Ken MacLeod's Blog, page 40

More plugs

I clean forgot to mention that I have a flash fiction in the current issue of New Scientist and that I'm guest judge for the Edinburgh University Science Magazine's 'Edinburgh of the future' short story competition, which is open to all.

Plugs

I have a Book Club article on M. John Harrison's The Centauri Device in the current issue of SFX; a story reprinted in Starship Sofa Stories Vol 1 ; and a very kind mention by John Jarrold in an interview for Fantasy Books Review.

Well, that explains a lot

'It is not clear how the advancement of science tends towards the mental and moral improvement of the public.'

- The Charity Commission, 28 September 2006, cited in Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth, Bantam Press, 2009

... on page 436, the last page of a very good book.

Evolution is so last Ice Age ...

Human evolution in the advanced world has slowed down or stopped, Professor Steve Jones will argue in a public lecture to be held in the McEwan Hall on Tuesday 22 September at 6pm. Prof Jones is a most engaging speaker [as I've said before], and places for this free but ticketed event are likely to go fast, so get yours now.

Last Night of the Book Festival

Well-organised as always, I completely failed to get a complimentary ticket to the Richard Dawkins event at the Book Festival. But I had a £20 note birthday present that I was determined to spend on a signed copy of The Greatest Show on Earth, so I went along last night on the off-chance. The returns queue was ten or so long at 5.30, which didn't look promising. The book wasn't in the bookshop, and in the signing tent I was told it wouldn't be on sale until just before Dawkins' event finished. I

Ten minutes at 10.00

Ben Smart, the first-place winner of the Genomics Forum's short story competition (which was initiated and organised by Pippa Goldschmidt), will be reading from his short story 'The Test' tomorrow (Wednesday), as part of the Book Festival's 'Ten at Ten' series. Tickets free. The winning stories and several runners-up have been published as an attractively-designed booklet pack, GM Fiction, and will be on sale in the bookshop tent.

A scientist, a philosopher and a theologian walked into a bar ...

... and had a discussion. The Highland Park Speigeltent, that being the bar, was pretty well crowded for Thursday night's panel 'Belief in Evolution: what does it mean?' Genomics Forum director Steve Yearley, who introduced the speakers, said he was going to assume we were all in some sense Darwinians here - though anyone who wasn't was free to question that - and that we were going to discuss what acceptance of evolution meant for our views about ourselves and society, the nature of human being

Best Amazon review thread evah

Start your own arms race with yummy yellowcake! Be sure to click on 'see all reviews'. (Via.) Even more disturbing than mail-order uranium ore, customers who bought this item also bought: novels by John Scalzi and Charles Stross; Forbidden Lego: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against!; and The Art of Computer Programming, Vol 4 by Donald E. Knuth.

Do have to draw you a picture, people?

Written in the genes, read at Charlotte Square

The Genomics Forum has for several years sponsored events at the Edinburgh Book Festival. This year, the forum is sponsoring three (all at 7 pm - 8.15 pm):

Tomorrow night (Thursday), Jerry Coyne, author of Why Evolution Is True, will be discussing 'Belief in Evolution: what does it mean?' with philosopher and Egenis director Professor John Dupré and theologian Professor John Brooke, chaired by Professor Steve Yearley (who is, incidentally, adamant that this isn't a discussion about whether evolut

For one night only! (And some other free events)

Tonight (Tuesday) Andrew J. Wilson is reading his short story 'Under the Bright and Hollow Sky' at Underword, in Fingers Piano Bar, Frederick St, from 7.50pm to 8.40pm. Admission is free. I read the part of the story involving testimony by that dubious character 'Ken MacLeod'.

Down in the Grassmarket, Transreal Fiction (a fine SF and fantasy bookshop, and Fringe Venue 326 – page 132 of this year's Fringe Programme) has a Summer Exhibition (running until Monday 31st August 2009) by talented phot