The European Space Agency (ESA) requested the Maison d'Ailleurs and the OURS Foundation to conduct a study on technologies and concepts found in Science Fiction, in order to obtain imaginative and innovative ideas potentially viable for long-term development by the European space sector. The study was concluded in late 2001, but identification of enabling technologies as well as advanced technological concepts is still ongoing.

The Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications (ITSF) Web site and e-mail forum are devoted to the continuing discussion and development of this project.

"George Bush doesn't sound as mean and stupid as I would have expected. Or maybe I'm just in a frame of mind to cut him slack. There are three armed Secret Service men here in my bedroom/Dogyears-World-Headquarters.

They've been here for about half an hour. I'm mentally calling them the Boss, the Trainee, and the Muscle. The Boss and the Muscle are wearing Ray-Ban mirror shades — they're living the dream, true Men in Black. They have guns, and if they want to, they can kill me. I'm polite."

Quoted from the short-story"Jenna and me" by the Ruckers

Here is the online-edition of the book by H.G.Wells and here is a site which deals with the nation-wide panic caused by the broadcast of Orson Welles' radio-adaption in 1938. People were running away because they thought the Martians were coming to get them. "Everyone in my house was agitated by the press", some guy said to the reporters.

The site has the original newsclips from the New York Times. Here's another transcript which is easier to read. And here's another good article on the hoax at greatnorthernaudio.com.

You can probably find the original recording as an MP3 in some "Old Time Radio"-section on the web or you can order a copy at amazon or at Radio Spirits

WAV-Files of the original-recording war-of-the-worlds.org has a guide to audio-streams on the web Odd, a similar story happened in Ecuador in 1949.

"The Time: The near future.

The Set: The set is a shabby, dimly-lit kitchen, the reflection of a run-down, high-tech world where everything is broken, and nothing gets fixed. This is tomorrow held together by a string.

A weak beam of sunlight slants through a narrow window. The light captures dust motes in the air. The sun itself is seen occasionally through a choking industrial haze; it tells us all we need to know about the scarcities, turmoil, and ecological problems of the world outside."

Quoted from the play "the last cardinal bird" by Neil Barret Jr. up on that great site called The Infinite Matrix which also used to host Bruce Sterling

"The Last Cardinal Bird in Tennessee is reprinted with permission from Neal's collection Slightly Off-Center (Swan Press. 1992). Neal's short-story collection Perpetuity Blues (Golden Gryphon, 2000) is already a classic and a collector's item, and it should be read by everyone who aspires to being funny and meaningful at the same time."

"To my mind, blogging is like stand-up comedy — it's a performance art. In that line of biz, you should always do your best to scamper off the boards while they still want more." -Bruce Sterling (from his "old" weblog)

"The cover-boy for WIRED's very first issue, way back in those legendary, romantic days of the cyberPleistocene," will start a new column for WIRED which does't have a name and it isn't active yet.

LINKS

"Science Fiction Romance is the blending of the romance and science fiction genres, covering the spectrum from straight science fiction / fantasy novels with romantic subplots to works where the romance is the main subplot or complication. There are several categories within the SFR genre, such as the futuristic romance (Marilyn Campbell, Susan Grant and Dara Joy), the romantic science fiction or fantasy novel (Catherine Asaro, Lois McMaster Bujold and Mercedes Lackey), the paranormal romance novel (ghosts, fairies, vampires and shapeshifters), and the time travel romance novel."

Here's a great little portal on romances in outer space

Mike Hodel's Hour 25 has been broadcasted for Southern California since 1972, but now you can also tune in on the net. Lots of shows are archived and the page also features a section with space-news and stuff like that.

Unfortunately Microsoft's Explorer refuses to work with the sound-files....

"Doctor Who has been voted the show people would most like to see back on TV in a Radio Times poll. The survey of 12,000 viewers found that 31% of them wanted to see the cult sci-fi BBC series revived."

fully story at BBC.

Yawn, it's about time again. Another Star Wars comes out and the internet goes crazy. Well, here's the first picture:

"Producer Rick McCallum clapped the final slate on the last take of principal photography for Star Wars: Episode III, wrapping at Fox Studios Australia at 6:42 pm Wednesday, September 17." quoted from Star Wars.com

No, the movie is not based on this fan-script, the guys at ILM said.

