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Will Hayabusa Make It Back To Earth? [Probedeath]

Graeme McMillan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:00:39 -0800

The pellet gun failed to fire, three of its four engines have failed, and mission control has lost control of it once already. Already months late, what are the odds that Japanese probe Hayabusa will make it home at all?

New Scientist reports that the Japanese Hayabusa asteroid probe is once more on its way back to Earth after scientists worked out a way to use two of the broken engines together to make... one engine:

One engine is still able to spit out positive ions for thrust, but can no longer squirt out negatively charged electrons, a step needed to prevent electric charge buildup on the spacecraft. The team got around this by spewing the required electrons from a second sick engine that retains this ability.

But even with this "frankensteined" engine, scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency aren't confident that the probe will reach the Australian outback destination it was supposed to have reached earlier this month; if all goes well, project manager Jun'ichiro Kawaguchi says, it should return in June next year. But, he adds,

This new configuration is very new to us and we are not sure ... how much we can count on [it].

It's like the little probe that can't.

'Frankenstein' fix lets asteroid mission cheat death [New Scientist]

Pitt Vs. Aliens: It Could Happen! [Dark Void]

Graeme McMillan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:00:39 -0800

After turning time back in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt is considering jumping into the middle of a parallel universe war with aliens. Think he can convince Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney to come along?

Pitt's production company, Plan B, is teaming with Indian company Reliance BIG to adapt the upcoming videogame Dark Void, with an eye to it being a vehicle for Pitt himself, according to Variety. The game centers around a character who disappears in the Bermuda Triangle, only to reappear on an alternate Earth besieged with alien invaders. No writers or directors have been hired for the project yet, so we're keeping our hopes up for an unexpected (and utterly unlikely, we know) Soderbergh connection.

Brad Pitt could fight (video game) aliens [THR Risky Business]

Page-To-Screen Fail: The Worst Live-Action Versions Of Book Characters [Movies]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:45:00 -0800

We've all had our hearts broken by movie and television versions of our favorite book characters. You know the adaptation will never be as good as the beloved original, but sometimes it's hideously worse. Here are the absolute worst offenders.

The Spirit - The Octopus
Samuel L. Jackson's Octopus was probably the most insane translation of a comics character to the screen I've ever seen. Frank Miller just let the actor run wild, drawing eyeliner lightning bolts on his face and saying just about whatever the hell he wanted. At least they got the gloves right.

Bicentennial Man - Andrew Martin

From Isaac Asimov's novella/ I just wanted to know who thought it would be a great idea to make a Robin Williams robot that will last forever. That will give children nightmares.

Elektra and Daredevil

What else really needs to be said that hasn't already? This Jennifer Garner-Ben Affleck disaster was so bad, it's being remade, completely — as if the first one never even happened. Who thought, "Greek assassin? Let's get Jennifer Garner!"

Fantastic Four - Victor von Doom

With one bad film, one of the better villains went from bad-ass to just some neurotic dude muffled behind a mask.

Wolverine - Emma Frost

For years, we waited for the real, live-action version of Emma Frost. And what we got was a dorky girl, in an ugly leather coat/prison outfit. The cosplayers at Comic Con are better, and that's saying something.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas - The Grinch

Who painted my cat green and shoved it in a Santa suit? This isn't a Grinch; this is a fever dream, and there's nothing enchanting or magical about a Jim Carey gesturing about, covered in green fur, while salivating over the Whoville hussy.

I Am Legend - Vampires

They went from complex creatures with a fully realized society to zombie people who were all CG-ed to look alike. The best part of the novel was when Neville found an old friend who was too far gone. That went out the window, along with most of Neville's character, in the movie. But we missed the actual vampire people the most.

Speed Racer - Racer X

Hey, your Dad dressed up like Racer X. Cool, we guess.

Watchmen - Ozymandias

This was not actor Matthew Goode's fault. He was terribly underwritten and thrown into the part very late in the game; we understand. Sadly godlike genius Adrian Veidt, he was not. We're not sure if it was the look or the writing — either way, it just didn't work.

All Systems Go For Large Hadron Collider - Stay Tuned for Collisions! [Awesomeness]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:29:34 -0800

Discover has a blow-by-blow account of today's tests on the Large Hadron Collider, the massive physics experiment that will eventually recreate the conditions during the Big Bang. Everything worked perfectly. Get ready for particle collisions next week! [via Discover]

Scientology Trial Reveals Alleged Work Camps and Baby-Killing [Crime]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:57:49 -0800

Not only was Scientology founded by a scifi writer, but its greatest enemy - the Anonymous group - models itself after a comic book character. Now members of the alien-loving religion are on trial in Australia for torture and baby-killing.

In New South Wales, Australia, members of the local Church of Scientology are being investigated by a Senate group for allegedly shunting unpopular members into labor camps:

NSW police are now looking into the shocking allegations, which include the use of labour camps known as the Rehabilitation Project Force, for church members who rated poorly on tests using a device known as the electropsychometer, or E-meter. Ex-Scientologist Peta O'Brien told [senator Nick] Xenophon, in a letter tabled in the Senate, that she was forced to spend five hours a day breakingrocks with crow bars to help build a road and carparking area at the church's Dundas base, in Sydney's west. O'Brien alleged Scientologists in the RPF were not allowed to speak until spoken to, were banned from listening to music or driving, and were not given any medical or dental assistance.

Another ex-Scientologist says that pregnant women in Scientology were pressured to have abortions, sometimes to the pont of being locked up if they refused. Another former member of the church says both his young daughters died under suspicious circumstances:

Paul David Schofield claims in his letter tabled in parliament his toddler daughter Lauren died while being babysat in the Sydney church, when she was "allowed to wander the stairs by herself and fell". Church officials not only discouraged him and his wife from seeking compensation, he alleges, but encouraged him to request that no inquest be held. Schofield wrote that his second daughter, Kirsty, died after ingesting potassium chloride kept at his house. "I covered up that this substance was widely used in both the Sydney church's `purification' programs and a similar program at the church's drug rehab organisation," he wrote. "I perjured myself . . . I did not tell the whole truth either to police or the court (to my shame) but omitted details which would have `embarrassed' the church. I knew if I didn't do this I would be heavily penalised by the church for getting it into trouble." Schofield wrote that most Scientologists did not trust non-believers - referred to as wogs - and thought that "wog justice just made people worse".

The Church has responded that the children's deaths were investigated by police at the time. They say their freedom of religion is being threatened.

Senator Xenophon replied:

Religious freedom did not mean the Catholic or Anglican churches were not held accountable for crimes and abuses committed by their priests, nuns and officials, albeit belatedly. In Australia there are not limits on what you can believe but there are limits on how you can behave. It's called the law, and no one is above it.

via The Australian

Image via Steve Garfield.

The Shiniest Stories On io9 Last Week [Best Of The Week]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Get lost in the book vortex? Don't worry we've got a round up of this weeks bookish posts including the the history of scifi classics, told by their covers, Cormac McCarthy's thoughts on The Road and reading recommendations.

If You Like These Recent Movies, Here Are Books You'll Love
Movies may thrill us with their huge ideas and set pieces, but you always know that anything a movie did, a novel did it first... and better. If you liked these dozen recent movies, here are some books you'll love.

20 Science Fiction Books We Can't Wait To Read in 2010
You've got a list of books to read today, but what will you be yearning to read next year? We've picked out 20 scifi and contemporary fantasy books coming out next year that have us filled with excitement

Strange Visitors And Broken Hearts Will Restore Your Faith In Short Fiction
If you believe in reading short fiction for pleasure, you're condemned to frequent disappointment. Most short fiction, even the good stuff, is... laborious. So when reading the anthology Eclipse Three, you may be startled at the unexpected sensation of enjoyment.

What Cormac McCarthy Insisted On Keeping In The Road Movie
Translating a book into film is hard, especially when it's Cormac McCarthy's simply-worded but powerful novel The Road. Director John Hillcoat told us what McCarthy refused to let him leave out of the movie version.

Scientists Say Jupiter's Moon Europa Might Be Teeming With Fish
New evidence has come to light that the vast, ice-encrusted oceans of Europa may be harboring Earth-like life that lives on the oxygen-rich waters. Time to plan your extraterrestrial fishing trip?

J.J. Abrams' Version Of Star Trek's Salt Vampire And Gorn Revealed
Even though they didn't make the final cut, the salt vampire and Gorn were still in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. Take a look at these revamped versions of classic aliens.

Algae Sex and Amoeba Smackdown - Best Microscopy Videos of the Year
Ever wonder what it looks like when algae have sex? Now you'll find out in this winning video from the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Contest. More winning entries in our gallery, which includes an amoeba vs. algae.

A History of 16 Science Fiction Classics, Told In Book Covers
A single book can inspire a wide range of covers, and sometimes those covers can be works of art themselves. We look at some classic science fiction novels and the various covers they've worn throughout the years

[Picture via bp]

How Do You Bridge The Gap Between Two Cool Moments In Your Novel? [Free Advice]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:30:00 -0800

What do you do when your novel has a cool moment, followed by another cool moment... but something kinda boring has to happen in between? Your characters have to travel somewhere or make something. How do top authors handle this?

Once again, we were lucky to convince some of our favorite authors to answer our dorky question. So how do you bridge the space between two utterly cool moments in your novel? Here's what the experts say...

David J. Williams, author of The Mirrored Heavens and The Burning Sky:

Writing with an ensemble cast of main characters has its disadvantages, but one of the big pluses is that it makes it easier to maneuver past this kind of problem. The entirety of the Autumn Rain trilogy is cutting back and forth between (widely separated) points of view, focusing on the highlights of each "plot vector", whether that's in a maglev tunnel beneath the Atlantic or in a bio-dome in the middle of a lunar fortress. This was a deliberate decision, in that I often find myself skimming pages of various books to get to the Next Cool Moment, so when it came to writing MIRRORED HEAVENS, I wanted to leave anything skimmable on the cutting room floor. That being said. . . sometimes "downtime" affords hidden opportunities. . . . are there implications or clues to the situation that two characters can talk about? Is there an opportunity here for more exposition or a newsfeed, or some kind of world-building? If the answer's no, then just fast-forward as much as you need to; readers will forgive almost anything save being bored. Screenwriters are taught to get into scenes late and get out of them early, and there are times I wish more novelists did the same!

Rebecca K. Rowe, author of Forbidden Cargo:

All it takes is two pet mice-more intelligent than we are and willing to explain a few things over a meal. That's in-between the destruction of planets and some possible brain-dicing if you're hitchhiking across the galaxy à la Adams. Barring that, there're always the gravediggers. Sure, their banter makes us laugh, a relief between the darker scenes, but they also give Hamlet and us vital information....

Of course, we're in it for the murder, the sex, the quest and the chase (and for us SF geeks the surprising widgets it takes for each), but we'll stay for the meals, the muddy treks and the quiet smoke. That's when we reveal our Character: how she holds herself (does she skip or walk with her toes crushed in shoes too tight), what she says or doesn't say, and what others say about her before and after the deed. A conversation, a moment of reflection or just looking (what she sees, what we see her miss) may suffice. In our fiction, as in life, we find it's those in-between times that matter most.

Ken Scholes, author of Lamentation, Canticle and Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Strange Journeys:

Moving from Cool Thing A to Cool Thing B in a novel.... I think this is a hard question for me to answer because I don't think in terms of Cool Things in books. I'm thinking about the characters and what they're struggling with, what they're learning, where they need to go, and I let things unfold a bit organically. My Cool Things inevitably grow out of the interactions of my characters with the conflicts they're facing. Still, one thing I've recently read (compliments of Stephen J. Cannell, the TV writer) is that when you're stuck in the middle muddle of the second act, it is often helpful to figure out what to do next by imagining the POV of the antagonist and plotting the story from there, letting that character introduce the complications that my protagonist(s) must face. I can't vouch for it as I've not used it as a method, but it piqued my curiosity and I'm going to try it the next time I'm stuck.

