The sloth at the zoo moved today. It’s the first time I’ve ever witnessed this.
(Please note I have sped up his movement cause ya know, we don’t have all day)
Chinese newspaper mistakes this deviation by *MeganRid for Japanese military helicopter prototype.
The same newspaper is also investigating a mysterious blue hedgehog who may be after China’s golden rings. More on this as it develops.
via Kotaku
Awesome fail is awesome.
Amazon’s Kindle Worlds: Instant Thoughts
The Twitters are abuzz today about Amazon’s new “Kindle Worlds” program, in which people are allowed to write and then sell through Amazon their fan fiction for certain properties owned by Alloy Entertainment, including Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little…
I recommend you read the linked post (at Scalzi’s Whatever) if you’re considering using this new publishing platform. tl;dr: you’re going to get screwed if you do.
Art Student Freaks Out & Destroys Her Painting After a Critique
For the record a bad critique is just about the most miserable and uncomfortable experience on the face of the planet. The measurement of a successful work is so incredibly subjective. I’m honestly not sure what’s worse, when people are being catty and negative or when they don’t say anything at all.
Mildly-supported intuition as to what I think Amazon’s doing here. Short version: Acquire material for tie-in books they don’t have to adequately compensate for (as greyduck mentions in the comments—also possibly an idea farm for future TV episodes); prevent another Fifty Shades of Grey scenario where everyone makes out like a bandit except the original inspiration/rights holder; exploit a creative community without understanding how it works.
A comment I just added, as well: I see a majority of fandom writers (and readers?) not being on board, but the writers who do publish through Amazon appealing to non-fandom readers. Which may be all Amazon wants after all—a few potential tie-ins, not the entire conversion of fandom for profit. The real problem would come in if whoever decided to stop any fanfic that wasn’t published for profit through Amazon. That would be like herding cats (and then trying to issue them C&Ds), though.
It does seem like it’s potentially a way to mine the fandom community without really understanding it. I don’t know what the community is like in the “worlds” that they’ve acquired licenses, for but having actively kicked around the creative communities in fandom for the past 16 years or so I can’t see that there would be much buy in from either the writers who have their stories restricted or the fans who read them. Is it worth restricting yourself and signing away any property rights for $.20 on the dollar? And seriously…who’s gonna pay for fan fic when you can get it for free on Tumblr, Livejournal and Fanfiction.net (
