News

March meeting went well. We have a list of recommended authors and works. Now we need your help.

Thought control of devices takes another step forward with this wheelchair arm that is controlled by thought alone, as reported at Discovery.com. University of South Florida researchers mounted a robotic arm on a wheelchair and a helmet on the user's head. The helmet includes electromagnetic sensors that respond to excitations in the brain resulting from the user thinking about moving the arm and acts on its interpretations. Pretty cool. Previous experiments have yielded thought controlled pointing devices for computers (link not available at the moment).

Member and SFWA Member/Volunteer/Committe Chair Steve Carper posted the news that the nominees for the 2008 Nebula Awards are announced. The announcement says both 2008 and 2009, but in discussion it's mostly resolved that this is the 2009 presentation of the 2008 Awards.

Contributor Frank G. posted the news to the Google Group that Mr. Farmer died on 25 February 2009. Mr. Farmer wrote a wide variety of works but is perhaps best known for the Riverworld series. Others that this poster enjoyed were The World of Tiers and Dayworld, but this list hardly scratches the surface of the body of Mr. Farmer's work. Here is the link Frank posted, which refers to this story on io9, which in turn refers to the official P.J. Famer site provided above.

President Alicia Henn posted a link to this (well-written) article by Roy Blount, Jr., addressing the question of whether authors should receive payment for audio rights as a result of Kindle 2 (and other similar devices) converting text versions of works to speech.

An interesting question. My initial impression is that having your device read your book aloud is no different than having a friend read it to you. That seems like a fair use of the product that you have purchased. However, Blount presents a strong case for author compensation as a result of Kindle readings. Click the title to see why.

We have a Facebook presence, now, thanks to member Pat Rapp. Thank you, Pat!

This was a tough one to categorize, and its for anyone who is in SL. Because of what is being asked, newbies probably won't be able to help, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

Franja Russell, the person in charge of the Talis Sci-Fi & Fantasy Portal, needs help setting up the Portal with the March theme that it, as part of the larger body of Alliance groups, will be adopting. She will be on SL at the following times:

Futurismic.com has compiled a list of free science fiction available on the internet. Happy reading! Thanks to contributor Frank for the tip and link.

The next R-SPEC meeting is March 3, at 7pm, at the Pittsford Barnes and Noble. The topic will be member favorites. Click the headline for more.

Ursula K. Le Guin will read from her novel, "Always Coming Home," in Second Life on Saturday, Feb. 28th, at 3:30 pm in conjunction with Second Life Librarians and the Potlatch 18 Science Fiction Conference in Sunnyvale, California. Click the headline for more.