A Child Discovered a Gun Left by Police in John Boehner's Capitol Bathroom DC Inno A seven or eight-year-old boy visiting the Capitol with his parents found a loaded Glock allegedly left by a dignitary protection officer for Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) A picture taken shows the firearm wedged into a the toilet seat cover ...
Scarlett Johansson could just upload a vine of herself eating a donut, calling it Black Widow the Movie, and I’m pretty sure fans would be more excited about that than they would be about Ant Man
An anonymous reader writes: United Airlines lost a legal round in its effort to stop a website that helps people find 'hidden city' ticket pairs. The airline, along with online travel site Orbitz, sued New York-based Skiplagged.com and its founder, Aktarer Zaman, in November seeking an injunction to stop the site from sending users to Orbitz to purchase United tickets. A federal judge ruled Thursday that Illinois isn't the proper venue for the carrier's claims.
Non-game Android apps are normally written in Java, but a group inside Google is experimenting with a whole new way of writing Android apps using Dart, Google's in-house Web development language. It's Android apps with no Java, a focus on speed, and deep integration with the Web.
Dart was created by members of Chrome's V8 Javascript engine team, after being frustrated with some aspects of the 20-year-old language they dealt with on a day-to-day basis. The group recently held a Dart Developer Summit where it showed off the Dart on Android project. Dart on Android isn't called something obvious like "Dart on Android,"—it's going by the name of "Sky." For now Sky (Dart on Android) is just an open source experiment, but the project offers a lot of promise compared to traditional app development.
Being fast and responsive is one of the biggest goals for Sky. While 60FPS (or Hz) is the smoothness standard most devices and app developers aim for, the Dart team wants to crank that up to 120FPS, which isn't even possible to display on the standard 60Hz smartphone screens we have today. That sounds rather improbable on Android, where many apps don't stay at 60FPS, let alone 120. Rendering an app at 60FPS requires a frame to be drawn every 16ms, and apps "jank" or display an animation stutter, when they can't keep up with the 16ms deadline.
Many legal experts predicted the $7.3 million verdict against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams—for allegedly building “Blurred Lines” from Marvin Gaye’s spare parts—would have a “chilling effect” on songwriters. Apparently that effect is so chilling, even musicians as cool as Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson are taking bold precautions to insulate themselves against frosty accusations of copyright infringement. Music Week reports the addition of five names to the songwriting credits for Mars and Ronson’s inescapable smash “Uptown Funk,” hoping to avoid a potential copyright suit based on the song’s similarities to The Gap Band’s 1979 funk classic, “Oops Upside Your Head.”
Gap Band members Charlie Wilson, Ronnie Wilson, and the late Robert Wilson have been appended to the “Uptown Funk” credits alongside “Oops” co-writers Lonnie Simmons and Rudolph Taylor. They join the previously credited Ronson, Mars, Jeff Bhasker, and Philip Lawrence, as well ...
“My first day on set they have this giant platform and they’re like ‘we need you to jump off this thing backwards while firing machine guns and then flip and fly under the platform’ and I’m like ‘no dog it’s my first day I’m just supposed to walk, and then on day 2 we do the crazy shit’ but we did it for like 3 hours. We did it forever and on the 50th time I’m like ‘don’t I have a stunt man? Shouldn’t my stunt double be doing this?’ And I look around and my stunt man is sitting there with this giant - this comically giant mound of nachos. And he’s just eating like ‘no you’re doing great keep it up’”
Justin Bieber was not welcome at the high school prom he crashed this weekend -- not by the adults, anyway -- because school administrators say he physically shoved his way into the event.
Some of the worst-paid city employees may be in for a sweet raise—despite City Hall's best efforts.
The City of Portland today was ordered to stop giving low-paid temporary and seasonal Portland Parks and Recreation employees tasks that are supposed to be carried out by union members. In a 25-page ruling that capped a two year labor dispute, an arbitrator found the city is violating its labor agreement with Laborers' Local 483 by using so-called "casual" workers to prop up a growing parks system that lacks sufficient full-time and part-time staffers.
