Category: Reviews

Master parent category for all my reviews: books, movies, television shows, restaurants, products.

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/amazon-said-to-play-hardball-in-book-contract-talks-with-publishing-house-hachette/2014/05/16/cdd40854-dc62-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html

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

http://io9.com/recently-discovered-big-bang-smoking-gun-could-be-a-b-1575597952?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Just when I was getting used to the Big Bang theory being taken as fact by everyone.  Gotta love the scientific method.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

12 Things Only Music Majors Understand

Shout out to my daughter, who is wrapping up* her Masters in Vocal Performance this week.

I have one additional item to add to the list:  Vocal Performers must have an accompanist, which they pay for out of their own pockets.

And, rehearsals are required but again no credit hours applied.

* Update:  Rachelle passed her orals this morning!  Congratulations!

Tom J Martinez PhotoBlog: Blood Moon and Great Blue Heron

http://tomjmartinez.blogspot.com/2014/04/blood-moon-and-great-blue-heron_25.html?m=1

Fellow ASKC member and astrophotography Tom Martinez relates his recent adventures with the Blood Moon and Blue Heron.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Kirk Got Something Right

According to io9, Captain Kirk is right when it comes to diplomacy, despite (or because of) his bad press.

Kirk, in particular, comes in for a lot of bad press, as a captain whose life gets horizontal in ways that have nothing to do with gravitational anomalies.

Chortling aside, the article above had some interesting observations.  Enjoy!

The Red Knight by Miles Cameron (5 stars)

This us next up in my ebook reading queue, after I finish Red Seas Under Red Skies.  In the meantime, enjoy my uncle’s thoughts on The Red Knight by Miles Cameron, which also comes highly recommended by Stefan Raets at his Far Beyond Reality blog.