Monthly Archives: July 2017

So, Healthcare, 7/28/17

Some various thoughts on where things are today: 1. Hooray for senators Murkowski and Collins and McCain, and also every single Democratic senator for knocking back this bullshit that was so egregious that they literally had to take the vote in the middle of the night because it couldn’t stand up to scrutiny in the […]

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The Big Idea: Adam Christopher

Congratulations! Your book was a success! Now do that trick a second time! In discussing Killing is My Business, author Adam Christopher talks about doing the thing that you did so well all over again — but different this time. ADAM CHRISTOPHER: You know how it goes, the difficult second album: a band spends years […]

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A Note on Trump’s Proposed Ban of Transgender People in the Military

Leaving aside everything else that is wrong and immoral about this proposed ban, at the moment there are something like 11,000 trans people currently serving openly in the US services and reserves. They are there legally, and it is currently their right to serve openly. Trump’s ban, at first glance, appears to take away their […]

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Is This The End of Our Hero, Coke Zero, Part II: The Zeroening

Coke announced today that it’s rebranding Coke Zero to “Coke Zero Sugar”: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is the new and improved Coke Zero. We’ve made the great taste of Coke Zero even better by optimizing the unique blend of flavors that gave Coke Zero its real Coca-Cola taste. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is our best-tasting zero-sugar Coca-Cola […]

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The Big Idea: Vivian Shaw

Monsters are monsters, but do they always have to be so… monstrous? Vivian Shaw considers the fundamental nature of these terrible creatures in Strange Practice, and how she came to look at them from another angle entirely. VIVIAN SHAW: What’s my big idea? The facile answer is, of course, sensible monsters. An idea which doesn’t […]

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The Big Idea: Tal M. Klein

Teleportation: A great idea, but with some practical… problems. It’s a physics thing. In this Big Idea for The Punch Escrow, author Tal M. Klein wonders, what if you could solve those problems, not with physics, but with another branch of human intellectual endeavor entirely? TAL M. KLEIN: F#*%ing transporters, how do they work? It […]

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My Morning in My Bedroom With Strange Men, a Tale From Twitter

It begins thusly: Men in my bedroom. With drills. — John Scalzi (@scalzi) July 24, 2017 Bedroom update: Now we have brought in the vacuum. The sucking has begun. — John Scalzi (@scalzi) July 24, 2017 Bedroom update: Things that had been previously wrapped in plastic have been unwrapped. — John Scalzi (@scalzi) July 24, […]

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Agent to the Stars, 20 Years On

So, on July 21, 1997, which was a Monday, I posted the following on the alt.society.generation-x newsgroup: Thought y’all might like to know. I’m happy, pleased, tired. 96,098 words, cranked out in a little under three months, working mostly on weekends, grinding out 5,000 words at a sitting. Learned two things: a) I *can* carry […]

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The Big Idea: Nat Segaloff

When biographer and historian Nat Segaloff sat down to interview science fiction Grand Master Harlan Ellison for his new book A Lit Fuse, he knew that he was in for a challenge. What surprised him about the process was how much it wasn’t just about Ellison, but also about him. NAT SEGALOFF: How do you […]

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The Big Idea: Cassandra Khaw

Identity issues can sometimes be a bear, as the protagonist of Bearly a Lady finds out — in no small part because author Cassandra Khaw experienced something similar in her real life. CASSANDRA KHAW: The first time I came out as bisexual to a partner, it was a mess. What was a passably tolerable relationship […]

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