G R George

From steampunk to space opera to humanist sci-fi, from Arthur Conan Doyle to The Six Million Dollar Man, and from implants to teleportation, George Mann navigates genre-benders, numerous media, neologisms and common terms, thrills, disappointments and traditions in The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Entries in this comprehensive reference guide include several descriptive and factual paragraphs, cross-references, suggested reading and bibliographic information. Mann, editor of Ottaker's science fiction magazine, defines his variegated, evolving subject (e.g., what differentiates SF from fantasy?) while remaining flexible and forward-thinking.

In recent years advertising agencies have become hipper to the great wealth of material available to them for use on TV commercials and this selection features 28 examples of hip tunes that have entertained people in the ad breaks of some of the most popular shows on TV. Detailed track listing incorporating the original American record label, year of original release, writers, producers and any other relevant information featured on the original 45 releases.

By 1983 MoFi had grown into a company with over 25 employees and grossing over $8 million annually. Then they nearly lost it all. The new darling on the scene was the compact disc. Because MoFi had been putting something on the order of 20% of their earnings back into research, they were prepared for the next wave. In the mid ‘80s, they launched their assault on the CD market with their half-speed
wares.

Their first efforts were released on aluminum discs, very much like all other discs at the time. And, in fact, some of these have become quite rare. Recently copies of them regularily go for >$75 on e-Bay. Partly, in an effort to justify the higher price they needed to charge, MoFi began to release their works on gold-plated compact discs called UltraDiscs. Although gold in and of itself isn’t significantly better than aluminum for the reproduction of ones and zeros, it oxidizes roughly ten times more slowly than aluminum. It is also supposed to coat more evenly than aluminum. This last attribute is said to cut down on the pin-holing so common to aluminum CDs, which allows for less error-correction during playback. This means more of the actual recording and less processor interpolation gets to your ears. So there was some inherent advantage to the gold treatment.

The imagination has been called, "the principal organ for knowing and responding to disclosures of transcendent truth." This book probes the theological sources of the imagination, which make it a vital tool for knowing and responding to such disclosures.