Interesting Links for 15-6-2011

[andrewducker]

• Fixing New York's water pipes requires deep-diving systems. Damned impressive stuff.
  (tags: newyork usa water infrastructure diving)
• Chancellor Osborne backs ring-fencing of retail banks. About fucking time too.
  (tags: banking banks uk)
• Big drop in solar activity could mean much cooler Earth
  (tags: sun solar climate environment)
• Mexican Drug Lord Officially Thanks American Lawmakers for Keeping Drugs Illegal
  (tags: drugs usa law funny mexico)
• HTC Desire isn't get Android 2.3. Dammit.
  (tags: htc android mobile_phones)
• ALIGNMENT CHART! Game of Thrones, Season One. I love this show so much. Need mooooooore.
  (tags: GameOfThrones alignment awesome)
• Money can't buy happiness: Individualism a stronger predictor of well-being than wealth
  (tags: psychology happiness money)
• Strange things afoot at the North Pole.
  (tags: WTF usa chicken)
• Possibly the worst joke in the history of bad science-fiction jokes
  (tags: scifi writing jokes HarlanEllison)
• Price of electricity to rise further to cope with the problems caused by windfarms
  (tags: electricity wind renewables energy uk)
• Why do kids play music on the bus?
  (tags: music MobilePhones sodcasting)
• Creationists infiltrating into mainstream geology conferences
  (tags: creationism evolution religion christianity usa)

Comments

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

No, the worst joke in the history of bad science-fiction jokes is still Isaac Asimov's:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=feghoot (story quoted in full here)

[nmg.livejournal.com]

I disagree. "Sloane's teddy wins the race" and "Much adieu about nothing" are both equally bad.

[andrewducker]

I remember reading both of those when I was young. I think he warped my fragile little mind.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Sha Guido Gee is by far the worst of Asimov's joke stories (partly because it's SO LONG).

[kerrypolka.livejournal.com]

I agree with you!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, if they have sufficient infinite badness, they might not be comparable :)

[soon_lee]

Surely Roger Zelazny in "Lord of Light" trumps(sorry) them all?

[andrewducker]

Which bit? I'm trying to remember a terrible pun in it.

[soon_lee]

...then the fit hit the Shan...

[andrewducker]

You know, I completely failed to spot that, all of the several times I read it.

[andrewducker]

Asimov really was a master of this kind of thing.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I always thought the worst was Shah Guido G, or at least the most canonical (which has a wikipdia entry for crying out loud! :)) Now I check wikipedia, it makes somewhat more sense, as when I first read it, I had no idea "Waves" meant anything other than a name that sounded like "waves", and got tired of the incomprehensible names on the first page and (in retrospect fortunately) skipped to the end, but this meant I had the distinct impression he was using "waves" and "sank" metaphorically to mean "succumbed to innumerable enemies called waves" which is like... hardly a pun at all :)

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I was going to mention that one.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I'm already impatient to see season two of Game of Thrones and season one hasn't finished. New book soon!

[andrewducker]

I'm skipping the books until after I've seen the related TV series. I'm enjoying watching the series too much to want to skip ahead.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I've been reading the books since '99 -- you can imagine I'm more than a little impatient. (I still remember my surprise at reading the event which ended episode 9 -- worded to avoid spoilers in case you've not seen it).

[andrewducker]

I have done (but other readers might not have done). Sadly I was spoiled for said event, but other stuff has kept me on the edge of my seat very nicely.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Sadly I was spoiled for said event

Oh no! Best of luck keeping the next few spoiler free.

Incidentally, I've mentioned this elsewhere but perhaps not to you... I wonder what they'll do with the series if their rate of filming overtakes his rate of writing. He's written five since '96 (counting one to be released next year) and that's being generous since he started writing in '91. They could be in a position of having to film book 7 before it's written.

[andrewducker]

I am very curious about this. I think I posted something along those lines back when it started.

I suspect that they have either solid assurances that he's already written most of the other two books, and/oror permission to get ahead of him (and support in doing so). Otherwise the studio would hopefully have told them they couldn't take the risk.

Someone told me that he had a very specific problem that held up the last book for so long until he found a way out of it. He managed the first three books in 96/98/2000, so he managed to turn two of them out in two years each. It seems to have been trying to keep so many people moving in the right direction that then killed the next two books. Hopefully the final two are all downhill, with nothing big blocking the route!

[steer.livejournal.com]

It went to plan for books 1-3, one every two years. Book 4 was never intended to happen -- the intent was some kind of "five years later" device. However, after a year's work he decided he had to fill that gap. Book 4 then got so big that it could not be published in one volume so it was split by character and location with only half the characters from 1-3 appearing in 4, the other half will appear in 5. However there's an unexplained three year gap in the finishing of book 5 which some attribute to writer's block. Certainly he has been involved with many other projects in the meantime.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - if the only unexplainable delay is in that last chunk then we can just hope he doesn't hit another one like it.

He does seem pretty prolific in general, so hopefully it'll be ok.

I've heard rumours of books two and three taking up one and a half seasons each. But we'll see what they can cut out and still have it make sense.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I've heard rumours of books two and three taking up one and a half seasons each.

Interesting. I think also they will munge books 4 and 5 together in some way since I can't imagine TV viewers being sympathetic to "half the characters will not be in my favourite TV series for a whole series" and worse I think actors unpaid will go find something else.

However that adds two more series making it a nine year nine season deal. That's a lot of time, especially as you don't have the luxury to arbitrarily write characters out of the story -- if someone playing a character not scheduled to die until series 5 decides to head off after series 2 it's going to look a little odd. If several of them do it...

[andrewducker]

One can only hope that they thought about this before they started...

(I assume that most of them are tied into contracts for as many seasons as they are needed for - but tying people into nine-years would be darn near impossible.)

[steer.livejournal.com]

There's a saying from formula one which applies here -- a contract is simply a declaration of the amount of money you pay when you break the contract. That is you can always "break" the contract and pay the penalty if someone offers you sufficient financial motivation. There's an interesting incentives situation here -- the original team (or tv producer in this case) can offer you a contract where you have to pay $unreasonable to break it but your agent would be wise to counter-offer "well you'd better also be willing to pay $unreasonable in wages".

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

The next book has already been sent to the printers I am told. I imagine he probably had producers standing over him at the typewriter with whips to make damned sure the new Game Of Thrones novel was on bookshelves just as the first season of the tv series ended.

[steer.livejournal.com]

The next book (book 5) is out in less than a month. Books 6 and 7 though are still as far as I'm aware in extremely preliminary states. He's actually on LJ grrm so you can follow this stuff.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

And worth pointing out that he a) vets comments on his journal before they appear and b) is really strict about people who've read the books posting spoilers there for people who are just now watching the TV series. That means that Andrew, you could follow him on LJ without having to worry about being spoilered.

He's quite an interesting person to follow on LJ. He's certainly the only person on my friends list to be into both fantasy literature and the NFL draft!

[andrewducker]

I do follow him - largely because I noticed that he had such a policy!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Oh, and minature painting - he's into that too.

(Userpic is my painting of an old steward of the Night's Watch, in somewhat faded black robes.)

[andrewducker]

Very nice!

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

yeah,I find myself wishing I remembered less from the books...

[soon_lee]

According to GRRM, the TV series will not be completely faithful to the books.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Sure but would they "tack on" an ending and film before the books finish including possible spoilers?

[miramon.livejournal.com]

It's not *the* North Pole. It's just a place called 'North Pole'. It's still odd, but nothing like as odd.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

There's a north pole in London too... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pole_depot