Everybody who has dealt with worldbuilding in SF that involves star systems beyond ours knows what I’m talking about – a lot of resources out there only work with a 2D representation of the cosmos, not a 3D, creating a…Read…
Monthly Archives: November 2015
Don’t Squeal
“Come in, Hobson.” Lord Dartmouth didn’t look up from the papers until he noticed the footsteps were not approaching with Hobson’s shuffle. He looked up and took in the girl at a glance: no spirit and no bosom. “Who on…
Inspirations: The Greatest Story in the World Today is the One the Media Haven’t Noticed
Hans Rosling likes to ask awkward questions: If we randomly picked ten one-year-olds from across the world, how many of them would be vaccinated against measles? Two, five or eight? According to current projections, how many children will there be…
Tagged with: Development, economics, Extreme poverty, Gapminder, Hans Rosling, Media, Population trends, Poverty, World fertility
Posted in Inspirations, Wednesday Pontification
Posted in Inspirations, Wednesday Pontification
Tea with Europa
Through the corner of her eye, Janniece saw Ian put the cup of tea in front of Piers. Her attention was fixed on her screen. Ian sat beside her, at his own screen, and put a cup in front of…
Tagged with: Europa, Microfiction, Planetary science, science fiction
Posted in Saturday Hooptedoodle
Posted in Saturday Hooptedoodle
Non-fiction review: Radical by Maajid Nawaz
Stag nights that end up in strip clubs have led to more than a few awkward wedding night conversations. They don’t usually lead to death threats from ISIS and panic buttons installed by the anti-terrorist squad. Radical is the story…
Tagged with: Hizb al-Tahrir, Islamism, Maajid Nawaz, Quilliam Foundation, Racism
Posted in Book review: non-fiction
Posted in Book review: non-fiction
Banquet
Hunger turns every meal into a banquet. So Prigger Tom told himself as he slid between pools of gaslight. The habit of keeping to the dark had been with him longer than anything else he could remember. A banquet was…
Article on submitting to literary magazines
Something for the short fiction writers among us: Lincoln Michel has written an article on submitting to literary magazines. They usually say less about the mechanics of what they want than genre markets, so it’s worth paying attention to. He’s…
Greater Minds: Margaret Atwood predicts the Everything Change
Margaret Atwood was interviewed for the Center for the Science and Imagination. The author of the Maddaddam trilogy speculates on climate change and the future. The dispute about whether what she writes is science fiction or not persists. She regards…
You won’t believe why scientists like this post
Originally posted on Matthew Wright:
The latest wave of internet click-bait intrigues me. Apparently there are things ‘scientists’ hate because they can’t explain them. You won’t believe that scientists took this photo! Yeah, sure it was by robot – but…
Posted in Uncategorized
Nemesis House
My nemesis stood on the porch of the house. “How do you do?” I asked. “Very well, thank you,” he said. Two decades of mutual hatred is no reason for poor manners. “I don’t suppose you came for nostalgia’s sake,”…
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