The Atlantic Xi Jinping’s Terrifying New ChinaĬ hina’s social media was briefly aflutter this fall about an impressive feat in the popular online fantasy game Honor of Kings.Even though she’d barely matured into drinking age, continued relevance wasn’t assured. When she was writing the original Red, Swift was already three hit albums into an astonishing career that began when she was just 16 years old. Many women in the entertainment business can attest to the public’s limited appetite for ingenues who continue to evolve. In pop, success is fleeting: Conventional wisdom says that an act’s “imperial phase”-a career-defining hot streak-rarely lasts for more than a few years. Sad as it may seem, this was a fair question for a prodigy to have been asking. “Lord, what will become of me,” she sings, “once I’ve lost my novelty?” She wonders why she seems to lose confidence with each passing year. In the song, she describes how society tells young women to have fun and then shames them for experiencing life. That’s the confession the now-31-year-old singer makes on “Nothing New,” a track she wrote for her 2012 album, Red, but released only on Red (Taylor’s Version), the new, rerecorded version that came out on Friday. When Taylor Swift was only 22, she lay awake at night and worried about her age. Buckley was a man of impulse, big words, and reckless candor. Now technology and pharmacology provide a new boost to intelligence Humans have survived the centuries by evolving into quick-witted creatures. Nouriel Roubini is a famous-and famously prescient-economic pessimist. Can he succeed where Jimmy Carter failed? Why are scientists afraid to mention them?īarack Obama is preaching the gospel of clean energy. New techniques can change the climate quickly and cheaply. Michael Bierut analyzes the world’s best and worst banknote designsĪn unlikely alliance with Israel might bring peace to the region
The other things I’m working on at the moment are an updated version of the Harry Harrison bibliography (I just found a couple of Thai editions of Stainless Steel Rat books I didn’t know about) and an update for the HH website - lost of new content, and lots of new book covers… hope my scanner is up to the task.Privatize the seas. I also returned from Harry’s with several boxes of books - so have lots of interesting covers to scan… ? If you’ve never been to an Octocon, it is a nice smallish con with plenty of opportunity to chat with the guests and have a drink with them in the bar! You can now sign up for the convention on the website via PayPal, which is good news. Details will be confirmed nearer the date. The convention will include at least a couple of panels featuring HH. Last weekend I went down to visit Harry Harrison for a few days – caught up with his latest news, and did a short interview which will shortly appear on the Octocon 2009 website. This post was brought to you in conjuction with McSwineys and Octocon Inc.Īpologies for the lack of posts recently – I’ve been busy doing other things… You can also pay by cheque or postal order.
You can now register online for the con and pay by PayPal – the cost for attending is €30 which was £27.14 when I registered a minute ago.
The actual programme of events for the convention is in development, but there’s one panel planned featuring Harry Harrison which I’m really looking forward to. Have a look around the Octocon website and you’ll see that there is an excellent mix of written SF, comics and films this year - it really looks like its going to be a good one.
The great thing about Octocon is that it is a big enough convention to attract great guests, but small enough to have a friendly atmosphere. There’s an intriguing note at the end, in which Harry hints at another book which is in the early stages of development… As previously mentioned, Harry Harrison will be appearing at the 2009 Octocon convention in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, which takes place 10th and 11th October.Īs part of the preparations for the con I conducted a short interview with Harry for the con website, which you can read here.