Genre Links For Jan. 17th

Yup, more links for all of you. I read so many blogs and I poke around with stumbleupon and can’t help myself. Enjoy:

• The Fix has a great article about writing Hard SF even if you’re not a scientific genius. Good stuff there. (Courtesy of SF Signal)
• Is sci-fi out of good ideas? This is probably a good topic for a later article, but read this one here and ask yourself if you think so.
• Here are some scribd articles on Cyberculture and A Cyborg Manifesto. Check them out. Alternately I found this book at Google about Young Adult Science Fiction. Sounds interesting.
• John Howe (yeah, that artist for LOTR) has a great post about worldbuilding.
• The Guardian asks why critics sneer at SF. It’s not really all that negative. Really it’s like praise for Alfred Bester. (Courtesy of SF Signal)
• io9 has this about new technology that uses hyperventilating to turn on computers. Well, it’s not that far-out, but it’s interesting to think what we’ll be changing in the future about how we turn things on and off.
• L. E. Modesitt, Jr. says everyone is wrong about what type of fiction is better: character driven or plot driven? Modesitt sayeth neither be good. I agree-eth.
• Need a crazy looking house made of steel? io9 can help you out with this article. Something straight out of a bizarre Star Trek episode or something.
• Apparently someone wants to turn Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End into a movie! Check it out here. (Yeah, I know, MTV…get over it).
• Roger Ebert (you know, that review guy) talks about the sad state of Catholics who bash Pullman and not C. S. Lewis. I really agree too.
• The Speculist has this article about the new $2500 car in India. Congrats India, you’ve done something incredibly stupid. Sometimes things done with good intentions are done in blindness.
• Ron Howard and Universal are talking about turning E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensmen series into a movie. Well, they’re talking about getting the film rights, but for Howard that probably means “I want to make it”. We’ll see I suppose.
• io9 has an article about the new techniques in using embryos to get stem cells that don’t actually hurt the embryo. Yup, now all you people who are against embryonic stem cell research can whine and complain about the fact that so many of those embryos are destroyed later anyway because they have a shelf life. Hypocrisy abounds.
• I found this amazing video of this contraption this guy built in his home. You know, one of those weird things where the marble goes down the tube, kicks the dominoes that knock the man into the water, which causes and age to fall on a plate, etc. It’s not the same as that, but it’s still crazy awesome.
• Here’s some speculation about casting for The Hobbit. Some of the choices seem pretty good I think.
• A video that shows the size relationship of all the planets in our solar system and stars that are larger than our sun. It’s amazing really to think about how small this planet really is.
• Scientists have created a beating heart, here, and that means some crazy advancements are on the way in the near future for organ replacement.
• io9 has this crazy image of agriculture on our little planet. It looks crazy and weird.
• The Speculist brings you information about the new electric cars of our future. It’s looking really good for Chevy, who will have a useful model available in 2010 that could very well prevent the use of gas for regular commuters.
• Universe Today has this article that really boggled my mind. What if the world we live in is really a virtual reality?
• Futurismic has an article about rights for robots and what one Peter Watts thinks about the idea. I don’t know if I necessarily agree. What about you?
• Grasping For the Wind has this to say about formulaic fiction!
• Since everybody else is posting this, I will too. The Book Swede has the image of the side of Mercury we haven’t seen yet. It’s nothing special to me, but everyone else loves it. I’m just not impressed. Mercury is kind of like the pathetic planet that nobody else likes. Here’s the same image from Universe Today.
• List Universe has the Top 10 Sci Fi Inventions that should never have been.
• TechRepublic has the 75 SF words every fan should know. (Courtesy of SF Signal)
• And then there’s this article: Is There Nepotism in SF? (Courtesy of SF Signal)

There you have it! I’ll have more for next week I’m sure. Now to more profound posting.