2011 Nebula Awards Nominees f/m

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Discuss

The demands of a free populace, too, are very seldom harmful to liberty, for they are due either to the populace being oppressed or to the suspicious that it is going to be oppressed...
and, should these impressions be false, a remedy is provided in the public platform on which some man of standing can get up, appeal to the crowd, and show that it is mistaken. And though, as Tully remarks, the populace may be ignorant, it is capable of grasping the truth and readily yields when a man, worthy of confidence, lays the truth before it.
Anyone who studies present and ancient affairs will easily see how in all cities and all peoples there still exist, and have always existed, the same desires and passions. Thus, it is an easy matter for him who carefully examines past events to foresee future events in a republic and to apply the remedies employed by the ancients, or, if old remedies cannot be found, to devise new ones based upon the similarity of the events.

End in sight for Medical Radioisotope shortage?

The solution to the global shortage in the supply of crucial medical isotopes – a scarcity pegged to problems at Ontario’s aging Chalk River nuclear reactor – may be lying in the basements of Canadian hospitals.

Does the cooking channel need a new reality show?

Wanted: "Astronauts" for a four-month "mission on Mars." Must be willing to cook.

That's the essence of a proposition being offered by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, which are seeking Canadian and American volunteers to take part in a study of how astronauts might eat on a mission on Mars.

A poll

[Poll #1820810]

A poll

[Poll #1820810]

This was described as "pure James Nicoll bait"

PLAYBOY: On the other hand, just mention Arcade Fire around you and you light up.

KRUGMAN: That’s an interesting thing. There are a lot of great bands out there, which I’m busy discovering. Thank God for YouTube. The thing about Arcade Fire is the absolute lack of cynicism. Sometimes I wish I could be like that. But if I can’t, at least I can watch other people being like that.

PLAYBOY: It’s fascinating. You write about these things on your blog. Is this a sort of midlife crisis for a baby boomer discovering new bands?

KRUGMAN: I was pretty much listening to the golden oldies station with 1960s and 1970s music, Fleetwood Mac being about as modern as I got. And then for some reason after Arcade Fire won the Grammys, I said, “Gee, what is this?” I was shocked. Oh my God, there’s music being made now that is really good. It didn’t all go away around the time I turned 35. And so that opened me up a lot. Arcade Fire is just the one that provides the most solace. It’s gorgeous stuff.

PLAYBOY: You like Feist too.

KRUGMAN: Feist. The New Pornographers are probably technically better than Arcade Fire. But what the hell? It’s all good.

PLAYBOY: It sounds like it gives you some hope and uplift.

KRUGMAN: Yeah. And to be honest, I have a crush on the women in Arcade Fire.

Feist, Arcade Fire and the New Pornographers are, of course, Canadian.

Extra points for the pit of despair self-admitted American Krugman teeters on right after that.

On the Sun

(I couldn't get NASA's embed code to work)