1.
All You Zombies (song)
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All You Zombies is a song by The Hooters. It was first recorded live and released as a single in 1982 and it was subsequently included on the bands debut album Amore and an extended version of the song was included on their second album Nervous Night. This version was released as a single in 1985, the song reached #3 on the Mainstream Rock and #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985. The Hooters first released a single of All You Zombies recorded live at the Emerald City nightclub on April 11,1981, a different version of the song later appeared on the Amore album released independently in 1983. Hyman and Bazilian worked with Cyndi Lauper on the Shes So Unusual album leading to Columbia Records offering the band a contract and they released All You Zombies with additional instrumental sections making the song almost six minutes long. It became a hit reaching the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, the band performed the song at the Live Aid benefit concert in Philadelphia, on July 13,1985. The song has been covered by German singer Sandra for her studio album The Art of Love. Another cover was published by the German band Santiano in 2013 and they used a German text and changed it into a song about Vikings going to Walhalla, which is the title of the song
2.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science-fiction writer. Often called the dean of science writers, his controversial works continue to have an influential effect on the genre. Heinlein became one of the first science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he, Isaac Asimov and he also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices. Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974 and he also anticipated mechanical Computer Aided Design with Drafting Dan and described a modern version of a waterbed in his novel The Door into Summer, though he never patented or built one. In the first chapter of the novel Space Cadet he anticipated the cell-phone,35 years before Motorola invented the technology, several of Heinleins works have been adapted for film and television. Heinlein was born on July 7,1907 to Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein, in Butler and he was a 6th-generation German-American, a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war starting with the War of Independence. His childhood was spent in Kansas City, Missouri, Heinleins experience in the U. S. Navy exerted a strong influence on his character and writing. He graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland with the class of 1929 and he was assigned to the new aircraft carrier USS Lexington in 1931, where he worked in radio communications, then in its earlier phases, with the carriers aircraft. The captain of this carrier was Ernest J. King, who served as the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief. Heinlein was frequently interviewed during his later years by historians who asked him about Captain King. Heinlein also served aboard the destroyer USS Roper in 1933 and 1934, reaching the rank of lieutenant. His brother, Lawrence Heinlein, served in the U. S. Army, the U. S. Air Force, and the Missouri National Guard, in 1929, Heinlein married Elinor Curry of Kansas City in Los Angeles, and their marriage lasted about a year. His second marriage in 1932 to Leslyn MacDonald lasted for 15 years, in 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy due to pulmonary tuberculosis. During a lengthy hospitalization, he developed a design for a waterbed, Heinlein supported himself at several occupations, including real estate sales and silver mining, but for some years found money in short supply. Heinlein was active in Upton Sinclairs socialist End Poverty in California movement in the early 1930s, when Sinclair gained the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 1934, Heinlein worked actively in the campaign. Heinlein himself ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but was unsuccessful, while not destitute after the campaign—he had a small disability pension from the Navy—Heinlein turned to writing in order to pay off his mortgage. His first published story, Life-Line, was printed in the August 1939 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction, originally written for a contest, it was instead sold to Astounding for significantly more than the contests first-prize payoff
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
5.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a US fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Fantasy House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivaks Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivaks existing mystery title, Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was made to include science fiction as well as fantasy. F&SF quickly became one of the magazines in the science fiction and fantasy field, with a reputation for publishing literary material. Mills was responsible for publishing Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, and the first of Brian Aldisss Hothouse stories. The first few issues featured cover art by George Salter, Mercury Presss art director, but other artists soon began to appear, including Chesley Bonestell, Kelly Freas. In 1962, Mills was succeeded as editor by Avram Davidson, at the start of 1966 Edward Ferman was listed as editor, and four years later he acquired the magazine from his father and moved the editorial offices to his house in Connecticut. In 1991 he turned the editorship over to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in the mid-1990s circulation began to decline, most magazines were losing subscribers and F&SF was no exception. Gordon Van Gelder replaced Rusch in 1997, and bought the magazine from Ferman in 2001, but circulation continued to fall, charles Coleman Finlay took over from Van Gelder as editor in 2015. The first magazine dedicated to fantasy, Weird Tales, appeared in 1923, it was followed in 1926 by Amazing Stories, by the end of the 1930s, the genre was flourishing in the United States, nearly twenty new sf and fantasy titles appearing between 1938 and 1941. These were all pulp magazines, which meant that despite the occasional high-quality story, in 1941, Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine appeared, edited by Fred Dannay and focusing on detective fiction. The magazine was published in digest format, rather than pulp, Dannay attempted to avoid the sensationalist fiction appearing in the pulps, and soon made the magazine a success. In the early 1940s Anthony Boucher, a writer of fantasy and sf and also of mystery stories. Boucher also knew J. Francis McComas, an editor who shared his interest in fantasy, by 1944 McComas and Boucher became interested in the idea of a fantasy companion to Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, and spoke to Dannay about it. Dannay was interested in the idea, but paper was scarce because of World War II, in January 1946, Boucher and McComas went to New York and met with Spivak, who let them know later in the year that he wanted to go ahead. At Spivaks request they began acquiring material for the new magazine, including a new story by Raymond Chandler, lovecraft, John Dickson Carr, and Robert Bloch. Spivak initially planned the first issue for early 1947, but repeatedly delayed the launch because of poor sales of digest magazines. He also suggested that it should be priced at 35 cents an issue, in May 1949 Spivak suggested a new title, The Magazine of Fantasy, and in August a press release announced that the magazine would appear in October
6.
