C.L. Coleman

Dark Dreamers was a series of interviews with horror writers and directors and other icons. Several of them are on youtube: Clive Barker; Wes Craven Harlan Ellison (1, 2, 3); Richard Laymon; Richard Matheson; Julie Strain (MLYT)

UK Green Party joins US Green Party in calling for an end to private creation of money by banks. Instead, money should be invested into existence "through democratic and transparent bodies working in the public interest," adding to the amount of real wealth, for example preventative health care, sustainable energy and agriculture, efficiency and R&D.

Mother sings, baby reacts. [SLYT]

What does 39$ Million get you in Manhattan real estate these days? How about a UES townhouse with its very own 22-foor waterfall?

Alan Weisman's new book argues that we should not only slow population growth, we should decrease the world's population to 2 billion. In the New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert considers his argument for the 2 billion person world in the context of a long history of Malthusian and neo-Malthusian arguments over population growth and resource limits. "Before artificial nitrogen fertilizer became widely available, the world's population was around 2 billion. When we no longer have it—or if we ever decide to stop using it—that may be a number to which our own naturally gravitates." For more context, see Paul Sabin's new book The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble Over Earth's Future.

Weisman returns to some familiar neo-Malthusian arguments:

That doesn't mean that poor people in developing nations don't have a severe impact on the environment. I was in Niger, which has the highest fertility rate on the planet now. Its average is around eight children per fertile female. In every village, I heard, "Had you been here twenty-five years ago, you couldn't have seen that house over there for all the trees that we used to have." Where did the trees go? Well, they needed them for firewood, and then the climate began changing on them and there's less rain now. They're not responsible for the industrial pollution that has gunked up the atmosphere, but when you take down trees, things change. You graze too many animals, and things really change. They're now in chronic drought. In every village, hundreds of children had died.

Political ecologists have been critiquing neo-Malthusian arguments regarding population's role in environmental degradation for decades. Tim Forsyth's book Critical Political Ecology is a good place to start. As he wrote in 1998 (pdf on his site) for the UN Development Programme, we "challenge the existing orthodox view that poverty and environmental degradation are inextricably linked, and are self enforcing."

"The semantic mission for me is to have "vegetarian" become an adjective that describes food rather than a noun labeling a person." An interview with Mollie Katzen, author of the iconic Moosewood Cookbook. (Includes a recipe for Vegetarian Tan-Tan Noodles from her newest cookbook, The Heart of the Plate: Vegetarian Recipes for a New Generation.)

In the weeks since LoneStarCon 3 (the 71st annual World Science Fiction Convention) took place, videos of just a few events have appeared online: the complete Hugo Awards ceremony; the WSFS business meetings; Brandon Sanderson's video AMA; a clip of a Dalek wandering the exhibition hall. The pocket program listing the schedule of public events offers further insight into what went on. And many attendees have posted their written/recorded personal reactions. A selection of the programmed content itself might be evoked with an old-school smorgasbord of links.

Selections from Day 1

• Seanan McGuire & Dead Sexy. McGuire (a.k.a. Mira Grant) performed original songs, including "Silent Hill."
• Special Guest Concert: Leslie Fish. Filking legend Leslie Fish performed original songs on this and many other occasions throughout the weekend.
• Dressing like Darcy. A social dance historian (author of the historical dance blog, Capering & Kickery) and a costuming aficionado lectured on Regency menswear details.
• Mark Reads Stuff: Bad Fan-Fiction. Mark Oshiro of Mark Reads read bad fanfic aloud, enhancing it with color commentary: "Describing Scully;" "Garfield: Royal Rescue;" and "Batman and Robocop: The Day the Men Found Love."
• LSC3 Film Festival: Horror Feature. LSC3 presented H. P. Mendoza's film, I Am A Ghost (USA; 2012), not to be confused with 2009's I Am Ghost from Japan or 2012's Don't Worry, I'm A Ghost from Korea.

