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Colin P. Davies

Welcome to the eighth year of Beam Me Up! Episode 366 is the first episode of the eighth yeah and who knows what will happen this year!

This week’s program starts with former ISS commander Chris Hadfield, who among his other talents, is an accomplished musician, performs David Bowie’s Major Tom while aboard the ISS.   Even Bowie himself said that it was one of the most poignant renditions of his song and the video is beautiful. Well I can’t play the video, but I do have it on the blog (you can find it on Youtube as well.

Flash from the past again this week, I rejoin Fritz Leiber’s 1960 tale, No Great Magic. This week is chapter four.

From news this week, info on 1998 QE2, the 1.7 mile asteroid, makes it’s closest pass May 31.

From Earth Sky, where does the solar system fall in place among the stars of the Milky-Way? How many sunsets and sun rises would you see on the moon in a month…? And scientists succeed in storing data in DNA.

Boston Dynamics now has PETMAN! The video is wild! Do you remember Skylab?

I review the animated feature Lady Death.

I finish with Colin Davies’ very inventive tale, The Fighter.

All in all, a good start to the new year.

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David Sholes

Another hour that just flies by.

I play the conclusion of David Scholes Trath: The Final intervention, just to make sure that I get in them in this week.

Next from the blog and Kallimus: Trouble with the ISS coolant  again, Ray Harryhousen has passed away at 92, Neil DeGrasse- Tyson has a web site that promotes his radio program Startalk and YouTube videos, there is a link on the wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com BMU blog.   A company has developed a  bulletin board that sends two messages, one to adults and one to children in a call to help reduce child abuse. Check out the blog for more information.

Earth Sky articles are next, the Milky-way, asteroids, temporary moons and Earth’s shadow are on tap.

I review the live action version of Death Note.

And finally, chapter 3 of No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber a  novelette from the sixties.

That is it! I hop you enjoy this week’s offering of Beam Me Up.

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David Sholes

This week I start off with a new track from John Anealio called Zombinista which has a decidedly 50s or 60s zombie flick.

Next I read Kallamis’ weekly run down of weekly happenings.

First it’s Curiosity’s return to operation. Next it is alien planets tidally locked planets orbiting red dwarf stars. In Sci-fi news the st-tng’s bridge is being rebuilt. TMNT are NOT aliens it would seem! Fantastic Four reboot may be problematic?

I do a follow up on space trash. This week we learn that the Fermi space telescope was almost destroyed by space junk!

David Scholes sends in a new story in the Trathh arc. “Trathh: The Final confrontations” Due to the run time, I was only able to play the first part.

In Earth_Sky news, Cassini has returned some exciting news on Titan. Jovian Trojan asteroids are in the news this week and maybe the discovery of the worlds oldest Dinosaur records.

IBM researchers have created a film that sets the records for the smallest stop motion film.

I review the anime movie Redline which is an over the top racing movie.

Hey, have you heard about Google’s Glass? The head mounted computer that Google has great hopes for.

NASA has extended their contract with Russian space services for a mind numbing…weeeeeeeeell it is half of what a stealth bomber cost…so maybe not numbing, it is just money that could have served a better purpose….like doing it ourselves..hummm?

And finally – in our flash from the past – chapter 2 of Fritz Leibers No Great Magic!

And that folks is the podcast. Yes, I know it is a bit longer than the radio program, but I wanted to add in several features, that I didn’t have time for on the radio.

Enjoy, and thanks for listening.

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Fritz Leiber

Wow does Beam Me Up episode 363 steam right along this week!

It was really a case of not being able to get a word in sideways because of all the stuff I had planned!

I start by well raving a bit about the new spaceport….but mediate it some with the closing song to season one’s A Scientific Rail-gun called “Dear My Love” I know, but it is a toe tappin tune that makes for a cool piece. I like the anime as well even though it incorporates all the standard High School short skirt big …..eyes, pantie fixation and odd powers. But something about the characters is captivating. Hey it is no High School of the Dead…but then few are.

