Editors are the unheralded people of the literary world, fashioning an author's avalanche of words into something saleable.
Then I found he published "Mirrorshades" cyberpunk anthology and edited Gregory Benford's "Timescape" and is therefore partially responsible for two literary artefacts that got me into SF.
Farewell, David, and thank you.
]]>It struck me sometimes that I was living in the same area as David Hartwell, just as I'd grown up not far from where Isaac Asimov was living. A major figure, and he'll be missed.
]]>41.
]]>Bezos's Blue Origin is a fake-out; it goes up to the notional "threshold" of space, 100,000 feet ... but never gets much above Mach 3, it's way slower than orbital velocity.
In contrast, SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage flyback happens around Mach 10 and the rest of the ship makes orbit, so it's the real deal. Also, SpaceX expect to re-fly a used first stage later this year -- it all depends on their flight schedule and the outcome of upcoming recovery attempts (that first stage they landed at the Cape in December is probably destined for the Smithsonian or another big ticket museum).
]]>To quote T'Pau: "I grieve with thee."
]]>Anyone here on Charlies Blog will have come upon expresions of lit Crit that said " This would have been a better BOOK if only a decent EDITOR had had INFLUENCE on .. insert Writer at this Point " Familiar? I came upon an instance when I was reading Jim Butchers NEW series .. Someone just has to mention BOOKS in this ever so short shuffle around ..Dare I Say ..type thread beyond the obvious Sympathy that we must always feel at the Death of the Friend of a Friend ..SO ..
Every time that yoou think that ..A Given Story would have been better if only a Decent Editor had intervened and Said - as Appropriate - It IS IT really ..IS!!! .. possible to have TOO MANY Cute but Ferocious CATS in a Story!!!
Someone may have been sufficiently Editorially POWERFUL to have said that in, say, ..
" (Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tor's Editorial Director, describes him as "our field's most consequential editor since John W. Campbell.") "
Way upon back then Campbell's day but here and Now? Maybe not now that Hartwell is dead.
WHO is going to curb our Host Charlies Natural Exuberance now that Hartwell has moved on ?
OH BUGGER!! as Death Might have said in the Pterry universes Personification of DEATH.
Ah, Well ... Mind How You Go David!
]]>My modest investment portfolio -- Hasty Scroll Back to insert that I will be 67 years of age by the end of this January -- consists of ..about one third Public Service pension - say £10,000 or so - my British State Pension - a bit below £8,000 - and ..this is the significant bit ..the income from my British Government ISA Tax Shelter - also called a stocks and shares ISA - the US of A s citizens have a rough equivalent of the same sort of investment fund.
So ..that private fund is the important thing.I recently learned that a Canadian Public Service Pension Fund is suspected of being in the early stages of making a substantial investment in a British Utility Company that I have a Modest investment in.
Beyond that, a ..well do your own research into just Who owns the British Utility Northumbrian Water ..as a Hint ?
Read this ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northumbrian_Water_Group
and ..
So, " Bezos's Blue Origin is a fake-out; it goes up to the notional "threshold" of space, 100,000 feet ... but never gets much above Mach 3, it's way slower than orbital velocity. "
Agreed, but the fact is that the finance to fund such an Enterprise goes beyond the Bezos ambition -- HA! Could he take his Money with him when he goes off to Mars? -- to retire to the Great Beyond and Prove that, " You Cant Take it With You When You GO " is not in fact TRUE.
I don't write off the Nation States ability to confiscate Private Oligarchs "Personal" fortunes and conspire with other Nation States to do the same ..nor should you.
Maybe Bezos can maintain his interest whilst he lives and breaths but ? ...
Did HE take it with him when he went?
International Finance is a great deal more complicated than we would wish or desire should be the case.
I lost about £20, 000 in the past couple of weeks in my ISA...Oops! LOOK, got some of it back yesterday ..hows about that then?
Oh, Well, you got to Laff don't you?
]]>It appears to have either mutated or started to spread more rapidly ( known sine the 1950's in parts of Africa, apparently. It WILL re-spread back to Africa & the Far East, after this year's Olympic Fiasco. Remember some of us are going on about not just "too much Carbon" but also "too many people" ??? Could this be a "natural" (as in the Black Death was a natural event ) Err "solution" to the problem? Please note I am making no moral judgements, merely noting that a potentially population-reducing disease is on the loose.
]]>I'd also recommend reading Hot Earth Dreams if you want my take on it. It's a bit too long to post here.
One thing to note is that it's perfectly normal to worry about whether this year's new disease is The Big One. Wasn't it Ebola last year? In any case, they generally aren't, at least until they are. Regardless, I'm somewhat mildly more worried about MERS right now than Zika, but then again, I'm not pregnant.
]]>Oh, well the Daily Heil hasn't thought of this one yet.
Are WE downhearted?
]]>I must admit that Mmy most recent thoughts of him were in conteast to the perpetrators of the Late Hugo Unpleasantness, in that he was an object of their opprobrium both for his viewpoints and for putting the lue to the notion that those solely determined whom he would assist.
]]>Clumsiness and bad vision can imitate illiteracy.
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