tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:36:27 +0000http://rifters.com/real/crawl.htmnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)Blogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-4578274266179583676Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:37:00 +00002009-01-24T17:42:06.368-05:00miscwriting newsRegular visitors to rifters.com know that most of the stuff I've ever published is freely available in a variety of e-formats on this site (and on some others). I'm a bit worried that this may not be a sustainable approach over the long haul (especially in times of global economic meltdown), but so far the counterintuitive-yet-undeniable truth is that going the Creative Commons route has only http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/rip-off-alert.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-7453736417961799589Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:32:00 +00002009-01-23T12:23:52.038-05:00miscAnyone out there know someone in Toronto with a used treadmill (or elliptical trainer, I guess) to unload for a reasonable price? I can always go the Craigslist route, but I'd rather do business with someone one of you folks personally vouched for. It's important to have someone other than me to blame, in the event I get hosed. Anyone?http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/and-now-for-word-from-our-sponsor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-8899298124177959652Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:24:00 +00002009-01-21T09:52:33.105-05:00rantsciliticsIt's pretty hard to escape a feeling of pervasive optimism today. We have witnessed perhaps the first-ever presidential inaugural address to contain the phrase "data and statistics". We heard Obama add "nonbelievers" to the usual Christian-Jew-Muslim litany trotted out in deference to the diversity of the melting pot. We heard the most powerful noncorporate person on the planet speak of http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/ogling-obama-defending-dubya.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-5084429280132408819Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:54:00 +00002009-01-20T19:20:36.061-05:00Dumbspeechwriting newsIn this particular business, the standard components of a novel pitch are the first three chapters plus two, maybe three pages of synopsis for the rest of the story. The pitch I just sent to my agent— the latest iteration thereof, at least— contains 36 pages of prose; 27 pages of "synopsis"; a two-page bullet-pointed executive summary of thematic arguments; and proposed jacket text, to be http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/consider-yourselves-lucky.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-5423900955465013628Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:28:00 +00002009-01-09T19:31:04.070-05:00miscwhingeTendonitis, they tell me: chronic, and calcified, and apparently dating from the time I dislocated my shoulder while surf-kayaking in 1991. Now, after almost two decades of peaceful dormancy the fucker decides to wake up and turn me into the One-Armed Wonder throughout the holidays— apparently provoked by too many lame-ass bench presses and one catalytic arm-flail while avoiding a faceplant on http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/i-hate-new-normal.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-6338862258494428306Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:28:00 +00002009-01-09T19:13:10.470-05:00biologyneurosentience/cognitionMost of you probably know about Turing machines: hypothetical gizmos built of paper punch-tape, read-write heads, and imagination, which can — step by laborious step — emulate the operation of any computer. And some of you may be old enough to remember the Sinclair ZX-80— a sad little personal computer so primitive that it couldn't even run its video display and its keyboard at the same time (http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/iterating-towards-bethlehem.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-4144850069639843993Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:56:00 +00002009-01-03T20:04:52.622-05:00riftersdeep seaSome of you may remember this scene at the very end of Starfish — the moment when the chrysalis splits open and Lenie Clarke Mk 2 emerges to wreak vengeance on the world: A slender, translucent tentacle wraps softly around her wrist. It fades away into a distance utterly black to most, slate gray to Lenie Clarke. She brings it to her. Its swollen tip fires sticky threads at her fingers. She http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/picture-worth-178-words.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-5325791136858567726Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:43:00 +00002009-01-03T12:55:55.505-05:00rantscilitics...Not with a Bang but with a Rant. Christmastime in the Watts household has always been a time for impotent fury. It is a time to reconnect with old friends seen only during this special season, career biologists who stuck it out and stayed the course and got good steady jobs at universities and federal labs. It is a time to be reminded anew of the price these people pay for their steady http://rifters.com/real/2009/01/this-is-way-year-begins.