The first thing that occurs to me when I arrive— well, the second thing, after wondering about all the little plumes of smoke rising from the surrounding countryside (which nobody in Lviv seems to know anything about)— is Hey, this place really reminds me of Poland. Lviv actually used to be part of Poland, back […]
The Lviv International Book Forum: Huge Hearts, Tiny Bods.
Category: On the Road, public interface, writing newsThe Split-brain Universe
Category: astronomy/cosmology, Omniscience, sentience/cognitionAn extended Nowa Fantaskyka remix. The year is 1982. I read Isaac Asimov’s newly-published Foundation’s Edge with a sinking heart. Here is the one of Hard-SF’s Holy Trinity writing— with a straight face, as far as I can tell— about the “consciousness” of rocks and trees and doors, for Chrissakes. Isaac, what happened? I wonder. […]
…Aaaand We’re Back.
Category: public interfaceYou may have noticed some breakage here at rifters.com over the past week or so: little black diamonds where punctuation should be, graphics failing to load, broken fonts and formats on some of the Blindopraxia pages. I think the whole site may have vanished briefly, although I can’t be sure. Basically, the conjunction of some […]
Heads Up/Periscope Down.
Category: UncategorizedHey Mammals. Just to let you know, rifters.com may be going dark in the near future, hopefully not for very long. If we’re lucky, you won’t even notice it.
N.K. Jemisin, Alpha Gal
Category: biology, Omniscience, writing news…and picking right up from where we left off last week, some of you may remember an ancient post about the Lone Star Tick, whose bite can provoke a fatal hyperallergenic reaction to “alpha-gal” (galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose for the pedants in the audience), a monosaccharide found only in the meat of nonprimate mammals. You may remember cool […]
The Sulfide Solution. (Also, Who Sent Me All These Wombats?)
Category: biology, blindsight, OmniscienceBefore we get started: does anyone know anything about these? They appeared on my doorstep a few days ago, from Australia. No card, no clue. They’re pretty awesome, but they’re also a bit suspicious: I keep remembering that giant wooden rabbit rolling up to the door of the Frawnsh Castle in Holy Grail. Who knows […]
HemiHive, in Hiding
Category: neuro, sentience/cognitionIf you’ve been following my writing for any length of time, you’ll know how fascinated I am by Krista and Tatiana Hogan, of British Columbia. I’ve cited them in Echopraxia’s end notes, described them in online essays; if you caught my talk at Pyrkon last year you might remember me wittering on about them in […]
Extinction and the Reset Button
Category: biology, In praise of biocideI’ve just finished reading The Re-origin of Species, by Torill Kornfeldt (2016 in the original Swedish). The English translation is just barely out in Australia and the UK; here in North America it’s slated for a November release. (I scored an early copy from a publisher eager for blurbs.) Re-origin is about the burgeoning de-extinction— […]
The Man Behind the Infodump: Denis Lynn, 1947-2018.
Category: eulogyThere’s a chapter three-quarters of the way through Maelstrom— “Mug Shot”, it’s called. It’s an executive summary of the apocalyptic microbe βehemoth. It contains such gems as βehemoth enters the cell via receptor-mediated endocytosis; once inside it breaks down the phagosomal membrane prior to lysis, using a 532-amino listeriolysin analog. βehemoth then competes with the […]
Three Interviews and a Book Launch
Category: art on ink, interviews, public interfaceFor those of you who didn’t already see this over on Facebook, or who haven’t noticed it on the inconspicuous little “Upcoming Appearances” list to the right: Freeze-Frame Revolution is getting an official launch at Toronto’s premiere SF bookstore, Bakka-Phoenix. The announcement on the BP site sets the launch to both June 6 and June […]