No explanation needed.
Image by Andrew Zubko.
3/16/10
DROWN IN THE RIVER LIFFEY
To celebrate this joyous, sloppy holiday, here is a short story I wrote recently that takes place in Dublin, Ireland entitled "DROWN IN THE RIVER LIFFEY." If you read my story "CONCUSSIONS," this involves the same character, Jonas.
Read DROWN IN THE RIVER LIFFEY! Tell me what you think.
(photo courtesy of Andrew Tyson Shaffner)
3/15/10
Scientists Let Me Spot Solar Storms, Dooms Us All
(image courtesy of Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and NASA)
This is so cool. The website Solar Storm Watch asks for anyone's help to spot approaching solar storms. You just have to go through some nifty training that takes five minutes so you can interpret the pretty pictures sent from satellites STEREO Ahead and STEREO Behind. See below:
The image on the left from STEREO Behind is showing an actual solar storm (look at the round bulbous shape of fire), while STEREO Ahead's got nothin'.
I hope they're fact checking though. Because who knows if I actually spotted a solar storm or just something I thought was pretty.
3/14/10
3/12/10
Google Discovers "Bicycle Routes"
In an astonishing announcement, the Google Reality Matrix has added yet another previously unknown phenomenon to the known world: “Bicycle Routes.”
“Bicycle Routes” are apparently specified roads, paths, or other specially designated routes to travel via a two-wheeled, non-motorized vehicle called a “bicycle” or “velocipede” or “bike” for short. According to Wikipedia, “bicycles were introduced in the 19th Century,” though I couldn’t find a map of the 19th Century on Google Maps to find proof of such (it might not have been fully mapped yet).
Nevertheless, I can’t wait to try this new form of vehicle and its designated route to travel upon. It looks like a middle-ground between walking and driving, though the routes seem as limited as public transportation. It will be way easier to find my way around such cities as San Francisco, Portland, Minneapolis, New York, Washington DC, and more!
Hoorah for the Google Reality Matrix for this discovery, and their continuing efforts to enlighten and map all of human-kind!
“Bicycle Routes” are apparently specified roads, paths, or other specially designated routes to travel via a two-wheeled, non-motorized vehicle called a “bicycle” or “velocipede” or “bike” for short. According to Wikipedia, “bicycles were introduced in the 19th Century,” though I couldn’t find a map of the 19th Century on Google Maps to find proof of such (it might not have been fully mapped yet).
Nevertheless, I can’t wait to try this new form of vehicle and its designated route to travel upon. It looks like a middle-ground between walking and driving, though the routes seem as limited as public transportation. It will be way easier to find my way around such cities as San Francisco, Portland, Minneapolis, New York, Washington DC, and more!
Hoorah for the Google Reality Matrix for this discovery, and their continuing efforts to enlighten and map all of human-kind!
Jason Epstein and the Future of Publishing
(image courtesy of We Made This)
Jason Epstein had an article in The New York Times Book Review yesterday titled "Publishing: The Revolutionary Future." Now, normally when I share an article of such a topic by a member of the New York publishing fraternity I ridicule their ideas and call them old geezers. Not this time. I actually think Epstein shares a very level-headed view of the past, present, and future of publishing and media in general. He talks about Gutenberg, printing and backlist shifts in the 1980s and 1990s, of the current expansion of e-books, protections for authors, and of course offers his predictions for the future (though he states them as if he were a soothsayer).
Pretty cool stuff, even if he is an old geezer...
"With the earth trembling beneath them, it is no wonder that publishers with one foot in the crumbling past and the other seeking solid ground in an uncertain future hesitate to seize the opportunity that digitization offers them to restore, expand, and promote their backlists to a decentralized, worldwide marketplace. New technologies, however, do not await permission. They are, to use Schumpeter's overused term, disruptive, as nonnegotiable as earthquakes."
And later...
"The huge, worldwide market for digital content, however, is not a fantasy. It will be very large, very diverse, and very surprising: its cultural impact cannot be imagined. E-books will be a significant factor in this uncertain future, but actual books printed and bound will continue to be the irreplaceable repository of our collective wisdom."
And just for funsies, here's a short clip from a BBC documentary featuring Stephen Fry about the Gutenberg Press:
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