This is a huge deal for the many parks employees who toil under yearly limits to how many hours they can work and meager wages. As we reported in February, some of these workers are on food stamps despite being city employees for years. Others told the Mercury they felt devalued and ashamed by a system that ensures they won't receive benefits and are unlikely to obtain full-time work.
Today's decision—on International Workers' Day, fittingly—delves deeply into the legalese of union contracts, but it comes down to what Arbitrator David Stiteler termed the "idiomatic Duck test." ("If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.") Essentially, if an employee does a job covered under a labor agreement, that employee should be covered by the same labor agreement.
"There is little disagreement that some RSPs [recreational support persons, the designation for the casual parks workers in question] are doing most, if not all, of the same duties that are and/or have been done by recreation leaders in the unit, as well as some duties that are and/or have been done by recreation coordinators," Stiteler wrote.
The ruling contains a bunch of examples of unrepresented workers who do the same tasks as people "in the unit," or covered by the labor agreement:
Chenille Holub works 30 to 35 hours a week at the front desk at Mt. Scott; her position is not in the unit. The individual who preceded her was a recreation leader in the unit.
Vanessa King is a preschool teacher at Montavilla; her position is in the unit. Before she was hired as a regular employee, she was an RSP working as a preschool teacher and had the same duties.
Esther Smith is in a recreation leader position in the center. There are about twice as many RSPs as unit positions, and there is no significant difference in the work they do, including handling permits, reservations, and rentals.
Et cetera.
This is nothing new. Portland Parks and Recreation has become increasingly reliant on casual workers as the recreation system expanded in recent decades. And those workers are far worse off than the City of Portland's regular employees. As we reported in January, 97 percent of city workers who earn less than $15 an hour work for parks. Many of those employees earn less than $12 an hour.
Requests for comment from the parks bureau, the labor relations office, and Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz's office haven't received meaningful responses.
The union is pleased.
"This is a win for all the staff in Portland's Recreation centers," said Erica Askin, Local 483's business manager, in a statement to the Mercury. "For years these hard-working and caring people serving our community have been getting by paycheck to paycheck, and not honored the way they should be. Finally, it is recognized that their work is honorable union work, worthy of good wages, benefits, and rights on the job."
Local 483 has actually been fighting to represent these kinds of workers for more than a decade, but filed this particular grievance in 2013. The city's opposition was a bit contradictory, Stiteler notes in his ruling. First negotiators wanted case-by-case proof that casual workers were doing union members' work. But the city also readily acknowledged (in the Mercury's previous story and before the arbitrator) seasonal employees were doing that work, and had for years.
The city's essential argument, then, was that none of that mattered. As long as the parks workers were designated "casual," the city said, it didn't matter what work they were doing. The arbitrator disagreed.
"To remedy the violation, I will order the City to cease and desist from assigning bargaining unit work, as defined by the unit job descriptions, to non- unit employees, except on an incidental basis," he wrote.
What happens next is a huge question, particularly with summer fast approaching. The union's grievance claimed between 250 and 300 employees should be brought under its contract if the city wanted them to keep doing that work. That would be an expensive proposition. The lowest-paid employees under the union's current contract make $16.71 after just six months of employment. They're paid more than $20 an hour after three years.
But the city's other alternative is to strictly prohibit its casual parks workers from doing union members' jobs. If that happens, it could severely impact service at the parks bureau going forward.
Fritz's office is expected to release a statement later this afternoon about the finding.
Update, 4:23 pm: Not much of a statement though. Here's the quote a parks spokesman just forwarded from Fritz.
"We are currently reviewing the decision. I appreciate the Union's expressed interest in meeting with the City to work with us on how best to move forward, and I look forward to finding solutions collaboratively."
I followed up with a boatload of questions, including:
-Will this impact the parks bureau's budget request this year? -Will it impact the bureau's ability to run recreation programs this summer? -How much money would folding all of the affected casual workers into the contract cost?
"Everything remains to be seen at this point," was the response from parks spokesman Mark Ross.
I should note this ruling comes as the city's already looking at how best to deal with its seasonal workers. Earlier this year, Portland City Council ensured all of the city's full time regular and contract workers will make at least $15. And Fritz, who has repeatedly stressed her commitment to bringing more seasonal workers on full time, has also said she'll lead a task force looking into pay increases for the city's 2,000 part-time and seasonal employees.
