Author Archives: tkflor

Who is looking for high-stakes, cutting-edge cosmology?

Posted on November 15, 2015 by tkflor

“At eleven sharp, Susan Brophy introduced Mathias Kramer and stepped aside to let him say all the appropriate things. As soon as the lights were dimmed, the audience saw a pair of huge, flaming jets move on the screen. The … Continue reading →

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The Typewriter and other classics from the ’50s

Posted on November 7, 2015 by tkflor

Guest post by mèþru (TK’s beta reader) To all NaNoWriMo writers, for really fast typing: Leroy Anderson – The Typewriter (1950) Here are some songs I like from the ’50s.

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NaNoWriMo – a self-imposed adventure

Posted on October 30, 2015 by tkflor

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. Douglas_Adams, The Salmon of Doubt. November is the NaNoWriMo month! According to NaNoWriMo site:National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. … Continue reading →

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The joy of being prolific – notes from Asimov’s memoirs

Posted on October 25, 2015 by tkflor

“His notion of cracking an egg is to shoot a nuclear blast at it.” “Stay with me, Lepold, and don’t worry about them. Together we will recreate an empire…”  (from Foundation, by Isaac Asimov) When twenty-one year old Isaac Asimov … Continue reading →

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Publish or Perish – academia and self-publishing

Posted on October 13, 2015 by tkflor

“He published frantically while he was a post-doc and junior faculty…” From Initial Conditions When Danielle, the protagonist of Initial Conditions, wants to work on the recently-discovered dark energy, her new boss dissuades her, noting that “in a post-doctorate, you … Continue reading →

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Gravity – humor, history, and some facts

Posted on October 7, 2015 by tkflor

Hungarian stamp commemorating 100 years of general relativity. Image from philatelicdatabase.com …: “Gravity, where did it come from?” when a four-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold and a Landau–Lifshitz stress-energy tensor love each other very much, they produce a geodesic in curved spacetime. … Continue reading →

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Three Sisters Island trilogy: meet Air, Earth, Fire and … Water

Posted on September 27, 2015 by tkflor

Ancient Greek philosophers thought that everything in the world was made out of four elements: earth, fire, water and air. This belief in four fundamental elements lasted throughout the Middle Ages, until the advent of the Scientific Revolution in the … Continue reading →

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Brighter than candles

Posted on September 21, 2015 by tkflor

“You have the glittering beauty of gold and silver, and the still higher lustre of jewels, like the ruby and diamond; but none of these rival the brilliancy and beauty of flame. What diamond can shine like flame?” The man … Continue reading →

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Faster than lightning

Posted on September 17, 2015 by tkflor

Can a charged particle moving through the atmosphere have a speed greater than the speed of light in the air? I saw this question posted on Writers’ Cafe. After I ran a limited survey that got both “Yes” and “No” … Continue reading →

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Initial Conditions in the library

Posted on September 5, 2015 by tkflor

Initial Conditions finds a place on the library shelf. Thanks to Princeton Public Library!

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