Next time someone tells you to go to hell, save yourself the inconvenience of an eternity of torment – check into Second Life, where a recreation of Lucifer’s domain as envisaged by Dante can be explored from the comfort of your favourite computer chair.
All posts by Paul Raven
Nobel winner writing new novel online – and giving it away for free
The science fiction genre is full of authors who, with a few exceptions, understand the value of giving content away for free as a marketing ploy (and we love them for it, too). The same attitude is less prevalent in the world of ‘proper’ literature, but the literary cachet of Nobel prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, combined with her enthusiastic adoption of a new publishing paradigm may change that fact. A recluse in real life, Ms Jelinek feels more able to communicate with people online, describing the internet as “the most wonderful thing there is. It connects people. Everyone can have input.” As an experiment into using the internet to raise an author’s profile, I’d say it’s been a success – Nobel Prize or no, I’d never heard of her before now. I wonder if the story’s any good?
Astronomers spot a wet ‘hot Jupiter’
This story is everywhere today, but my preferred source for the real unsensationalised science behind astronomy headlines is Centauri Dreams, which explains that, while there is indeed water in the atmosphere of exoplanet HD 189733b, it’s almost certainly not in the liquid form that we are used to finding it in. The good news is that it suggests water-abundant star systems are not a rarity – so maybe one day we’ll find a planet more like our own.
UK military denies deploying killer badgers
You just can’t make a story like this up … a spokesman for the UK armed forces in Iraq has had to deny rumours that they were responsible for releasing a horde of man-eating animals into Basra. A bit implausible, especially for us traditionalist Brits … but it strikes me as the sort of thing DARPA might have thrown money at, had they thought of it first.
Sports venues as solar farms
Sometimes commercial interests can actually be beneficial to the environment. Let’s say you own a sports stadium: how do you monetize that huge piece of real estate in the hours when there’s no events being held in it? Why not imitate AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, and [beware pop-ups]cover the building with solar panels that will create nice clean energy you can sell back to the grid. That way, everyone’s a winner. [Engadget]