Through the simple test of suddenly doing a lot of snow shovelling

I have verified I do not have a heart condition of the sort that is triggered by a sudden burst of physical activity. Go me!

2000 X

In April 2000, NPR, in partnership with the Hollywood Theater of the Ear, launches the most ambitious radio drama since Star Wars. 2000X unites the best futuristic fiction with superb acting talents and top-notch sound production. These audio plays celebrate the new millennium, looking to the future for adventure, satire, suspense, philosophy, comedy, and, of course, romance.

The 26 programs that make up 2000X cast an ear to the social, political, and technological possibilities of the next millennium. All plays take place totally or substantially in a time after 2000 AD. These ambitious new dramas are based on works by such science-fiction stalwarts as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, and Ursula K. Le Guin, along with the fiction of mainstream luminaries such as Mark Twain, Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Kurt Vonnegut, and E. M. Forster. The award winning author and broadcast personality Harlan Ellison is the series host. Productions feature a who's who among actors: Robin Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, Samantha Eggar, Charles Durning, and some 100 others. The 2000X production team includes a Grammy winner and a Peabody Award winner.

There are some interesting titles in the series but alas, the link to the show's site 404s. Was there an archive made of this?

Gareth Rees's review of By Light Alone

[T]he topic of overpopulation has more than one trap, and I think By Light Alone doesn’t steer clear of them all.

It seems to me this novel shares an idea with Walter Jon Williams "The Green Leopard Plague". Hmmm. And also the Robinsons' Stardance books, which were using an idea from Varley (the latter two moved the idea to SPACE! or given the arrow of time, AR and WJW moved it to Earth).

Question

Someone appears to have added to the article on Demographic Transition this bit (in October, I think):

In the current century, the past decade as of 2012, most advanced countries have increased fertility. This is completely expected from the viewpoint of evolutionary psychology, with drastic environmental changes causing selection of behavioral traits that increase reproduction.

There is an associated footnote but the
link it goes to is dead. All I can tell from a bit of search is that it began with

13 Oct 2012 – Forecasters say they expect the world's population to reach 10bn by the year 2050 - but could the figure be 36bn?

Did the BBC yank this article from their site?

Crystal Cove

Really needs to diversify its economic base.

2000 Plus: The Brooklyn Brain

The Brooklyn Brain

Pity poor Joe, who just wants to work hard enough to support his wife, if he could just talk Clarice into marrying him; not only is Clarice not inclined to hand out even tepid physical favours outside the boundaries of marriage, she's not keen on marrying a man as uncultured as working class Joe [1].

Happily for Joe, there's a scientist who needs a human subject to test his instant education machine and Joe's secretary Flora is the sort of observant woman who would notice an ad such a scientist might place in a paper looking for a volunteer for such a machine. In sort order, Joe has had "culchah" (which seems to be art and art history) poured into his head, enough to impress both Clarice and his weaselly rival.

Everything seems fine and then Joe finds out ( Read more... )

2000 Plus: Space Wreck

Space Wreck

Sound quality too crappy, gave up before the clearly doomed vessel set off into space.