There's No Intelligent Life on Planet 51 [Movie Review]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:02:32 -0800

Planet 51 has an intriguing premise, promising advance clips, and acid-piddling dog straight out of Alien. But none of that can save a rambling movie that's never quite sure where it's going.

Planet 51's tragedy is that it could have been a decent movie. It starts off with a neat premise: on a distant planet, there is an alien civilization that strongly resembles 1950s Americas — right down to everyone speaking English and grooving to The Chordettes. They even have a love for alien invasion movies, and, through a remarkable stroke of coincidence, the scifi franchise du jour is titled Humaniacs and features a monster that looks like an astronaut. Into this world plunges Captain Chuck Baxter, a middling US astronaut who has been sent to explore the planet (which NASA mistakenly believed was uninhabited) and suddenly finds that, on this world, he is the alien. Naturally chaos ensues. The movie also has some endearing and well-animated characters, especially in rock-craving robot Rover, and a Xenomorph-shaped dog that pees acid. The early clips promised a fun, if light, movie filled with cute science fiction references.

The problem is, Planet 51 has no idea what it's precisely about. Sure, it has a plot: a teenager named Lem has to help get Chuck back to his ship and off the planet before the military captures him and removes his brain (and, hopefully, without ruining Lem's life in the process). But it has the feel of a movie written by committee: too many ideas stuffed in and not enough fat trimmed off. Planet 51 tries to be about so many different things that it ends up being about nothing at all. Is it about the dangers of automatically attacking that which we don't understand? How the media makes us suggestible and paranoid? What it's like to learn that the universe is much larger than you ever imagined? Or is it about having the cojones to take risks and do the things you dream of doing? Okay, so the pants-less aliens have no visible cojones, but you get the point. And this lack of a center is symptomatic in the film's cast of predictable stock characters. Only the dog-like characters get any bite.

Even the jokes are just so much spaghetti thrown at the wall. Crude jokes about alien probes are mixed in with references to classic science fiction films, and great swaths of the film rely on forgettable sequences of slapstick. The odd joke hits, but when it does, it's just a solitary joke, and doesn't contribute anything to the movie as a whole. And, though it's a ostensibly kids movie, the rare jokes that elicited laughs went over the younger viewers' heads. During the viewing I attended, the audience laughed in unison just once — at a penis joke.

There are certain sins that children's films can sometimes get away with because they're geared toward younger viewers: being too busy or too cloying, or having a wearying or simplistic sense of humor. But Planet 51's problems are far deeper: it's a film that simply never engages, and for a science fiction film, leaves us with depressingly little to think about after it's over. Do yourself a favor and, instead of seeing Planet 51, watch these clips and pretend you've seen the entire movie. You'll be better off for it.

New Moon, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Celibacy [Movie Review]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:40:46 -0800

You've heard it's bad. You've heard it's sexy. But you haven't heard the truth about New Moon, which is that it's actually a not-so-stealthy satire of itself. If you don't realize that, you're the butt of the joke.

The Twilight series, whose second installment hits theaters tonight in the weird form of New Moon, has gone through a lot of changes in its journey from book to screen. This paranormal romance about a postgrunge girl from the Pacific Northwest and the monsters she loves isn't just a fictional world. It's a lifestyle. But what exactly is this lifestyle about? Is it about celibacy and traditional gender roles, the way its conservative Mormon creator Stephenie Meyer would have us believe? Or is it about rampant girl hormones, boys who strip at the slightest provocation, and otherworldly sparkle woodies?

Or is it, perhaps, about something else entirely?

I'll go with door number three. From the moment that Bella arrives for her first day of school and sees vamp Edward ambling toward her in slo-mo, his skin powdered white and lips cherry red, we're plunged into some kind of gender-bending satire of beer commercials. But instead of a busty blonde boob-bouncing her way towards the camera, we have the ridiculously made-up Edward, looking like something that got dunked in a Sephora store and then hurled through the stock room at Abercrombie and Goth. Once the two have kissed in extreme lurid closeup, wolfboy Jacob emerges literally from nowhere to show off his mega-muscles (which everybody comments on endlessly). As he gives Bella a hug, he explains that he likes the Reservation school way better than the white people's school. The scene is sheer comic genius, with the actors panting exaggeratedly as they kiss, and the lines wildly out-of-sync with the action (Jacob is constantly reminding the main characters how white they are in the middle of a "let's kiss" moment).

And it only gets better. Bella's human friends, represented incongruously as hipsters, are in on the joke. Their banter, possibly the best part of the whole movie, tips you off immediately to the fact that writer Melissa Rosenberg - whose main claim to fame is as a producer on ultra-dark serial killer satire Dexter - knows there is a significant audience who has come to watch New Moon just to laugh their asses off. And indeed, when I saw the film at a special sneak preview, loud laughter was as frequent as shots of Jacob's perky nipples.

It's almost as if the ostensible set-up of the movie - EDWARD: We can't be together; BELLA: Ohhhhhh [sigh] - is there just as a kind of blocky set in the background of the real story. A story about smart, snarky teens who think the entire premise of the film is stupid. There's a terrific scene when Bella starts to hang out with her old friends again after months of moping over the missing Edward, and she and her gal pal go to see a zombie movie. As they walk out of the theater, her friend launches into a long rant about how zombie movies claim to have some "deep meanings about consumerism" but that they're just dumb. Hello, moment that is way too meta for this movie.

And that's not the only meta moment. After the zombie rant, Bella and her pal run into a gang of motorcyclists who are catcalling and hooting at them, asking them if they want rides. As Bella stares at the men, Edward appears before her in a really bad Obi Wan-style apparition, urging her to "keep walking - danger." So of course, Bella walks up to the motorcycle guys and hops on the motorcycle, only to see the Obi Edward ghost go all after-school special on her, warning her again about the naughty man. This is the kind of pop culture reference that teens raised on "very special episodes" and old Star Wars movies will get, especially with the cheese larded on in such dramatic proportions.

Don't get me wrong: There are long, boring parts in this movie, mostly featuring the giant lack of chemistry that is Edward/Bella. But there are moments of subversion in between the emo globs that tantalize us into asking what Bella could become - if she would just exit the Twilight plot arc that will eventually propel her into marriage and babymaking.

In New Moon, that exit feels like a real possibility in a way that it won't after next year's wedding-oriented sequel Eclipse. The Bella of New Moon becomes "an adrenaline addict," seeking out motorcycle rides with shirtless Jacob and jumping off cliffs into the water, just so she can see Obi Edward again, telling her to be safe. She also starts cozying up with shirtless wolf boy Jacob and his pals - who cheerfully remind her that she's "not brown enough" to be clever. Again, Bella's friends (and writer Rosenberg) supply the ironic commentary that's running through everybody's heads anyway.

When a human boy with a crush on Bella asks her out to the movies and suggests a romantic comedy, she insists that they go see a movie hilariously called Face Punch, because she's "all about the adrenaline." First of all, Face Punch is now my new favorite movie title - New Moon cannot stop making jokes about teen pop culture. And second, I love the idea that Bella has this totally badass side that in no way matches the character's reputation as chaste romantic girly-girl.

The Bella of New Moon is a chick who fools around with vampires and werewolves, and then goes cliff jumping, "you know, recreationally," as she puts it later. And when this girl finds herself in the middle of over-the-top romantic scenarios, she's not exactly a swooner. In fact, she just wants to get her annoying boyfriend to turn her superpowered and vampy like him. When the boringly tormented Edward hints that he can't make her a vampire because she'll "lose her soul" and she looks kind of irritated and replies, "Well I don't believe in that."

So is this a movie about the glories of celibate romance? Not metaphorically, and not literally either.

Let's just take a quick gander at the much-vaunted symbolism of the series, where monsters stand in for humans and monstrous desires stand in for sexual ones. Edward's brother tries to eat Bella when she gets a paper cut; Jacob's brother also tries to eat Bella when she makes him mad. So: Sexiness is in the metaphorical air. But then things go literal. Jacob takes off his shirt and Bella tells him he's beautiful. Then when Jacob goes Total Wolf, he just stops wearing shirts altogether, spending most of the movie in tight denim cutoffs and running shoes. Edward also takes off his shirt in a scene where his pants ride so low that we see a little wisp of sparkling vampire pubes.

Nobody ever says anything about celibacy ever. Indeed, they spend more time arguing about race than they do about sex. As Jacob snarks to Bella, "Maybe I'm not the right kind of monster for you." All these teens ever do is jump into each other's bedrooms and kiss and pant heavily. This is not a movie about avoiding sex: The sex is just taking place offscreen. I guarantee that people the world over will be jacking off to memories of Jacob and Edward and Bella in their ruffled pink beds tomorrow night because this flick is packed so full of beefcakery. Basically, New Moon is training wheels for future Playgirl readers.

What's amazing about New Moon, and the whole Twilight series generally, is how easily it becomes self-parody. I think that's part of its appeal to teenagers, a group of people who cut through adult pretension and lies so incisively - and yet fall so hard for impossible fantasies. It caters to a youthful desire to watch a fairy tale, and then to see that fairy tale mocked mercilessly as the after-school-special bullshit it is.

I suspect that audiences for New Moon will sometimes choose to see Edward as genuinely romantic, while others will laugh at his makeup. Still others will - like the movie itself - vacillate wildly between romantic yearning and scornful laughter.

Vampires Versus Werewolves: The Dance Off [Vampire Mix Tape]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:12:10 -0800

The eternal struggle between vampire and werewolf is sparked again in theaters today with New Moon. Which causes us to wonder who's really better: werewolves or vampires? We settle this issue once and for all, with a dance-off.

Side A, Vampires:

Blade, Blood Club

Once Bitten, "Hands Off"

Fright Night, "Good Man In A Bad Time"

Love At First Bite, With The Original Track "I Love The Night Life"

Twilight Prom Dance Clip

The Hunger

Side B, Werewolves:

Werewolf Steppers: He Jumps over A Bear Trap!

Werewolves Dance - For more funny videos, click here

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

Teen Wolf Dance

Teen Wolf Too "Shut Up And Dance"

Cheesiest And Most Inappropriate Book Covers Of All Time [Holy Crap Wtf]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:27:41 -0800

Most of us would have no problem being seen in public reading a science-fiction novel... unless it had a cover so hideous, or so wrong, that you might get arrested. Here are the cheesiest and most disturbing science-fiction book covers.

Our research intern, Cyriaque Lamar, pored over the most wretched and bizarre book covers that ever defaced the bookshelves, and came up with the absolute worst and most inappropriate. Normally, I feel a little trepidation about saying we've collected the cheesiest or wrongest "of all time" — but in this case, it only feels right. So here are Cyriaque's picks, with his erudite commentary.

Cheesiest Book Covers:

Most Inappropriate Book Covers (Maybe NSFW):

Additional reporting by Cyriaque Lamar.

What We've Learned About Fringe's Observers [Fringe Recap]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:44:43 -0800

They've been lurking in the background for the entire series, and last night, Fringe's bald Observers finally stepped into the limelight. Here's what we learned about the mysterious beings who've been spying on the Fringe team.

They can catch bullets. The ability to catch bullets probably comes in handy when you hop around time observing significant (and often violent) moments in history. But August's Superman stunt is just another sign that the Observers aren't human (or if they are, they are extremely altered), and that they can be powerful, even if those powers are rarely used.

They know the future (to some extent). August says that he can see Christine's future, and he knows both what she is about to say before she says it and when the report of the crash will come on TV. And the Observers watching Olivia and her niece comment that it's a shame things are going to be so hard for her. On a side note — are we supposed to automatically assume they're talking about Olivia, or could they be talking about her niece?

They can still be surprised. At least, they're surprised when August interferes with the natural order of things. Are Observers the only ones with free will, or do they observe to see how individuals react to these big, important situations.

Their writing is culled from various civilizations. So it turns out that the Observer language isn't a language at all, but simply words written in various languages from throughout human history (and perhaps other people's histories as well). It's got to be a handy way of communicating exclusively with people who have an encyclopedic knowledge of all languages ever written.

They appear at important moments in history. We actually know this from the promo campaign, but the episode makes it official. Also, the increasing frequency of Observer appearances suggest that the most important event in human history is about to occur.

