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| According to Forbidden Planet International, the collected IGNITION CITY will be out in February 2010, and apparently it’ll look like this:
(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.) | |
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- African conflicts spurred by warming - environment - 23 November 2009 - New Scientist
"Africa is poised to experience a surge in civil wars, causing nearly 400,000 additional battle deaths by 2030 ? all as a direct result of rising temperatures."
(tags:war pol eco )
- Nicholas Szczepaniak ? A Defensive Architecture | Interactive Architecture dot Org
"Set in the Blackwater Estuary, Essex, his allegorical and provocative defensive architectures envisage the construction of a set of austere coastal defence towers that perform multiple functions within this dystopian future. The militarised towers are alive ? breathing, creaking, groaning, sweating and crying when stressed. Airbags on the face of the towers expand and contract, while hundreds of tensile trunks are sporadically activated, casting water onto the heated facades producing steam…"
(tags:architecture )
- Motion Comics
"one of comics' greatest strengths is the idea of closure, or how readers fill in the gaps between panels. Motion comics do this for the viewer with extra sound effects and time. An unfortunate side effect of this is that while traditional comics enable us to read at our own speed, motion comics lock us into fixed durations." Which is why motion comics aren't comics, if you were wondering.
(tags:comicstheory )
- New global map of Mars suggests Red Planet once had ocean
"?All the evidence gathered by analyzing the valley network on the new map points to a particular climate scenario on early Mars,? said NIU Geography Professor Wei Luo. ?It would have included rainfall and the existence of an ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere, or about one-third of the planet?s surface""
(tags:space )
- I traced my dad… and discovered he is Charles Manson | The Sun |Features
"He says: "I didn't want to believe it. I was frightened and angry. It's like finding out that Adolf Hitler is your father. I'm a peaceful person - trapped in the face of a monster.""
(tags:crime )
(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.) | |
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| ( raw notes )
It wasn't a terribly productive day. My walk went by the wayside because
of a lunch-time meeting with a vendor -- that was productive, but
I can't say much about it.
On the way home I realized that I didn't have my BT headset with me; I
used this as an excuse to stop by Fry's and get a Samsung WEP700, which is
the only cheap ($30) headset with noise-cancelling. It also seems to be
more comfortable for me than the Plantronics, which naturally turned up at
home, dangling in plain sight from the charger cord. It may be getting
to be time to give Colleen a new phone anyway.
I had a headache in the evening; Colleen said that there'd been a change
in air pressure. Though it occurred to me this morning that it might have
been due to having less coffee than usual the last few days.
The links for the day on the practical side were: FBReader - e-book reader for Unix/Windows
computers, how to
put Debian on an OLPC, and How To:
Back Up Any Smartphone.
On the funny side, Gizmodo gives us Robot Polar Bears: Less Dangerous Than Real Bears, For Now and The Apple Inbox --
a practical use for an old Mac
I'm not sure how to classify i-am-not-a-lead.com/ (which exists to sell ads in print publications,
but has a good message for anyone trying to do business on the web), and
beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov (from wcg).
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| ..to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) elynne, with big hugs and best wishes for the year to come. | |
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| The local supermarket had the last two TNG movies, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis as a special cheap offer, and thus I saw them again for the first time since the cinematic release. (Because they were not exactly good, and I say that as a devoted later series of ST fan, I never made any attempt to rewatch before.) So, how do they feel several years hence? For starters, there are worse ST movies. (Step forwards, Slow Motion Picture and Final Frontier.) However, the basic problems remained the same. Let's start with Insurrection. ( Star Trek: Insurrection )On to the last TNG movie, object of much fannish ire. ( Star Trek: Nemesis ) | |
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| In a recent post, I suggested that people take a poll at an MS blog to increase the range of data about a possible connection between problematic brain veins and MS. However, you need to register to reply there, and this is probably more trouble than it's worth to answer a single question, so I've replicated their poll here. Poll #1489798
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10 Does your head get a lot redder than your body when you exercise? | |
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| Been a busy two days, today has largely been spent finishing off the work on the Anglia Bus Forum from yesterday's server move. Last night, we were out for a bit at the first night of a Yogic Breathing course, that was being led by the counsellor that we've both seen recently. This is going to be a busy week... | |
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| Continuing my list (and yes, there will be more of these posts to follow, so don’t tell me what I’ve left off this list):
MONOLITHS AND DIMENSIONS, Sunn O))): the more I listen to this immense album, the more I think of it as four movements transitioning from the pagan to the organised church through an apocalyptic collapse into some awful, barren post-civilisational doomspace that fades to become a weirdly sylvan, almost innocent place. Of course, that could just be me. Never discount the possibility that I am a mad old man and completely full of shit. Anyway, yes, it all sounds a bit prog, but they pull it off as far as I’m concerned.
