Reasons to dislike Royalty Free licensing #5,741: Here's a photo I took in a San Francisco diner a few years ago (Lori's Diner on Market St., if you must know). Last year Getty Images got round to licensing it, and put it up for sale as a 'royalty free' image. No problem with me so far, if a sale is for 'end use' and the image is not sold on further. But for the last couple of months this photo has been bought on a monthly basis by Fine Art America, who pay Getty $78 each time, with the creator getting 20% (in this case $15). Fine Art America then put the image up for sale on their website in several formats, the most expensive of which is an acrylic print going for $90 ...and I get precisely 0% on any further sale of my image. I know plenty of stories like this, some of which have the 'royalty free' photographer/artist missing out on substantial sums of money that would feed their families for years. AFAIK there's nothing illegal in what's being done, but can I just say, IT SUCKS.

Tags: getty, lives of photographs, photography

The Amazing Transparent Man, 1960, USA   DIRECTED BY EDGAR G. ULMER
This is more of a crime caper with a science fictional underpinning than a genre movie outright, and is another film loosely based – somehow – on Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man with a screenplay by Jack Lewis, who was already well known for his Westerns. Paul Krenner, a former US Army Major, plans to create an invisible private army with which he'll conquer the world, but he needs more fissionable material with which to complete the job. He springs from jail a selfish and notorious safe-cracker, Joey Faust, to steal the stuff from under the nose of the Army after he's been made invisible; Faust then tries to double-cross Krenner and things begin to spiral out of control. This is a very humdrum film, made even more so by too many scenes where little of interest is actually going on dramatically and characters are give too much low-key filler time instead of getting to the point. Douglas Kennedy, who played Faust, had already worked on some more memorable SF such as 1953's Invaders from Mars and the cheap 1957 dinosaur caper The Land Unknown, although in this movie he actually gets to act a bit more even if he is invisible half the time; This was also to be the last film for Marguerite Chapman, who played Alita in Flight to Mars. The film's biggest downfall is that all the characters are just uninteresting people, and the unbelievably cheap effects aren't in the slightest bit convincing. There were probably worse genre films around at the time although I'm sure none were given a worse ending.

Tags: 1960s sf film, science fiction

First, annual birthday co-habitee salutations to Messrs. commonpeople and purplecthulhu. I am not 100 today, I just feel it. Where's my cake?

Second, I hope more frequent updating will be resuming here as soon as possible. I know I've been crap around here lately... I'm just re-organising my Live Journal a bit, doing some retro-fitting and re-evaluating of what I use LJ for. I've probably been more active on Facebook the last six months because so many of my social circles seem to intersect there, even though I still don't actually like Facebook nearly as much as I like what LJ does. But I do still read my LJ Friends page regularly, even though I may not be commenting nearly as much.

Tags: lj

Arken's Law (attributed to Arken at www.iidb.com)
“A discussion is over when present society is compared to George Orwell's 'Oceania' in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
[ RationalWiki | Urban Dictionary ]

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Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (attributed to Isaac Asimov)
The First Law states: “A robot may not, through its actions or inactions, allow a human to come to harm.”
The Second Law states: “A robot must obey any order given to it, unless in contradiction of the First Law.”
The Third Law states: “A robot must protect its own existence, unless in contradiction of the First or Second Law.”
[ from 'Runaround', 1942 ]
[ RationalWiki ]

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Benford's Law of Controversy (attributed to Gregory Benford, from the novel Timescape)
“Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.”
[ Wikipedia ]

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The Blinovich Limitation Effect (attributed to Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts)
Usually understood as having two aspects: firstly, that “a time traveller cannot 'redo' an act that he has previously committed”, and secondly, that “a dangerous energy discharge will result if two temporal versions of the same person come into contact.”
Two of Aaron Blinovich's Laws are also invoked in the 2000 time travel film Happy Accidents:
Blinovitch's Second Law of Temporal Inertia states: “It is impossible to time travel in your own lifetime. One can only time travel to the distant past, and only small changes in history are possible, which will "dampen out" by the time they reach the relative present.”
Blinovitch's Fifth Law of Causal Determination resolves (in an unspecified manner) all paradoxes involved with time travel.
[ Tardis Wikia | Wikipedia ]

