More to come…
Posted on May 18th, 2009Been focused on other things for awhile, planning on pushing out some more postings soon!
Buy me a coffeeEscape Pod Episode 98: Just Do It
Posted on August 8th, 2008Today’s review is of Escape Pod Episode 98: “Just Do It” by Heather Lindsley. This isn’t the newest science fiction podcast, but it is a memorable one. It is also immediately consumable, and after the review I will provide the link where you can access it.
“Just Do It” is a brilliant story in the not so far future about advertising evolving beyond commercials and banners. Due to breakthroughs in biochemistry, advertising can be done by shooting a dart at someone. The dart itself containing a chemical that causes the targeted person to get a sudden craving for a product.
The main character, Ms. Monroe, is part of a secret group trying to stop this form of advertising. Her job is to infiltrate one of the main advertising companies to help the group come up with counter-formulas to the craving darts.
The story is almost scary, could they devise a way to make us crave specific foods? Would they really be as obvious as to require the chemicals to be shot by darts? It’s an interesting story but when you see that fast food chains put sugar into everything to keep you hooked - it makes you wonder if craving control hasn’t already been mastered. Seriously, this is already going on! What’s our counter-formula? Expensive organic food and careful diets?
Link: Escape Pod >> EP098: Just Do It
Buy me a coffeePodcast Review: Aural Delights No 33
Posted on July 27th, 2008It’s about time I actually review an individual podcast isn’t it. That was the original intention of this website. But I find so many good Science Fiction resources out there that it’s hard to focus on podcasts in general. So I’ll make it a point to start reviewing individual podcasts mixed in with my other ramblings.
Today I’m reviewing StarShip Sofa’s Aural Delights No 33 (mp3). The podcast itself is almost a full hour and a half of content from the science fiction genre. The format of Aural Delights consists of a short poem, a piece of flash fiction, a fact/reality piece, finishing up with the feature content which is a full story. All of them individually narrated and usually by the author themselves. Read more »
Buy me a coffeeSciFi through a Biologist’s Eye
Posted on July 17th, 2008When I read a good science fiction story, podcast, or movie - I’m there to be entertained by the possibilities. I love the scientific speculation and how different alien races might interact with the human race. But seriously, science fiction isn’t always about science fact and it’s often easy to pick apart some of the stories.
I just finished reading a number of interesting postings on a blog called Biology in Science Fiction written by a biologist named Peggy. In it she assesses the biological flaws of popular science fiction and also applauds stories that do a good job.
Take for instance the numerous stories where someone is infected by a parasite that drastically changes their behavior. She goes into detail about it in one of her postings, detailing that there is some scientific fact behind that scenario and has real examples of effects of parasites on their hosts. Like the fact that hairworms can make grasshoppers suicidal - causing the host to jump into water to further it’s own reproductive cycle?
She makes a point that many stories portray biology as a threat to humanity just for entertainment - doing damage to the science by showing the disastrous consequences of it going too far. I’m sure you just thought of a dozen stories after reading that, and Andromeda Strain was probably on that list!
I found the blog interesting, especially since much of what could be considered science fiction is starting to become science fact in this age we live in. But still, I like a good story - as long as they don’t dumb it down too far to get good ratings.
Buy me a coffeeJeff Russell - Starship Dimensions
Posted on July 15th, 2008I just came across Jeff Russell’s website: Starship Dimensions, and I’m amazed by the craftsmanship put into this website. In it are scaled images of characters and spaceship from a number of science fiction TV shows and movies such as Star Trek, Star Wars, FireFly, and many others.
Buy me a coffee