BROMST, Dan Deacon: perhaps not as gleefully mental as SPIDERMAN OF THE RINGS, but still a greatly entertaining record and a working-playlist staple for me over the summer. Very beautiful in places, and, I think, curiously revelatory of his conservatory background. It’s a record you can just spazz around to that also rewards a close listening, just to hear how he really builds that stuff.
"Skeletons," Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Off the album IT’S BLITZ. Honestly, much of the album left me cold. "Skeletons," though, approaches the heights of "Maps" (and if you don’t like "Maps," then you’re dead inside). Love as a long winter march.
"Dog Days Are Over," Florence And The Machine: similarly, I thought LUNGS was a weak album, and I suspect "Dog Days" will prove to be their One Great Song. (I have a half-arsed theory that 95% of bands have One Great Song in them, and I can prove this using an abacus, Manhattan Love Suicides’ "Veronica," and my right fist.) This one is the one: brilliant structure, some beautifully written lines, she sings like she knows what she’s talking about (which I didn’t get from "Kiss With A Fist, oddly), and she opens up her pipes and blows the door off.
SYMBIOSIS, Demdike Stare: this was a marvellous thing. World Hauntology, if you like: Middle Eastern musics, lo-fi drone and the hideous Arctic menace of Scando exorcists like Elegi, all whacked together with stark rhythmic instinct and crazed machine intelligence. I get the impression this record went way under the radar this year, and it really shouldn’t have.
More in a while.
(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.) | |
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| - Mood:okay
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| Actually, I had two: The first is: How exactly were the rank and file convinced to submit to eugenic screening? Usually state sanctioned negative eugenics is targeted at the lower orders, people whose wealth and political power is such that they can be sterilized without major consequences for the powers that be. The second question is: How the heck do people in that world resist the urge to beat Chad Mulligan with a bag of doorknobs until such time as he stops pontificating? | |
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| Only a week behind with my posting. Relatively punctual. | |
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| In the space of a week, RWA has moved from taking the genuinely risky and courageous step of confronting Harlequin, a major RWA National supporter, to ... well, let me quote.
General membership in RWA is open to all persons “seriously pursuing a romance fiction writing career” (Section 4.1.1 RWA Restated Bylaws 2007). On September 11, 2009, you wrote, “I have not written a book nor do I have plans to write a book…” Staff is unable to allow renewal of General membership for individuals who publish statements such as the one cited above.
In most instances, we are able to offer Associate membership to individuals who do not qualify for General membership. However, Associate membership is offered to individuals, “who support the organization and its purposes but do not meet the requirements for General membership” (Section 4.1.2 RWA Restated Bylaws 2007). We have been made aware of numerous posts on your blog and on the “romfail” thread on Twitter that indicate you do not support RWA or romance authors.
This decision is not one that we would have chosen. We feel that authors’ and readers’ interests are closely related and that both have much to gain by a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship. In light of the evidence on file, RWA is not offering you the option to renew.