They eat fancy peppers. We already knew the Observers were fans of the hot stuff, but hot peppers are a handy way to track them. Will the apocalypse be marked by record sales of hot peppers?

They sometimes make mistakes — ones that require "correcting." So, sometimes observing affects the outcome, but we still don't know what mistake prompted September to save Walter and Peter. Did September cause Walter and Peter to fall into the lake all those years ago, or does the Observers' correction require Walter to survive for an entirely different reason? Or did September get attached to Walter and Peter the same way August got attached to Christine and simply convince the other Observers that he was fixing a mistake?

September made some kind of deal with Walter. Walter says he had an "arrangement" with September, presumably so he could keep the alternate universe Peter. Apparently, the other Observers know about this, but we're still left to wonder what the exact nature of this deal is, and whether it relates to Walter's particular relationship with September.

They can feel love. The Observers are apparently also changed by the act of observation. And, now that they're observing the same people for extended periods of time, I'd imagine it's more likely that they'll get attached.

They can be killed. But what does it take to kill an Observer who doesn't want to die?

Being responsible for the death of an Observer makes you "important." August may be more significant than Christine in this respect, but it implies that the violent death of an Observer is extremely rare — a monumental event in history.

Any other Observer observations?

First Clip From Doctor Who's "End Of Time" Shows David Tennant Putting On A Brave Face [Doctor Who]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:12:51 -0800

We're on the edge of our seats for David Tennant's final Doctor Who two-parter after the intense and terrifying ending to "The Waters Of Mars." And the first official clip shows the Tenth Doctor putting up a brave front.

BBC America, which posted this clip just now and sent us the above still (click to enlarge!), also announced that "The End Of Time, Part 1" will air in the U.S. on December 26, just the day after it appears in the U.K. And the airdate for Tennant's final hour will be announced very soon.

And here's another BBC America exclusive video, "What Is Doctor Who":

Independent Publishers Who Are Reinventing The Future [Indy Giants]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:02:28 -0800

Genre publishing has taken some hard hits in recent years — but a slew of independent publishers is still out there, charting the unknown regions of book publishing and keeping your reading lists weird. Here are our favorite indy presses.

Tachyon Books

This publisher, specializing in short fiction, has been around for close to 15 years. But it's expanded tremendously in recent years, growing to put out ten books per year. Authors in the Tachyon stable now include the late Thomas Disch, Cory Doctorow, Peter S. Beagle, Terry Bisson and Charles de Lint among many others. Known for single-author short story collections, Tachyon has started making more of a mark recently with anthologies like Steampunk, The Secret History Of Science Fiction, Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology and The New Weird. A lot of the most challenging and thrilling short fiction today is appearing in Tachyon's titles, one way or another. You can read our interview with Tachyon's Jacob Weisman here.

Night Shade Books

Another San Francisco press, Night Shade has been around for a dozen years. The company originally published only about four books a year, but now puts out 30-35 titles every year. And now Night Shade is putting out books from the likes of Iain M. Banks, Jay Lake, Neal Asher, Kage Baker, Paolo Bacigalupi, Walter Jon Williams and Greg Egan. And just like Tachyon, Night Shade has made huge inroads into the anthology market, with anthologies like The Living Dead, By Blood We Live and Wastelands. They've also put out Jonathan Strahan's "best of the year" anthologies and the Eclipse series, which we've been following with much excitement. Not to mention Ellen Datlow's Best Horror Of The Year anthologies. They've recently joined forces with the award-winning small press magazine Electric Velocipede. You can read our interview with Night Shade's Jeremy Lassen here.

ChiZine publishing

ChiZine started out as a webzine called Chiaroscuro, publishing horror, dark fiction and weird-ass shit, a decade ago. They started putting out books in spring 2008, and already they're up to 12 titles a year. And judging from recent offerings, they seem to be upholding their proud tradition of freakgnosis and terror. Recent books include Katya From The Punk Band by Simon Logan, A Book Of Tongues by Gemma Files, Chimerascope by Douglas Smith and The World More Full Of Weeping by Robert J. Wiersema.

Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing (and Tesseract Books)

This indy has been around since 2000, and now includes Tesseract Books. They seem to put out a lot of horror, including the Tesseracts anthology series, but also a fair amount of regular science fiction and fantasy. One of their recent releases is the intriguingly titled Time Machines Repaired While U Wait by K.A. Benford. That seems to be a kid-friendly title, and some of their books, like A Petrified World, are labeled as aimed at children ages eight and up.

Subterranean Press

Specializing in the horror, suspense and dark mystery genres, this publisher puts out tons of books by Poppy Z. Brite, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Ray Bradbury and Kage Baker. Fans of Alastair Reynolds will need to track down their recent flipbook of two novellas: Thousandth Night (set in the same world as House Of Suns) and Minla's Flowers. Coming soon: The Best Of Peter S. Beagle, which looks amazing. They have a close relationship with Joe Lansdale, allowing them to put out limited editions of many of his books. Their limited editions, generally, are fantastic and often have great illustrations, recently including Dan Simmons' The Terror and John Scalzi's The Last Colony.

Golden Gryphon

Founded in 1997, this small press survived the death of its founder, Jim Turner, in 1999, and is still putting out books — including The Empire Of Ice Cream and The Fantasy Writer's Assistant by the great Jeffrey Ford. They also put out Nancy Kress' Nano Comes To Clifford Falls And Other Stories and George Alec Effinger's Budayeen Nights, plus books by Mike Resnick and George Zebrowski. Their website looks a bit like it was last redesigned in 1997, but their books are fantastic.

Damnation Books

I had not heard of this publisher until I started working on this feature, and now I'm utterly fascinated. Maybe it's the weird, off-beat nature of their books — like The One-Percenters, in which a society of serial killers goes around murdering those with weak genes, who are only being kept alive because of money and medicine. Or The Zombie Cookbook, a book of "stories, poems
and recipes" about cooking with zombies, or cooking zombies. (Eww?) Mostly, though, it's the way all of their books are rated (on a scale of one to five) for sex and violence, as well as reader response in some cases. Only one book has scored a "5" for both sex and violence: The Body Cartel by Alan Spencer. Other Damnation authors? Time to raise your game.

P.S. Publishing

This British small press has put out tons of award-winning titles, especially in horror and fantasy but also in science fiction. New books are coming up by both Stephen King and his son Joe Hill. They've championed the underrated horror author Ramsey Campbell, and published great authors like Gwyneth Jones, Stephen Baxter, and Graham Joyce. They also put out Postscripts, a quarterly anthology/magazine series edited by founder Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers.

Eraserhead Press

This indy press, started by Carlton Mellick III, keeps chugging along under the steady leadership of Rose O'Keefe and her gang. And they're keeping it weird: We saw a table of Eraserhead titles at World Fantasy Con, and were blown away by the sheer Dada-ness of it all. There's Mellick's The Faggiest Vampire, which is what it sounds like. There's Shatnerquake, in which the real-life William Shatner attends a convention and has to fight all the fictional characters he's ever played. (The cover blurb goes: "William Shatner? William Shatner. William Shatner!") But perhaps the best title actually is, Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere. How do you get any better than that? Like so many of the small presses on this list, they also put out a magazine, The Magazine Of Bizarro Fiction.

Apex Publications:

Like most of the small presses on this list, Apex also puts out a magazine — but the magazine, Apex Magazine, seems to be the biggest part of their publishing empire. They do also put out a number of horror/dark fantasy books, though, including B.J. Burrow's The Changed, which tells of a zombie outbreak from the zombie point of view. (The intriguing blurb goes, "It's not the end of the world. It's just zombies.")

Prime Books

This small press has been around since at least 2001, when they put out Catherynne M. Valente's The Labyrinth. Since then, they've put out books by KJ Bishop, Theodora Goss, Sarah Monette, Holly Phillips, Ekaterina Sedia, Jeff VanderMeer, and many more. And their books have made top ten lists from Amazon, Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Publisher Sean Wallace purchased the Prime Books imprint from Wildside Press, and relaunched it as a Recently, they've put out some great anthologies, like Federations and a forthcoming wizard-themed book (both edited by John Joseph Adams.) And they're putting out a new edition of Rudy Rucker's Ware tetralogy, with an introduction by William Gibson. A lot of the most interesting new books we've seen lately have come out from Prime. They also do their own annual Best Science Fiction & Fantasy anthology, edited by Rich Horton (full disclosure: I have a story in the new volume of this.) And they publish Fantasy magazine, which is now a webzine.

Circlet Press

Cecilia Tan started out putting out chapbooks of erotic science fiction in the early 1990s, with Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, which I still think is the best title ever. This grew into an empire of science-fictional smut, including the gay erotic SF anthology series Wired Hard and many other futuristic collections like Fetish Fantastic and Best Fantastic Erotica. These days, a lot of their titles are available at low cost as PDFs and e-reader volumes. If you've ever wanted to know how aliens and demigods practice safe and consensual BDSM, then these are the books for you.

Small Beer Press

Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link have been putting out quirky, wonderful and bizarre books, alongside their zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, for a decade now. I remember when the only places I used to see them were in the used bookstore on Newberry Street in Boston. Now Small Beer titles are among the most highly respected, and anticipated, out there. And they are constantly doing great good works: Like when Laurie J. Marks' elemental logic trilogy got canceled by its original publisher before the final volume came out, fans clamored to be able to read the conclusion — and Small Beer stepped in to save the day. Small Beer has also put out the great Interfictions anthologies of genre-defying stories, and books by Benjamin Rosenbaum, Elizabeth Hand, Joan Aiken, Greer Gilman and Poppy Z. Brite. And not to be shallow or anything, but their books are usually among the most beautifully designed out there, with arrestingly lovely covers.

Note: Before anybody pipes up in comments, we thought about including Pyr Books on this list — but they were launched as an imprint of Prometheus Books, a publisher that's been around since 1969. So through a painstaking process involving snake entrails, we deemed they weren't quite as much of an indy as the others on this list. If you disagree, blame the snake — but also, feel free to pipe up in comments. I also wound up leaving out Cemetery Dance, just becuase they've been around for 20+ years. Let us know if we missed your favorite indy press!

Top image: cover of Monstrous Affections by David Nickle, from Chizine Publications.

Magical Dogs and Detectives Explore Supernatural San Francisco in "Unleashed" [Book Review]

Grey_Area — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:52:22 -0800

Forthcoming urban fantasy Unleashed (Ace) by John Levitt is the sequel to Dog Days and New Tricks. It follows the exploits of a spell-casting jazz guitarist and his magic doggie. Well, sort of a doggie.

The blend of urban fantasy and detective fiction seems like a sure-fire win. We can seen the modern roots of both in none other than Edgar Allen Poe. There are early examples of the Occult Detective such as Professor Flaxman-Low or the hard to find Victor Iff stories by Aleister Crowley. The type shows up often in TV, comics, and books; the scruffy-looking rugged individualist — a wizard for hire, freelance exorcist, or just a jumped-up London street punk with a pack of Silk Cuts and a noggin full of of Arcane Lore.

I've often been let down by these paranormal investigators in novels. Glenn Cook, Jim Butcher, and Simon R. Green have written very popular series of this type but the appeal is of a the tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top variety. It can be fun, addictive but really just popcorn fare. Only Mike Carey's Felix Castor series has ever made me go, "wow, this is some good writing!" Even with some "surprise" twists that I could see coming in the first third of the book, Carey approaches the story like a hard-boiled thriller of the first water, not a parody. While not yet of this calibre, John Levitt's Dog Days series combines a gritty street sense with a realistic use of magic — for a given value of reality, of course.

As we learned from this year's World Fantasy Con, a world where the supernatural is real and commonplace is going to be very different from the one we know. It's ridiculous to assume that, oh let's say St. Louis, would be recognizable with demons and vampires running around openly. There may be subcultures that think they are underground and hidden (BDSM, Goths, Accordion Players) but the truth is the general population is just trying hard to ignore them. I just don't buy that actual wizards and the like could remain hidden from the rest of society. A common conceit in these contemporary urban fantasy worlds is that all the magical types have agreed to keep their presence hidden from mere mortals. This is because, umm... peasants with pitchforks and torches will tax them out of existence? I'm a bit fuzzy on that part. To keep everybody in line there's usually some ancient organization imaginatively called the Watchers, or The Council of Elders.

