The most important question about the Beijing Worldcon Bid

How long will it take someone to spin an improbable Yellow Menace scenario about Them taking over Worldcon?

Third comment, comment not the fault of the hosts at File 770:

Another point to consider, is that with covert government involvement and 1.2 billion potential members, it would be easy for a Chinese bid to win every year one was eligible … and to change the constitution so that one was eligible every year. Not the most likely of scenarios, I grant you, since the Chinese government has larger fish to stir fry, but government involvement at some level is a certainty, and it may not be far below the surface.

Mind you, the commenter isn't much keener on India or Africa.

Clarkesworld Podcast February 2013: Gravity (Erzebet YellowBoy)

Gravity (Erzebet YellowBoy)

The text version can be found here.

Read by Kate Baker

A space ship crewed more for PR reasons than actual need is sent on a one-way mission to rekindle the sun. The protagonist struggles with her growing realization that being part of a (completely pointless) suicide mission means that her activities after the mission may well be curtailed. Perhaps she could have thought things through a bit more.

Another one for the Gomphothere Book of OH GOD WE ALL DIE Science Fiction.

The basic scenario is a bit like that overrated Danny Boyle movie but this doesn't decline into a slasher flick at the end.

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Escape: S.S. San Pedro (James Gould Cozzens)

S.S. San Pedro (James Gould Cozzens)

An inflexible first officer does his best to carry out his duties despite unexplained technical issues, a hurricane and a saucy woman who has set her cap for him. She is canny enough to work out the significance of a particular passenger but the protagonist is much less canny.

Of course this exists

"Thrift Shop (Vintage "Grandpa Style" Macklemore Cover)" (Watch on YouTube)

Idea for an "The Locusts" style story

It turns out most Space! Just like the Old West! types are suffering from the effects of a Cordyceps-style alien parasite that needs to get up into interplanetary space to spore.