If you can't say something nice...

Somewhere in hell a lava filled lake with a floating Olds Delmont 88 has a new occupant. (cars float on lava even if they don't float on water after all). The lake has been waiting a long time now.

Thus, since I can't say anything nice about the man, I simply note his passing.

Leave Us Allone

Mel does not post often, but she knocks this one out of the park.

This is the frustration level of the liberty minded. LINK

Quote of the Week

Now, I've never shopped at Whole Foods, but this quote from the CEO might be enough to change my mind:

The union is like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it's unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover. -- John Mackey

If you've ever had the displeasure of working in a Union Shop you know exactly what he means.

OOP Filk on Youtube

There is a fellow who has taken several old Filk tapes, way, way, way out of print, digitized them and put the songs up on Youtube.

Way cool

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=weyrdmusicman&view=videos

August Housefilk

August housfilk tonight at Chris and Patrick's.

See ya there.

5 out of 8 - Hugo Winners

Well let's see how I did

Best Novel: Graveyard Book, Gaiman (check)
Novela: "The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress (swing and a miss)
Novelette: "Shoggoths in Bloom", Elizabeth Bear (check)
Short Story: "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (strike)

Best Related Book: Hate Mail Will Be Graded, John Scalzi ((miss)
Best Dramatic Long: Wall-E (check)
Best Dramatic Short: Dr. Horrible (check)
Best Graphic Story: Phoglio for Girl Genius (ckeck)

Woohoo, batting .625, for 5 of 8.

Now where's that bacon?

Hugo Time

It's that time of year, when Sci Fi fen feel the pull of a distant land, where they will gather and fight to the death until there is only one... No wait, that's Highlander.

Ok, it's the time of year when Sci Fi fen gather at WorldCon, which is in Toronto this year. The highlight of the convention is the Hugo awards. These awards are a popular award that are voted on by those members of the worldcon who actually bother to vote, and are intended to honor the "best" of the genre. Winning the Hugo means you get to stand among the august ranks of folks like Lary Niven, and Robert A. Heinlein, and say, hey I got a shiny rocket ship trophy.

Actually, there has been a bit of a brouhaha surrounding the fact that this year the field seems a bit week. I can't comment on that since I haven't actually read any of the novels myself. So here is Mark's predictions of who will win which category. Predictions based on fan psychology.

Nominees can be found HERE.

2009 Hugo Award Predictions:

Best Novel: I’m predicting Gaiman for the win not because it’s the “best” as I generally don’t like Gaiman’s style, but because he is a) popular, and b) the Guest of Honor (GoH). Obviously I’m in the minority as lots of folks like Gaiman. Regardles, the hugo voters don’t like to snub the GoH. Also, there is at least a segment of attendies that will go to a con specifically due to the GoH, so the GoH has a built in fanbase advantage.

The shot fiction categories are much harder to predict, since lots of Hugo voters just skip the category on their ballots, which is fair enough, as trying to keep up with the short fiction is a bit of a task.

Best Novella: “True Names” wins best Novella simply because it has Doctorow’s name on it. (yeah I’m cynical). Doctorow has a huge following, and he's Canadian.

Best Novelette: Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear. She's a popular writer, and her name is reasonably well known.

Best Short Story: Toss up between "26 Monkeys into the Abyss" and "From Babel's Fall'n Glory we Fled." Both were published in Assimov's, and hardly anyone has even heard of the other publications. I'm picking Babel for the win.

Related book: Considering how huge a following the Vorkosigan saga thing has, The Vorkosigan Companion is probably a shoe-in. (long odds on Scalzi's your Hate Mail will be graded) But I'm picking TVC for the win.

Graphic Story? (I’m not even sure this should be a Hugo category). Coin flip between Phil Foglio and Howard Taylor. Smart money is on Foglio, he's well known in fanish circles. I recall meeting him at a WorldCon once.

Dramatic Long: Wall-E. Personally hate it’s pro eco-facist message, but folks like cartoons.

Dramatic Short: Dr. Horible FTW. Brilliant, simply Briliant. Also Wheden has the sort of fan base that will actually bother to vote. Besides Steve Moffet already has 3 Hugos. (at least 2 he deserved, and they should have made a supersized 2-meter tall one for Blink) BSG is over, (it's inthe past for most people), so even though Revelations was a very strong episode it's going to end up at the bottom of the pile.

I'm going to ignore all of the awards for editing and stuff, also I'm ignoring hte best artist award. It used to be the best ART, not artist.

So, thats 8 predictuons. Random chance says I should get two right. If I get 3 or more someone owes me bacon.

OK CDBaby actually does love me now

I think CDBaby's relaunch is taking more resources than they anticipated.

Regardless, things are working (mostly).

Type Mark Horning into their search function, and you get 15 hits, with me at the top. (need to fix the picture still).

Type Space & Freedom into the search and it just searches on the word "space" so that's a no-go. Apparently the ampersand causes the search term to truncate.

