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Keyword: sciencefiction

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  • Indulging in America’s gun fantasies: Emotional triggers (Worse than you think)

    12/13/2013 9:59:44 PM PST · by 2ndDivisionVet · 69 replies
    The Boston Globe ^ | December 13, 2013 | Joan Wickersham
    THERE THEY were, just below Martha Stewart and Paula Deen and Allure in the magazine rack at the supermarket: the gun periodicals. I bought three. Back at the place where I was staying — this was in upstate New York, a week ago — I pored over the ads and the editorial content, trying to understand what they were saying, and to whom. First, they want you to buy a gun. It will probably not be your first gun; it will be an addition to, and an improvement on, the gun or guns you already own. It may deliver “precision...
  • What's your favorite really obscure fantasy/sf novel?

    12/13/2013 8:49:04 PM PST · by Kip Russell · 200 replies
    (vanity) | Dec 13, 2013 | Me
    Everybody (well, everybody who reads sf/fantasy) has their favorite novels in each genre...which are usually a bunch of other people's favorite novels as well. This only makes sense, since cream rises to the top. But even so, there are plenty of obscure books that for whatever reason, never really caught on. They might well be great reads, but no one seems to have heard of them...so what's your favorite sf and fantasy novel that still lies in not-so-deserved obscurity? With any luck, we'll all discover a bunch of great books that we've never heard of before! I'll start off with...
  • Top 15 Greatest Science Fiction Writers of All-Time

    12/04/2013 8:13:32 AM PST · by Kip Russell · 149 replies
    http://www.mania.com ^ | Jan 30, 2009 | Tim Janson
    One of the things that makes science fiction so popular is that it means many things to many people. Some people will insist that they are not even reading science fiction when they read a Star Wars novel or a novel dealing with alternate history. That is what makes Sci-Fi so wonderful! It’s easy to love and difficult to define. What other genre has so many sub-genres? You have hard Sci-fi, often times written by people who actually were scientists. There’s Cyber Punk, adventurous Space Opera, Military Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Steam Punk, and even Space Westerns. Something for almost everybody!...
  • 50 Must-See Science Fiction Movies (how many have you seen?)

    11/22/2013 5:50:21 PM PST · by EveningStar · 415 replies
    There are so many amazing science fiction movies that it's hard to include all the greats in a list of 50. It may not be the same 50 you'd pick, but I hope you enjoy this list of must-sees. How many have you seen? Click items to mark as completed.
  • Worm in Sandwich on Air India Flight

    10/15/2013 9:57:19 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 36 replies
    Emirates 24/7 ^ | Tuesday, October 15, 2013
    Investigations underwayAir India said Tuesday an investigation was underway after a passenger found worms in his sandwich mid-flight. The passenger made the discovery during a flight from New York to New Delhi on September 28 on India's struggling flagship carrier. The passenger reported the incident to Air India, but said he did not hear anything back for two weeks, according to the Press Trust of India. "We are investigating the caterer regarding this incident," airline spokesman Prasad Rao told AFP in New Delhi. The spokesman said the airline maintained high standards, including hygiene conditions, adding that this was a "very...
  • Orson Scott Card Worries About Obama Turning "Urban Gangs" Into His Personal Police Force

    10/13/2013 3:13:35 PM PDT · by 2ndDivisionVet · 18 replies
    Slate ^ | August 14, 2013 | David Weigel (member, Ezra Klein's journ-o-list)
    The controversy over Orson Scott Card's opposition to gay marriage appears to have simmered down. Maybe it'll kick up again as the Ender's Game premiere closes in, but it shouldn't—Card's religious objection to gay marriage is shared by a substantial minority of Americans, and holding it against him is a little pat. The actual outrage over what's happening to gay Russians appears to have captured all the anger being directed Card's way. That's good! The gay marriage foofarah was a distraction from Card's much more fascinating political paranoia. His last column on politics is a sort of masterpiece of that...
  • Star Trek illustrates perfectly: In the war between savages and civilized man... You know the rest.