In Levitt's series people magical abilities ("practitioners" in North America, the Brits still use the term "sorcerers") have always been around but in very small numbers. They are by and large all loners not big on hierarchical structures and content to remain hidden from view. In each city or region there is always one practitioner with more talent and ambition than the others who enforces the general agreement to not freak out the squares. In San Francisco this self-appointed chief is Victor, supercilious with a vast fortune of mysterious origin. He reminds me a bit like a more generous version of the second eponymous character in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Victor is willing to let the others play magician but ready to destroy anyone who uses magic for personal gain or threatens to reveal the game to the mundane world. To that effect he hires other talented practitioners to sniff out troublemakers and ride herd on the local magic community.

Our protagonist Mason (everyone has just one name because they're cool like that) was one of Victor's enforcer but left to pursue a career in music. Fortunately Mason is a very talented guitarist and makes a comfortable if bohemian living playing in local jazz clubs. Poor but without Victor breathing down his neck, he's glad to tool around in his beat-up old van, drifting in and out of disastrous romances, and hanging out with Lou, his dog, sort of. Lou looks like a miniature Doberman Pinscher with undocked ears and tail. In reality he is an ifrit, magical creature that acts as a familiar for a select lucky few practitioners. Mason and others with ifrits are source of jealousy in their community but no one knows where these creatures come from or why they only choose certain people. Lou may be smarter and stronger than a real dog with preternatural senses but he still has a dog's brain or lack there of. This loveable scamp sniffs butts, burrows through trash cans for the choice meals, and is terribly concerned about the threat squirrels pose to modern society. I am happy to report that the magic dog does not talk. That would have been unbearable.

I find choice of the term Ifrit for Louie and his ilk to be odd. They usually appear as smallish animalsl suitable for perching on laps or shoulders, but have been glimpsed in what may be their true form. Is there a connection between them and the beings "of smokeless fire" from Arabic legend? Other strange creatures occasionally turn up. Some are former practitioners who have become too strong and begin to resembling trolls or werewolves of legend. Japanese hungry ghosts or demons out of medieval grimores can also be summoned for nefarious purposes. There's even a Wendigo that's more Algernon Blackwood than Ojibwa legend and becomes something like a very disturbing Huggy Bear from Starsky & Hutch. Even scholars like Mason's friend and mentor, Eli, cannot explain what these entities really are, manifestations of the practitioners' will clothed in cultural archetypes or visitors from Another Place entirely.

Actually it's odd that as old as the magic practitioner community is, they're fuzzy about where magic comes from and why it even works— the characters address this openly and I can't decide if this is a bug or a feature. Levitt has been dancing around the question of ifrits and other mysteries in the last three books. He might be making it up as he goes along but there seems to be some sort of plan. I always enjoy his writing enough to let him lead me on for another book.

Of course in each book Some Danger will threaten San Francisco's loose-knit practitioner community. Mason with Lou by his side, like a knight errant of old, plunge into the fray to find What the Hell is Going On and save his friends. Despite their differences snooty Victor is happy to use Mason to flush out the danger and refers to shiftless young man as "his investigator". This is not due to Mason's keen analytical mind, he's the first to admit he's not the swiftest on the uptake. What Victor values is the lad's unique expression of magical talent. A gift that appears related to his musical ability – Improvisation.

Even powerful practitioners rely on carefully prepared materials, complicated chants, or herbal concoctions. A small minority follow the Black Arts and use all the sinister drama of pentagrams, black candles, and blood sacrifice. Other than being more dickish than average these Black Practioners seem to be an unfairly maligned bunch. There's something about ritual that makes it easier for practitioners to focus their will and power. Mason doesn't need that, he can borrow what he needs from his immediate surroundings. On the fly he blends the qualities of moonlight, the solidity of a brick wall and an abandoned umbrella to fashion a protective spell. He can borrow flight from a flock of pigeons or the absorbency of a thick carpet for a stealthy approach. This makes Mason a the go-to guy in sudden and unfamiliar circumstances. I think Victor also values Mason as Cannon Fodder but hey, that's what makes a great administrator.

The passages describing this type of magic have a fluid creativity that's a lot harder than it looks. Levitt uses this same grace and authority writing about Mason's music; whether the deep internal process of doing a solo on stage or the serious business of hanging out in bars and jamming. I recognized a lot of familiar scenes setting up gigs, moving gear, and joking with the band (Hey, What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians? A drummer!). It should be of no surprise to find that author John Levitt is also an accomplished jazz guitarist who spends part of his year in San Francisco. I've seen him play and he's got some serious chops. I also am very impressed with his descriptions of my hometown. He may possibly write the most authentic modern San Francisco I've ever read in genre fiction. Many others (Sorry, Chris Moore) come close but rely on too many postcard shots. Levitt with economy and an unflinching eye, portrays the look and shifting character of our many different neighborhoods.

So yeah, write what you know. Levitt also knows gritty street scenes and has a keen grasp of the Crime Novel and that is very evident in the Dog Days series . He wrote two thrillers, Carnivores and Ten of Swords, about a decade back as J.R. Levitt. He also served eight years with the Salt Lake City Police Department. Cops have the best stories, every day they meet a wide variety of interesting people having the worst day of their lives. You could see how this would drive many officers crazy or turn to writing. Levitt told me that he feels Urban Fantasy owes more to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler than to J.R.R. Tolkien or E.R. Eddison. He loves this sub genre and is currently at work on the fourth Dog Days book. I'm looking forward to seeing the mysteries about Mason and Lou's magical world answered but I want more from John Levitt. I'd love to see him drop this series and try something with a little more bite. This was a fine read, much more satisfying than the guilty pleasure popcorn of the Dresden Files or the Nightside books but still a bit too... cute. The Crime Thriller and Detective Novel are very well suited for the trapping of the fantastic and I believe readers are hungry for something meatier than the usual fare. Just tossing out a bone here. Fetch!

Unleashed may be purchased here or from your local independent bookseller.

Commenter Grey_Area is known to all the magic doggies of San Francisco as Chris Hsiang, he has bacon.

Gene Therapy Creates Superstrong Monkeys [Mad Science]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:00 -0800

It's not quite a supersoldier serum, but researchers have increased strength and muscle mass in monkeys with a small genetic tweak. And human trials for the technique are just on the horizon.

Muscle disease specialists at Ohio State University have been studying myostatin, the protein that regulates and curbs muscle growth. Their research found that a second protein, follistatin, can bind to myostatin, preventing myostatin from stopping muscle growth. They decided to test whether artificially introducing follistatin to the body would lead to an increase in strength and muscle mass. Using a common cold virus as a carrier, the researchers injected the follistatin gene into the thigh muscles of six macaque monkeys. The monkeys' thigh muscles grew an average of 15 percent as a result of the treatment, and one monkey experienced an incredible 78 percent increase in strength. The researchers reported in Science Translational Medicine that, after 15 months, the increases remained and that the monkeys experienced no visible side effects.

The researchers hope to start clinical trials on humans next year, with an eye toward helping people with degenerative muscular diseases. But for healthy individuals looking to increase their strength, the treatment would come at a cost: immunosuppressant drugs are a necessary component of the therapy.

Gene therapy may be used to treat muscular dystrophy [Times Online via Next Big Future via Reddit]

The Best Places To Find Your Next Free Book Online [Afternoon Reading]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:02:51 -0800

You need some science fiction, and you need it now. Unfortunately, you don't have a ton of money to spend. But as long as you have an internet connection, these resources will help you get free books and stories online.

Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the premiere spot for finding free books online, and they've arranged their science fiction collection into a nicely-organized bookshelf. From the bizarro contents of 1930s Astounding Stories to every single novel HG Wells ever wrote, you'll find a wealth of classic science fiction.

Suvudu Free Library
If you're craving contemporary novels for free, Random House's Suvudu Free Library brings new fiction to you for free. So far they've posted eight books, including ones by Laurel K. Hamilton and Elizabeth Moon. They promise to add more every month, so check back for a free dose of new fiction!

Baen Free Library
If you like swashbuckling escapism, then you won't want to miss Baen's massive free backlist of novels, many from the 1980s, all available for free download.

Google Books
Google has a small collection of public domain science fiction novels and zines from before 1923.

Strange Horizons
One of the best and longest-running science fiction journals online, Strange Horizons consistently publishes incredible fiction from promising newcomers and stars alike. The site is updated weekly with fiction, art, poetry, and reviews, and you can plunder their extensive fiction archives whenever you like for that much-needed free fiction fix.

Tor.com
Tor.com is another amazing online publication, connected with the publisher Tor, which updates daily with reviews, blog posts, art, commentary, and (hooray!) tons of free fiction from authors you know and love. Cory Doctorow serialized his new novel Makers on Tor.com before it hit print, and you'll see regular stories from luminaries such as Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, and John Scalzi. Check out the fiction archives, or just browse the site.

Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe publishes a lot of free fiction online, especially out-of-print recent classics that deserve to remain available to hungry readers. Some books are also available for download for a small price - most are under $5. You can browse their science fiction and speculative fiction sections (they also have horror, romance, and many other genres). I was amazed to discover that they are serializing Vonda McIntyre's 80s classic Superluminal for free, and that's just one of many gems you'll discover by browsing here. (Often a book that's available as a complete download for cash is also available in serialized, chapter-by-chapter format for free - so check all your options.)

Free Speculative Fiction Online
One of my favorite resources online for finding new free fiction is called simply Free Speculative Fiction Online. Created by Richard Cissée, this pleasingly minimalist site exhaustively lists every new (free) short story, novella and novel posted online that is in the spec fic genre, broadly defined. Come here to find old favorites or strange new tales from authors you never would have encountered otherwise. It's a must-bookmark resource.

Image by Eric Doeringer, from a weird and slightly mean art project via Art in Odd Places.

io9 Book Club, Winter Edition: Jacqueline Carey's "Santa Olivia" [Books]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:21:34 -0800

It's time for the io9 book club to meet again. Get ready for some swashbuckling justice with Jacqueline Carey's Santa Olivia, the near-future story of a half-mutant girl who lives in the militarized border zone between the US and Mexico.

For our last book club meeting, we read Paul McAuley's eco-political epic The Quiet War, so this time around we're veering more towards the escapist. Santa Olivia is a mutant coming-of-age story about Loup, an orphan who has grown up in a tiny, forgotten town between the two heavily-fortified walls that divide North from South America. The main attraction in this town is a bar where off-duty soldiers come to drink (and pester the local girls), and the boxing gym. Every year, there is a boxing match between the townies and the soldiers. The military leaders promise that if a townie ever wins, he'll be allowed to jump the wall and go free in North America.

Loup wants nothing more than to be the man who goes free. Except she's not a man, and no girls have ever competed in the contest. Luckily, she has strange mutant powers from a father she never knew, a friendly coach at the boxing gym, and a gang of orphan friends who want to help her mete out justice in a town where soldiers can get away almost with anything. This engaging, often thought-provoking story combines elements of Wolverine and Million Dollar Baby - and Carey's great talent for creating characters who are larger-than-life but always recognizably human.

For this book club meeting, we also picked a novel that has been out for several months, so it should be a little easier to get from your local library than The Quiet War was.

You can read our review of the novel here.

Here are the details on this book club meeting. You read Santa Olivia. Then we all have our book club meeting on Wednesday, January 6 (when you're fully recovered from the holidays). I'll post, and we can discuss the book in comments. We just got confirmation that Jacqueline Carey will join us for discussion in January too, so be thinking about what you might want to ask! Find out more about our previous book club meeting in the io9 Book Club forum.

Now get reading!