Try space and freedom, and it's the top hit.

Sound files appear to be working(ish) I think the issue is lag on CDBaby's side.

Not perfect, but I'll take it.

Potlatch writ Large

Potlatch - the custom of intentionally destroying goods and wealth in a public manner to enhance ones status.

The media has been reporting that the fedgov's CARS program is out of money. Actually they keep referring to the program by the utterly inaccurate sobriquet Cash for Clunkers, despite the fact that the actual program details actually rule out anything that most folks would consider a "clunker".

The rules say the car has to be less than 25 years old, so that 78 Ford LTD that spews black smoke and needs an oil fillup with every tank of gas doesn't qualify. A 2006 Toyota Tacoma on the other hand, does qualify. (of course it's worth well more than the $4500 voucher.)

And in one week the program is out of money... Lets look at the Math.

In any given month 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles are traded in that would qualify (and be worth less than $4500 trade value) under this program. And remember, ANY vehicle that is less than 25 years old and gets 18 mpg or less (per the EPA) qualifies. The question is whether it is worth more as a trade, or more under the .gov program.

So every month, consumers trade in 60-70,000 of these vehicles. Due to the press coverage, approximately 100,000 people postponed purchasing a new car until the program went into effect. Due to rumors of funds running out approximately 60-70,000 people accelerated their new car purchase by a month or two.

And that is how you sell 4 months worth of cars in one weekend. I suspect when this all shakes out, we will see that the vast majority of these purchases were simply time shifted by consumers to take advantage of the program. Then again, we can't expect our congresscritters to actually think about the consequences of their actions now can we?

As for how things work, Edmund's has a nice chart:

http://www.edmunds.com/cash-for-clunkers/stimulus-bill.html

Thus in a hypothetical example, if you were thinking of trading in your Explorer, you could get $3500 for it if you bought another Explorer that got 2 mpg better than your existing one, or $4500 if it got 5 mpg better. (again, it's the window sticker "combined" mileage that matters, not the true real-world mileage) If you wanted to trade it for a passenger car it would need to get 10 mpg better to qualify for the full payment. The Fusion is a very nice car that may qualify in this case.

Of course, any Explorer that is less than 10 years old is worth at least $4000 on the open market, so the only real point in trading it in under this program would be to avoid the hassle of selling it yourself. Becasuse lets face it, the dealership would only give you $1500-$2000 on a $4000 car anyway right?

I use the Explorer as an example because Ford dealers are reporting that the #1 vehicle turned in under this program are Explorers.

Oh, and the dealership is required to disclose to the customer the "scrap" value of the vehicle, and deduct the scrap value from the price of the new car as well.

Remember that 18mpg figure I mentioned earlier. Well, it's interesting. Turns out that a whole bunch of Toyotas and Hondas are rated at 19mpg by the fedgov. Brand loyalty is very strong. If you own a Ford it's good odds that your next car will be a Ford, same for a Honda. GM buyers tend to stick with GM as well, although since the bailout GM and Crysler have both been loosing market share to Ford.

Thus the big winners here are the domestics, as people trade their old Ford for a new Ford, or an old Chevy for a new Chevy. Hundai is also a big winner since their primary target is folks buying their first "new" car. They have several models priced right at $10K. Add in $4500 from your "trade" and we are talking a brand new car for under six grand. And before you go dismissing the Korean automaker their quality is very much improved over the old self-disassembling death traps they made in the 80's. (and their primary buyer isn't old enough to remember the eighties anyway)

Regardless, the vast majority of viehicles destroyed under this program are going to be newer models that don't really pollute anyway. Any car newer than 1995 sold in the US is equiped with an ODB II computer that monitors your tailpipe emmisions such that a 96 Accord pollutes about the same as the 2010 version. (Yes Virginia, the computer in your car is spying on you and reporting whether your car pollutes or not).

Thus, I do tend to see this whole thing as some sort of giant national exercise in potlatch. Destroying perfectly serviceable vehicles, most of them newer models that do not pollute much anyway, but just happen to be worth less than $4500 at trade in, is hardly an example of our finest hour as a nation or a people.

Nonetheless, I'm certain it will gain us much prestige throughout the 3rd world. "Look, the Americans are so rich they can intentionally destroy perfectly good cars and trucks on purpose..."

CD Baby Loves Me - Sort of

CDBaby is in the midst of a giant relaunch. In the process they have manages to slow down their site and have completely screwed up their search function.

For example, put Seanan McGuire in their search box, and you get zero hits. Put Seanan in the search box and you get seven (7) hits, the top one being Seanan McGuire. WTF?

That is some seriously BAD database coding right there. Anyway, if you put Mark Horning in the search box you get 13 hits, none of which is me or my album. However, if you know the URL, you can type it in directly

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/MarkHorning

Oh, and BTW, the sound clips appear to be either missing or broken depending on which browser you are using.

The good news, you can now order my album direct from CDBaby. (note, I get to keep more money if you order it directly from me)