Loving the Alien returns after a brief hiatus, and Mac Tonnies takes the time to wonder why literary science fiction has never embraced the UFO as a conceptual alpha or omega point. Continue reading UFOs and Science Fiction
Monthly Archives: November 2008
CyberDarwin!
A proof-of-concept digital rendering by Kenn Brown of Mondolithic Studios (and hence under his copyright), a development phase for a full oil-on-canvas painting; hat-tip to George at SentDev.
Tomorrow’s news: Journalism’s future will look like … ?
As Ed Wood said, future events such as these will concern you in the future. With newspapers shriveling up on our breakfast tables, and TV spewing out tabloid and opinion, what’s going to happen to investigative journalism? Reporter-maven DigiDave says:
What we need right now is 10,000 journalism startups. Of these 9,000 will fail, 1,000 will find ways to sustain themselves for a brief period of time, 98 will find mediocre success and financial security and two will come out as new media equivalents to the New York Times…. I don’t know what that organization will look like or who it will be – but that’s what we need and we face some serious challenges along the way.
Dave’s behind Spot.us, a venture in “community-funded reporting.” People submit tips and fund pitches, and the resulting stories can be used by anyone under Creative Commons. About 10 projects are on the boards. A pitch on the after-effects of a year-ago oil spill on San Francisco Bay’s beaches has raised $500 and needs $300 more. Sounds like slow going, but it beats whining about the good old days.
[Story tip: Journerdism]
Unlicensed tanning pills circumventing regulation
Here’s a story for the modern age: despite warnings from the UK government, internet sales of an unlicensed tanning drug are booming. [image by savv]
Melanotan is a synthetic hormone developed by skin cancer researchers that has not been tested for safety, quality or effectiveness. The drug is being sold over the internet and in some tanning salons and bodybuilding gyms. It works by increasing levels of melanin, which is the body’s natural protection from the sun.
Now, it’s no news that people want to take short-cuts to the body (allegedly) beautiful. What is news is the fact that laws and clinical tests can’t keep up with the pace of supply and demand any more; once an idea is out there, someone’s going to see the market potential to make money selling it, and people are going to buy it.
Even when laws or bans are passed, the web effectively negates nation-state boundaries – what’s illegal here in the UK may not be in the Nigeria, for instance. Will controlling the distribution of drugs become as unwinnable a battle as preventing music piracy?
Oh, by the way – the UK government is at least trying to warn of the potential side-effects of the tanning drug:
Melanotan II has also been linked to an increase in libido.
Yeah, that‘ll discourage ’em.
The survival struggle of the genre pulp mags
Just in case you missed this everywhere else it’s been posted, Simon “Bloggasm” Owens has an article at MediaShift about the declining fortunes of the science fiction pulps. He interviews Sheila Williams, Gordon Van Gelder and The Scalzi, and poses the question “what do the pulps need to do to survive the internet age?”
To which the standard answer seems to be “I’m not really sure.” Bruce Sterling, however, would likely have spoken more bluntly: