Hulleye Comes By!

Islam’s in the news a lot lately, but usually put in the context in a negative spotlight lately it seems. Even less do you ever hear it in the same context with science fiction. A friend has been quietly collecting and creating an anthology of islamic science fiction over the past few years and trying to gather as much information as possible. The project came together and became rather successful and of late, he along with Ahmed A. Khan has put together an Anthology of Islamic Science Fiction portrayed in a positive view. Everything is in place for the Islam Sci-Fi Anthology project, almost that is. They are short of $300 to give to the authors. If you would be interested in donating to this project leave a comment here or go to IslamSciFi directly and we shall try and get you in touch with the authors in the anthology directly to make the process transparent so that the money could be directly forwarded to them.

Why the anthology?

Islam is the most misrepresented religion in the media and literature. Science Fiction is the most popular genre that looks to the future. This anthology is an effort to use the medium of SF to raise the positive image of Islam in the West.

What is theme of the anthology?

The anthology features SF and fantasy stories that portray Islam and/or Muslims in a positive light.

Who are the writers featured in the anthology?

The anthology features stories from international writers. We were lucky to get the cooperation of well-known SF writers, like Lucius Shepard, Tom Ligon, Jetse de Vries, etc.

Editors:

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota. He has a long interest in underlying philosophical themes in Science Fiction. His website, islamscifi.com, is one of the best and most comprehensive resources about Islam and Muslims in science fiction literature, movies, comics and other media.

Ahmed A. Khan is a Canadian writer and editor whose works have been featured in Interzone, Science Today and several other venues. He has edited the anthology, “Fall and Rise”, featuring stories on the theme of survival ethics. He maintains a blog at ahmedakhan.livejournal.com.

Table of Contents

• Lucius Shepard:  A Walk in the Garden
• Tom Ligon:   For a Little Price
• Jetse De Vries:  Cultural Clashes in Cadiz
• Howard Jones:   Servent of Iblis
• Andrew Ferguson:  Organic Geometry
• Ahmed A. Khan:  Synchronicity
• Camille Alexa:  The Weight of Space and Metal
• G.W. Thomas:   The Emissary
• Kevin Miller:   A Straight Path Through the Stars
• Pamela Taylor:  Recompense
• Casey Wolf:   Miss Lonelygenes
• D.C. McMahon:  Squat

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is preparing for its first small tests in early August, leading to a planned full-track test in September - and the first planned particle collisions before the end of the year. The final step before starting is the chilling of the entire collider to -271.25 C (-456.25 F). Here is a collection of photographs from CERN, showing various stages of completion of the LHC and several of its larger experiments (some over seven stories tall), over the past several years.

This month’s announcement of a back-room deal between ISPs (internet service providers) and the big record companies to spy on suspected copyright infringers and reduce the quality of their internet connections is just the latest paragraph in the record industry’s long, self-pitying suicide note, and it’s left me wishing they’d just pull the trigger already and stop beating their chests and telling us all how unfair it all is.

Under the new scheme, the rule of law is replaced by a cosy inter-industry deal. Whereas before, anyone who wanted your ISP to spy on your internet connection would have had to show evidence to a judge and get a court order, now any joker who claims to be an aggrieved copyright holder can do so.

And whereas actual criminals are punished by judges who make rulings that are proportional to the offence, and which are calculated to minimise external harm, the new scheme allows ISPs and their pals in the record industry to randomly shake up your connection like a snow-globe, dropping some or all of your services ? whether you’re using your VoIP phone to speak to your dying granny in Australia or downloading the latest hit single from the guy who did the “Crazy Frog Song”.

As night was falling across the Americas on Sunday, August 28, 1859, the phantom shapes of the auroras could already be seen overhead. From Maine to the tip of Florida, vivid curtains of light took the skies. Startled Cubans saw the auroras directly overhead; ships’ logs near the equator described crimson lights reaching halfway to the zenith. Many people thought their cities had caught fire. Scientific instruments around the world, patiently recording minute changes in Earth?s magnetism, suddenly shot off scale, and spurious electric currents surged into the world?s telegraph systems. In Baltimore telegraph operators labored from 8 p.m. until 10 a.m. the next day to transmit a mere 400-word press report.

Just before noon the following Thursday, September 1, English astronomer Richard C. Carrington was sketching a curious group of sunspots?curious on account of the dark areas? enormous size. At 11:18 a.m. he witnessed an intense white light flash from two locations within the sunspot group. He called out in vain to anyone in the observatory to come see the brief five-minute spectacle, but solitary astronomers seldom have an audience to share their excitement. Seventeen hours later in the Americas a second wave of auroras turned night to day as far south as Panama. People could read the newspaper by their crimson and green light. Gold miners in the Rocky Mountains woke up and ate breakfast at 1 a.m., thinking the sun had risen on a cloudy day. Telegraph systems became unusable across Europe and North America.

The news media of the day looked for researchers able to explain the phenomena, but at the time scientists scarcely understood auroral displays at all. Were they meteoritic matter from space, reflected light from polar icebergs or a high-altitude version of lightning? It was the Great Aurora of 1859 itself that ushered in a new paradigm. The October 15 issue of Scientific American noted that ??a connection between the northern lights and forces of electricity and magnetism is now fully established.? Work since then has established that auroral displays ultimately originate in violent events on the sun, which fire off huge clouds of plasma and momentarily disrupt our planet?s magnetic field.