MIND SLASH MATTER AUDIOBOOK at AUCTION~check it out

SFFaudio News

I’ve put this very rare audiobook up to auction. It’s our very last copy (perhaps the last sealed copy on Earth). It got an excellent review from my son Jesse Willis…

See the review HERE – then please go bid on it at:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370200836661

THIS IS AN EXTREMELY RARE AUDIOBOOK. It is Out Of Print and very hard to find, the publisher is also out of business so it won’t be reprinted. This audiobook was published in 1995 and is amazingly STILL SEALED IN ITS ORIGINAL PACKAGING. It is in absolutely perfect condition. This is a 2 cassette audiobook and is UNABRIDGED (approx running time of 180 minutes).

And to quote Jesse’s review:

“For a straight reading – no music, no voice effects – this is perfect. Cover art is a little hard to decipher but is adequate. To top it all off, Mind Slash Matter was, until recently, only available only as an audiobook. Such an amazing story and straight to audio!”

Posted by Elaine Willis

Windows Weekly – almost like listening to SFF AUDIO PODCAST – really!

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windowsweeklySometimes known as a geek, always known as a schoolteacher, and yes I’m Jesse’s MOM… I have taken to listening to the very long weekly PODCASTS of Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott and MacBreak Weekly with Leo Laporte. Both are partially sponsored by audible.com – and it seems both our tech-y hosts are huge audiobook fans with a penchant for science fiction. Every week there is a good deal of time devoted to chat about audiobooks and “kindle 2” devices which read aloud – thereby being synthesized audiobooks. As a new faithful listener I learned that the kindle application was released March 4th for the iPhone and you can hear Leo and Paul playing with the application and discussing it (positively) during the podcast (time 41:20). Because Windows Weekly is sponsored by audible.com – you can get a free, no purchases ever required audiobook through their special offer (time 49:00). This is also the point at which the podcast starts to sound a lot like Scott and Jesse as the topic turns to audiobooks. First mentioned is Herman Hesse’s classic The Glass Bead Game. A couple of non-fiction picks are mentioned including The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century and Elsewhere USA,: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, Blackberry Moms, and Economic Anxiety. I have found that both weekly TWIT (THIS WEEK IN TECH) podcasts dedicate up to 1/3 of the show to audiobook talk. They are great advocates of listening at the gym. “Build your mind while you build your body,” is their tagline. I am pleased to know there are so many of us out there pumping iron to audiobooks.

|MP3|

Posted by Elaine Willis

Dan Ariely on ABC:RN’s All In The Mind – That’s the Irrational MIND

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ABC Radio National - All In The MindScience Fiction is great but my iPod is mostly tuned to Science Fact. I only have 4gb and real estate is slim.  Jesse’s chuckles have turned to belly laughs when he “catches” me in the act of listening to “MY” podcasts. “Put it on your BLOG” has been his standard retort when I comment enthusiastically about whatever has caught my fancy. He changed his tune recently and now it’s “POST IT ON SFFAUDIO” so beware… here they come.

My favorite weekly PODCAST is ABC Radio National‘s All In The Mind with host Natasha Mitchell. Natasha is brilliant. She came to journalism by default… with a first class honours degree in engineering and midway to completion of a PhD in materials engineering. She has been the producer of All In The Mind since 2002, and all shows are available on the ABC website for download.

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University as well as the head of eRationality research group at MIT. He has conducted research into the human decision making processes. In this podcast Dan describes experiments which include masturbation, freebies, expectations, placebos and price.

My favorite of Natasha’s comments for this interview was when Dan described some of his experiments, Natasha expressed her amazement at how he managed to get these approved by ethics committees. He responds: “You know I have a lot of experience with them and slowly they trust me more and more. I think that’s one of the benefits.” (Are the ethics committees irrational?)

There is no doubt, after listening to Dan Ariely, that humans are irrational. Can one become more rational when one is aware of one’s irrationality?

Have a listen |MP3|.

Posted by Elaine Willis

Nova Interviews Karl Iagnemma, Writer and Robot Engineer

SFFaudio Online Audio

Nova Science Now podcastAcclaimed roboticist and fiction writer Karl Iagnemma was interviewed on NOVA for their piece entitled “Engineering Fiction.”

Have a listen |MP3|.

Karl, from MIT, talks to NOVA scienceNOW‘s Susan Lewis about his dual life as a robot engineer and award-winning fiction author. He speaks of his preference for fiction over science and the reasons for these choices in this short interview. It was enough to whet my appetite… Apparently there is an upcoming movie starring Brad Pitt from one of his short stories, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction.

Posted by Elaine Willis