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Burnside's Advice (attributed to Ken Burnside)
“Friends don't let friends use reactionless drives in their universes.”
[ ProjectRho.com ]

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Celine's Laws (attributed to Robert Anton Wilson in the Illuminatus! trilogy)
The First Law states: “National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity.”
The Second Law states: “Accurate communication is possible only in a non-punishing situation.”
The Third Law states: “An honest politician is a national calamity.”
[ Wikipedia ]

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The Chronology Protection Conjecture (attributed to Stephen Hawking)
“It seems that there is a Chronology Protection Agency which prevents the appearance of closed timelike curves and so makes the universe safe for historians.”
[ Arcana Wiki | Wikipedia ]

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Clarke's Law of Revolutionary New Ideas (attributed to Sir Arthur C. Clarke)
“Like all revolutionary new ideas, the subject has had to pass through three stages, which may be summed up by these reactions: (1) 'It’s crazy – don't waste my time.' (2) 'It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing.' (3) 'I always said it was a good idea.’”
— 'Next – The Planets!', Report on Planet Three, 1972.

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Clarke's Three Laws (attributed to Sir Arthur C. Clarke)
The First Law states: “When a distinguished, but elderly, scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
— 'Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination', Profiles of the Future, 1962; restated in 'Technology and the Future', Report on Planet Three, 1972.
Corollaries to the First Law:

Isaac Asimov: “When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion -- the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right.” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1977)

The Second Law states: “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
— 'Technology and the Future', Report on Planet Three, 1972.

The Third Law states: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
— 'Technology and the Future', Report on Planet Three, 1972.

Corollaries to the Third Law:

Arlan Andrews, Sr.: “Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.” ('Indian Summa', Analog, January 1989)

Grey's Law: “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.” (see also Hanlon's Razor)

Shermer's Last Law: “Any sufficiently advanced ETI is indistinguishable from God.”

Gehm's Corollary: “Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.” (Dr. Barry Gehm, Analog, 1991(?); once known as 'Benford's Corollary' and attributed to Gregory Benford from his use of it in Foundation's Fear, 1997, later attributed to Gehm as the originator)

I-CON SF: “Any sufficiently advanced iPhone is indistinguishable from magic.”

Rich Kulaweic: “Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.”

Karl Schroeder: “Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from nature.”

Unknown: “Any sufficiently advanced science fiction is indistinguishable from fantasy.” (attributed to Science Fiction fandom)

Unknown: “Any sufficiently well-understood magic is indistinguishable from technology.” (attributed to Science Fiction fandom)

Unknown: “If you cannot distinguish my technology from magic, you are not sufficiently advanced.”

[Also add Charles Sheffield's variant buried somewhere in the 'Convergence' series.]
[ RationalWiki | RationalWiki: Grey's Law | Wikipedia: Shermer's Last Law ]

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Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives (also known as Finagle's Corollary to Murphy's Law) (attributed to John W. Campbell)
“Anything that can go wrong, will – at the worst possible moment.”

Corollaries to Finagle's Law:

O'Toole's Corollary of Finagle's Law: “The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum”, popularised by Larry Niven.

Ads for bookplates run by Galaxy Magazine in the late 1960s stated "The umpteenth corollary of Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives states "No books are ever lost by loaning except ones you particularly want to keep." "
[ Wikipedia ]

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Godwin's Law of Time Travel (attributed to colonel_green at scans-daily)
“The first rule of time travel is that any and all modifications made to the timeline result in Hitler winning World War II. Run over a hippy in 1968? Hitler wins.”
[ Arcana Wiki | TV Tropes ]

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Haldane's Law (attributed to J.B.S. Haldane)
“I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
— J.B.S. Haldane, Possible Worlds, 1927.

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Hanlon's Razor (attributed to Robert Heinlein)
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
[ RationalWiki ]
See also: Grey's Law under Clarke's Three Laws.

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Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act (attribution unknown)
“If you time-travel into the past and then try to kill Hitler, it won't work as intended. It may even backfire.”
[ Arcana Wiki | TV Tropes ]
See also Godwin's Law of Time Travel.

