qntm

Today, in DD/MM/YY form, is 24/10/26, a Pythagorean triple, the last one this century apparently

Most people do not notice that sometimes, instead of losing a single sock in the laundry, they get an extra one back

The cowards have abolished the leap second!

Bulletins A, B and D track and forecast the discrepancy. A leap hour - if that even is what eventually happens - isn't going to happen for the next "several centuries" (would be curious to know the actual timeframe)

The cowards have abolished the leap second!

There's a Star Wars character, Ben Quadinaros, who drives a podracer with four engines Is he called "Quad-" because of his four engines, or was he inspired to use four engines because of his name, or is it a coincidence OR:

I'll be on a panel discussion at MCM Comic Con London on Sunday 25th October. Panel is at 1pm on the Writers Block stage. Should be good, plus if you want something signed by me this would be a good opportunity to do that!

AI-generated spam/scam emails have been getting increasingly polished of late. If you want to send me a legitimate email, please do whatever is necessary to make it clear that your email was written by you, an authentic, creative, physical human being (Interpret this however you please)

Highest-end place I think I've ever eaten

Open question. Which science fiction author do we think was the richest/made the most money

This is one of the points I'm hinting at here. A lot of science fiction authors *should* have made bank but very definitely didn't. PKD another example

Open question. Which science fiction author do we think was the richest/made the most money

Maybe to specify this a little better, who made the most money directly from writing science fiction books and short stories? Let's exclude unrelated book income, screenplays/film adaptations of their work Or, approximately equivalently, who sold the most science fiction books?

I feel that quite a few time machines in fiction are coincidentally also teleporters and the teleportation angle goes somewhat unexamined

A lot of "What would you do if you had a time machine" is "What if you could perform an arbitrary act and then escape all of its consequences" and the fact that you escape to the future is kind of neither here nor there

Imagine first gaining consciousness inside a sealed dark ovoid and being "well I guess I need to hack my way out of here if I want to exist"

It's nice when there is a new bird

Imagine first gaining consciousness inside a sealed dark ovoid and being "well I guess I need to hack my way out of here if I want to exist"