So, will we Earthers welcome our new alien overlords, run down the street naked & blithering, or what?

Pretty much every speculative narrative of humanity’s First Contact goes something like this: aliens, or evidence there-of, spotted. Military, government, scientific coven, etc. declare “Must keep this ever-so-top secret. Public will go hyperactive-ape-shit. Kill all the witnesses. Especially that annoying know-it-all kid and all his pals.” Or similar. I’ve always found this… unconvincing. Sure, some humans will barricade themselves in the basement and spend their final, pathetic days eating raw macaroni. But these are the same people who are pretty damn sure Bigfoot is lurking in the shrubbery behind their gardens. And that Hillary has bodies buried in hers. Soooo many bodies.

So, as The Atlantic reports, an Arizona State prof name Michael Varnum did a study. Turns out Earth’s dominant-and-darned-proud-of-it primates aren’t all that paranoid about the subject. Large portions of the population, Varnum tells us, are fine with the discovery of alien life forms. But with this rather significant caveat: the aliens in his study are microbes. Yeah… so… I think we have what you might call a fly in the peer-reviewed-ointment here. I mean, extraterrestrial bacteria could certainly be a threat. Andromeda Strain, I’m lookin’ at you. But Varnum maybe shoulda asked his study peeps how they’d feel about those mile-long hyperspace battlecruisers parked over every major metro on the planet. I think you might get some different boxes being checked off on the “Aliens: Meet, Marry or Kill” part of the paperwork. JMHO, of course, but I’m not sold on his findings. I just really, really hope I live long enough to see for myself.

 

 

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Zenn crops up on Hometown Reads. So, yay Zenn.


Just a quick shill for Zenn’s appearance on the Iowa City site-page of Hometown Reads. And thanks to the HR peeps for the signal boost!  

 

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Why did dinos – and eventually, humans – rule the planet? We’re both weeds…. sorta.

Intriguing theory in a recent Astrobiology Magazine arty re: mass extinction opening up niches for “weedy” species to take over.  Explains a lot about some humans I know…

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Why sci fi writers aren’t your damn Eightball when it comes to predicting the future… tho apparently Mark Twain came close that one time.

Poor Mr. Spock. Forced to interface with the Enterprise’s lame non-interwebbed ‘puter… Why the lameness? Physicist Laurence Krause explains, revealing why SF authors & scriptwriters are chained to the past just like every other meat-bag non-prophetic mortal. Totally common sense-ical for those of us who fritter away our time thinkin’ about this sorta thing, but worth a jump over to Slate to check it out (if only for the bit about Mark Twain’s vaguely prescient take on social-media-video-phonic gossip-mongering.)

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I live in (the rural Oort Cloud-ish outer reaches of) one of the planet’s coolest cities for authors. Just sayin’…

The Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature humans are awesome humans when it comes to being the kinda humans that authors appreciate. Also: I need to get into town and pick up one of those t-shirts. That is all.

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About your order of robots to go… you want mad ambulatory skills with that?

I grew up with robots that (who?) got around like humans. Or ostriches. From C-3p0 to Robby in Forbidden Planet and Lost in Space, my robots… had legs (cue ZZ Top). OK, Robby was more breadboxes with wheels, but you get the idea. Anyway, tech moneybags-with-geek-glasses Softbank just bought Boston Dynamics – maker of, yes, leggy bots. Do they see the future of bots as human-environment-friendly? “Spiral staircase? No problem-o! Allow me to carry you to your super-villain observatory on the roof, Dr. Nothankyou.” Well, maybe. Or MAYBE… it’s just the Japanese obsession with robots as plasti-flesh-wrapped humanoids. Yes. That’s a thing. You hadn’t noticed?

 

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U always figure ETs would be wierder than anything on Earth? This little guy begs to differ.


Meet Melibe Viridis. Tiny but terrifying. Envelops its prey in its H.R. Giger-esque extendable “mouth-part” – a bit of anatomy tagged with the disturbing but poetic descriptor: “oral veil.” Sorta like a rootless Venus flytrap but with multiple legs. And made out of Ghostbuster slime. Life on earth: always able to ambush us humans with dang-near unimaginable evolutionary marvels.
http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/meliviri
Here’s the scoop from the unimpeachable savants at the Sea Slug Forum: “There are a number of benthic species of Melibe in the tropical Indo-West Pacific. Melibe viridis can grow to over 120mm in length. Their most unique attribute is their method of feeding. They have lost their radular teeth and have developed the oral veil into a large veil or “fish net” which they use to constantly scan the substrate as they crawl along. When the sensitive papillae on the inner edge of the oral veil touch a small crab or crustacean the edge of the veil is rapidly contracted, trapping the prey, which is then ingested. Some species of Melibe, but not this species, harbour zooxanthellae in their bodies.”

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Thanks for sharing, facebook-Dana.

Well, isn’t this special? (Yes. Yes it is. Never gets old.) FB pal Dana snapped these retro-tree-fiber-pulp specimens hanging out in ye local shoppe somewhere. Note that they’re trying to be cool-by-association with cool-kid Scalzi in the upstairs apartment….

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How do ya find a literary agent? Sometimes, they find you…

Kismet and the search for an agent…

At cons or workshops where I’ve been on panels, I’m usually asked “Dude, how did you land an agent?”   (or maybe it was “Dude, how did YOU land an agent?!” but let’s not quibble). Well, there’s a site-page for that. Back when my first novel, Zenn Scarlett, was about to be published, editor/author Chuck Sambuchino over at Writers Digest interviewed me. (Thanks again, Chuck!) It’s mostly me shootin’ off my mouth about the basic flaming hoops any writer needs to jump through when looking for representation, plus of course, the usual “write on, kids!” admonitions. But my experience did come with an unexpected (and welcome) twist. So if you’re in agent-hunting mode, or just interested in the eccentric ways the process can play out, here ya go:  Writers Digest rambling author interview.  So, good luck and… write on, kids!

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A big ‘scope gets a power-boost, turns mirror-gaze to Alpha/Proxima Centauri system

The big-ass Very Large Telescope down in Chile gets a new pair of exo-goggles. Then, as part of the $100 million Breakthrough initiative searching for off-world life, it’ll zoom in on the could-be rocky-earth-like planet we think is orbiting Proxima Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor. Will this give us our first look at actual extraterrestrial life? Could happen. If we luck out on a cosmic scale. Stay tuned….

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