- It’s the obvious joke, but you couldn’t pay me to watch Fox News. I’m dubious about the efficacy of any pay wall, much less one proposed by Rupert Murdoch. Heck, I was disturbed enough to learn that Bill O’Reilly was the recent Career Day Keynoter at my old high school. (He’s also an alum.) [via]
- Aw man. First Farrago’s Wainscot and now Jim Baen’s Universe. Sometimes, it can seem like not a day without another short fiction marketplace closing. Honestly, the main thing that keeps Kaleidotrope running (beyond my own enjoyment at putting it together) is me turning a blind eye to exactly how much each issue costs me. (It’s a couple hundred dollars, let’s say that. And that’s even though I pay my writers next to nothing.) Sad to see these two markets close.
- Still, here’s some good news: Scott Westerfeld’s terrific YA novel Uglies is now available as a free e-book. And non-US readers needn’t worry: though publisher asks for a US zipcode, as Westerfeld says, that’s really just five numbers.
- Generally, I like Richard Corliss (or have never really seen any reason to dislike him, in the few times I’ve run across his work), but he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about in his criticism of Netflix.
- And finally, although I can’t be at Worldcon, John Scalzi explains the Hugos.
Excellent. My teen years spent watching ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ have served me well: I have memorized at least one zip code.