Episode 526: Poe's Florid Prose

Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: From deep within the spooky season we bring you an all new episode. Devon learns you have to jump on those bones early. Devon planed to build up his Halloween decoration collection. Ben doesn’t know how to say “Megadeth.” We also mention Funko Pop album covers for Iron Maiden. (https://pop-figures.com/franchise/iron-maiden-282) Ben beat Astro Bot, giggling the entire time. Ben also watched the original Dracula film from 1931, available on Amazon Prime Video. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021814/) Devon then recommends the more recent movie, Renfield (2023). Steven is on book 5 of Dungeon Crawler Carl, Devon just finished book 2. Devon is taking a break to read the new Bobiverse book. (https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse)

Future or Now

Ben: NASA is working on a plan to replace its space station, but time is running out. Over the next several months, NASA will finalize a strategy for its operations in low-Earth orbit after 2030. Then, toward the end of next year, the space agency will award contracts to one or more private companies to develop small space stations for which NASA and other space agencies will become customers rather than operators. (https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/10/is-nasas-commercial-space-station-program-doomed/). Would you rather go to a space station orbing Earth, or the Moon? Companies are looking into CLDs: Commercial Low-Earth Destinations. Why are we abandoning the ISS? It’s old and already has issues, that will only worsen. Also our problematic relationship with Russia.

Devon: Evidence of ‘Negative Time’ Found in Quantum Physics Experiment. Physicists showed that photons can seem to exit a material before entering it, revealing observational evidence of negative time. (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/evidence-of-negative-time-found-in-quantum-physics-experiment/) We try to understand this mild blowing experiment and result. (https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03680)

Steven: Agatha All Along. This is great spooky fun. The main character stays true to who she was in WandaVision. Ben also finished Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Both deal with the Darkhold. Ben also likes Agatha All Along.

Book Club

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2148). The Pit and the Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe’s agonizing tale of terror and suspense, was first published in 1842. One of Poe’s many horror stories, The Pit and the Pendulum became famous for its depiction of pure dread. None of us had read this before. Devon was surprised the main character survived. We get side tracked by the Simpsons but eventually talk about the story. Also, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” Were we actually horrified reading this story? What was the inspiration for writing this story?

The Poet and the Pendulum by Nightwish. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKUS2k35cGQ&ab_channel=_Stargazer_)

The Inquisitor by Kamelot. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKRRGMUCwg&ab_channel=Khan%2CKamelot%26ARKVideos)

Next Week: E. M. Forster, The Machine Stops (https://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teaching/ECS188/PDF_files/Machine_stops.pdf). Is this the most prophetic story of the twentieth century? Published in 1909 and showing Forster’s disdain for technological advancement and the way it would make our lives poorer, this story attracted plenty of new readers in 2020 when so many people’s lives ‘went virtual’.