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Jon's First Law (attributed to Jon Souza)
“Any interesting space drive is a weapon of mass destruction. It only matters how long you want to wait for maximum damage.” It goes on to say: "Interesting is equal to ‘whatever keeps the readers from getting bored’”.
[ ProjectRho.com | Jon Souza ]
See also Larry Niven's Kzinti Lesson.

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Ken Hite's Rule (attributed to Ken Hite)
“Alternative Universes tend to have more Zeppelins.”

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The Kzinti Lesson (attributed to Larry Niven)
“A reaction drive's efficiency as a weapon is in direct proportion to its efficiency as a drive.”
[ larryniven.net ]
See also Jon's First Law and Niven's Laws.

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Moff's Law (attributed to Josh Wimmer at io9.com)
"Of all the varieties of irritating comment out there, the absolute most annoying has to be “Why can’t you just watch the movie for what it is??? Why can’t you just enjoy it? Why do you have to analyze it???” If you have posted such a comment, or if you are about to post such a comment, here or anywhere else, let me just advise you: Shut up. Shut the fuck up. Shut your goddamn fucking mouth. SHUT. UP."
Codified as:
1) As a discussion of a creative work grows longer, the probability of some ass whining about "overanalyzing" approaches 1.
2) In any discussion of creative work, anyone who says "OMG, why can't you just enjoy it??" automatically loses.
[ Racialicious ]

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Muphry's Law (attributed to John Bangsund)
(a) if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written;
(b) if an author thanks you in a book for your editing or proofreading, there will be mistakes in the book;
(c) the stronger the sentiment expressed in (a) and (b), the greater the fault;
(d) any book devoted to editing or style will be internally inconsistent.
[ Wikipedia | John Bangsund ]

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Niven's Law (attributed to Larry Niven)
“If the universe of discourse permits the possibility of time travel and of changing the past, then no time machine will be invented in that universe.”
[ Wikipedia ]

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Niven's Laws (attributed to Larry Niven, from the collection Known Space)
1. a. Never throw shit at an armed man.
    b. Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.
2. Never fire a laser at a mirror.
3. Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.
4. F × S = k. The product of Freedom and Security is a constant. To gain more freedom of thought and/or action, you must give up some security, and vice versa.
5. Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.
6. It is easier to destroy than create.
7. Any damn fool can predict the past.
8. History never repeats itself.
9. Ethics change with technology.
10. Anarchy is the least stable of social structures. It falls apart at a touch.
11. There is a time and place for tact. And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.
12. The ways of being human are bounded but infinite.
13. The world's dullest subjects, in order:
        a. Somebody else's diet.
        b. How to make money for a worthy cause.
        c. Special Interest Liberation.
14. The only universal message in science fiction: There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.
        Niven's corollary: The gene-tampered turkey you're talking to isn't necessarily one of them.
15. Fuzzy Pink Niven's Law: Never waste calories.
16. There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.
        In variant form in Fallen Angels as “Niven's Law: No cause is so noble that it won't attract fuggheads.”
17. No technique works if it isn't used.
18. Not responsible for advice not taken.
19. Old age is not for sissies.
20. “Do some basic physics before writing Ringworld.”
[ Wikipedia ]
See also Larry Niven's Kzinti Lesson.

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The Novikov Self Consistency Principle (attributed to Igor Novikov)
Concerning time paradoxes, “If an event exists that would give rise to a paradox, or to any "change" to the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero.”
[ Arcana Wiki | Wikipedia ]

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Pellegrino, Powell and Asimov's Three Laws of Alien Behaviour (attributed to Charles Pellegrino, James Powell and Isaac Asimov)
The First Law states: “Their survival will be more important than our survival. If an alien species has to choose between them and us, they won't choose us. It is difficult to imagine a contrary case; species don't survive by being self-sacrificing.”
The Second Law states: “Wimps don't become top dogs. No species makes it to the top by being passive. The species in charge of any given planet will be highly intelligent, alert, aggressive, and ruthless when necessary.”
The Third Law states: “They will assume that the first two laws apply to us.”
— from the front endpapers of Charles Pellegrino's Flying to Valhalla, 1993.