Playboy
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Playboy is an American mens lifestyle and entertainment magazine. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, with a presence in nearly every medium. In addition to the magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of Playboy are published worldwide. The magazine has a history of publishing short stories by notable novelists such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, Saul Bellow, Chuck Palahniuk, P. G. Wodehouse, Haruki Murakami, the magazine generally reflects a liberal editorial stance, although it often interviews conservative celebrities. After a year-long removal of most nude photos in Playboy magazine and he formed HMH Publishing Corporation, and recruited his friend Eldon Sellers to find investors. Hefner eventually raised just over $8,000, including from his brother and mother. However, the publisher of a mens adventure magazine, Stag, contacted Hefner. Hefner, his wife Millie, and Sellers met to seek a new name, considering Top Hat, Gentleman, Sir, Satyr, Pan, the first issue, in December 1953, was undated, as Hefner was unsure there would be a second. He produced it in his Hyde Park kitchen, the first centerfold was Marilyn Monroe, although the picture used originally was taken for a calendar rather than for Playboy. Hefner chose what he deemed the sexiest image, a previously unused nude study of Marilyn stretched with an arm on a red velvet background with closed eyes. The heavy promotion centered around Marilyns nudity on the calendar, together with the teasers in marketing. The first issue sold out in weeks, copies of the first issue in mint to near mint condition sold for over $5,000 in 2002. The novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, was serialized in the March, April, an urban legend started about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month because of markings on the front covers of the magazine. From 1955 to 1979, the P in Playboy had stars printed in or around the letter. The legend stated that this was either a rating that Hefner gave to the Playmate according to how attractive she was, the stars, between zero and 12, actually indicated the domestic or international advertising region for that printing. From 1966 to 1976, Robie Macauley was the Fiction Editor at Playboy, P. Donleavy, as well as poetry by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Macauley also contributed all of the popular Ribald Classics series published between January 1978 and March 1984, christie Hefner, daughter of the founder Hugh Hefner, joined Playboy in 1975 and became head of the company in 1988
7.
Paradox
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A paradox is a statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to a self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox involves contradictory yet interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time, some logical paradoxes are known to be invalid arguments but are still valuable in promoting critical thinking. Some paradoxes have revealed errors in definitions assumed to be rigorous, others, such as Currys paradox, are not yet resolved. Examples outside logic include the Ship of Theseus from philosophy, paradoxes can also take the form of images or other media. Escher featured perspective-based paradoxes in many of his drawings, with walls that are regarded as floors from other points of view, and staircases that appear to climb endlessly. In common usage, the word often refers to statements that may be both true and false i. e. ironic or unexpected, such as the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking. Common themes in paradoxes include self-reference, infinite regress, circular definitions, patrick Hughes outlines three laws of the paradox, Self-reference An example is This statement is false, a form of the liar paradox. The statement is referring to itself, another example of self-reference is the question of whether the barber shaves himself in the barber paradox. One more example would be Is the answer to this question No, contradiction This statement is false, the statement cannot be false and true at the same time. Another example of contradiction is if a man talking to a genie wishes that wishes couldnt come true, vicious circularity, or infinite regress This statement is false, if the statement is true, then the statement is false, thereby making the statement true. Another example of vicious circularity is the group of statements. Other paradoxes involve false statements or half-truths and the biased assumptions. This form is common in howlers, for example, consider a situation in which a father and his son are driving down the road. The car crashes into a tree and the father is killed, the boy is rushed to the nearest hospital where he is prepared for emergency surgery. On entering the suite, the surgeon says, I cant operate on this boy. The apparent paradox is caused by a hasty generalization, for if the surgeon is the boys father, the paradox is resolved if it is revealed that the surgeon is a woman — the boys mother. Paradoxes which are not based on a hidden error generally occur at the fringes of context or language, paradoxes that arise from apparently intelligible uses of language are often of interest to logicians and philosophers. Russells paradox, which shows that the notion of the set of all sets that do not contain themselves leads to a contradiction, was instrumental in the development of modern logic