    09/28/2013 7:36:55 PM PDT · by HMS Surprise · 39 replies
    Youtube ^ | 9/28/13 | Gene Roddenberry
    The Star Trek episode Mirror Mirror illustrates the problem with cultures that solve their problems with violence... perfectly.
  • The Outer Limits (original series) 50th anniversary

    09/16/2013 2:40:51 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 86 replies
    See body of thread | September 16, 2013
    The Outer Limits debuted on Monday, September 16, 1963 on ABC. Although this imaginative science fiction anthology series was cancelled midway through its second season, it gained a good cult following and proved to be highly influential. The show had several truly fine episodes. The Wikipedia article is very informative. Many of the episodes are available online.
  • What science fiction/fantasy (if any) are you reading right now?

    09/15/2013 8:09:44 PM PDT · by Kip Russell · 89 replies
    Sept 15, 2013 | Me
    For those who are into this sort of thing...what sfnal or fantasy literature are currently reading or have just finished? I'm working my way through the series, "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher, having read the first 10 novels of the 15 published so far. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files The Dresden Files is a series of contemporary fantasy/mystery novels written by Jim Butcher. He provides a first person narrative of each story from the point of view of the main character, private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden, as he recounts investigations into supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. Butcher's original proposed title for the...
  • Celebrating 47 Years of Star Trek

    09/08/2013 10:19:28 AM PDT · by EveningStar · 90 replies
    Trek News ^ | September 8, 2013 | Staff
    Today we celebrate the 47th anniversary of Star Trek, as the series’ first episode, “The Man Trap” aired on September 8, 1966. Gene Roddenberry’s “wagon train to the stars” made virtually unknown actors at the time, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig, into household names across the United States and around the world.
  • RIP Frederik Pohl, the man who transformed science fiction

    09/02/2013 3:56:30 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 91 replies
    io9 ^ | September 2, 2013 | Annalee Newitz
    One of the leading lights of the science fiction world, editor and author Frederik Pohl, passed away this weekend after a career that defined the genre for decades... Pohl was known for his mind-bending, often satirical novels (many co-authored with longtime collaborator C.M. Kornbluth), his editing acumen, his science fiction criticism, and his witty, fascinating blog, which he was updating right up until his death...
  • Here’s my favorite episode of “Land of the Lost”

    08/20/2013 4:08:12 AM PDT · by grundle · 24 replies
    wordpress ^ | August 18, 2013 | Dan from Squirrel Hill
    As a child in the 1970s, I always enjoyed watching “Land of the Lost” on Saturday morning. As an adult, I like the show even more. This is an intelligent science fiction program that makes you think, and is never dumbed down (except for season 3, which is so horrible that it never should have been made). Here is my favorite episode – “Elsewhen” from season 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDocflFRcSk
  • Elysium: Hollywood's Familiar Nightmare, and the Enduring Technological Dream

    08/08/2013 1:39:31 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 36 replies
    Breitbart - Big Hollywood ^ | August 8, 2013 | Hamilton
    The new movie Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, is more loaded with liberal politics than an Organizing For America fundraising pitch. It’s more loaded with liberalism than an Ivy League gender studies department. More loaded, even, than an MSNBC roundtable discussion.   Still, it’s a pretty cool movie, featuring an intelligent, if scary, take on the future. And so it merits our attention, because even if one doesn’t agree with its liberal slant, one must realize that liberals have half, at least, of the marbles in American politics--that is, the White House, the Senate, and, of course, the...
  • Ender's Game - Final Trailer - Official - 2013

    08/06/2013 11:59:11 AM PDT · by EveningStar · 23 replies
    YouTube ^ | August 6, 2013 | SummitScreeningRoom
    ENDER'S GAME is an epic adventure starring Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin. Based on the best-selling, award winning novel. Only in theaters November 1, 2013.
  • Real Doomsday: Earth Dead in 2.8 Billion Years

