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| Thursday, May 15th, 2008 |
suricattus
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6:02a |
As promised -- picspam! (and some educational content, too) So last night I went to the opening of the "Horse" exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. Wow. Unlike the Mythic Creatures exhibit, which was nice but a little light, this has (forgive me) more meat to it, from the genetic origins of equis through to the contemporary uses of therapy horses. There were a few blank spots, and I was heard to fact-check a few of the non-scientific displays, but we took a full two hours going through that one exhibit, and felt quite pleased with it, after. If you have any interest in horses, even just to see why they've been so important (in a relatively short time) to mankind's evolution, this is of interest. And oh my gawd, if you go through with young girls, just blindfold them when you walk out, because as usual it dumps you into the gift shop where they have Prepared for the 12 year old [in all of us] with horse-related gear in every size, shape, color and price range..... Museum horse! ( picspam )Live Horse! ( Picspam )and some feline picspam ( to round out the day ) Current Mood:  awake |
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newscientrss
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10:35a |
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newscientrss
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10:29a |
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| Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 | |
newscientrss
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6:00p |
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| Thursday, May 15th, 2008 | |
jeffvandermeer
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9:17a |
The Thousand and One Posts of Ecstatic Days http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2008/05/15/the-thousand-and-one-posts-of-ecstatic-days/ http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/?p=1064 
Somehow I’ve survived to post number 1,001 on the new blog. Thanks to everyone for reading. I really appreciate it. Sometimes your comments have kept me sane.
Thanks also to Luis Rodrigues for creating this site and for enhancing it from time to time. Thanks to all the guest bloggers.
Here’s a look back at just a few “highlights,” mostly funny…
Jeff
Predator Opera! (my personal favorite)
VanderMeers to Edit Squidpunk Antho (too many peoples thought this was for real–for shame, peoples!)
Odd Jobs: Froggie (yes, this really happened)
Evil Monkey Guide to Creative Writing–Take 1 (still my best creative writing rant)
Grandson Riley Photos (extreme cuteness–had to include)
Ten Clues for the Clueless (sarcastic writing advice!)
Book Sale Victim (just cute, is all)
The Immortal Chuck E Cheese Horror Story (yes, this really happened)
The Triumph of Competence (or, telling it like it is and kerfuffle following)
Pop Culture Report #1 (all in one take!)
The Language of Defeat (the companion piece to the kerfuffle-maker, but since it wasn’t directly on my blog, not as much kerfuffle)
Penguin Wars (a tip o’ the hat to Tessa and her penguins)
Unscientific Book Cover Survey (a raucous but fun post)
It’s Molting Season For Writers! (people either got this one or they didn’t; the ones who didn’t looked at me odd for a month)
How to Write a Novel in Two Months (spawned a book deal)
Ann in PJs! (just too cute)
Aborted Evil Monkey for Prez Campaign (i never did have time to actually do this…)
Two Things I Never Expected (the sh*t post)
New Weird Story Contest Participants (a lot of bizarre stories here, let me tell ya)
My Weirdest Freelance Moment (yes, it really happened)
Unpublished Novel by Jesse (led to the author getting an agent)
Felix Gilman Attacked by Hamster (I think Felix is a comic genius)
Why I Love Ann (self-explanatory)
Reviewing Books (yeah, this is kinda boring; that’s part of the point)
Predator: Me and Dave Larsen Are Not Playing Around (yeah, that’s right–we’re not playing around mofo!)
