This is amazing:
The view from Ecuador is what I always pictured the Ringworld looking like… Can you imagine New York illuminated by the Earth’s rings at night? I can’t help but wonder how human civilization would be different if our planet did have rings. Don’t know how Earth would ever have acquired rings in the first place. A dwarf moon that broke up in orbit? Hmm. Maybe a story in there somewhere…
– S.
Apparently the veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) has mastered the use of tools: members of this species have been observed in the wild using coconut-shell halves as faux shells and as hiding places.
You can find articles here, here, and here.
The veined octopus selects halved coconut shells from the sea floor, empties them out, carries them suctioned under their bodies up to 20 metres, and assembles two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot, like so:
The video on the National Geographic website (here) is just incredible to watch.
Note, though, at the end of that video the octopus demonstrating its natural hatred of man and instinct to attack him. Have we learned nothing from Capt. Nemo and the tragedy of the Nautilus?
I’ve long thought that if humans were wiped out on land, cephalopods would evolve the ability to breath air and take our place as the dominant species on the planet. They have massive brains relative to the size of their bodies, they can change shape and colour, they have eight prehensile limbs, an ink jet… Sounds like a super organism to me.
Now that they are beginning to master tools it’s only a matter of time until homo sapiens‘ existence as a species is threatened. How are we supposed to compete with a creature that has four times as many arms as we do? What if they learn jujitsu? Can you imagine how unstoppable an eight-limed ninja would be!??!
I, for one, welcome our octopus overlords…
– S.
Here’s the current state of the ‘stache. I’m happy to report that as of this past weekend, my Movemeber Team has raised over $1000 for prostate cancer research! Woohoo! And it’s only the middle of Movember.
Four teammates have raised over $100 each (and one guy has over $200 just by himself). Want to help me reach the $100-mark in donations? Yeah, I thought you would.
Go to this link http://ca.movember.com/mospace/300982/ and click on the ‘Donate to Me’ button right under the photo of me and D’Artagnan (that’s my mo’) to make your donation under my name–don’t worry: I promise it ALL goes to the charity 🙂
– S.
The ‘Mo: Week 1
I’ve decided to grow a style I’m terming ‘The Musketeer’–a moustache accompanied on the lower lip by what is alternately known as ‘the soul patch’, ‘the tickler’, or (more disturbingly) ‘the George Strombolopolous.’ In keeping with the French theme, I have therefore named my facial hair D’Artagnan.
Hello all!
I have decided to join a global movement that is bringing much needed attention to prostate cancer. I’m doing this by growing a Moustache this Movember, the month formerly known as November. My commitment is to grow a moustache all November and I am hoping that you will support my efforts by making a donation. The funds raised go directly to Prostate Cancer Canada.
What many people don’t know is that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to afflict Canadian men with 25,500 diagnosed and 4,400 dying from the disease each year.
Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved…that and the fact that I think I’ll look awesome with a ‘stache 😉
To make a donation, you can either:
• Click this link http://ca.movember.com/mospace/300982/ and
donate online using your credit card or PayPal account , or
• Write a cheque payable to ‘Prostate Cancer Canada’, referencing
my Registration Number 300982 and mailing it to: Prostate Cancer
Canada, 145 Front Street East, Ste. 306, Toronto, ON M5A 1E3, Canada.
All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Prostate Cancer Canada will use the money raised by Movember for the development of programs related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer.
For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please go to http://ca.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/
Thanks to all, and feel free to pass this info along to anyone who you think
might want to donate!
Oh, and I promise ‘mo update photos on my blog so you see what you dollars are paying for!
TTFN
– S.
Some cool news today: John Joseph Adams will be at the helm of a new sci-fi magazine starting next year, and (even cooler!) my friend and fellow WOTFian Andrea Kail will be involved as the non-fiction editor. Congratulations Andrea and JJA!
I’ve only met JJA once at World Fantasy, but he was a really nice guy and Andrea is just great, too. This will really be a magazine to keep your eye on, folks!
