The Federal holiday is legally "Washington's Birthday", celebrated on the Monday in February before Washington's actual birthday, which is the 22nd. I'm okay with the idea of also celebrating Lincoln's Birthday, which was on the 12th. But any more presidents than those two is right out.

This entry was originally posted at https://voidampersand. ( Read more... )

Michael Chabon described Le Guin as "the greatest American writer of her generation". I would also say that she was the greatest science fiction and fantasy writer of her time. She wrote one of the greatest fantasies trilogies of all time (counting all six books in the trilogy), and three of the greatest science fiction novels. Plus many important ( Read more... )

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
This slim novella introduces one of the most memorable characters in science fiction. "Murderbot", as it calls itself, is a SecUnit, a mechanical/organic composite android manufactured to guard corporate workers and customers from danger. A governor ensures it will follow orders. Except Murderbot has hacked its ( Read more... )

Bruce Maxwell is the first Major League Baseball player to kneel during the National Anthem in protest of racial injustice. His teammate Mark Canha is showing his support by standing with his hand on Maxwell’s shoulder.

There’s a great quote from Canha that gets to the heart of what this is about: I had to think about what I was going to do to ( Read more... )

Here are my thoughts on the Hugo ballot for Best Novel, 2016:

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books ( Read more... )

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Starting in the '80s there was a fine international fanzine (published by Joseph Nicholas, Judith Hanna, Leigh Edmonds, Valma Brown, and Terry Hughes) that frequently changed its name, but the name was always three words and the initials were always FTT. In that spirit, the title of this post is three words, and the initials are FDT. Please feel ( Read more... )

Walt Mossberg, a distinguished journalist, writes about how "Lousy ads are ruining the online experience". What really got me was this experience he had, just after he co-founded his own advertising-supported web site: About a week after our launch, I was seated at a dinner next to a major advertising executive. He complimented me on our new site’s ( Read more... )

I saw this headline and thought, hell yes, I'm all for California seceding from Russia.

But when I read the article it turned out the #Calexit leader plots California secession from his home in Russia. What's with that? We can't even manage our own secession movements ( Read more... )

Daylight savings time is meant to end just before Halloween, not Election Day.

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