Opponents of US version of the NHS are seriously demented

I could have added ‘corrupt’, or ‘bought and paid for by private health corps’, but that practically goes without saying in American politics today. The latest bolus of batshit craziness comes from that paragon of lowbrow gruntertainment, Sarah Palin. This excerpt came from a CNN report:
“”And who will suffer the most when they ration care?” she wrote. [...]

Seeds Of Earth Review: Dave Brendon’s Fantasy & Scifi Weblog

Dave Brendon was actually one of the outwith-the-UK winners of the SOE compo a few weeks ago, and was the recipient of a poster and a bookmark, being the small baubles that my finances stretch to. I later learned that Dave has his own review blog, as titled above, and he was generous enough to [...]

Watchmen Movie Review

Yup, went to see it on opening night with SuperSusan and I’ve deliberately waited a while to let my memories of it sink in and my thoughts rise to the top.
Let’s face it, its an odd sensation seeing a much-loved work of book fiction (albeit a graphic novel)  transmogrified into a big screen visual feast. I [...]

Seeds Of Earth Review: Peri Urban

Mr Urban is a longtime associate/colleague/drinking-music-scifi buddy of mine so I guess that a review from his glittering keyboard might be a wee bit partial. Hahey, so it goes!
Read it here – http://brainpilot.blogspot.com/2008/12/seeds-of-earth-book-one-of-humanitys.html

Interview at Walker Of Worlds

Mark Chitty over at Walker Of Worlds has posted his interview with me, along with my verbose reponses. Take a trip over there, read and wonder!
http://walkerofworlds.blogspot.com/2009/03/interview-michael-cobley.html

Gaza: The Power Of Names

Small post this one, spurred by a sudden mini-epiphany – why is it that we know what Hamas’ rockets are called yet we don’t know what Israeli rockets and missiles are called? Most will know of the Qassam rocket (those Guy Fawkes night whizzbangs), and some may know of the Grad rockets, but what of [...]

Book Meme: Nearest Book

Caught this from Mark Chitty’s Walker of Worlds, couldn`t resist it. And this is how it goes:
* Grab the nearest book.
* Open it to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual [...]

Panoramic Viewer in Flash – jawdropping!

This is a brilliant demonstration of the new Flash panoramic viewer, a german site showing a 360 degree view of the night sky constellations. Go see, now!
http://www.360bilder.de/html/flash_sternenhimmel.htm

Seeds Of Earth book cover – whole shebang-full monty!

Yes, here it is, as moved through the wonder of internet data transfer from Orbit’s machines of wizardry to your eyes! – the full jacket cover to my forthcoming tome, SEEDS OF EARTH, by Steve Stone. Look upon his work in wonder. To see it in greater detail, right click and select open in new [...]

HYPERION by Dan Simmons: Space Opera Deluxe

I`ve been reading space opera since I was practically able to read, and before I hit puberty I was already mainlining on stuff like Tom Swift, Doc Smith and Perry Rhodan. All the furniture of it, the extravagant, powertrip technology, the drama and melodrama, the scale and sheer wild proliferation of life, science and worlds [...]