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Episode 241 of Beam Me Up on a fine Christmas after noon. Most sane people probably wouldn’t be here in the studios, but you know how dedicated I am! Well decenting voices to the contrary, I think we have a great episode this week!

Two serializations this week! Our first story is Dark InSpectre #7 from writer Jason Kahn. Second is the continuing antic of Parvo future pest – meister of Pest – world in episode 4 of Red Robot from the talented pen of Colin P. Davies and the off the hook production talents of Cyber Wizard production. This story keeps getting better and better each episode.

This week’s blog entries at the Beam Me Up blog at http://wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com do not disappoint either. I review the animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood which may not match the animation and production values of movies like How to Train Your Dragon but still should be a treat for the Batman fans. The plot fits well into the existing mythology surrounding Batman. Oh I have got to thank Boing Boing for pointing out this next gem. There I found a link to the top 10 most popular posts of the year. Funny research, news articles what have you. The are weird oh so very weird, strange and wildly funny. From an article on the contraceptive qualities of polyester to possibly the strangest case hysteria in a medical clinic.

An article that I didn’t really have time to do anything but mention it, is a post from a new contributor. When Science Fiction Pushes the Boundaries of Science posted by contributing writer: Beatrice Owen.

This is a well thought out piece which deals with science pushing science fiction as well as the reverse. Interesting read.

That and a musical selection in the spirit of the season! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

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Welcome once again to Beam Me Up.  This weeks episode is show 235.  Not a big week in science news, however I do think I make up for it in the stories that I play this week.  Our first story this week is the continuing Dark inSpectre series from author Jason Kahn.   In episode six, psychic inspecter Jack Garrett is haunted in the real and the metaphoric sense.   Garrett continues to put himself in situations that can cause great physical and psychological damage.  As he gets closer to the cause of some gruesome murders he finds that he is in danger of losing his life or worse – his mind.  The last story this week is part one of an Adam Chase story from Amazing Stories 1957, Home is where you left it.  In this story, Steven Cantwell returns to his childhood home planet after years away on Earth.  He finds the village where he grew up recently deserted and the communal well poisoned.   Steve tracks down the residents of the village, who had abandoned everything and headed into the desert in an attempt to cross it and get to safety before the planet’s native inhabitants discover their whereabouts.  Steve also finds out that the natives are not the only ones that are a danger to the villagers and ultimately may bring death to them all!

From the Beam Me Up blog at wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com, I finally got a chance to see the restored version of Fritz Lang’s silent movie classic Metropolis.  With more than a forth of the movie restored, the movie takes on a very different tone.  Many of the scenes, that were edited out, are
so integral to  the film’s plot that the movie actually takes on a completely different meaning when viewed as Lang had intended.  It really is a must see.   Steven Davis mashed together scenes from several movies to create a fan made movie trailer for a movie possibility -Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.  If you enjoy Card’s Ender Wiggins stories than you will be wowed by this great effort!   Scientists don’t fully understand the dynamics however,  astronomers working with data from the Fermi space telescope were able to detect two enormous structures extending 25k light years above and below the galactic plane of our Milky Way galaxy.  The gamma ray globes may be very young, just several million years old and may have been formed by infalling mass on the galaxies super black hole at the center.  But with the odd shape and no evidence of a continuing jet, much more research needs to be done.  Sean Wainsteim created a very futuristic music video for the band You Say Party’s song, Lonely Lunch.  Wainsteim uses the crush of humanity as well as the constant noise and color mixed in with some of the weirdest sci-fi outfits to make a really attention grabbing science fiction short.  And AntipodeanSF issue 149 is online, and has to be one of the best collection of Australian flash fiction to date.

That’s what is in-store on this week’s podcast episode 235.  The hour goes by fast.

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Beam Me Up episode 230 is fast and seasonal this week.   Our first piece is is a new episode in the Dark Inspectre Series by Jason Kahn  Things are just not going well at all for our favorite  mind reading inspector.  Seems he managed to garner a good beating on his last outing but far from giving up is right back in the mix, as soon as he is able to walk that is…. and our last story this week is a new story from A.K. Sykora called Mega-Chicken!  Mz Sykora for those of you that don’t follow the podcast, is a very talented writer from Germany who has created some of the most memorable fiction for Beam Me Up.  Stories like Don’t Mess With My SSTO, Irresistible and the Coming of the Arbaries has created a venue set in present day New York where indigent Tony Baggs becomes mother to a most unusual feathered friend in part one of Mega-chicken.  Plant your tongue firmly in your cheek and prepare for the funnier side of alien invasion…..

