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Jason Kahn

This episode for the first week in October 2011, as usual I go in for stories that are seasonal I think you would say.

With that in mind the first story of the evening is the conclusion to The Dark InSpectre written and read by Jason Kahn.  This is episode 17 of Unfinished Business in which our intrepid psychic detective Jack Garrett puts the finishing touches to one of the most horrific murders he has ever seen.

The second story this week is a classic piece from the pages of Analog Magazine call “Am I still Here?” by James R. Hall.  Here, in a tale set into the near future where any and everything can be repaired or replaced in a human body, the question is asked…when do you stop being you and become something or someone else that just thinks it is you?

In news…Earth Sky speaks about water flows on Mars and the makeup of mysterious  rogue waves.  I read the impressions of some NASA astronauts that have taken the ride home in a Soyuz capsule.

From the Blog

Doug Hilton sends us a note on his news short story collection:  How We Play Football in Alabama And Other Short Stories.  Mark Wilson over at About SF writes that The movie Source Code is coming to the small screen as a series.  The giant particle accelerator The Tevatron is shutting down 9/30/11 and a great project becomes victim like SETI, to budget cuts and apathy.

Thats episode 281 of Beam Me Up

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Welcome to Beam Me Up.  This week’s episode is show 263.  I am very happy with how the show progressed this week, I think you find it equally entertaining.

I open this week with My Favorite Martian doing the song “All These Villains” This will get the blood pumping and the toes taping for sure.

This week’s fiction is a couple of short stories from Doug Hilton and Ken Liu.

Doug’s offering this week is a twisted tale in the vein of Damon Knights “To Serve Man”.  Doug’s story is titled “Better than Jelly Beans”  and it is every bit as twisted as you can imagine.  As the title suggest Humans are treated like rather unhealthy junk food.  Oh my!

Ken Liu’s Simulacrum is of much more serious stuff.  This week I play the conclusion of Ken’s story.  We are carried deeper into the dynamics and implications of the Simulacrum device and how it has impacted the inventor’s life and those around him to a most disturbing conclusion and totally unsuspected ending.  I hope you are as floored as I was by the last half of this wonderful story.

In between the stories I check out the Beam Me Up blog.  Kaydara is  a fan made movie based in the Matrix universe and is visually stunning, you will not believe this is a non professional movie.

Scientists have announced that sub-surface Moon rock may contain as much water as we have on Earth. Levels in fact 100 times higher than previous estimates.

I review the Green Hornet.  My whole review can be pared down to one word…Terrible.

NASA has placed the Spirit Rover  on the inactive list.  This after a year of no response to queries from NASA. NASA will cease trying to signal the rover.

During the height of the hysteria, a very enterprising person designed a DIY Rapture kit!

The 2010 Nebula Awards have been announced!

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Episode  246 goes fast this week!  I start this week’s program with a short memorial to the Challenger crew who died January 28 1986 when the shuttle disintegrated 74 seconds after launch.

After a short musical interlude, I play our first story of the day.  This week, Beam Me Up’s first story is a seriously funny look at future NCAA football, with Doug Hilton’s “How we play football in Alabama”.  At the bottom of the hour I conclude Erin Cashier’s “Chinvat Bridge” which I started last
week.  In the closing part of this really well written story, Srosh, who guards the girls is becoming much more reluctant to perform his duties. More girls are running and he is compelled to save them or at least try, even knowing what fate lies in wait for them in the very near future.  I the end, his choices are made for him.  A truly heart rending story and one that will surely stay with you for some time.

From the Beam Me Up Blog at wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com, The Hubble again finds the oldest most distant object in the universe,  It’s IBM’s 100th anniversary.  You really have to see the short video about the companies hist told by those that lived it.  From Lockheed – Martin a short film about something they like to call….”Space Fence”  a really innovative idea on how to track the thousands of pieces of space trash that orbit the Earth now.  And finally from Discovery a real close up look at the Daedalus project which was envisioned to travel the five and a half light year distance between us and Barnard’s star.  The mission is truly amazing in its scope and its huge scale!  Its amazing the size of what is for all intents and purposes an unmanned probe and would only do a flyby of the Barnard system! Amazing!

Episode 246 full of entertainment and it goes fast! lol Check it out.

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Beam Me Up 240 this week is loaded up!  I start with a song that may not strictly be science fiction but does have some clear science fiction ties.  I play Indestructible by  Robyn which could be thought of as a sci fi theme, but it was the suit the singer wore in the video that got me thinking.  Very futuristic with tubes of colored water being pumped around through clear tubes.  There is a making of video that shows the music video and suit being made.  Lots of fun for a diy type person.

Our first story is Doug Hilton reading his story Where Horses Run Free.  Doug’s story is in the alien invasion theme.  A disturbing mix of War of the Worlds with a feel of Animal Farm mixed in.   Doug of course is no stranger to Beam Me Up with stories like “War Story”,  “The Billboard” and the breath taking brilliant “Zeno’s Paradox”.  Where Horses….easily stands with these great selections.  The second story this week is episode three of Red Robot by Colin P. Davies (production by Cyber Studios).   Red Robot is set in the Pest World universe and follows the  exploits of a young pest meister Parvo.  The tension continues to build this week.  This week Parvo manages to get one up on his tormentors and finds that he enjoys it just a bit too much.

From the Blog at wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com  -  Residents of Santa Monica Bay were startled by two brightly lit UFOs.  Now if that is a bit difficult to swallow, then what really happened is going to  be difficult indeed, because its so damn funny.  David Steffen gets picked up by  Pseudopod.   Seventeen missing minutes to the classic science fiction film 2001 have been uncovered in the storage bin where the original print was being stored.  Director Kubricks cut these scenes from the film to shorten it and various other reasons.  But it comes down to the fact that the film has not been seen complete since Kubricks showed it at the first showing.   Orbital Sciences Corporation wants to get into resupply of the ISS but wants to do it completely different than Space X with its Dragon / falcon 9 stack.  OSC wants to use a reusable craft much like the shuttle only much much smaller.  I review Brave New Worlds edited by John J. Adams.  Thirty Three dystopic utopias fill the pages in a good mix of new and old science fiction.