Letters, News, and Notes

Publishing News

Six years in the making, Molôn Labé! (mo-LAWN lah-BAY), by Boston T. Party (Javelin Press) has been confirmed to ship in February, 2004.

The story revolves around Wyoming Governor James Wayne Preston, a decorated Desert Storm Marine helo pilot, elected in 2014 on the Laissez-Faire Party ticket, who must deal with the tyranny of the U.S. Government in his efforts to bring greater freedom to the people of the State of Wyoming. Will the conflict between the U.S. Government and the State of Wyoming lead to secession?

More information can be found at http://www.javelinpress.com/molon_labe.html.

Film and Television News

David Heyman, the producer of the Harry Potter films, and producer Mike Medavoy have hired Tim Minear, a genre television producer (Angels and Wonderfalls), to script an adaptation of Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress for film production. Minear describes himself as a Heinlein fan and states that he wishes to stay as close as possible to the spirit of Heinlein's story, citing the script of The Lord of the Rings as a model for the type of adaptation he wants to do.

Awards

The Libertarian Alliance, a British libertarian organization, has announced its Liberty Awards for 2003, in association with the Libertarian International. The awards were presented November 22-23, 2003, at Liberty 2003: The Annual Conference of the Libertarian Alliance and the Libertarian International, in London's National Liberal Club. The Liberty in Theory Award went to David Marsland, Professor of Health Informatics at Brunel University, for his contributions to the sociological study of open societies and his critiques of biases in mainstream sociology. The Liberty in Action Award went to Dr. Robert LeFevre for his demonstration of the possibility of free-market alternatives to Britain's National Health Service and his work in the treatment of addiction. The Dead Liberties Award went to Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Cheshire, for his investigation of Peter Forster, Bishop of Chester, following Forster's statement that homosexuals should seek psychiatric help in changing their sexual orientation, even though making such statements infringed no existing British law. For further information on these award, e-mail to Dr. Chris R. Tame at director@libertarian.co.uk.

Commercial Ventures

SpaceDev, a space technology corporation, has been awarded a $200,000 contract from DARPA to undertake conceptual design of orbital constellations made up of hundreds of small satellites. This is one of six current contracts; SpaceDev also has contracts with Scaled Composites and the Missile Defense Agency and three contracts with the Air Force Research Laboratories.

Other SpaceDev accomplishments include launching CHIPSat, the first orbital Internet node, on January 12, 2003, and testing an innovative rocket motor in a supersonic manned vehicle on December 17, 2003.

For more information, see http://www.spacedev.com .