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Sir Terry Pratchett trials revolutionary light helmet that promises to slow Alzheimer’s

January 14, 2009 / TiamatsVision

Terry Pratchett

“Sir Terry Pratchett has been trialling a revolutionary new device that claims to slow, and even reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s. The award-winning author, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2007, is one of the first patients in the UK to try the anti-dementia helmet. The device sends intense bursts of light at a particular wavelength the a patient’s skull.

The helmet’s designer, Dr Gordon Dougal is convinced the device could transform the lives of thousands of people with Alzheimer’s, which currently affects 700,000 people in the UK. The Discworld author, who has donated over £500,000 to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, first contacted Dr Dougal about his invention last year. The County Durham-based GP said: ‘When Sir Terry’s people contacted me I was very happy to help. We made another prototype helmet and he has had that since last August.’

A custom-built helmet was made from a cast of Mr Pratchett’s head. It was then attached to the back of an armchair at the writer’s home in order that he could use it for the recommended six minutes each day. Mr Pratchett’s progress was assessed by a computer, which showed a small, but measurable, improvement in his condition after three months. More importantly, said Dr Dougal, the computer could find no signs of further deterioration during this period.”

(via The Daily Mail)

Terry Pratchett knighted

December 31, 2008 / Klint Finley

The author Terry Pratchett – whose novels have sold millions of copies worldwide – has been made a knight in the New Year Honours list.

The writer, 60, who is best known for his hugely popular Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, received the honour for services to literature.

Sir Terry announced in December 2007 that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

He has since campaigned to raise awareness of the condition.

Full Story: BBC

(Thanks Cap’n Marrrrk!)

Book View Cafe

November 17, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Book View Cafe is a new approach to publishing made possible by the Internet. While most of the fiction on the site is free, authors will also be offering expanded work, additional content, print versions, or subscriptions for a fee. Our authors are all professionals with publishing credits in the print world. The Internet is giving us an opportunity to make their out-of-print, experimental, or otherwise unavailable work to you. We love feedback on how we are doing.

Every day, new content available nowhere else will be served up on Book View Cafe: short stories, flash fiction, poetry, episodes of serialized novels, and maybe even a podcast now and then. The content will be archived and available after the posting date by visiting the author’s bookshelf.

Author’s bookshelves are accessed by using the pulldown menu at the top of the first page of the site. Current authors are:

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Brenda Clough
Katie Daniel
Laura Anne Gilman
Christie Golden
Anne Harris
Sylvia Kelso
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
Sue Lange
Ursula K. Le Guin
Rebecca Lickiss
Vonda N. McIntyre
Nancy Jane Moore
Pati Nagle
Darcy Pattison
Irene Radford
Madeleine Robins
Amy Sterling
Jennifer Stevenson
Susan Wright
Sarah Zettel

Our blog is updated daily with posts from the member authors. Subject matter is up to the authors. There are no rules, guidelines, or speed limits.

Some of our authors will be providing additional work for sale. When this premium content becomes available, you can be sure we will be making announcements. E-mail us if you’d like to be included on our mailing list and receive all the Book View Cafe news you can use. Although there is material for sale the site, Book View Cafe itself is not a profit-making organization. This is a cooperative effort between the authors. Book View Cafe welcomes donations to help pay for the site, site management, and upgrade efforts. We also welcome comments on what you’d like to see here or what we could do to improve your viewing pleasure: bookviewcafe@gmail.com”

(Book View Cafe)

Science Fiction Special: The Future of a Genre

November 16, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Science fiction is all about the future, but what does the future hold for science fiction?

These days, science can be stranger than science fiction, and mainstream literature is increasingly futuristic and speculative. So are the genre’s days numbered? We asked six leading writers for their thoughts on the future of science fiction, including Margaret Atwood, William Gibson and Kim Stanley Robinson.

Plus, we review the latest sci-fi novels, highlight the writers to watch and reveal the results our poll of your all-time favourite sci-fi films and books.”

(via New Scientist. h/t: Futurismic)

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown Documentary – Director Frank Woodward Interview

November 14, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“The special Halloween double issue of Rue Morgue magazine included a number of interesting features, as usual, but one which caught my eye was a description of a new documentary on titled Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (Wyrdstuff Productions, 2008). This fim was directed and produced by Frank Woodward, and after getting in touch he graciously and enthusiastically talked about this production.

TheoFantastique: Frank, thanks for making this great documentary, and for allowing me to screen it for this interview. How did you come to develop a personal fascination with Lovecraft and how did it lead to this documentary coming about?

