BAN #423: Kaiju Preservation, LMGTFY

[Hubble image of NGC 3603. Credit: NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell (UVa), F. Paresce (NIA, Bologna, Italy), E. Young (USRA/Ames Research Center), the WFC3 Science Oversight Committee, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)]

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Book ’em

Sometimes I read books

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time you probably know that John Scalzi is an old friend of mine.

Oh, excuse me: New York Times best-selling author John Scalzi.

John’s widely known for both his social media stuff and the fact that he’s one of the most deservedly popular science-fiction writers today. The Old Man’s War series is great, and if you’re a Star Trek fan and haven’t read Redshirts then you need to fix that, pronto.

John’s latest book is called Kaiju Preservation Society (affiliate link), and honestly when I first heard that title I knew right away I was going to love the book.

I was right. Duh. John writing giant monster fiction? Yes.

[Kaiju Preservation Society cover. Credit: Tor books]

John’s written about the book a bit on his blog Whatever. It’s doing pretty dang well.

I won’t spoil anything — writing reviews is always a little tough for me because I’m a pretty big stickler for this — but yeah, it’s got giant monsters and mayhem and even some nominally plausible science in it. There are some obvious reality problems with having humans involved with hundred-meter-tall kaijus which are routinely ignored in the movies, but John at least goes to the trouble of saying something about them, even if you have to laugh and think, OK, John, sure. But really when it’s a book about — and I may have mentioned this — hundred-meter-tall kaijus that’s about all you really need.

The book is a lot of fun and fully intended to be a light, breezy read, and on that score he succeeds very well. He describes it as the literary equivalent of a pop song: fun and bouncy and you feel good while you’re in it. He’s not trying to change the world; he’s trying to stomp it.

And I do need to add that there was a delightful surprise in it on page 143 (mild but not plot-related spoiler):

[Hey, I know that guy!]

Ah well, maybe next time. On the other hand it’s a lot more fun to watch kaiju movies and read books about them then actually, y’know, stand next to one. So I’m good.

So’s the book. Buy it.

Blog Jam

What I’ve recently written on the blog, ICYMI

[Fully focused test images from all of JWST’s cameras. From Friday’s article. Credit: NASA / STScI]

Monday 25 April, 2022:  Jupiter's moon Europa is covered in weird double ridges. Now one's been spotted in Greenland

Tuesday 26 April, 2022: A baby binary star may be forming three different planetary systems around it

Wednesday 27 April, 2022: Did a whopping huge impact at its south pole cause our Moon to be two-faced?

Thursday 28 April, 2022: Arrakis it ain’t, but Jupiter’s moon Io may create volcanic explosive steam-driven dunes

Friday 29 April, 2022: JWST is now fully focused

Piece of mind

I have opinions. I try to base them on evidence.

I’d like to take a moment to make an obvious if somewhat delicate point.

I post a lot. On my blog, on Twitter, here on the newsletter. I also try to interact with readers via comments, responses, all that. It’s fun, and I enjoy it. Bear that in mind while you read this.

Having said that, I get a lot of questions online. A lot. And not just on the three venues listed above, but also via email. I'm not sure how many, exactly, but dozens every week. Enough that, were I to answer each one with the clarity and depth needed, it would take up a significant chunk of time. More than I have.

I do try to answer many of these questions. However, there is a broad category of question I get that makes me want to facepalm/headdesk/play in traffic. These are what I think of as LMGTFY questions.

LMGTFY is Let Me Google That For You. In other words, a question that can easily be answered by typing it into Google. You know: The world’s largest search engine that also is so popular it became a verb. [Duck Duck Go is in some ways better when it comes to security and other issues though.]

OK, snark aside, seriously, I understand the desire for the human touch, the human perspective, and the human connection. Asking a human a question is different than asking a machine, and I appreciate that and agree whole-heartedly. But there are many, many questions that a machine can answer more easily, more thoroughly, and simply better than I can. Factual questions, mostly, like, how wide are Saturn’s rings, or what’s the brightest star in the sky.

The flip side of this are matters of opinion (of which I have many), matters of a fuzzy nature (like, why do I think we don’t need a definition of the word “planet”), or things that are just hard to look up but might be easy for the human brain to retrieve (like, “what kind of cloud did I see today?”). I like to help with those if I can.

We learn about the Universe around us by asking questions. Science is all about asking questions (and not flinching from the answers nature provides when queried). So please. ask away! But before you do, ask yourself: Is this a question better to ask a human, or a computer?

And that's a question only you can answer.

Et alia

You can email me at [email protected] (though replies can take a while), and all my social media outlets are gathered together at about.me. Also, if you don’t already, please subscribe to this newsletter! And feel free to tell a friend or nine, too. Thanks!