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Biogenic Snow
The cliche would have it that you couldn't make this stuff up, but of course you could. But people wouldn't believe you.
"...recently found evidence that rain-making bacteria are widely distributed in the atmosphere...This is important because the formation of ice in clouds is required for snow and most rainfall. Dust and soot particles can serve as ice nuclei, but biological ice nuclei are capable of catalyzing freezing at much warmer temperatures."
So, maybe bugs make snow. Cool. Full article here.
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Hey, guess what?
I'm pregnant!
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Vote vote vote, votevotevotevotevotevotevote.
Lovely to see some more comments appearing on the Spread the Word site for Lint. It truly is the most deserving book on the list. Do vote for it! It's like if you don't vote in the general election and the BNP get it - vote for Lint, otherwise some rubbishy book might win it - and you wouldn't want that on your conscience, now, would you?
Vote like you've never voted before. Thank you thank you.
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UPDATE
Voting closes at NOON TODAY, Friday, so please, get your voting finger voting! It's the very last time I'll ask and Steve and I'd be sooo grateful.
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Today's excuse
Often I get to the end of the day without having achieved much and I have to cast about for an excuse. I have today's excuse already lined up and it's not even nine yet: Earthquake-Induced Fatigue. How's that for efficient?
I just spoke to my mum who had no idea what I was talking about. I mean this, which woke me up last night.
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The madness of me
Following yesterday's misanthropic philogynous rant, I offer up a case in point of testosterone-induced madness: me. Why would I possibly want the vehicle depicted in the thumbnail there? It is rather impractical and quite an eye-sore. And yet I think I would like one very much.
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Eek! I'm a sexist.
That's the conclusion I'm coming to. If you have a few minutes, I think you might find this presentation by Mary Lou Jepsen enjoyable - not to say darned inspiring. It's maybe 50 mins, so here are the two minutes of edited highlights if you're short of time. Mary Lou is talking about her One Laptop Per Child project that I've blogged about before. And I find myself believing what she says and being impressed by her in a way I'd be reluctant to believe a man. Not that I wouldn't, but I'd need more proof. Maybe that's because guys demonstrably do have loads of testosterone in their bloodstream and so most of them can't help turn everything into a competition - at least the guys in charge of things. In fact the silliest example of this is the way most business leaders look at the way their corporations embody the cooperation of thousands of people towards a common goal, and what do they see? They see competition. That's the key to business. And yet without cooperation they'd be sitting at home giving the competition speech to their dogs. Anyway, I want women like Mary Lou Jepsen running the world, before competition means we don't have much of a world left. And I'm considering suggesting that Testosterone become a banned substance.
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Bored
I grew tired of the green. I think I'm tired of this new grey colour already. Hmm.
Rob's note: that pic isn't relevant. I just saw it and liked it. Unless you think the grey is brill-o.
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Sarah Bower Extras
Some lovely treats for fans of Needle in the Blood today. Go to Sarah's author page and browse the links on the left to hear her reading the first chapter, and see the original handwritten manuscript!
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Introducing George Mann's The Affinity Bridge
Hot off the press, a fabulous Steampunk tale and our big title of Christmas 2008, featuring Crown investigator Sir Newbury and his astonishingly proficient assistant Miss Hobbes, signed up last week, out October of this year, cover done in one mammoth sitting on Saturday. What do you think? Hint: isn't it just about the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen?
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Images moving freely
So, in my head at least, it's officially the Era of Digital Video. You may think that arrived a while back, but I'm talking about quality good enough to show in a cinema. That movie, Collateral, the one with Tom Cruise riding round in a cab shooting people, was shot largely on HD video, not film. And lately I've been chomping down books on cinematography and editing and, best of all so far, cheap ways to make cool-looking movies. I'm sure it's a sad indictment either on the state of my brain or of the world of fiction, but the funniest thing I've read for ages has been a book about super-low-budget film-making.
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Art imitates life, and back again
Take a look at this. Fascinating!
In other news, today I have designed the best cover of my life. I'll show it to you when it's properly finished, and you shall swoon before me.
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Conspiracies
I believe in a few things that might be called conspiracies, but since 'conspiracy' is usually meant as a criticism, I don't think of them in that way. A few examples might be corporations using underhand tactics to get laws changed in their favour, or US Republicans gerrymandering like crazy, or the CIA doing bad things in secret (which is almost their mission if you think about it). I think all of those things happen, I think they are underreported and I don't think that's a conspiracy, so much as 'getting away with it'.
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Steampunk chic
Click on that thumbnail, why don't you. So, that's a keyboard and monitor, Steampunk style. Aren't people on the Internet clever. I just find that Victorianesque aesthetic (when done well) gorgeous and quite needful. Go here to see how the monitor was made, or here for the wonderful typewriter keyboard. More pics of the finished products at the bottom of those pages. The brass monitor controls are particularly appealing.
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Deja vu all over again
Isn't Torchwood a confusing program! This season everyone is nice and the team is a team. Hooray! And the plots are sub-standard not abysmal. And the dialogue is poor not woeful. And each week they manage to just about defeat an enemy they massively outnumber rather than be defeated by them. Last time I pointed this out they were tackling fork-lift truck drivers, this week it was...[warning: spoilers]
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Dispatches
I taped Channel 4's Dispatches the other night on the banking-driven credit crunch. V. depressing stuff. As you'll remember, it was obvious even to ignorant outsiders like me that there was a credit crunch coming and that it would trigger a US recession. But what I didn't realise is that the UK banking sector would see all that high-risk financial dynamite-juggling going on in the States... and rush to join in. But, as one of the MPs interviewed pointed out: we let banks privatise their profits but pass their really big failures on to the general public. So why wouldn't they want to gamble? [warning: contains highly lefty thinking]
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Nice job
I'm not sure whose idea Goldfinches were, but I approve. Though they do seem a bit greedy. Five of them were noshing on that plant for about twenty minutes. Much prettier than locusts, though.
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HD retro
So, you know that there are two kinds of next generation DVD? Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Well, it looks pretty likely that Blu-Ray is about to win and HD-DVD will be dropped. So if you've got a hi-def TV and you want to get a hi-def DVD player to go with it, get a Blu-Ray one. Personally, I'm just wondering what's going to happen to the price of HD-DVD players and discs when all new production and investment ceases and you can't buy them in shops any more. I quite like the idea of snapping up a thousand-pound player for a tenth of that, and buying a few handfuls of hi-def discs for less than the price of standard DVDs. Of course I'll have to go a long way to match my friend Emma H. with her Betamax VCR. But give it a few years. Plus, somewhere I've got a WM-2 (the second model of cassette-playing Sony Walkman ever made) and a couple of tapes for it. In a little while, that's going to be a real curiosity. But then so will her minidisc player, so it's probably too soon to declare a winner in our particular low-key format wars.
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Stretching people
Have you seen the CMI survey which says British managers work, on average, 40 days of unpaid overtime per year? When I used to work in retail head offices, it was normal to work, say, from 8 until 6:30, with a half-hour lunch break. That would total up to around 50 hours a week. So it was always slightly upsetting when my payslip, along with everyone else's, said 32 hours per week on it. And we weren't eligible for overtime pay because we were too senior (which in my case wasn't really very senior at all). But try to leave at 5:30 and you'd hear cries of 'half day is it?'. If you made a habit of it, you'd be in trouble come annual review time.
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Superpowers
I have two superpowers. Both of them are stupid.
1) I can catch anything on anything else. I could run through the house with a shoe lace in my hand and get it tangled on a door handle or accidentally pull over a lamp with it.
2) If I look in a shop window a crowd will form behind me and then jostle me out of the way. It doesn't matter if the window only contains car parts or junction boxes and the people behind me are little old ladies who aren't mechanics or electricians. The little old ladies will still become fascinated to know what I am looking at and have to see.
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On the nature of independent publishing
'Independent publishing' is a term that covers a vast range of companies, and people. Indie publishers range from tiny one or two-man bands, to companies employing fifty to a hundred people. They range from those who use their savings or personal assets to fund the business, to those who are grant-maintained, to those with a wealthy patron, to those who raise debt and equity funding. Their publications range from the deeply specific to the broadest of trade ranges. So it's a bit ambitious to try to pin down what, exactly, an independent publisher is, or should be. But I thought I'd share my own ideal - the company we try every day to build.
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Happy D-Sub Day
Big day today. On February 14th, 96 years ago, America commissioned its first diesel submarine. It was the USS Skipjack: 135 feet long, with multiple 700hp engines. It wasn't the first diesel submarine in the world; the French had beaten America to that distinction. France had also beaten America in a number of other ways. French was thought to be a better language for lovers than English, (even American-English!). Paris was a whole city for lovers. Whereas Washington D.C. was just stuffy and uncomfortable. And America was the home of the brave, but not the amorous. France might have stolen an early lead, but the contest wasn't over yet. America had a secret weapon...