    07/02/2013 7:42:10 PM PDT · by DogByte6RER · 35 replies
    Discovery ^ | July 2, 2013 | Ray Villard
    Real Doomsday: Earth Dead in 2.8 Billion Years The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jaggar crooned “Time Is On My Side” in the 1964 classic rock hit of the same title. Sadly, that’s not the case for habitable planets orbiting sun-like stars according to a recent computer simulation by astrobiologist Jack O’Malley-James of the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. “A combination of slow and rapid environmental changes will result in the extinction of all species on Earth, with the last inhabitants disappearing within 2.8 billion years from now,” O’Malley-James predicts. He says that we’ve got about 2 billion years...
  • Classic 1950's Science Fiction Film Themes

    06/22/2013 12:35:20 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 25 replies
    YouTube ^ | September 28, 2012 | Uploaded by charel196
    Published on Sep 28, 2012 A selection of some of the best science fiction film themes from the 50's, with audio enhanced using stereo reverb & imaging. Check with the IMDB (www.imdb.com) for composer info for the films THE THING Dimitri TiomkinDAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Bernard herrmannWAR OF THE WORLDS Leith StevensINVADERS FROM MARS Raoul Kraushaar/Mort GlickmanFLIGHT TO MARS Marlin SkilesFORBIDDEN PLANET Louis and Bebe BarronTHIS ISLAND EARTH Herman SteinINVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS Carmen DragonTHE BLACK SCORPION Paul SawtellKRONOS Paul Sawtell/Bert ShefterIT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE Paul Sawtell/Bert ShefterINVISIBLE INVADERS Paul DunlapDAY THE WORLD ENDED Ronald SteinWORLD...
  • 'Man of Steel' (Superman) Reviews

    06/14/2013 8:02:09 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 46 replies
    Multiple links in body of thread | June 14, 2013
    Official site Wikipedia IMDb Man Of Steel - Official Teaser Trailer Man of Steel - Official Trailer #2 Man of Steel - Official Trailer #3The movie opened today. Here are some reviews: Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic E Online: Man of Steel Reviews Are In-Superman Flies High With Critics Yahoo: First Reviews Are In: Is 'Man of Steel' Too Dark, Too Big, Too Much? The Independent (UK): Man of Steel: Reviews round-up - S is for Serious not Superman as Henry Cavill dons the tights CBS News: "Man of Steel" critics' reviews: Film wallows in sorrow more than soars New York Post:...
  • 'The Purge' Slams NRA and Tea Party, Summons Thoughts of Trayvon Martin

    06/12/2013 3:01:53 PM PDT · by EveningStar · 18 replies
    Breitbart - Big Hollywood ^ | June 12, 2013 | Warner Todd Huston
    The new Ethan Hawke thriller The Purge was number one at the box office during its opening weekend, but critics are slamming the film for its thinly veiled commentary against the National Rifle Association and Tea Party groups. The plot brings moviegoers to the near future where in 2022 a new regime has come to America. The "New Founders" have taken over the country and practically eliminated unemployment crime, and want. One of the ways this new political movement has brought on such an idyllic society is to allow one night a year when any and all violence, even murder,...
  • Iain Banks dies of cancer aged 59 (author)

    06/10/2013 10:14:21 AM PDT · by EveningStar · 8 replies
    BBC News ^ | June 9, 2013
    Author Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, his family has said. Banks, who was born in Dunfermline, Fife, revealed in April he had gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year. He was best known for his novels The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity.
  • NSA Verizon snooping prompts exit by Wil Wheaton, Android hacker Koush

    06/07/2013 7:40:07 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 28 replies
    SlashGear ^ | June 6, 2013 | Chris Burns
    As NSA data collection from Verizon Wireless is defended this morning by no less than the office of the President of the United States, actor Wil Wheaton and top Android hacker/developer Koushik Dutta have announced their departure from the carrier. The order in question was revealed yesterday, having originated from the FBI and passed down to the public media by an anonymous source. The order shows how the National Security Agency uses Verizon specifically to mine records of phone calls, numbers, and everything in-between for data. Data such as “unique identifiers”—unspecified beyond that, call length, number of individuals on each...