UPDATE: 12:00 pm 1/9/13 (Earlier news below)
SPECIAL NOTICE! One of our own – Daniel M. Kimmel, will be having a book reading & signing on January 27th, 2013 at The Book Shop in Sommerville MA. for his debut novel Shh! It’s A SecretDetails here on the FB page. I’m going – anyone else within a reasonable distance might want to think about it as well
(Sorry ’bout the headline. After two days of posting news bits here I could no longer avoid temptation. Perhaps tomorrow it will be Fantastic News, Astounding News, or maybe even Startling News. But for today it is Amazing.)
David Brin answers the question – “Can the war on science kill you (us)?” – with a resounding YES! (From ContraryBrin. Bonus – a Life magazine photo of David pre-Uplift.)
Today is Dr. Stephan Hawking’s birthday. He is now 71. Huffington Post put up some of their favorite Hawking quotes in his honor. Faves include –
“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”
“I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”
“What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn’t prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary.”
There’s a lot of good meat there for writers.
From DASFA – the Denver Area Science Fiction Association we learn about this website featuring bad book covers of the SFnal variety. Type in the name of your favorite author and see if they’ve had any clunkers.
The Free Speculative Fiction Online site points us to an edition of Ray Bradbury’s fanzine Futuria Fantasia that has recently been posted to Project Gutenberg. This issue features a poem by Ray, as well as a story by soon-to-be Number 1 Fan Forrest J. Ackerman (4E). Of particular note is Ray Bradbury’s introduction, wishing everyone success at the first World Science Fiction Convention in New York, 1939. (4E put up bus fare for Ray to attend – probably one of the best investments anyone has ever made, fannish or mundane!)
Islam and Science Fiction (Islam’s connection to the fantastical goes deep into history; think Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights) is a site devoted to – Islamic Science Fiction! Today the site announced that a 2007 anthology, A Mosque Among the Stars is now available for free download.
