October 2014

Drazen Petrovic with the New Jersey Nets

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Drazen Petrovic was born on October 22, 1964 in Sibenik, in the then Yugoslavia, now Croatia. He conquered many titles in the Yugoslavian league and at International level with Cibona Zagreb and the Yugoslavian national team. Considered a national hero in Croatia, where a museum dedicated to him was opened, Drazen Petrovic was included in the American Hall of Fame in 2002, a global recognition of his greatness. He’s one of the greatest players in the history of European basketball, with an extraordinary individual technique and exceptional mental strength that made him an absolute winner. He died tragically on June 7, 1993 in a car accident.

Edmond Moore Hamilton was born 110 years ago

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Edmond Moore Hamilton was born on October 21, 1904 in Youngstown, Ohio, USA. During his career he wrote a lot of fantasy and science fiction stories. His most famous series are the Captain Future, Star Kings and Starwolf / Morgan Chane ones. Until his death he was married to his fellow writer Leigh Brackett and the two of them influenced each other.

The comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring observed by the WISE space telescope (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Yesterday the comet C/2013 A1, also known as Siding Spring, passed very close to Mars. The distance from the planet was as low as about 140,000 km (about 87,000 miles), one third of the distance of the Moon from Earth, very close in astronomical terms. The event was followed by several telescopes but nearby ther was was the Earth’s “star fleet” consisting of NASA’s probes and rovers, ESA’s Mars Express probe and the Indian MOM – aka Mangalyaan – probe.

A reconstruction of various species that belong to the phylum Vetucolia

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A group of researchers at the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Museum in Australia published in the journal “BMC Evolutionary Biology” an article that explains why vetulicolians, which are those belonging to the phylum Vetulicolia, could be the strangest relatives of humans.

These creatures had lived in the Cambrian, 500 million years ago, and their fossils were discovered for the first time more than a century ago, in 1911, but their taxonomic status remained uncertain. After this new research, things could change.

Charles Stross in 2013 at DortCon Dortmund, Germany

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Charles David George Stross was born on October 18, 1964 in Leeds, England. He’s a writer appreciated for his science fiction stories, often influenced by other genres, such as in his geek-lovecraftian Laundry series.

Charles Stross also writes on his blog Charlie’s Diary, a useful resource for those who want to learn more about his ideas and interests. Often his works aren’t easy to read for those who don’t have a good knowledge of technology, especially information technology. The people who can understand him fully can appreciate stories that typically go well beyond hard science fiction for the influences of other genres and his humor.