Word is that Greg Bear will be writing the HALO Forerunners trilogy books, due out next year from TOR Books. Considering his background for writing epic galaxy-spanning SciFi, this is a good choice. The classic SciFi Anime Van Dread has just been released as a complete series box set by Funimation. With a slogan like If the enemy doesn’t kill them, their hormones will you have to suspect this one is silly fun (and it is, watch free episodes online at the previous link to prove it). Funimation is also running a 6 hour anime marathon at the Comic Book SciFi Con in LA on April 26th.
A few blogs I like include The Way The Future Blogs, Frederik Pohl’s entry into the online world, and a bit of a play on his book title, The Way The Future Was. Another good one is Today in Astronomy, and both blogs give a historical perspective to the business of the future. Battlestar Galactica does its final episode tonight, and just a few days ago the cast spoke at the U.N. about human rights. Joss Whedon did a Q and A about Dollhouse, and Fancast covered it. For the 10th anniversary of Farscape, Season 1 is online on Fancast, so you can watch the whole thing. Finally for tonight, a friend passed me a link to an amazing video; this maniac creates an outer space painting using spray paint and random items from his kitchen… in 60 seconds! Enjoy…
Mike Brotherton has posted a thought provoking article about Why Science Fiction rules, and why most people just don’t get it. It’s worth a read, and if you communicate to the public (Teacher, Journalist, etc.) you should also be aware the next round of his Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop still has a few days before registration closes, but you have to hurry. Funded by NASA, the training is free and comes complete with an observatory or two at the University of Wyoming. Even Lex Luthor is looking for a Bailout these days… what is the world coming to?
Earlier this week the NY Times published an opinion by Roy Blount Jr., president of the Authors Guild, railing against the Kindle’s Speach To Text feature, saying Amazon never paid for audio rights to the works it sells. Over in the Wall Street Journal, Paul Aiken of the same group claims it is illegal to have the machine read out loud, an infringement of Copyright law. I think we saw something similar with the SFWA Takedowns, where the leadership of a writers organization attempted to bite the hand that feeds it. And just like the last time, a whole lot of the authors they represent disagree. John Scalzi scoffs at the thought that a computer generated voice could match the quality of a human rendition, saying Yes, one is free and the other isn’t, but you do get what you pay for. Cory Doctorow points out that one part of the legal argument would end up concluding that email, web-browsers, computers, photocopiers, cameras, and typewriters are all illegal, too. Neil Gaiman points out that when you buy a book, you also buy the right’s to read it aloud, have it read to you by anyone, read it to your children on long car trips, record yourself reading it and send that to your girlfriend…, and that this is the same sort of thing. And yes, I know I exceeded 25 words on the Gaiman quote, but his writings don’t lead me to believe he is the kind of person to sue me for plagiarism for supporting his opinion in public (since we are on a copyright topic, I thought I should mention that). Wil Wheaton brought Scalzi’s argument firmly home in his own post on the topic, with a downloadable MP3 of him reading a segment of text, followed by his computer reading the same passages. Since he was reading from a book he wrote, no one can give him any copyright grief either. So, the question is, what planet are the leadership of the Author’s Guild living on?
Joss Whedon has just won a Bradbury Award for best screenwriter… what a surprise!
Neil Gaiman’s story The Day The Saucers Came is online for free reading. It is a wonderful little short story (or perhaps a poem), and the illustrations are perfect for the tale. And here is the first Coraline trailer Neil himself likes…