That was sent to Jane Litte of Dear Author. Dear Author is one of the most visible and successful romance-review blogs. As a review blog, it posts both positive and very negative reviews. Dear Author's "romfail" thread on Twitter consists of one-line snippets from novels the authors found particularly amusing,. Sample #romfail posts: - "Emmy flung back her head, rubbing her breasts on his chest, jouncing vigorously on his lap as her channel rippled".
- "Their bodies were still joined since she refused to release his cock from her ferociously gripping cunt".
- "after masturbation & showering, Quentin exits the bathroom to find an angry dark skinned young man delivering Kamaria's summons". "everyone is no color or dark skinned. Because dark skin apparently is an abnormality worth mentioning"
Dear Author has also criticized RWA's reluctance to acknowledge E-publishing. Let's get this out of the way. Organizations have the right to choose their members, blah blah blah. RWA has the right to do any damn thing it wants to about membership qualifications. However, RWA looks profoundly petty by throwing out a well-known critic because she criticized both romances and the organization itself. That's what critics do. An organization that can't stand criticism is showing itself to be weak. RWA is infamous for "the cult of Nice". Early in my membership I was warned by a respected author never to speak ill of a member's book in public, because memories were long. A critic, by definition, cannot be Nice; Q.E.D. It's the inverse of Snacky's Law; RWA is terrorized by those Nice GIrls From High School, where "nice" means "we don't say things like that here." Dear Stephen Sondheim, always with the mot juste. You're so nice. All so nice. You're not good, you're not bad, You're just nice. I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right.
This entry was originally posted at http://jonquil.dreamwidth.org/901789.html.  comment(s) on that entry. | |
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| Title: Interludes and Small Fires Author: franticsga Rating: NC-17 Word Count: 4,746 Pairing: Morgana/Morgause Warnings: First time writing femmeslash, may be full of clichés. Also, spoilers up to episode 2.08. Oh yeah, plus incest. Description: "You don't know why you feel this way, do you," Morgause whispered. "You don't know why you set fires in your sleep, and now while you are awake."( She kept lighting fires accidentally. ) | |
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French edition of The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover
My French edition, in sepia. |
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French and English editions
Size comparison. |
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| Following on from my mewing of adoration for the Microsoft Surface
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| Need to go to the gym at lunch today, or after work (choir rehearsal is cancelled tonight). Was too tired and icky-feeling this morning, probably from breathing through my mouth most of the night. Cold is much better, though. Also have to pack tonight, as I head off for NYC tomorrow, to visit a college friend for Thanksgiving. And get my act together for my book launch, which is December 5th at Big Blue Marble Books and about which I have done practically nothing. And write one more guest blog, this one for my publisher. Oh, and finish my novel, and also write a short thing I said I would write - luckily, the first of my two cool books on the Crimean War arrived yesterday, and of course those two things aren't due until February. But I'm pretty busy between now and February, so FLAIL! I'm a guest today at the Romance Junkies blog: Setting and Characterization Through Food. | |
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| When I read about last week's "Ghost Trees" in Trafalgar Square, I thought they would tower, soar, overwhelm, outscale the fountains and sculptures. printperson reported that one set of roots belonged to a tree taller than Nelson's Column. I imagined grandeur. En route to Canterbury, with twenty minutes to spare at Charing Cross, we walked over to see them on an overcast Thursday. They were a pale shadow of what my expectations had conjured. The root clusters are enormous, yes, but dwarfed by the enormousness of the surrounding sculpture, staircase, column, and buildings. They were tied down, captive of exhibition. Here, they were seen by many, but they looked like they needed a place where they would be the largest things around, giants in chains. printperson did note how impressive their import was, however - logged in Africa somewhere, these gnarled trees were imported; and thus had to have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected first.  In the past week, geesepalace and printperson have been visiting. We went to Canterbury and Preston and the village of Mitton to see the church there. (At the beginning of the year, we ate lunch in Mitton with makyo and A.) We cooked a somewhat impromptu Thanksgiving dinner, and ate at Rasa. It's been a busy week. | |
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