The Barbie Murders
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The Barbie Murders
The Barbie Murders is a science fiction short story by John Varley. It was first published in '' Asimov's Science Fiction'' in January/February 1978, and subsequently reprinted as the title story of Varley's 1980 collection of the same name, which was later reissued as ''Picnic on Nearside''. Many of the stories take place in Varley's Eight Worlds setting. Plot summary Lt. Anna-Louise Bach and her partner Jorge Weil are police officers in New Dresden, a domed city on the Moon. They are assigned what initially seems an open-and-shut case of murder, but are dismayed to realize that the crime took place in an area of the city inhabited by a cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ... called the Barbies. The Barbies have altered themselves into identical women under th ...
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WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ...
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Eight Worlds
The Eight Worlds are the fictional setting of a series of science fiction novels and short stories by John Varley, in which the Solar System has been colonized by human refugees fleeing an alien invasion of the Earth. Earth and Jupiter are off-limits to humanity, but Earth's Moon and the other worlds and moons of the Solar System have all become heavily populated. There are also minor colonies set in the Oort cloud at the edge of the Solar System. Faster than light travel is not (as yet) possible, though it's mentioned that test-flights will begin soon at the end of ''The Golden Globe'', and the species has not as yet managed to extend itself to other stars. The series mostly deals with the ways in which technology and necessity shape morality and society. Instant sex changes are considered a matter of fashion, rather than gender identity, and many long-standing human sexual taboos no longer exist. The Eight Worlds story "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank", published in 1976, was adap ...
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Mystery Short Stories
Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' (2014 film), a 2014 Chinese suspense thriller adventure film * ''Mystery, Alaska'' (1999), a comedy-drama film Genres * Mystery fiction, a genre of detective fiction * Mystery film, a genre in cinema Literature * ''Mysteries'' (novel) or ''Mysterie'', an 1892 existentialist novel by Knut Hamsun * ''Mystery'' (novel), a 1990 novel by American author Peter Straub *'' The Mystery'' (1907), a novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams Newspapers * ''Mystery'' (newspaper), an African American newspaper by Martin Delany Music Groups * Mystery (band), a Canadian progressive-rock band formed in 1986 Albums and EPs * ''Mystery'' (Blk Jks EP), 2009 * ''Mystery'' (Mystery EP), 1992 * ''Mystery'' (RAH Band album), 1985 * ''Mystery'' (Faye Wong album), 19 ...
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American Science Fiction Short Stories
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * Ba ...
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Merkin
__NOTOC__ A merkin is a pubic wig. Merkins were worn by sex workers after shaving their mons pubis, and are now used as decorative items, erotic devices, or in films, by both men and women. History and etymology The '' Oxford Companion to the Body'' dates the origin of the pubic wig to the 1450s. According to the publication, women would shave their pubic hair for personal hygiene and to combat pubic lice. They would then don a merkin. Also, sex workers would wear a merkin to cover up signs of disease, such as syphilis. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' dates the first written use of the term to 1617. The word probably originated from ''malkin'', a derogatory term for a lower-class young woman, or from ''Marykin'', a pet form of the female given name ''Mary''. Contemporary use In Hollywood filmmaking, merkins can be worn by actors and actresses to avoid inadvertent exposure of the genitalia during nude or semi-nude scenes. The presence of the merkin protects the actor from ina ...
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Security Camera
A closed-circuit television camera can produce images or recordings for surveillance or other private purposes. Cameras can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras. Walter Bruch was the inventor of the CCTV camera. The main purpose of a CCTV camera is to capture light and convert it into a video signal. Underpinning a CCTV camera is a CCD sensor (charge-coupled device). The CCD converts light into an electrical signal and then signal processing converts this electrical signal into a video signal that can be recorded or displayed on the screen. Video cameras Video cameras are either analogue or digital, which means that they work on the basis of sending analogue or digital signals to a storage device such as a video tape recorder or desktop computer or laptop computer. Analogue These cameras can record straight to a video tape recorder which can record analogue signals as pictures. If the analogue signals are recorded to tape, then the tape must run at a very sl ...
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Cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial and weakly defined—having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia—and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study. Richardson, James T. 1993. "Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular-Negative." ''Review of Religious Research'' 34(4):348–56. . . An older sense of the word involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, related to a particular figure, and often associated with a particular place. References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word. While the literal and original sense of ...
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Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the crime of killing a person with malice aforethought or with recklessness manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.") This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter. Manslaughter is killing committed in the absence of Malice (law), ''malice'',This is "malice" in a technical legal sense, not the more usual English sense denoting an emotional state. See malice (law). brought about by reasonable Provocation (legal), provocation, or diminished capacity. Involuntary manslaughter, ''Involuntary'' manslaughter, where it is recognized, is a killing that lacks all but the most a ...
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Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of Australia). The Moon is a planetary-mass object with a differentiated rocky body, making it a satellite planet under the geophysical definitions of the term and larger than all known dwarf planets of the Solar System. It lacks any significant atmosphere, hydrosphere, or magnetic field. Its surface gravity is about one-sixth of Earth's at , with Jupiter's moon Io being the only satellite in the Solar System known to have a higher surface gravity and density. The Moon orbits Earth at an average distance of , or about 30 times Earth's diameter. Its gravitational influence is the main driver of Earth's tides and very slowly lengthens Earth's day. The Moon's orbit around Earth has a sidereal period of 27.3 days. During each synodic period ...
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Police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes. Law enforcement is only part of policing activity. Policing has included an array of activities in different situations, but the predominant ones are concerned with the pre ...
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The Barbie Murders (collection)
''The Barbie Murders'' is a 1980 collection of science fiction stories by American writer John Varley. The book was republished under the title ''Picnic on Nearside'' in 1984. Contents The collection includes nine stories: * "Bagatelle", originally published in '' Galaxy Science Fiction'', August 1976 * "The Funhouse Effect", originally published in '' The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', December 1976 * "The Barbie Murders", originally published in '' Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', February 1978 * "Equinoctial", originally published in ''Ascents of Wonder'', 1977 * "Manikins", originally published in '' Amazing Stories'', January 1976 * "Beatnik Bayou", originally published in ''New Voices III'', 1980 * "Good-Bye, Robinson Crusoe", originally published in ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', Spring 1977 * "Lollipop and the Tar Baby", originally published in '' Orbit 19'', 1977 * "Picnic on Nearside", originally published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & ...
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John Varley (author)
John Herbert Varley (born August 9, 1947) is an American science fiction writer. Biography Varley was born in Austin, Texas. He grew up in Fort Worth, moved to Port Arthur in 1957, graduated from Nederland High School—all in Texas—and went to Michigan State University on a National Merit Scholarship. He started as a physics major, switched to English, then left school before his 20th birthday and arrived in Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco just in time for the "Summer of Love" in 1967. There he worked at various unskilled jobs, depended on St. Anthony's Mission for meals, and panhandled outside the Cala Market on Stanyan Street (since closed) before deciding that writing had to be a better way to make a living. He was serendipitously present at Woodstock in 1969 when his car ran out of gas a half-mile away. He also has lived at various times in Portland and Eugene, Oregon, New York City, San Francisco again, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. Varley has written s ...
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