Just a quick bit of good news: four patents of the key AIDS/HIV drug tenofovir disoproxil fumarate have been revoked on grounds of prior art. This is great news for developing nations where lower prices on these drugs could save thousands of lives. [Via Slashdot]
Of course, Gilead (the company whose patents have been revoked) are vowing to fight their corner; after all, life is a wonderful thing, but it must always come second to profit.
Being the sort of well-informed netizens you are, I expect you’re familiar with Malcom Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” hypothesis, widely believed to be the cutting-edge theory for predicting how trends, fads and fashions propagate. [Image from Wikipedia]
According to Gladwell, fashions are started by “Influentials” – highly visible and well-connected individuals who others look to for the next big thing.
According to Duncan Watts, however, the Tipping Point is so much baloney:
“It just doesn’t work,” Watts says […] “A rare bunch of cool people just don’t have that power. And when you test the way marketers say the world works, it falls apart. There’s no there there.”
And this is not, he argues, mere academic whimsy. He has developed a new technique for propagating ads virally, which can double or even quadruple the reach of an ordinary online campaign by harnessing the pass-around power of everyday people–and ignoring Influentials altogether.
Of course, Watts has his rival theory to promote – he’s not telling us this out of some philanthropic urge. But the point is that the business of marketing is probably where we’ll see the next big breakthroughs in understanding human communication as a system.
How the results will be used remains to be seen, of course. [Via The Daily Swarm]
Talk about cognitive dissonance – I thought I was still asleep and dreaming when I heard on the radio this morning that three large corporate employers (including a certain well-known fast-food chain) have been granted the right to act as examination boards by the UK government. This means they can grant their employees qualifications which (theoretically) have value beyond the walls of the company where they were earned, unlike many current vocational qualifications. [Image from stock.xchng]
I expect that, certainly at first, an A-Level in McManagement won’t be worth the paper it’s written on, except with similar employers – but if the scheme sticks, that will probably change. You could probably argue that more people will end up with qualifications if there’s the financial incentive of receiving a working wage while earning them.
But what if this is the thin end of the wedge? What if, in a few decades, kindergartens and primary schools are run (or sponsored) by corporate interests? In a climate of growing deficits, it’s not that unlikely a scenario – and we’ve already been softened up to the idea by supermarket vouchers-for-equipment schemes. But then again, there’s little difference between governments and corporations as it is … once again, Snow Crash seems eerily prescient. Or am I just engaging in knee-jerk cyberpunk paranoia?
[tags]corporate, training, education, qualifications[/tags]
Who can you rely on to battle past technical issues and shyster hosting companies to bring you your weekly dose of free fiction on the interwebs?
Futurismic, that’s who!
***
The retro selection from Manybooks.net:
***
Via Darren at UKSFBookNews:
“The fifth issue of the online magical realist fiction magazine, Serendipity, features work by Steven Savile, Lynn Bartels, Tony Murfin, Lady Charlotte Guest, Craig Laurance Gidney and Neil Ayres.”
Lovely – I’ve added Serendipity to the sidebar!
***
Jay Lake‘s at it again, with a story short enough to qualify for the Flash Fictioneers … if you’d ever like to join in, Jay, please just let us know!
“…the original short story “Arrange the Bones“. At 1,000 words, this originally appeared in Say…Was that a Kiss? back in 2002, then reprinted by Prime Books in my 2004 collection, Dogs in the Moonlight. If you like the story, please consider supporting Fortress of Words and their Say… zine, as well as Prime Books.”
***
An email from Sam J Miller:
“Hoped you might be able to include my semi-spec-fic short story, “Paper Bomb,” freshly-published in the new online issue of Pindeldyboz, in your next fabulous Friday Free Fiction communique.
Thanks a million for your excellent work in finding such great sci-fi to send around every week. It’s a high point of my Fridays.”
It’s a highlight of mine too, Sam – though as I’ve mentioned before, I merely collate the work of others and quote emails I’m sent. I am but the conduit! 😉
***
From John Klima at Electric Velocipede:
“Of interest to me and my readers is that William Shunn‘s novelette “Not of this Fold” from his chapbook An Alternate History of the 21st Century is on the preliminary [Nebula novellette] ballot. […] To that end, I’ve posted (with Bill’s permission) a PDF of the story online.”
Congratulations to William – and to John as editor, too. I know we’re all about the free online fiction here, but there are some super print mags out there too, and Electric Velocipede is a charming little publication that’s well worth the subscription fee.
***
Speaking of excellent print magazines* making award-nominated stories available for free, I should point out that Interzone has published the 2007 BSFA-Nominated story “The Sledge-Maker’s Daughter” by Alastair Reynolds, which is a great story that comes personally recommended by me, for what that’s worth.
[*Disclosure – I’m Interzone‘s Reviews Editor, but I thought it was an excellent magazine long before I started contributing to it. You can now subscribe electronically and avoid that tiresome Transatlantic postage business, too!]
***
Subterranean Press are pumping out more material for free on their webzine:
***
A few words from Jeremy Tolbert:
“I slept very badly last night, and had a migraine to end all migraines. I’m slowly recovering this morning. I recently woke up and, along with this lingering headache, I found I have an overwhelming desire to give something away.
I’ve posted a story, “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You“, online under a Creative Commons license. It’s about death, Led Zeppelin, and how families cope.”
Jeremy also post-mortem’d the give-away and examined his motives for doing it – interesting reading for other aspiring writers.
***
Hey, guess what? Futurismic’s own Fiction Editor Christopher East got one of his stories published at Hub Magazine, but he’s too modest to post about it himself. So it falls to me to blow his trumpet for him (ahem) – so go read “The Scarlet Number“.
***
Friday Flash Fictioneers – form up and call ’em out! We’re a few short this week (albeit with a promise of imminent material from Neil Beynon), but we have a new recruit to fill out the ranks.
So, a warm welcome to Greg O’Byrne, who gives us “Dying In A Cold Dark Place“. Welcome aboard, Greg!
Elsewhere, Shaun C Green is interested in “This Urban Aesthetic“.
Meanwhile, in yet another example of synchronous and spontaneous picking of similar themes, we have two stories about starship pilots: Justin Pickard supplies the ultra-brief “Celerity“, while Gareth D Jones recounts “An Obscure Incident Somewhere in Deep Space”
Last but (hopefully) not least, yours truly heads back to his remixed hometown of New Southsea for a ferry-trip with “Charon“.
***
Stop Press! Last-minute late-arrival bonus:
Solaris Books have made Deadstock by Jeffrey Thomas available to download for free. Yes, the whole book.
***
OK folks, that’s your lot for this week! Don’t forget to drop us a line with any tips, plugs and self-promotion. In the meantime, thanks for reading – take care, and have a good weekend.
Just goes to show that you can’t keep a good blog down! I’ve Just uploaded the database to Futurismic’s new host,and everything seems to be working fine – not to mention running far faster than the old installation.
If you notice anything untoward in the operation or appearance of the site, I hope you’ll let us know. In the meantime, back to business! 🙂