The Philadelphia Daily News described it as “stunning.” An attorney specializing in liquor law lauded it as “revolutionary.” “This is the biggest thing to happen to beer since 1933,” a Pittsburgh beer distributor told the Associated Press.
Judge William Young found that Gutierrez intentionally violated his obligation to serve as a juror by skipping jury service March 3 so he could go to work. Gutierrez had made it through the initial rounds of jury duty.
The judge cited more than 1,300 other prospective jurors who complied with their obligation to appear in court for the trial of bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The judge told Gutierrez he should be "ashamed" of his decision.
Attorney Hank Brennan, who represented Gutierrez, said he reported for the first two rounds of jury selection, but did not attend the third round because he felt he needed to go to his job as a medical interpretor that day.
"He had young patients he felt wouldn't get the care they needed that day if he wasn't there," Brennan said.
To help create awareness for National Adopt a Shelter Dog Day this Thursday 3MillionDogs.com has created a video to help draw attention to the plight of millions of dogs in thousands of shelters across North America. Many shelters struggle to stay open and many more have dogs that have been un-adopted for months and even years.
Less sensational but equally wonderful was the “Puppies on Demand” service in which adopted dogs were delivered to their new homes by Uber, the renowned car service who partnered with 3MillionDogs as part of the awareness campaign.
This Thursday, April 30th is National Adopt-A-Shelter-Pet Day, and so we’ve teamed up with 3MillionDogs to help create awareness for shelter dogs across Canada. And what better way to raise awareness and money for this great cause, than by bringing some of these playful paws straight to you! Get ready to break out all the warm fuzzy feelings and go “awwww” with puppies on-demand in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton!
Like a John Ford film someone doodled dicks all over, Adam Sandler’s Western spoof The Ridiculous 6 has already proved offensive on levels both cultural and comedic, leading to around a dozen Native American actors walking off its set over jokes like calling characters “Beaver’s Breath.” It’s all part of the keenly observed satire that is so crucial to Sandler’s comedy, both Netflix and Vanilla Ice have said, and that reportedly extends to using bronzer to darken the skins of actors, including black and Asian talent, to make them look “more Native American”—all applied with the same sort of brushstrokes that went into the script, with the same sloppy, baffling results.
“I’m full-blooded Navajo and they bronzed me. I was quite confused,” actress Allie Young recently told MSNBC of just one of the reasons she left the production. As previously reported, that production had ...
Merrill Lynch’s private banking group is looking out for its clients’ financial interests, so it published a white paper (PDF) on inheritance titled “How much should I give to my family? The risks and rewards of giving”.
It’s mostly tips on minimizing your tax exposure and instilling financial responsibility in younger generations—”stewardship” is a recurring theme. But for those of us who probably won’t need such tips, there’s still plenty to gawk at. One section uses a survey to break down some of the social parameters around figuring out the appropriate amount to leave, with super-wealthy families eager to strike the right balance between $26 million and $63 million.
But size isn’t the only factor here. The money needs to be spent wisely as well:
The rising generation tends to have a greater sense of ownership of family money when they’re included in family discussions about wealth and develop financial literacy over time. In turn, they’re more likely to view distributions as a privilege and themselves as stewards of wealth, rather than just inheritors.
On the other hand, consider the grandchild who thinks of her grandfather’s monthly distributions as her paycheck. Because of a sense of entitlement to family wealth, an heir like her may be less likely to utilize the money thoughtfully.
Great fortunes are hard to build, but easy to lose.
Julian Edelman, Tom Brady and the whole gang are trekking down to Churchill Downs for the Derby this weekend. Edelman posted this picture of the crew outside a party plane earlier today.
We've ranked these bros in order of bro-iness, from most to least.
1. Rob Gronkowski
Pink t-shirt under blazer? Come on, dude.
2. The guy with paisley pants
Paisley pants, a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up just a hair, and no idea what to do with his hands.
3. The guy on Gronk's right
Dude ... are those pleated pants?
4. Tom Brady
Casually crossing his arms to show off his watch. Very cool, very nonchalant.
5. The guy in the fedora.
Fedora.
6 and 7. The two guys in gray suits who look exactly the same.
