Amazon Pulls Macmillan Books Over E-Book Price Disagreement — Including my titles. Scalzi has a very good take here, as usual. And, um, no. I have pulled all Amazon purchase links from my author Web site, and will no longer link to them on my blog. I"m done buying from them as well. I will also never buy a Kindle now. Between the 1984 fiasco and this...? Amazon has proven they cannot be trusted by the consumer, ever. Let alone the author.
Scrivener's Error with a roundup on the evil that is the Google Books Settlement
Science and Culture
The case of the brown star that’s really red or possibly blue — Bad Astronomy on brown dwarfs. Which figure prominently in Sunspin, my as-yet-unwritten space opera trilogy. (Though you can read short stories from the continuity now...)
Melt Season in the Arctic Getting Longer — Damn those pesky liberally biased facts! Rush Limbaugh to Ice Station Zebra, stat!
Department of "The past is another country..." — … and they speak a different language there. Wow, have things changed.
Religion
daveraines on his religion and me — I am touched by this. Thank you.Is The First Amendment for Monotheists Only? — Wow. Just wow. Crazy stuff, no matter what your personal religious convictions are. (Thanks to
sheelangig.)Politics
I am funny (sort of) about politics [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Obama does question time — My favorite bit: GOP staffers admitting that cameras "were a mistake." Here's a thought experiment for you, regardless of your politics: Imagine President Bush appearing before the Democratic caucus to take open, unscripted questions. Imagine a future President Palin doing so.
The American Conservative on the derailing of the GOP — The party’s leaders have no clue, its pundits are reveling in the luxury of opposition, and its rank-and-file has been whipped into such a state of agitation over their own impotence that they cannot see that they are led by people who will ignore and abuse them the moment they are no longer needed to win elections. Color me impressed. A conservative commentator who's willing to look at reality instead of the "true facts." (Nicked from Whatever, which you already read anyway. Right?)
Roeder: No regrets after shooting doctor — Under questioning from Foulston, Roeder acknowledged that he "somewhat" admired those who previously had committed violence against abortion providers. He said his anti-abortion beliefs "go hand in hand" with his religious beliefs. He said he became born again in 1992 after watching an episode of "The 700 Club." Thank you, Pat Robertson. And Operation Rescue, who provided the killer with information about the victim's security arrangements. Christianist terrorism, pure a simple, with co-conspirators. If Roeder had been Islamic, we'd be bombing brown people somewhere.
Tony Blair admits Saddam threat was overstated — [He] told the Iraq Inquiry that by any objective analysis the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons programme had not increased after 9/11. Wait, could that mean that President Bush and the GOP led us into a trillion dollar war on false pretenses? Clearly Tony Blair and the British parliament are objectively pro-terrorist. I'm so glad I have the Republican Party and FOX News to help me keep my personal facts straight from all that annoying reality.
?otD: What do you think of Amazon's move with Macmillan?
1/30/2009
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
Hours slept: 7.5
This morning's weigh-in: 225.6
Currently reading: [between books]