Kurd Lasswitz Preis-reprezintă unul cele mai cunoscute premii de science-fiction din Germania și a fost creat în 1980. Este conceput după modelul premiului "Nebula" american si poartă numele autorului german de science-fiction Kurd Lasswitz. Juriul este alcătuit din autori, editori și traducători profesioniști.
Inițial premiul era decernat pentru 6 categorii diferite : «Cel mai bun roman sf», «Cea mai bună nuvelă sf», « Cea mai bună povestire scurtă sf », «Cel mai bun traducător sf », «Cel mai bun ilustrator sf» și «Premiul special» la care s-au adăugat «Cel mai bun roman străin sf» (în 1983) și «Cel mai bun film sf» și «Cea mai bună piesă radiofonică sf» (în 1987).
Dintre autorii premiați cu renumitul Kurd Lasswitz Preis amintim : Wolfgang Jeschke, Andreas Eschbach, Hans Joachim Alpers, Carl Amery, Herbert W. Franke, Ian McDonald, Michael Marrak, Connie Willis.

În luna martie au fost anunțate o parte din Nominalizările la Premiile Kurd-Lasswitz :


* Cel mai bun roman SF german:
Tentakelschatten, - Dirk van den Boom
Alien Earth - Phase 1 and Alien Earth - Phase 2, - Frank Borsch,
Das versteckte Sternbild, - David Dalek,
Ausgebrannt, - Andreas Eschbach
Die Schatten des Mars, - Frank W. Haubold
Psyhack, - Michael K. Iwoleit
Das System, - Karl Olsberg
Andrade, - Armin Rössler
Magma, - Thomas Thiemeyer


* Cea mai bună povestire scurtă SF germană:
Die Lokomotive, - Marcus Hammerschmitt
Heimkehr, - Frank W. Haubold
Die Tà¤nzerin, - Frank W. Haubold
Der Moloch, - Michael K. Iwoleit
Fünfundneunzig Prozent, - Heidrun Jà¤nchen
Die bunten Splitter der Seele, - Niklas Peinecke
Imago, - Niklas Peinecke
eDead.com, - Uwe Post


* Cea mai bună lucrare de artă SF:
Volkan Baga - pentru coperta phantastisch! 27
Michael Hutter - pentru coperta Der Moloch und andere Visionen
Franz Vohwinkel - pentru coperta John Meaneys Tristopolis
Ernst Wurdack - pentru coperta S.F.X


* Premiul Special pentru excelență în SF-ul German:
Bernd Behr
Helmuth W. Mommers
Dieter von Reeken
Nessun Saprá [d.i. Klaus Geus
Ernst Wurdack, Heidrun Jà¤nchen & Armin Rössler

surse: Cenaclul H.G.Wells Timisoara
http://www.epilog.de/Dokumente/Preise/SF/Lasswitz/

ARTI - Agenzia Regionala per la Tecnologia e l'Innovazione - anunță organizarea, în Apulia (Italia), a unui concurs internațional de design privind integrarea în construcții a sistemelor solare.
Arhitecții interesați să participe cu proiecte la această competiție, care doresc să obțină mai multe informații privind regulamentul de concurs și condițiile de înscriere, sunt invitați să consulte site-ul www.arti.puglia.it/1929.asp.


To promote the eco-friendly re-generation of the regional building heritage, ARTI, the Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation, in agreement with the Ministry of Land Management of Apulia Region (in the South-East of Italy), has launched an international competition of ideas for the integration of the active and passive solar systems in the recovery of building and residential areas of Apulia.

In the hope you will find them useful, please find below further information about the competition.

Objective

To integrate into the building recovery plans technologies based on solar energy, as fundamental elements of the same plans.

The competition aims to collect project proposals for the re-generation of buildings and residential areas of Apulia Region, dating from the second post-war period, through a proper architectural and landscape integration with active and passive solar systems and natural active and passive cooling/air conditioning systems; the proposals shall relate to urban areas and residential buildings.

The geographical area of intervention is the territory of Apulia region, but the distinctive characteristic of the project proposals will be the replicability in the Mediterranean context.


Participation conditions and deadline

ARTI welcomes the participation of inter-professional groups, that can choose to work either at a specific residential area or at the development of project suitable for various solutions. The evaluation of the projects, carried out by a Commission of experts appointed in the next few months, will take into consideration the following parameters: landscape integration; morphological integration; replicability; energy performance. Supplementary scores will be assigned to projects submitted by teams integrating the most diverse disciplines and by teams in which young professionals - enrolled in the respective professional register for less than five years - play a relevant role and task.

The deadline for the submission of the project proposals is at 12:00 a.m. of 30 May, 2008. The Commission will appoint a winner and will select two further projects deserving mention. The winning project will receive a € 50 thousand award. Apulia Region reserves the right to entrust the winner of the competition of the implementation of the subsequent phases of design. Each of the other two proposals deserving mention will receive a € 10 thousand award. The names of the project proposals selected by the Commission will be transmitted to Professional Associations, to the university departments of Apulia and to Region Apulia as well.

Information, regulation and application form on http://www.arti.puglia.it/1929.asp

ARTI - Agenzia Regionale per la Tecnologia e l'Innovazione
S.P. Casamassima Km. 3 - 70010 Valenzano BA- Italy
web www.arti.puglia.it; e-mail info@arti.puglia.it
ARTI (Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation) is a public body created by the Apulia Regional Government in 2004 and has as a primary mission that of promoting and consolidating the regional system of innovation. The Agency is particularly committed in: supporting the regional government in programming and managing the regional policies on innovation and competitiveness; fostering the dialogue between industry and science and between science and the society; supporting innovation in companies; facilitating the international networking of all the regional research and innovation actors.

Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90


British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
Born in Somerset, he came to fame in 1968 when a short story The Sentinel was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by director Stanley Kubrick.

Sir Arthur's vision of future space travel and computing captured the popular imagination.

An aide said he died at 0130 local time in what had become his adopted homeland after a cardio-respiratory attack.

Vivid descriptions

A farmer's son, Sir Arthur was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.

"A great science fiction writer, a very good scientist, a great prophet and a very dear friend "

Sir Patrick Moore