This is pretty entertaining: "Armchair astronaut" David Martines claims to have discovered a mysterious structure on the surface of Mars by using Google Earth (well, Google Mars). His YouTube video of the "station" has racked up 852,000 views so far; in it, he claims to have discovered the anomaly while examining Mars using Google's handy tool, and ( Read more... )

Over on Facebook, I got myself involved in a debate on religion. I know, I know; I should know better. But it's fun, y'know? Anyhow, what prompted the debate was this article on the BBC about how relgions go extinct. Good stuff.
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I'm in the midst of planning for my spring "Science, Technology, & Society: Examining the Future Through a Science Fiction Lens" course, and was researching a bit for interesting material. Here's some of what I found.

Are you the very model of a singularitarian?

Click to view

Speaking of transcendental or catastrophic change, this book on Armageddon Science ( Read more... )

Howdy! In less than two weeks is the launch of my novel, Transcendence, and I need to figure out where to hold the post-bookstore-event party, how many might be coming, what I should prepare, and so forth. Help!

Poll Book Launch Party, Fri. Nov. 5!
If you have any other ideas or comments, I'd love to hear 'em in comments. Thanks!
Chris

In case you missed my book-research poll last week, here are the resultsInteresting and useful information for writers, though not entirely surprising. Looks like most people (from my LJ-friends survey pool) still much prefer print books, and recommendations from friends (and others, per Amazon's method) are still how we usually find new books and ( Read more... )

Hi folks -

So I have a book coming out in late October or early November, so it's time to start thinking about how to prepare. I plan to give away the book electronically via my website, plus it'll be available as a Kindle book among other formats. When it hits the shelves, I plan to partake in a book tour or two, with readings and signings and ( Read more... )

Yesterday's big news was all about Stephen Hawking's warning against seeking out aliens. Why? Because they're likely to turn out to be Space-Vikings intent on stealing our land and pillaging our women! Or something like that.


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This is just too cool. Had to share (from Richard Wiseman's blog):


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Poll

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I just finished reading an article about women voters, and though I agreed with many of the premises, it also seemed to ring untrue in other ways. (I'll post a link later; don't want to influence your voting ( Read more... )