Adopt a cardinal or place your bets for papal conclave

Adopt a cardinal or place your bets for papal conclave (via AFP)

Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/FileCardinal Angelo Scola celebrates a mass on February 12, 2013 in Milan's Duomo cathedral. As the Catholic Church prepares to elect a pope, some irreverent souls are betting on the outcome while more religious-minded ones are "adopting" individual cardinals on a website to pray…

How Music Unites: Examples Of How Music Influences Social Change

Music is a universal way of connecting people. If you put the right sound with the right beat you have yourself a hit - but it seems that the musicians that created this work do not stop at an auditory influence. Some have gone on to change the world using not just their tunes but also their talent of bringing a crowd together for a common purpose. Usually that purpose is dancing or rocking out but occasionally it can create a real social change. Here we will look at some of the most powerful ways that songwriters and bands have used their fame.

The Mysterious Lifespan of a Decision [Infographic]

The brain works in ways that scientists and doctors are still trying to figure out. For example, scientists believe they can use an MRI to determine somebody’s decision seconds before he or she is aware of it themselves. A problem is posed to consumers when they are examining the choices on the shelves before them. While consumers love to have choices, they also want to make a decision with ease. This is where slick marketing comes in to play.

Some experts believe that offering fewer choices is actually much better than offering more. It would appear that some people are more apt to make a purchase when there are few options available; they might be overwhelmed. In the end, all this information is used by companies to tailor their marketing tactics even more personally. Shoppers who use store loyalty cards are being analyzed each time they shop. Ultimately, each choice a shopper makes lives on long after it has been made.

Discover The World Of Alan Partridge

This summer will see the return of one of British broadcasting’s most beloved and admired figures, the man known to potentially billions of people thanks to the World Wide Web as Alan Partridge. Following the success of his Mid-Morning Matters show on the North Norfolk Digital station, and the release of his highly-regarded autobiography, movie producers have finally seen the potential of Partridge and given him the big screen debut that fans have been calling for for years.

Having begun his stellar career on hospital radio, Alan moved swiftly on to the heady heights of BBC radio, where his unambiguous talent was discovered and nurtured, leading to his now legendary chat-show. A series of unfortunate incidents led to his downfall however, and he spent several months in the entertainment wilderness before mounting his successful counter-attack, first with a well-regarded show called Skirmish on cable channel UK Conquest, and then his triumphant return to local Norfolk radio.

Partridge’s erudite delivery, easy charm and piercing interview techniques have earned him a loyal fanbase the world over. His connections to the county of Norfolk, where he was born and raised and continues to live, are well-known. If you’d like to get to know the real Alan, the man behind the fame, here are some must-visit spots:

Is Interactive Literature And Film A Serious Possibility For The Future?

We all know that feeling that we wished the final pages of a book would be somewhat different, or that your favorite character should have been treated differently. The idea of allowing the reader or the viewer to take an active part in deciding the course of action in a novel or a movie is pretty old, but in spite of amazing new technologies it seems that serious artistic mediums are not very keen on it and readers and viewers are not that interested. Is this only because the technologies are not yet immersive enough and what is the difference between participating in an interactive video game and being able to choose between multiple plot lines in a movie?

James Franco lashes Australia for banning gay film

James Franco lashes Australia for banning gay film (via AFP)

Hollywood star James Franco has lashed out at Australia for banning the US gay-themed film "I Want Your Love", calling the decision embarrassing. Australia's Classification Board deemed the movie's sex scenes too explicit and refused to allow it to be screened at the upcoming Melbourne Queer Film Festival…

Wasteland 2 - Sequel To The Original Post-apocalyptic Game

The original Wasteland would always have the distinction of being the pioneer of post-apocalyptic genre of gaming. Some people unknowingly credit Bethesda’s Fallout series to have kick started the genre, but in actuality, Wasteland was the game that started it all. Now, we have a sequel to the genre spawning game titled Wasteland 2, emerging after a hiatus of 25 years! At the development helm are inXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment and the game (much to the dismay of console owners) would be a PC exclusive. Another distinguishing feature of the game is that it’s being funded by the general public. This method of financing is termed as a “kick starter”, so it stands to reason that expectations are running high even before the release of the game, which is scheduled somewhere in the late half of 2013.

The Most Awesome Science Fiction Machines

Science fiction plays on the gray area between scientific possibility and impossibility, often describing technologies and machines that could exist in the future, or that only slightly bend our current rules about what’s possible.  Science fiction authors have also been responsible for imagining some of the coolest gadgets, and these are just plain fun.

Here are some of the most iconic machines and devices to come out of science fiction.

US 'cannibal cop' defends 'fantasy' horrors

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QUILTBAG Protagonists in SF/F YA Literature

QUILTBAG Protagonists in SF/F YA Literature

By: Suzanne van Rooyen

Firstly, that’s a lot of acronyms for a title. Let’s unpack that.

QUILTBAG = queer, unisex, intersex, lesbian, trans, bi, asexual, gay - a convenient acronym, which pretty much covers the complete spectrum of human sexuality.

SF/F = science fiction and fantasy - self-explanatory really, this acronym refers to all the various subgenres contained within these two broader genres.

YA = young adult - a market in literature aimed at 12-18 year olds.

So now that we’ve got that out of the way, what’s the issue?

Science fiction and fantasy, as both a literary and movie/TV genre, has been dominated by straight white males for decades. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger in his roles from Terminator to Total Recall. Consider Christian Bale and Tom Cruise in their leading manly-man roles in science fiction films like Equilibrium, Minority Report, Batman and soon to be released Oblivion. Given that a good number of these films are based on the works by literary greats like Philip K Dick, Asimov and others, this straight white male syndrome seems prevalent in the genre, and is sadly true for YA fiction as well.

