I’ve never put much thought into the movie ratings system, so I found this review by Moriarty pretty damn interesting. It considers the recent documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated. Choice quote: “The way they let cartoon violence pass with a PG-13 or even a PG in many cases while making sure that any hint of normal sexual dynamics between adults is slapped with a restricted rating is just asinine, and it’s got to have something to do with the way our culture gets hung up over its naughty bits while having no problem at all expressing its rage and aggression through violence.”
Pay To Read A Rough Draft
One of the side effects of a rapid and accelerating world is that learning is constant, and constantly evolving. Thus Safari Books Online’s concept of selling “Rough Cuts” of technology books in the process of being written makes a weird kind of sense. [boingboing]
THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE by Ruth Nestvold
Frequent Futurismic contributor Ruth Nestvold has done it again with “The Other Side Of Silence” – a disturbing tale about the future of executive entertainment.
[ IMPORTANT NOTICE: This story is NOT covered by the Creative Commons License that covers the majority of content on Futurismic; copyright remains with the author, and any redistribution is a breach thereof. Thanks. ]
The Other Side Of Silence
by Ruth Nestvold
“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.”
– George Eliot, Middlemarch
Judith went through the pile of data cubes one more time, hoping she had just overlooked the game somehow. It was uncanny the way children always seemed to know instinctively when interruptions would be most inconvenient for their parents. She had a deadline in less than a week, an environment for Chrysalis Biotechnics, the biggest, most powerful company in their corporate zone in Portland. It could make or break her career as environmental artist. Continue reading THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE by Ruth Nestvold
DIAMOND DUST by David Walton
We’ve got a great new story from David Walton about the aftermath of a war in Taiwan and what happens to families torn apart by it.
[ IMPORTANT NOTICE: This story is NOT covered by the Creative Commons License that covers the majority of content on Futurismic; copyright remains with the author, and any redistribution is a breach thereof. Thanks. ]
Diamond Dust
by David Walton
Christine Gray hardly knew the woman whose life she was about to destroy. She’d met Chen Kit-ken on two occasions, neither time long enough to register more than dress and hairstyle. Yet today, in front of this scandal-loving crowd, she planned to ruin her.
It wasn’t something Christine wanted to think about. Instead, she concentrated on a mental check of her appearance: eyes confident; smile thin, as if at a secret joke; body erect; arms relaxed. She breathed steadily, waiting.
And finally, Kit-ken arrived, slipping into the room through a side door. No announcement, no trumpets, no steward striking a gong, and yet, in a sudden ripple of turning heads, she arrested the attention of everyone in the room. Continue reading DIAMOND DUST by David Walton
New Column: A Four Way Space Race
Tobias Buckell takes a look at what China’s entry into the space race means for the future of Earthlings on and off this planet.
Continue reading New Column: A Four Way Space Race