Bring on the leaves!

Culture
David Brin writes a graphic novel called “Tinkerers” about the maker culture, manufacturing, and the future of progress, and puts it online for public reading.

On the indie film front, here comes a new farm system that might take a couple years to become completely clogged: Amazon is launching a sort of on-line film festival that looks like a hybrid of Project Greenlight and what Sundance used to be. Worth keeping an eye on.

I’ve talked from time to time on Dealing In shows about the unique political history of the United States, and how that has directly contributed to our current culture wars. Here’s some news that dovetails with the discussions about the Civil War and Reconstruction — for some people, the Civil War never ended.

Sexuality
For some reason–maybe because both Down From Ten and And Then She Was Gone featured elements of the BDSM culture?–I’ve gotten a number of people recently asking me how people could possibly get pleasure from pain. I’ve never been a fan of Freudian explanations for this — they’re too much like just-so stories, and they rely on a theory of mind that’s now totally discredited. So, in the interests of science, here’s some interesting neurological research that bears on the question of how pleasure and pain relate in the brain.

Space Science
First ever exoplanet from outside our galaxy. Yes, Virginia, our galaxy does seem typical of this universe.

The Telegraph runs a story on being homesick from orbit, which contains some of the most gorgeous astronaut photography yet published.

Project M, the weridest space travel project to date. This is what you get when engineers get really pissed off — and it’s kinda cool, too.

TSA Security Theater
Like a lot of you, I’ve been seriously apalled by what’s been going on the last ten years with air travel. This week, the policy wonks might actually have gone too far by requiring a strip and/or grope search of everyone flying through one of about 68 airports around the country. So I’ve got three links to help you out if you have to travel by air thruogh any TSA occupuied airport.

First, for those of you who have to fly before this mess is resolved, at the bottom of this page is a list of the airports who currently have the new pornographic version of security theater scanners in place.

And if you’re looking for something you can do about it, check out this most creative (and potentially effective) response I’ve yet seen. November 24: opt out of the scanners, force a backlog of pat-downs, and wear kilts to really embarass the fondlers. Full details here.

Finally, a heartening tale of Citizen activism against the TSA

Internet Civil Liberties
For those of you who have been following COICA, the internet censorship bill, it’s been voted out of committee and onto the floor. There’s a big fight coming up on this one — if you’re a fan of social media, art and science on the net, or an author or content creator, this is your fight. Find details here.

Biology, Geology, and Energy Research
Life really is everywhere, and a new discovery makes the question of the origin of oil even more murky. Thomas Gold (and the Russian scientists he plagerized) might have been right after all. Time will tell.

Materials Science
Carbon is your friend, really. It’s at the heart of the current materials revolution that’s giving us both radical life extension and sustainable space travel. Today’s news? Ultra hard graphite, harder than diamonds, developed in a lab.

And then there’s the quantum supersolids–a holy grail of materials science–and the new evidence that they may actually exist http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19748-new-evidence-that-weird-quantum-supersolid-exists.html

And that materials revolution that you’ve been hearing about for years? It’s officially here. First molecular manufacturing tools are in the works.

Medical Science
They’ll fix you with a ray gun! Radio wave-based treatment for hypertension more effective than drug cocktails, and might prove permanent.

I saved this week’s coolest link for last. A new (and replicable) stem cell therapy can now reverse some of the symptoms of Autism. Check it out!

I’ll be at Seattle Steamcon II this weekend — hope to see you there!

Welcome to the second of several Down From Ten Feedback shows. This one is episode ten, part two of the Dealing In series of feedback shows, where I and several friends answer your emails and talk about whatever comes up. This time, I’m joined by Metamor City and Down From Ten cast member Chris Lester, New York Times Bestseller Gail Carriger, and producer/actor/cartoonist Kitty Nic’Iaian. What do we talk about? An incomplete list, in no particular order:

Food
Pacing
Screenplays
Chekov
Soulless
Racism and bigotry in the Victorian world
Douglas Adams
Thomas Mann
Cultural change throughout history
The Death of the Author
Focault
Deride
Shakespeare
The Royal Shakespeare Company
POV characters
George R.R. Martin
Neal Stephenson
Shakespeare
Employing Symbolism in writing
Tee Morris

Part 2 of the final Dealing In (well, the final one before the end of the book) is here! This time we banted with listener voicemails, talk about sex scenes and DOOM!, and laugh ourselves silly. A little treat to tide you over for till tomorrow, when the last episodes of Predestination drop!

Kitty Nic’Iaian and Chris Lester join, once again. Enjoy!

On this episode of Dealing In, Gail Carriger brings a touch of prurient Victorian wit to the proceedings, while Chris Lester gets re-acquainted with scotch and Kitty Nic’Iaian reminds us all why she’s around: To keep the rest of us in line!

Topics Mentioned
Prophets of Panimendorah
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Metamor City
Gail Carriger’s Soulless
Down From Ten
Transhumanism
Winnipeg
The Red Panda
Furries
Body Modification
God’s Army: A Dark Day in Paradise
CERN
The Large Hadron Collider
Has the LHC destroyed the world yet?

Hey everyone, the final half of episode six of is here. Chris, Kitty and I plow through the rest of the piled-up mountain of feedback for the story through Episode Seventeen. This one’s an hour and fifteen minutes long. My cohorts and I deal with more worldbuilding questions, the issue of Fan Fiction, how terrorism and tyranny are related, and, and we take on the most spoliery listener question so far. Enjoy!

Topics Mentioned:
Caleb Carr’s The Alienist and his nonfiction book The Lessons of Terror book on Terrorism
Down From Ten
The Metamor City Podcast
J. Michael Straczynski
Digital Magic by Philippa Ballantine
09.09.09
The unsustainable nature of totalitarianism.
Sculpting God’s “Lilith”

Heya Everyone, episode six of dealing in is here. Due to my long absence a LOT of feedback had piled up. This one’s an hour long, and it’s part one of two or three. My cohorts and I deal with an epic email from a former drunk emailer, now sober, we talk Marxist social theory, and we take on some very probing listener questions and some of the most creative death threats yet. Enjoy!

Topics Mentioned:
Trucker Rich
Cybrosis
Into The Blender podcast
The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour
The Metamor City Podcast
J. Michael Straczynski
Digital Magic by Philippa Ballantine
09.09.09
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
Gail Carriger’s new novel Soulless
Death By Cliché by Bob Defendi

Part two of the Sex Roundtable is here. This time, Chris Lester is hosting it on his feed over at Metamor City and we’re running it concurrently here. Consequently, this one’s got his opening credits on it instead of mine. This episode picks up the discussion pretty much where we left off, give or take a bathroom break, and concentrates a little more on sex in Metamor City, but there’s still plenty of sauciness and chatter about Predestination to keep all of you who aren’t listening to both shows interested.

Look for part 3 soon!

We take a break from the constant sex talk to go over the latest feedback and…oh, yeah…talk about sex a bit. And geekiness. And all other manner of insanity. Stay tuned at the end where we announce the winner of the iTunes review contest.

Enjoy!

P.S. My illness has settled into my chest, so still no recording. Damn you, Lester!!!