Santa Olivia via Borders

Apocalyptic Images We Should Have Seen in 2012 [Concept Art]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0800

If Roland Emmerich needs ideas for his next film, he should give digital artist Steve McGhee a call. McGhee's images capture an array of disaster scenarios, from eco-apocalypses and nuclear explosions to tentacled alien monsters firebombing the streets.

[Steve McGhee via Super Punch]

Maybe The Best Reason To Write Science Fiction [Quote Of The Day]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:06:40 -0800

"Let me tell you why I write. I can watch E.T. or listen to Bob Marley and the Wailers, or eat sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce and that stuff seems to be grated radish, and just be grateful that I frequently have the money to avail myself of them and happen to live in a world where such things exist; but when I finish reading a fine book - The Shining say, or MacDonald's A Deadly Shade of Gold, or Amis's Girl, 20 - I'm left with an uneasy feeling that simply having paid my three dollars wasn't enough. Like the primitive cargo cults who built straw replicas of the airplanes they see flying past overhead, I want to express my gratitude by doing it too. I suppose if I were a distiller I'd feel this way when I tasted Laphroaig or Wild Turkey or Plymouth gin." — Tim Powers, from the Afterword to the 1986 edition of Forsake The Sky.

Paprika Director Has Kid-Friendly Robotic Dreams [The Dream Machine]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:30:00 -0800

Satoshi Kon, the director behind such surreal animated films as Paprika and Perfect Blue is taking a crack at child-friendly fare with his all-robot road movie The Dream Machine. The film's first images highlight Kon's strange and lovely robotic creations.

The plot of The Dream Machine has yet to be revealed (at least in English), but Kon gave his overview on the film last year in an interview with Anime News Network:

The title will be Yume Miru Kikai. In English, it will be The Dream Machine. On the surface, it's going to be a fantasy-adventure targeted at younger audiences. However, it will also be a film that people who have seen our films up to this point will be able to enjoy. So it will be an adventure that even older audiences can appreciate. There will be no human characters in the film; only robots. It'll be like a "road movie" for robots.

The official site for the movie has launched, bringing with it the first images of Kon's enigmatic robots, Robin and Rurico.

[via Twitch]

Steven Spielberg To Bring Stephen King's Dome Horror To Life [Under The Dome]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Last week we learned that Stephen King's brand new book Under The Dome, about a town sealed off from the rest of the world, is getting a miniseries. Now Steven Spielberg has stepped in to make sure it's a success.

DreamWorks TV and Spielberg will executive produce the miniseries based on the 1088-page book. And it's good that they are trying for a miniseries, because this novel is big and full of characters. There's no way it could be a one-night affair. Under The Dome takes place in a little Maine village which is quickly and forcibly sealed off by an invisible force field. So quickly, in fact, that one towns person loses an arm.

If this is done well, it could mean more cable miniseries, which would be a good thing, The Prisoner notwithstanding. After all, we all know Watchmen would have been a brilliant miniseries. But let's hope this big project opens doors for more.

Synopsis:

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when - or if - it will go away. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens - town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing - even murder - to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

[Variety]

How Long Do You Read A Book Before Giving Up On It? [Poll]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

Every book has a go/no-go point. If you're not enjoying a book by a certain point, you're never going to get into it. But it's an individual choice: How long will you read a book for, before you give up?

Jettison book cover image from Jettisonsaga.com.

Intel Is Developing Brain Implants So You Can Channel Surf With Your Mind [Futurism]

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

Chipmaker Intel is throwing a ton of cash into developing brain implants to help people send text messages with their minds. They are also predicting these implants will be the main way you turn on the TV in 10 years.

According to Computerworld:

Scientists at Intel's research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors implanted in people's brains . . . "We're trying to prove you can do interesting things with brain waves," said [Intel research scientist Dean] Pomerleau. "Eventually people may be willing to be more committed ... to brain implants. Imagine being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts."

Pomerleau is working with university researchers to "decode" human thoughts, which so far has consisted mostly of doing fMRI studies to see which parts of the brain become active when people think of certain words. Their goal is to figure out how to "read" cognitive activity so people can type with their brains instead of their fingers. I can't wait to have Intel inside my cerebral cortex, especially when I have to upgrade every 6 months. Of course eventually I'll just stop upgrading, thus consigning myself to an old age of trying to get Ubuntu running on the ancient chipset in my brain.

via Computerworld

Missed Connection: Help The Doctor Find Her Companion, Dr. Horrible [Love]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:30:00 -0800

From Chapel Hill, NC: "We met at a party just off Franklin Street. You were dressed as Dr. Horrible, and I was the Doctor. We chatted for awhile, but then my friends took off while you were distracted." [Craigslist]

Thanks for the tip Lay, and for letting us use our powers for good.

Rare Dune Concept Art From One Of Space Opera's Greatest Visionaries [Art]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:00:00 -0800

A pirate ship slices through space in concept art from the lost Dune movie of the 1970s. Artist Chris Foss crafted covers for some of science fiction's greatest books, reshaping how we see spaceships and robots. Check out our gallery.

Artist Chris Foss is known for his visionary presentation of future technology and weird vistas. He illustrated many book covers in the 70s, 80s and 90s including the Lensman series, Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, and Jack Vance's Demon Princes novels. His covers frequently feature spaceships that are sturdier and chunkier than the usual sleek space rockets you see on many other book covers of the time.

His cool vision of the future led him to be asked to work on production designs for Alejandro Jodorowsky's uncompleted Dune movie, in the mid 1970s, and later on Ridley Scott's Alien and Superman: The Movie.

As Alejandro Jodorowsky said in 1977:

And thus were born the mimetic spaceships, the leather and dagger-studded machines of the fascist Sardaukers;- the pachydermatous geometry of Emperor Padishah's golden planet; the delicate butterfly plane and so many other incredible machines, which I am sure will one day populate interstellar space. Chris Foss knows that today's technical reality is tomorrow's falsehood. Chris also knows that today's pure art is tomorrow's reality. Man will conquer space mounted on Foss' spaceships, never in NASA's concentration camps of the spirit. I was grateful for the existence of my friend. He brought the colours of the apocalypse to the sad machines of a future without imagination.

He has a website, ChrisFossArt.com, where you can see more of his work and buy signed prints of all of these images. And he has a group on Facebook, where you can keep up with his projects.

Pirate Ship, From Jodorowsky's Dune.
Harkonnen's flagship, From Jodorowsky's Dune.
Spice transport, from Dune.
Emperor's palace, from Dune.
Guild Tug, from Dune.
Breaking the Light Barrier
Awesome space image.
Awesome spaceship.
Image for ConceptShips blog.
Awesome spaceship.
Amazing space image.

New Avatar Footage Shows Things Getting Bloody On Pandora's Surface [Avatar]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

Check out James Cameron's sick collection of futuristic human weaponry — and the Pandoran defense system: sharp pointy fangs! Lots of new human-centric footage in this new featurette. Plus, learn what Avatar has in common with The Core.

The mess hall and cryo sleeping chamber are pretty intricate, we can't wait to see them in 3D. But the power suits and what-not are a little Starship Trooper Marauders. Still, it makes a lot of splodey noises and lights.

More Avatar Info

Did you guess the connection between The Core and Avatar? Well that's easy: it's unobtanium. The mineral that the humans are killing off Na'vi for is the same as the metal that allows The Core's ship to drill into the Earth. You know: the hotter and faster you work it, the harder it gets. Ah, made up science-fictional materials, how we love thee — especially handwavium.

Does Iron Man 3 Already Have Its Villain? Thor's Asgard Gets a New Defender, and Lost Gets A Premiere Date [Morning Spoilers]

Lauren Davis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

Asgard has an actor to defend the bridge, and Jon Favreau may have already chosen Iron Man 3's villain. One Fringe character could be seeing double, and another dead character returns to Lost. Plus: Star Trek, Daybreakers, Legion, and Chuck.

Thor

Idris Elba, whom fans of The Wire know as Stringer Bell, has been cast as Heimdell, the Asgardian who stands guard at BiFrost Bridge, always ready to defend Asgard from intruders. [/Film]

Iron Man 3

We haven't even seen Iron Man 2, but there are already rumors for the third movie. Faran Tahir, who played Raza in the first movie, was asked about the third film and mentioned that Favreau and the producers want to introduce the Mandarin as a villain at some point. Since both Raza and the Mandarin are leaders of the Ten Rings, that affects whether Tahir will return to the franchise. [Moviefone]

Star Trek 2

Karl Urban would like to see his character, Bones McCoy, become more the third part of the Kirk-Spock-Bones triumvirate. He also wants Bones to be a bit preachier:

"I would love to play scenes being essentially Kirk's moral compass or point of conscience. The way McCoy was written he really sort of verbalized the war going on in Kirk's conscience, and I certainly would love to see more arguments of passion versus logic with Spock because they're always fun. So it's going to be really interesting to see what they come up with."

[IGN]

Daybreakers

Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe prepare to take on the vampires (and the vampire virus) in two new stills.

Legion

Shock Till You Drop saw 20 minutes of the angel apocalypse, and they're still a bit on the fence about the film. In one clip, the archangel Michael crashes to Earth, slices off his wings, breaks the halo (as known as the heavenly LoJack system) from his neck. Then he heads off to a gun shop to load up on weapons and ammo. When a pair of cops try to stop him, we get to see the unpleasant effects of angelic possession: the possessed cop goes all twitchy, his eyeballs turn black, and his teeth sharpen. Another clip comes straight out of the trailer, with Gladys, the old lady who quickly transforms from sweet to demonic when she tells Charlie that her "fucking baby is gonna burn," and then starts scuttling across the ceiling. In another scene, the protagonists drive into a storm of flies (the first plague of Egypt), and a group of diner patrons head to the roof to take out a group of possessed folks, including the frosty treats man. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Doctor Who

It's official: the title of the first hour of the Christmas special is The End of Time Part One. No surprise there. [Den of Geek]

Lost

Season six officially has a premiere day: February 2 at 9pm. Lost now airs on Tuesdays. Adjust your DVRs accordingly. Also, Richard Alpert, Miles, Frank Lapidus, and Ilana are now series regulars, and Claire is back full-time. Desmond, however, is not a regulat this season. [E!]

Carlton Cuse confirmed via Twitter that Rebecca Mader who plays Faraday's deceased love Charlotte, has been filming, though he offered no indication of what context we'll be seeing Charlotte in. [Cinema Blend]

However, a source at Dark UFO claims to have the scoop on Charlotte's reappearance. Sawyer is trying to run his usual con on Charlotte, knowing that she has been to the island. However, Charlotte catches on to Sawyer's act and calls him out on it. Sawyer tells her everything: that she knows she was raised on the island and that everything connects back to Charles Widmore. He says he wants "on the boat," but Sawyer isn't acting alone; a man he talks to on the phone gives him instructions and seems to be in charge. Throughout their conversation, Charlotte keeps looking toward an Asian man, something Sawyer notices. Apparently, there is a fight scene in a different location involving Sawyer and the Asian man. [Dark UFO]

Michael Emerson described the final season as "very dark and bloody," and said of the episodes:

"I thought I would be able to see the ending that was coming, but I can't," he says of the series finale. "It's still so opaque."

As for Ben himself, Emerson said we will see Ben at his manipulative best, and that he will surprise the audience. [Starbulletin]

At yet another Lost shoot, fans spotted Sawyer and Charles Widmore filming a scene at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum in Pearl Harbor. Is someone planning an underwater voyage, or is Widmore the one pulling Sawyer's strings? [Hawaii Blog]

Fringe

John Noble says that there have been discussions about Walter meeting his alternate self toward the end of the season. [Korbi TV]

Anna Torv also talks about what's in store for Olivia's family and her love life. [Korbi TV]

Chuck

The new season premieres Sunday, January 10th, with two back-to-back episodes. A third episode will air during its regular timeslot on Monday, January 11th, at 8/7c. Here's a promo to that effect, plus a new clip:

And here's the Season Three poster:

[Chuck TV]

Morena Baccarin talks about Anna and Chad's evolving relationship, and what happens when one of the Visitors is murdered. [Spoiler TV]

And we get a promo for the year's last episode, Tuesday's "It's Only the Beginning."

