The cover of ZOOPARK, my new dual-language anthology. It will soon be released as a Kindle book (but not as a Nook book as Nooks [at least those I'm familiar with] don't handle Cyrillic).

A bilingual SF anthology (English and Russian)

A few days ago, the terrific Russian SF magazine, ESLI, asked to buy another of my stories to translate and publish. It will be the twelfth of my stories they will have published. All but one of them have appeared first in Analog Magazine (the other in Asimov's).

That gave me an idea: it would be neat to do a Kindle bilingual anthology of my ESLI stories. One could click to go from the English to Russian versions, and back. The e-book might be appealing to Russian/English language students. And who knows, If we're lucky, we may even be able to get it uploaded to the International Space Station for American astronauts and Russian Cosmonauts. Analog Magazine is already there.

The ESLI editor has graciously agreed to supply the Russian versions so the project is a go. A bilingual cover will be a challenge.

As a language hobbyist, I'm excited about this. I just wish my Russian was better.

Faster than Light Neutrinos: Quite possibly

When I first heard the report of faster than light neutrinos, I (a theoretical physicist) was sure it couldn't be true--especially after Martin Rees noted that there had been observed optical pulses coincident with neutrino pulses from distant, astronomical objects. So if neutrinos indeed did travel faster than light, the neutrino pulse would be way in advance of the optical pulse.

But then, I wondered if one could reconcile these two results and not do serious damage to relativity theory. I believe the answer is yes.

We need some mechanism whereby at any distance scale, the neutrino can be only a little in advance of the photon. Imagine this crude analogy (similar, actually to the old Ptolemy epicycles in the Earth-centric model). Think of some invisible 'thing' traveling at a fast speed. And this thing has an arm sticking out from it on which is a visible particle. And the arm is rotating around the thing in the direction of motion. When the arm has swung the visible particle ahead of the thing, the particle is then traveling a tad faster than the thing. Similarly, the particle is traveling a little slower than the thing when the arm is behind the thing. This periodic motion can, for example, be replicated by an extra, closed dimension with some 'selection' rules for, as an example, the neutrino. I'm not sure the closed dimension is the best way to go (it feels perhaps too similar to epicycles). But it can be made to work.

The question then is: Can a very small, oscillatory, velocity over c coexist with relativity theory. Again, I think the answer is yes.
The two big problems with faster than light travel are causality (i.e. in another reference frame the effect can happen before the cause), and the synchronization of clocks throughout the universe.

I don't think causality is a problem for very small time scales and elementary particles (the LHC result is 60 nanoseconds) as micro-causality (i.e. elementary particles traveling short distances) doesn't seem to hold.
And as to the synchronization of clocks, the fuzzy nature of measurements in quantum mechanics should (IMO) wash out any problems for such small time scales.

There's a somewhat jocular (but fruitful) conjecture attributed to Murry Gell-Mann that says if something is not absolutely forbidden by physics, it must occur. Perhaps a sometimes-fast neutrino should then exist. 

So I'm inclined to believe (or at least not disbelieve out of hand) the LHC results (there are some very good, careful, and cautious scientists working there).

But then again, as well as being a theoretical physicist, I'm also a science fiction writer, so maybe it's easier for me to willingly suspend my disbelief.

And as an SF writer, allow me to plug my latest SF anthology, available as a Kindle book through Amazon.
'SF++ Science Fiction Stories for Linux Geeks'.

E-Books: $ or Free (Take Two)

My anthology 'SF++  Science Fiction Stories for Linux Geeks' has been available for purchase for Kindle/Nook for $4, or obtainable on my website for free. I have some data now: About one third of the readers have bought the e-book while the other two thirds got it for free. And that is fine with me.

This encourages me to use the $-or-Free rubric for all my e-publications.

It seems there are two types of e-book acquirers--the ones who will buy the book if it is at a reasonable price, and the others who have become used to the idea that stuff on the Internet should be free--and that idea often leads to perhaps less than honorable methods of acquiring that stuff that isn't free. So be it. Mainly, I want people to read my work. Revenue, while nice (and appreciated), is secondary.

Four Dollars or Free

A few days ago, I e-published my  anthology 'SF++ Science Fiction Stories for Linux Geeks' on Amazon/Kindle and B&N/Nook. I set the price at $4.00 but, to keep in the spirit of Linux (a free operating system), I offered the book for free on my website page for the book:

www.frithrik.com/linux.htm

Already, it has turned out well. I've had sales [it's nice to see revenue] and,
I've had requests for free copies [it's nice to have readership].

