blog.nforget.com

This is a cool idea.

In an effort to educate and encourage math and science education Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, and NASA have embarked on a collaboration to publish a series of science based, commercial fiction books, referred to as “NASA inspired Works of Fiction” around concepts pertinent to the current and future work of NASA. NASA will allow existing and new Tor/Forge authors to team up with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Subject Matter Experts (SME) to create scientifically accurate and entertaining novels in a distinctly unique way.

Tor/Forge and NASA hope that pairing scientists and engineers with the imprints’ award-winning roster of writers will raise awareness and inspire the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), in line with the President’s Technology Agenda. They also hope to contribute towards the goal of attracting and retaining students in the above fields, thereby strengthening NASA and the nation’s future workforce in a compelling manner.

Risk Legacy is a new version of Risk that has game mechanics that permanently alter the game based on decisions made while playing. This includes stickers that permanently modify the board and mechanics that destroy certain game components (tearing up a card). So each time you play the game it evolves a little bit, and you are battling over a world with history based on your previous games.

I really like this idea.

The 2011 Hugo Awards were given out yesterday. Click through for the full list of nominees and winners.

Best Novel:

• Winner: Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis
• Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Dervish House, Ian McDonald
• Feed, Mira Grant
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin

This is a really good list. If you count series I have only partially read, as well as books I am currently reading, I have read 57 of the 100 books listed.

Jacob: 

• Neuromancer is over-rated. It may have been amazing when it was first published, but it has not aged well. 
• Stephenson is well-represented, as he should be.
• I, too, was glad to see the Thrawn Trilogy made the list.

longshankss:

Top 100 sci-fi/fantasy books as decided by NPR listeners’ votes. Anything missing? Before answering that, know that they omitted all young adult fiction, which explains the absence of Rowling, Pullman, Narnia, Earthsea, et al.

• Goddamn right Lord of the Rings is number one! 
• Impressed with A Song of Ice and Fire snagging fifth place given its youth. 
• Will admit to falling headfirst into the vortex of The Wheel of Time, but that crap took a massive nose-dive into sprawling, sluggish over-complexity. Full disclosure: dropped the series books ago, so can’t speak to the most recent entries.
• Same story with the Sword of Truth series, but due less to overreaching and more to boredom. Might be a good series. The Syfy show they made out of it is terrible/awesome for mindless viewing.
• Need to read Neuromancer. Supposedly one of the best. Anyone know first-hand?
• Neil Gaiman and Neal Stephenson have an impressive number of appearances.
• Huzzah for a Star Wars novel making the list! Haven’t read any of those since middle school.
• I think the whole Ender series (or at least the core of it), rather than just Ender’s Game, deserve some recognition here.
• Here is some interesting commentary.
• I’ve got my reading cut out for me.

Happy A Dance with Dragons eve! Have an interview (from The Atlantic) with the mastermind himself, George R. R. Martin.

americanmccarver:

It’s easy to joke that the only thing Americans care less about than soccer (translation for our non-U.S. readers: “the sport called ‘football’ that’s being ruined by Sepp Blatter, rather than the one being ruined by Roger Goodell”) is soccer when it’s played by women. Then again, the…

A write-up—from someone who is obviously not a huge soccer fan—of yesterday’s incredible USA match.

(Source: americanmccarver)