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Insight into a publisher's life
I am currently covered in gravad lax. Ah, if only there were photos. I thought I'd have a nice bit of smoked salmon for my lunch, and it comes with a pouch of gravad lax, er, sauce. Said pouch opened a bit more readily than its seals suggested, so when I gave it a mighty rend it went All. Over. Me.
Must be like what having a moustache is like - I'll be finding bits of mustardy dill sauce in my hair all day.
In summary: publishers literally bathe in high end foodstuffs all day long. Fact.
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Sarah Stovell on't radio
Once Rob's finished writing about Daleks, I'll get him to make this easier, him being Snowbooks' sound man and me dealing more with, well, whatever it is I deal with. (Rob's update: I've made it a bit easier). But if you go here , then click the 15min fast forward button till you get to 1.15, then the 5 min fast forward button until you get to about 1.20, then you'll hear a piece on first editions which Sarah masterfully turns round to talking about Mothernight.
Phew.
Rob's update: Just running out the door, so don't have time to check, but if this is a show that goes out daily, the Listen Again feature may already point to a different program. Sorry about this. I should have grabbed a copy and posted it (illegally) on the SnowBlog. I just didn't realise it would disappear so quickly.
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Perforating people's dreams
Em and I often hear about the sadness of authors who are desperate - or at least very determined - to get published - and very frustrated if it doesn't happen. I'm not talking about Snowbooks' authors (potential or actual); I'm thinking of stories you see in the news or tales you read on someone's blog, often rather heartbreaking ones.
As with most things, publishing seems less glamorous from the inside (though both Em and I make a point of dressing in snappy 1940s outfits, working only in crisp art deco premises, and making sure our hair is always immaculate).
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"Saudis clamp down on valentines" (updated)
That's a story the BBC have picked up. Here are one or two rather vitriolic thoughts on the subject.
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Just too dumb for me
I love Director's Commentaries on DVDs. And it's often very revealing to hear what they say, the sorts of things they care about. In the commentary for Mercury Rising, a dud of a Bruce Willis movie, the director spent most of the commentary talking about locations: scouting for them, negotiating over them, switching between them. Yawn. But listen to, say, George Clooney talk about Good Night, and Good Luck and you're struck by how insightful and how incredibly witty the man is. So I was pleased to see that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer had two commentaries.
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Charidy work
I forgot to mention: I did a free cover design for Caroline Smailes' online novella, Disraeli Avenue, sales of which go towards One in Four, an abuse charity. You could see it here if you fancy. I don't think you can buy it yet, though - I'll let you know.
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Love stories
Mark at 5th Estate asked me to contribute to a love story post, which in turn links back here. My contribution was about Oscar Wilde's The Nightingale and The Rose, one of my favourite short stories. If you'd like to read the whole story, here it is.
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Syntax as a tool of The Man
For no particular reason, I've written the colonial pronoun you'all a couple of times lately. It's often written y'all, but all the Midwesterners I know who use it, say it you'all. Just in case you don't know about this, I thought I'd tell you why it's a handy pronoun and how it relates to non-standard English-speakers who say you was rather than you were (shortly before they get a clip round the ear for same, if they're young enough). You know, just in case you care about such things.
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Beauty (sigh)
That's a picture of dawn from where I sit to write stories about explosions and stuff. Em made this point recently. And then the underwater lady on Coast made it too. Colours in nature hardly ever seem to clash. Mix peach and pink in your home decor and yick. Do it on the horizon of the world, as the sun rises, and it looks purty. Same thing for letting your aquamarine and your azure mingle domestically. It only seems to work in the sky and the ocean. You'all probably know this already. But I only noticed the world was in colour a few years ago. Before that I was too busy being a bloke. (P.S. It'll be nice when phone and power wires are underground or route through subspace, won't it? P.P.S. I'd probably better go and have a fight now, to make up for this post.)
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Having the last laugh
No, that's not Darth Vader, silly. It's Batman. Probably doing some brooding. It's part of a poster for this summer's The Dark Knight. I loved the last Chris Nolan Batman movie: Batman Begins. It's the only one of dozens of recent superhero big screen adaptations that I've really enjoyed. (I thought Spiderman III was the second worst big-budget movie I've ever seen; Bad Boys II being the absolute worst.) Batman Begins did such a great job of making silly aspects of the Batman story seem sensible. Like the name and the cape: Batman uses theatricality in an attempt to inspire superstitious fear, because otherwise one man doesn't stand a chance. And then coming up with a reason why it would work: a whole town having a bad acid trip. When I heard that Heath Ledger was going to play the Joker, and I saw a picture of him in his make-up, I couldn't wait to see it.
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Extra, extra
Guardian blog picks up on Rob's post.
Thanks, Hannah!