Earth Sky this week covers Cassini’s work at Saturn’s moon Titan and who can get bored about any information about the mysterious and weird as the harmless sounding as a white dwarf?

Star trek trivia is next on the card. This week, Tribbles the open monologue, the premiere episode?

Kallimus again collects some of the top science and science-fiction news, which I read. Meteorites and space junk among others this week.

This week I though some golden age science fiction might be in order. No Great Magic ch.1 by Fritz Leiber from the Librivox project.

See? Like I said, little over an hour and it steams! Enjoy!

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Robert Lee Frazier

This week on Beam Me Up episode 362

Kallamus joins us once again for his entry in the blog for his weekly round up.

I review the anime dvd series Gantz. This 12 dvd set may not be for everyone but if you like large servings of slash and smash……

I found a small article that deals with a large subject Book Banning. In this case it is the top 10 banned and challenged SF book! I may have run on a bit here……

It seems everyone is excited about the possibilities of if not life at the very least all the needed parameters needed to support life on the newly discovered Kepler 62e and 62f are Earth like rocky worlds that contain liquid water possibly on their surface….. Very exciting indeed!

A dig in china has yielded some very exciting embryonic dinosaur fossils that may radically change our understanding of many of the up to now animals of little know about their early stages.

The story this week is “The Hunted” by Robert Lee Frazier concerning a bounty hunter and his “prey” who develop a most unusual relationship.

And that is it for this week. Enjoy

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Jason Kahn

After a short intro, I spend about ten minutes in my opening with a discussion. This week, why I feel the force you call gravity does not exist in the classical sense. At least according to the first law of motion…and some of the second. You can write comments to me btw at beammeuppodcast@gmail.com or go to the blog at wrfrbeamEup.blogspot.com and make your thoughts known on the weekly show description.

From there….

Episode 19 of Jason Kahn’s series In Plain Sight. This week, psychic detective Jack Garrett has become interested in a mysterious back room, but to gain entrance he must face a man why himself also fairly crackles with psychic energy. Jack it would seem has his “work” cut out for him.

The Original Star Trek (tost) is next in line as I find interesting Star Trek trivia from my favorite Star Trek trivia book. Some interesting facts to be had, to be sure.

Next Earth_Sky reports on the Lyrid April 16-26 2013

Kallamus is back with his weekly rundown, starts with a returning DBZ. NASA has submitted its’ 2013 budget, one really exciting news about an asteroid capture, tow and then explore!

First ever discovery of a black hole chowing down on a rogue planet! Io has some wildly different volcanic activity! Kallamus finds a site that shows how the planets would appear if they were in the same place as our moon. It is a stunning effect! Kall found some really good info on the “Man of Steel” movie. And finally Kall has a run at conspiracy when they take aim at a clothing tester and that somehow has been twisted into terminators of all things!

Finally I read Having Survived an Apocalypse by Mini Khaw a story I read for the online flash fiction site Antipodean.

All in all, I think this week’s program was great fun. I hope you think so too!

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David Sholes

After the intro, I spend a moment doing my favorite subject “did you know?” I love to pull this on people all the time.

The first story I read this afternoon is the conclusion to Michael Blumlein’s “Know How Can Do” and I know you will apriciate the ending of this story as much as I did.
Earth-Sky is winding down, but they managed to have several articles this week. Excellent article on Galaxies caught in the act of accreting star material. The Dawn spacecraft continues to turn in good stuff as it continues to orbit the huge asteroid Vesta and finally the sun continues to build activity as evidenced by it’s continued sunspots and flares.
Of course you know I have to do Star Trek Trivia! And the stuff I find out is astounding! I am coming to believe that I must have been watching another show! lol
Before the last story, I spend some time bringing everyone up to speed on the Beam Me Up Blog at wrfr.beameup.blogspot.com. This week, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures of Curiosity when it landed but mostly what it took pics of was the heat shield, the skycrane and other items. Well the Nasa team is using the Hirise camera to take pictures of the parachute with surprising results! Next I have the list of this years Hugo Science Fiction Awards. Some good stuff there!
I finish with the most recent of the Trathh stories – Trathh – Intervention. This story is part of the Trathh series that David has been running on WRFR in Rockland Maine (WRFR.ORG) Next Month I will finish the series, but I honestly hope David will continue on with his great SF/F stories.

