io9 interview with Samuel Delany

io9 - Samuel Delany Answers Your Science Fiction Questions! - Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany has been away from science fiction for over twenty years — and now he's coming back to it, sort of. His new novel Through The Valley Of The Nest Of Spiders is an introspective future history.

When we talked to Samuel R. Delany for our mega-feature about writers we wished would return to science fiction last week, he was gracious enough to stay on the phone and answer some more questions. And since we promised almost a year ago to ask him some of your questions — back when we had a failed game of phone tag with him — we decided to ask as many as we could. Along the way, he told us a lot more about his new novel.

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A no side-effects anti-anxiety drug?

io9 - An Anti-Anxiety Drug That Could Create Super-Soldiers - biology

Soon you may be able to buy a drug that can make you calm by mimicking the body's natural self-soothing process. But you wouldn't feel drugged. What would happen to people who suddenly became fearless without side-effects?

A group of European researchers discovered a ligand, or a chemical that binds with molecules, can soothe even the most anxious of creatures. As they write in an article published today in Science, they induced anxiety attacks in mice and men, administered the ligand XBD173, and found that their fear subsided immediately. The best part is that this treatment isn't addictive, doesn't take weeks to be effective, and doesn't make you feel dopey or drowsy.

A Cashless Japan?

io9 - Japan Could Avoid Deflation By Resorting To "Economic Science Fiction" - mad economics

New Asian Vampire Movies - Thirst and Blood

io9 - Two Asian Vampires Mix School-Girl Uniforms And Troubled Priests - thirst

Stephen Harper: The Completion of Police State

LeDaro: Stephen Harper: The completion of police state



READ THIS!

Authors' (including Ursula LeGuin and Michael Moorcock) top 5 fantasy/real cities

SharedWorlds

Excerpt (Michael Moorcock):
"Old maps of Europe always showed Jerusalem as the centre of the world and symbolically, of course, this is understandable; but for me Marrakesh is the centre, where so many of the old trade routes met and where, still, Mercedes limousines, camels, donkeys and overloaded Peugeot trucks struggle to enter the narrow gates of a walled city which, rather more often than Casablanca, was where world leaders came to argue over the fates of millions. Marrakesh was where the balance of power between France and Morocco was held. It's where the Taureq, swathed in indigo and riding white camels, come in their haughty magnificence to trade with the Rif and the Bedouin, where privileged tourists lounge beside the pool at the Mamounia hotel, hardly aware of the long and bloody history which everywhere surrounds them."

English Cave Dweller off to EU court to save his cave

Eco-warrior evicted from cave dwelling without fire exit - Telegraph

I hope they speak Norwegian in Hell

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Ignatief backs down, NDP begin dialogue with Canadians about the isotope shortage

Accidental Deliberations: "Ignatieff backs down on..."
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So in Ignatieff's view, his job is to be seen complaining without actually caring whether anything gets done as a result. Which explains a lot about the Libs' strategy since he took over.

Meanwhile, at least one opposition party sees itself having a role in trying to bring about change by pointing out the need for action:
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Huge pre-Stonehenge complex found in England

Photo: Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles"

Conservatives continue to talk big with still no regard for our health

Public Values - Number of new food inspectors: 57. Number assigned to meat plant inspection: 0.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has hired 57 new inspectors but none are dedicated to front-line meat inspection despite 22 deaths resulting from Canada's listeriosis crisis and promises made by federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.
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Flaherty, with his $50 Billion Deficit, feels he now has an excuse to cut our services

Why Flaherty Loves His $50 Billion Deficit :: Views :: thetyee.ca
That was the plan all along.

Lost Aztec tomb under Mexico City

TheStar.com | World | Lost Aztec tomb lies under Mexico City

Raitt cares more about her career and pleasing Harper than the issues that Canadians pay her to look after

Bouquets of Gray: Tapes show that Raitt cares most about pleasing Harper
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What I find most surprising about the recording of Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt is not what she says, but what she doesn’t say. …

At no point does she show any concern for the issues that Canadians pay her to look after.

