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Lifeboat News #123

#123

Lifeboat News

This issue published on 10/01/12. Copyright 2012 Lifeboat Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Facebook Contest Winner

Christine Williams won our Facebook contest with the post https://www.facebook.com/groups/lifeboa...0388455/
 
You can see the painting that Josef Holbert created for her at http://lifeboat.com/images/facebook.painting.jpg
 
This is the Assateague Lighthouse on the Atlantic at the Assateague National Seashore.
 
Now for a new contest! Anyone who posts to our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/lifeboatfoundation by December 31, 2012 will be entered into a contest to win a free autographed DVD of "Orphans of Apollo" (thanks to our Michael Potter). You can learn about the DVD at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HJ...02HJHGUO

Lifeboat to the Stars

The Lifeboat Foundation will present the "Lifeboat to the Stars" award along with $1,000 to the winner at the 2013 Campbell Conference where the topic of the conference will be interstellar travel.
 
The conference will be held June 13-16, 2013. It will take place at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas, as the midway point between the Science Fiction Writing Workshops and the Intensive English Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction. The Award dinner is held on the opening Friday of the Conference and features the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science fiction novel of the year and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year.
 
The "Lifeboat to the Stars" award will be for the best work of science fiction of any length published in 2011 or 2012 contributing to an understanding of the benefits, means, and difficulties of interstellar travel. This award will be presented by our Robert J. Sawyer, winner of the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
 
Our coordinating judge will be Robert J. Sawyer, our consulting judge will be Greg Bear, and our other judges will include Catherine Asaro, Jason Batt, Sherry E. Bell, Kevin M. Berry, Don V. Black, Stephan Vladimir Bugaj, Brenda Cooper, David Gerrold, Niklas Järvstråt, Jim Karkanias, Rouslan Krechetnikov, Wes Kretzschmar, Eva-Jane Lark, Mike E. McCulloch, George Perry, Allen M. Steele, Jr, John K. Strickland Jr, and Allen G. Taylor.
 
We will also present a bibliographical survey at the 2013 Campbell Conference which will cover prior science fiction describing methods of interstellar travel.
 
The Chair of the Interstellar Travel Bibliographical Survey will be our James Blodgett. Other members of the survey team will include Tracy Atkins, Jason Batt, Greg Bear, Kevin M. Berry, André Caminoa, David Gerrold, Niklas Järvstråt, Eva-Jane Lark, Mike E. McCulloch, Robert J. Sawyer, Allen M. Steele Jr, John K. Strickland Jr, and Allen G. Taylor.
 
We wish to thank our James E. Gunn and Frederick Pohl for their suggestions that led to this award and bibliographical survey.
 
You can learn more at https://lifeboat.com/ex/lifeboat.to.the.stars

Bitcoins

Chris Haley makes our largest Bitcoin donation yet, totaling 85 Bitcoins worth $1,000 in total at the time of his donation.

Extreme Futurist Festival

This festival is short a few women speakers. If you are a woman who works in the fields of artificial intelligence, science, technology, medicine, genetics, or new media and would like to give a talk in Los Angeles at this cutting edge futurist event on December 21st or 22nd please contact our Rachel Haywire at [email protected] and say the Lifeboat Foundation sent you.
 
You can learn more at http://extremefuturistfestival.com/

Blog

Odd Edges joins our blog team with the post "Evolution in a Toxic World" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/10/evolut...ic-world
 
Other interesting blog posts include:
 
"From Lunar Return to the First Colony" by John Hunt at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/09/from-l...t-colony
 
"The Propagation of Life: Infecting other Worlds" by Tom Kerwick at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/09/the-pr...r-worlds
 
"The Unlikely Option? An Industrial Base on Planet Mercury" by Tom Kerwick at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/10/the-un...-mercury
 
"The Witch-Hunt of Geophysicists: Society returns to the Dark Ages" by Tom Kerwick at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/10/the-wi...ark-ages
 
"The Social Sciences Revolution" by Farooq Khan at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/09/the-so...volution
 
"Congratulations SpaceX" by Benjamin T. Solomon at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/10/congra...s-spacex
 
"The Kline Directive: Theoretical-Empirical Relationship (Part 4)" by Benjamin T. Solomon at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/10/the-kl...p-part-4
 
"On Leaving the Earth. Like, Forever. Bye-Bye" by Reno J. Tibke at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/09/on-lea...-bye-bye
 
Also check out the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute blog at http://gcrinstitute.org/blog
 
Support "Bulletproof skin: exploring boundaries by piercing barriers" by our Jalila Essaïdi at http://www.indiegogo.com/bulletproofskin

Videos

Watch "Cubesats explained and why you should build one" by our Stephen Murphey at http://stephenmurphey.com/what-are-cubesats/

Antiviral Nano-Particles

Learn about our Erez Livneh's success in developing antiviral nano-particles at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/...tbvVX6ZR

Managing for Quality in Higher Education

Read "Managing for Quality in Higher Education — A Systems Perspective coauthored" by our Bob Krone at http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks/manage...ducation

Growing Membership

Recent donations/pledges we have received since our last newsletter:
 
Donald Maclean: $1,500, Chris Haley: $1,000 (in Bitcoins), Kamal Zaki Mahmoud Ali Shaeer: $300, Chris K. Porter: $120, Michael Dickey: $85, Sergio M.L. Tarrero: $85, Philippe Van Nedervelde: $85, Kenneth P. Weiss: $85, Anonymous: $65, Tom Driscoll: $30, J. Broadbent: $25, Rick Hubbard: $25, Matthew L. McGuirl: $25, BeeDictionary: $10, James Bracken: $10, Rebecca R. Cooper: $10, Thomas Dolphin: $10, Charles Hawk: $10, Alexander Macrae: $10, Aaron Mayzes: $10, Philip Morehead: $10, Roland Schiefer: $10, Benjamin T. Solomon: $10, and Ryan Witt: $10.
 
Our Join Us page at https://lifeboat.com/ex/join.us now allows you to pay for your membership anywhere from monthly to every ten years.