This is the press-release that went around today:
Prime Books Announces Lightspeed, a New Science Fiction Magazine
ROCKVILLE, MD, OCT. 16 — Prime Books, the award-winning independent press and publisher of Fantasy Magazine, announced today that in June 2010 it will launch a new online magazine called Lightspeed (www.lightspeedmagazine.com), which will publish four science fiction short stories every month, along with an assortment of non-fiction features. Lightspeed will be edited by John Joseph Adams, the bestselling editor of anthologies such as Wastelands and The Living Dead, and Andrea Kail, a writer, critic, and television producer who worked for thirteen years on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Adams will select and edit the fiction, while Kail will handle the non-fiction.
Lightspeed will focus exclusively on science fiction. It will feature all types of sf, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. No subject will be considered off-limits, and writers will be encouraged to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope. New content will be posted twice a week, including one piece of fiction, and one piece of non-fiction. The fiction selections each month will consist of two original stories and two reprints, except for the debut issue, which will feature four original pieces of fiction. All of the non-fiction will be original.
Lightspeed will open to fiction submissions and non-fiction queries on January 1, 2010. Guidelines for fiction and non-fiction will be available on Lightspeed‘s website, www.lightspeedmagazine.com, by December 1, 2009.
About John Joseph Adams
John Joseph Adams (www.johnjosephadams.com) is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as By Blood We Live, Federations, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. He has been called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble’s Unabashedly Bookish blog and his anthology The Living Dead was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. In addition to his editorial work, he is also currently a reviewer for Audible.com, a blogger for Tor.com, and the co-host of the podcast The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.
About Andrea Kail
Andrea Kail (www.andreakail.com) is a graduate of the Dramatic Writing Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has spent the last two decades working from one end of New York’s television spectrum to the other: HBO, MTV, A&E, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, as well as thirteen years at NBC’s Emmy Award-winning Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Her fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine, and her novella, “The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom,” was a first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest and appeared in Writers of the Future Vol. XXIII. Since 2005, Andrea has also been writing lively film criticism for such venues as Paradox Magazine and CinemaSpy.
About Prime Books
Prime Books (www.prime-books.com), edited and published by Hugo Award-nominee and World Fantasy Award-winner Sean Wallace, is an award-winning independent publishing house specializing in a mix of anthologies, collections, novels, and magazines. Some of its established and new authors/editors include John Joseph Adams, KJ Bishop, Philip K. Dick, Theodora Goss, Rich Horton, Nick Mamatas, Sarah Monette, Holly Phillips, Tim Pratt, Ekaterina Sedia, Catherynne M. Valente, and Jeff VanderMeer.
Contacts
Sean Wallace, publisher, sean@lightspeedmagazine.com
John Joseph Adams, fiction editor, john@lightspeedmagazine.com
Andrea Kail, non-fiction editor, andrea@lightspeedmagazine.com
I’m offended on behalf of Steve’s everywhere…
Disney bought Marvel this week and a little piece of me died when I heard the news.
The Mouse will spend $4 billion in cash and stock to acquire Marvel’s catalog of 5,000 characters–a library that includes some of the world’s best-known superheroes, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four.
I think that works out to an average of about $800,000 per character (though if you were to break it out doubtless some–like those listed above–would be worth far more than, say, Ant-Man…)
Marvel has forcefully exploited its most popular characters through motion pictures, video games and consumer products. But Disney sees an opportunity to plug Marvel into its vaunted global marketing and distribution system.
“Marvel’s brand and its treasure trove of content will now benefit from our extraordinary reach,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said in an interview. “We paid a price that reflects the value they’ve created and the value we can create as one company. It’s a full price, but a fair price.”
Certain Marvel characters can be immediately integrated into Disney’s theme parks in California, Paris and Hong Kong. (For now, Walt Disney World in Florida is off limits because of a pact Marvel has in place with Universal Studios there.) Disney’s cable channels, in particular Disney XD, will have new intellectual property to mine. And the potential in consumer products is huge, especially overseas.
The brooding Marvel characters tend to be more popular with boys — an area where Disney could use help. While the likes of “Hannah Montana” and the blockbuster Princesses merchandising line have solidified Disney’s hold on little girls, franchises for boys have been harder to come by.
Acquiring Marvel makes Disney a partner with Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment and 20th Century Fox, all of which have long-term deals to make or distribute movies based on superhero characters. Sony holds the film rights to Spider-Man, for instance, while Fox has the X-Men and Fantastic Four — in perpetuity.
Paramount, a unit of Viacom, has an agreement to distribute five Marvel films, including two “Iron Man” sequels, over the next few years. Disney said it would honor the contract, but the goal is clearly to bring Marvel’s movies in-house.