This seems to fulfill my two apparently contradictory requirements: getting readers, and getting money. (Of the two, the former is more important to me.)

I think I'll slowly reprice my other e-books with this same rubric ($4.00 or Free). I'll start with my second most geeky offering (SF++ was the first most), 'The Trojan Carousel'.

www.frithrik.com/clfsite/E_TC.htm

'The Trojan Carousel' is something of a composite of 'Lord of the Flies', 'Harry Potter', and an elementary textbook on quantum mechanics. The textbook aspect can be safely ignored. It is only invoked when a reader clicks to continue a particular scene where physics is discussed in detail (after which, the reader, seamlessly, moves on to the next scene).

More and more, I'm coming over to Cory Doctorow's idea that giving away stuff is good.

SF++ Science Fiction Stories for Linux Geeks

Annoyingly often in the science fiction movies of my childhood, one had the Evil Scientist and BSD (not what you might think) the Beautiful Scientist's Daughter. In the public mind, this arguably defined scientists as evil (but having pretty daughters)—whereas we paleogeeks more likely redefined the word 'evil' (evil=wicked, good, spiffy, way out, etc.).

Then, a generation later, geeks and nerds were lumped together and, with their stereotyped pocket protectors and thick, black-rimmed taped glasses, were thought of as smelly hapless misfits.

Not any more. Now, though the wuggies might not realize it, at long last, geeks rule!

Kindle/Nook E-publishing has allowed me to express my inner-geek. And so I proudly announce:

           SF++  Science Fiction Stories for Linux geeks.

The anthology has 'Linux' in its title, and the Linux operating system is free. So, I thought I'd make the book free as well. And anyway, most of the 0x10 stories have already paid for themselves--seven of them have appeared in Analog Magazine. But, experimentally, I've found that e-book buyers tend to equate price with worth. And since I believe SF++ has sufficient worth I've priced the book on Kindle and Nook at $4.00.

To keep with the Linux philosophy though, I'm providing the book for free through my website. www.frithrik.com/linux.htm.

If after you read the anthology you find you've enjoyed most of the stories, you might consider (hint, hint) e-hoofing it to Amazon or B&N (with your rooted Nook) and buying another of my anthologies, or novels.

The ++ in the SF++ title does not indicate a new object oriented language like c++. The first plus indicates that, in addition to stories, there's a science fact article ('Challenge of the Anthropic Universe'). The second plus indicates an experiment--a story ('Roblocks') that can't be done in dead-treeware. It requires an html capable reader. And indeed, this collection is intended for Kindles, Nooks, or for any Grub (GRand Unified Book-loader).

I intended that this be an anthology for geeks--smart, independent, computer and science savy geeks with a sense of humor. And, for me, that pointed to Linux. Linux geeks are smart (I mean they use Linux, after all). They're independent enough not to use that other operating system. And finally, there's a tradition of humor and word play in the Linux community (Pine Is Not Elm, GNU is Not Unix, etc).

If words were kilo-miles, this 93 thousand word anthology would stretch from the Earth to the Sun.

                        We are Linux!

                                    Resistance is...measured in ohms.

I encourage anyone to pirate the book with my blessings. And once again, if you wants a free copy of the book in MOBI or EPUB format, visit my site www.frithrik.com/eb.htm, or just drop me a note at carl@frithrik.com. Put WelfLinux in the subject line to bypass my spam trap, and tell me which format you'd like (MOBI or EPUB). I'll e-mail the book to you within a day or two. If I'm flooded with requests it might take a little longer.

If instead, you want to buy the book (with my gushing thanks), it will be up on Kindle and Nook in a few days. When it goes live, I'll post the Kindle & Nook URLS for the book.

Spoilers enhance enjoyment

From The Guardian:
A study by Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt of UC San Diego's psychology department, due to be published in the journal Psychological Science, gave subjects 12 short stories, by authors including Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl and John Updike. Some were presented in their classic form, others with spoiler paragraphs, with each version read by at least 30 people. And you know what? The spoiled readers actually had more fun.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/aug/17/spoilers-enhance-enjoyment-psychologists

Interesting:
I wonder if this might imply that one should telegraph the ending when writing a story.
It goes against what I've been taught, but who knows?