Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The planet's immune system is doing everything it can. The planet's immune system is doing everything it can."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Permanent Skywriting | ||
| Non-wispy skywriting letters. |
Everett Mordecai had one last chance at H.J. Spurgle Soap Company; advertising skywriting pilot. Unfortunately, his best efforts blew away after just a minute or two. H.J. Spurgle wasn't too happy. "I'm not paying you to trail a lot of smoke across the sky that nobody can read. Why, I could do better with a thirty-cent cigar! ...I want more permanence in those letters! Permanence!"
After several weeks of research...
| Mordecai hauled out a stop watch, turned his eyes upward to the slogan he'd just written.
"Possibly you'd like to time these letters..." Automatically Spurgle gazed up too. The letters, still firm, still strong and perfectly formed, seemed to be settling earthward, undisturbed by the brisk breeze that scudded across the field... Silently the three walked over to the slogan. Spurgle kicked at the letter G... It was a monstrous white thing, ten feet thick, half a city block long, composed of a flexible elastic substance that resembled something between jello and foam rubber, yet was opaque and so light that despite its size, Mordecai could pick the entire letter up with one hand. "You asked for permanence... It's just a little synthetic rubber derivative with a dash of neoprene and a couple of jiggers of koroseal..." |
| From Soap Opera,
by Alan Nelson. Published by Magazine of F and SF in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Taking to the skies, Mordecai began skywriting with a vengeance:
By dusk of the second day, the downtown area was completely paralyzed. All traffic had stopped. Rubber letters completely smothered every street, lay crazily across roof tops, stacked up on one another like a gigantic, disordered wood pile. Only the peaks of the tallest buildings were visible.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Soap Opera
More Ideas
and Technology by Alan Nelson
Tech news articles related to Soap Opera
Tech news articles related to works by Alan Nelson
Permanent Skywriting-related
news articles:
- Put Your Ads Where Space Begins
- Flogo Clouds Are Floating Ads
- HLYWD Migratory Anagram
- SmileCloud Bubloons Are Custom Clouds
| 'Facetime Facelift' Beautifies Video Chats |
| Meeting Wendy Of Wendy's |
| Narrative Science And Phil Dick's Homeostatic Newspaper |
| BookTrack Adds Sound To Books |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'...instantly the TEMS was ... creating and discarding scores of new sciences.'
'Something very much like a camouflage-painted kangaroo.'
'But that barrier was going to melt away someday soon. The transhumanists had promised...'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture...'
'... in some departments their power is absolute.'
'...he sipped the cognac that the robot bartender handed him.'
Convincing video shows progress (and limitations).
