Black Hole Fires At Neighboring Galaxy

Remember Shaun Saunders short story Last Light (episode 39 of BMU) which told the tale of a dying civilization's last gasp effort for immortality? I won't ruin the ending for you, but it is one of my favorite short stories hands down. Well here is an article from science daily about the very same cosmic event that was highlighted in Saunders' story. As frightening as the event was to read in a story, imagine knowing that not only could it happen, but scienctists have found evidence that it HAS happened!

Click the article title or here for more

Last light can be found in the Beam Me Up archive at http://penbay.org/wrfr/bstories/archive.htm

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has been found. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans

Forced Immunization - one step away from MallCity says Saunders

A recent action by Circuit Court Judge C. Philip Nichols to force parent of school age children in Maryland to prove that their children have been vaccinated or risk up to 10 days in jail - has spawned some very heated debate from many people. One of our resident social critics, writer and psychologist Shaun A. Saunders has aptly pointed out that, right or wrong, this is a move well into his MallCity universe where civil liberties, personal freedom and privacy are things of the past. He has cited several recent news articles that describe in detail, just what is going on in Maryland.

Shaun writes

The weblink below tells of forced vaccination of schoolchildren in Maryland, USA, where kids were literally herded up into a courthouse and illegally and forcibly vaccinated without their or their parents' consent. Is this a democracy? Or another example of government and state acting as paid agents of big industry?

I've said more than once in recent radio interviews about my books Mallcity 14 and Navigating in the New World that the current reality of corporate Australia and its big brother the US of A is every bit as scary as my fiction...democracy? LOL - just forced consumption...

regards,

Shaun


Here are his links.


The official marketing spiel
http://baltimore.about.com/od/healthfitness/a/vaccinations.htm

A one-sided news article before the event
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5309438.html

and another:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flashots1118sbnov18,0,6491912.story

dissension from physicians:
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/november2007/181107Vaccine.htm

Gone in 12 seconds: your rest break

Shaun just sent me this, and I can not believe that they are serious! Some things in science fiction are just so amazing that you can't imagine them ever becoming fact....then there are the strange little things that you hope you never see. Just because the world gets a bit bleaker if they do.

Now I have done telemarketing and I want to tell you I thought 30 seconds between calls was too little time. Here is an article that describes a scenario much much worse.

Shaun writes: You read it in my story 79.9 (in 2005, and now included in 'Navigating in The New World'), now read the actual occurrence in the 'real world'.....

Click here for the article

New Shaun A. Saunders Story

Our regular science news contributor Shaun A. Saunders has a new story in the newest issue of Antipodean Science Fiction. Tis called "What Else but War?" Those of you that have listened to Beam Me Up for a bit will recognize the name and type of fiction. This is "flash" fiction which Shaun has mastered and wields with great skill. Click the article title or click HERE to go directly to the story. Oh and if you think of it, I am sure Shaun wouldn't mind you voting on your favorite as well.

And as I have mentioned in the recent past, Shaun has a new book out containing his short fiction called "Navigating in the New World" I have had the pleasure of reading a few of the stories in the book here on Beam Me Up, plus I have read the book and enjoyed it greatly. The book is well worth checking out.

Navigating in the New World by Shaun A. Saunders is out!

Navigating In The New World Review Quotes

The Illustrated Man for the 21^st century.
Paul Cole, ‘Beam Me Up’ Science and SF radio show (WRFR 93.3 Maine) and Podcast.

An eminently readable and often hilarious collection of cautionary tales.
Jack McDevitt

Not since reading (and rereading, and rereading) Arthur C. Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God" as a kid have I come across a short story (Curtain Call) with this power.
Sara Bordowitz, Israel.

Saunders' singular style evokes Ray Bradbury and George Orwell, with a generous dash of O. Henry.
Sunni Maravillosa, creator of the pro-freedom culture 'zine Sunni's Salon (http://www.endervidualism.com/salon/) .

