You’ve Got It, More Links For you Genre Folks! (Part Two)

I’m almost through all of my links. One more post after this. There’s just a lot of interesting stuff in here. I’m saving a few items for deeper discussion. Still, here is part two of the links!

• The Anthology Builder. Everyone else has talked about it, but here I am to bring it up again. Possibly one of the coolest ideas ever. Think about all the things you wish the record companies would let you do in your local Walmart with artist tracks and apply that to short stories. That’s what AB does. You can build your own anthology!
• Apparently, according to this article provided by Futurismic, sperm actually can affect the psychological behavior of a female. At least that’s so in fruit flies. I wonder if it does anything to female humans…
• Stargate is real! No, not really, but if you look at the image provided in this article at Futurismic you’ll start to wonder. Apparently some physics students are trying to accelerate two particles at high speeds, collide them, and create new particles that haven’t been seen before. It sounds like science fiction doesn’t it? I wonder if they’ll accidentally discover wormholes.
• Dusk Before Dawn talks about why Asimov’s three laws will be almost impossible to implement. I have to agree that at this point his laws would be beyond our capabilities.
• TimesOnline lists the 50 greatest British authors since 1945. George Orwell happens to be number two. Represent. (Courtesy of SF Signal)
• Rumor has it that Richard Matheson, the author of I Am Legend, has sold the rights to a sequel to the film adaptation with Will Smith. Needless to say it’s not hard to see why. The film has raked in over 220 million dollars, which puts it well above its budget. Hopefully the sequel will be good too. (Courtesy of SF Signal)
• What about strange machine animals? Look no further than Nantes in France. These bizarre machine creatures have sprung up there. Truly brilliant design I must say. Looks like that was a hell of a project to work for. (Courtesy of SF Signal)
• Curious what sf/f authors have popped up in the movies? Well, look no further than here. Well, maybe look further, as it does miss some things (namely the fact that Arthur Conan Doyle was in Shanghai Knights), but it’s really interesting nonetheless. (Courtesy of SF Signal)
• Not sure if I mentioned this before, but here is a brilliant website that helps clear up all that confusing mess about the ten dimensions. Meaning, it’s sort of like complex science for us folks who don’t really want to deal with long words and such.
• A dictionary of symbolism, for those of you interested in that sort of stuff.
• A medieval sword resource, with lots of pictures and information about swords from those crazy days.
• This is probably the coolest thing done with dinosaurs that I have ever seen. Imagine seeing dinosaurs moving as if they were real, but not CG or any of that. Massive puppets with realistic movements!
• Well, bulletproof vests didn’t give us Robocop, but research by some nanotech folks just might. This article talks about how scientists may have figured out how to create a nano-vest that can stop bullets and repel their force!
• By the way, in a few years we won’t have to argue about how we get stem cells. So, to all those of you who are complaining about our current methods, here is the wave of the future. They’ve figured out how to use human skin cells to get just about any cell type they want.
• With growing concern with China’s space program, which has just demonstrated that they have the capability to knock satellites out of the sky, the U.S. is working on a program of their own to take care of those threats that might exist out there now or in the future. It’s dubbed the ‘Falcon’. It’s a super-sonic craft that can deliver a hell of a payload to any location on the planet in minutes. No doubt it’s expensive.
• Beam Me Up talks about ten books that should be movies. I would argue that Asimov’s Foundation would be near impossible to make into a good movie, but I can see a lot of the others working out. On the other side is AV Club’s list of 20 good books that were turned into bad movies. I don’t agree on Bicentennial Man, because I enjoyed the movie. I never read the book though. It’s an interesting list nonetheless. I don’t agree with their assessment of Stardust either.
• Here is a huge list of places you can get free books. Some of them are book-swap places and others are e-book sites. I assume all are legit.
• SFWA has a great checklist for critiquing science fiction. Give it a read and keep it saved somewhere.
• A chronological bibliography of science fiction history, criticism, and theory. I love it! That’s my Christmas wishlist for the rest of my life by the way.
• The great thing about Google is that you can find all sorts of amazing free stuff on there. Like this book about Bernard Shaw on Google Books.
• 30+ tools for the amateur writer. The name explains it all.
• The grand list of overused science fiction cliches. I’m sure there is some version of this out there for fantasy too.
• Top 15 best movie sequels at The List Universe. There are a lot of science fiction and fantasy nods in there.
• Meat, the hilarious science fiction play by Terry Bisson! I love it. I think I linked to a theatrical production of it at one point. It’s brilliant!
• Remoting Future is a brilliant website that uses a bunch of web clocks counting down the various futures of science fiction worlds (Dune and Blade Runner) and even real world ‘futures’ (Y2K). Some of the clocks have passed, obviously, and are simply counting the other direction now, but it’s really interesting to see what futures just haven’t come into existence.
• Apparently Darpa, a group from the Pentagon, is working on creating an artificial limb controlled by the nervous system. Sounds cool, but a bit ambitious right now I think.
• Solar power is cheaper than coal, by the way. Yet we’re still paying outrageous prices for non-renewing fuel sources and our lovely government is doing little to implement newer, safer, and easier fuel systems. Go figure. To add, there is the maglev turbine, which is smaller and more efficient than all those huge ones you see in the California hills. Longer lifetime than traditional turbines, about 500 years for this guy, and it has the potential to power up to 750,000 homes per maglev turbine. Sounds good to me. Then there’s these guys who have proposed they have figured out how to use the motions of cold are in the atmosphere to produce enough electricity to run the Earth 15 times over (the whole planet). It’s a bold idea, but if it has any merit I’d like to see it through. Wouldn’t it be nice if we never had to worry about power again? Lastly, there’s this North African solar project, which proposes to provide a sixth of Europe’s energy.
• This website lets you actually hear what things out in space sound like. Eerie and creepy.
• Did you know there is a society for the prevention of cruelty to robots? There is, and it’s here.
• Want to see Earth from the view of a satellite? Have a specific satellite in mind? Well here would be a good place to get that view!
• What were they all thinking today would be like 40 years ago? Apparently some things that are real (personal computers) and some things that are just nuts (no illnesses).
• I don’t know what it is, and I don’t think anyone else does, but it’s apparently open and it has something to do with Harry Potter’s father. Either this is a brilliant media ploy, or someone who is about to get the full force of Rowling’s lawyers crashing into his house.
• What exactly makes science fiction actually science fiction on television? This article postulates that it has more to do with setting than anything else.
• The Big Scary Idea. This is apparently the idea that is supposed to save SF. I think it’s too big to be true.
• The Cyborg Manifesto.
• An essay on worldbuilding. It’s a bit hard to read, but it’s a good one nonetheless.
• Apple is being sued…again. This time by the folks that own the patent for the visual voicemail feature on the iPhone. I find a little bit of joy in it, to be honest.
• Charles Stross guest blogs on Scalzi’s Whatever about the problems with space travel. I’m quickly becoming a fan of Charles Stross, even though I haven’t read any of his work. He’s simply a brilliant speaker, much like Robert J. Sawyer.