Archive for February, 2007

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Quote: Albert Einstein

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
~ Albert Einstein

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Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Australian SpecFic In Focus

There is an enormous amount of information on the Australian Speculative Fiction Industry on this site. As my friend Jasoni at Clarion South says, ‘gold dust’.
The site has many forums providing readers with candid insights into the worlds of Australian publishers, reviewers, writers, editors and critics. With some of the biggest […]

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Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

New Airport X-rays Reveal Passengers’ Bodies

Sky Harbor International Airport in the US will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger’s bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons. The technology, called backscatter, has been around for several years but has not been widely used in the US as an anti-terrorism tool because of privacy concerns.
View […]

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Sunday, February 18th, 2007

The Singularity by Vernor Vinge

In 1993, Vernor Vinge published a controversial paper that heralded a new and radical theory - ‘The Singularity’. The premise is that technological progress is accelerating so fast that eventually, this progress will result in machines with intelligence equal to humans. When these machines then create intelligence beyond their own, the human […]

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Thursday, February 15th, 2007

Clarion South: Week Six Learnings

The same applies as I wrote in the Clarion South: Week 1 Learnings:
Ok, so these are some of the general learnings I took away from all of our sessions with this week. Though this doesn’t include the handouts, these are the observations I made during the crit sessions which resulted from some of the […]

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Thursday, February 15th, 2007

Thoughts toward the end of Clarion South

It’s sad to be leaving Clarion South after six weeks of building such great new friendships. I’m sure the group will all stay in touch, hoping to continue some of the fine work that we’ve started here. And this week I’ve been thinking over the many things I’ll miss, which we’ve grown […]

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Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

Clarion South Writings in Development

Ok, as this is the last week of Clarion South, I thought it a good time to take stock with my writing and make a few notes on the pieces that I’ve worked on while I was here.
The Boy Who Slept (Week 1 story)
Submission story, 3000 words
Money For Time (Week 2 story)
Development piece for larger […]

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Monday, February 12th, 2007

Book: The Age Of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil

The Age Of Spiritual Machines is a book by futurist Ray Kurzweil about the future course of humanity, particularly relating to the development of artificial intelligence and its impact on human consciousness. It is also a study on the concept of ’singularity’.
Originally published in 1999, the book predicts that machines with human-like intelligence will […]

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Monday, February 12th, 2007

Book: ‘Dark Roots’ by Cate Kennedy (short story collection)

This is a great short story collection from one of Australia’s best known short story writers - Cate Kennedy. Cate’s a real master of the craft and Dark Roots is a fantastic read of well crafted tales. I thoroughly recommend it.
Cate Kennedy Bio: Cate Kennedy is an award-winning short-story writer who has […]

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Sunday, February 11th, 2007

NobelPrize.org ‘Conflict Map’

This interactive Conflict Map charts significant battles between 1899 to 2000. I’ve used this idea in a new speculative fiction story I’m working on at Clarion South called ‘Home Wars’.
Click this link to view teh Conflict Map - http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/peace/conflictmap/
About the Map:
In the course of the 20th century, mankind experienced some of the most devastating […]

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