- Roger Ebert on trivia:
The fatal flaw in the concept of trivia is that it mistakes information for knowledge. There is no end to information. Some say the entire universe is made from it, when you get right down to the bottom, under the turtles. There is, alas, quite a shortage of knowledge. I think I will recite this paragraph the next time I’m asked a trivia question.
- In all the talk about whether or not Google should be allowed to scan massive numbers of books and make them available in electronic form — a matter that’s still not yet resolved, due to pending litigation — there’s one question I haven’t seen raised a lot: can Google even do this well? There’s some evidence here to suggest not. Certainly, even if Google Book Search goes ahead, it may need some significant work. [via]
- Mad Max fan builds replica Interceptor, moves to Outback. I’d make a Thunderdome joke, but I think we’re all trying to get beyond Thunderdome.
- Police baffled as dozens of “suicidal” cows throw themselves off cliff in the Alps. Warning, there are some images (not terribly graphic or close-up, but potentially distressing) of the dead cows. [via]
- And finally, given that I’m taking tomorrow off, I find it pretty easy to sing the praises of the four-day workweek. I wonder if I could broach the idea of my telecommuting one day a week. Most everything I do is via e-mail, and working on manuscripts that are delivered via e-mail, and there are even some things — most recently checking if a video was on our YouTube channel, which ironically is blocked at the office — that I can only do at home. I don’t have any serious expectations that it could happen, but it’s an interesting thought. [via]
news
Friday various
- It’s the obvious joke, but you couldn’t pay me to watch Fox News. I’m dubious about the efficacy of any pay wall, much less one proposed by Rupert Murdoch. Heck, I was disturbed enough to learn that Bill O’Reilly was the recent Career Day Keynoter at my old high school. (He’s also an alum.) [via]
- Aw man. First Farrago’s Wainscot and now Jim Baen’s Universe. Sometimes, it can seem like not a day without another short fiction marketplace closing. Honestly, the main thing that keeps Kaleidotrope running (beyond my own enjoyment at putting it together) is me turning a blind eye to exactly how much each issue costs me. (It’s a couple hundred dollars, let’s say that. And that’s even though I pay my writers next to nothing.) Sad to see these two markets close.
- Still, here’s some good news: Scott Westerfeld’s terrific YA novel Uglies is now available as a free e-book. And non-US readers needn’t worry: though publisher asks for a US zipcode, as Westerfeld says, that’s really just five numbers.
- Generally, I like Richard Corliss (or have never really seen any reason to dislike him, in the few times I’ve run across his work), but he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about in his criticism of Netflix.
- And finally, although I can’t be at Worldcon, John Scalzi explains the Hugos.
And that’s the way it was
Almost forty years to the day of the first moon landing, the man who reported on it to the nation has passed away. Rest in peace, Walter Cronkite.
Thursday various
- When mass hysteria and facts clash: The Top 10 Most Absurd Time Covers of The Past 40 Years [via]
- John Scalzi on Why New Novelists Are Kinda Old, or, Hey, Publishing is Slow
- Farrah Fawcett was friends with Ayn Rand. Bo Derek “is a really good friend” of Ray Bradbury. I don’t really have a point; I’m just amused by the unlikeliness of the pairings.
- Did you know that the title for one of Winston Churchill’s most famous titles, While England Slept, was actually based on a publishing mistake?
- And finally, while I think the idea of a Goonies sequel is probably a bad idea, Chris Columbus raises an interesting point as to why:
Perhaps the biggest hurdle for a Goonies 2 would be believing that modern kids would play outside.
“I don’t know if that’s possible anymore,” Columbus said. “Maybe if all the parents in the new Goonie movie forbid their kids to play on the Internet, that’s gotta be the plot. You can’t go anywhere near a computer or cell phone. I guess the adventures are online.”
Til death and then some
There have got to be better ways to meet women: Teenage girl dug up to be ‘corpse bride’:
In rural China, superstitious villagers have for centuries sought out the bodies of recently deceased woman to be ghost brides for young men who die single.
Even more scarily:
Last year, a gang in southern China was arrested for strangling young women to sell as ghost brides when the supply of female corpses in their area ran short.
I’m hopeful that I won’t die single, having never married, but if I do — please, don’t dig up any dead women on my account. I’m just saying. Via Jeffrey Ford.