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Earth as Alien World
NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft has shot footage of the moon transiting Earth as seen from 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. “Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how…
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Must-Read British SF
Given Shadow’s reading list over the past couple of years, I would have thought that science fiction was moving in a strongly Brit-ward direction. However, It Doesn’t Have to be Right… feels that literary SF is still very Americocentric and is combating that by listing 20 British SF novels that everyone should read. In addition…
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I’d Vote for Him
Sean Tevis is a geekly geek in Kansas who’s sick of his troglodytic state representative. He’s running to replace him, and is looking to raise some money to help with his campaign. Specifically, he’s trying to raise $8.34 from 3,000 people. To promote his cause, he’s created an awesome xkcd-tribute cartoon series entitled, “It’s Like…
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Okay, It’s Funny.
As you’ve probably seen, well, everywhere by now, Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) is experimenting with a new way of getting quality entertainment to his audience. He’s posting three short episodes of a super-villain musical comedy drama…thingie online, for free. However! These episodes will only be available for a short time. Parts I and II have…
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Harry Harrison named Grand Master by SFWA
::: sing-song voice ::: ~/o I’m going to the Nebulas, I’m going to the Nebulas o/~ From SFWA: Harry Harrison, creator of The Stainless Steel Rat and author of the novel that inspired the movie Soylent Green, will be honored as the next Damon Knight Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of…
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I Do Feel More Grateful
(From Basic Instructions)
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SF That Inspires/Hinders Real Science
In a recent interview, Buzz Aldrin said that science fiction was partially responsible for public apathy toward the space program (saying, in essence, if you see enough fictional tricorders, advances in CAT scan technology don’t seem very interesting any more). io9–which does love its lists–has responded with SF books and movies that particularly inspire (or…
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Sci Fi Lists
One day, science fiction fan Peter Sykes went looking for a list of books. “I wanted to buy the top 100 scifi books and couldn’t find a list I thought was statistically accurate, so I made one. I was so happy with the result that I decided to post it on the net as a…
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Mundane SF
Here’s an SF subgenre of which I was previously unaware, although it certainly fits into my “FTL ain’t gonna happen, get over it” philosophy. The central idea of Mundane Science Fiction is that we’re stuck here: Warp drives, wormholes, and other forms of interstellar travel are unlikely at best. There may be habitable worlds outside…
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All Locus Awards Voters Are Not Created Equal
This is just plain wrong. Seems the ballot box was hit with a lot of Cory Doctorow’s online fans. Why change the rules after the vote? And are subscribers better than me? Link Remember how we called the Locus Awards “possibly the most democratic” of the science fiction awards? Well, uh, never mind. The Locus…