Then behold! I am on a new server. The real question is: Do my posts show up in RSS again, or am I still relegated to headline only.

This week’s column was ridiculous fun to write. I looked at fantasy revolutions and made up holidays for them to celebrate in 233 years.

July 4 means different things to different people: fireworks, barbecue, a day off from work. But the founders weren’t thinking about any of that in 1776. They were readying for war — an eight-year struggle of which we mark only a turning point. What turning points might some of our fantasy heroes celebrate, some 233 years after their revolutions?

via AMC – Blogs – SciFi Scanner – Mary Robinette Kowal – Fantasy Revolutions That Make for Fantastic Holidays.

Forgive me for squeeing all over myself but I’ve been reading Asimov’s since I was a teen and I just had just had the dream experience. I went into the bookstore and bought a copy of the magazine with my name on the cover. My name. On the cover of Asimov’s. It’s my first sale to the magazine, which is cool enough but didn’t know until I went in that I’d made the cover.

And then! I got home tonight and Lois Tilton at IROSF reviewed the August Asimov’s today. She gave my story, “The Consciousness Problem” a RECOMMENDED.

This is a poignant and sensitive look at problems of identity and relationships, as well as scientific ethics. Elise’s mental lapses are particularly well done. The characters have clearly not thought through the implications of their project.

Swooning. I’m swooning here.

So, I was watching this video about Disney’s Imagineers making an animatronic figure of Obama for the Disney Hall of Presidents.  When Obama is recording his speech to the microphone, I couldn’t help but watch his hands and think that it was terrible puppetry technique.

And this is the real man.

If it were a puppet, I’d smack the puppeteer and tell them that the gestures were meaningless and to stop them.

via The White House.