Heroes

A two-hour "event" airs Monday, January 4th, a 8pm EST; after that, the show's regular time slot will be Mondays at 9pm. [Spoiler TV]

FlashForward

The actors ask their questions about the show's mysteries, and manage to get some answers. [Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder.

Watch The Asylum Destroy The World On A Zero Budget [Exclusive]

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:38:03 -0800

You want to depict a Deadly Crack (TM) threatening to destroy the entire world... but you have no cash? If you're The Asylum, makers of every great Z-grade movie ever, no problem. Here's an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip to prove it.

Watch as The Asylum's masterminds use rubber cement for explosions and blow a Porta Potty up 30 feet in the air. And use fan-refurbished military vehicles to add a layer of verisimilitude. These people are total culture heroes, the Roger Cormans of our generation.

This awesome behind-the-scenes snippet is from MegaFault, a movie starring er's Eriq LaSalle which comes out on DVD on Nov. 24. Yes, just in time for Thanksgiving, so you can give thanks that you're not actually in this movie. Here's the official plot summary:

In West Virginia, Charley "Boomer" Baxter (LaSalle) is supervising the placement of mountaintop-removal explosives. As he detonates the TNT, a massive earthquake liquefies the terrain. Within hours, Dr. Amy Lane (Murphy), a government seismologist, arrives at the epicenter. Amy determines that the initial quake has exposed a deep seismic fault that runs across the center of the North American continent and threatens to tear the world in half. Now, Amy and Boomer must race ahead of the massive crack in the earth while devising a plan to stop the devastation and warn everyone in its path.

One Of Your Crucial Characters Isn't Working. What Do You Do? [Free Advice]

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:17:08 -0800

Your awesome novel is firing on all thrusters... except one. A major character, who's important to the story, isn't clicking. She's dull, or he doesn't play well with others. We asked some great authors what to do about this quandary.

Eileen Gunn, author of Stable Strategies and Others:

This is more a problem at the novel level than at the short-story level. In a short work, you can just eliminate the boring characters: nobody will miss 'em, and the story will be stronger. But at novel length, sometimes you need a character to be more than a walk-on, for functional reasons.

I use the same strategy I use at a boring party: get the other person to r
ant. Ask them how they really feel about something, and don't be afraid to ask rude questions. In real life, you've got maybe a 50% chance of finding an interesting person under there and a 75% chance of getting slapped, but when you're writing, you're really channeling your own back-brain. Turn it loose. If you can get it to rant, it might say something surprisingly relevant to the rest of the book.

(I suppose this will put people on alert when they're talking to me at parties....)

Rachel Pollack, author of Unquenchable Fire and Temporary Agency, and writer of The Doom Patrol:

In regard to the question, getting rid of the character is definitely a possibility. With any aspect, if it's just not working, you might consider it's because it doesn't belong. But let's say you do want, or need, to include this character. One thing to do is raise the stakes for the character, have the person become more serious, with more depth. You can try some extra-novel approaches. That is, write a scene about this character completely outside the book, exploring something about his or her history. You can try writing a scene from this person's point of view, in case the problem is seeing hir from the outside. Or, you might read Tarot cards for the character, figuring out what hir questions might be, and then seeing how the cards suggest insights and directions.

Sean Williams, author of the Astropolis books, The Broken Land novels, The Books Of The Cataclysm and Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novels:

With characters, I apply the same test I would to any aspect of the story that isn't coming up to expectations: would the story suffer without them? If not, then they should go. This might sound harsh, but I reckon applying Occam's Razor liberally when anything goes wrong is a good technique. Even the most savage cuts can leave the heart of the story intact. In that sense, a novel is like a living body: everything has to connect to everything else. Anything that doesn't is a cancer, draining the vitality of everything around it. A story is only as successful as the weakest of its parts, so why be dragged down by anything?

Of course, applying this advice in the middle of a draft can be a purple pain in the arse—much better to have noticed the problem before you even started—but better to make the cut before the end, when an otherwise dull character might come to life, entirely, utterly too late.

Kelley Eskridge, author of Solitaire and Dangerous Space:

When a character's not clicking, it's because she's not real enough — either in the author's imagination, or on the page.

If she only ever turns up at just the right moment to provide crucial information or serve as a foil for the protagonist's important emotional realization, then she's just a red shirt, a story puppet. She needs to have personal, compelling (to her) reasons for everything she does, and they can't just be reasons that blatantly suit the convenience of the story. Real people are damned inconvenient: they avoid issues, have oblique conversations, feel things others don't understand, and are very rarely think out loud in a coherent and rational way so that the protagonist can get important information.

If the character is motivated by personal needs as opposed to story mechanics, then are her needs urgent enough? The higher the stakes at every moment, the more compelling she is, and the more strongly other characters (and readers) can respond to her. High stakes don't necessarily mean superflu or nuclear devastation — even getting to the library by closing time can be a high stakes issue in the right circumstances. People can make some pretty interesting choices when they're running late....

And finally, if she's real in my imagination — if she has her own drives and her own goals — then is she real on the page? That comes from specific choices in description, body language, dialogue and behavior that reflect her particular worldview and give clues to what's driving her. We decipher these clues all the time in our own lives — we know what it means when the teenage bagboy hesitates over the box of tampons, or when two people at a restaurant table eat an entire course without looking at each other. As in life, so in books: find the specific behavior, and the meaning — and the reality — will be plain.

Greatest Swashbuckling Heroes From 100+ Years Of SF Books [Triviagasm]

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:39:14 -0800

They swagger, they fight, they laugh in the face of danger. Science-fiction books have given us some of the greatest swashbuckling heroes, cutting a swathe through space and countless alternate timelines. Here are some of our favorite book heroes.

When we asked our friends to name their favorite swashbuckling heroes from SF books, first we had to figure out what exactly we meant by "swashbuckling." Here's what we came up with: A swashbuckling hero doesn't necessarily need to pack a sword — although it certainly doesn't hurt. A certain dapperness comes with the territory, or at the very least a unique sense of style. Words starting with "D" came up a lot, including dashing, debonair, defiant, dapper and daring.

What we found was that fantasy is full of swashbucklers — it's one of the hallmarks of the genre — but there are some amazing swashbucklers in science fiction too. (And we threw it open to include "urban fantasy," or anything which takes place in something akin to the modern world or the future.)

Here are our favorite swashbuckling heroes from science fiction books:

John Carter Of Mars (A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs)

He's got the sword and the steely gaze, not to mention the old-school charm, and he's also got the mad adventures — the seemingly immortal Virginian gets zapped to Mars upon his "death" and wins the hand of the princess, Deja Thoris. He leads a company of Tharks to defeat the city-state of Zodanga, and then sacrifices his own life to save the atmosphere on Mars. (But then just winds up on Earth again.)

Here are some great Princess Of Mars covers and images, including some great art by Frank Frazetta:

Jack Half-A-Prayer (Perdido Street Station and Iron Council by China Mieville):

Even amongst all the other memorable and weird characters from Mieville's Bas-Lag universe, Jack Half-A-Prayer stands out, with his weird sense of style. One of the Remade, he's got a giant praying mantis arm, but instead of becoming downtrodden and full of self-loathing, he becomes a freedom fighter and a legend, until it finally catches up with him. Here's a great illustration of him that artist Nicholas William Kole created. (More of Kole's great art here.)

"Slippery" Jim DiGriz (The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison):

The first person that came to mind when we thought of this category — a grifter and adventurer who's always twenty jumps ahead of everybody else. Even though the love of a good woman softens him slightly, he never stops being a scoundrel. Still, if he ever runs for president on your planet, you'd be crazy not to vote for him.

Frank Rozvar (The Skies Discrowned/Forsake The Sky by Tim Powers):

As Earth's empire crumbles in the distant future, Frank Rozvar sees his father murdered, and is forced to flee to Munson Underground, the city under the planet's surface. He plots revenge — and it's a good thing he's an expert fencer as well as a stylish bastard. Although, as my friend Bill notes, Powers' early heroes tend to be more "grim and gritty" than "dashing and dapper."

The Librarians (The Greatwinter Trilogy by Sean McMullen):

Many buckles are swashed by these dragon librarians in a post-apocalyptic 40th century setting. They're forever fighting ritual duels, including battles (with very strict rules) in airships. These books are packed with derring-do and Errrol Flynn-esque feats of bravery and cunning.

Duncan Idaho (Dune by Frank Herbert):

This swordmaster in the service of House Atreides is a ladies man and an expert student of the Swordmasters Of Ginaz. The Harkonnens kill his parents and raise him to be hunted for sport — but he gets away. One of Duke Leto's right-hand men, he trains Paul in the arts of war. And when he gives his life to defend Paul and Jessica, he takes down no less than 17 Sardaukar soldiers.

Cugel The Clever (The Dying Earth books by Jack Vance):

A thief and scoundrel, Cugel displays tons of rambunctiousness and skullduggery. But he's also a dab hand with a sword, and he's very dapper with his triple-tiered hat, adorned with a "foppish bedazzlement." His roguish ways and indefatigible charm have won him his own Facebook group.

Speaker-To-Animals (Ringworld by Larry Niven):

One of the coolest of Niven's Kzinti, Speaker-To-Animals is slightly less likely to kill you on sight than other members of his race, but he's still a superb fighter and a total badass. He's too honorable to kill Louis Gridley Wu for meat, even when he's starving. Typical line: "I have a variable sword. I urge calm." Bad. Ass. (Art by A.C. Farley.)

Anthony Villiers (Star Well by Alexei Panshin):

A former viscount, Villiers gets fobbed off by his family and travels around the universe in the company of a giant toad named Torve, having crazy adventures. He's always getting himself caught up in duels and assassination plots, as he moves through the highest levels of galactic society without ever quite having enough money on hand. He's foppish, following the motto "Live as you dress" and doing both of those things well.

Drake Maijstral (Crown Jewels, House of Shards, &Rock of Ages by Walter Jon Williams):

Maijstral is an Allowed Burglar in a distant future when the human race has been conquered by aliens called the Khosali, who have subjected us to their regime of High Custom. Under this complicated set of rules, you can steal — as long as you hang on to the merchandise for 24 hours without getting caught. (One of the Khosali emperors was a kleptomaniac who wanted to legalize theft, hence the odd compromise.) Since all of Maijstral's exploits are recorded and broadcast, he becomes a huge celebrity with a great sense of verve and style.

Hiro Protagonist (Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson):

Protagonist's business card says it all: "Last of the freelance hackers and Greatest swordfighter in the world." He learns of the existence of a new drug called Snow Crash, that's both a computer virus and a reality-altering substance. He's the undisputed champion of in-Metaverse sword-fighting, because he helped write the code which makes swordfighting possible.

E.C. Gordon, aka Scar, aka Oscar (Glory Road by Robert Heinlein):

This war veteran answers an ad that asks, "Are You A Coward," placed by a beautiful woman. Then he goes on a quest and crosses swords with the Never-Born aka the Eater Of Souls, the guardian of the Egg of the Phoenix in Mile High Tower. (For some reason, the Eater Of Souls appears as a 17th century swordsman.)

Beka Rosslin-Metadi (The Price Of The Stars by Debra Doyle and James D. McDonald):

Okay, just look at the jacket, and the red eyepatch. And she's an amazing space pilot, freebooter and spacer by trade — who's turned her back on her famous military family. Until her mom is assassinated, and her father gives her the best spaceship around, the Warhammer, to look for the assassins. She leaves "a trail of kidnappings and corpses across four star systems," and blows the roof off the strongest private fortress in the galaxy. Rock on.

Pham Nuwen (A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge):

Pham grows up in a post-apocalyptic Canberra that's similar to the Middle Ages, complete with swords, daggers and poison. Then the Qeng Ho arrive and he leaves with them. He becomes a legendary commander and Programmer-At-Arms. At one point, Pham Nuwen is held prisoner by some idiots, and he realizes that the computers on the ship had used smart dust long ago — which means he can hack into the computers by blinking, without anyone noticing.

