{"id":709,"date":"2009-04-09T07:21:35","date_gmt":"2009-04-09T07:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2009\/04\/09\/in_which_richard_comes_to_stay\/"},"modified":"2009-04-09T07:21:35","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T07:21:35","slug":"in_which_richard_comes_to_stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2009\/04\/09\/in_which_richard_comes_to_stay\/","title":{"rendered":"In which Richard comes to stay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My London home is often a temporary resting spot for itinerant scientists and literary types, and this past week it has been graced with the presence of a certain house-hunting Nature Network <a href=\"http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/rpg\/blog\/2009\/04\/03\/on-the-train\">denizen<\/a>. Although the search for an abode can often be a hellish, stressful affair, Richard seems to be coping well:<\/p>\n<p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/Grumpy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"485\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Please keep your hats with you at all times when traveling on London Underground<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\nThe fine spring weather we&#8217;ve been having probably contributed to the air of good cheer, as did the frequent rest stops around the public houses of Rotherhithe where, apparently, the libations are superior to their Antipodal counterparts:<\/p>\n<p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/SpitfireA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"597\" \/><br \/>\n<em>A pint of bitter at the Ship and Whale, Saturday<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\nAfter having found a lovely four-bed house near the Thames (I&#8217;ll let the man himself tell you more), Richard gamely followed me around London to various sci-lit events. On Monday at <a href=\"http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/UE19877E8\/blog\/2009\/03\/18\/in-which-i-succumb-fiction-lab-update\">Fiction Lab<\/a>, there was a big turnout at the RI for the discussion of my novel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/dp\/0879698764\/ref=nosim?tag=lablicom-21\">Experimental Heart<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/images\/FLSigningA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"377\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Book signing after the event, Monday<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\nWe&#8217;ve recorded the session for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\">LabLit.com&#8217;s<\/a> first podcast, so I won&#8217;t say any more at present except that it was an enjoyable and vigorous discussion. We&#8217;re just waiting for our composer to finish the jingle, and hope to have the podcast available sometime next week!<\/p>\n<p>\nOn Tuesday it was back to the RI for a discussion on <a href=\"http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/UE19877E8\/blog\/2009\/03\/29\/in-which-we-ask-is-science-fiction-an-arbiter-of-progress\">The Science in Science Fiction<\/a>. I was pleasantly described to see a diverse turnout of about 120 people keen to learn more about how science fiction writers have influenced real-life science and technological events. My favorite example, from panelist Mark Brake, is that apparently South Korea has become the first country to adapt the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Three_Laws_of_Robotics\">Three Laws of Robotics<\/a> as a prelude to their <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/technology\/6425927.stm\">goal<\/a> to have a robot in every home by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\nOverall, I have found Richard to be thoroughly house-trained. He brings you coffee in the morning, uses the bread machine without looking at the recipe book, cooks a mean fajita and even cleans up afterwards. Every home should have one of him, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My London home is often a temporary resting spot for itinerant scientists and literary types, and this past week it has been graced with the presence of a certain house-hunting Nature Network denizen. Although the search for an abode can &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2009\/04\/09\/in_which_richard_comes_to_stay\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}