Obi Wan on the set

" I don't think I've ever seen it commented on, but there's a great affinity between writing poetry and SF. As with poetry, quality speculative fiction demands great skill with language and invites linguistic invention. As with poetry, good SF delves deep into metaphor while sliding lightly on the surface of its own joy of telling. As with poetry, quality SF demands a much greater collaboration on the part of the reader -- a greater sensitivity to detail, word-meaning, texture, and nuance, as well as a greater involvement in ferreting out meaning. "

from a Conversation with Dan Simmons over at The SF Site

The weblog of WILLIAM GIBSON is always worth checking out every once in a while

"Raphael Aloysius "Ray" Lafferty, the self-described "cranky old man from Tulsa, Oklahoma," is a genius: I state that flatly. He is one of the eminent English-language writers of, at the very least, the twentieth century--yet he remains little known, little read, and much misunderstood and underappreciated. Indeed, much of his oeuvre exists only in very limited print runs of cheap paper chapbooks. As the thoughtful will deduce, the problem is that Lafferty is not an easy writer. That problem is exacerbated by the fact that under superficial consideration he looks easy; were he as obviously complex as, for example, James Joyce (and, of course, were he not "just" an SF&F author), readers and critics would likely have made some effort to look beneath the hood to see what was what; but because his works can, by the careless, be taken for ordinary stuff, his complexities--of both language and meaning--end up dismissed as just nonsensically bad ordinary writing. As a thirsty drinker expecting the taste of a soda pop might well spit out in disgust a mouthful of vintage brut champagne, so might an SF reader expecting typical SF reject vintage Lafferty." from a really good article about R.A.Lafferty at greatsfandf.com

Stories online at scifi.com:

Science Fiction Book Meeting: Every first tuesday at Another Country, Dinner at 8 p.m.

Did you see Trekkies?Do you need a Brent-break? Meet Anne Droidz, the woman taking Brent-breaks on her balconry while starring at the house of the guy who plays Data in "The Next Generation".

"When the first nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, popular culture was quick to respond... Atomic including a board game that let you bomb Hiroshima and war toys and games appeared shortly after World War II, Nagasaki, and the Atomic Bomb Ring, which was sold for 15¢ and a boxtop from Kix cereal. Kids peered into the plastic to 'See Genuine Atoms Split to Smithereens!' Over six million were distributed between 1947 and 1957." from Nuclear Pop

"High adventure in space; usually somewhat campy, of the type that used to be serialized at the movies and in the pulp magazines that were popular in the first half of this century. Hallmarks of space opera include encounters with beautiful women and bug-eyed monsters. Flash Gordon is vintage space opera, Star Trek™ is more sophisticated, contemporary space opera. Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom series is space opera. "

quote from sfsite.com

Brian W. Aldiss identified the folowing key indicators of "Space Opera" (1) Style and Mood staunchly traditional (2) Hitherto unknown places to explore (3) Continuity between Past and Future (4) Tremendous sphere of space/time (5) A pinch of reality inflated with melodrama (6) A seasoning of screwy ideas (7) Heady escapist stuff (8) Charging on with little regard for logic or literacy (9) Often throwing off great images, excitements, aspirations (10) The Earth should be in peril (11) There must be a quest (12) There must be a man to match the mighty hour (13) That man must confront aliens and exotic creatures (14) Space must flow past the ports like wine from a pitcher (15) Blood must run down the palace steps (16) Ships must launch out into the louring dark (17) There must be a woman fairer than the skies (18) There must be a villain darker than a Black Hole (19) All must come right in the end (20) The future in space, seen mistily through the eyes of yesterday

From the foreword of the "Space Opera"-anthology [Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1974]

Recommended Reading: -Anything by E.E.'Doc'Smith -"Galactic Empires" edited by Brian Aldiss -"Space Opera" edited by Brian Aldiss -Frederick Pohl and Jack Wiliamson, "The Starchild Trilogy" -John W.Campbell, "The Black Star passes" - A.E.van Vogt: "Empire of the Atom", "The Wizard of Linn", "Lost:Fifty Suns" - Neil Asher, "Gridlinked"

LINKS: The Spectrum of Space Opera

Science Fiction Book Meeting at the bookshop: Every first tuesday at Another Country, Dinner at 8 p.m.