Ed Chianese (Light by M. John Harrison)

Thrill-seeker, adventurer and virtual-reality addict, Ed Chianese "owes money to everyone in the universe." Writes Harrison, "From an early age, Ed Chianese had been some kind of drifter and sensationist. He couldn't remember what planet he came from. 'Maybe it was even this one!' He laughed." With his peroxide hair and cheap tattoos, he's dapper after a fashion.

Giraut Leones (A Million Open Doors by John Barnes):

Giraut lives in Nou Occitan, which is sort of like medieval Europe, with the dueling, the chivraly and the artistic dabbling. But then he goes to live in another one of the thousand human cultures in the far future — the sterile Caledony, which is like a McCarthy-ite, Christian repressive world. So he becomes the rebellious, sword-fighting hero of this crazy world.

Jay Kalam and his cohorts (Legion Of Space Series by Jack Williamson):

Kalam is commander of the Legion, and just in case you miss the Three Musketeers-i-ness of his group of stalwart fighters against the renegade Purple and the evil Medusae, one of his friends is named Samdu (an anagram of "Dumas.")

Owen Deathstalker (Deathstalker by Simon Green):

Heir to a warrior name, Owen Deathstalker lives a quiet life as a historian, until the Empress names him an outlaw, and he's forced to flee, and help organize the rebellion against the Empress Lionstone.

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff. Thanks to Bill Brickman, Jed Hartman, Chris Hsiang, Andrew Liptak, Dennis Woo, Wayne Nix, Angela Cooper, Zack Stentz, Tim Jones, Jonathan Korman, Tom Marcinko, Espana Sheriff, Richard Kadrey, Chris Hall, Allan Ebalo, David J. Schwartz, @RainOnRoof, Jenn Reese, John Klima, another Tim Jones, Cheryl Morgan and anyone else I missed for the suggestions!

Predators Just Want to Have Fun - A Cosplay Gallery [Cosplay]

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:30:00 -0800

You've probably heard about people who dress up like Stormtroopers, but what about Predators? Oh hell yes. As you can see in our gallery, Predators are everywhere: In parking lots, in suburbia, and even among the Sith!

What I love about these pictures, taken from premiere Predator community site Hunter's Lair, is how incredibly beautiful and detailed the outfits are - and how much goofy fun people are having with them. I picked these images in particular because they all show the Predators in very human situations. It's my crazy dream to one day walk into my local grocery store and just run into a Predator in the aisles - or maybe out in the parking lot, being led around by a hot lady in leather. Hey, it could happen. And I've got the photos to prove it!

via Hunter's Lair Suit Thread

Dagobah X-TREME Ad: Because Cloud City Is For Old People [Dagobah Mofo]

Meredith Woerner — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:12:16 -0800

Tired of the Hoth System and crappy family vacations to Tatooine? Go big, go extreme, go Dagobah — or go home. This travel ad is the funniest Star Wars fan-vid we've seen in ages.

Is Writing Comics the Latest Celebrity Trend? [Celebrity Comics]

Lauren Davis — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

What do Tyrese Gibson, Brea Grant, and Rashida Jones all have in common? They're all writing comic books; and they're not the only celebrities to do so. Why are so many performers now trying their hands at comics?

Celebrities writing comics isn't exactly new. Kevin Smith took over writing duties on Daredevil in 1999, and he's been knee-deep in the comics world ever since. Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance has had great success with his series The Umbrella Academy. Rosario Dawson co-created the miniseries O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce, and Milo Ventimiglia has produced the series Rest and Berserker. But we're seeing an increasing trend toward celebrities lending their words and their names to original comics creations.

One celebrity book just out this summer is Tyrese Gibson's Mayhem, and it exemplifies one of the darker aspects of this trend. Mayhem is a bit of a generic comic, following a masked hero who battles the gangs and drug dealers of Los Angeles, but that hasn't stopped Gibson from aggressively hawking his book across the Internet and at this past summer's Comic Con. Gibson, who is credited as one of three writers on Mayhem, tends to sell the book on the strength his recommendation as a famous person rather than its plot. And his marketing tactics — which has included calling people who criticizing his book "haters" — has induced more than a little eye-rolling and prompted Gibson's own marketing director to quit (David Brothers has a great rundown of Mayhem's marketing missteps at 4thletter!).

But Mayhem is about to get a lot of competition in the celebrity comic books field. Oni Press is set to publish Frenemy of the State, co-written by actress Rashida Jones. Jones' book is about a socialite who gets into trouble with the law and agrees to work as a spy in order to stay out of prison. And in early 2010, we will see We Will Bury You, a tale of zombies in the roaring '20s written by Heroes' speedster Brea Grant and her brother Zane.

So are all these celebrity comics just a bid for movie deals? There's certainly that component to it. Dawson already has plans to make (and star in) an adaptation of Occult Crimes Taskforce, though she's still looking for a studio. Gibson has said in interviews that he has no current plans to make a Mayhem movie, but he's made no secret of his desire to take on a superhero role. And Universal Pictures has already acquired the rights to Frenemy of the State; Jones is co-writing the screenplay, but says she's too old to play the lead.

But hopefully there's some love of comics and storytelling at play as well. When Grant was first cast in Heroes, she said she was a big fan of comics, and credited her brother with getting her hooked on The Invisibles. And Emma Caulfield of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame has a passion project that seems unlikely to see the big screen. She's writing Contropussy, a webcomic about a streetwise cat and her often ill-fated animal acquaintances (the most recent plotline featured a Kill Bill-inspired sequence with a sword-wielding bunny rabbit), which she also plans to turn into an animated online series.

Perhaps "I'm going to write a comic" will eventually become the new "I want to direct" in Hollywood, with actors exploiting comics' built-in storyboards to pitch their own projects and build their own roles. But in some cases, celebrities may be recognizing comics as an accessible way to make the transition from performer to creator. Of course, all this may simply be symptomatic of the increasingly blurry lines between various media. After all, while many comic book creators hope to have their books adapted for television or film, publishers can also tap celebrities to adapt their existing projects as comics. Dark Horse has already recognized that potential; the publisher has geek queen Felicia Day adapting her online series The Guild in dead tree format.

The 30 Most Disturbing Twilight Products [New Moon]

Julia Carusillo — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:20:00 -0800

No vampire could be as terrifying as the worst merchandise tying in with the Twilight phenomenon. To help you collect holiday gag gifts that will horrify your friends, we've gathered the craziest and most ridiculous Twi-crap in existence.

Additional writing and reporting by Caitlin Petrakovitz.

Edward Reminds You To "Be Safe" In Bed

Get a shadowy Edward Silhouette wall decal to stand guard over your bed and remind you all that you shouldn't have sex until you're married and it kills you — or ride dirt bikes. It's $60, but think of it this way: it's an investment in your sex life. Contraceptives are expensive, but this wall decal will keep everyone out of your bedroom for years.

Share The Dream Together Sheets

Surround yourself with vampire love, hearts, and shame. Available at ebay.

Go Green With Twilight

Now you can be sparkly and Green. Team Jacob And Team Edward water bottles, sold at a fast food joint. Hypocrisy, thy name is Edward!

Smell Like Your Favorite New Moon Character

Vampire and Werewolf body lotions, soaps and oils. Poor Alice: her trademark scent is described as "spirited" while Edward is "intoxicating" and Bella is "irresistible." Anyone else wishing Jacob's smelled like wet dog?

Twilight Bed Crown

Live in your own moody death shroud, for a mere $14.00.

Twilight Checkbook Cover

This might be a really clever joke, since Twilight is one of the biggest cash cows in history — but we have a feeling there's no sardonic wit involved in this Twilight checkbook cover.

Bella's Womb

Well, it was bound to happen, someone was bound to make a felt version of Bella Swan's womb... wait WHAT. HER WOMB? SOMEONE FELTED HER WOMB? WITH THE MUTATED BLOOD-CRAVING ADULT BABY RENESMEE INSIDE? TELL US WHY. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS??

Twilight Mosaic Table

Maybe Joseph Fiennes would want to decorate his back patio with this. Ha ha ha ha ha it's a FlashForward joke. But seriously, he probably would want this exquisitely crafted piece of furniture.

My Mommy's a "Bella" Onesie

If your mommy really is a "Bella", that means you are a demon spawn whose father had to rip through your mommy's stomach with his vampire teeth to release you from her womb. You also will grow abnormally fast, be a child forever, and have a totally consensual love affair with a werewolf 17 years your senior. So that's good.

Twilight Converse

Better not scuff these up, y'all. There is no greater art form than puffy paint-decorated Chucks.

Bella's St. Jude Bracelet

Bella's St. Jude bracelet from Hot Topic keeps the apocryphal apostle close to your heart, but we have no idea why - THIS IS NOT IN THE BOOK; THIS IS NOT CANON, PEOPLE.

Cross Stitch Abs

Who doesn't want to spend hours cross stitching abs on your sweat shit? Well now you can.

Bella's Wedding Ring

Yes you guys. You too can rush into a teen marriage prematurely, so that you can have sex without remorse. And have a demon grow in your uterus. And name her Renesmee. All because of this heavenly bauble.

Twilight Pillow
Apparently MS Paint is still the preferred mode of digital creativity in the wonderful world of Stephenie Meyer, so here is an artfully designed pillow featuring a lamb jumping off a cliff. IT'S A METAPHOR. For... Twilight girls with suicidal urges after their boyfriends break up with them. It's beautiful.

Golden Contacts

Fangs are so passé, everyone knows that eye color are the real indicator of a propensity for blood sucking and sex-abstaining.

Twi Shower

Nothing says "early morning heart attack" quite like a greeting from a giant, pissed off, floating vampire head in your bathroom. It's the Twilight shower curtain, and it's only $60.

Wolf Pack Packaging Tape

Now you can give your gifts a Wolf Pack tattoo when you wrap and send them! Not to mention the hours of entertainment you'll get out of "giving" some poor unsuspecting boy a tape tattoo ("I promise it won't hurt to take off!") . Available at the Twilight center for entertainment joy, Hot Topic.

Salt & Vampire Pringles

Now you don't need to continue stalking R-Patz to find out that vampires apparently taste exactly like vinegar and are in fact used as a substitute for it. Just try these limited edition Pringles!

Hey, if vamps can eat us, why not the other way around?

Cullen Crest bra

The jury's still out on whether or not this one is real, but if so, you had better be a well endowed girl who doesn't mind showing off that space where cleavage usually goes. If you're good with that, then show off this crest of a family you'll never belong to! Because they're fake! And not real! HEAR ME? IT'S A MOVIE, PEOPLE.

TwiCrotch: Edward Panties

I'm sure the vamp facing panties we introduced you to a few weeks ago are already high on your wish list, but we definitely wanted to remind you of the awesomeness of them. I mean, who doesn't need panties where the crotch faces INSIDE. Yeah, mull that one over, fans.

Some of the most sensational, embarrassing and frankly gross Twilight saying tees, buttons and bags.

Love at First Bite Cookbook

In Twilight, Esme and company invite Bella over for some Italiano, so now you too can extend a lil vampire hospitality to your favorite friends who will gaze at you in silence, shaking their heads with sadness that you trust Stephenie Meyer with your discerning palate, as you try to whip up some favorites from Love at First Bite including Bella's Lasagna, Harry's Famous Fish Fry, and of course mushroom ravioli as the main course. See Twilight lunchbox for further instructions.

Twilight board game
The Twiboard game (So I have a thing for prefacing random words with Twi. Sue me.) was first glimpsed with the release of the New Moon logo, and for that reson, I fear it my have been swept under the table. Not to worry, I'm here to remind you of all its cute family-crest play pieces, and the wonderfully poorly done Monopoly rip-off. Rush your order now, for hours of love and blood-sucking enjoyment. I mean, I'm just guessing.

Bella's Birthday Dress
For maximum effect, make sure your hair isn't done and you wear black cons - this is like the American Girl Doll dress up gone horribly wrong. Especially since this is the dress Bella gets smacked around in, for her protection. Available at Hot Topic not that we tried it on or anything, shut up!