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Robinson's First Law of Space Combat
“An object impacting at 3 km/sec delivers kinetic energy equal to its mass in TNT.”
[ ProjectRho.com | Rick Robinson ]

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Rule 34
“If it exists, there is porn related to it.”
Adapted by Charles Stross as Rule 34.1: “Anything on the internet can be construed as filth, by a mind that's sufficiently warped.”
[ Rule 34 | Telegraph.co.uk | Urban Dictionary ]

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Scalzi's Law (attributed to John Scalzi)
“The failure mode of clever is asshole.”
[ Whatever ]

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Sturgeon's Law (attributed to Theodore Sturgeon)
“Nothing is always absolutely so.”
[ Wikipedia ]

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Sturgeon's Revelation, now more commonly known as Sturgeon's Law (attributed to Theodore Sturgeon)
“Ninety percent of everything is crud.” Now more likely to be seen as “Ninety percent of everything is crap.”
— World Science Fiction Covention, Philadelphia, 1953.
[ Wikipedia ]
As related in the anecdote: “When people talk about the mystery novel,” Ted said, as I remember, “they mention The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. When they talk about the western, they say there's The Way West and Shane. But when they talk about science fiction, they call it 'that Buck Rogers stuff', and they say 'ninety percent of science fiction is crud.' Well, they're right. Ninety percent of science fiction is crud. But then ninety percent of everything is crud, and it's the ten percent that isn't crud that is important. And the ten percent of science fiction that isn't crud is as good as or better than anything being written anywhere.”
— James Gunn, The New York Review of Science Fiction #85, September 1995.

Rucker's Corollary to Sturgeon's Law:

Lee Ann Rucker: “The Golden Age looks so good because we've forgotten the 90% that's crap.” (rec.arts.sf.written, Jan 2001)

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The Ten Commandments for Reading the Magazines (attributed to Stanislaw Lem, translated by Franz Rottensteiner)
You shall stop reading a work of SF:
1. in which gods, angels, demons, devils and other mythical beings appear, the work nevertheless being called "SF".
2. in which members of "other civilisations" appear, not as seen through the eyes of human observers, but described "quite directly" – from the godlike position of a master strategist.
3. in which the names of the characters (if only some of them) are constructed by a distortion of the paradigm of proper names in the alien language concerned (for instance, "Alexi Andrei" is supposed to serve as the name of a Pole, or "Kohlbenschlagg" as the name of a German; such are the signs with which an author betrays his ignorance which masquerades as arrogance) – any serious author takes the names of his heroes from models of the country where the alien tongue is spoken, and he does so by selecting genuine sources: there are no exceptions to this rule.
4. which is armed with a foreword by the author in which he declares that he writes in such-and-such a way, whereas Swift, Voltaire or Flaubert, Joyce, etc., wrote in such-and-such a way: in general, the length of the foreword is in inverse proportion to the quality of the text.
5. in which it is impossible to determine, after having read the first pages, the time, place the objects of the plot.
6. in which the names of all the characters are monosyllables.
7. in which there is an "escalation of the fantastic" – i.e. the hero is a telepath, but he is not one of the usual telepaths: he is a telepath who can set fire to objects just by willing it: and it's not only that he can light his cigarettes in such a way – he can also turn the sun into a supernova: but not only can he turn the sun into a supernova, normal telepaths cannot read his thoughts: and not only is it impossible to read his thoughts, but etc. …
8. in which the plot moves, in a very short space, from one point of the Earth, or the solar system, or the galaxy, to other points.
9. in which the main characteristics of extraterrestrial humanoids are a peculiar number of fingers (4 or 6, say), or a peculiar chemical composition of their bodies.
10. in which the characters admire qualities among themselves (for instance, incisiveness of intellect or humour which, when presented to the reader, do not so impress him.

