News and Blog Updates: May 18, 2008

News Headlines:
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Are We Alone - Next show available May 19, 2008 Skeptical Sunday: Is Ignorance Bliss?

Europe is a country. Six justices sit on the Supreme Court. The Vietnamese attacked Pearl Harbor. If ignorance is bliss, this is one happy-go-lucky country. The average American's grasp of history, current events, and geography is so poor, according to one journalist, we've become a nation of dunces, seriously undermining our own future. Find out why "F" stands for American intellect and what's behind the national trend of dumbing down. Also, the story of the brilliant Russian geneticist who paid the ultimate price during Stalin's Terror in the 1930s. Plus, Brains on Vacation assesses the doomsday threat of the Large Hadron Collider. And, hunting for ghosts in Hollywood. It's Skeptical Sunday... but don't take our word for it. Guests:

• Susan Jacoby - Author of The Age of American Unreason
• Peter Pringle - Journalist and author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Greatest Scientists of the Twentieth Century
• Phil Plait - Astronomer and keeper of the website www.badastronomy.com
• James Underdown - Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles

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


Headlines From SF News Sites:
Check out the new addition to this section - Apex Book Company. There is a nice post from io9 of conceptual art of Gallifrey, Locus has news of other magazines and new books, along with lots of news from all the other sites.

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Apex Book Company: Apex Publications and Sara Harvey

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io9: Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees, Sunset On The Lost Planet Of Gallifrey, Nano-Noir and Cyber-Godfathers in "The Digital Plague", First Look At Saoirse Ronan's Postapocalyptic Detective In City Of Ember, House of Gundam [Architecture], & Ian Miller's Geometrically-Exact Surrealism [The Jewels Of Aptor]

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Locus Online: Monitor: Other Magazines, mid May, & Monitor: New Books: third week May

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RevolutionSF: Sci-Fi TV Not Cancelled Yet 2008 : Dollhouse, Fringe, Eleventh Hour, Life On Mars, Mentalist (News)

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Science Fiction Awards Watch: Kincaid Joins Campbell Jury

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SF Signal: Cubeecraft, The Word This Week Features Philip K. Dick, Do you like it hard?, SF Tidbits for 5/17/08, Tube Bits for 05/17/2008, This Week's Freebies from Tor, REVIEW: The Last Book by Zoran Živković, Friday YouTube: Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, SF Tidbits for 5/16/08, & Tube Bits for 05/16/2008,

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SF Site: Up from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories by Philip Jose Farmer, Nexus Graphica: a column by Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams, Fairyland by Paul McAuley, Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic edited by Karen A. Romanko, Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, H.P. Lovecraft In Britain by Stephen Jones, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant, Four Novels of The Sandokan Series by Emilio Salgari, New Audiobooks: compiled by Susan Dunman, Aurealis #38/39, & New Arrivals compiled by Neil Walsh

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SFScope: Updates to Previously Published Articles (11-17 May 2008), Ben Bova's Laugh Lines make a point, Tarzan-creator's grandson Danton Burroughs dies, Hocus Pocus a novel of magic with actual lessons, & Cartoonist Will Elder Dies

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The Website at the End of the Universe: Prince Caspian a hit with critics


Selected Blog Updates:
Lois McMaster Bujold recently had a laparoscopic appendectomy. She requests that in lieu of card or emails, you swing by her blog, and leave a comment which is easier for her to read.

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Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest - "Book Reviewers accepting PDFs? "

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Boxcar Astronaut - "Warp Speed Diogee! "

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Cynthia Leitich Smith - "YA Book & Writer News; ttyl and Violet by Design Giveaways "

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David Louis Edelman - "Do the Blurbs Sell the Book? "

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Di Francis - "Snippet Saturday "

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Fran Friel - "Tidbits: Apex Winners, Insults, Lair News and the Book Guts "

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HARPER PERENNIAL - "Book Club Girl - on the radio "

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Horror Library Blog-O-Rama - "Honesty - by Dan Naden "

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JAMES AND DADDY - "Update 18th May 2008 "

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Jodi Lee - "Parasitic Thoughts - Released! "

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Lois McMaster Bujold - "health bulletin "

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Louise Bohmer - Lachesis Publishing - "New Releases from LBF Books, and Coming Soon "

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Nicola Griffith - "good writing days and bad "

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Planet Pride - "How Many Moons Does Jupiter Have? ", "LIDAR Imaging Detector Could Build ’Super Road Maps’ Of Planets And Moons ","Impact on the Ice ", & "Wandering Poles Left Scars on Europa "

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rob (Robyn Thurman) - "Nightlife Japanese Cover Art "

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Rue Morgue Magazine - "June Cinemacabre: HELL’S GROUND "

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SF/F copyeditor (Deanna Hoak) - "Accepted into LaunchPad Astronomy Workshop "

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Spectra Pulse - "Upcoming Year's Best anthology appearances from Tim Pratt "

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Spokane Comicon - "$1 Raffle Prizes revealed! "

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Tor.com - "Preview of Touch of Evil by C T. Adams and Cathy Clamp ", "Starfish by Peter Watts ", & "Spirit Gate: Book One of Crossroads by Kate Elliot "

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Yasmine Galenorn - "Eight Legged Freaks & Cucumber-Tomato Salad ", "Excuse me???? When you write to me, PLEASE watch your fingers...LOL... ", "Health Makeover--Day 3, and Dragon Wytch Excerpt ", & "A few book notes, and some major changes for me... "