Category: Uncategorized
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Two great links on carbon and climate change: Methane seeps in the Arctic, and Our Carbonated Future from Heteromeles. Heteromeles outlines the big picture view of CO2 rise, according to Curt Stager’s book Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth. The projected effects include rising temperature and sea levels over the next…
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This photo site compiles remarkable cases of symbiosis between pairs of unrelated animals. The boxer crab is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. Each of the crab’s claws carries a small stinging sea anemone–for the crab to defend itself. In turn, presumably the anemone receives transport and food. Then there is the…
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Jenny Ramos Kennedy in Second Life Interview/podcast June 21, 9PM ET at Virtually Speaking I’d like to thank the organizers of WisCon for inviting me with Jo Walton as guests of honor next year for WisCon 37. WisCon has long played an important role promoting women and gender in SF. In my own writing, I’ve…
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Day 57: Heath Care Held Hostage This week NPR aired a wonderful series called Sick in America. The programs present a wealth of statistics and stories of how Americans still need health reform. Here is just one example of a self-employed freelance writer who can’t pay for his hospitalization: “I feel awful every single day,”…
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What more can be said–the new SpaceX launch includes the ashes of actor James Doohan, who played the beloved engineer on the Enterprise. One of his more memorable moments for me was when Kirk confined him to quarters after a barroom brawl; upon which, Scotty observes, “Thanks, I’ll be catching up on my technical journals!” …
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Jonathan asks for a three-question definition of addiction. Most of my books show addictions of one sort or another; the “stonesickness” in A Door into Ocean, the gambling addiction in The Highest Frontier. Addiction is the core of Brain Plague, where the the most addictive thing in the universe is intelligent microbes. “Micros” live in…
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The Campbell list has led me to reflect on the past winners of this award, in particular Fred Pohl, who won for Gateway in 1978 and for The Years of the City in 1985. Much has been written about Gateway; I recommend Jo Walton’s reflections on Tor blog. What impresses me most is…
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According to Locus, the 2012 John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalists have been named: Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (Crown) This Shared Dream, Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor) Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh (Night Shade) Embassytown, China Miéville (Del Rey) The Islanders, Christopher Priest (Gollancz) The Highest Frontier, Joan Slonczewski (Tor) Dancing with Bears, Michael Swanwick (Night…
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Much has been made of Obama’s “evolving” position on same-sex marriage. In fact, society as a whole has been “evolving” on sex-associated behaviors over the past century. But this reminds me of another interesting question: What does biological evolution have to do with same-sex behaviors? In my town, the same people seem to oppose both.…
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Could a mockingjay hybrid really work? That’s what I was asked by the NYT for a piece about Suzanne Collins’s intriguing YA adventure. In Hunger Games, the mockingjay is the product of accidental hybridization of engineered jabberjays, avian informer-drones, with wild mockingbirds. Mockingbirds are real birds capable of extraordinary variety of sound, imitating all kinds…
Joan Slonczewski 