So much for affirmative action.

I think as of today I've peaked professionally - this afternoon I was called upon to create signage for porta-potties.

I asked how many units were being rented, and when I discovered that they had three on order, well, it just seemed sensible to me to be fully prepared.  Alas, it would seem that employment equity only goes so far... or perhaps more accurately, just not that far.

- Sid 

(April 13th update:  I'm sorry, if you thought this was just silly, well, obviously you've never met me in person.)

NADA.

And now, an update from our Science correspondent:

From: Donovan Hides
Sent: April-04-12 7:50 AM
To: Sid Plested
Subject: Dark Matter

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46942006/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Interesting news article and video to support….I think the message here is that NASA has spent billions of dollars…not found a damn thing…and they are excited about it.

- Donovan

I feel like I should come to NASA's defense and make a case for exclusion being an important part of the scientific process, but really, Donovan does pretty much sum it up.

- Sid

"Done well enough for the genre."

In science fiction, sometimes it seems that so long as it's science fiction at all, the fans will love it - briefly; therefore the publishers will put it in print - briefly; therefore the writer is likely to settle for doing much less than his best. The mediocre and the excellent are praised alike by afficionados, and ignored alike by outsiders.

- Ursula K. LeGuin, A Citizen of Mondath

In response to Laurie's guest posting regarding suspension of disbelief, I'd like to suggest that when she comments that The Immortals was "done well enough for the genre", she may have put her finger on the real problem without noticing.

One of the great problems that has plagued fantasy and science fiction over the years is that the desire of fans for content has often resulted in the acceptance of lower quality.  For a long time, in many ways it was a self-fulfilling prophecy - science fiction and fantasy were ghettoized by the mainstream, and as such it was taken as a given that as long as a story had enough rocket ships and aliens, or castles and elves, that was all that was necessary.  After all, it wasn't like they were legitimate stories, you know, actual stories about real life - why would they have to be well-written?

I think that things have improved over time, and that both science fiction and fantasy have matured, but sadly I suspect that it's easier to get backing for a bad special effects movie than a bad dramatic film, and there's obviously a large market for recycled assembly-line genre novels.  When Laurie asks what people expect when watching a fantasy movie, she suggests entertainment, amusement and escape - it says a lot that quality wasn't the first thing that came to mind.

- Sid