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The Three Laws of Infernal Dynamics (attributed to David Gerrold's alter-ego Solomon Short)
The First Law states: An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction.
The Second Law states: An object at rest will always be in the wrong place.
The Third Law states: The energy required to change either of these states will always be more than you wish to expend, but never so much as to make the task prospectively impossible.
[ from Yesterday's Children / Starhunt, 1980 edition ]

Tags: axiomatic

R.I.P. Harry Harrison. I met Harry three times (although I was hardly on first name terms with him): once at Novacon, where I bought him a pint; once at Glasgow Airport where I asked the check-in staff to 'look after him' on his flight to Gatwick; and once at Noreascon in Boston, where we walked together from the Marriott Hotel over that long bridge to the Convention Center. He was always one of the funniest writers, except when he wrote darker things like Make Room! Make Room!, a dystopian novel of an overpopulated New York, and one that deserves to be on the SF Masterworks list. I'll be taking a walk up Lexington Avenue this afternoon, and I'll probably be thinking of Harry.

Tags: harry harrison, lives in passing

Our one-and-a-half year old Pomeranian/Samoyed crossbreed was attacked and killed by a couple of street dogs this morning, the same dogs Buddy liked to hang out with when he escaped the garden. I guess they just turned on him. He's now buried in the back garden. Rest in peace Buddy, you always surprised us with how you loved to live on the edge and yet still managed to be a great companion for Miles. You lived too fast and died way too young, and now we'll miss you way too much.

Tags: dogs, lives in passing

I, pet goat II from Heliofant on Vimeo.

Thanx andrewducker.

Tags: animation

Updating my list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites that I've visited. Last time I looked in 2010 the list had increased to 911 and I was able to add a few such as the Sydney Opera House. It's since been increased to 944, and I'm now able to add Fort Jesus in Mombasa and the Birthplace of Jesus in the Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem, controversial only because it's in Palestine whose UN membership was opposed by the US and Israel.

So: 43 so far, worldwide. [Up-update: 44] As Iguaçu National Park is listed under both Argentina and Brazil I'm counting it as one location, even though I've been to both sides of the falls on either side of the border. And I really should do the Statue of Liberty some time, now that it's fully open to the public again.

Argentina

Iguazu National Park

Australia

Sydney Opera House

Austria

Historic Centre of Vienna

Bahrain

Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun

Bermuda

Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications

Brazil

Iguaçu National Park

China

Historic Centre of Macau

The Great Wall

Egypt

Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur

France

Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments

Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange

Paris, Banks of the Seine

Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge

The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes

Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret

Greece

Acropolis, Athens

India

Agra Fort

Taj Mahal

Red Fort Complex, Delhi

Israel

Masada

Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls

Italy

Historic Centre of Rome

Vatican City

Venice and its Lagoon

Japan

Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome)

Kenya

Fort Jesus, Mombasa

Mexico

Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco

Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan

Morocco

Medina of Marrakesh

Palestine

Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem

Peru

Historic Centre of Lima

Historic Centre of the City of Arequipa

Thailand

Historic City of Ayutthaya

United Kingdom

Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites

City of Bath

Tower of London

EDIT: Maritime Greenwich

Old and New Towns of Edinburgh

Dorset and East Devon Coast

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

United States of America

Grand Canyon National Park

Redwood National and State Parks

Tags: world heritage sites

A Very Happy Fannish Birthday to hal_obrien.

Very Happy Fannish Birthdays to coalescent and ladymoonray.

10) Susanna Tamaro, Answer Me, 2001
A worthwhile collection that explores that heavily populated border between Catholicism and atheism. There is something precarious about all the characters in these three novelettes, raised on religion yet finding themselves in long-term situations where religious faith does not help: in 'Hell Does Not Exist', easily the best story, an abused wife attempts to protect her young son from his violent father, and yet as a teenager the son becomes the cause of personal devastation. In 'Answer Me' an orphaned girl with a troubled past searches for signs that she is loved while cultivating an inner hardness that allows her to carry on, and in 'The Burning Forest' a widower gives an account of the unravelling of his marriage while seeking the forgiveness of his estranged daughter. I was rather taken with these stories, or rather the Stygian voice with which Tamaro relates them. They were certainly not comfortable reads – I expect for people with faith they would be even less so – and their quiet power is both startling and a little disturbing. This is fiction that doesn't shout its atheism, just quietly points out how Christianity can indeed be either an unhelpful distraction when dealing with some life's major problems, or even the cause of them. A dark book, and necessarily so.