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Stirring up a little good natured debate (extra updated)
I've budged this up the running a little because people are still busily commenting. Plus I'm adding bonus material(!).
I feel quite anxious about this post. I've got some thoughts I want to share, but part of me thinks this is one of those things it's better to keep quiet about. But on the other hand, why should I be afraid to voice my views? What's the worst that can happen? So here are some potentially incendiary opinions about storytelling.
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TV (inc. a little Torchwood)
This time last year, my favourite new U.S. TV show was Standoff - which was cancelled mid-season. This year it's Journeyman - which was cancelled mid-season. It puts me in mind of a comment I once read about how The West Wing wasn't especially popular or successful - except among a vocal and influential minority. Since all sorts of people watch TV I suppose it stands to reason that pitching a show at the more demanding viewer risks alienating those who don't want their drama complicated or confusingly non-formulaic. But surely the trick, as in all business, is to cut your cloth accordingly. If, by making a relatively sophisticated show, you're going to alienate four-fifths of your potential audience then you have to create a business model that works for a smaller audience. You have to spend a smaller amount of money and aim for a much smaller success.
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Rules are for suckers
For all my talk of pre-plotting, I tried doing some screenwriting the other day. I just sat down and wrote the bits that had popped into my head without worrying too much about where I'm going with it. It was some of the most fun I've ever had with a word-processor. Exhilarating! It's like a drug. No more pre-built plot for me. The story will just have to take care of itself. Stand aside! I have writing to do.
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The hypersonic plane... (updated)
...designed to reach Australia in under five hours. The story is from today's Guardian. What's slightly less cool is that this article says the plane could be ready to fly in as little as twenty-five years. What's even less cool about it is that I read an almost identical article in 1980 about a plane that had a lot more backing than this current proposal. No, if you ask me, designing supersonic passenger planes is a lost skill of the Seventies. My parents were lucky enough to fly on Concorde once (and survive!). For the rest of us, we've basically been flying in 747s (or variations on the theme) for forty years now and it's not likely to change any time soon. Honestly, I don't know why I bothered reading Scientific American and watching Tomorrow's World as a teenager. The only huge breakthrough since then has been in computers, and that was the only one they didn't predict.
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Surely not
Did anyone see the Doctor Who episode in 2006 where Sarah Jane Smith returned? And then last year she had her own series: The Sarah Jane Adventures. Did you all notice how amazing Elisabeth Sladen looked? Well, according to IMDB she had a birthday last week. She was sixty. Sixty! That is unpossible. I can't wrap my head around it. Isn't this an exciting time we live in where sixty-year-old women have to put up with being leched and leered at by the likes of me.
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Shows for your iPod
Geoff and Nicki, majority and minority contributors to the excellent, and oft-linked, BLDGBLOG were in London recently. When we met up they heartily recommended that I listen to Radio Lab. I immediately liked it and mentioned it to Anna, Snowbooks' American secret weapon. She knew the show, had partied with the hosts and wasn't especially impressed that I was only just catching up. So maybe I'll tell you'all instead.
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Spread the Word
I'm dead chuffed to announce that Lint has made it onto the shortlist for the World Book Day Spread the Word competition - and it's all down to you. Thanks so much for voting, and not rebelling when I went on and on and on about it.
I'm a bit mopey about the others not getting a look in - Needle in the Blood, The Red Men and Adept - so keep talking about them to your friends!
Sincerely, thanks so much for all your support. You did it!
Oh, and by the way, can you do it again? The votes go back to zero, so if you voted before, would you vote again to make Lint THE book to talk about? You are smashing. x
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You have to watch this
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Some answers and suggestions.
I am in a perceptive mood today, and have some answers to some burning questions - and a couple of suggestions.
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Present Shock
I'm just having one of those moments, sort of like the opposite of déjà vu (which I suppose may or may not be called jamais vu) when I look at the technology of 2008. Every now and again it dawns on me all over again how incredible it all is. I am remembering back to when I was sixteen and I wanted a computer. If some previously unknown but kindly aunt had decided to indulge me, and had bought me a top-of-the-line Cray 1-A supercomputer, I would have had the fastest production computer on the planet. This is a description of that machine: "The supercomputer weighed 5-1/2 tons, arrived in two refrigerated electronic vans, and needed more than 30 construction workers, engineers, and helpers to move it into the computer room. The CRAY-1A had a 12.5-nanosecond clock, 64 vector registers, and 1 million 64-bit words of high-speed memory." All very impressive I'm sure, but my current mobile phone could give it a very serious run for its money - and probably beat it for many types of calculation.