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Friday Free Fiction for 19th October

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It’s that time of week again! Here’s your free fiction to keep you busy over the weekend … or at work this afternoon, for those of you in the US! 🙂

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New old stories at ManyBooks.net: "The Stoker and the Stars" by Algis Budrys, "Gravity’s Angel" by Tom Maddox, "Toy Shop" by Harry Harrison, and "One-Shot" by James Blish.

And at Project Gutenberg: "Second Sight" by Alan E. Nourse.

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The unstoppably prolific Chris Roberson has a pretty hefty back-catalogue to draw on for his free fiction offerings: I missed last week’s "So Far From Us In All Ways" due to time restrictions, and this week there’s a chunk from his recently published novel Set The Seas On Fire, "A Fencing Lesson".

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An email from Nancy Jane Moore:

"I’m doing some serious blogging about self defense these days, and I
also happen to have a science fiction story — "Survival Skills" — that
illustrates some of my points."

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We’ve mentioned Strange Horizons more than a few times, but that’s not going to stop me doing it again, as Jason Stoddard (who has had stories published here at Futurismic and in loads of other venues) points out that one of his shorter pieces, the 4000-word "Making Payments", is up on SH right now.

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Friday Flashers in action this week: Gareth L Powell’s sliver of a story, "Fifty-Four Dodge"; Neil Beynon’s "The Anniversary", Shaun C Green’s racy and more than a trifle weird "Slip It In", and my own "I am a camera".

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As always – please get in touch with any announcements you’d like included here next time, be they stories, excerpts or podcasts. We don’t care about the format, as long as it’s free!

[tags]free, fiction, stories, online[/tags]
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‘Strong proof’ of water found on Mars

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mars.jpgAnyone who has been following the recent missions to Mars are familiar with the ongoing speculation about if and how much water might exist on the Red Planet. This is an extremely important question, because the presence of easily accessible water would mean that future manned missions to Mars could use that water to produce fuel once they arrive – rather than having to bring it with them. Canadian scientists appear to have answered the “if” question, now it just remains a question of “how much.”

Canadian researchers have discovered that a white, salty substance churned up by the Mars Spirit rover is the first “on-the-spot” evidence of water just beneath the surface of the Red Planet.

The discovery by physicists at the University of Guelph is the first solid proof based on soil samples, and reinforces earlier evidence from satellite images suggesting water lies trapped under the barren landscape.

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Ancient Amazonian soil enrichment technique may provide ‘carbon negative’ fuel

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dark earth - a way to cut down our carbon?A lot of money has been pumped into Carbon Sequestration recently, to try and put some of the CO2 we produce back into the earth in the underground aquifers where we got the oil and gas that caused it in the first place. However, another way of storing carbon is in the soil, which benefits agriculture as well. Indigenous tribes in the Amazon basin have been using a technique of introducing charcoal to soil to produce darker ‘terra preta‘ soil for millenia. The low temperature charring of plants and trees introduces more carbon to the soil and encourages worms to break down the charcoal and soil to make a nutrient-rich loam.

A study into the method by MIT professor Amy Smith found that using agricultural char methods could be a great way of producing low-cost fuel for developing nation. You can view a speech on the subject she made at TED 2006 here. By burning waste materials in a gasifier, the methane, hydrogen and other burnable gases it produces can be used as fuels, leaving behind a charred solid that can be mixed into the soil as fertiliser, building back the soil content. Because the organic content has charred, it doesn’t decompose to be released into the atmosphere. WorldChanging has a great analysis that the process could actually provide power whilst potentially reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

[via WorldChanging, image via Papa Goiaba]

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Solar pessimism

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Lots of advances have been made in solar energy, as we’ve reported recently.  But solar energy may not be all dandelions and sunflowers, and there are worries not just about efficiency.  Simple production capacity dictates that even if we wanted to, we couldn’t produce nearly enough to meet our current energy needs.  A post by scienceblogger James Hrynyshyn over at the aptly named The Island of Doubt has some more information of solar pessimism.

Just like at that business seminar you attended, constructive criticism is best.  These add a dose of realism and keep us from wondering in five years why we’re still being told we’re just around the corner from a breakthrough.  As Mr. Hrynyshyn said, "Don’t get discouraged guys. Just keep plugging away…."

(image from Rob!)

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Space Elevator Games 2007

University of Saskatchewan's space elevator climber This week sees the 2007 Space Elevator Games taking place near Salt Lake City, Utah; contestants from all over the world will be attempting to break records with their climber, tether and power transmission system designs in an attempt to win the $1million prize. Think what you like about the feasibility of space elevators, but you can’t deny the almost Quixotic glory of such an event – a testament to the human ability to dream big. Follow the progress of the event at the aptly-named Space Elevator Blog, which has been posting vigorously on the preliminary rounds. [Image from SpaceElevatorBlog]

[tags]space elevator, competition, space station, technology[/tags]

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