Tags: 2012 books, italy, shortform

9) Roberto Bolaño, Antwerp, 2002
Antwerp is a difficult novel to summarise, given that it’s a formative work in Bolaño’s oeuvre and one that possibly bears more relation to his poetry than his later fiction. These are fifty-six vignettes that function in part like snatches of half-remembered films, concerning a possible murder on a campsite in Spain. But just who has been murdered, and is the killer perhaps a reflection of the author himself? This is not the familiar Bolaño of the long, discursive sentences that became a style he settled into and made his own; instead Antwerp possesses a different form of intensity, perhaps showing the uncertainty of a writer in the act of setting things down in order to first find his own voice to make it stand out, or at least aside, from the influences of those he was reading at the time (among them, Norman Spinrad and James Tiptree, Jr.). Having said that, Bolaño once proclaimed this is the only novel he was not embarrassed about, which hints more at the integrity of the prosaic form he chose to use than the lack of clarity given to a reader: in 1980 it was written without any expectation of publication, but today it gives us a compact insight into the set of themes that Bolaño continued to use throughout his life. Disconnected sentences shoot past you like bullets, and the reader has to almost rearrange, Burroughs-like, what he or she is told and make of it what he or she can. Antwerp is still a self-conscious book for all its merits, but in this brief work it’s easy to discern the writer Bolaño would become in the years ahead: still manically driven at the fringes of literature, but also a far more relaxed and eloquent performer in the act of getting his message across.

Tags: 2012 books, roberto bolaño, spain

8) Tony Parsons, Departures, 2011
In August 2011 Tony Parsons became writer-in-residence at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, and these seven interlinked short stories are the result of that fruitful week. Having been connected with Heathrow for most of my professional life I thought this collection might be a bit of an unrewarding ‘busman’s holiday’, but it’s the details of the working lives of other Heathrow mavens that really caught my eye, and for readers unconnected with Heathrow other than when just passing through these stories will probably be even more eye-opening: the mysterious green plane near the perimeter, the bird-scarers, the relentless attempts of small-time criminals to evade border control, the stressful lives of travelling animals, the remote coolness of the air traffic controllers, the pull of the sky and the amazement that can come from thinking too much about modern aviation. I had a problem with the feasability of the first story in this small collection but in truth that’s a minor cavil; Parsons’s characterisation is good (particularly the seen-it-all humanity of his Border Agency immigration officer Jaswinder Smith) and this successful collection is going on my shelf for keeps. Nice one, Tony.

Tags: 2012 books, shortform, tony parsons, uk

Galaxy of Terror, 1981, USA   DIRECTED BY BRUCE D. CLARK
Slightly derivative of both Alien and Forbidden Planet, Galaxy of Terror deservedly bombed at the box office but has since gained a big cult following mostly because of that ubiquitous B-movie producer's credit, "Roger Corman". The story is familiar enough: the crew of a spaceship investigate a mysterious pyramid on a distant planet and come face-to-face with their own monsters from the Id. How they are picked off is predictable enough, with the possible exception of one crew member whose biggest fear is rape, and who gets tangled up rather unpleasantly with a giant worm. This was a scene that, in a rather sick twist, Corman had privately promised his financial backers; the director and actress refused to shoot it so Corman shot it himself with a body double, and the censors then insisted on making cuts (the entire scene is, apparently, lost). It's still the scene you remember from an otherwise unremarkable movie; everything looks like Aliens (but then that's possibly because James Cameron was the production designer), the monster effects look good despite not being the least bit scary, and the compulsory gore and dismemberment scenes look just a bit too plastic. Plus, it's mostly the annoying, garish and entirely synthesised soundtrack that gives away this movie as being a product of the 1980s. I wish I could say "they don't make 'em like this any more", but unfortunately they do.

Tags: 1980s sf film, monster movies, roger corman, science fiction

Ray Bradbury famously couldn't stand the internet, but now an internet error code "451" is being proposed when access to a page is being denied because of censorship. What a great tribute to the man.

