-holds-barred show when it comes to language and thoughts, so if you are easily offended I do not recommend you listen in.  http://www.newdissidentradio.com/ 

 

It will later be available as a podcast on iTunes.

 

Best to all,

 

Steven


 

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I use photobucket for my

I use photobucket for my images.  It only take a couple of seconds for each pic to upload, then go to your album and click on the field that says "direct link" it will copy to your clipboard automatically.

 

Then when you get to the part of the forum where you write a post, click on the icon that looks like the sun rising over a couple of mountains and paste the link into the first field.  Click on OK and you are good to go.

 

Or you can host pics on our sever.  On the top left of any forum page, under your user name click "create content" and then click "image".

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PASOB wrote: Hello,

PASOB wrote:

 

Hello, Everybody!

 

I wanted to let you all know that I will be a guest tonight on New Dissident Radio’s Ardent Atheist show hosted by comedian and filmmaker Emery Emery at 7 PM PST. The other guests will be the very funny stand-up comics, John Fugelsang, Taylor Williamson and Matt Kirshen! I hope I can get a word in between the laughter about Traveling in Space! Be aware that this is a no-holds-barred show when it comes to language and thoughts, so if you are easily offended I do not recommend you listen in.  http://www.newdissidentradio.com/ 

 

It will later be available as a podcast on iTunes.

 

Best to all,

 

Steven

Cool, that's coming up in the next few hours, eh? 10 PM Eastern.

Still reading TIS. Great stuff. I'll write up my review when I'm done.

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 Hey it worked.  Thanks. 

 

Hey it worked.  Thanks.  Still have some final dark shading to do and I have to take a picture during the day with a better camera for the final look that will really pop and I'll repost it here.  The idea I had to achieve some effect of unusual genetically enhanced gorgeousness was to elongate the female torso by about 5 inches, legs by 6, neck by 2, smaller hands with longer more elegant fingers, impossibly small waiste in porportion to height, very large eyes with quarter sizes irises, very high cheek bone...  She would not be able to bear children or even stand up if she were human, but she isn't.  Her muscle is more concentrated, she is very strong.  She would be about 6ft 2 or so, and wouldn't weigh more than 120lbs.  The idea, inspired by the book, is that if you saw her in real life, her body porportions and sharp perfectly simetrical face would make you drop your jaw and you would be compelled to stare.   What do you guys think, did I do the concept any justice?  I don't think any illustration could really do the idea of genetically enhaced humanoids justice, but me and Steven were talking about it over emails and I thought I'd give it a shot.

 


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Hey, just finished listening

Hey, just finished listening the Ardent Atheist live. Missed the first part, but got a lot of the discussion on your book. 

Bit of 'spoiling' for me, I haven't got back to it for a few days - very busy now that my house is being sold, gotta get my stuff sorted and packed.

But not so bad, I should still enjoy it.

I will try and catch the first part via podcast or whatever.

On the later part of the show, I really can't agree with the guy who claimed the Bible had some great 'Truths', even while he admitted alot of the events were not true.

I know what he meant, but I think the few 'true' sentiments expressed are not particularly special to the Bible, not even necessarily expressed all that well, even in the KJV, and way over-shadowed by all the very bad messages.

 

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Nice work dude.  Although I

Nice work dude.  Although I like mine a bit thicker.

 

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Nice work dude.  Although I like mine a bit thicker.

 

Me too, that's the point.  Although you would be floored by her impossible body, you would find it "stretched"  at first, but they would find even our "longest" women a little "stumpy," the same way we would find homo erectus women a little stumpy and broad, homo erectus men would find our tall thin women especially georgous although they'de probably find them a little strange looking at the same time.  I wanted to illustrate something different than just a tall/thin human.   This was just my take on it anyway, they would look a little disorted to us, but at the same time irresistably gorgeous. 

 

I imagined while I drew that this alien womans walk would be so elegant it would be like she was floating.  Her body so different you would just want to poke her stomach to see what it felt like. 


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Also, I am bereft having finished the book a week ago and not yet posting my review.

 

This was a refreshing read like few others. I see some intersection between this book and Robert A. Heinlein, Spider Robinson and Harry Turtledove. Not that that is a bad thing. My own sci fi work has been favorably compared to that of Michael Crichton and there was certainly no attempt on my part to emulate. It just happens.

 

The alien race was clearly well planned before the actual writing work began. Certainly no “make it up as you go along” seems to have happened. Rather, the back story was revealed slowly like peeling an onion one layer at a time.