Let’s look at recent YA smashhits: Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games. J.K Rowling’s series featured a straight white male protagonist, Stephenie Meyer’s series featured a straight white leading couple (I’ll get to Jacob in a minute) and Suzanne Collins’s dystopian series featured a straight white love triangle.

Only after the success of Harry Potter, both as a novel series and as a movie franchise, did it surface that Rowling had always thought of Dumbledore as gay, not that this was ever made apparent in either the novels or the movies. Why not?

There are numerous articles about Twilight and possible racism floating around the net. Regardless of how you interpret the fact that Native Americans were the ‘animals’ in the story, what surprised me even more than a centuries old vampire willingly repeating high school, was the lack of sexual fluidity so apparent in vampire characters from the works of progenitors like Anne Rice. Even the True Blood vampires explored same sex partnerships. But Twilight didn’t feature a single gay main character. And neither does another super popular vampire series: The Vampire Diaries. Meet Damon and Stefan Salvatore - white and straight despite being centuries old vampires who confound just about every social more. Meet Elena Gilbert and her brother - straight and white. Meet the sidekicks Caroline, Matt, and Tyler - straight and white. Bonnie is the only smudge of colour on the cast and she’s a witch (why is no one screaming racial stereotypes?). There is one gay character but his appearance is fleeting and has little bearing on the mostly white, all straight main cast.

And now The Hunger Games. There was an uproar at the time of casting for the movie adaptation of the book when they cast Amandla Stenberg as Rue. Why is Rue black - fans protested. Why not? Is every character in a YA book white and straight until proven otherwise? Another character in The Hunger Games, played by Lenny Kravitz in the film, is referred to as ‘the gay guy.’ Kravitz is quoted to having said he didn’t want to play Cinna ‘too gay.’ In the novel, his sexuality is never expressly stated. He’s simply a stylist and designer, so once again stereotyping runs rampant.

YA protagonists are only gay, lesbian, bi or transgender when it’s a contemporary issue book like The Perks of Being a Wallflower starring the fabulous Patrick. I can’t name a single best-selling SF/F YA title featuring a gay, lesbian or bi - never mind transgendered - protagonist. Can you?

There is a huge gap, not only in the market, but in the mindset. Why can’t QUILTBAG individuals be the heroes? They can - just look at pansexual Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood fame, played by the openly gay and awesome John Barrowman. This is the type of heroic character I want to see in YA SF/F. While getting this sort of book out to the public through self-publishing may be the easiest route, publishing this sort of book by traditional means is proving trickier.

My own book Obscura Burning - a hybrid contemporary issue (my character’s sexuality is the least of his issues!) come science fiction novel - features a white bisexual male protagonist who has relationships with a Native American girl and a Latino guy. When I submitted this novel to agents they liked it but were nervous about the content. Thankfully, an indie press wasn’t afraid of taking on my novel and all its ‘questionable’ content. This is the beauty of the indie industry: they’re not afraid to take on books that might be controversial.

There is a conspicuous lack of QUILTBAG main characters in science fiction and fantasy literature especially in YA, just as there is a conspicuous lack of racially diverse characters in this genre. I can’t believe this is still an issue in 2013. But here’s to hoping things will change thanks to the efforts of courageous authors, fearless publishers and unprejudiced readers.

Suzanne van Rooyen

About Today's Contributor:

Suzanne is the author of the cyberpunk novel Dragon’s Teeth (Divertir), the YA science fiction novel Obscura Burning (Etopia) and has had several short stories published by Golden Visions Magazine, Space and Time and Niteblade. Her non-fiction articles on travel, music and other topics can be found scattered throughout the Internet. 

• Suzanne van Rooyen's website
• Follow Suzanne on Twitter
• Visit/Like Suzanne's Facebook Page

Related Articles:

• The 10 Most Heartbreaking Moments of Sci Fi TV 
• In Defense of Young-Adult Books 
• Why I LOVE the Young Adult Genre - Guest Post by Author Sherry Soule 
• Jacquelyn Mitchard's New YA Novel Pays Homage to Ray Bradbury 
• Quiltbag 
• Young Adult - New Adult 
• How J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series changed my life 

6 Tricks That Impostors Use To Deceive People

The idea of impostors sounds like the type of thing that you only encounter in movies or fiction. But real-life impostors happen far more than you'd think. Whether their intention is a straightforward one of defrauding people out of money or a much murkier psychological one in which they worm their ways into people's lives using a false identity for no real identifiable material gain, all impostors are experts at reading and manipulating people.

There are generally two types of impostor. One type simply pretends to be a kind of person they are not. For example, there have been several cases of adults passing as teenagers and enrolling in high schools. The other type of impostor actually pretends to be a specific person. This may be a person who was missing for many years and returns to the family left behind. 

Read on to learn about some of the tricks of the impostor trade.

Why London Or A Similar City Would Make The Perfect Bond Villain's Lair

Any self-respecting evil genius needs a suitably imposing lair. What would Blofeld have been without his hollowed-out volcano, Scaramanga without his Pacific island or Stromberg without his underwater palace? It’s a little-known fact that a Bond villain with a sub-par lair runs a very real risk of humiliation at the annual Union of Super villains Christmas get-together.

The trouble is that most lairs are somewhat inaccessible. A remote Himalayan fortress might give you the privacy needed to conduct nefarious schemes, but popping to the shops for milk can often be a nightmare. Modern Super villains need a place that combines the convenience of 21st century urban living with the traditional requirements of a sinister hideout and London could just be the ideal choice.