Tags: censorship, life imitates sf, ray bradbury

7) Kurt Vonnegut, Look at the Birdie, 2009
Fourteen previously unpublished short stories, all enjoyable at the very least, although it would have been useful to know from what stages of Vonnegut's career each of them were written – were they all recent, or do some perhaps date back decades? Then there's the genre question: there's roughly a 50/50 genre/mainstream split, with the more imaginative and fantastical stories not necessarily being the best, although the opening story 'Confido' sets a superior quality mark that those following don't always match. The collection is prefaced with Vonnegut's 1951 letter to Miller Harris, in which he states his creative position as a writer since quitting his job at General Electric in 1951; it's an odd way to open a collection such as this as the stories, with a few exceptions, rarely stand out as boldly imaginative. And Vonnegut's satirical purpose is not always present either, with stories such as 'The Honor of a Newsboy', 'Ed Luby's Key Club' and the charmingly sweet 'A Song for Selma' being as sentimental about 'the ordinary little guy' as Vonnegut probably ever got. For a sharper tone of storytelling the best here is probably 'Little Drops of Water' about a spurned lover's attempts to get back her man, and the most satirical is the clever 'The Petrified Ants', which takes a jaundiced view of the Soviet approach to making an amazing scientific discovery. It provides the best laugh-out-loud moment and this collection, admirable as it is, could probably have done with a few more of those.

Tags: 2012 books, kurt vonnegut, satire, shortform

 

After a couple of lean months with no photo sales, April saw Getty Images selling these two photos, the first of the glass facade of a New York skyscraper to the Spanish branch of Interbrand (probably the world's biggest marketing company), and the second of two men walking across a field in Harare, Zimbabwe (a zoom shot from my hotel room window) to On Track Visual Communication, another marketing company somewhere in Illinois. Both 'Royalty Free' shots and no indication what either will be used for, but because of these sales May was a good month for a little extra cash, all going towards Miles's school fees.

Tags: getty, lives of photographs, photography

More Tumblr: looking at my Flickr stats just now I see that yesterday this photo (of Penny the bookstore cat in the now-defunct Acres of Books in Long Beach, LA) got a click-through from this 4 month-old Tumblr post by addictedreader27, which I checked out just to see which photo had in fact been blogged. Nice. But even nicer was to discover the 663 notes attached to this photo, all showing rebloggings and likes. Most of the time I reckon my older photos on Flickr are languishing completely unseen unless they turn up in people's search engine results, so it was a surprise to discover just how active this photo has been beyond Flickr without me even knowing about it.

Tags: bookstores, cats, flickr, lives of photographs, photography

The Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2011 are now up.

Jason Sanford invited me to be one of the preliminary judges earlier this year, and I spent the entire month of April cramming an average of twenty stories a day across all genres. It was a lot of fun, and I submitted ten nominations from the hundreds that I read – I've not been asked to keep it private, but I will not be saying which nominations were mine. However, I will admit there are a few special ones that I would really really like to see on the shortlist: the top ten stories of the year will be released in June, with the public vote for the top story beginning then.

Meanwhile, for some truly great reading, go read ’em!

Tags: shortform

6) Siriworn Kaewkan, The Murder Case of Tok Imam Storpa Karde, 2006
There are very few novels that explore the separatist terrorism affecting the three small Thai provinces that border Malaysia, and this one, shortlisted for the 2006 SEA Write Award, quickly became required reading that year with an English translation following four years later. So who killed the much-loved imam in the small village of Tanyong Baru, right outside his own mosque? Terrorists or State officials? Soldiers or police? Is there a suspicious connection with a neighbouring Buddhist village? And why are the villagers closing their doors to an actual investigation? The reader's guess is as good as anyone elses, which indicates the clever structure of this tale of deflections and half-truths that inevitably views the subject from an outsider's perpective yet at the same time lets the story's participants speak (seemingly, often less than truthfully) for themselves. Kaewkan simply provides the necessary pieces to the jigsaw then lets the readers assemble it in a way that indicates there's an inevitable collective madness going on here. There are a number of possible courses of events discernable if this short novel is read closely, which is easily done in one sitting – just don't expect a straightforward whodunnit. My brother-in-law recently finished a tour of duty as a policeman in this volatile region, so I'd love to know his opinion of this book.

Tags: 2012 books, thailand

Outer Space from Sander van den Berg on Vimeo.

Stunning time-lapse footage of Saturn and Jupiter, plus rings and moons. Via joe_haldeman.

