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At least this post reminded me of the , which I hadn't read in a few weeks. Each element gets its own short story, which vary in quality wildly and relation to the subject matter. I'd say the first third of the table or so is worthwhile -- Mr. Swanwick struggled toward the end of the table though.

About the only one I'd recommend staying away from is arsenic... I've managed to block most of the memories of that story now.... ick.

... is this one by Michael Swanwick.

And yes, he has Darmstadtium.

You could fit 6 billion people into Texas, and it would be less densly packed than Tokyo, Japan.

The real issue is whether people consume resources faster than they can be replentished, which is an obvious problem in many areas ranging from water rights in the American West to the depletion of fisheries. Unfortunately, what's not obvious is precisely where those resource limits are in general. After all, you can build desalination plants to make more fresh water, but that diverts a substantial amount of energy and money from other areas. The Earth's biosystem and humanity's changing technological capabilities combine to create a complex system for which we cannot make certain predictions to the degree of precision we need to determine the planet's carrying capacity.

Until Lucas changes his mind and decides once more to make the last trilogy

Let's hope not! Given the state of Political Correctness in America, Han Solo would have to be a woman, and Princess Leia would have to he his lesbian lover.

And if you think this is funny or that I'm trolling, read this first.

Oops... crap, I'm confusing Banks with another author whose books I love until he ends them.

The book in question, in case anyone still cares, is Jack McDevitt's Eternity Road. I actually really like his writing, the sense of mystery and 'otherness' of his books, but the endings can be rather painful. (For example, in _Ancient Shores_ it's like he says, "Hey, let's bring in a dozen real-life scientists and sci-fi writers to save the day!" It's a novel concept, but... gosh, it just doesn't fit the rest of the story, which is quite marvellous.)

Right now my tastes are running more towards Neil Gaiman (who won a Hugo for a fantasy novel -- the irony of Spider's topic choice doesn't escape me :), although Neal Stephenson's _Quicksilver_ is on my Buy In Hardback list which, given my finances, is a very short list indeed.

SF and fantasy have nothing in common. I don't know why people insist on putting them together.

Depending on how you like your definitions, either Science Fiction is a subset of Fantasy, or both are subsets of Speculative Fiction. The superset (Fantasy/Speculative Fiction) refers to stories that take place in a world that is most definitely and recognizably not our own, where the author must create not only characters and plot but the entire universe in which the story takes place.

That universe may be a sword-and-sorcery world, a plausible future world (hard SF), an implausibe but interesting future world (soft SF), a slightly twisted world ("Twilight-Zone" style horror), and so on.

So why is hard SF on the decline, compared to the 1950s and 60s? Largely because the promises of the post-war technology boom have now been seen to be empty.

Atomic power gave us Chernobyl, unsolved waste storage problems, and nuclear profileration worries, instead of electricity "too cheap to meter".

The "green revolution" gave us higher crop yields - but unsustainable ones, as well as pesticide contamination in our food and water, and worldwide argicultural market practices that look like something out of an Abbot and Costello routine. (We set up a market that forces poor nations to abandon nutrient-diverse native crops and grow rice; then when they have vitamin deficiencies we suggest GM "golden rice". This is progress?)

Audio recording technology allows us to record and reproduce sounds with exquisite precisions - and the RIAA gives us N'Sync and Brittney Spears.

Now, I like technology as much as the next guy. I make my living from it. But today we know that high technology isn't going to save us. High tech, in and of itself, is no longer as fascinating to us, and you can't sell books just by putting rockets and rayguns on the cover. And that's a positive change, because maybe now we can look inside ourselves for change.

And the best SF - like all the best fiction - is about what's going on inside us; it uses aliens to explore humans, distant worlds to explore Earth, computers to explore brains.

(BTW, last really good SF book I read: Jack Williamson's Terraforming Earth .

What's often forgotten in all this is that dozens of quite respectable institutions, including NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratories and the French Atomic Energy Commission, did replicate the Pons-Fleischmann experiment successfully, and even reported finding trace fusion byproducts such as neutrons and tritium, ...

So he stole the plot from Sliders? Oh, no, wait. Those were "kromags". Never mind.

...at least we know there will be fodder for MST3K for years to come!!

Just for the record, John Edward is the guy who talks to the dead, while John Edwards is running for president.

I wonder how well a laminar flow smoke curtain would do with images projected on BOTH sides? The cool effect I imagine is walking down a corridor with several of these screens crossing it. As you walk through the image of a wall with a door in it, you turn around and see the image of the other side of the "wall". Look forward again and you see the next "wall", which you can also walk through to see what's on the other side. The series of images could give a tourist a walk right through a virtual pryramid, or some other interesting tour, like the entrance hall in the opening sequence of 'Get Smart' or MST3K.