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-7439167276813563862Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:32:00 +00002008-12-26T12:38:25.880-05:00misc Just for the next little while I'm commandeering the 'crawl for social event planning, since not everyone is on facebook and I don't have the time to set up an actual forum. I assure you this will not become a habit. Local real estate values will be restored shortly. In the meantime, though, this is how the next few days are looking: Dec 27, noon through whenever: "Cowboy Bebop" (brought to http://rifters.com/real/2008/12/squiddance-08-big-green-big-screen.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-284065827398132988Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:30:00 +00002008-12-24T10:36:52.242-05:00writing newsSorry for the extended silence. Sorry also for the preponderance of personal over sciencey news lately, despite the many and varied worldchanging links you've been sending to get me back on the track (this recent study, for instance, which details a case of blindsight so extreme even I had to read it twice. Which is about once for every ten of you who forwarded the link.) Don't expect much to http://rifters.com/real/2008/12/crisis-what-crisis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-6302986979764664920Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:55:00 +00002008-12-07T14:22:03.396-05:00writing newsblindsightFirst up we have Alejandro Terán's Alienesque cover for the Spanish edition of Blindsight, coming out, oh, I don't know, probably next year sometime. Next we have Franz Vohwinkel's cover for the German mass-market edition of βehemoth (thanks to "Useless Surfer" for pointing it out), which is evidently being called "Waves" over in Deutschland. And finally, an unknown artist's cover for Prime's http://rifters.com/real/2008/12/cornucopia-of-covers-call-out-for-cash.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-4951095516856339476Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +00002008-12-06T11:20:26.337-05:00ink on artblindsightIt's credibility of a sort, I guess. The Sydney Morning Herald has just published a John Birmingham piece which jumps off from the teenybopper suckfest "Twilight" to dip its toes in the whole pop-culture vampire mystique. And what should appear, mixed in with all the Buffy and True Blood callouts, but a whole paragraph devoted to the vampires of Blindsight: In author Peter Watts's hard-science http://rifters.com/real/2008/12/high-concept-low-brow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-1331871679099628125Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +00002008-12-02T17:14:24.074-05:00miscink on artOf course she had me before she even appeared on stage, before we froze our asses off in the wind and freezing rain waiting for the doors to open, before I ever heard "Astronaut". She had me months before she dedicated "Oasis" (the peppiest date-rape-and-abortion song evar) to Sarah Palin. She probably owned me from the moment I first heard the Dresden Dolls' "Sex Changes" last spring, a song Ihttp://rifters.com/real/2008/12/i-would-kill-for-amanda-palmer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-490502195446694242Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:26:00 +00002008-11-29T11:48:26.109-05:00miscAt least, that is evidently the opinion of the net nanny at the Marriott Residence Inn, Woodlands, TX— which, Madeline tells me, blocks access to the 'crawl because it is "harmful to children". Certainly we appear to get under the skin of some folks, judging by the bleats of outrage that pop up in the comments now and then. The occasional post may have ticked off a parent or two. But harmful http://rifters.com/real/2008/11/welcome-to-pedo-central.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-31722763202537206Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:45:00 +00002008-11-28T10:19:34.370-05:00deep seaFrom the outline for Intelligent Design, a near-future Crichtonesque (except, you know, well-written) novel currently languishing on my back burner: Nate Hochachka arrives on Baffin Island under complete news blackout. He has no idea why CSIS wants him here: he's freshly-minted faculty at the University of British Columbia, still paying off his student loans and trying to come to terms with thehttp://rifters.com/real/2008/11/perdido-sub-station.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-1268796348485829017Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:41:00 +00002008-11-27T21:12:39.541-05:00ink on artpublic interfacesciliticsThank you all, for your thoughts on the best Hollywood faces to graft onto my characters. There are some great suggestions there; some head-slappingly perfect, some popular but utterly mysterious (Ellen Page as Lenie? What am I missing?), and some of limited utility but nonetheless entertaining. I will steal shamelessly from you all. But in the meantime there's this other thing I have to do http://rifters.com/real/2008/11/homework.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-2761598371770277369Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:04:00 +00002008-11-20T12:27:31.446-05:00miscwriting newsCalling out for some suggestions here. I seem to be juggling a small spate of interviews/online discussions at the moment, one of which is a long-overdue contribution to something called "My Book, the Movie". This is an ongoing blog in which various authors dream a bit about who they'd like to see direct/star in/roach-wrangle movie adaptations of their novels. The closest I ever got to a http://rifters.com/real/2008/11/and-eric-cartman-as-sarasti.