Incoming! Books Received March 17 (the first books received post–and infamous for the Scott Sigler incident and sudden outpouring of Sigler fandom in the comments)
Scott Sigler Is In My House (I don’t think Scott liked being compared to a hamster, but it did lead to classic Felix humor, although I don’t think Felix ever thought I’d actually send him a hamster…)
The Arms Crossed Gender Power Imbalance (three wonderful women indulged me…)
Arthur C. Clarke Appreciation (something I’m proud of having gotten right)
Could a City Exist in the Eye of a Giant Salamander? (I enjoyed the heck out of the comments on this one)
Formula for Your Literary Name (yes, it’s a bit too complicated)
Nabokov Bookshelves (I still get a kick out of the fact Dmitri Nabokov commented)
Books and Beer (one of my favorites)
The Books are Winning (the beginning of the epic, almost insane book slae–over a thousand books, Ann and me shipping them all)
Massive Book Sale (…and the official start…)
Book Sale ‘Nam: Destroy to Protect (…and our near destruction…)
Fartscape (Evil gets all up in Farscape’s face)
My Birthday at Clarion (a nice moment)
The Short Story Is Dying? (Evil, me, and the lizard that lived in our yard rhyme in on the short story)
Evil Monkey’s Guide to Kosher Imaginary Animals (the now near-classic post that spawned a forthcoming book deal)
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scifiwire
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12:00a |
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scifiwire
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12:00a |
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scifiwire
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12:00a |
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jeffvandermeer
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8:01a |
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boing_boing
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2:24a |
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scifiwire
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12:00a |
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sf_scope
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12:30a |
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scifiwire
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12:00a |
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scifiwire
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12:00a |
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scifiwire
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12:00a |
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| Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 | |
boing_boing
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11:46p |
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boing_boing
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11:36p |
US Air Force wants "full control" of "any and all" computers http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/290658580/us-air-force-wants-f.html
Over at the Wired defense technology blog "Danger Room," Noah Shachtman writes:
The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to --
and "full control" of -- any kind of computer there is. And once the
info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their
"adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected."
The government is growing increasingly interested in waging war
online. The Air Force recently put together a "Cyberspace Command,"
with a charter to rule networks the way its fighter jets rule the
skies. The Department of Homeland Security, Darpa, and other agencies
are teaming up for a five-year, $30 billion "national cybersecurity
iniative." That includes an electronic test range, where
federally-funded hackers can test out the latest electronic attacks.
"You used to need an army to wage a war," a recent Air Force
commercial notes. "Now, all you need is an Internet connection."
On Monday, the Air Force Research Laboratory introduced a two-year,
$11 million effort to put together hardware and software tools for
"Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement." "Of interest are any and all
techniques to enable user and/or root level access," a request for
proposals notes, "to both fixed (PC) or mobile computing platforms...
Link to full post.
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| Thursday, May 15th, 2008 | |
jeffvandermeer
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4:26a |
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| Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 |
scottedelman
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11:36p |
My Balticon 42 Schedule I just received my schedule for Balticon 42, which begins a week from Friday. All of my programming will take place on Sunday, May 25. Since it's a local con, I haven't decided yet how many other days I'll attend, and won't make up my mind until I see the final programming grid. If you also plan on being there, here's where you'll be able to find me: 11:00 a.m.: Reading
3:00 p.m.: How the Internet Helps Small Presses
6:00 p.m.: Autographing
7:00 p.m.: Joseph Campbell's Monomyth I'm not sure how I ended up on that last panel, as I never volunteered for it and don't consider myself a Campbell expert, but I'll do my best to pontificate properly. |
debgeisler
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11:15p |
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boing_boing
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10:05p |
Steampunk in the Boston Phoenix http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/290619105/steampunk-in-the-bos-1.html The cover story on the Boston Phoenix this week is a wicked, long feature on steampunk!
The 19th century ushered in the era of the amateur: a wild-eyed tinkerer in a lab had the capacity to stumble upon a discovery that just might alter society, a common theme paralleled in Victorian and Gothic fiction and, now, in Steampunk. “I find the optimism of Steampunk rather refreshing,” says Rich Nagy, a/k/a Datamancer, a popular Steampunk artisan originally based in New Jersey but now living in California who was represented at the Maker Contraptor’s Lounge. “Steampunk has a way of making technology, which is becoming more transparent and taken for granted every day, seem novel and fun again,” adds Nagy. That much is clear in his finely wrought pieces, like the “Computational Engine” computer casemod and his sophisticated “Steampunk Victorian Laptop,” a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop with a clockwork-under-glass display that, when it’s closed, looks like an ornate antique music box. It turns on with a clock-winding key. In effect, Steampunk is poised to bring the proletariat craftsman his 21st-century renaissance.
