What I've been posting to my Facebook Groups Page:

 Here's what I've been posting on my Facebook Groups page, which you can find here. Please feel free to join. Great Science Fiction, Pulp and Comics Art (+ Related News +Random Tunes). This is more like a recent sampling. I used to be able to do this with Twitter. But they stopped that feed. But I can freely embed Blogger pages so now I can tell people what I'm thinking in real time and they don't have to gallop to my twitter page.

Read my free short Amazon ebooks, please.

Or the longer title: Read my short free Amazon ebooks called "A Left Argument for Space" and "The Drear and Very Depressing Jackson Todd Continuum", please. But that was a little long. I've started to republish some of my older fiction and nonfiction pieces on Amazon. I hear that's the way to riches and fame so why not give it a try. A long time ago I made an argument in two places, one left and one right, for a Left Argument for Space. Here's the cover featuring a creative commons picture from Peasap, who is a decent professional or gifted amateur photographer. I can't tell.  


Read that link here.

 Here's the first couple of graphs:

"And yet some of us here can accept transforming the entire physical reality of this planet, without doing a single thing to change our selves, or the way we live. To be twenty first century scientists on Mars, in fact, but at the same time living within 19th century social systems, based on seventeenth-century ideologies. It’s absurd. It’s crazy. It’s —it’s.." he seized his head in his hands, tugged at his hair, roared "It’s unscientific! And so I say that among all the many things we transform on Mars, ourselves and our social reality should be among them. We must terraform not only Mars, but ourselves."  --Excerpted from Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars  

There’s a stunning scene in “Oceanic”—one of just many mind-blowing stories by the sensational  Greg Egan—where it’s clear that the man’s sexual organ (euphemistically referred to as the “bridge” in this world) can sort of be traded between partners. This trick is done with the understanding of what a future combination of biotech and nanotech could actually accomplish and gives a new meaning to that King Missile song “Detachable Penis”. Female biotechs create the futuristic and sexually blurred world ofCoventry and they do a number of other interesting things such as setting themselves up as gods and using nanotech to create “miracles”--it would not be unlike a holographic interactive Jesus appearing whenever you spoke His name. I came to the conclusion that whileCoventry made for a sober examination of future tech and the nature of religious belief, it was not a place I’d ever want to visit. Ever. 

 But as a liberal tolerant person, I think the biotech feminist creators ofCoventryhad the right to create the world of their dreams. I actually think that’s the main reason for space exploration: You explore space not just because it’s there (which is a decent reason mind you), you explore space because you want to create better, smarter societies. I am, therefore, always surprised to find that there are leftists who oppose space exploration. I’ve debated them off and on and read their arguments a number of times.

The other free ebook is called "The Drear and Very Depressing Jackson Todd" or as its billed: "Read the sad tale when a black conservative republican gets exactly the future he worked for." And here's the cover:

 

Read that link here.

 It's a science fiction story. Not my best work but readable and oddly accurate. It was written in the early double OOs.  They'll be free for another three hours and only cost 99 cents afterwards. So enjoy. Hey its free so...

Review of Aetheric Mechanics

ITEM: Review of a surprisingly good Warren Ellis comic.

Here's a bit:

Warren Ellis is often a mixed bag. He usually tries to write too much (If I had to pick a writer who I thought was on or was trying to attain Modafinil…) and occasionally you’ll get a Warren Ellis story that’s a little thin or has two pages of dialogue and 20 pages of “action” or at least that’s how I remember that one issue of the “Global Frequency”. However, when Ellis is on he’s one of the best comic book writers in the world (Alan Moore level as I once explained to Jorn Barger) and a very good and well versed science fiction writer as well.
“Aetheric Mechanics” is Warren Ellis when he’s on. When I looked at this at first I thought this was a take on the Steampunk genre, which it looks like and which he’s also done with “Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island“. But it turns out to be something completely interesting and science fictional. Spoilers ahead as they say.

Read the rest here.

New David Brin future novella asks "What happened to American Manufacturing?"

ITEM: I am currently reading an online graphic novel called "Tinkerers" by acclaimed science fiction writer David Brin. Its futuristic theme is supposed to be about "what happened to American manufacturing?". I'm guessing the answer that David will give has something to do with reawakening the individual's gumption and so forth. As someone who's been watching American industrial policy for the last 30 years I can assure you that this has more to do with the choices made by the investor class than what individuals do, the Internet notwithstanding. Related: Have I mentioned that we're trying to ruin the Internet? World's greatest growth engine? (Here and here.) I guess we don't want the Facebooks or the Googles to succeed unless the Right gatekeepers have approved of their disruptive technologies. More Related: Or unless they become Narcs.