Authors who support giving away free, electronic copies of their books have said that it helps generate sales of physical copies of their books and now there's a study that supports that view, although it's interesting to note that the study found that when science-fiction publisher Tor gave away books, it actually hurt sales. I've always said that once electronic book readers become more popular and easier to use, that giveaway model is going to collapse. I suspect those science-fiction readers are early adopters of book-reading devices and are more than content to have electronic versions of books over physical copies. The aforementioned article theorized that the Tor giveaways were not successful because the electronic books were only given away for a short period of time and it wasn't long enough to have an effect on book sales. Science fiction author Ben Bova once wrote a novel predicting the electronic book market. He points out that it was meant to be a satire of the publishing industry at the time he wrote it, but is amazed at how prophetic he was. Just to give you an idea of how electronic books are hitting a tipping point, there are now more e-book apps for the Apple iPhone than there are games. Meanwhile, Samsung has entered the e-book reader fray with its own device and it has partnered with Barnes & Noble in the U.S. in an effort to help sell it. There's no word if it will be available here in Canada, but if the government ever lifted its draconian Canadian ownership rules for bookstores, we might have B&N stores here and some actual competition.  

The last hours of Kimberly Simon’s life in 1985 were likely spent with a group of young men who worshiped the devil, tortured cats, used hallucinogenic drugs and sexually abused women, according to in

A central Wisconsin judge says an Amish farmer does not have to register his livestock premise with the state, as required by a five-year-old law. Emanuel Miller Junior of Loyal said the law violates

There is no shortage of online communities for science fiction fans, but the folks behind MyOuterSpace.com think that the star power of Captain Kirk can make them stand out from the crowd. Perhaps it will, but it's a crowded field and I know that I'm not interested in "friending" William Shatner. I don't know how many people will be siphoned away from such sites as Facebook or MySpace, but I'm sure some will be. Starting an online community takes a lot of work, but technical know-how is not the biggest barrier to entry. With network-building sites like Ning, you can very quickly create a social network of your own centred on any topic like the International Space Art Network did. The internet is allowing all sorts of fan communities to thrive and we are seeing some fascinating social experiments, such as this attempt to  create a fan-funded science fiction film.  

The judge who sentenced a couple to prison yesterday for the death of their son says members of their church must quit relying on faith-healing when their children’s lives are at stake. “The fact i

Basic Flavors Inc., the Las Vegas company at the center of a recall of more than 100 food products, continued to make and distribute food ingredients for about a month after it learned the bacteria sa

An unearthed tomb on Crete reveals a dynasty of priestesses reigned on the isle during the "Dark Ages" of ancient Greece. In an Archaeology magazine report, writer Eti Bonn-Muller details the resul

I think we have some pagans living in our part of town. Several, actually - and not all in one big, leafy communal house, either. They're sprinkled about the neighborhood like elf-dust. Which is fi

Prosecutors will not pursue charges against a Marine reservist accused of beating a Greek Orthodox priest with a tire iron. Reservist Jasen Bruce said he simply was defending himself from a man who

Vikram Bhatt’s forthcoming film Shaapit incorporates Theban, or the Witches’ Alphabet. It is used in witchcraft to hide magical writing from prying eyes. The director has researched Theban extensi

The group thinkprogress.org reports that a Texas town has assumed a position similar to the group Hezbollah, whose name equates to "Army of God". Their motto is "spritual warfare" against all who don'

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you," then, with apologies to Kipling, you might not be a climate scientist. Well-publicized troubles have mounted

D.C. joins Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Iowa in allowing same-sex marriage. Dozens of same-sex couples plan to marry in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, the first day

Many of the televised reports on the recent Oscars ceremony were as much concerned with what the rich and famous were wearing as with the identity of the winners and the losers. There for us all to se

I'm sure James Cameron is bummed out that his movie Avatar didn't win an Oscar last night, but he's probably more annoyed at the steady stream of people who want to sue him for allegedly stealing their ideas for the script. I suppose the sheer number of such allegations is proof that the plot is far from original and possibly one of the reasons it didn't grab the big prize, although it did get some recognition with wins for technical categories at the Academy Awards. The latest person to sue Cameron is a Vancouver restaurateur who sent his script to several movie studios, including Cameron's. Someone in China also took Cameron to court for the same reason, but the court overturned the lawsuit. I'm sure we'll see even more suits as the movie continues to rake in the dough. As for the Avatar sequel, don't call it Avatar 2, says Cameron. For reasons that are obvious to anyone who has seen the movie, the word avatar no longer makes sense in a follow-up story. Cameron's next project is to find a director for a remake he's written of the classic 60s film, Fantastic Voyage. It will be cool if that one is filmed in 3-D.

A teenager plans to marry a schoolgirl in a pagan ceremony next month with the bride’s mother officiating. Using a simple length of rope, Alex Stewart-Pole and Jenni Birch will become partners for

Dowsers from all over Canada are pointing their divining rods at Olds College. The Canadian Society of Questers, a group that promotes the ancient art of divining, will hold their spring conference

Dozens of bodies lined the dusty streets of three Christian villages in northern Nigeria yesterday. Other victims of Sunday morning’s Muslim rampage were jammed into a local morgue, the limbs of slaug

Icelandic Folk Legends – Tales of Apparitions, Outlaws and Things Unseen is a collection of Icelandic folktales translated by one of Iceland’s most widely read bloggers, Alda Sigmundsdóttir of the Ice

If the only thing you know about the Asatru religion is that a convicted killer lost his legal bid for a plastic sword so he could practice it at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, then Harold Chant