Frank Woodward: I first became aware of Lovecraft like most people, I expect. It was the Call of Cthulhu role playing game, mainly the monsters within. I’ve always been a monster fan and who could resist the tentacled beasties in CoC. That led to my reading some of the major stories… Call of Cthulhu, Pickman’s Model, Rats In The Walls. I have to admit, though, that my Lovecraftian knowledge was basic.

The desire to make a documentary was a more recent one. I occasionally produce DVD extras for Anchor Bay. There was discussion of doing a short bio of Lovecraft for the Re-Animator special edition. It didn’t happen for various reasons. By the time that decision was made, however, I had done quite a bit of research on the man. In some way I experienced what many of the people who’ve seen the documentary experienced. I was reminded how much I enjoyed Lovecraft’s work and wanted to throw myself headlong into learning more. Making this documentary was almost like a college course. I think that’s how all documentaries should be made. They should be a journey of discovery. The desire to learn all you can is why you bother making the film in the first place.”

(via TheoFantastique)

Jim Dodge interview in Arthur Magazine

November 10, 2008 / Klint Finley

While I still consider myself an anarchist, over the years I’ve somewhat narrowed (or perhaps broadened) it to Reborn-Yet-Again,Taoist Dirt-Pagan, bioregionalista anarchy. I think I’ve also come to understand that freedom resides in being equal to your needs, self-determinism requires self-reliance, and that the “self” is the worst idea of Western Civilization (or at least doesn’t excite my imagination as much as the pantheist notion of an extended, constellated identity, as suggested by genetics, ecology, and a kiss. (Besides, for a pantheist, the Messiah comes every day.)) Clever critters that we humans are, we’ve invented weapons of mass destruction to protect ourselves against mass destruction, and I don’t want anyone to have the power to unleash such powers; thus, I favor radical decentralization of power, with bioregions replacing nation-states. I’m the first and loudest to praise the vision expressed in our constitution, but I think America has become too large and complex to be governed by less than a thousand people, with one of them-the president-having inordinate power. I’d rather see the United States evolve into the United Bioregions, but united only on the basis of mutual aid and dispute resolution. I have this recurring fantasy that America realizes it’s the dominant power on earth and does something that would take boldness, imagination, and soul-announce it is unilaterally disarming its weapons of mass destruction, even its weapons of medium destruction, and limiting weapons to those for personal defense (handguns, long guns, and bazookas-just because I always wanted one).

Full Story: Arthur

Michael Crichton’s Legacy

November 9, 2008 / TiamatsVision

I’m a little late with this one. R.I.P. Michael Crichton.

“Science Not Fiction was saddened to learn of the death of Michael Crichton yesterday. His 1969 novel, The Andromeda Strain, alone would have been enough to make him a science fiction legend, but he turned out string of taut technothrillers, even equalling The Andromeda Strain‘s iconic status with 1990’s Jurassic Park.

His greatest strength was in his ability to imbue his novels with a sense of authenticity; The Andromeda Strain was littered with realistic screenshots and computer printouts and came with a detailed (and entirely fictional) bibliography. Jurassic Park has become the cultural point of reference for discussions about biotechnology, cloning and genetic engineering. If Crichton had a weakness, it was his fondness for the theme which repeats over and over in his novels: technological hubris. Some advanced technology is confidently promoted by scientists as progress toward a better world. Unexpected side effects or interactions that the scientists overlooked in their dash to the future manifest themselves, and things get pretty messy from that point on (and to be fair, usually a really fun read.) But each time, it is implied that anyone who is not an overreaching scientist or an idiot would have known to leave well enough alone.”

(via Discover Magazine. h/t: The Daily Grail)

Furtive Labors apocalypse fiction contest

October 30, 2008 / Klint Finley

Do you have a gruesomely macabre vision of total annihilation? Do you lose sleep over the ominous intricacies of plausible eschatologies intimated in the sub-text of evening network newscasts? Do you spend an inordinate amount of leisure time watching RoboCop on VHS cassette? Then consider entering the Apocalypse Fiction Contest sponsored by Furtive Labors Publishing.
Contest rules

(1) Submissions must be original, previously unpublished works of fiction of less than 500 words. Entries must be science fiction, fantasy or horror and incorporate the theme of apocalypse in some way.

(2) Submissions must be received by Nov. 30, 2008. E-mail submissions to editor@furtivelabors.com.