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-3715820940781647810Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:17:00 +00002008-11-19T16:33:00.417-05:00ass-hamstersDumbspeechsociobiologyHere's a fascinating possibility: that people with religious beliefs are better at pattern-matching than those without. The empirical findings are out of the Netherlands (popsci summary here), and are phrased much more conservatively: when presented with visual stimuli containing two levels of resolution (for example, a big square consisting of a bunch of little rectangles) "Calvinists showed http://rifters.com/real/2008/11/why-believers-kick-atheist-ass-at.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-5598978007127258180Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:54:00 +00002008-11-14T18:35:10.663-05:00sciliticsYou know, we're not on the cutting edge any more with this whole value-of-consciousness riff. Just a couple of years ago, the idea that sentience isn't worth the trouble seemed a pretty radical proposition. But in the years since Blindsight came out1 we've seen top-flight journals publishing research showing that consciousness impedes complex problem-solving; we've seen review papers suggestinghttp://rifters.com/real/2008/11/with-apologies-to-pete-townsend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-8493781522901194737Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:33:00 +00002008-11-08T16:40:41.063-05:00writing newsTwo weeks of edits. Two weeks of no exercise, skipped meals, late nights, and cats who either don't understand that a 3:00 a.m. feeding should allow them to wait a little past their usual 8:00 a.m. breakfast slot while their exhausted can opener tries to sleep in a bit, or who simply reject that premise on general principles. Merciless hungry claws hooked through my internasal septum at 8:05 http://rifters.com/real/2008/11/so-if-im-done-why-do-i-still-have-this.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-1078702565080173340Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:16:00 +00002008-11-06T17:29:08.505-05:00miscI was on the other side of the camera that took this picture, blocking the view of a big honking flatscreen monitor which showed the United States morphing magically into a place I would actually like to live: It was a brief and unfamiliar moment of happiness, so very long in coming: one of the good guys rising to take the reins for a change, delivering an inspirational and almost1 flawless http://rifters.com/real/2008/11/where-were-you-when-usa-pulled-back.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-9013691786276941436Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:28:00 +00002008-11-03T22:44:24.634-05:00miscass-hamstersOkay, which one of you jokers is responsible for the following promotional offer appearing in my in-box? Subject: Promote Your Christian Book Christian Book Marketing is a division of Awesome God Publications. Awesome God Publications has been actively serving the Christian community since 1998. Through our years of experience in dealing with Christian books and publishers we have determined ahttp://rifters.com/real/2008/11/ok-fess-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-8660810083659367630Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:14:00 +00002008-11-01T00:33:12.453-04:00miscI met Toronto's mayor last night. The satanic Dave Nickle and I ended up at the Duke of Richmond, in the wake of a late city council meeting he'd been covering. Dave was buying, having racked up a whole evening's worth of Blood Beers on account of all the snails he'd stepped on during our morning runs. We had a few, and watched the floor show: a barrister who'd had a few more, and was http://rifters.com/real/2008/11/never-trust-gastropod.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-3929300643633856250Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:45:00 +00002008-10-22T17:03:47.172-04:00fibletSeriously, people; there are a couple of major reveals in this bit. You really don't want to read it if you're averse to spoilers about Dumbspeech. Really, you don't want to be here. This is for Colbert Platinum members only. Fine, then. You'll pick many a bean... Good News for Modern Man: Sometimes the voices argued amongst themselves, included him as an afterthought if at all. http://rifters.com/real/2008/10/spoiler-alert.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5740787063649889480.post-9183727459675200330Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:19:00 +00002008-10-22T16:29:24.567-04:00writing news My buddy (and fellow author) Brent Hayward sent me this photographic evidence from Poland: evidently I've made it into the bookstores at Warsaw International Airport. I don't whether to be pleased by this news (there was a whole stack!) or depressed (they hadn't sold any of them; there was a whole stack…) Either way, though, this is the first time I've seen what the back of that edition lookshttp://rifters.com/real/2008/10/pole-star.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Peter Watts)4