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Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason'' magazine. Benford wrote the Galactic Center Saga science fiction novels, beginning with '' In the Ocean of Night'' (1977). The series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient electromechanical life. In 1969 he wrote "The Scarred Man", Republished on author's website at http://www.gregorybenford.com/extra/the-scarred-man-returns/ . the first story about a computer virus (based on a real computer virus he had spread), published in 1970. Biography Benford was born in Mobile, Alabama and grew up in Robertsdale and Fairhope. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa, he received a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1963 from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, followed by a Master of Science ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobile's population increased to 204,689 residents, making it the List of municipalities in Alabama, second-most populous city in Alabama. Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area. Alabama's only saltwater port, Mobile is located on the Mobile River at the head of Mobile Bay on the north-central Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast. The Port of Mobile has always played a key role in the economic health of the city, beginning with the settlement as an important trading center between the French colonization of the Americas, French colonists and Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans, down to its current role as the 12th-largest port in the United States.Drechsel, Emanuel. ''Mobilian Jargon: Lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and to induct outstanding students of arts and sciences at select American colleges and universities. Since its inception, its inducted members include 17 President of the United States, United States presidents, 42 Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court justices, and 136 Nobel Prize, Nobel laureates. History Origins The Phi Beta Kappa Society had its first meeting on December 5, 1776, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia by five students, with John Heath as its first President. The society established the precedent for naming American college societies after the initial letters of a secret Greek motto. The group consisted of students who frequented the Raleigh Tavern as a common meeting ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Rotsler
Charles William Rotsler () was an American artist, cartoonist, Pornography, pornographer and science fiction author. Rotsler was a four-time Hugo Award winner and one-time Nebula Award nominee. Rotsler's papers including dozens of matted color drawings, unpublished manuscripts and sketchbooks of original artwork are part of the Eaton Collection at University of California, Riverside. Career Pornography From 1958, Rotsler was involved in the pornography industry, first as a stills photographer on the set of adult films, and later as a film director and actor. In 1966, Rotsler created ''Adam Film Quarterly'', later called ''Adam Film World'', as a sibling magazine to Knight Publishing's ''Adam'' magazine. ''Adam Film Quarterly'' featured female nudity but only simulated sex acts. The magazine also provided commentary about simulated pornography, which other media outlets would not cover. As a byproduct of his coverage of sexploitation films, Rostler earned a reputation as wr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but ''Amazing'' helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction. ''Amazing'' has been published, with some interruptions, for 98 years, going through a half-dozen owners and many editors as it struggled to be profitable. Gernsback was forced into bankruptcy and lost control of the magazine in 1929. In 1938 it was purchased by Ziff-Davis, which hired Raymond A. Palmer as editor. Palmer made the magazine successful though it was not regarded as a quality magazine within the science fiction community. In the late 1940s ''Amazing'' presented as fact stories about the Shaver Mystery, a lurid mythos that explained accidents and disaster as the work of robots named deros, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doris Pitkin Buck
Doris Pitkin Buck (January 3, 1898 – December 4, 1980"Doris P(itkin) Buck." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 31 July 2011.) was an American science fiction author. Born in New York City, she graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1920 and Columbia University with a master's degree in 1925. She was a stage actress before marrying architect, Richard Sutton Buck Jr. She taught English at Ohio State University and was a founding member of the Science Fiction Writers of America. She published numerous science fiction stories and poems, many of them in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction''. Buck started published at fifty-four with her first story, "Aunt Agatha" in the October 1952 ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.'' Her story "The Little Blue Weeds of Spring" from the June 1966 issue was a nominee on the first ballot for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Her story "Why They Mobbed the White House" appear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. The first issue was titled ''The Magazine of Fantasy'', but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. ''F&SF'' was quite different in presentation from the existing science-fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science-fiction historian Mike Ashley "set ''F&SF'' apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine". ''F&SF' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Located in Southern California along the Pacific Ocean, this seaside resort city has a mild year-round climate, scenic coves, and environmental preservation efforts. The population in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census was 23,032. Historically settled by Paleoindians, the Tongva people, and then Mexico, the location became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War. Laguna Beach was settled in the 1870s, officially founded in 1887, and in 1927 its current government was incorporated as a city. The city adopted the Council–manager government, council–manager form of government in 1944. The city has remained relatively isolated from urban encroachment by its surrounding hills, limited highway access, and dedicated Green belt, greenbelt. The Laguna Beach coastline is protected by of state marine protected area, marine reserve a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which is the belief that at least one deity exists. Historically, evidence of atheistic viewpoints can be traced back to classical antiquity and early Indian philosophy. In the Western world, atheism declined after Christianity gained prominence. The 16th century and the Age of Enlightenment marked the resurgence of atheistic thought in Europe. Atheism achieved a significant position worldwide in the 20th century. Estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a god range from 500 million to 1.1 billion people. Atheist organizations have defended the autonomy of science, freedom of thought, secularism, and secular ethics. Arguments for atheism range from philosophical to social approach ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Void (fanzine)
''Void'' was a major science fiction fanzine. It was started in the 1955 by Gregory Benford and his identical twin brother James (Jim) Benford, when they were living in Germany; then later co-edited by Gregory Benford, Ted White, Terry Carr, and Peter Graham. It is described in one reference work thus: "Void'' was the fanzine with many heads. Its many editors covered all aspects of fanac Fanac is a fan slang term (from fannish activities) for activities within the realm of science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another bas ... — criticism, humor, history and commentary."'' The Benford brothers edited ''Void'' until 1958, when Jim retired and Ted White became co-editor. Pete Graham and Terry Carr later joined the editorial team. The fanzine was published regularly until 1962, with a final issue appearing in 1969. References 1955 establishments in West Germany De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Fanzine
A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was coined, and at one time constituted the primary type of science-fictional fannish activity ("fanac"). Origins and history The first science-fiction fanzine, '' The Comet'', was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago. The term "fanzine" was coined by Russ Chauvenet in the October 1940 issue of his fanzine ''Detours''. "Fanzines" were distinguished from "prozines", that is, all professional magazines. Prior to that, the fan publications were known as "fanmags" or "letterzines". Traditionally, science-fiction fanzines were (and many still are) available for "the usual", meaning that a sample issue will be mailed on request; to receive further issues, a reader sends a "letter of comment" (LoC) about the fanzine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although formal clubs such as the Futurians (1937–1945) and the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (1934–present) are recognized examples of organized fandom). Most often called simply "fandom" within the community, it can be viewed as a distinct subculture, with its own literature and jargon; marriages and other relationships among fans are common, as are multi-generational fan families. Origins and history Science fiction fandom started through the letter column of Hugo Gernsback's fiction magazines. Not only did fan (aficionado), fans write comments about the stories—they sent their addresses, and Gernsback published them. Soon, fans were writing letters directly to each other, and meeting in person when they lived close together, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Benford (physicist)
James Nelson Benford is an American physicist, High-Power Microwave (HPM) scientist, book author, science-fiction writer, and entrepreneur, best known for introducing novel technological concepts and conjectures related to the exploration of outer space, among these the design of laser-driven sailships, the possible use of co-orbital objects (moon, asteroids) by alien probes to spy on earth, and the appraisal of technical and safety issues associated with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1941, as was his twin brother, science-fiction author Greg Benford. He has two children, the eldest being Dominic Benford, an astrophysicist and the Program Scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Education Benford graduated with a BS in physics from the University of Oklahoma in 1963. He further obtained MS (1966), and Ph.D. (1969) degrees from the University of California at San Diego. He received scholarships from the OU Clu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