...think of a sig, quick! Oh no! Too late... arrrrrgh!!!

You forgot one other bad thing: Galactica 1980 in its entirety.

As I was gonna say:

You mean like this: (high quality) (lower quality)?

Courtesy of SciFi.com

contains spoilers

Tech TV's Anime Unleashed is trying really hard and getting out the Channel for IT Nerds image.

The SciFi Channel is fast becoming 'The place bad programing goes to die'

I always used to use stupid, boring names, mostly out of an eagerness to start the game. But then I saw an episode of MST3K, SPACE MUTINY ( Link1 and Link2 ).

Mike and bots started making fun of the buffed-up hero by calling him names like Hulk HunkMeat and Slab HardCheese. Very funny.

Ever since, I've used that formula. Current Diablo character: Meat Doomslab.

Great. NASA found Z'ha'dum --the last place we should send explorers!

I understand the arguments of both sides. I don't believe there is any global warming.

Global Warming or Hot Air?

The Leipzig Declaratioin

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Acts

Global Warming? Nevermind!

Cooling Off on Global Warming

Why the Kyoto Greenhouse Gases Accord is Full of Hot Air

Global Warming Hype Heats Up

Global Warming and the Media Elite

The Heat is Online

Numerous Articles on Global Warming


Read those articles, and do your own research. Don't trust me... look into it yourself, and you'll see the truth.

There's also a good story called, "Overdrawn at the memory bank" which got made into a very bad movie ... which was lampooned in an excellent episode of MST3K.

Now if only it came with babes of the future fighting evil robots. Now that would be a computer! Mmmmmmm.

Or perhaps DNA accumulated from other sources. Like endogenous retroviruses.

That is retrovirues that have transcribed their RNA into DNA and merged it with out genome. About 8% of the genomic DNA is from ERVs i.e. they exceed by far the number of protein-coding gene sequences.

So the question is what are they doing there?

Do they help mediating jumping genes?.

When did they arrive?

Are they involved in schizophrenia or any other diseases?

Find out more here or here.

Greg Bear has put this to good use in some of his recent books: "Darwin's Radio", "Vitals" and "Darwin's Children".

I have to miss this chat because I will be watching the season premiere of Stargate SG-1, but can someone tell CmdrTaco he sucks hairy balls for me? How many fucking stories about SCO do we need? Or stories about .LA (that came out two years ago, for fuck's sake!)? Who are these editors anyway? Monkeys in a cage with keyboards?

Wearing a Red Shirt while on the enterprise.

Oh wait, nevermind...

I'm not sure I'd want my kids to play with Tribbles.

I hope they something that looks like this.

What about a few summer books, as well as books for fall, winter and spring???

I don't mean to troll, but c'mon one book for the whole summer? I know schooling systems are getting worse everywhere, but I expected more of the /. crowd.

Reading is good for you. Books stimulate your brain, improve your writing skills, and good ones are fun as hell to read! (Even the not so good ones can be fun, sometimes).

My picks would be anything by Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert or Isaac Asimov. Maybe also Phillip J. Farmer or Gordon Dickson. Don't want Sci-Fi, how about Umberto Eco? Feeling esoteric? Try Fritjof Capra. If you're also onto trippy stuff, how about Carlos Castaneda (he's just passed away, so let's pay him homage).

On a final note, take some suggestions you find in this thread, spare a couple of hours and go to a local library or book store (used or new). Get a few books and enjoy. Oh, and please don't watch the movies (like these: RAH, FH, PJF) instead of the books. Only afterwards... maybe.

What about a few summer books, as well as books for fall, winter and spring???

I don't mean to troll, but c'mon one book for the whole summer? I know schooling systems are getting worse everywhere, but I expected more of the /. crowd.

Reading is good for you. Books stimulate your brain, improve your writing skills, and good ones are fun as hell to read! (Even the not so good ones can be fun, sometimes).

My picks would be anything by Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert or Isaac Asimov. Maybe also Phillip J. Farmer or Gordon Dickson. Don't want Sci-Fi, how about Umberto Eco? Feeling esoteric? Try Fritjof Capra. If you're also onto trippy stuff, how about Carlos Castaneda (he's just passed away, so let's pay him homage).

On a final note, take some suggestions you find in this thread, spare a couple of hours and go to a local library or book store (used or new). Get a few books and enjoy. Oh, and please don't watch the movies (like these: RAH, FH, PJF) instead of the books. Only afterwards... maybe.

