This Is Awful. I Just Looked It Up And Koi Fish Can Live More Than 200 Years, The Oldest On Record Being

How much of YW was planned from the beginning? E.g. did you know about Bobo when you were still writing SYWTBAW?

Nope. Bobo happened along the way.

I did know from the very beginning that this was going to be a series (contrary to some people’s beliefs, especially the ones who consider the closure at the end of High Wizardry very complete). But initially I wasn’t sure where I was going with it except in very general terms. By the end of Deep Wizardry, though, I was starting to get some ideas of some things that were going to have to happen, and of how much further this could go if I got lucky and the sales were good enough to keep me at the same publisher. …But then the publisher (Dell) changed hands (managerially) and “changed directions”, as they like to say, and just after I turned in High Wizardry they started the process of offloading all their midlist authors and concentrating their attention and promotion on their bestselling writers. (In the process, for example, throwing Jane Yolen overboard. How stupid can you get?)

There has never been any overarching blueprint or master outline. But as I was working on HW I started to see the path ahead much more clearly. (Which got kind of frustrating when Dell dumped me; A Wizard Abroad wound up being published first in the UK, by Transworld / Corgi, and then by the SF Book Club, before Jane went on to wrangle the new YA imprint at Harcourt and bring me aboard). While I was working on Abroad I already knew that the events of The Wizard’s Dilemma would have to happen, and could see the difficulties that would come of them; and while I was working on Dilemma, the arc that kicks off in Holiday solidified a lot further. And so forth. This is the way it always seems to go in this series: things build and develop in three- or four-book stages, pulling in data from earlier books and making more sense of them in the overall picture.

Yet it would also be true to say that one specific issue-arc that launched in SYWTBAW has not yet paid off, has been more or less constantly on my mind since 1983, and will finally start its resolution in book 11. And whatever you’re thinking it is, I guarantee you that’s not what I have in mind. Seriously: this particular thing, no one will have seen coming. Promise.

There… that should make everybody crazy enough for one day.

“Even without the high angle of a few moments ago to give the Sun something to reflect from, there was no mistaking the small, angular shape hunkered down against the rising ground in the near distance, its little camera pole sticking up…

…there was no use kicking up more dust on the hardworking little machine- it had more than enough trouble with what the winter dust storms left layered on its solar panels. The scientists at NASA had for the past couple of years been surprised and pleased that the Spirit and Opportunity rovers had managed to keep working for so long: mostly, they theorized, because of passing dust devils that blew the accumulated storm dust off them. The wizards who came up here every now and then with cans of compressed air and puffer brushes while the probes were asleep were delighted to let the scientists think that- and careful not to remove enough dust at any one time as to make them suspicious.”

-Diane Duane @dduane, A Wizard of Mars

Scale of Universe Measured with 1-Percent Accuracy

An ultraprecise new galaxy map is shedding light on the properties of dark energy, the mysterious force thought to be responsible for the universe’s accelerating expansion.

Image: An artist’s concept of the latest, highly accurate measurement of the universe from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. The spheres show the current size of the “baryon acoustic oscillations” (BAOs) from the early universe, which have helped to set the distribution of galaxies that we see in the universe today. BAOs can be used as a “standard ruler” (white line) to measure the distances to all the galaxies in the universe. Credit: Zosia Rostomian, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

A team of researchers working with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) has determined the distances to galaxies more than 6 billion light-years away to within 1 percent accuracy — an unprecedented measurement.

"There are not many things in our daily lives that we know to 1-percent accuracy," David Schlegel, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the principal investigator of BOSS, said in a statement. "I now know the size of the universe better than I know the size of my house."

NASA on Tumblr, http://n-a-s-a.tumblr.com/

This is why it's important to keep notes

Because I’d forgotten how I coined this word:

Peridexis (tweeted on 5/11/2010)

"Peridexis" is a pun, out of the "dexis/-on/-ontis" root (skill, expertise, dexterity) and "deixis/on/ontis" (display, demonstration, a reference or reference work"). The "peri-" suggests that the solution is temporary or unusual.

…Now if I can just find the note explaining how I coined mochteroof, my life will be complete. (I have a vague memory that both Coptic and Greek were involved, but I’m not sure any more…)

Thank the Powers for Evernote: that’s all I can say.

Today’s Cards Against Errantry card!

Like this card? Wish you could use it in a real-life game with fellow cousins? Then make sure to get your badge (and reserve your room) for CrossingsCon 2016.

The Journey to Mars Begins Tomorrow

NASA is preparing for the first test flight of the Orion crew vehicle set for an unmanned launch on Dec. 4 at 7:05 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Orion spacecraft is designed to eventually take astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit to destinations never explored by humans. It will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to distant planetary bodies, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel, and provide safe reentry from deep space.

This mission is the first of three trial runs that the Orion mission must overcome before NASA deems it safe enough for human space travel. 

The next test flights in 2018 and 2021 will use NASA’s Space Launch System rocket (SLS), which is currently in development. When it’s finished, SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built, boasting even more thrust than the Saturn V booster that blasted astronauts toward the moon in the Apollo era.  

The spacecraft will launch atop a Delta IV Heavy, a rocket built and operated by United Launch Alliance. While this launch vehicle will allow Orion to reach an altitude high enough to meet the objectives for this test, a much larger, human-rated rocket will be needed for the vast distances of future exploration missions.

Exploration Flight Test-1, will mark the farthest distance traveled by a human spaceflight vehicle since 1972 made by Apollo 17.

During its grueling four-and-half-hour test mission, NASA’s Orion space capsule must shoot 3,600 miles away from Earth (15 times higher than the International Space Station!), orbit the planet twice, and brave a thick belt of cosmic radiation. 

Upon re-entry it must deploy 11 parachutes to slow down from 20,000 miles per hour to 20 mph, while withstanding 4,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. 

Check out these incredible photos from the development and testing of the spacecraft.

Countdown, launch and mission coverage will begin at 4:30 a.m. on NASA TV which is available on air and streaming at nasa.gov/nasatv

It started out as a quick sketch… 4 days later! It’s a scene from one of my favorite books, #SoYouWantToBeAWizard by #dduane #ballpoint #sketch #illustration #dragon #youngwizards

Sharks may not be as solitary as originally thought. Researchers have discovered the fish congregating and interacting with others of their own species in ways that suggest they have long-lasting friendships.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TANYA HOUPPERMANS