interesting things

Randomness for 3/30

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1) Canadian politics made fun by nitpicking about monsters. Via James Nicoll.

2) Shit my students write.

3) Jon Stewart on class warfare, without ever mentioning class. Video.

4) This is genuinely awesome. It’s better than GARFIELD MINUS GARFIELD.

5) This writer’s evening is nothing at all like mine. How to be a social writer. via James Enge

6) Are these the best D&D adventures ever?

7) Sixty completely unusable stock photos. This is hilarious wtf-ery, but it will take a while to load. Open it up in a tab and do something else for a while, then come back to it. Seriously, people, I can’t pick the worst one (okay, I can: it’s the blackface one).

Randomness for 3/26

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1) How great entrepreneurs think.

2) A flowchart guide to the Affordable Care Act.

3) Ten supposedly sexy super-heroine costumes that really aren’t.

4) Every new social media offering, now online. (This is pretty funny, and it even includes a certain cat)

5) Author Ryk Spoor responds to my hypothetical vampire child question of a few days ago.

6) I know there are a lot of people who don’t like Rachel Ray, but I think everyone will accept that she deserves a comma or two here.

7) J.K. Rowling’s next project, courtesy of collegehumor.com

Randomness for 3/21

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1) Simpsons jokes, by season. via Bill Martell.

2) A James Bond script, written by Ben “The Shakespeare of Hollywood” Hecht. I especially love the idea of giving the name “James Bond” to different agents, just to mix things up. It explains the parade of actors in the role so nicely.

3) Seven massive holes in the Earth.

4) Read this wonderful story by Jane Rice, written in the 1940s.

5) Novels and novelists: imperfect competition

6) An interesting new format for physical books. (Ignore the seo crap about killing the Kindle).

7) Not a real ad campaign for the Smithsonian.

Randomness for 3/17

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1) Homemade pop rocks. via Matt Ruff.

2) 20 Sad Etsy Boyfriends. Also: Sad Dancing Hipster is Sad and Dancing.

3) I’m so tired of this sort of thing that seeing it now just makes me tired. Author demands respect for sf/f from literary lovers.

4) PW’s map of North American chain booksellers.

5) “Nonsense, I did not shave your wife.” via @matociquala

6) 127 Hours, starring Wile E. Coyote. Video.

7) So you need a typeface… Flowcharty goodness.

Happy Irish Day.

Randomness for 3/14

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1) Headlines illustrated.

2) What’s in Spock’s Scanner? Video. This is honestly hilarious. via Tor.com

3) A really beautiful truck crash.

4) Could many cases of ADHD really be caused by food hypersensitivity?

5) This shadow art is amazing.

6) This is amazing, too, but also chilling. Satellite photos of Japan before and after the earthquake.

7) A pro scriptwriter in L.A. tells how she broke in, complete with clueless commenters. Another pro writer straightens those clueless commenters out.

Randomness for 3/9

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1) Cognitive Scientist records 90K hours of his own child’s language development, then graphs it. Soon to come to a TED Talk near you.

2) Andrew Wheeler’s syllabus for his non-existent sf course. I think it would be better served to address some of what happened in the 19th century, even if it was just an overview in the first week.

3) The Muppet Alignment Chart.

4) I wish every review of a reality TV show was this good.

5) Organizing a bookshelf: Video. There are so many simple ideas that work magic as stop-motion. Thank you, computer revolution.

6) A nearly-incomprehensible map of science fiction.

7) The internet is full of wonderful things: Carl Sagan’s Old Spice commercial as an animated gif.

Bonus 8th thing! Soylent Green isn’t the only thing made of people! Now “castles” are, too! Video.

Espresso Book Machine

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If you haven’t seen an in-store book printing machine in action, you’re in “luck.” I ordered a book from the Espresso Book Machine at the UW Bookstore in Seattle and took a really mediocre video of the process. Watch it here.

Handy with a camera, ain’t I?

The whole thing took about seven minutes, so I don’t think we’re at the place yet where book stores stocked their shelves with cover flats readers can carry to the register/print station. Not without 20 more machines running full time. And that doesn’t include the 15 minutes it needed to warm up the glue before the process could even start.

Also, there had to be a store employee operating the machines terminal for almost the whole time; I’ve done my best to edit her out, per her request.

Honestly, the most difficult part of the whole thing was taking my laptop out of the store to find a wifi signal, searching the specialized web site for the book I wanted to buy, and copying down the info I needed to take back into the store. Plus, the books were kinda spendy.

It’s early days yet.

I shot this over a year ago (Procrastinate? Me?) but ask questions if you have them. I’ll answer as best I can.

Randomness for 3/6

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1) A smart way to promote science education. Also.

2) At no point does this stop being awesome: Sheen Family Circus.

3) Frank Herbert writes a children’s book: Goodnight Dune

4) Baby laughs at ripping paper. Video. Watching this is good for your soul.

5) Children read to dogs.

6) Please do not submit my name here.

7) Those amazing personal stories you hear on radio call-in shows? They might be actors reading a script.

F2F

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Is this also an argument for authors to make public appearances?

(Unless they’re assholes.)

The heavily-discounted backlist

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Check out this article about a best-selling backlist title.

I know authors are already doing this with titles that have reverted to them. The interesting thing here is that it’s the publisher who’s pricing a backlist title like an app and surprising the hell out of themselves by hitting the NYT Bestseller list.

Obviously, this is not going to work as well as the practice becomes more common, but a surprise like this (and I’m certain that it is a surprise to everyone involved) will almost certainly cement teh idea of windowed ebook pricing: Full(ish) price when it’s a new release and a heavy discount (mumble mumble) months later.

I like it.