Still looking for "Smart Genes"
"Smart Genes", the collaborative novel, seems to exist only as a guide to broken links.
I've Googled the term and its author, Rick Heller, searched through successive pages linking to sites which point to it, and still haven't been able to find it.
--- The official URL: http://www.smartgenes.com, now refers to a site called "Transparent Eye: Focused on the Science and Spirituality of Pain Relief". And the person who is posting all of the comments is Rick Heller. The blog's first posts are from December 2006. He writes quick posts in January 2007, nothing at all in February, and every post entry from March 2007 is about pain: pain and suffering, transcending pain through meditation, injury lawsuits. From his About page (which also features a photo of him):
This Web site is focused on pain and its relief, from the dual perspectives of neuroscience and spirituality.
Freelance journalist Rick Heller has reported for a variety of New England newspapers. He holds a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard, a Bachelor of Science degree from MIT, and is a graduate student in journalism at Boston University.
He can be reached at: eye at smartgenes dot com.
--- There's a Rick Heller in the Physics Department at Harvard, and a Rick Heller wrote for a Harvard Law politics blog in 2004. (Are they the same person? A physicist blogging on politics? Will try to find out more.)
--- Rick Heller last blogged at "Centerfield: A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics" on May 8, 2006.
I've found many more references to Mr. Heller from early 2004, and much more about the author than about the novel. According to his SocialText wiki last updated in 2004, Heller actively wrote and blogged a group of politically oriented sites. The last item on the list is called "Smart Genes":
The Clarkbot:
URL: http://clarkbot.forclark.com/The Clarkbot searches the Feedster RSS search engine for references to "Wesley Clark" To be picked up by the Clarkbot, a blog must generate an RSS Feed, and that feed must be listed with Feedster.
The Softpolitics Aggregator provides a "balanced diet" of liberal and conservative views:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/softpolitics/aggregator/Blogs to which I contribute:
SoftPolitics:At The Intersection Of Software And Politics
URL: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/softpolitics/
Feed: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/softpolitics/xml/rss.xmlCenterfield:A Weblog Of Centrist Voices In American Politics
URL: http://centristcoalition.com/blog/
Feed: http://centristcoalition.com/blog/index.rdfBlogging Of The President:2004
URL: http://www.bopnews.com/
Feed: http://www.bopnews.com/index.rdfSmart Genes
URL: http://ww.smartgenes.com
Feed: http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/rssify/rssify.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww....
Seeing the political blog list together with Smart Genes, which now links to Transparent Eye, lead me to believe I now have a valid email address for the Rick Heller who started the Smart Genes collaborative novel.
*** NEXT STEP (3/22/07): After first checking in with an Assignment Zero editor, I'll contact Mr. Heller through Transparent Eye and ask him about "Smart Genes."
3/23/07
