incipit vita nova

Science in My Fiction Contest: Crossed Genres

Crossed Genres Magazine is sponsoring a new fiction contest for stories of 2,500 to 10,000 words that are inspired by a recent scientific advance or discovery.  By "recent" they mean that the scientific advance has to have taken place in the past year.  In addition to story submission, they ask that authors provide a link to the scientific inspiration that led to the story to show that the discovery is recent.

A contest after my own heart!!  First prize is $250, a subscription to Crossed Genres, and publication in the magazine.  There is no fee to enter, and I encourage all who enjoy writing science fiction about real, and recent science, to enter.

An Inconvenient Truth: Thanks, Professor Paul!!

I found this cool graph that was published in America's "Newspaper of Record" in January, 2009.  This graph showed how much the "Stimulus" package was going to help the unemployment situation.

I took the liberty of updating it.

Please distribute.

Mr. Paul Krugman made this chart.  He writes for the NY Times and is an expert economist. He is the author of "20 books" and "more than 200 papers in professional journals."  He is formerly on the faculty of Yale, MIT and Stanford, held a named chair at MIT, and is currently at Princeton University, in addition to his OP-ED duties at America's "newspaper of record."

Although only a tiny fraction of the millions who have lost jobs in the recession, last October, the NY Times announced with regret that it would eliminate 100 newsroom jobs, representing 8% of the newspaper's workforce remaining after prior layoffs in 2008.  

I'm sure there was some other chart in which Mr. Krugman forecast the effects of his employer nobly refusing stimulus money, bravely forging on until they could go no further . . . (notable on Mr. Krugman's current blog are attacks by his four-Sigma society member readers on Sarah Palin.  That's always informative about the economy, and good for a laugh).  Mr. Krugman might want to let at least a couple of those folks who were laid off return for a week or two for part-time fill-in work ("stringing") while he vacations with his lovely wife and cat at his vacation home in St. Croix (a resort in France - if you're from a resort near Rio Linda). 

The Sessile Eye of the Isopod

Ever since I saw the picture of the giant isopod brought up the the submarine crew last week, I was fascinated by this creature, which amounts to a deep water-dwelling pillbug.  Some people think it looks like a giant, animated lobster tail.

 This thing is like . . . ALIENNNNN!!!

That alien face - it supposely has a "sessile" compound eye, by which it is meant - not on a stalk.

If you like it, you can learn more about it here.

Its scientific name is apparently bathynomus gigantius and it lives at depths of 2,000 feet or below.  It mainly navigates by its long feelers, and is a carnivorous scavenger.  It's so large, in comparison to its land-dwelling relative, the familiar and even slightly cute pillbug or sowbug, because of the phenomenon of deep sea gigantism, which also gives rise to the giant squid.

I want to say there's a story in this, but I'm not sure it's a very good one.  (Look at that face!!!).

It advances slowly on its clattering chitinous legs, ravenous, implacable, its pincers snapping . . . 

And on a slightly different note, another lovely dinner at Akasha this evening.  Service great and food very nice as always.  Meredith and I shared three small cupcakes for dessert.  Two of them had tiny little marshmallow rabbits on top.  I ate mine, biting off his head first.  Then I mushed his body with some frosting and ate it too.

Google aka Topeka Déjà vu

This isn't the first time this has happened to me.  I decided to look further into Jungian memes, and upon typing this phrase into Google, obtained this result:

So disappointing. 

When one hopes to learn, one finds what one already said. Google Déjà vu.

Book View Cafe Welcomes Walking Dead

April 1, 2010
For Immediate Release

The Book View Cafe authors are delighted to welcome our newest author members...the Walking Dead!

 With proven staying power, and back lists of books that have never gone away, awards too numerous to mention, these authors will re-energize and re-shape the cafe in ways never before imagined!

In honor of these new additions to the Cafe line up, the Cafe's front page will be dedicated to the finest work of these authors, newly returned to prominence and the surface of the earth.

"With the internet, print on demand and civilization-ending environmental catastrophy bringing so many exceptional authors back to life, as it were, we saw a real opportunity," said Sarah Zettel, Book View Cafe's Managing Director. 

When asked why she decided to rise from the grave to join the ebook revolution and zombie apocolypse, Margaret Mitchell said, "I swore, as God is my witness, I would never go hungry again.  With Google Maps to help me find the best concentrations of fresh brains,  I can keep that promise."

"The fleeing populace is a moveable feast for a young zombie," adds Ernest Hemingway. "If we can use ebooks to help ensure they have short, happy lives, why the hell not?"

But, as always, it was the father of the modern English language who put it best.  Said the Bard:

"Brrraaaaaiiinnnnssss..."