Selections from Day 2

• Graphic Novels You Should be Reading. Panelists suggested numerous graphic novels they felt were underappreciated: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (now a feature film); It Was the War of the Trenches; Terry Moore's Echo; The Manhattan Projects; and The Sixth Gun.
• Prometheus Awards. The Libertarian Futurist Society awarded its annual Best Novel prize to Cory Doctorow for Pirate Cinema. Doctorow could not attend the ceremony because of a scheduling conflict (Burning Man).
• Shadows on the Wall. MeFi's own Mary Robinette Kowal reprised her performance of "The Broken Bridge" available on YouTube and instructed attendees on how to create shadow puppets. Author Emma Newman, one of the attendees, created shadow puppets based on characters from her Split Worlds urban fantasy series, notable for having been developed through a "story a week" project that yielded 54 stories available for free online.
• Two-Gun Bob: The Somewhat True Tales of Robert E. Howard. REH researchers, including Mark Finn, author of the recent biography Blood and Thunder, dispelled myths about his life and personal character, in particular addressing tendentious elements of Dark Valley Destiny by L. Sprague de Camp.
• Reading: George R. R. Martin. GRRM read a scene from his upcoming novel, The Winds of Winter. While at the convention, he also gave a lengthy interview to The Austin Chronicle.
• A Look at the Paleolithic. Kim Stanley Robinson lectured on topics related to his new novel, Shaman: Ötzi, Chauvet Cave, and paleolithic art, commenting briefly on Dale Guthrie's observations on the relevance of teenagers to cave painting.
• Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Fans met to share samples of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfumes from lines based on fantasy role-playing games, steampunk, Rappaccini's garden, etc.

Selections from Day 3

• Novels You Should Have Read Since Chicon 7. Panelists recommended novels that had (more or less) appeared since the last Worldcon: Sea Change; The Vorrh; The Mad Scientist's Daughter; The Hydrogen Sonata; Seven Terrors; Self-Reference Engine; Shaman; The Drowning Girl; Angelmaker; Great North Road; Crandolin; Good Man Friday and, more generally, the Benjamin January series; We Were All Completely Beside Ourselves; American Elsewhere; The Shining Girls; Necessary Evil or, more generally, The Milkweed Triptych; The Ocean at the End of the Lane; The Best of All Possible Worlds; Edge; Midnight Blue-Light Special or, more generally, the Incryptid series; Libriomancer; The Last Policeman and Countdown City; Necessary Ill; Cold Copper or, more generally, the Age of Steam series; Handbook for Dragon Slayers; The Summer Prince; The Rithmatist; The Lives of Tao; Nexus; The Incrementalists; Three Parts Dead; Impulse or, more generally, the Jumper series; The Thousand Names; Evening's Empires; The Fractal Prince; and The Republic of Thieves or, more generally, the Gentleman Bastard series.
• An Hour with Lois McMaster Bujold. Bujold engaged in a dialogue with her lifelong friend and fellow novelist, Lillian Stewart Carl.
• Intricate Worlds. Panelists including the novelists Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm, Gail Carriger, and Amanda Downum discussed maximizing memorable details and minimizing unnecessary research to create engaging fantasy worlds. Side note: Carriger's blog documents the vintage / retro fashions she wore at the convention.
• The Howard and George Show. As reported by the Austin Chronicle, novelists George R. R. Martin and Howard Waldrop engaged in a humorous dialogue about the friendship they've shared since they were teenagers, beginning with the letter GRRM published in Fantastic Four (1961) #20 to which Waldrop wrote a personal reply.
• The Masquerade. Partially captured by the photoset LoneStarCon3 Costumes.

