My RSI is playing up today, so I can’t type up a full blog post. There’ll probably be nothing tomorrow, either, but I’ve got an ergonomic keyboard, mouse, and wrist rest on order, so normal blogging should resume by Friday.

Meanwhile, other people occasionally write stuff on the internet too — maybe they’ve got something to say?

A good look at what we actually mean when we talk about popular SF books, with reference to the Sad Puppies, who appear to be trying the same thing again

Why the tech elite is getting behind universal basic income — this is of course a failure mode for basic income schemes, that if not properly implemented they end up being a stealth redistribution from poor to rich compared to the current system. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it, just that we need to look at the fine print.

A wonderful news story from ten years ago, about some truly bad science

Trigger warning for dog lovers here, but a wonderfully upsetting reimagining of the scene from Watchmen where Rorschach becomes Rorschach, from the point of view of the dogs. As the person who I got this from, and who I forget who it is, said, try reading *this* and not realising Rorschach was a villain…

Buzzfeed interviews Simon Hughes about whether the Lib Dems would close down Snapchat — using Snapchat

Charles Stross on Cameron’s proposed encryption ban

Scarfolk on freedom of speech

Tim O’Neill looks at the “classic” Fantastic Four 285 and finds a pernicious message

And finally, Mike Love’s touring Beach Boys are doing their first proper UK tour, rather than one-off gigs, since 2008. I’d already got a ticket for the Albert Hall show on the Sunday, but I’m also going to the Manchester show. Pre-sale tickets went on sale this morning for O2 customers, regular tickets go on sale on Friday. Regular readers will know that roughly 95% of what I love about the Beach Boys comes from Brian Wilson, but I can still say that going to a Mike & Bruce indoor UK show is a very, VERY special thing, and even Brianistas like myself will get a lot out of it. Go if you can. You’ll be surprised how good it is.