More observations on failing the Bechdel Test.
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Category: Books
Includes all types of publications: books (hardcovers, trade paperback, mass market paperbacks, ebooks, magazines, graphic novels)
Why The Bechdel Test Is More Important Than You Realize
http://io9.com/why-the-bechdel-test-is-more-important-than-you-realize-1586135613
So much of what I watch or read fails the Bechdel test. I overlook or forgive some of it. If not, you’ll hear about it here.
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What the Hell Are Tachyons?
Ah yes! Got my math fix for the day AND a side of string theory.
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Movie Review: Godzilla (2014) – 3.5 stars
Watched opening weekend (May 17, 2014)
My husband and I watched Godzilla on opening weekend at our favorite local movie theater, taking advantage of their VIP seating. One recent change to their pricing has me a bit rumbled. The Legends 14 Theater’s matinee pricing stops at 4:00 p.m. now, instead of the traditional 5:00 p.m. This means the main attraction, like Godzilla, only has one matinee per day in the large screen theater. I prefer matinees more for the time slots than the cost savings (since I’m paying extra for VIP service anyway), but still. Irksome.
I had read a couple of reviews before deciding to watch this movie in theaters. I have many fond memories of Godzilla week on the local Kansas City television stations in the 70s. I’d come home from school and the after school movies would feature Godzilla classics from the 50s and 60s. My forty-year foggy memory doesn’t recall much of the plots, but I do remember them being entertaining.
This latest iteration of Godzilla took me a bit by surprise. Continue reading “Movie Review: Godzilla (2014) – 3.5 stars”
ASOD: Phases of the Moon
Beautiful sketch work in this Astronomy Sketch of the Day posting from this past Sunday:
Moon; full moon facing, two views of dark side.
Sketch was made in my studio.
2009; published on album cover for jazz band Four, 2009
Graphite on archival paper.
Visit the Astronomy Sketch of the Day website for more great astronomical sketches.
This year’s best meteor shower prepares to take center stage | Astronomy.com
This year’s best meteor shower prepares to take center stage | Astronomy.com.
Debris from an obscure comet could light up the sky with 100 or more meteors per hour the night of May 23/24.
Astronomers expect the shower to peak sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. EDT the morning of May 24 (11 p.m. to 1 a.m. PDT). This timing works perfectly for observers in the United States and southern Canada. For the best views, find an observing site far from city lights. Light pollution brightens the sky and washes out fainter meteors, lessening the shower’s impact.
The weather forecast for Lansing is dismal. Cloudy Friday and Saturday, thunderstorms predicted. Unless I want to take a long long drive somewhere, I won’t get a chance to see this new meteor shower.
Hope you have better luck in your neck of the woods!
Amazon said to play hardball in book contract talks with publishing house Hachette – The Washington Post
Quotes/Excerpts:
What makes the dispute between Amazon and Hachette different is that Amazon’s tactics have no obvious consumer benefit, a key antitrust consideration.
The group “deplores any attempt by any party that would seek to injure and punish innocent authors — and their innocent readers — in order to pursue its position in a business dispute. We believe that such actions are analogous to hostage-taking to extort concessions, and are just as indefensible.” — Gail Hochman, president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives
What kind of entity in a competitive market would willfully drive customers into the arms of its competitors unless it believes it doesn’t really have any competitors? Can you imagine Best Buy refusing to deliver for a period of weeks what’s available from its competitors? But Amazon behaves as though they’re the only game in town. And increasingly they are. It’s a head-scratcher why anyone with regulatory authority would tolerate it. If this is not an example of untoward power, I don’t know what is. — Scott Turow, a Hachette author and former president of the Authors Guild and a lawyer.
As a reader, I enjoy low prices but I don’t want prices so low that the authors finally decide it’s not worth it and quit writing.
Maitz on Art Pact: “On Fantasy Publishing, and Negotiating Contracts”
Don Maitz, a renowned (and one of my favorite) fantasy and maritime artist, wrote an excellent article over at Art Pact. This paragraph especially caught my eye:
So that being said, most producers of a product want to see a fair profit for everyone involved in their production line. Things get dicey when the financial bottom line takes precedent over content and when a legal department does it’s job too well. In Ian Ballantine’s day, as many artists such as I remember, the company, be it a publishing house or gaming company, was answerable to the president who made ultimate decisions on the products they chose and how they were to be conceived and marketed. These self owned enterprises were able to go out on a limb to try something on their own. Today, such companies are owned by corporations that also own many other companies in the Entertainment industry and the person that makes the bulk of the important decisions is now the accountant, as the quarterly bottom line that is fed to the corporate board and stockholders sets the guidelines. Profit over content is something that publishers are struggling with and I believe is the core issue of why this website was established.
— Don Maitz, “On Fantasy Publishing, and Negotiating Contracts“, Art Pact (May 2014)
Recently Discovered Big Bang “Smoking Gun” Could Be A Bust
Just when I was getting used to the Big Bang theory being taken as fact by everyone. Gotta love the scientific method.
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Hey Star Wars — Where the Hell Are the Women?
Once again half the population is dismissed. Epic fail Star Wars!
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