I just finished reading The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham. Excellent.
The old authors are the best in my opinion because they wrote before Sci Fi became so popular and took their subject seriously and weren't in it just to make a fast buck. That's why Tolkein and HG Wells are so much better that the mass of authors that have jumped on the gravy train in the last two decades.

Clearly, all records must have disappeared in the los alamos fires, and the surviving scientists have all gone mad, or expired. Everyone has forgotten! The nation MUST BE WARNED!

... or not, think of all the new jobs it would create. And...frickin lasers on their heads!

What about Mystery Science Theater 3000? The nanites on that show were really great, though they did have an unfortunate habit of blowing up planets when rattled.

I remembered the missing slot. It was:
8:00am -> 9:00am: Fat Albert (Bill Cosby's voice)

Also, Friday night's lineup included Bill Bixby as The Incredible Hulk. And in the early 1970s, one of the first shows I remember watching regularly with my friends was Darren McGavin in Kolchak: The Night Stalker. We were absolute rabid fans of that one. Remembering some of those shows still scares me today... Those are truly some classics of a bygone era.

but you really aren't going to get away from weather problems unless you dig a 50ft hole and build a cement bunker.

(perhaps they'll need Nebari-English interpreters next)?

Don't be silly. They would just inject the patient with translator microbes if they ever had that sort of situation.

SciFi Weekly has periodic reports on a possible upcoming movie. It sounds like there is an option, director, and a script, but not yet firm plans. The issue seems to be that the book is too intellectual, without strong action. However, I contend Dune had similar issues and was made into three movies so far. Also, you dont get more intellectual than "The Hours" which was successfully translated to the screen.

Did anybody else think of the anime when they read "BRAINPOWERED"?

I can't tell you whether this is correct or not, but it's a direct quote from a fairly reputable source. You decide.

British SciFI have bought all of Firefly and will start showing it next month. Originally they were planning to show it in the same order as in the US, but when fans (from across the pond) started emailing them about the importance of NOT showing the pilot LAST (like Fox did!) they agreed to show the series in the right order (fancy that).

http://www.uk.scifi.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3 516

Ian Watson's Novels

An Interview with Ian Watson

Ian Watson's Bibliography

Science Fiction Weekly Interview

We should just ask them for copies of theirs.

...who actually enjoyed Battlefield Earth !

Then again, my wife is a bit frightened by the fact that I usually know, have seen, and have enjoyed the movies they play on MST3K ;)

I reviewed the DVD for the Sci-Fi Channel's web site back when it came out. See here.

As I noted there, it's particularly interesting to watch Gaiman's dubbed version over the directly translated subtitles. Lets you see just where Gaiman deviated and how. I thought he did a good job of walking a fine line between respecting the original and clarifying a few things for a western audience.

BTW, I agree almost entirely with the ranking in the parent post, except I'd put Totoro...hmmm...probably right under Laputa.

Turns out that they still are. At 9 in the morning (EST?) every Saturday. SciFi's MST3K page.

This is the high quality programming they are replacing it with:

Bigfoot on the Loose!

Remember, a TV series is not like a movie. A series lives and dies as much with the characters and the writing as it does with the plot and overall concept. You may think the idea is silly, or even stupid, but that doesn't necessarily mean the show as a whole isn't worth watching. Anyone cynical enough can take the plot to any movie or series, twist it around, and make it sound like crap.

Download it here.

And how ironic that this morning I started watching A Private Little War , the Star Trek episode from the original series that was a direct stab at the (then ongoing) Vietnam war.

This is a quote from Mr. Moore:
"We believe you can explore adult themes with adult characters and still tell a ripping good yarn." from this article

So don't let your kids watch this show! I think sci-fi shows show have classical music for their themes. It just seems better that way. He's going to do away with the original theme music!

Hmmm....intersting idea, except the radio-iso-thermo-electric generators depended on heating thermocouples with nuclear decay. I don't think we'll get as good a temperature differential in our lovely atmosphere at sea level as there is in the near-vacuum of inter-steller/planetary space. And there is the whole radiation problem of decaying unstable matter.

But these people with their
quantum nucleonic reactor might be able to do it. While based on X-ray induced gamma ray emission of halfium isomers , rather than (I think) thorium isotope-decay powered thermocouples, it still sounds cool (which we all know means its better.) Besides, with a throttle-able power supply with which you could save the juice your not using at any given moment, your probe - unlike poineer - could be still tickin' away.

There's plenty of free professional-grade stuff at Seeing Ear Theatre.

Scifi.com occasionally even throws in some classic radio stuff, but the best source for "X Minus One" (Bradbury, Dick, Zelazny, etc.) is Old-Time Radio mp3 trees where you trade CD-R's through the mail.