November 2014

Guardians of the Phoenix by Eric Brown

0

The novel “Guardians of the Phoenix” by Eric Brown was published for the first time in 2010.

Paul is one of the last survivors of the failed colony of Paris. Every day he looks for food for himself and for the elderly woman who raised him but now the ruins of the old city are giving more and more in to the desert. Even lizards are becoming rarer and rarer, making survival very difficult.

One day, Paul discovers a group of men who are chasing a girl. He realizes that he should move away immediately but he’s too curious and follows them, albeit with caution. When he finds them while they’re eating, he realizes that the remains of the girl make up their meal. The situation becomes very dangerous when he gets discovered.

0

Switzerland has won the 2014 Davis Cup defeating France in the Final. Stan Wawrinka defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Federer-Wawrinka duo defeated Benneteau-Gasquet and Roger Federer defeated Richard Gasquet. For Switzerland it’s the first Davis Cup.

Wilson Tucker in 1988

0

Arthur Wilson “Bob” Tucker was born on November 23, 1914 in Deer Creek, Illinois, USA. Generally he used the name Wilson Tucker for the novels and short fiction published in books and professional magazines but in fanzines he generally used the name Bob Tucker. Occasionally he used other pseudonyms. During his long career he wrote mostly science fiction but also detective, mystery and spy stories. He was also very active in science fiction fandom and conventions.

Geological map of the giant asteroid Vesta. Brown colors represent the oldest, most heavily cratered surface. Purple colors in the north and light blue represent terrains modified by the Veneneia and Rheasilvia impacts, respectively. Light purples and dark blue colors below the equator represent the interior of the Rheasilvia and Veneneia basins. Greens and yellows represent relatively young landslides or other downhill movement and crater impact materials, respectively (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

2

A little over a year ago, an atlas of the giant asteroid Vesta was presented but the analysis of the data collected by the Dawn space probe went even further. A special issue of the journal “Icarus” was all about Vesta presenting a series of geological maps that show details never seen before the characteristics of its surface.

David Williams of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University led a team of 14 researchers in a task that lasted about two and a half years. The team used the photographs taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft when it spent more than one year orbiting Vesta to create a geological map.