Specifically, artist GoHs, ursulav has a very good essay on how conventions should treat their artist guests, and conversely, how artist guests should treat their conventions. None of this will be terribly surprising or even new to AD staffers, because geekboyonline has reinforced our basic instincts in this area, but still...it's worth seeing how other people screw

Instapundit linked to this post by Andrew Fox, one of those pretentious twats who feels compelled to make lists of everything and squeeze creation into his narrow little boxes.1
( Intemperate ranting follows )

haikujaguar, who recently wrapped up the most excellent "Spots The Space Marine" web serial here on LJ, recently made a trip to Readercon and posted about it hereI'm glad she did well there, but I completely sympathize with her decision not to go back for a while - if ever. The knee-jerk political and anti-religious attitudes on display there aren't unique to ( Read more... )

Lileks and chebutykin are both mourning the end of the NASA Shuttle program in their different ways, communicating that they both feel that the door to America's future in space has been closed. Texas Governor Rick Perry is also less than pleasedMe, not so much. To be honest, I've been annoyed with NASA since the 1970s when they shut down the Apollo program ( Read more... )

Joel Rosenberg is dead.
Condolences to fgherman and his daughters.

He was a good SF/fantasy writer and a tireless advocate for RKBA, and he will be missed.

Baen has a Heinlein Quiz posted at their website which is tougher than it looks.
I only got 15/20, myself - and this after reading the first volume of his biography. :(
(Instapundit)

Apropos of nothing -well, maybe my brain starting to come out of the fog imposed by too much work, not enough sleep, and a few too many carbohydrates this weekend- it occurred to me that there are only a handful of SF stories that depict the exploration and conquest of Mars as the difficult, dirty and very likely lethal undertaking it'll probably ( Read more... )

chebutykin posted this link from Wired over at FB, and while I think Bob Subiaga did a good job ripping Oswalt's glaring stupidity to shreds, there were a couple of things I wanted to expand on.
( Would you like to know more? )

Kids Draw Cthulhu - By John J. Miller - The Corner - National Review Online:Meanwhile, we are one day closer to piecing together the disassociated knowledge that will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and ( Read more... )

Via Moe Lane, I see that Charles Stross and a lot of his commenters are bemoaning the fact that 1) there's TOO MUCH steampunk, and 2) it isn't sufficiently realistic for their rarefied socialist sensibilities.
( I can rant if I want to )