Selections from Day 4

• When will Zombies Die? Panelists including Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant, Elizabeth Bear, Adam-Troy Castro, and Charlaine Harris discussed the zombie phenomenon in pop culture. McGuire asked each panelist to recommend one zombie-themed work they would still want the attendees to check out. Elizabeth Bear recommended Night of the Comet. Adam-Troy Castro suggested Dead Alive. McGuire herself exhorted attendees to seek out Evil Dead: The Musical. And Charlaine Harris drawled, "Not to be a suck-up, but I like Mira Grant's books." Panelists also generally agreed that the short film Cargo was worthy of attention.
• Life Class. A drawing studio class. The live models reportedly included novelist Wesley Chu.
• The Hugo Awards Ceremony. The complete event is available on Ustream. It features numerous jokes by master of ceremonies Paul Cornell, a self-referential performance by Robert Silverberg, and MeFi's own John Scalzi winning a Hugo for the novel Redshirts. The complete breakdown of the voting also includes lists of candidates that were almost nominated.

In 2014, Loncon 3 in London, England, will be the 72nd Worldcon. When Worldcon takes place outside North America, a NASFiC takes place. The 2014 NASFiC is Detcon1 in Detroit.

In 2015, Sasquan in Spokane, Washington, will be the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention.

"Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections. Many more people die from other conditions that were complicated by an antibiotic-resistant infection." This week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2013, a first-ever snapshot of the burden and threats posed by the antibiotic-resistant germs having the most impact on human health. "If we're not careful, the medicine chest will be empty when we go there to look for a life-saving antibiotic," CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden told reporters. Reports in the Washington Post and New York Times. (Also previously.)

One point of contention has been the extent to which industrial-scale animal farming contributes to the problem of antibiotic-resistant infections in humans. (Previously and more.) According to the report, more than 70% of antibiotics in the United States are given to animals, and much of antibiotic use in animals is unnecessary and inappropriate. But half of antibiotic use in people is inappropriate, too. The Post provides a helpful visualization of how antibiotics are over-prescribed in the US Southeast compared to the rest of the country (as discussed previously), while new antibiotics in the development pipeline are down to the lowest levels since the 1980s.

The good news? Invasive Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections have been declining. The bad news is that other infections are more than making up the gap. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE, the "nightmare bacteria" that causes life-threatening diarrhea) has shown up in 44 states and has become resistant to nearly all antibiotics on the market.

"We are getting closer and closer to the cliff," said Dr. Michael Bell, a C.D.C. official who presented the data.

Looting the Pension Funds: All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers. By Matt Taibbi.

Democracy Now: Matt Taibbi on How Wall Street Hedge Funds Are Looting the Pension Funds of Public Workers

General Motors is literally tearing its competition to bits ...so its 3D scanning can reverse-engineer others' vehicles, increasing speed to market. 'All this technical innovation makes it easier for GM to react to competition faster and push innovations out rapidly. Still, it doesn't guarantee that GM will execute in a way that makes people want to buy the company's vehicles.' 'The capabilities that come from GM's benchmarking efforts bring another sort of risk with them—GM could learn from its competitors too well and become indistinguishable from them. It's a problem that plagues today's auto industry, where you often can't tell vehicles from different manufacturers apart in a parking lot without looking at the name plate.'

'In 2002, some GM executives were talking about the idea of the company becoming a "virtual" automaker—shifting toward becoming purely a design and engineering shop and outsourcing manufacturing completely. The company nearly became virtual in another sense before its bankruptcy and government bailout. But now that GM is back to profitability and holds a respectable and growing market share, it needs to find the right balance between reacting to competitors and finding its own road. And GM hopes its current approach to digital modeling will be the tool that leads to a happy medium.'

'Despite the innovations behind the SSR a decade ago, it wasn't the car GM needed at the time. Its timing was awful, arriving a year after the 9/11 attacks in the midst of throttled-back expectations and ballooning gas prices. After the initial excitement in its first limited model year, sales tanked in 2004. Only 9,000 were sold and nearly another 9,000 remained in inventory. In 2005, GM announced it would be closing the Lansing Craft Centre and shutting down the SSR's production. The company booked a $10 billion loss.'

With mass layoffs still taboo in Japan, senior workers who refuse to resign are sent to "chasing-out rooms" instead of being allowed to work. (SL NYTimes)

Given the number of automotive related questions on Ask MeFi, this animated infographic should be useful for most of us. And even if you are a gear head you'll probably think it's cool. (It takes a few seconds to load - give it time.)