It’s always the way – you spend a week away from your RSS feeds and you come back to discover a mountain of goodies in among the LOLcats and Google acquisitions hype. Here’s some great stuff for science fiction fans across the web at the moment:

Subterranean have released yet more quality material in the latest edition of their online magazine. Any day that sees an original Gene Wolfe story come available for free is a red-letter day in my calendar.

Fresh from his virtual book-signing tour, John Scalzi posts an interview with Allen Steele, author of many sf novels including the ‘Coyote’ series and his latest, Spindrift.

And if you’re too tired to read, then thank the good people at Orbit Books for pointing out that you can watch a short video interview with the legend that is Charlie Stross, talking about his novel The Atrocity Archives.

I was been bitten once by the World of Warcraft bug myself, but in my case, it was luckily not addictive. Though I’ve never known anyone personally who admitted to buying gold or items from farmers, this New York Times article on the gold farming operations in China claims there is a $1.8 billion trade in virtual items. To become a part of this market, one needs little start-up capital or resources, but a tremendous amount of man hours for it to be profitable, so China’s surplus of labor makes gold farm a good fit. The article is a good overview of the history of virtual item sales, particularly as it relates to current popular games, but it’s look at the human side of China’s gold farming operations is a refreshing and new examination of the issue.

There’s been a lot of futurism in the news this week, particularly focusing on cities. First, Forbes.com has an interesting piece on Ghost Cities of 2100. Most of the cities they predict will be abandoned appear to be for reasons related to global climate change. Regarding future cities and advertising, could we be witnessing it right now as Sao Paulo’s outdoor advertising ban takes effect?

Scientific American is also running a related piece this week, but this it goes a step further than Forbes and describes a future with no humans at all. Things are looking a little bleak in the popular vision of the future.

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, a preeminent print magazine for genre short fiction, has launched an experiment in posting free fiction online via their website. Previously, F&SF has published short fiction nominated for awards, for voting consideration, but this marks the first time that they have published content from the magazine that has not been nominated. First up is Chris Willrich’s story “The Thief With Two Deaths.” According to John Joseph Adams, assistant editor, this is an experiment with online publishing, and if you think it is a good idea, or you have suggestions, you should let editor Gordon Van Gelder know about it.

IBM are totally in love with the metaverse, and are currently churning out ideas related to virtual worlds at a rate of knots. Their latest wheeze is to give avatars a sort of virtual passport that allows them to keep the same appearance and possessions as they travel between different synthetic spaces. Which is a nice idea, but it could be a slippery slope. Next thing you know, you’ll have to get a replacement virtual passport with a virtual RFID chip in it. And then you’ll have to remove your avatar’s shoes and dispose of any virtual liquids before starting your journey …