Laser Bees

The Planetary Society is working on a study of the potential for using swarms of small, laser equipped spacecraft to divert an asteroid.

Undead Collective Noun

A shamble of zombies.

Telepresence Robots with iPad Heads

Thanks to sci-fi movies, people prefer robots they could overpower if something goes wrong, says Yeh-Liang Hsu, a designer of telepresence robots at Yuan Ze University in Chungli, Taiwan. He says heights of 70cm or less are best.

Much more from the Economist, which believes that the Telenoid, a large  humanoid phone in a rubbery skin, is "is unlikely to catch on outside Japan."

Egregious Hydra

It sounds like the bestiary entry that falls between the Crested Hydra and the Variegated Hydra. In fact it is a new imprint of Random House, soon to be part of Random Penguin. Its egregious contract terms are lovingly eviscerated by John Scalzi, Writers Beware and SFWA, with cruel but fair follow-up malleting here, here, here, and here.

As for me, what he said.

Update: more from Scalzi.

Further update: Hydra has revised their default contract offer, making the terms less egregious.

Fascist: Either Words Have Meaning or You're Doing It Wrong

It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless.

George Orwell, 1944

And probably even more true today. Which is unfortunate, because it was once understood to be a a fairly specific variant on the unfortunately common meme of nationalist statist autocracy.

Nationalist statist autocracies came in many flavors: that of Louis XIV, for example. We need to do better than calling them all fascist.

Fascism Classic added some additional wrinkles: corporatism, anti-Marxism, valor as a universal male virtue, imperialism as a proactive virtue, and public politics as performance art.

(There were of course, British imperialists that were rather proud of their empire when they awoke to the fact that they had somehow stumbled into having one. I think this is fundamentally different from the Fascist notion that your national honor requires you to proactively march off and conquer stuff and erect triumphal arches)

Also, an inordinate fondness for snappy color-coded uniforms and chilly monumental architecture.

So, when people describe the late Hugo Chavez as fascist, the rectification of names is clearly called for.

Yes, nationalist statist autocrat, granted.  There have been a lot of those.

Corporatism? No, a classic nationalizing pro-union socialist. Anti-Marxism? BFF with Fidel Castro. Valor? Who has he invaded lately? Imperialism? He was against it.

Snappy color-coded uniforms? Red polo shirts without a matching tie? Mussolini is spinning in his grave, Also, no Fezzes. Fezzes are cool.

And what has Venezuela done for chilly monumental architecture lately?

Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing

Fred and Wesley meet cute.

Nimona

Lord Ballister Blackheart has a point to make, and his point is that the good guys aren't as good as they seem. He makes a comfortable living as a supervillain, but never really seems to accomplish much - until he takes on a new sidekick, Nimona, a shapeshifter with her own ideas of how things should be done. Unfortunately, most of those ideas involve blowing things up. Now Ballister must teach his young protégé some restraint and try to keep her from destroying everything, while simultaneously attempting to expose the dark dealings of those who claim to be the protectors of the kingdom - including his former best friend turned nemesis, Ambrosius Goldenloin.

History for Music Lovers II

The Trojan War
The Mahabharata
Illuminated Manuscripts
The Divine Comedy
Black Death 

I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

A Palestinian Border Proposal

In May of 2008, Palestinian negotiators presented a proposal for a permanent border, with land swaps allowing Israelis to keep their West Bank settlements closest to the pre-1967 border. It was later leaked with the other Palestine Papers in 2011.

A comparison with Olmert's September 2008 "Napkin Map"makes it clear why the Palestinians thought the Olmert proposal inequitable.

A caveat on the Olmert map: Olmert was apparently treating this as his last, best offer, and was unwilling to give a copy of his map to the Palestinians unless they agreed to the proposal. A Palestinian negotiator was forced to sketch it on a napkin as a record. The map based on the Palestine Papers, evidently from a Palestinian source, is probably not perfectly accurate, but it does probably correctly reflect the broad intent of the offer.

It would have reduced total Palestinian territory relative to the pre-1967 borders, and allowed Israel to annex several salients driving deep into the West Bank. Also, it is unlikely that a neutral judge would think the swath of the Judean Desert proposed as part of the swap offered equal value per square mile to the territory Israel wanted to annex.

It's striking how little the proposed Olmert border resembled the one a rational defender would design when actually expecting a serious military threat.

For another attempt to achieve a permanent border by equitable land swaps, see the Geneva Accord.

Here is an interactive map looking at border options.