Saunders picks targets that matter and hits them with frightening accuracy.
David Southwell Author of a number of best-selling books on conspiracy theories and the nature of organized crime in the twenty-first century.

Another brilliant, funny, satirical, succinct and realistic-while-imaginative work by this contemporary Huxley-Orwell-Asimov. Very entertaining and oh-so-true...
Brian O'Leary, Ph.D., www.brianoleary.com,

for more information, please click here

Link to Shaun Saunders new story Equal Opportunity

As you all know, writer Shaun A. Saunders has been with Beam Me Up almost from its' inception. I really enjoy his fiction and feel that we will be seeing great things from him in the very near future. He is a frequent submitter to Antipodean, a blog / magazine centered around "flash" fiction. His recent submission to antisf.com is now available - I read it, and it's good. Have a look


http://www.antisf.com/stories/story05.htm


(ed note Shaun's upcoming anthology is "Navigating the New World" due out shortly......pac)

Of Mice and ... print version doing well on antipodean Science Fiction

As our listeners know, Shaun A. Saunder has written many excellent short stories and novels. Plus contributing heavily to the science portion of the podcast with submission to this blog. In Beam Me Up episode 46 we ran an original piece of fiction from Shaun called Of Mice and...which is a story of the future and more the implications of combining the human genome withanimal DNA. If you would like to read the original story (and more of Shaun's writing) log onto this month's Antipodean Magazine. This month's Antipodean's url is http://www.antisf.com/stordex.htm

Pillars of Creation Toppled By Stellar Blast

**In a note sent to me by Shaun Saunders, he suggests that this is very much like his story Curtain Call that we featured in the last episode of Beam Me Up in December of 2006 (bmu #34) I also wanted to add that it also fits very well with the story we will be running this week - Hubble - and look for another tie in with Shaun's heart breaking story Last Light - which we will be featuring in a later broad cast....pac**

The famous Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula might have already been toppled long ago, and that what the Hubble Space Telescope actually captured was only a ghost image.

A new picture of the Eagle Nebula shot by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, show the intact pillars next to a giant cloud of glowing dust scorched by the heat of a massive stellar explosion known as a supernova [image].

"The pillars have already been destroyed by the shockwave," said study leader Nicolas Flagey of The Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in France.

Astronomers think the supernova's shock wave knocked the pillars down about 6,000 years ago. But because the Eagle Nebula is located some 7,000 light years away, the majestic pillars will appear intact to observers on Earth for another 1,000 years or so.

The supernova blast is thought to have occurred between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago, so what astronomers see now is evidence of the blast just before its destructive shock wave reached the pillars.

MallCity14 By Shaun A. Saunders

221 pp paperback Trafford Press $19.99 US CDN$ 23.30 Amazon

At first, when reading MallCity14 you might be lured into thinking that the theme has been done again and again. But your being lured yes, but by a master of misdirection. MallCity14 - the dehumanization of Silberberg's Urban Monads, insidious Big Brother of 1984, the literary horror of Bradbury's 451 plus rampant advertising and consumption. All of this wrapped into a clean, fast-paced first person narrative. Every bit a “brave new world” however spun up with technology and psychology that previous authors could never have imagined. And just when you think you have it all figured out...everything changes.

Is the novel misleading or misdirected? Hardly - Saunders is a master of the literary subliminal image. What will give this novel wider appeal is the protagonist. A time weary traveler? A virginal barbarian? Hardly – no, the story is told mostly from the eyes of a teenage boy. But with the masterful mix of adult subplot we are treated to story telling that will appeal to adults as well as young adults.

I have seen copies available on Amazon

New Story by Shaun Saunders

Shaun Saunders is a very talented award winning author from Australia. We will be reading some of his short fiction on BEAM ME UP in the near future. Shaun just had a story published in cosmos magazine called Apollo's Breath. Quick fun read that I would recommend. I don't want to give away too much but here is a short blurb. Check it out.

Well traveled, widely read, Pausinias was sure of man's superiority over beasts and women. He just needed a woman in a temple to confirm it for him.