Space Dust!

Science Project / By /

The WaPo covers a little probe that could:

Like a hummingbird hovering over a tantalizing blossom, a small but virtuoso Japanese spacecraft is poised to touch down in the coming days on the surface of an asteroid 180 million miles away, stir up a small cloud of dust and gather in a sample.

Barring a mishap, Hayabusa, or "Falcon," is expected to make two and possibly three touch-and-goes on the asteroid Itokawa, then return to Earth with a tenth of an ounce of asteroid dust.

If it succeeds, Hayabusa will be the first spacecraft to land on a celestial body and bring something back from it since U.S. astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt collected samples from the moon during the last Apollo lunar mission, in 1972.

Someone please arrange for Shonen Knife to do a song called "Hayabusa." Thank you.

Updated: Terrible Shonen Knife news. Drummer China Nishiura killed in a car accident. So very sad.

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If You’re In the Neighborhood…

1 Comment / Books / By /

Go to this reading tonight:

MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS Tuesday, November 8th at 7 p.m.

Kelly Link continues to cement her reputation as one of the most inventive short fiction authors writing today. Her new collection, Magic For Beginners has been critically acclaimed for its imagination and verve. One of her stories is included in Best American Short Stories 2005 edited by Michael Chabon. Kelly will read with Maureen McHugh, whose collection Mothers and Other Monsters was a BookSense choice in August and Dan Chaon, author of You Remind Me of Me.

Mac’s Backs ~ Books on Coventry
1820 Coventry Road Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118
216-321-2665

Reminder via Darby.

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World Fantasy Award Winners

Scientifiction / By /

With all thanks to Cheryl at Emerald City (who has the most excellent details and is blogging live):

 

Special Award, Non-Professional: Robert Morgan for Sarob Press.

Special Award, Professional: S.T. Joshi.

Best Artist: John Picacio.

Best Collection: Margo Lanagan for Black Juice.

Best Anthology: Acquainted with the Night (Barbara and Christopher Roden) AND Dark Matter (Sheree R. Thomas).

Best Short Story: Margo Lanagan, “Singing My Sister Down” from Black Juice.

Best Novella: Michael Shea, “The Growlimb” from F&SF.

Best Novel: Susanna Clarke for Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

Life Achievement Awards: Carol Emshwiller and Tom Doherty.

Reaction? Go Picacio (!) and Margo Lanagan (two times over, yay!) and Susanna Clarke and Carol Emswhiller! Wow — what a great list of honorees! Well done, judges.

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Field Trip

2 Comments / Nattering / By /

Dscf0065We took advantage of some unbelievably lovely weather and a pending homework assignment (on C’s part) today to visit Blue Licks State Park and the fabulous Pioneer Museum. Christopher has a scene-setting post. I have to tell you that the museum is A Land That Time Forgot and full of really weird things*. I took pictures of most of them.

Go see in the Ye Olde Museum Day photo album.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to snap the little old lady who was staffing the place — who gave us some extremely cursory facts about the place and was very concerned that we might miss the basement — napping peacefully in a chair in the gift shop. (Full disclosure: Yes, there was a moment when I thought she might be dead. But I swear I didn’t even think of taking a photo until I heard her breathing.) She woke up with some chagrin, spouting something about Daniel Boone at Christopher.

Oh, and if you’re into giant sloths, there’s something special for you.

*Not said lightly.

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You Mean It’s Not Reality?

TV Goodness / By /

The NYT examines the real world of modeling in light of the fantasy version on the completely addictive ANTM:

There are a few good, simple reasons why the competitors on "America’s Next Top Model" will not become America’s next top model, insiders say. For starters they are generally too old to succeed in a field where much of the talent, like the current teenage Australian star Gemma Ward, is recruited out of middle school, explained Cathy Gould, the director of Elite models. And even though, by ordinary standards, the bodies of cast members on the reality show are unobjectionable, they are too plump to succeed in a business where eating disorders are no hindrance to success. In an ironic way, though, the most serious strike against the women may be, like their beauty itself, an unalterable accident of birth. They are American. "You just can’t sell an American model right now because editors completely don’t appreciate them," explained James Scully, a casting agent responsible for discovering many of the quirky, provocative sexpots who helped mold the image of Gucci during the stellar Tom Ford years. "Americans are just not in."

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I Loved It

Uncategorized / By /

Charles Taylor on Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the NYT:

It’s amusing to hear people claim Ms. Jolie has a limited range or bemoan her choice of projects when the sheer, breathtaking, abundant fact of her is the embodiment of everything that draws us to movies in the first place. To announce that you prefer Joan Allen or Laura Linney is to reveal that in your fantasy life, you’re Ashley Wilkes.

(Stolen entirely from the wiley Cinetrix.)

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NaDruWriNi No. 5, or Night Night

1 Comment / NaDruWriNi / By /

Yeah, so I’m entirely too tired to persevere. Instead, I think I’ll read The Queen of Cool (yay!). One minor mystery solved though. In rewatching the third ep of Veronica Mars from this season, the one with the bizarre "Love Hurts" interlude, I realized the answer to exactly who the singer was would no doubt be on the interweb. The Mars Investigations glossary yielded the following answer:

Karaoke singer who bears an uncanny resemblance to the lead singer of the Dandy Warhols. He rains on Lars’s parade and alludes to Veronica’s romantic woes by reminding the patrons of the Hut that "LoVe Love Hurts." His appearance is not short and sweet to the soul in 2.03 Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang. Played by Courtney Taylor.

So, there you go. Night, night.

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NaDruWriNi No. 4, or Ballads

12 Comments / NaDruWriNi / By /

In my possession is a book I love, plucked from the Discard Pile (in fact, DISCARD is written in bold black along the edge of the pages and in the front and back covers): Ballads of Old New York by Arthur Guiterman (also author of The Mirthful Lyre). It’s full of all sorts of good stuff, but I offer you something from the Revolutionary War period. Behind the cut.

…

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