Harry Clement Stubbs, better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. He painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard. In 1998 Clement was inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and named the 17th SFWA Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Harry Clement Stubbs was born in Somerville, Massachusetts on May 30, 1922, he went to Harvard, graduating with a B. S. in astronomy in 1943. While there he wrote his first published story, "Proof", which appeared in the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, edited by John W. Campbell, his further educational background includes an M. Ed. and M. S. in chemistry. During World War II Clement was a pilot and copilot of a B-24 Liberator and flew 35 combat missions over Europe with the 68th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, based in England with 8th Air Force. After the war, he served in the United States Air Force Reserve, retired with the rank of colonel.

He taught astronomy for many years at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts. From 1949 to 1953, Clement's first three novels were two-, three-, four-part Astounding serials under Campbell: Needle and Mission of Gravity, his best-known novel, published by Doubleday's Science Fiction Book Club; the latter novel features a land and sea expedition across the superjovian planet Mesklin to recover a stranded scientific probe. The natives of Mesklin are centipede-like intelligent beings about 50 centimeters long. Various episodes hinge on the fact that Mesklin's fast rotational speed causes it to be deformed from the spherical, with effective surface gravity that varies from 3 gn at the equator to 700 gn at the poles. Clement's article "Whirligig World" describes his approach to writing a science fiction story: Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work....the fun...lies in treating the whole thing as a game.... He rules must be quite simple, they are. For the author, the rule is to make as few such slips as he can...

Certain exceptions are made, but fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story... Clement was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions in the eastern United States, where he presented talks and slide shows about writing and astronomy. Clement died in Massachusetts at the Milton Hospital on October 29, 2003 at age 81, he died in his sleep, most due to complications of diabetes. Clement has been honored several times for his cumulative contributions including 1998 Hall of Fame induction, when Clement and Frederik Pohl were the fifth and sixth living persons honored, the 1999 SFWA Grand Master Award. For the 1945 short story "Uncommon Sense" he received a 50-year Retro Hugo Award at the 1996 World Science Fiction Convention. Mission of Gravity, first published as a serial during 1953, was named best foreign novel by the Spanish Science Fiction Association in 1994 and it was a finalist for a 50-year Retro Hugo Award in 2004; the Hal Clement Award for Young Adults for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature is presented in his memory at Worldcon each year.

Wayne Barlowe illustrated two of Clement's fictional species, the Abyormenites and the Mesklinites, in his Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. Planets created by Clement feature unique astronomical or physical aspects, they include: Abyormen -- A planet circling a dwarf star. This produces a hot and a cold season, each of 65 years' duration; the native intelligent life forms undergo a seasonal mass death. From Cycle of Fire. Dhrawn – A high-gravity world settled by Mesklinites in Star Light. Habranha - A planet, tidally locked with its sun, such that the dark side is a mix of solid CO2, solid methane, ice, the sunlit side ocean, in Fossil. Hekla – An ice-age planet in "Cold Front". Kaihapa – An uninhabited ocean planet, twin of Kainui, in Noise. Kainui – An inhabited ocean planet in Noise. Mesklin — A planet with ultra-high gravity in Mission of Gravity. Clement corrected his model of Mesklin and determined that the maximum surface gravity would be "only 250 gravities". Sarr – An hot planet with an atmosphere of gaseous sulfur, little liquid, in Iceworld Tenebra – A high-gravity world with a corrosive atmosphere consisting of water vapor near its critical point, in Close to Critical.

Enigma 88 - A small planet near η Carinae in Still River. The interior of the object is honeycombed with caves, due to evaporation of accreted ice-rich planetoids. Unusually for Clement, Enigma's structure is not consistent with the laws of physics. "Proof". Short story. Published in Astounding. Collected in The Essential Hal Clement Volume 2, Possible Worlds of Science Fiction, SF: Author's Choice 2, Where Do We Go From Here?, The Great SF Stories 4, First Voyages, The Golden Years of Science Fiction, Ascent of Wonder and Wondrous Beginnings. Impediment. Novelette. Published in Astounding. Collected

Marc Fitoussi is a French film director and screenwriter. After a university degree course in English and art history, Fitoussi joined the Conservatoire européen d'écriture audiovisuelle, it was there that he developed his screenwriting trade. He began a parallel career as film director, making several short features including Illustre Inconnue and Bonbon au poivre which earned him a nomination for César Award for Best Short Film in 2007; the same year, he directed his first long film La Vie d'artiste, with Sandrine Kiberlain, Denis Podalydès and Émilie Dequenne in the lead rôles. This film won the Prix Michel-d'Ornano for the best work of French fiction at the Deauville American Film Festival. In 2010, his second long film was released, whose action takes place in the Belgian town of Oostende, starring Isabelle Huppert and her daughter Lolita Chammah in the lead parts as mother and daughter. Screenwriter and director1999: Ma vie active, co-directed with Elsa Barrère 2002: Sachez chasser, co-directed with Elsa Barrère 2004: Illustre Inconnue 2005: Bonbon au poivre 2007: La Vie d'artiste 2010: Copacabana 2012: Pauline détective 2014: Paris Follies 2016: Trainee Day 2020: SelfieScriptwriter1998: Les Fleurs de l'Algérien dir.

Nader Takmil Homayoun 2006: L'Éducation anglaise Marc Fitoussi on IMDb

The Kanawha Madonna is a wood carving of a person holding a four-legged animal. The carving is part of the collection of the West Virginia State Museum and displayed in the Cultural Center as an example of prehistoric Native American wood carving; the statue is nearly 4 feet tall with a 8 inches in height by 13 inches in width base. It was carved from the trunk of a honey locust tree; the base has a hole in the bottom for mounting on a pole. In 1897, four teenaged boys found the statue while exploring a cave set in a cliff above the lower New River, in Kanawha County, West Virginia, they found the statue under a large flat stone. A member of the West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society, Dr. John P. Hale acquired the statue. Hale presented a paper about the statue. In 1964 a radiocarbon date put the statue's age at 350 years. A more recent radiocarbon dating estimates the wood to date from between 1440 to 1600 CE, although this does not mean it was carved at this time, it could have been carved at any time after this.

Prehistory of West Virginia Mississippian stone statuary