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KS Dearsley

This week on Beam Me Up episode 359, I am kind of all over the place. After the intro for this week’s program I read Kallamis’ weekly rundown of the events in science and science fiction that Kallamis has found interesting, from flights to the ISS to strange metorites and Independance Day sequals. It turns out that Independence Day is one of Xnewsman’s favorites for a couple of scenes in the movie.

From here I read our first of two stories.

The first is a melacoly tale from K. A. Dearsley called Salvage.

Next I serve up some Star Trek trivia With such diverse questions as Tribble origin’s to the original first episode.

I have some Earth_Sky news with some new Milky Way news and a mysterious ring system forming in a distant section of our Milky Way galaxy.

And while we are on the subject Courtney sent in an article describing a most unusual black hole / star pairing where the gravity around the black hole is whipping the star around in an orbit of over 1 million miles per hour!

To finish off the hour, I read part 5 of Know How – Can Do by Michael Blumlein.

and th th th th that’s all folks!

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Michael_Blumlein

I open the program this week with a birthday announcement. Yes this week we celebrate the bithday of one if not the greatest starship captains that have ever existed  Yes, the 22nd of March is the birth date for James T. Kirk. Captain of Galaxy class NCC-1401 Enterprise. Played larger than life by William Shatner. Kallamus writes : Shatner was born this day, in 1931, Montreal Quebec Canada.
Next, I found this short on Youtube for a company called SleepThinker that suggests that if you are bothered by dumb people than you are in a shrinking minority, it would be ever so easy to just join the majority and get dumb with their product minus-IQ. The sales pitch is beyond hilarious.
Kallimus once again gives us his weekly run-down of news. Kallimus covers everything from Apollo to a possible He-Man reboot.
Earth Sky articles are next – sun or light pillars, weather changes on Saturn’s Titan after Saturn experienced equinox and exo-planets may have larger Goldilocks zones that astronomers/scientists first thought.
I take a break here and do some star trek trivia. This week – Mr. Spock
Then it’s back to the Beam Me Up blog before finishing the hour with pt 4 of our story.
Space X does a successful test flight of the Grasshopper reusable launch and landing vehicle. Then an article sent to me by Xnewsman that discusses the ramifications of Earth being in the path of a Coronal Mass Ejection. I do a review of the animated feature The Book Of Kells which is a fantasy retelling of the creation of the Irish treasure – an illustrated book of the Bible called The Book of Kells.

Finally I play part 4 of Michael Blumlein’s Know How Can Do.

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Michael_Blumlein

First off, Yes this show is a bit short. On the original
program, I had exported all three parts to Mr. Blumlein’s
story instead of just the third part, so this version has
pretty much all the content I wanted….but shorter.
Anyway, I noted that there is this push by the do-it-yourself
folk towards very sophisticated instruments that can be built
from material around the house like construction paper and
cheap cameras. I noted an article that Ron had put on the
blog about paper adapters that could be taped over the camera
of a smart phone and thought that was pretty damn inventive! A
spectrogram out of paper and a smart phone!

Next I read contributor Kallamis’ Weekly Roundup which runs
the gamut from mini black holes to life in the universe. Yep
he sure aims high. I did thrown in an article KNLA ran on
their web site about findings from the mars rover Curiosity
which reported results very much the same, however the still
operational Opportunity’s data showed different results.

Earth-Sky is next on the agenda. On a dad note, Earth-Sky will
be closing down this summer after a spectacular run. They
will be difficult to replace. This week’s articles ALMA
telescope array is now fully functional. Next, research has
shown that there are tens of billion planets in orbit around
red dwarf stars in our own galaxy.

From there, I started this week’s story, part three of Michael
Blumlein’s Know How Can Do.

Sorry the program run short this week, I will be in better
shape next week.

Thanks for listening – enjoy