Tags: astronomy, sensawunda

Happy Fannish Birthdays to jamesb and del_c.

One of the things I enjoyed most about my brief time at Eastercon a few weeks ago was being able to hand out copies of my latest fanzine. For my third gig as guest editor on the Hugo-nominated (!!!) Journey Planet, jamesb, johnnyeponymous and I have gone for the big beast: Blade Runner.

Our cover artwork is not a knock-off imitation of John Alvin's iconic poster – it's the real deal by the real guy. A year before John died in 2008 he revised his painting more to his personal liking, most noticeably by adding Roy Batty to the top right corner. I'm very grateful indeed to his widow Andrea Alvin for granting permission to reproduce it as our cover.

Here's the full Contents, in full colour throughout:

Editorials from Pete, James and Chris,

James Bacon, Acme Instant Fanzine: Ruth Long, Lynda E. Rucker, Mike Meara and Ken Marsden discuss Blade Runner

Graham Sleight, 'An Introduction to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'

C.A. Chicoine, 'A Timeline for Blade Runner

Christopher J. Garcia, 'Building to it: Training for Blade Runner'

James Shields, 'Are You a Replicant?'

Mark Hevingham, 'Bladder Run'

Robert Francis, 'Android Tears'

Tonya Adolfson, 'Stopping the Artificial Heart'

Christopher J. Garcia, '52 Weeks to Blade Runner Film Literacy'

Katura Reynolds, 'Electric Frogs'

James Mason, 'Late to the Blade Runner Party

Peter Young, 'Planet Los Angeles, 2019: The Accidental Afterlife of Philip K. Dick'

Ken Marsden, 'The Tannhauser Gate'

It's also downloadable for free from eFanzines.com as a PDF here. Enjoy!

Tags: fanzines, philip k. dick, science fiction

Look, I know I've been crap on LJ lately and haven't done a Miles update for months, but I'm marking a special day: Miles started nursery school in Hua Hin today. (Okay, I've always preferred the US-adopted German 'kindergarten' which, whenever I think of it, always reminds me there's a Geoff Ryman novel I must get round to reading.)

Anyway, he had a great time, and here he is in one of his two most recently-acquired blue t-shirts, sporting the name of his school, the BECC. His other new blue t-shirt mentions something or other about Internet Puppies, which arrived too late to impress Christopher Priest at Eastercon.

Unfortunately, however, I had to fly back to England last night although I'll be back in Thailand in 48 hours, hopefully in time to pick him up from his third day at school. I hope it won't end up as being bloody typical that I'm not there on other big days, like his first day of Primary School a few years from now. And I also hope this doesn't end up be a recurrent family trait: my father was always abroad on business on my birthdays (something he's always felt bad about), and maybe if/when Miles has kids thirty years from now he'll be stuck in transit on a space station or off mining asteroids on their big days, too.

So today of all days, I'm wondering how quickly he'll learn it sucks to be a working dad, sometimes.

Tags: miles

Today's internet slapfight entertainment has largely revolved around Christopher Priest and autopope, two writers I admire enormously and equally. Earlier I posted a brief review of Priest's BSFA-shortlisted The Islanders, not long after the man himself had gone off the deep end about this year's entire Clarke Award shortlist and reserving probably his biggest broadside for Charlie, who has slapped right back in the best possible way. And, oh look, coverage of the spat has now migrated to the pages of The Guardian.

Priest's impressively crafted rant has actually given fandom a good day: I've seen more fans critiqueing his merciless method of delivery, either for or against, than those who've chosen to fight fire with fire and take full-frontal issue with his specific points of view, which is also fine because that's the free-speech deal on the internet (and I do personally disagree with the majority of what he says). But I've not been taking sides while enjoying this spectacle: I'll be wearing one of Charlie's Internet Puppy t-shirts for Eastercon while at the same time giving The Islanders either my first or second place vote for the BSFA 'Best Novel' Award. Today's been one more day to be proud of British fandom and what we do.

PS. Before Chris Priest is formally invited to chair the judges for next year's Clarke Award, can someone please invite him to chair the 'Not The Clarke Award' panel at Eastercon next weekend. On current form he'd deliver great value for money.

Tags: charles stross, christopher priest, fandom, snark