The Islam and Science Fiction site (which is wonderful, you should be reading it all the time) is sponsoring an Islamicate Science Fiction Short Story Competition. Spread the word!

If you are more into athletics than literature, fear not, there’s something for you as well. Gallowglass Academy is putting on the Second Annual International Pugilism Symposium, featuring such classes as “Punch Him in the Face, Throw Him on His Head.” That’s hard to resist.

Slate’s Vault takes a look at the tickets medical students used to attend dissections back in the 1800s. It’s all a bit more refined than the modern day.

However, blood transfusions are much better understood today than in Bram Stoker’s time, fortunately; here’s an essay about blood (and Dracula) in Victorian London.