SF/F Links: February Roundup Part One

Lots and lots of links heading your way. This has been a busy last couple weeks for sure. I've had essays up the you know where and a midterm, which I pray that I did good on. In any case, I've found lots of interesting things to share and that's exactly what intend to do: share. So enjoy!

First and most important, however, is that there are actually some writers in serious need of financial assistance. Now, I'm broke due to school, but I do understand that writers simply don't make a lot of money in the first place and sometimes bad things happen they can't account for. You can find all the information about the following two writers and their predicament, plus how you can help (i.e. where to send money to), at this link to Bibliophile Stalker.
James Reasoner recently lost his house and EVERYTHING due to a wild fire caused by some idiot tossing a cigarette out a car window. They've lost everything and need everything.
Also Caitlin R. Kiernan, another writer, has come into financial difficulties over a medical condition, something I imagine we all have gone through.
Click the link above and please please please give a dollar or ten or twenty or more. Anything you can for these folks. It's tragic and unfortunate that writers get paid so very very little, but it's true. Thanks on that.

Okay, to usual links:

• Universe Today:
• Astrospies...possibly the coolest documentary show that isn't about aliens or secret Star Wars projects to ever be made and I'm praying I get the chance to see it! Yes, the name says it all.
• New thinking from U of Hawaii challenges the theory that galaxies all formed slowly. What if they formed fast and ended up like ours?
• How to find worm holes...and other stuff about wormholes.
  
• io9:
• Probably already mentioned this, but oh well. Scientists have found a gas giant around another star that contains organic compounds (i.e. the building blocks of life).
• Holland isn't scared of global warming. Why? Well, if the sea levels rise they're building the whole country so it can float, or so they say.
• The first child to have THREE genetic parents! That's right, THREE!
  
• A nanotube radio. Self explanatory.
• Climb like a gecko with adhesive microfiber gloves!
• Apparently pollution is mutating my little swimmers faster than I once thought, which might mean I don't have to have kids after all...just kidding, sweety.
  
• The U.S. Navy has an awesome electromagnetic rail gun. Yes, it's cool. I want one.
  
• One of Roger Zelazny's novels that was never brought to print is actually being published, well after his death of course. Good news indeed.
• Morgellons. I don't know what it is, and neither do most people, but if it's a real disease then it's one of the most bizarre diseases ever...wires growing out of your skin...weird.
• Stemagen's chief executive is the first person to see his clone grow into a viable embryo. I thought this was illegal in most places, but guess not.
• Steven Colbert talks to David Levy. Sex with robots...yeah, weird, but remotely interesting.
• This is fascinating: Why reality fatigue has made SF more interesting.
• The U.S. needs a space race with China, and I agree!
• NASA apparently is teaming up with City of Hope (cancer research) to develop low-invasive nano-surgery. I'm in, sounds like a great idea!
• A fun, yet crazy Japanese inventor says he can save the world in three ways! As io9 says, it sounds nuts but it might be true considering who this is coming from.
  
• From SF Signal:
  
• Emil Jung talks about the value of SF and F.
• The first documented case of pest resistance to biotech cotton! Or, in translation, EVOLUTION! Eat that Creationists!
• 10 Sci-Fi Techs We Could Build If They Weren't So Damn Expensive! This is a really cool list by the way.
• Cockroaches get stronger in space by the way...which lends some interesting ideas about insects...
• A quote that gives the only reason why you should never buy from Apple again. Steve Jobs = Moron.
• How popular does Google say SF is? Check this post out and find out. It's really close to overtaking God. Go SF!
• Where SF gets serious! Stuff from the books and TV we love that could actually come true in the near future!
• Why giant mecha robots are stupid! I don't agree. I do agree with this: Why giant mecha robots are totally awesome!
  
• Futurismic:
• The Large Hadron Collider (i.e. a machine that collides particles together...which is fun and dangerous at the same time) may actually introduce us to other dimensions.
• We're on our way to contact lenses that can display digital data in your vision.
• Videos from a science teacher on Global Warming. The main video has a very smart premise to it: it doesn't matter whether it's real or not, we have to make a decision now because the risks of it being true are worse than taking action and it being false. I can agree on that, however I still think global warming is a load of crap, at least as far as human involvement is concerned. You tell me how you're going to stop volcanoes from ruining the atmosphere and we'll talk.
• Apparently the French have come up with a most interesting flying hotel.
  
• Apparently flames work in strange ways in space. Check out this little thing about it from NASA.
• Here are a bunch of really gorgeous images of galaxies and nebulae (plus a couple pictures about that sex Hubble Telescope). They're truly stunning. I love space.
• Rules For Writing A Fantasy Novel. Self explanatory.
  
• 100 Phenomena is a site that is predicting future data and keeping track of things happening in real life (including things that are going to happen, which are put into the data for the future). They're interesting predictions.
• There is a Church of Spock by the way.
• For those that are obsessed with Japanese women, or just weird geek fantasies, here is a keyboard bra, worn by a fashionably pink and slight cat-like woman.
• Apparently scientists aren't ruling out the possibility of actually transporting humans from one place to another (like in Jumper). Read what they have to say about it.
• Gorgeous, high-detail picture of Mercury from APOD.
• Yahoo has this article about a recent discovery: the ruins of a 7,000-year-old city in Egypt. They date back to the Neolithic period. Now go write a story about that!
• You've probably seen this before in some form or another, but so be it. It's a representation of the Earth to the planets, the planets to the Sun, and the Sun to other suns. We're so tiny!
• Top 20 Sand Castles. Self explanatory, and cool.
• New cars from South Australia that could change the world...I hope:
  

  Staff and students at the University of South Australia have designed and built an electric car that can go 0-60 in under 10 seconds and can travel nearly 100 miles on a single charge...

  All for 2 cents USD to the mile!
• A solar panel that works at 80% efficiency, which is much better than we have already.
• Richard Bowes talks about why he likes writing but hates being a writer at Clarkesworld.
• A most bizarre dominoes robot. Yes, dominoes.
• This is our Sun. Get acquainted.
• Ten Badass Ancient Weapons! This is super cool, by the way, and might do you some good if you're writing fantasy. A couple of these things you wouldn't think the ancients had, but they did!
• Dark matter is supposed to be everywhere right? Well, that's what has scientists a little baffled because one galaxy they've been studying seems to have none...
• Possibly the coolest thing to come out of France since croissants is the news that the French President is calling for a global mission to Mars. Good idea and I would like to see global cooperation on that project...
• Abandoned technology. These are amazing images. They're pictures of structures, buildings, whatever that have something to do with technology, but have been abandoned. It's amazing. It's really weird to see all these things that look so expensive just left to rot.
• A new solution to wind energy that doesn't take up a lot of space. A bit pricey, but certainly worth considering since four of these things could power the average house and you could keep them in your backyard.
• A diagram of what those face-hugging aliens look like on a human face! Aliens are awesome!
• Galaxy Dynamics is apparently a DVD collection, but you can watch a lot of their videos online. They show really interesting clips of what galaxies look like when they collide, and some of them get really messy.
• A whole bunch of stuff about time travel. Enough said.
  
• Scalzi has once again done something amazing: he's given really in-depth advice to writers about finances!
  
• To end it all, I give you our beautiful, wonderful, magnificent little planet from space with a lovely sunrise. Tis perty.
  

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