Links for 27-01-2007
SL’s misunderstood economy, Stross on the writing lifestyle, new old Olmec city discovered, ‘war on terror’ invective debunked…
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“Being a self-employed writer is not a lifestyle that suits everyone. In fact, there are a lot of misconceptions about what the job entails.” Uncle Charlie bursts our bubbles…
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2 – SL Economy Misunderstood Again – Ted Castronova
“It’s not a con game. It’s a village-sized market. In fact it’s a tourist attraction-type village: the big numbers of the people you see are one-time visitors[...] But it’s not thick; it’s tiny. Not a ponzi scheme: a little mini gold rush.”
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3 – The Moon is a Harsh Witness
“With binoculars, examine the rugged face of the Moon. It is pocked with thousands of impact craters from interplanetary asteroids and comets. Ever wonder why Earth, a much bigger target, apparently has so few craters?”
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4 – Blood cell-size computer memory
“US researchers have created an ultra-dense memory device the size of a white blood cell that has enough capacity to store the Declaration of Independence and still have space left over.”
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5 – Olmec-Influenced City Found in Mexico
“A 2,500-year-old city influenced by the Olmecs, often referred to as the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica, has been discovered hundreds of miles away from the Olmecs’ Gulf coast territory, archaeologists said.”
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Includes stuff about his Mars colonisation/exploration proposals.
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7 – A Proposal: SF Author Bios Should Be Moved from Wikipedia to the ISFDB Wiki
Kathryn Cramer proposes that the sf community takes back what belongs to us and administer it in the way we feel most appropriate. Hear hear, I say, but I can’t see the Wikipedia crowd being too impressed.
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8 – REVIEW – Blindsight by Peter Watts
SF Diplomat’s review makes mine look like a primary school book report. Awesome analysis. Go lookee.
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9 – ‘There is no war on terror’ – Sir Ken Macdonald
“London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, ‘soldiers’.” Word.
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10 – TOC: The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection
“Gardner Dozois has posted the table of contents for his annual Year’s Best anthology.” Looks like a good selection, mostly stuff I’ve not read yet. I see Al Reynolds is the only person to get two hits on the list …
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11 – novelists failing to deliver an efficient service
“Ed Champion continues to prosecute The Case Against Malcolm Jones.” As does M. John Harrison, quite justifiably. If I ever get paid to review books, I’ll be grateful for the crap ones as much as the winners.
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12 – Happy Hour in Moktada Town
“Neon lights crackled, popped and glowed in the vice quarter of Baghdad’s Red Zone, where the 21st century mercenaries partied toward dawn.” Excerpt from ‘The Bunker of the Tikriti’ at No Fear of the Future.
January 27th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
January 28th, 2007 at 12:39 am
“Soon to be followed by the discovery of a GIANT FLYING HEAD. I can only hope.”
Aaah… now there’s a reference to awaken the inner child.
The huge golden eagle pwnd the flying head anyway.
January 29th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Ah, “Cities of Gold” FTW! Hey, I’ll bet all of that series is on YouTube somewhere …
January 29th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Well, here’s the opening credits, at least.
(Also: any Final Fantasy fans in the house?)
January 29th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
I kinda missed the whole FF thing; I was never a console cowboy, although many of my friends were neck-deep in it for months.
I might have a scout for Cities of Gold by other means … watch this space!