Assumptions and Stereotypes

The latest restaurant kerfuffle - and it seems there's one of these a month - broke last night. For once, the person writing nasty stuff on the receipt is the customer, not the waiter.

Apparently, these customers refused to tip because they didn't want to support the waiter's "lifestyle." The waiter was a female marine with short hair.

As it happened, she was gay, but really? All of the ex mil people I know keep their hair short. It becomes, I suppose, a habit. A straight female marine might just as easily have had that hair style. So, are these people really assuming every woman they see with short hair is gay? The world doesn't need that kind of stereotyping, people.

(And, for that matter, you don't want to assume every woman with long hair is straight...)

Sadie Hawkins and gender

The Sadie Hawkins dance is a particularly American tradition. A dance where the women ask the men might seem to be...a good idea.

It's sad, though, that we feel we need such a thing. In a better world, men would ask women if they wanted to and women would ask men, and both genders would feel very free to say no. And in an ideal world we wouldn't have an event inspired by a comic strip that was actually about a woman being desperate for a man - and worthless without one. Or maybe it's all just good fun. As somebody who didn't grow up with the tradition (or even proms - we don't have those in Britain) it's somewhat hard to understand how people really feel about it.

Thoughts, my American friends?

"Adult" Warnings

In some cases it's obvious that an anthology or magazine isn't particularly suitable for children. From my own shelves I would mention Extreme Zombies, Future Lovecraft and Zombiality. And, of course, many readers out there have "adult" anthologies on their shelves (or, more likely these days, their e-readers).

In other cases it may not be as obvious. Or it might be that some stories in a volume are suitable and others are not. Editors might, in this case, choose to attach a warning to a particular story.

Here's the problem. These warnings can be subjective. The problem is in the definition of adult material itself. Some things, like those anthologies, are obvious. Somebody being tortured to death in splatterpunk? "Adult." Lovingly described sexual intercourse? "Adult." But what about promotion of drug use? I'm reading a book right now with a heck of a lot of drug use in it (Will be reviewed next week). It doesn't carry a warning specifically, but the blurbs definitely hint at the content.

And here's the real rub. Adult warnings are often put on stories that contain "sweet" same sex material. Of course, it can be hard to tell - the specific story I'm thinking about also had drug use, so was that what they meant? However, it's often the case that "adult material" for male/female starts at "full description of intercourse" but for male/male it starts at "their lips touch." (Female/female tends to fall somewhere between the two). It's an area where we still aren't "there" yet. A long way from "there," in fact.

One Step Closer: Nanobots

So far, nanotechnology has been limited to material science. The dream of self assembling, communicating, tiny robots that can do all sorts of things (and might turn the world into grey goo) has remained strictly science fiction.

Until now. Scientists at Oxford and Warwick have developed the world's smallest...trains. These tiny robots can build their own tracks, move cargo, and dismantle track that's no longer needed.

The secret? DNA. Nature's programming language is, it turns out, perfectly suited to controlling nanobots. (Which, of course, brings a different apocalypse to mind - the "maker plague" which Alastair Reynolds uses to such effect in Chasm City).

At the same time, these nanobots bring with them great promise. Right now, they don't have as much practical use as one might hope - although some fish use a similar system to change color. But who knows? We might be one step closer to the true replicator. Assembler bots might also be key to constructing a space elevator, which would reduce the cost of getting payload to orbit by orders of magnitude. Or they might be programmed to dismantle tumors better than any surgeon.

Who knows?

I'm back...

Everything's taken care of, as much as it can be. I'm back and hoping to get back to normal this week (just sent off three submissions with four more to hopefully get done).

England in November is dreary. Trust me, it is.

Heading Out...

Got a flight to catch - so no posts for the rest of this week. Hoping for news when I get back - if anything important does happen I'll post it on Monday.

If not...well, I'll probably still post it next Monday. See you all then.

Friday Updates

I will be out of the country and not posting all next week. Updates:

Officially signed the contract with ANALOG for "A Star To Steer By." The exact issue hasn't been determined.

In negotiations with Emerald Star Comics for some possible work - details to come later.