Twilight Barbie replicas
Added to the category of slightly creepy yet totally keeping in tune with the rest of the great merch, Mattel commissioned replicas of Bella and Edward whose plastic skins are whiter than white (though Eddie doesn't seem to sparkle as much as we would have thought). They're not available yet, but come November 25, snatch one up for the Twilhards in your life, so they can creepily act out the books on their own!

The Vamp: The Sparkly Dildo
If nothing else on this slightly disturbing list can help you get as close to Edward as you'd like, please consider Tantus's sparkly The Vamp dildo in its cool pink color. Back when we showed you it was available, don't forget to throw it in the fridge before using it though, so you're sure to get that cold, lifeless feeling a real vamp's sparkly cock would be sure to have.

Eddie's Volvo

Are you a relatively affluent middle aged man or woman who loves both Twilight and midrange luxury vehicles? Then you should enter this contest. We don't think you will have that much competition.

Twi-Socks

So your ankles can be "beautiful."

Bumper Stickers

Two things about these bumper stickers and window decals. First, the Cullens are terrible drivers. And second, remember when moms used to be proud of their kids with those horrible "I have an honor students at such and such High School"? We miss those stickers.

Dell Twilight Skins

Yup, in additon to swathing your monetary woes (presumably from spending so much on Twilight junk) in your Twilove, you may now keep your poor Dell warm with Twilight skins!

Don't forget to rip that giant sticker off carefully when you grow up though.

Who Dares To Edit The Wolfman? [Wolfman]

Mary Ratliff — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:03:27 -0800

Universal Pictures' new version of The Wolfman has faced numerous setbacks, personnel changes and reshoots. But the latest, and possibly the most interesting, is the new editors brought into recut the film drastically.

The change to Wolfman's editors was buried in an article from Variety that wasn't even about the film.

It seems that editors Mark Goldblatt and Walter Murch have been brought on to "recut" the film, but there are no specifics on what this entails. Recutting could mean anything from working through a previous cut to smooth it out and improve it, to starting entirely from scratch.

Goldblatt and Murch are two pretty heavy-hitting names in editing. Meanwhile, Dennis Virkler, the editor they replaced, has had his name attached to quite a few maligned films like The Fog remake, Batman and Robin, and Daredevil. But he did cut The Fugitive as well.

Goldblatt is best known for his action films, working with both James Cameron and Michael Bay on their best known films. But he also was at least partially responsible for Showgirls and The Super Mario Brothers movie.

Murch, however, is the real heavy hitter of the duo. Cinema Blend calls him "the man who literally wrote the book on editing." And it's true: his book, In The Blink of An Eye: A Perspective On Film Editing is used in film schools. He's done a wide variety of projects, including Ghost, Cold Mountain, and The English Patient. The fact that he cut Cold Mountain on Final Cut Pro was one of the first milestones towards that program becoming one of the industry standards, edging out the monopoly that Avid had on non-linear editing in Hollywood. There's even a book about how revolutionary a move it was at the time.

I'm currently enrolled in an advanced editing class in grad school, and I don't think a lecture goes by where my professor doesn't quote Murch. I bought his book years ago, not long before I first started on my MFA, just because it looked interesting. It gave me a whole new understanding and appreciating for the art of editing, and it made my own skills that much sharper.

Some people might be thinking that bringing on a new editor to a film is the equivalent of hiring a new guy to paint two walls in your living room after the first guy leaves — as long as he uses the same colors, what's the difference? But as we're being taught in class, the editor is the final author of the film. He gets the last rewrite, at least before the producers start sending it around to test screenings, and asking for changes here and there. For the most part, the editor is the person who can decide that a scene doesn't advance the plot, deleting what could have been two days' worth of work by the director and crew, and who knows how many hours by the writer, just because in the end it doesn't fit.

If you look at this as another rewrite of the film at the eleventh hour, that does seem to bode ill. But putting that rewrite in such skilled hands may turn out to be a life-saving change. Here's hoping, anyway.

Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers [Mad Science]

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:42:45 -0800

Why do injuries continue to hurt, even when they are healing? New research reveals why we feel certain kinds of post-injury pain - and possibly how to stop it.

A group of researchers in San Francisco published a paper in this week's Nature that explores one of the many mysteries about pain: Why do light touches near a recent injury feel so painful? The answer is more complicated than you might think. These post-trauma pains, called "mechanical pain," may be caused by a different mechanism than pain associated with injury itself. The researchers discovered that mechanical pain sensations are delivered from the injury site to the spinal cord via a chemical process that can easily be interrupted - just by blocking production of a protein called VGLUT3.

They based their analysis on experiments that proved mice lacking VGLUT3 experienced far less mechanical pain than their VGLUT3-producing cohort.

What this finding suggests is that we might be on the verge of discovering a new breed of painkillers that don't depress the entire nervous system (and fuzz out your brain), but instead interrupt specific pain pathways. In essence, you'd have a highly-targeted painkiller that would prevent your injuries from hurting while they heal. You could dull that pain without dulling your mind - and hopefully without addiction.

The researchers have yet to test on humans, but they do suggest that this could be a promising area of research for pain management.

via Nature

Image of VGLUT3 in inner ear cells (it's in red) via Human Molecular Genetics

Zombies Invade Turkey! [International Zombie]

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:48:04 -0800

This is what I'm talking about: The zombie craze is going global, and we're getting some awesome undeath from places other than Euro-America and Asia. I can't wait for ADA: Zombilerin Düğünü (Translation: Island: Wedding of the Zombies).

Sadly I don't know a lick of Turkish, so I can only extrapolate based on this trailer that we're getting your classic "zombies invade a wedding" scenario. Which is to say, it's a brand-new scenario I've never seen before. Only a gang of truly hardcore people, some of whom will be wearing blood-stained wifebeaters and earrings, can defeat the menace. Maybe there is some kind of toxic waste involved. Or possibly it's a metaphor for joining the EU? I can only hope.

Check out the movie website, via Arabolge.

UPDATE: Thanks to a helpful translator, I have a bit more information. The movie was directed by film critics Talip Ertürk and Murat Emir Eren. They claim this is the very first Turkish zombie movie. Apparently, they found their zombies via an announcement that they posted to Facebook .

ADA: Zombilerin Düğünü

Strange Visitors And Broken Hearts Will Restore Your Faith In Short Fiction [Book Review]

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

If you believe in reading short fiction for pleasure, you're condemned to frequent disappointment. Most short fiction, even the good stuff, is... laborious. So when reading the anthology Eclipse Three, you may be startled at the unexpected sensation of enjoyment.

Oh, and here's a spoiler warning, although I'll try not to spoil anything too much.

Eclipse Three should be required reading among anyone who wants to write short stories — or, for that matter, among anybody who still clings to the hope that short fiction can be enriching. The storytelling in this volume is, for the most part, both polished and bumpy — that is, it gives you the assurance from the first sentence that you're in the hands of a storyteller who knows what s/he is doing, but it also contains lots of irregularities and odd surprises. These are almost all stories by people who know how to set up, and subvert, expectations without seeming manipulative or crass.

I had high hopes for Eclipse Three already — the first two volumes from editor Jonathan Strahan were superb (you can read my review of volume two here.) And the list of contributors for the third volume is pretty awe-inspiring, including Karen Joy Fowler, Peter S. Beagle, Maureen McHugh, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Jeffrey Ford, Nicola Griffith and Paul Di Filippo. (Not to mention a lovely, previously unpublished cover by the late Richard Powers.)

But it's actually better than I'd hoped. Pretty much all I need to say about the quality of the stories in this volume is that the Peter S. Beagle entry does not stand out. By which I mean, it's as rich and clever and epic-feeling as any Peter Beagle short story — but you don't feel as though you've stumbled on the one standout story in the book. A number of the other stories in the book are just as instantly engrossing, and have that "personal but also huge and world-encompassing" feeling that Beagle does so well.

A lot of the best stories in this volume follow a main character who encounters a stranger who opens up a bizarre world. In Beagle's story, it's a magician who meets a woman whose husband and little girl have died, and shows her how to play a trick on death. In Molly Gloss' "The Visited Man," it's a weird (and not very good) painter who befriends a man whose wife and son have also died, forcing the widower to adopt more and more animals and go in search of night ghosts. In Nnedi Okorafor's "On The Road," it's a little boy who shows up at a woman's door in Nigeria, carrying with him some kind of terrible hunger that hollows you out from the inside.

There are also a lot of stories about people's relationships with odd communities, including Fowler's opening piece, where a rebellious teenage girl gets sent to a nightmarish kind of "boot camp" where her spirit is broken (and the camp turns out to have a weird secret). Or Di Filippo's "Yes, We Have No Bananas," in which a guy gets evicted and goes to live on a houseboat in a world that we (and he) gradually realize is an alternate universe. In Pat Cadigan's "Don't Mention Madagascar," a woman gets caught up in a world of travelers who are being forever being shuttled around impossible destinations — is it the spirit world? Alternate universes? — and they form an odd sort of community.

A lot of the stories have to do with creativity and the life of the artist, including Maureen McHugh's "Useless Things," the story of a sculptor who gets robbed and finds herself hardening against the world, and Elizabeth Bear's mermaid-meets-guitarist tale. Most of all, many of these stories deal with loneliness and loss, and the strange discoveries that come to people who've given up on finding themselves in this world.

The best story in the book, though, is Nicola Griffith's "It Takes Two," the jaw-dropping story of freakish biochemistry experiments, venture capital, and a lesbian lapdance that goes much further than anyone expects. It's reminiscent of the thrilling leap-in-the-dark feeling of her novel Slow River, but feels even more intense and weird, maybe because nothing could be weirder than a strip club in Marietta, Georgia.

Though a few stories in the book didn't thrill me quite as much as the rest, and purists may protest that a few of these stories are more literary than speculative, Eclipse Three is almost entirely a great prize. I didn't realize how much my faith in the short stories had dwindled, after reading dozens of unsustaining tales, until I read these stories. It made me want to go back to writing short fiction myself, something I've been neglecting, in the vain hope that I can write something half as engrossing as the tales in this collection. [Borders]

Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines [Mad Science]

Tim Barribeau — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:59:55 -0800

Tailor-made microbes could save thousands of lives a year in poor nations, but not in the way you would think. A new breed of bioengineered bacteria can spot buried explosives.

A group of students at the University of Edinburgh have engineered a bacteria that glows bright green when it comes in contact with the chemicals that leech into the soil from buried explosives. The bacteria could be mixed into a colorless solution, and sprayed over the minefield from the air, showing bright green after a few hours. This would be a great improvement over the current slow, and decidedly dangerous methods of finding mines in existing mine fields. The students who created the bacteria say it is cheap to produce, and harmless to humans and animals, though they didn't mention its effects on local plant life.

The developers explain:

We suggest that the bacteria are dropped from a low flying aircraft which will evenly disperse the bacteria across the expected landmine field. This will allow the ground to be covered in the bacteria which will then respond to any TNT or Nitrites that it discovers in the soil. After darkness, which will give the bacteria enough time to produce the proteins which emit light and EYFP, a plane could then fly over the area once again and mark down the location of any luminescence found in the soil, for further investigation. This will provide a much safer method than having a person in the field detecting the landmines.

The bacteria will be engineered with a "kill switch" will turn off their luminescence after a few hours.

While the developers of the mine sensing bacteria have no plans to commercialize their discovery, they noted that the substance would cost approximately £0.013 per square meter where it is sprayed. So this is could be a fairly low-cost solution too, depending on the size of affected areas.

The bacteria were created for the iGem contest using a technique known as BioBricking. BioBricks are chunks of DNA sequence, each of which has a known function, and can be combined with others. It's like nanoscale biological lego: each piece has a specific function, and when combined with other pieces, the larger unit retains connectivity, so it can then be fitted onto other BioBricks. It's a technique that was developed by MIT in 2003, as a way of providing a library of biological parts, with the long-term goal of producing a synthetic living organism from standard parts.

via University of Edinburgh and iGem

Image of glowing bacteria via Maker Faire.