 

The climactic scene was very well done. In deference to anyone who has not yet finished it, I shall post no spoiler. However, it was really interesting to see what effect contact with humans had on the aliens.

 

I do have one nit on that scene that your rocket scientist editor should have picked up though. Newton's third law of motion should be immediately relevant the moment the pilot does what he did. Hundreds of individuals should be immediately subject to a few hundred foot pounds of force in random directions. They should disperse through the available volume on random trajectories.

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BobSpence1 wrote:Hey, just

BobSpence1 wrote:
Hey, just finished listening the Ardent Atheist live. Missed the first part, but got a lot of the discussion on your book. 

 

I will try and catch the first part via podcast or whatever.

 

Well, I will not go anywhere near itunes myself but the website has downloadable archives.  It should be up for free in a week.

 

I think that you will like the discussion that they had.  I got a new bit of data from that which I find interesting.  Matthew 6:1-8 specifically addresses public prayer.  Not in the way that the idiots who want it would like.  Pretty much it is forbidden.  In fact, it is the text which immediately precedes the "lord's prayer".  From the point of view of being in synch, you would think that they really ought to be aware of the fact.

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Traveling in Space - ardent atheist

 finally got around to hearing the ardent atheist podcast you were on Steven. 

Very good.

 

The Christian, John Fugelsang, on there was also interesting. If Jesus was a real person I would agree with his assessment of who he was, which is unrecognizable in todays' Christian.

 

http://newdissidentradio.com/ardent_atheist.html

 

Oct 19, episode 036. 

Religion Kills !!!

Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/


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 Hello ex-minister!

 

I found Fugelsang funny (he is a stand-up comic after all) and passionate in his thoughts, but -- if I had been quick enough -- I wish I had made the point that he seemed to be talking about Jesus the social philosopher (or fictional character representing a social philosophy), not Christ the supposed supernatural son-of-god.  He's basically a deeply liberal guy who has -- as I said in the show -- the simple sentiment of rationality (in William James's words) that there is a god.  It possibly comes from growing up Catholic.  He finds in the metaphors of the New Testament (a nice indication that it's fiction, like Homer) a good, liberal philosophy on how we should live and care for each other, and uses that to counter Christian that use the Bible as a sledgehammer to promote their much more conservative philosophy.  For that he should be commended.  But I don't think he's really addressed the core question of why he believes in a supernatural being.

 

Best,

 

 

Steven Paul Leiva


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 Answers in Gene --  If i

 Answers in Gene --  If i have not already thanked you for these kind comments, I do so now!  And -- as you will have gotten an email about, and I'll post info here later -- as the book is now available as a trade paperback on Amazon, I would appreciate it if you could post a review on its Amazon page. Reader's reviews are one of the fun things on a book's page, so I hope you can do it.  And don't hesitate to take me to task for my Newtonian mistake. As the author I claim "poetic license."  I don't know what my publisher's excuse is.

Thanks for taking the time to preview and read my novel. It is truly appreciated.

 

Best,

Steven Paul Leiva


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Agreed

 I agree. It was very hard to get a word in edge-wise on that. It would have been interesting to press him.

Religion Kills !!!

Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/


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Hey it worked -- and I love her!

NoMoreCrazyPeople sent this to me, and I'm crazy about it.  I can't wait to see his finished version.  I'm impressed by his thinking behind his choices, a lovely melding of the Right brain and the Left brain.

And his Sheila, besides being beautiful in a wonderfully exotic way, still looks intelligent and -- true to my character -- nobody's fool.

When done, he's going to let me post this on my blog with his explanation of his process.  That's going to be fun!

 I'm honored that he took the time to do this.

 Best to all,

 

 

Steven Paul Leiva


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Thanks, Natural

 

Thanks for the kind comments, Natural. I look forward to your full review -- and I hope you'll post it on the book's Amazon page as well.

 

Best,

Steven Paul Leiva


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 Yes, Bob Spence -- you got

 

Yes, Bob Spence -- you got the truth of the tightrope I was on exactly right!  I hope I didn't fall off -- and I hope you enjoy the rest of the book.

 

Best,

Steven Paul Leiva


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An Update on Traveling in Space

Those of you who have downloaded Traveling in Space got an email with this update, but I thought I would share it with the others.  A few free downloads are still available, so if you think you would be interested email me at [email protected] and I'll be happy to send you the link.