(3) Submissions will be judged by Furtive Labors editors. Winning stories will be published on our website. The author of the first-place story will receive $20 and a gift bag of Furtive Labors literature.

(4) Winners will be notified by Dec. 10, 2008.

WARNING: Writing about apocalypse may cause confusion, anxiety, paranoia, sensory distortions, “flashbacks” and chronic recurring auditory and visual hallucinations. The writer may feel detached from his physical environment and at times stare blankly, paralyzed to the point of being unable to move or speak. A writer’s sense of identity, memory and environment may fall apart. Convulsions can occur, followed by loss of consciousness and a “flat-lined” or near-death experience. A small number of writers have reported dreams involving sexual experiences with the devil, as well as physical symptoms such as head sores, pallor, lethargy, toothache, mouth cankers, bad breath, swollen breasts, short-windedness, flatulence, jaundice, dropsy, gout, bladder infections, kidney stones and infestation with lice or fleas. A cascade of piping hot jissom is a common side effect. This contest is intended for adults with healthy immune systems. To avoid a potentially serious complication, tell your doctor if your immune system isn’t normal because of jock itch, yeast infection, gonorrhea, chlamydia, genital warts, syphilis, herpes or a My Little Pony doll permanently lodged in your rectum.

Furtive Labors

Liquid Comics Banks on Indian Epic With Ramayan 3392 AD Film

October 16, 2008 / TiamatsVision

Ram_on_shoulder_hanurm_image2

“With Hollywood hitting up comic books for blockbusters, a new comics publisher is looking to India for ideas. “The world is increasingly realizing that India is a source for creativity and great ideas, not just a back office to execute them more cheaply,” said Gotham Chopra, part of the management team at Los Angeles-based Liquid Comics.

One of the first projects for the publisher will be bringing its Ramayan 3392 AD (pictured) – a colorful, 21st-century re-imagining of Indian literary epic the Ramayana – to movie theaters. Liquid has teamed up with Mandalay Pictures and 300 producer Mark Canton for the film, which has a planned release date of 2011. Liquid sprang from the ashes of Virgin Comics, a shuttered enterprise from Richard Branson and the Chopra family that was meant to hammer the dense narratives of India and Asia into graphic novels for the American mainstream and beyond. Chopak and other members of the Liquid management team undertook the buyout of Virgin Comics to continue the quest at the new company.

Chopra talked with Wired.com about Liquid’s birth, a new wave of Indian comics artists and the challenge of bringing an ancient Sanskrit epic to the silver screen.”

(via Wired)

For Rock-Climbing Guru, the Sky Is His Roof

October 8, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“He was known as the king of the Yosemite lifers, that proud band of rock climbers, tightrope walkers and seekers who made camp on the margins of the law, sleeping under the black oaks and sequoias and California stars. On his shoulders he carried an 80-pound constellation of canvas stowage, books and sweatpants, bottled water and mushy food, a sleeping bag and a reserve sleeping bag meant for some encountered companion of the road. To the government, he was Charles Victor Tucker III, scourge of Yosemite National Park, fixture of the lodge cafeteria. To acquaintances, he was Chuck, harmless and stoned jester of the mountains. And to climbers the world over he remains Chongo, the Monkey Man, named for the sticky soles he had once fashioned from Mexican rubber. ‘I learned a lot from Chongo,’ said Ivo Ninov, 32, an accomplished guide from Bulgaria, ‘because he was the father of big wall climbing.’

But the fullness of Chongo’s legacy would appear only through his disappearance from rock climbing, a passage from sylvan to urban wilds that has made him a stranger to his sport and an outcast from his home, now reduced to sleeping under a tractor-trailer. Along the way, he would find a new kind of homelessness, and a new sense of mission. Even among outliers, Chongo, 57, had always diverged. In a time of corporate sponsorships, he lived on charity, scavenging and bartering handmade wares. In a time of brand-name gear, he rigged worthy contraptions from found parts. In a time of speed-climbing records, he gained renown for his comically deliberate ascents. Once, he stretched an assault on El Capitan across two weeks, including three days spent pausing to consider some half-forgotten existential puzzle.

Dumb jokes congealed around his legend, for he projected a familiar and comforting sort of weirdness. Around a campfire or a cafeteria table, tourists and weekend warriors could find in Chongo a certain box to cross off, the obligatory aging hippie recounting unintentionally hilarious misadventures, denouncing the prison-industrial complex and rhapsodizing on junk science.”

(via The New York Times)

(Homeless Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics)

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