PAC-MAN HIGHWAY – Level 1 (gameplay) from NotWorkingFilms on Vimeo.

• The very best thing to happen recently is Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, overturning prop 8 and granting homosexuals the right to marry in California.  The whole decision can be downloaded here, but there are articles all over the place dissecting the good bits.  The most important part, though, is this:

Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

Thank you, Judge Walker, for doing your job well.  And, as C. E. Petit notes, for being willing to take a correct position that will probably make you permanently unable to ever be confirmed to an appellate court.

• It is not a good thing at all that Christopher Hitchens has esophageal cancer which has metastasized and will likely soon kill him.  But his essay in Vanity Fair on the experience of learning about it and getting treatment is as powerful as anything he’s written.  Speaking simultaneously about the side effects of chemotherapy and the militaristic language which is so frequently used when discussing cancer, he writes, “In the war against Thanatos, if we must term it a war, the immediate loss of Eros is a huge initial sacrifice.”  It’s a piece well worth reading.  “Tropic of Cancer.”

• Charles Stross has been thinking some very clever thoughts about the hard limitations of space colonization.  Most recently he has written an excellent explanation of why the practice is fundamentally incompatible with libertarian ideology.  It’s an important reality check against having read too much Heinlein.  (And yeah, I love me some Heinlein, but that joke is spot-on.)

• RadioLab is one of the best programs on the radio, and lately they are increasingly on the internet as well.  To go with a recent podcast they have released a beautiful video exploring the concept of a moment.  Utterly lovely.

An aside: I don’t recall having been explicitly introduced to the idea that the density of a black hole decreases as its mass increases before.  In fact I’m not sure that black hole density ever came up at all in my modern physics class, which is the only place I  worked with Swarzschild radii.  It’s obvious once presented, but when I got to that part of the video I was shocked to find I had been completely unaware of such a fundamental characteristic of black holes.

First, the wonderful 3 minute video that inspired it:

Then the meme:

Bold the women by whom you own books
Italicize those by whom you’ve read something of (short stories count)
*Star those you don’t recognize

Andre Norton
C. L. Moore
Evangeline Walton*
Leigh Brackett
Judith Merril*
Joanna Russ
Margaret St. Clair*
Katherine MacLean*
Carol Emshwiller
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Zenna Henderson*
Madeleine L’Engle
Angela Carter
Ursula LeGuin
Anne McCaffrey
Diana Wynne Jones
Kit Reed*
James Tiptree, Jr.
Rachel Pollack*
Jane Yolen
Marta Randall*
Eleanor Arnason*
Ellen Asher*
Patricia A. McKillip
Suzy McKee Charnas*
Lisa Tuttle*
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Tanith Lee
Pamela Sargent
Jayge Carr*
Vonda McIntyre
Octavia E. Butler
Kate Wilhelm
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro*
Sheila Finch*
Mary Gentle
Jessica Amanda Salmonson*
C. J. Cherryh
Joan D. Vinge
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Ellen Kushner
Ellen Datlow
Nancy Kress
Pat Murphy
Lisa Goldstein*
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough*
Mary Turzillo*
Connie Willis
Barbara Hambly*
Nancy Holder
Sheri S. Tepper
Melissa Scott*
Margaret Atwood
Lois McMaster Bujold
Jeanne Cavelos*
Karen Joy Fowler
Leigh Kennedy*
Judith Moffett*
Rebecca Ore*
Emma Bull
Pat Cadigan
Kathyrn Cramer
Laura Mixon*
Eileen Gunn
Elizabeth Hand
Kij Johnson
Delia Sherman
Elizabeth Moon
Michaela Roessner*
Terri Windling
Sharon Lee*
Sherwood Smith*
Katherine Kurtz*
Margo Lanagan
Laura Resnick*
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Sheila Williams
Farah Mendlesohn
Gwyneth Jones*
Ardath Mayhar*
Esther Friesner*
Debra Doyle*
Nicola Griffith
Amy Thomson*
Martha Wells*
Catherine Asaro*
Kate Elliott
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Shawna McCarthy
Caitlin Kiernan
Maureen McHugh
Cheryl Morgan
Nisi Shawl
Mary Doria Russell
Kage Baker
Kelly Link
Nancy Springer
J. K. Rowling
Nalo Hopkinson
Ellen Klages
Tanarive Due*
M. Rickert
Theodora Goss
Mary Anne Mohanraj
S. L. Viehl*
Jo Walton
Kristine Smith*
Deborah Layne*
Cherie Priest
Wen Spencer*
K. J. Bishop
Catherynne M. Valente
Elizabeth Bear
Ekaterina Sedia
Naomi Novik
Mary Robinette Kowal
Ann VanderMeer