 

 

Traveling in Space is Now Available

 

 

“Steven Leiva not only promises, but delivers!” — Ray Bradbury

 

“Leiva’s immense gifts are matched only by his wry, biting wit” — Paul Provenza; author of ¡Satiristas!, director of The Aristocrats, host of Showtime's The Green Room with Paul Provenza.

 

“Wry humor, intellectual insight and terrific story telling are the consistent signatures of Leiva’s work.” — Ken Kragen, legendary Hollywood producer/manager and space buff

 

“This book is bloody brilliant!” — Nate, “NoMoreCrazyPeople”

on the Rational Response Squad Forum

 

Trade paperback $16.95 on Amazon.com: Traveling in Space, by Steven Paul Leiva

 

eBook (PDF format) $4.95 on Blüroof Press, for KindleFire, iPad, Android tablets, smart phones, and your computer! Order here: http://sites.fastspring.com/bluroof/product/traveling. The 

 

Kindle eBook Version Coming soon

 

I have just posted the preface to Traveling in Space on my blog. It’s about naughty space aliens, nice space aliens -- and my aliens. Find it here:.http://stevenpaulleivasthisnthat.blogspot.com/2011/10/preface-to-traveling-space.html

 

And I’ve been have fun promoting the book. 

 

I was a guest on New Dissident Radio's always very funny Ardent Atheist show on October 19th hosted by the bright and smart Emery Emery and co-hosted by the bright, smart and lovely Heather Henderson. The other two guests were the stand-up comics, the passionately funny John Fugelsang and the dryly witty Taylor Williamson. We talked about Jesus and my new novel, TRAVELING IN SPACE. You'll notice which one I put in all caps. You can listen to the show here: http://www.newdissidentradio.com/archives/ardent/2011/october/ardent-101911.mp3 . But be aware that this is a no-holds-barred show when it comes to language and thoughts, so if you are easily offended I do not recommend you listen in.

 

Also you can now see me reading a short bit from Traveling in Space for GuerrillaReads, The online video literary magazine. You can see it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7nCe9-BUG4A#!

 

Upcoming Events

 

November 20 - 2 PM -- I’ll be doing a launch book signing of TIS at Christine and Malcolm Bell’s wonderful Mystery & Imagination Bookstore (http://www.mysteryandimagination.com/) in Glendale, which LA Weekly has just named “Best Specialty Bookstore for 2011” http://www.laweekly.com/bestof/2011/award/best-specialty-bookstore-1513741/

Invitations will go out soon.

 

February 26, 2012 - 11 AM -- I will be the guest speaker and signing books at the Expressing freethought through the arts February meeting of Atheists United (http://www.atheistsunited.org/) at Center for Inquiry-West, Steve Allen Theatre, 4773 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90027

 

AND Traveling in Space has a Facebook page (so who doesn’t?).  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Traveling-in-Space-by-Steven-Paul-Leiva/247835125228907 

Best to you all,

 

Steven

 

 

 


 

Steven Paul Leiva


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PASOB wrote: Thanks for the

PASOB wrote:

 

Thanks for the kind comments, Natural. I look forward to your full review -- and I hope you'll post it on the book's Amazon page as well.

 

Best,

Oh, yes. It will be on Amazon. It will be. <evil laugh> 

Wonderist on Facebook — Support the idea of wonderism by 'liking' the Wonderism page — or join the open Wonderism group to take part in the discussion!

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Ill not be gentle

 

Quote:
Those of you who have downloaded Traveling in Space got an email with this update, but I thought I would share it with the others.  A few free downloads are still available, so if you think you would be interested email me at [email protected] and I'll be happy to send you the link.

My turn nao finger

 


 

Did you guys read the note "Traveling in Space is a work of fiction and any resemblance..."?

Hehe I knew it would rock from before the beginning! That was exactly what I was looking for!


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luca wrote: Quote:Those of

luca wrote:

 

Quote:
Those of you who have downloaded Traveling in Space got an email with this update, but I thought I would share it with the others.  A few free downloads are still available, so if you think you would be interested email me at [email protected] and I'll be happy to send you the link.

My turn nao finger

 


 

Did you guys read the note "Traveling in Space is a work of fiction and any resemblance..."?

Hehe I knew it would rock from before the beginning! That was exactly what I was looking for!

 

Hey, Luca!  Glad to found that little bit I added. It's fun when readers discover these little nuggets writers enjoy dropping!

For everyone else -- it can be found on the copyright page.

Best to all,

Steven

 

Steven Paul Leiva