Thinking before you speak

I don't know how many of you have been following the Amazon vs MacMillan nonsense over the weekend... probably the best link round ups I've seen were on Making light: before and after. ( a brief outline of Amazon vs how the publishing industry works )

Whatever side of this you're on, pricing-wise, DRM-wise, whatever, the upsetting part is that in the middle of ordinary negotiations, Amazon up and said "Oh, we can't deal with this!" and pulled from sale every single title published by MacMillan. This is at least the third or fourth time they've used a similar tactic, generally over a weekend so that the customers start screaming about it before anyone can officially do anything. And ultimately, it's the authors who have been published by the "big evil publishing company" and the readers who want to buy their books who suffer from nonsense like this. I... have been reading mostly people's articles, and avoiding the commentary, but what I'm seeing is a whole lot of people explaining how the publishing industry works in response to angry reactions against authors whose works they can't obtain. Which is downright ridiculous.

I had a conversation with a one-time friend a few months ago, which went somewhat thus:

him: How's it going? What's new with you?
me: Well, I'm volunteering at the Aquarium...
him: Oh? And what's that like?
me: [two sentence description]
him: So, does that take up all your time?
me: No, it's once a week.
him: Oh, so what else are you doing?
me: Well, I'm writing a novel. [It was November. I hold it to be self-evident that anyone who has known me for a few years and pays any attention knows that I'll be writing a novel in November.]
him: Oh, and have you got a publisher lined up for that?

And then he smirked at me and walked off before I could decide whether I wanted to punch him for belittling my choice of lifestyle (we've had conversations before that make it clear he thinks all adults should make enough money to support themselves, which admittedly I haven't since 2003) or for disparaging me without having the faintest idea how the publishing industry works. 'Cause there ain't no publisher in the world who's going to pay an unknown writer for an unfinished first novel.

Oh, and a commentary on Amazon's public statement upon backing down, as through all this they've been trying to paint themselves as consumer-advocates. I found it amusing, at any rate.

Silly links & pretty pictures:

I think I've mentioned before that I tend to build up a vast number of open browser tabs and windows, and what with the last week of too cold to sit still for long periods of time, the things I was sort of thinking of passing on has gotten kind of silly. I just closed about half of them, but here goes:

Apocalypse mis-fires from one of the Making Light open threads, although the good bit was the beginning: An Assyrian clay tablet dating to around 2800 B.C. bears the inscription: “Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”

Possible diamond oceans on some of the larger planets

Railway systems mapped by slime molds. Strange, and oddly fascinating.

A review that actually made me think I might want to go see Avatar... long & high spoiler density, but potentially of interest to anyone wanting post-movie analysis.

"Secret Cities of Yemen" Actually, I'm not entirely clear what's secret about them, but amazing desert architecture nonetheless. Somewhat reminiscent of the ruins at Wupatki National Monument in Arizona, but far more so, and with lovely Muslim-world architecture.

And then in China, a natural world equivalent... It's like Devil's Tower, only huge and with trees. I want to write about a place like this, but everyone would think I was making it up.