News and Blog Updates: April 13, 2008

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Are We Alone? - Next show available April 14, 2008: "Ctrl-S"
We all struggle with our memories. This is as true for society as a whole as it is for an individual. In some cases, the effort to preserve cultural history is also a race against time. We'll hear how a cave in Norway is helping keep our seed heritage on ice. And, can you speak Tofa? Magat Ke? As languages disappear faster than the rain forest, one group is working hard to keep native voices heard.

Meanwhile, how do we back up our written and pictorial heritage, most of which is on (ultimately perishable) paper? Not to mention the torrent of info in the form of Internet bits. That's the challenge at the Library of Congress, where a new digital initiative is trying to keep our intellectual inheritance intact. And IBM may soon help out in storing it all, as they develop magnetic beads that could increase the amount of memory on a chip by hundreds of times. Guests:

• Cary Fowler - Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust
• Stuart Parkin - Physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center
• David Harrison - Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge
• William LeFurgy - Digital Initiative Project, Library of Congress

You can listen to this and other episodes at: http://radio.seti.org/

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Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest - "Fly the banner, win the book "

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Armand Vaquer - Phyllis Coates to headline convention

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Boxcar Astronaut - What happened to Robot? The answer is here!

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Cynthia Leitich Smith - "Spring Flowers, The Writing Life, Lost Pines ", "Interview: Shayne Leighton on the Tantalize Trailer, ", & "YA Book & Writer News, Magic in the Mirrorstone Giveaway "

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Di Francis - "Saturday Snippet "

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Emerald City ComiCon - "One month to go! "

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Fantagraphics Books - "Now available: Castle Waiting value pack & Special Edition "

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Fantasy Book Critic - "NEW Fantasy Book Critic GIVEAWAYS for the Month of April 2008!"

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Horror Library Blog-O-Rama - "Why Not This One? By AJ Brown "

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JAMES AND DADDY - "Update 13th april 2008 "

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Lois McMaster Bujold - "milkweed bugs!", & "Just read... "

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Louise Bohmer - Lachesis Publishing - "Some Old Flash Pieces at Esoteric Free Reads ", "From Magus Press: Orpheus and the Pearl, New Kealan Patrick Burke Fiction ", & "Dance With Deception Book Signing Tonight -- Prizes "

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Michael G. Munz - Book Hunters Interview!

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Minnette Meador - "The Centurion & The Queen ", & "Centurion Contest - CD Give Away "
Also check out Minnette's blog on Blogspot.com: http://minnettemeador.blogspot.com/

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Nicola Griffith - "ooh, baby! "

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Yasmine Galenorn - "Dragon Wytch Arc Winner(s)!", & "Typecasting (grins) "

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Jen (Greybon) - Hodgepodge & Xyeido

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Sylvia Engdahl, SF author & space advocate - http://towardtomorrow.blogspot.com/

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Robert J. Sawyer's Blog - http://sfwriter.com/blog.htm