For any SF writers considering a far future setting

From the wikipedia article on the Earth's axial tilt (which I looked at because of something Brian Davis said on rasfs):

According to W.R. Ward, the orbit of the Moon (which is continuously increasing due to tidal effects) will have gone from the current 60 to approximately 66.5 Earth radii in about 1.5 billion years. Once this occurs, a resonance from planetary effects will follow, causing swings of the obliquity between 22° and 38°. Further, in approximately 2 billion years, when the Moon reaches a distance of 68 Earth radii, another resonance will cause even greater oscillations, between 27° and 60°. This would have extreme effects on climate.

Today's evil plan

From The Avatar

"Judas priest, are you aware that dead-serious talk is going on in the [World Union] council about resurrecting Keynsian fiscal policies."

Do you think we could get Paul Krugman to read and review The Avatar?

On a related note:

This article extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer traveling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved. (JEL F10, F30)

The monitor

Is in the opinion of my local computer store probably not fixable. New monitors don't seem to be as expensive as I had feared, though.

Snubbed Again!

Seen in the AFD for Nick Mamatas' wikipedia article (which ended with KEEP):

But posting things like this [1] is what I consider campaigning, perhaps canvassing and definately not appropriate to have a link directly to this discussion.

Why did Martin Wisse rate a rebuke and not those stalwarts on LJ who also mentioned the War on Mamatas? Is it an anti-LJ thing or just that Martin was an actual participant in the discussion?

Mentioned in email

According to the Guardian:

Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned.

Want to win a free copy of Mirror Sword and Shadow Prince?

From the Haikasoru site:

Just write a little bit of what you think about this question:

When readers think “fantasy” they often think of stories taking place in a pseudo-medieval Europe. Is this just due to the facts of publishing—that’s what gets labeled fantasy, and it will change with audience tastes—or does it represent a problem by limiting the field of what can be successfully published?

Let us know what you think! The four answers I like best (and I can be pretty whimsical, so feel free to creatively misinterpret the question) will get a free copy of Mirror Sword and Shadow Prince. We’ll be reading comments till noon, Pacific Time, May 13th.

Does an example exist

Of a fantasy where the models for the setting are based on Majapahit and/or Srivijaya?
( Read more... )

Nicked from moonpupy