Allan Dyen-Shapiro
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
From time to time, I see an environmental science story where sufficient details are missing to make it unintelligible or, more often,...
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Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Science Fiction Author
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Mar 17
A Really Amazing Use of Artificial Intelligence
I get a lot of science-related stuff in my email inbox. Only occasionally is it so cool that I’m willing to wade through a technical...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Feb 26
Breaking Better: Six Seasons, and I Didn’t See it Coming. Why?
Like many of you, I watched every episode of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, as well as El Camino and all of the web-and-DVD extras...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Dec 10, 2022
Thoughts on Farha: Why 850,000 Versus 800,000 is a Dumb and Destructive Argument
I watched the Jordanian candidate for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, Farha, a few nights ago on Netflix. It personalizes the Nakba, the...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Aug 27, 2022
Biden Just Gifted the World Access to Science
Biden has demanded all scientific journals publishing papers with US government support provide the papers and all supplementary data for...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Aug 12, 2022
Someone Must Want to Hear Me: My WorldCon Schedule
I feel incredibly fortunate right now. With all the grumbling I've heard on social media of people being slighted for spots on...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Jul 7, 2022
When Somebody Else Achieves Your Life’s Goal and It Still Comes to Nothing
For fifteen years, from my submitting applications to fund my postdoc through my first faculty position, through political change leading...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Jun 10, 2022
John and Don: Lessons for the Future
The public phase of the Congressional hearings on the January 6th insurrection began yesterday. I saw a few clips and had to look away,...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- May 9, 2022
Counters and Typicals—Thoughts From The Candy House
I'm midway through reading a book whose publication date I noted on social media the day it was announced. I never do that. Even with...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Mar 25, 2022
GOPU Versus the God of Earthseed
I finally got around to reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. They had been hanging out on my Kindle...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Dec 22, 2021
A Letter to Joe Manchin
Hey, Joe. Allan here. Not one of your constituents, but we've got many West Virginia transplants living near me in Florida. I met one the...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Oct 2, 2021
Hope Signifies Something Different to the Privileged and the Marginalized
Melvin Van Peebles' obituaries finally prompted me to watch the classic movie that started Black independent cinema in the 1970s, Sweet...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Sep 19, 2021
Extending an Insight into Climate Denialism
I am writing this during the "lunch break" on the last day of FIYAHCON. Reading my own story at the virtual "tea house" last night was a...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Sep 4, 2021
Resisting the Urge to Get "Karbonned"
Karbon allows the user's body to function in autopilot mode, performing all the routine tasks expected of them while leaving the person...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Jul 1, 2021
Brave New Whopper (or Big Mac)
In Margaret Atwood's dystopian science fiction novel Oryx and Crake, in a moment meant to spark revulsion, the protagonist chows down on...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Apr 11, 2021
Decolonize Science, says the White Literature Professors
I recently had the opportunity to freeload at ICFA (International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts). By freeloading, I mean...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Mar 26, 2021
This is What America Sounds Like
"This is what America sounds like." I heard the line last weekend at a dinner theater that found a way to open near my home. All the...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Mar 12, 2021
To Address the Climate Catastrophe, Americans Need to Break Abortion's Stranglehold on Politics.
It's dropped off the headlines, but I would still maintain that the central fault line in US politics is over abortion. With the climate...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Feb 20, 2021
Travelers: David Wasn't The Mary Sue He Appeared To Be
David was my favorite character from the Canadian-migrated-to-Netflix science-fiction TV show Travelers. He begins the show as Marcy's...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Dec 12, 2020
Honorifics, Pen-Names, Handles, and Zoom IDs
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial recently, criticizing the new First Lady for continuing to go by Dr. Jill Biden rather...
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