Mundanespotting Interzone #232 (Jan-Feb 2011)

The new Interzone has reached the U.S.

1) "Noam Chomsky and the Time Box" by Douglas Lain -- time travel
2) "Intellectual Property" by Mark Pexton -- corporate espionage; interesting, but relies on memory plug-in jacks that are too fantastic for my tastes of the moment
3) "Plucking Her Petals" by Sarah L. Edwards -- fantasy
4) "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise" by Sue Burke -- POV of an AI app that is apparently helping with some social difficulties
5) "Flock, Shoal, Herd" by James Bloomer -- people downloaded into animals

Oh well, maybe next time.

Mundanespotting Asimov's February 2011

Although the March issue is already out, at least I am ahead of the calendar for the moment.

1) "Out of the Dream Closet" by David Ira Cleary -- technology looks like magic or psi or whatever in the apparently far future
2) "Waster Mercy" by Sara Grange -- post-apocalyptic sociology
3) "Planet of the Sealies" by Jeff Carlson -- clever story about future archaeology
4) "Shipbirth" by Aliette de Bodard -- alternate history
5) "Brother Sleep" by Tim McDaniel -- what if for those who can afford it, the disease of sleepiness has been cured? otherwise a story about Thai kids in college featuring excellent dialog
6) "Eve of Beyond" by Bill Pronzini & Barry N. Malzberg -- future corporate politics; not enough sf content to satisfy my mundanespotting sense of the moment
7) "The Choice" by Paul McAuley -- aliens

A nice harvest, and I'm even tempted to look for other works from these authors.

Mundanespotting F&SF January/February 2011

Here is a big fat F&SF.

1) "Home Sweet Bi'Ome" by Pat MacEwen -- whimsical story about a house that is alive; mundane enough for my tastes
2) "The Bird Cage" by Kate Wilhelm -- cryogenics; mundane only if you can look past the fantastic psi powers
3) "Long Time" by Rick Norwood -- an old guy hangs out with Ishtar in Babylon or something
4) "Canterbury Hollow" by Chris Lawson -- love in the time of humans living on some far away planet
5) "Christmas at Hostage Station" by James Stoddard -- holiday fantasy
6) "The Whirlwind" by Jim Young -- downloaded and/or uploaded people
7) "The Bogle" by Albert E. Cowdrey -- ghost fantasy
8) "Paradise Last" by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg -- zombie fantasy
9) "12:02 P.M." by Richard A. Lupoff -- time travel
10) "Ghost Wind" by Alan Dean Foster -- character fantasy
11) "The Ghiling Blade" by Matthew Corradi -- heroic fantasy

After the slightly promising start, not too much to see here.

Mundanespotting Analog January/February 2011

Here is a big fat Analog, bursting with aliens and a very thin stew of mundane content.

1) "At Cross Purposes" by Juliette Wade -- alien contact from multiple viewpoints
2) "The Unfinished Man" by Dave Creek -- finding oneself on an alien planet
3) "A Snitch in Time" by Donald Moffitt -- time travel crime fighters
4) "Some of Them Closer" by Marissa Lingen -- interstellar terraformer copes with the loneliness of relativity; if one believes that multiple interstellar travels without ftl by someone with a recognizable lifespan is a practical hope in the recognizable future, then this is mundane; on a very generous day, or for a very good story, I could go that far, but not today, for this one
5) "Enigma" by Sean McMullen -- genetically modified human/animal hybrids explore an alien planet
6) "The First Conquest of Earth" by David W. Goldman -- alien invasion
7) "Out There" by Norman Spinrad -- meta short-short about interstellar travel; blatantly and refreshingly mundane (believe it or not)
8) "Stay" by Stephen L. Burns -- aliens put dogs in charge of the U. S. of A.
9) "Non-Native Species" by Janet Freeman -- aliens in the Outback
10) "The Frog Prince" by Michael F. Flynn -- space opera
11) "The First Day of Eternity" by Domingo Santos (translated by Stanley Schmidt) -- multigeneration interstellar space colonization by orthodox Jews in a giant super spaceship run by AIs; more interesting than it sounds, though probably much is lost in translation

That's it for the "SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE!" Stay tuned for the March 2011 edition.

Gissa job

A new person has joined the Linked-in community:



Hope his education field gets filled out more, as his bio at the CEI says:

A native of Baker County, Oregon, Mr. Ebell holds a B.A. from Colorado College and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. He also did graduate work at the University of California at San Diego and at Peterhouse, Cambridge University.

With one connection so far, he has a lot to catch up to Iain Murray's 368 connections. Iain is also interested in career opportunities, and he actually did get educated at an Oxbridge university before taking his talents in malicious political disinformation overseas to a country that is so uncivilized it is willing to reward people for this crap. Good riddance!

The only career move for any of these guys in the CEI to take is to follow in the steps of Wendell Potter and stand up for the truth about their history of lies.

Sadly there is no evidence that any of them has the slightest conscience. Even the ones with children.

Key House Committee Chairzzzzzz

Possibly the dullest Myron Ebell posting ever this week:

Here is the lineup so far for House committees with jurisdiction over energy, energy-rationing, and global warming policy. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is the new Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), who was the Chairman in the 111th Congress, is now the Ranking Democrat. The Energy and Environment Subcommittee will be chaired by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.). The Democrats have not yet picked their ranking member for the subcommittee.

To keep you amused, here is a video about banning harmful stupidity.



It's funny because it can't happen here. After all in this society we value some of the most petty freedoms above the long term survival of the species.