Though Steampunk’s artisanal outputs have stolen much of the mainstream limelight so far, there is a whole other creative side to the scene that has received little attention in comparison. Countless bands have formed, filing their music under the Steampunk genre or citing Victorian fantasy as a muse. One of them, Vernian Process, is the solo project of San Francisco–based Joshua Pfieffer. A true testament to the notion of the ambitious dabbler, Pfieffer has no musical training, and writes songs with the aid of basic audio-production software. “The atmosphere is actually more important to me than writing good hooks, or melodic structure,” he says of his music, which he makes free to download. “I feel that what I do represents the genre as I would like it to sound.”
Link
( Thanks, Jake!)
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boing_boing
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10:02p |
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boing_boing
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9:58p |
Universal Music: when we get hit with copyright damages, that's "unconstitutionally excessive" http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/290617857/universal-music-when.html Universal Music Group loves the idea of suing music fans for the full freight when it comes to copyright infringement, celebrating their ability to extract $150,000 per act of infringement with punitive damages on top -- but now that Universal's been slapped with one of these copyright suits (for sampling Hendrix without permission, something I think they should be able to do, FWIW), they've decided that these damages are "unconstitutionally excessive."
The case in question involves now-deceased rapper The Notorious B.I.G., whose album Ready to Die incorporated an unlicensed sample of "Singing in the Morning" from the Ohio Players after a Hendrix sample was denied clearance. The sample made its way onto the final album and even onto reissued albums. Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records, which control the rights to the song, sued. A district court ruled in their favor; Bridgeport took the $150,000 maximum in statutory damages, while Westbound sought compensatory and punitive damages. Westbound scored big, earning $366,939 from the jury along with punitive damages of a whopping $3.5 million.
In appealing the ruling, Universal argued that the punitive damages award was "grossly excessive and should be vacated or at least reduced." The reason? It's excessive. The brief quotes a Supreme Court ruling that said, "In practice, few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a significant degree, will satisfy due process." Universal pointed out that the award in question was "approximately 10 to 1, far above the line of unconstitutional impropriety."
Link
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sfrose
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10:52p |
Balticon roomshare This is last minute, but is anyone looking to share a room at Balticon? I have a reservation for Friday-Monday... Current Mood:  hopeful |
| Thursday, May 15th, 2008 | |
officialgaiman
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1:45a |
Brief Trademark Ponders http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/brief-trademark-ponders.html A few interesting links related to Trademarks (not to be confused with copyright, but people do, and so do I). For example, the Open Rights Group (of which, last time I looked, I was Patron, but I don't have to do anything except be on the letterhead and possibly make the cucumber sandwiches) posted http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/05/08/bbc-removes-doctor-who-fans-knitting-patterns-from-the-web/ -- the story of a fan who was told by the BBC to take down the Dr Who knitting patterns from her website. Interestingly, the Head of Communications at the BBC left a message on the ORG blog, and amplified it on the BBC news site, pointing out that their problem was not with the creator but with the people who were taking her designs, making the toys, and selling them on eBay. One commenter said, My own opinion is that the BBC would be correct to target Ebay sellers and anyone attempting to make a profit from their intellectual property, as is their right. Unfortunately rather than do this actively, they have chosen the easy option of attacking a person whose only ‘crime’ is she has the imagination and flare to design knitted patterns and make them available not for profit, based on Dr Who characters...Which was the last thing I read before reading this Boing-Boing article, this Beat coverage, and this follow-up blog posting from the person who was running the ebay auction: Warner Brothers lawyers closed down a children's cancer charity eBay auction because it was selling original Superman drawings... And mostly, I'm just glad that I'm not a corporate trademark lawyer. (Also, I think -- and have thought for about 17 years, ever since the Comic Relief Comic problems -- that Warner Corporate needs to change its policies with regards to DC Comics and charities and allow DC Comics as much latitude as, say, Marvel. But it hasn't happened yet.) |
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