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STUDY: When Robots Beg For Their Lives

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robot - pixabay

Robots designed to interact socially with humans are slowly becoming more and more common. They’re appearing as receptionists, tour guides, security guards, and porters. But how good are we at treating these robots as robots? A growing body of evidence suggests not good at all. Studies have repeatedly shown we’re extremely susceptible to social cues coming from machines, and a recent experiment by German researchers demonstrates that people will even refuse to turn a robot off — if it begs for its life. In the study, published in the open access journal PLOS One, 89 volunteers were recruited to complete … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: Death Days, by Lia Cooper

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Death Days

QSFer Lia Cooper has a new MM Paranormal book out: By day, Professor Nicholas Littman works as an itinerant professor at a small college in the Pacific Northwest. He teaches seminars on mythology and the intersections of folklore and magic in the ancient world. By night, he’s the local necromancer, a rare magical talent that has left him alienated from other practitioners. All Nick wants from life is to be left alone to run his magical experiments and teach kids the historical context of magic without anyone being the wiser. Unfortunately, his family is sworn to sit on the council … Read more

Me Me Monday!

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Me Me Monday

Welcome to M3: ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB discussion page for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post so we can comment on yours specifically –Check out the other posts and congratulate and share them too! And congratulations!!!

TV: Patrick Stewart to Reprise Star Trek Role

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Patrick Stewart

Star Trek producers revealed Saturday that Patrick Stewart will reprise the role of Star Trek: The Next Generation captain Jean-Luc Picard on the franchise’s new series. The actor is also set to serve as executive producer on the series, which will air – like Star Trek Discovery – on CBS’ video-on-demand service All Access beginning in the fall of 2019. Stewart portrayed the fan-beloved Picard during Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s original television run from 1987 to 1994; the series’ crew also starred in four feature films, with Picard last appearing in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. Full Story at Rolling … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: Cleaning House, by Jeanne G’Fellers

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COVER - Cleaning House

Jeanne G’Fellers has a new trans-non binary fantasy book out: Centenary Rhodes is an old soul with a well-traveled name, but she doesn’t know this yet. Growing up in southern Appalachia wasn’t easy, so Cent left home as soon as she could, but the post-collegiate happiness she’d expected has never occurred. She can’t find a decent date, much less find that special someone and, after losing her job in a corporate downsize, she’s struggling to meet her most basic needs. Her car has been repossessed, her bills are piling up, and her questionable North Chicago neighborhood is dangerous to navigate. … Read more

FOR READERS: I Will Name Thee…

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name tag - pixabay

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Hank T. Cannon: How important is the name of the character to your initial reaction to a character. How much of your ability to move through the story is modified by a character who’s name made you initially cringe. Or maybe for a character whose named so symbolically that you expect that symbolism and it never shows? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! This is a legacy chat. Join the chat

SPACE: Crossing the Milkyway

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Milky Way

The disk of our home galaxy – the Milky Way – is bigger than we previously thought. A new study shows it would take 200,000 years for a spaceship traveling at the speed of light to go across the entire galaxy. Researchers made the find after analyzing the abundances of metals (heavy elements) in stars, also known as their metallicities. When looking beyond the previously assumed boundary of the Milky Way’s disk, scientists were surprised to see stars with compositions resembling those of disk stars. “We have shown that there is an appreciable fraction of stars with higher metallicity, characteristic … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: Shotgun Bastards, by Andrea Speed

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Shotgun Bastards

QSFer Andrea Speed has a new speculative fiction anthology book out: A collection of tales filled with monsters, be they human or beast, ranging in setting from dystopia to pitch black noir and even general silliness. From the ludicrous to the frighteningly plausible; from deep space to after the end of the world. There are clumsy werewolves and bloody revenge, monster sleep overs and a dieting fad sure to kill your appetite. Whether looking into the past or the future, you’re sure to find that stuff gets really weird. Get It On Amazon Excerpt Mad Monster Sleep Over It was … Read more

FOR WRITERS: Fan Art

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Kirk Spock Gay

FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Ryane Chatman: From my nephew (10 years old), Authors, do you mind when people send you fan art? (For context, he sees a lot of the book covers when I do reviews, and often reads them when I post them. He sometimes likes to re-imagine the covers, or I will read him the description of the main characters and he will draw something based on that.) This is a legacy chat. Join the chat

Marvel Producer: Queer Characters Are Coming to Marvel Films

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Marvel Avengers

A Marvel film boss has addressed the “frustration” about the failure to include visible LGBT characters in the film universe. Despite featuring hundreds of characters across its 20 blockbuster films to date, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has never featured a visible LGBT character, despite many in the source comic books on which the films are based.  Several of the films, including Thor: Ragnarok, did have characters who were intended to be LGBT – but all references to their sexuality have unfailingly ended up on the cutting room floor. It has been alleged that Disney bosses are concerned that … Read more