Life imitates SF

Human beings are capable of believing anything: that there are fairies at the bottom of the garden, that the moon is made of green cheese, or that 75 million years ago an intergalactic space alien called Xenu kidnapped Thetans to Earth, dumped them in volcanoes and blew them up with atomic bombs. Scientology vs. the BBC. The (not pretty) video in question is here, a better clip here. 'Scientology and Me', Panorama, BBC1, Monday 14th May, 8.30pm.

Life imitates SF

Star Trek: Voyager, 'One Small Step' – NASA is now discussing what to do about a death on a mission to Mars. But still won't talk sex.

A minor German SF author knew Private Adolf Hitler during WW1 and, usefully for historians, also wrote about him in essays and fiction.

The unreliable realities of Philip K. Dick: Anne Mini, daughter of PKD's ex-wife and her second husband, claims that a lot of Dick's drug use was invented as a publicity stunt. The claim is contained in a book whose publication has been stopped: A Family Darkly: Love, Loss, and the Final Passions of Philip K. Dick, which according to Amazon was due out last September. This comment from the PKD Trust: "The book that Anne Mini has written contains numerous factual errors confirmed by his children, former wives, stepdaughters, and close friends. The Dick family has brought the errors to the attention of the publisher."   (via Joyce Scrivner)

First there was Tony Alleyne's Star Trek apartment in Hinckley; now a collector of Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts in Pennsylvania has had a hobbit house built to house his collection.   (via godelescherbach)