From the blog this week, I review the movie directed, Produced and Written by Jamin Winans called INK.  A dark tale of loss, pain, failure, mystery and redemption.  For an independent and low budget project, well to be honest, even a large budget it is a remarkable and entertaining movie.    Next up was the IG Nobel award, an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research….  stuff like swearing helps lessen pain?  or using rc helicopters to collect infected whale snot, oh and it gets much much worse!  Lets just say that the short nosed fruit bat has it made!  Talk about audience participation!  How about an interactive stage play that turns a whole theater into Apollo mission control for the infamous mission 13. It is being held in Nelson, New Zealand, during the Nelson Arts Festival!  NASA wants to explore Mars this time with a rocket plane dubbed ARES (or the Aerial Regional-Scale Environmental Surveyor), total mission time will be 2 hours, it will be released high in the Martian atmosphere and cover a thousand miles while using high resolution camera gear it would give us the best low altitude.  SyFy has reupped Haven for a second 13 episode season!  and finally what has to be the best proof of concept for the free/open source 3D creation suite Blender is a short animated film called Sintel.  The film may be short on time however it was long on plot.  A totally cute and heart rending  story very cleverly done.  So proof of concept or not, its worth watching.

I think you will find episode 230 every bit as fun to listen to as it was for me to do!  I hope you join us.

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This week on episode 227 of The Beam Me Up show:  I open this week with the song by Kokia   from the second season of the anime series Gunslinger Girl called  “Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi”.   You have to really watch the series to see how this song is a perfect fit for Gunslinger Girl.

Our first story this week is episode four of the Dark Inspectre series by Jason Kahn.  There is no question that Jason has painted a dark milieu for his characters to live in and this week is no exception.  Things continue to go from bad to worse for  telepathic inspecter Jack Garrett.

My pet peve for the week was another whole slew of wrasllin on tap with the sy – fy channel.  I thought we were going to get a reprieve when the present series ended, but no….the newest adds were for Ultimate Smack down on Sy Fy.  Yeah, I lost my composure a bit when I heard that.  I am willing to bet that the Ys in Sy Fy is for YEAH!  I will leave the S and F to your imagination, but I can bet they don’t stand for Science and Fiction anymore.

From the blog:

Rumor has it that Gemma Arterton, of Prince of Persia fame, might be Ridley Scott’s choice for the heroine in his latest project in the Alien franchise.

Alexander Semenov has created what he titled Transformers test film one.  This is a self made “Transformer” short that is damn funny and clever.  Though a bit rough around the edges, it has that touch of reality that might just come from two guys with too much free time and access to some very convincing technology.

Amanda, of Books of Amanda Land blog, sends us a link for her review of Neal Stephenson’s “Diamond Age, or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer.”

According to a recent  article I read in Boing Boing, NASA has somewhat of a dirty secret when it come to astronauts in fact and fingernails in particular.

In other news, AK Sykora has a new story out and has offered it to us in a three part series.  I can’t give away to much yet, but in reading the story, it is quite possibly one of the best we have run by her.   Other stories by Mz. Sykora were Irrasistable, Coming of the Abaries, Don’t mess with my SSTO and others.  I certainly am looking forward to her newest!

Out last story this week is a strange tale called Kifli by Rose Lenberg, and read by CrystalWizard of Cyberstudios Audio online.  It is an EXCELLENT read and I think you will love the interaction between the mother and daughter and a most unusual delivery service!

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Episode 217 I think you will find fast moving enough.

First we have episode 2 of the Dark Inspectre series by Jason Kahn. We start to see a bit more of Jason’s near future world he has constructed for his telepathic cop.

From the blog, I review the CD anime series Lain and a hugely entertaining short on you tube called The Pro plus more from the blog

Finally a tense story of discovery out amongst the stars: I play part one of Jeff Carlson’s Long Eyes

Strap in as the Star Ship BMU lifts off to explore the far reaches of reality….  It’s time for Beam Me Up!