Rated PG. Contains minor profanity, explicit bodily functions, and people being very, very mean..
She said, “What the project needs is for you to come back and work on the same small area you did originally. Looking for something–anything–you might have missed in the protein-coded instructions to successive generations of nanoassemblers.”
“No,” I said.
Rated PG. Contains non-explicit sex, accidental assault, and geological scatology.
“Look, miss, I’m going to have to cut your hair to do this. Is that all right?”
She smiled at him from her upside-down, bent-over position, so he took that as a yes. He found an old pair of garden shears and took a hunk of her hair, gathered it into a rough ponytail, and hacked it off.
A pair of mountain bluebirds flew out from where the nest of hair had been.
Rated PG. Contains minor profanity, and very tame references to populating new worlds. Hey, someone’s got to.
The Pioneer Spirit was a colonization ship; it wasn’t intended as a diplomatic vessel. When it had left Earth, it had seemed important to get at least some humans off the mother world. Two small-scale nuclear wars–Nuke I and Nuke II, as the media had dubbed them–had already been fought, one in southern Asia, the other in South America. It appeared to be only a matter of time before Nuke III, and that one might be the big one.
SETI had detected nothing from Tau Ceti, at least not by 2051. But Earth itself had only been broadcasting for a century and a half at that point; Tau Ceti might have had a thriving civilization then that hadn’t yet started using radio. But now it was twelve hundred years later. Who knew how advanced the Tau Cetians might be?
Rated G. Contains nothing age-inappropriate. However, some listeners may find it excessively sad.
Today’s Sponsor:
Referenced sites:
2006 Podcast & Portable Media Expo
“Very good, Barnaby,” she says. “And what is this?”
“Kitten,” I say.
We go through the whole book.
“Where is Barnaby?” I ask.
“Barnaby is an ape,” she says. “There is no picture of an ape in the book.”
I wonder if there are any other Barnabys in the world, and if they are lonely too.
Rated G. This is a children’s story. Have Fun.
Referenced sites:
Variant Frequencies
(Technical Note: This is a corrected version of the sound file; my original one had a cut-and-paste glitch in the outro. Apologies to anyone who gets a duplicate, and thanks to Tony Mast of the Fanboy Smackdown podcast for pointing out the error.)
Squonk lived with his mother, who was definitely not a dragon–she was a small blue bird named Mrs. Tweedle-Chirp. Now, it is true that birds generally cannot lay dragon eggs, and Mrs. Tweedle-Chirp was no exception. But, they can care for dragon eggs that they happen to find lying untended in the middle of the forest, assuming they are suitably ambitious.
Rated G. (Anything that isn’t G-rated in this story is entirely the product of your imagination.)
“I’m sorry,” Purby said, reshuffling the papers on his desk. “What was the problem with her?”
“Her breathing. She breathes. She doesn’t stop.”
“Yes, and?”
“It’s unnerving.”
Rated PG. Contains slavery, heavy moral themes, and some violence.
Referenced sites:
Invasion: The Complete Series on DVD
Gradients of Sight
Dragon*Con: Atlanta, GA, September 1–4
On one occasion–he flinched to remember it–the invaders had brought him Cthara eggs. Warm, fertilized eggs, likely ripped just that day from the hatching burrow of some poor herder family. It had been the greatest challenge the Creator had ever sent him. His fangs had unfolded without his conscious will, and only a lifetime of piety and self-control had kept him from sinking them into the small bodies of the terrified guards.
His venom had dripped onto the filthy floor, and after the guards left he had lain shuddering in the dampness, feeling the leathery eggs by his flank gradually cool and die. Over and over he repeated the litany of the Prophet: “People shall not sink fang into other speaking people. People shall not eat the flesh of other speaking people. People shall not make war…”
Rated PG. Contains profanity and adolescence. (Wait, that’s redundant.)
Referenced sites:
Escape Pod on Wikipedia
Worldcon: Anaheim, CA, August 23–27
Dragon*Con: Atlanta, GA, September 1–4
Podcast & Portable Media Expo: Ontario, CA, September 29–30
When Jerry walked out across his lawn to catch the morning bus to Effendale High, he stopped to admire the new car Mr. Atkinson had growing in his lawn. Jerry could see the doors stretching up towards the roof, small branches of metal trying to reach their stringy edges up and around the rough frame. It looked like a regular car had melted, but in reverse. Every day Jerry stepped out, he could see more of the car’s gray paneling filling in around the rough frame. Mr. Atkinson tended towards planting larger luxury cars, like any other retired old man. The half-finished Caddilac sat in between the rose bushes and posies that Mrs. Atkinson cared for. Both car and bushes glinted with a fresh coating of morning dew.
Rated PG. Contains implications of violence, heavy politics, and split ends.
Referenced sites:
Worldcon: Anaheim, CA, August 23–27
Bring Sigler’s Ancestor to Sci Fi!
Wil Wheaton
EP036: Connie, Maybe
EP061: I Look Forward To Remembering You
EP055: Down Memory Lane
“There’s a reason we don’t use nano to cut the President-Chairman’s hair. You know about the assassination attempt three years ago?”
Everyone did. “I thought he was fully recovered.”
“What’s left of him. Yes. All of that civilian nano would interfere with crucial signals sent and received by the nano in use by the MedTechs. Can’t risk it. That bomb was nasty. What I’m telling you is classified, obviously. We have no intention of presenting Arrington to the world as less than the man he deserves to be.”
Rated PG. Contains references to drugs, claustrophobia, and canceled Showtime programming.
“Aren’t you Rube, the Grim Reaper in Dead Like Me?”
As he turned to look at me, an expression of amusement spread over his face like a wave of sunshine over a cloudy field. “I’m not a grim reaper in real life,” he mimicked, “but I do play one on TV!”