The Doom that Came to Fiddle Creek. A kickstarter project for a marionette HP Lovecraft production. Live theater HP Lovecraft, what's not to like. (Pointed to by Sheila)
A 113 year old rejection letter. Man, talk about wait times. (Grokked from Dr. Doyle)
When juggernauts clash, it's usually the people who aren't involved that get hurt. Or, when the last standing large chain brick and mortar store throws a hissy fit at Simon & Schuster it isn't those two companies who take the hardest hit. It's the S&S authors who pay the heavy price. Also note, this isn't just related to this instance. You may remember the Amazon vs. Macmillan title bout last year. Those of us involved with these industries can only watch from the side lines as thousands of author incomes, livelyhoods, and careers are sacrificed for the sake of a few pennies and pray the same thing doesn't happen to us when our books come out. Also, as a side political note, this is how the free market works folks. Only one B&M chain left, and the smoking holes left by their last competitor have yet to be filled by independents. Free markets love monopolies. But don't worry, the execs for both B&N and S&S will still get their bonuses and golden parachutes, all paid for with the blood, sweat, and years of their midlist authors who are being thrown under this particular bus. (Grokked from Saladin Ahmed)
The magical library. Or more aptly, a private research library of magical texts. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
The Gates Foundation creates a $100,000 prise to the person who comes up with a better condom. While the article treats this as a funny story, but actually such a condom would change the dynamics of STDs and incidence of unplanned pregnancies. (Grokked from Rae Carson)
The retro-future tech of the flying platform. I think I see a few of the issues of why this never went very far forward, but I think those could be overcome these days. (Pointed to by Dan)
And example of just what the Cold War did to us all. A Chinese business man wants to build a golf course in a remote section of Iceland. And because of the plain-face absurdity of a luxury golf resort on land that is snowbound most of the year, people are looking for other explanations, which quickly look at geopolitical aspect of the Chinese owning a large swath of a strategically important island. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Got an earworm? Here's how you get rid of it. (Pointed to by Dan)
"There used to be a lot of jobs that you could do with just a high school degree, and that paid enough to be considered middle class. I knew, of course, that those have been disappearing for decades. What surprised me was what has been happening to many of the people who lost those jobs: They've been going on disability." The wrap up NPR report on the rise in disability payments. One time, when I was back at the printing plant, going down the stairs I was nearly plowed into by a sales person running up the stairs. It would have been a very bad fall if I hadn't caught myself in time. And when I got to the bottom of the stairs my brain went back to the SocSec letter I had received the month before (when they used to send them out). I'm pretty much at the top end of the earning curve and I'm fully vested (the benefit of 30 years of working for a paycheck). If I had gone down those stairs and injured my back, broken my leg, whatever and wasn't able to return to work, my disability wouldn't have been that much less than what I was making. That was an interesting afternoon. But in defense of some of this, I know a lot of people who have bad backs. Just because you have lower back pain doesn't mean everyone has the same pain. Mine is pretty manageable, but some people have a much harder time. That's an error this article makes. Also please note the cost of disability, "Going on disability means, assuming you rely only on those disability payments, you will be poor for the rest of your life. That's the deal." It's a very interesting article (I had heard some of the parts on NPR on the way home). (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)
"Farmers objected. Fertilizer, unlike your average AR-15, serves a useful purpose in society. It took a long time and required added protections for people who need the material to make a living, but eventually the law got passed." On gun control and some of the more silly retorts about how guns aren't the most dangerous thing out there. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Tweet of my heart: @Writepop: Son, your mom and I are very upset about your new "I Worship Satan" tattoo. The kerning is terrible! And papyrus? Really?
Alligator Quotient: It was beautiful, but now it's sour.
No comments:
Post a Comment