When she discusses wind power and the medical isotope crisis, she only expresses concern for them in relation to her career hopes.
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The reactors can be made to work. Harper is lying to you (again)

Impolitical: What if we had a solution to the isotope crisis...and our government ignored it

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The Conservatives are precipitously walking us away from an area of scientific research that Canada has led in. An area of research that is likely to be more important going forward. They have no vision. They don't believe in government fostering such projects despite what the Professor Ryans of the world say. It's too hard to manage, being a complex governmental task. And running it doesn't jibe with their ideology which pushes them to privatize wherever and whenever possible. Sell it off to the French or the Americans. A crisis is a perfect opportunity. Meanwhile, the respected scientists and experts are telling us to wake up to what will be gone after decades of monetary and intellectual commitment. Canada is changing radically under these Conservatives and the nuclear issue at Chalk River is a symptom of that.

And secondly, and perhaps most importantly at the moment, they're not being up front with us on the fact that these MAPLE reactors could be working. At this time of isotope shortage, that's something Canadians need to know.

Bullshit Predictions, including the end of the world in 2012

The 6 Best 2012 Apocalypse Theories (Are All Bullshit) | Cracked.com

Badger Badger Badger.... no, wait. Shatner Shatner Shatner ...

b3ta.com board

Okay, now this needs music and to be turned into a flash video. Someone get to it!

Goths in Hot Weather blog

Goths In Hot Weather ©
Very goth
Very black
Very sweaty.

Globe and Mail spin - everything is pro-Conservative

Rusty Idols: The Globe and Mail's Cognitive Dissonance

After suggesting on Tuesday that the surge of the far right and nativist vote in the recent EU election was actually a vote of confidence in capitalism, today our paper of record suggests that the landslide NDP win in Nova Scotia is actually a sign of how conservative Nova Scotians are.
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New cloud type?

TheStar.com | World | Iowa woman's photo sparks push for new cloud type

THE question to ask on the medical isotopes issue

A BCer in Toronto: A question I'd ask in QP today

... if it is just about money, why is this government turning tail and running on the isotope file?

Creepy Places

The World's 5 Creepiest Places | Interesting Pictures

Feed your Brain

Speeding up brain networks might boost IQ - life - 09 June 2009 - New Scientist
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Intriguingly, the researchers found no link between the total number of connections in a subject's brain network and their IQ. "We show that more intelligent people don't have more connections, but they have more efficiently placed connections," he says.
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6 Retarded Publicity Stunts (That Fooled Everyone)

6 Retarded Publicity Stunts (That Fooled Everyone)

Steampunk USB Key

Steampunk USB Key is Full of Win and 100 Year Old Parts | Maximum PC

Canadian leadership lacking in Canada on the Isotope issue.

Impolitical: Experts skewer the Harper team on the isotope file

"The government does not seem to be able to recognize this catastrophe," Francois Lamoureux, president of the Quebec Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialists, told MPs on a Commons committee studying the four-week-old medical isotope shortage. "First of all, they denied there was a crisis. Now it's described as sexy. How sad. How sad to be a Canadian."

Drag Me To Hell movie review

6 Reasons More Horror Movies Should Be Like ‘Drag Me To Hell’ | Film Roster

Can't wait to see it!

Modernized version of Alice In Wonderland miniseries coming to TV

io9 - Many Old Friends Fall Through The Looking Glass In New Alice - Alice In Wonderland

The mini-series is being described as "a modern day take" on the Lewis Carroll original, with Alice (Caterina Scorsone) updated to a twentysomething who ends up going down the wrong rabbit hole at the wrong time. The series will debut in December.

Guillermo del Toro on the Future of Film

QA: Hobbit Director Guillermo del Toro on the Future of Film

Possible upcoming films:
The Hobbit
Hellboy III
Drood
Pinocchio
Slaughterhouse-Five
At the Mountains of Madness
Frankenstein
The Witches
Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Doctor Strange

Air Doll movie trailer

io9 - "Air Doll" Trailer: Sex Toy Comes to Life, Dumps Owner - Air doll

Here's the trailer for Japanese art-film director Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll, a lyrical Pygmalion tale that played Cannes last month