Author: Jason Vaughn

Jason M. Vaughn earned a degree in Painting from KU, back in a majestic time called “the nineties.” In response to certain life events, he then drifted away from visual art—something he’d practiced since toddlerhood—and found himself addicted to books. Writing naturally followed. He’s published numerous poems and short stories, and his first feature-length screenplay,The Synth House Wife, won the 2012 Script Pipeline Competition. He is working now on a science-fiction book called Cerulean, which will hopefully CHANGE THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT…or at least be a good read.

When Food and Technology ‘Super Meat’

Posted on Nov 25, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

For me, the ideal meat (ground beef, ham, etc.) will be a near-future cultured meat that’s actually made from real animal-muscle cells, just grown and tended in labs instead of pastures. But until that kind of meat becomes a more viable alternative, maybe Beyond Meat’s fake “super meat” discussed in the above video will suffice. Maybe. […]

Le Guin on Future Writers and Freedom

Posted on Nov 24, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

For all you young (or even old) writers out there, here’s a little advice from an author who surely had some influence on the writing you read now. After a long and storied career, Ursula K. Le Guin accepted the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards on November 19, 2014. […]

Kindle Voyage: The Pogue Review

Posted on Nov 19, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

David Pogue reviews Amazon’s newest Kindle for you. Despite a few flaws (the price being maybe the worst one), it seems like it might be the best thing since…the last Kindle. Actually, it seems like it might be a great deal better than the last Kindle, which makes me almost think I should’ve waited and got […]

ASIMO

Posted on Nov 18, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

ASIMO — his name means Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility — visited New York City recently in order to wave at people, shake hands, walk up stairs, wear a backpack, hop and jog, and, yes, even do sign language among many other things. Maybe they should call him AWESOMO. “Yeah,” you might be saying, “but isn’t he […]

Ambition

Posted on Nov 17, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

Here’s a great-looking little film about the purpose of the Rosetta mission. It was a collaboration between Platige Image and the European Space Agency. And hey, at least the characters aren’t wearing silver jumpsuits! Rosetta: the ambition to turn science fiction into science fact. “The making of ‘Ambition’” is available here.

The US and China Go All BFF for the Planet

Posted on Nov 13, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

No matter what the roadblocks may be, this is a major deal. You’ve already heard of it, surely, but in case you haven’t, the video above explains things pretty well. Basically, the two biggest polluters in the world have agreed to pollute less. Mitch McConnell and his oil-worshippers don’t like it, of course (polluting less just flat-out goes against their […]

The Devil’s in the Fine Print

Posted on Nov 13, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

As Rachel shows in the above video, Nat Bates (mayoral candidate for Richmond, California) was basically bought by Chevron in an attempt to control how Richmond handles a certain Chevron-owned oil refinery. California is one of the states where political ads have to say who’s paying for them, so the billboards with Nat’s face on them […]

Transhuman

Posted on Nov 11, 2014Jan 24, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

Why spend even a second of thought on how the way corsets work isn’t possibly the way in which certain people think they work when you can ride the wave of Jason Silva’s infectious enthusiasm for what’s possible, or what will be possible in the coming years… The above episode from his Shots of Awe […]

To Age or Not to Age

Posted on Nov 10, 2014Jan 2, 2015 by Jason Vaughn

Would you like to live hundreds of years longer than you do now? And not as a forever-decrepit individual but as a healthy, youthful one who does things and continues to learn and explore and, yes, possibly even flies a starship to another planet 100 light years away? Well, believe it or not, this isn’t […]