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Oct. 1st, 2011
Without a doubt the most exciting events in space in October are Cassini's two, count them, two extremely close flybys of Enceladus, spaced only eighteen days apart, on October 1 and 19 (and followed by a third one on November 6). Just to make things more interesting, Saturn (and, therefore, Cassini) will be going in to solar conjunction in between the two flybys. Meanwhile, I'll be reporting from one of the year's big planetary science meetings in Nantes, France, all next week. Highlights include the first scientific presentations from Dawn at Vesta on Tuesday afternoon and early MESSENGER orbital science results all day Wednesday, but there are exciting sessions all week on every part of the solar system. Stay tuned for that!
A couple of interesting things from Tor
Oct. 1st, 2011 02:16 pmTim Callahan says positive-ish things about Frank Miller's Holy Terror; commenters disagree.
There'san interesting useful [0] comment from pnh in there:
This is useful to bear in mind when reading F&SF and to a much lesser extent but still not zero, mystery [1]. I don't know why the genres are so wingnut friendly; maybe the same mental features that lead one to think lizards are running the world are an asset in writing fantastic settings.
I will say there's a level of toxic that will successfully prevent me from reading an author and it's somewhere north of Card and south of Hogan.
This would be how I feel during pretty much ever discussion I've been in about Firefly: I accept that people are completely wrong-headed in this matter, so why can't they accept that the flaws I point out are real?
OK, weird: my cursor has vanished....
In a completely unrelated matter, Suzanne Johnson does columns every month about upcoming releases. Our tastes are different so I don't generally bother to talk about them but what I've noticed is this sort of pattern:
On the plus side, lots of stuff aimed at new readers and for women [2]! On the minus, I notice "dystopia" comes up a lot. What I'd like to know if those ratios reflect what's coming out or whether it's strongly skewed by the reviewer's preferences.
0: Not that it's not interesting but I mentioning it because it's useful.
1: Although I don't think I see the nuttiest mystery writers. Mostly it's crankery on a level that would be unremarkable in SF, like hating on cities. In ten years of reading mysteries and thrillers, the worst I've seen is the anti-race-mixing one - oh, but then there are the ones whose plots depend on the Nazis being right, although that's more of a thriller thing than a mystery trope....
2: Genres where the majority of the readers are women do much, much better than the ones aimed mostly at men. I suppose it's possible to try to put into place efforts aimed at making men more literate as a group but that smacks to me of affirmative action and quotas.
There's
I enjoy reading all kinds of people I consider toxically crazy in one way or another. That's one of the big wins of this "reading" game -- you can enjoy their talent without having to invite them in for dinner!
This is useful to bear in mind when reading F&SF and to a much lesser extent but still not zero, mystery [1]. I don't know why the genres are so wingnut friendly; maybe the same mental features that lead one to think lizards are running the world are an asset in writing fantastic settings.
I will say there's a level of toxic that will successfully prevent me from reading an author and it's somewhere north of Card and south of Hogan.
My objection to Callahan's review is that he's trying to tell me that shit is Shinola, when I can clearly see the undigested bits that rarely occur naturally in hair tonic.
This would be how I feel during pretty much ever discussion I've been in about Firefly: I accept that people are completely wrong-headed in this matter, so why can't they accept that the flaws I point out are real?
OK, weird: my cursor has vanished....
In a completely unrelated matter, Suzanne Johnson does columns every month about upcoming releases. Our tastes are different so I don't generally bother to talk about them but what I've noticed is this sort of pattern:
Thirty-six new Young Adult spec fiction titles hit the shelves in October [...]
Fifty-three new books in these overlapping genres come out in October [...]
Eighteen new fantasy books vie for the least-pronounceable character name awards in October [...]
Twelve new science fiction books launch in October [...]
On the plus side, lots of stuff aimed at new readers and for women [2]! On the minus, I notice "dystopia" comes up a lot. What I'd like to know if those ratios reflect what's coming out or whether it's strongly skewed by the reviewer's preferences.
0: Not that it's not interesting but I mentioning it because it's useful.
1: Although I don't think I see the nuttiest mystery writers. Mostly it's crankery on a level that would be unremarkable in SF, like hating on cities. In ten years of reading mysteries and thrillers, the worst I've seen is the anti-race-mixing one - oh, but then there are the ones whose plots depend on the Nazis being right, although that's more of a thriller thing than a mystery trope....
2: Genres where the majority of the readers are women do much, much better than the ones aimed mostly at men. I suppose it's possible to try to put into place efforts aimed at making men more literate as a group but that smacks to me of affirmative action and quotas.
An important election issue
Oct. 1st, 2011 02:52 pmI will working for 13 or 14 hours and am quite reasonably expected to supply my own food. Because each polling station is different, EO cannot guarantee freezers or microwave ovens. Additionally, one definitely cannot have anything with nuts if the polling station is in a school and in general they would prefer PDIAs and such to avoid bringing nut-based foods at all, probably because inducing acute anaphylaxis in voters can be perceived as undermining the democratic process.
The problem is peanut butter is my default cold snack. Suggestions for alternates accepted. Muffins, I guess. And I should pick up a small cooler; I've been meaning to do that anyway for grocery shopping in the summer.
The problem is peanut butter is my default cold snack. Suggestions for alternates accepted. Muffins, I guess. And I should pick up a small cooler; I've been meaning to do that anyway for grocery shopping in the summer.
The reason I wanted to see other people's reviews is because I found some aspects of the book problematic and I was wondering if this was just a James thing (some of the elements involved I know are definitely just buttons for me and not other people).
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
self-serving
Oct. 1st, 2011 08:43 pmI'm linking to this purely so that I can point at the Superman redesign. I've thought for a while that after Byrne et al's redesign of Superman in 1980s, the Martian Manhunter ended up filling a number of the thematic roles Superman used to, in particular the immigrant who came to America late enough in life [1] to keep a lot of their original homeland's culture and who in many ways stood just outside the community they were working to protect.
(something to look at later: parallels between the Martian Manhunter, Supergirl and Power Girl, also adult or at least teen immigrants)
1: For someone with super-memory, that can be pretty young. How much of Kryptonian ways Kal El remembered varied but there were times when he was a full blown "Gosh, it's a shame Kryptonian law forbids me from marrying the cousin I am totally making out with" Raoian.
(something to look at later: parallels between the Martian Manhunter, Supergirl and Power Girl, also adult or at least teen immigrants)
1: For someone with super-memory, that can be pretty young. How much of Kryptonian ways Kal El remembered varied but there were times when he was a full blown "Gosh, it's a shame Kryptonian law forbids me from marrying the cousin I am totally making out with" Raoian.