Links for 13-03-2007
Hal Duncan speaks, Scalzi shares, space weapon myths debunked (kind of), Ben Bova sees morons…
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“When you spend a glorious summer day in the park with mates, part of what’s glorious about it is that you’re in this space, this time, this zone, which is all summer days in the park.”
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2 – Scalzi on Writing, Digested
“…in the meantime, here the digested version of it, boiled down to a neat 500 words.” Very, very funny; via Scalzi himself.
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3 – Print is dead? Ad Age begs to differ
“Digital reading is not an all-or-nothing alternative, where people exist as either a Norman Rockwell painting or an avatar that looks like Cory Doctorow.”
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4 – The Android’s Dream: Chapter One
Scalzi shares the longest literary fart gag in history.
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5 – Rare Book Room
“Over the last ten years, a company called “Octavo” embarked on digitally photographing some of the world ’s great books from some of the greatest libraries.” Mmm … rare old books. Tasty.
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6 – The dozen space weapons myths
Interesting (if very US-centric) article about the weaponisation of space – or rather, the lack of. Or something.
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“…it suddenly hits me that this is a really weird, yet central part of online gaming: obsessing about your racial identity and appearance.” Intriguing.
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8 – Suits you, sir
“Wouldn’t it be nice to see how well an off-the-peg or mail order suit fitted without trying it on? Sony Ericsson thinks it can help with a cellphone that makes this shopper’s dream come true.” Second Life’s killer app at last?
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9 – Artificial blood vessels made from salmon skin
“Researchers from Hokkaido University have created artificial blood vessels using collagen derived from the skin of salmon.”
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10 – Off the shelf
“Google has a plan to put books online – and an unlikely ally in the Bodleian Library.” The snowball is gathering pace, my friends.
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11 – Al-Qaeda plot to bring down UK internet! OMFG! OH NOES!!1!1
Via Bruce Schneier. It’s hard to believe the Times was one of the most respected newspapers in the world when they now publish scurrilous bullsh*t and propaganda like this.
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12 – Ben Bova: The ‘Marching Morons’ show prescience of science fiction
Via SF Signal: Ben Bova certainly knows how the op-ed is supposed to work. Does the answer to societal stupidity lie in getting people to read more science fiction?
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13 – Think you know how to read, do you?
Long rambling and interesting essay about literary criticism, ‘how to read’ guides and the state of the modern novel. Hard going in places, but worth it. If I read it correctly, that is.
March 13th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Good response to that Bova piece over on the Mumpsimus!