It's been a very, very slow day. Made some inroads on the massive sleep debt I accrued over the week but there's a long way to go yet. I had intended to do laundry and pick up some groceries but never made it out the door... the sudden weather change into the high-20s to low-30s made me too sluggish and the feet are hurting. But the last of the unpacking's done, at least. And I finally saw The Watchmen...

A james_nicoll -style question: What are some works of speculative fiction in which rule-breakers become rule-enforcers? That is, clever people who subvert the system are seen as so smart and capable that the system then opens up to include them, which is generally seen by the rule-breakers as a positive sort of recognition rather than as coopting or head-patting. There's often a suggestion...

(Title swiped from james_nicoll , link from a couple of sources, including drelmo .) Trent Reznor, the man behind Nine Inch Nails, has a blog post on how to build a reputation and a revenue stream as a new musician . He takes for granted, and states explicitly, that "music IS free whether you want to believe that or not", and any approach to making a living as a musician must take...

Now I want a "Pixel-stained technopeasant corn" userpic. Also, a letter. To: author@pauldifilippo.com Re: Declining your kind invitation Hi Paul, Thanks again for the invitation you extended at Readercon for me and my partner Josh to visit you in Providence. As I told you then, I've never been there and was looking forward to finding a good weekend to go up, see the town, and hang out with you...

From via james_nicoll .

...now that Walter Cronkite has died, Time magazine asks: "Who is America's most trusted newscaster?" The answer will probably horrify the leader. Via james_nicoll .

Astronomer Franck Marchis talks about the thing that hit Jupiter (seen via selidor commenting on james_nicoll 's LJ).

Total comments: 2203 1 jack_ryder 448 2 murasaki_1966 372 3 mrteufel 201 4 ashamel 147 5 kalenture 121 6 Anonymous 100 7 gillpolack 93 8 ferkster 70 9 capnoblivious 69 10 catsparx 68 11 chrisbarnes 62 12 iwoolf...

Looks like something crashed into Jupiter again this morning. Wonder how many of these we've missed due to nobody looking at the right moment (and no big buildup like the breakapart of Shoemaker-Levy to attract attention). Info noted from james_nicoll 's LJ - the conversation over there contains some interesting links.

Thanks to james_nicoll for reminding us that today is the 33rd anniversary of Viking 1 's landing on Mars.