Reactions to news of the deal lit up the tweetosphere Monday, with tons of Marvel-Disney crossover jokes pouring forth, with fans pointing out that Donald Duck and Howard the Duck might now be related.
Said K. T. Stevenson: “Disney buys Marvel. The first X-Mouse comic I see will make me hurl.”
Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada also took to Twitter in an effort to reassure comics fans about the deal.
“Welcome to this moment in history,” Quesada tweeted Monday morning. “Everyone relax, this is incredible news and all is well in the Marvel U…. Everybody take a deep breath, all your favorite comics remain unchanged and Tom Brevoort remains grouchy.”
Quesada pointed to the creative and business success that followed Disney’s purchase of Pixar for evidence that all is well within the House of Ideas.
“If you’re familiar with the Disney/Pixar relationship, then you’ll understand why this is a new dawn for Marvel and the comics industry,” he said.
Meanwhile, acclaimed comics writer Warren Ellis, who has worked for Marvel in the past, cracked wise about the pending deal.
“Why is everyone at Marvel making quacking noises today?” Ellis tweeted. “It’s horrible.”
Just got back from Writers of the Future XXV where I had an absolute blast. It was great to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones, too.
I’ll post my photos and stuff later on this week (hopefully) but for right now I jut wanted to congratulate all the winners of this year’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future. In particular I want congratulate Emery Huang, this year’s Grand Prize winner! That’s him in the picture below–the one in the green shirt. Welcome to the club, Emery!
But get this: in addition to the award, the adulation, and the money, as this year’s Grand Prize winner Emery gets a trip on the Cairo leg of the World Airship Race 2010–he’s going to be racing to the Giza Plateau in a zeppelin! Suddenly, he’s a character in a steampunk tale! Reminds me of something Michael Moorcock wrote…
That’s him in the green:My special thanks also go out to Jordan Lapp–a First Place quarterly winner and fellow Canuck, who I was lucky enough to be roommates with from Wednesday onward–as well as to Fiona Lehn, also doing Canada proud in Writers of the Future.
But really it’s hard to single out any of the winners above another–they were all a tremendous amount of fun and very energizing to be around. Made me want to redouble my efforts to get this book done! And I think its nice how welcoming WOTF classes are to returning winners–there’s a real comradeship and a club-like feeling between WOTF winners, I find. Anyway, an absolute first-rate bunch to hang around with. Can’t wait to tuck into the Writers of the Future XXV antho and read their stories.
Now off to bed! For tomorrow, the Real World intrudes again…
– S.
Well, it’s a bit last-minute (what isn’t with me these days?) but I thought I’d let you know that I’ll be away for a few days in Hollywood, attending Writers of the Future XXV, the Silver Anniversary Edition 🙂
I’m just going as a guest/spectator this time, so it will be nice not having the butterflies of anxiety about making a speech later in the week…This is to make up for having to miss WorldCon AGAIN because of other committments (that’s TWO Canadian-hosted WorldCons I’ve missed…Grr…)
The event this year is being held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, site of the first Academy Awards. The folks at Galaxy Press are already blogging about the week over on the Writers of the Future Blog.
Actually, just reading the WOTF blog and looking up the blogs of some of this year’s winners has me all giddy about going, reminding me of my WOTF week in 2007… I’m really looking forward to meeting the new cohort of winners–I know a couple of them read my journal of the WOTF week and have been in touch (including Mike Wood who, bless his heart, actually became a follower of my blog…one of only two, I might add 😉 And it will be great to meet up with guys like Kevin Anderson, Sean Williams, and Steve Saville again, too. I gather Rob Sawyer will be there this year, as well, which is cool since (though I see him fairly often) he wasn’t able to attend in the year I won.
And from what I understand there are a couple of Canucks amongst the winners this year, too. It will be nice to make some new Canadian SF friends 🙂
Not sure what the schedule for the week is like (not sure when the 24-hour writing marathon takes place, for example) but I know that the meet-and-greet BBQ is Thursday night and that the award ceremony itself is on Saturday night. Can’t wait! I plan to take lots of photos and I’m sure some will find there way here at some point, once I get my act back together…
So, if you’ll excuse me, I have a plane to catch…
– S.
