SF Tidbits for 7/18/09

• Amazon plays Big Brother with the Kindle version of George Orwell’s 1984. Apparently, one edition was removed from the Kindle catalog, that version was uninstalled from the corresponding Kindles, and those customers received refunds.
• Here’s a 12-part radio-interview with Jack Vance from 1976. [via John Ottinger III]
• John C. Wright uses the Periodic Table of Awesoments to determine whether a Samurai Vampire story in a definite win.
• Mike Brotherton is all over the electromagnetic spectrum in the video tutorial.
• Update on the film adaptation of Max Brooks’ zombie novel World War Z: J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) is out as writer, Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom) is in. [via io9 via Fangoria]
• Futurismic asks: Did the Apollo landings lead to science fiction’s decline?
• At AMC, John Scalzi is showing sympathy for scifi screenwriters.
• God bless SciFi fans, a community that saw fit to offer this Photoshop of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern.
• Adam Roberts writes: “Dear Science Fiction Fandom…your shortlists aren’t very good.”
• Just Free Books – A search engine for free ebooks in English and Spanish. [via Fritz Freiheit]
• This year, Anticipation introduces reduced-rate “Taster Memberships” for WorldCon.
• Steampunk Tidbits:
  • Morbid Outlook on Clockworks and Carbon: The Fantastical Escapades of the Steampunk Aesthetic. [via Steampunk Workshop]
  • Art Donovan is curator of a Steampunk exhibit. Cool stuff.
• Lists:
  • @SciFi Fan Letter: “Literary” Vampire Novel Reading List.
  • @Rotten Tomatoes: The 10 Best Movie Wizards.
  • @Popular Mechanics: 5 Useless Robots (And Why We Love Them)
  • @SciFi Now: 10 of the best…science fiction novels. No surprises. Sadly, I’ve only read half of them.

Related posts:

1. SF Tidbits for 4/12/08
2. SF Tidbits for 2/26/09
3. SF Tidbits for 3/4/09
4. SF Tidbits for 8/18/08
5. SF Tidbits for 10/10/08

Filed under: Tidbits

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