Counterintelligence for Social Media

Reader Bradford C. Walker passes along a wealth of timely and important information about how organized groups manipulate social media and its users. This link from Cryptome came across my Twitter feed late last night, and when I looked at it I knew that this post was to come.  I…
October 30, 20152 Comments

Eyewitness to PNH Outburst Refutes CHORF Cover Story

This blog's regular readers may recall Tor Science Fiction Manager Patrick Nielsen Hayden's unprofessional outburst in response to my editor's appeal for reconciliation at this year's Hugo Awards. Now, more than three weeks after the fact, Teresa Nielsen Hayden emerges with a markedly (and conveniently) different version of events. Lamplighter's…
September 15, 2015

New Statement on the Hugo Data from Sasquan

Cathy Mullican sends this new reply to my demand that Sasquan follow the non-binding resolution passed at this year's business meeting and release the Hugo Award nominating data. The nominating and voting statistics are available from http://www.thehugoawards.org/content/pdf/2015HugoStatistics.pdf -- this is the data that has been released by every Worldcon since…
September 10, 2015
Hugo Committee Reneges on Resolution to Release Data

Hugo Committee Reneges on Resolution to Release Data

In a move that's par for the course in this drama-fraught Hugo Awards season, the Sasquan committee has announced their intention not to follow through on a non-binding resolution to release anonymized data pertaining to the 2015 award nominations. Back at Sasquan, the BM passed a non-binding resolution to request…
September 8, 2015
Amazon Stumbles Over Parody Book

Amazon Stumbles Over Parody Book

Regular visitors to this blog will have noticed my generally favorable disposition toward Amazon. I consider it a public service to refute the deceptive zombie memes spread by Amazon's less scrupulous detractors. These actions are rooted in my commitment to support what's best for readers and authors. In most cases…
September 4, 2015

I’m Boycotting Tor Books

I've had misgivings about Peter Grant's boycott of Tor Books. To be sure, I was sympathetic toward the targets of Tor Art Director Irene Gallo's libel against thousands of SF fans and at least three of her own publishing house's writers. But I abstained from boycotting Tor because of the…
August 25, 20152 Comments
Trad Publishing Has Forever Beclowned the Hugos

Trad Publishing Has Forever Beclowned the Hugos

This past Saturday in Spokane, the 2015 Hugo Awards were presented to the authors of the finest sci-fi and fantasy tales of the year, based solely on the merits of their work. OK. Sorry. Keyboard-shaking spasms of laughter are making it impossible to keep up the pretense. I'll start again.…
August 24, 2015
Millennials Don’t Live in America

Millennials Don’t Live in America

We talk about generations as if they're clearly defined categories, but in reality the gaps between generational cohorts are pretty ambiguous. Because I straddle the line between Generation X and the Millennial Generation, and my parents are Baby Boomers, my perspective on current intergenerational conflicts is as close to objective…
August 11, 2015

The Tunnel of Indoctrination Indubitably

I recently had the displeasure of learning that Bradley University, my alma mater, will be hosting an "interactive event"/propagandistic carnival attraction called the Tunnel of Oppression. The production is staged by the campus Office of Multicultural Student Services, who claim that it "...highlights contemporary issues of oppression in a creative…
October 29, 2014