I'm sure they didn't plan to dress like each other. They just picked the most generic outfits they could find. And haircuts.
8. Julian Edelman
If this outfit weren't so perfectly tailored, Edelman would be solidly in bro-territory. But honestly? Dude's looking sharp.
9. Matt Cassel
He's just like a guy. Just a normal dude.
10. The guy with the backpack
Hey, someone's gotta be team mom. These boys need snacks! Nothing bro-ey about that.
“Nothing says ‘I’m currently unemployed’ like a painstakingly selected font.”
According to a typography expert interviewed by Bloomberg Business, the classic serif typeface Times New Roman is a poor choice for résumés because it’s a default font that may be considered unthoughtful. What do you think?
It was like a light Italian-style pizza in flavor but it had the texture of an American-style pizza with a fluffy, doughy crust. The squid ink wasn’t only for show, however. There was also a distinct seafood aftertaste to the pizza as well. Seafood can sometimes be an overbearing flavor but in the case this squid ink pizza it was delightfully in the background as an enjoyable little bonus. There were also tiny bits of squid throughout on top of the pizza in just enough quantities to enhance it rather than get in the way. Overall, Nippon Ham’s Ishigama Kobo Squid Ink Pizza is a solid addition to their line-up. More than a gimmick it has a well-crafted and unique taste that is absolutely worth the roughly 300 yen (US$2.50) price tag.
Los Angeles-based filmmaker Aaron Benitez (a.k.a. “VFX Bro“) has created “Iron Cat,” a special effects-filled video about a cat named Prince Michael who gets fed up with the birds outside picking on him. The determined feline does whatever it takes to become the first flying cat. When Benitez and Prince Michael sit down to watch the Marvel superhero film Iron Man 2, they get an idea and build an epic Iron Cat suit.
After getting picked on Prince Michael attempts to be the first ever flying cat!
'Depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is an American legal term for an action where a defendant acts with a "depraved indifference" to human life and where such act results in a death. In a depraved-heart murder a defendant commits an act even though he knows his act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to someone else. If the risk of death or bodily harm is great enough, ignoring it demonstrates a "depraved indifference" to human life and the resulting death is considered to have been committed with malice aforethought aka premeditation.[1] In most states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder.[2]
If no death results, such acts would generally be defined as reckless endangerment (sometimes known as "culpable negligence") and possibly other crimes, such as assault.'
The most severe charges are leveled against Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., identified as the driver of the van that transported Gray to a police station. The charges against Goodson include second-degree depraved heart murder, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
The investigation by the prosecutor’s office found there had been no reason to detain Gray — and that his arrest was in itself illegal, Mosby said. She said the knife that police officers found on Gray turned out to be legal.
This obscure device was used to copy Famicom games (or NES games if you have the appropriate converters) onto a flash cartridge – maybe this was meant for piracy, or maybe for just having back-ups? Who knows, I’m too distracted by that dinosaur illustration in the insert to care. Handsome as it is, at least one person has called the Family Writer “utter shit” with severe limitations.
The photos above come from @Kumao_573. While trying to dig up more information about the device, I found there was a less attractive version for the Super Famicom too. I also discovered the best ad ever for a similar thing called the Family Ace (possibly just a rebranded Family Writer?):
Who’s that guy at the bottom? PepsimanGB points out, “My favorite part of that ad is where in the bottom right corner, they have a random endorsement from former boxing champion Koichi Washima where he says, and I quote/translate, ‘My children love this!’” The ad comes courtesy of Rosa Rosa.
Chinese internet powerhouse Alibaba has taken down a job posting that sought a woman to fill the role of “programmer encouragement specialist.” It was just as bad as that sounds.
The ad, which first appeared on Alibaba’s website on April 29, said the “specialist” would join the team of dingtalk, an Alibaba-backed messaging app. It compared the ideal candidate to both Japanese porn star Sora Aoi and Korean actress Song Hye-kyo.
After coverage in the Chinese press with snarky headlines like “Beautiful women mean productivity!” (link in Chinese) and backlash on social media, Alibaba took the ad down from its job board. Responding to Quartz’s inquiries, an Alibaba group spokesperson said the ad “was intended to be an attempt at humorous marketing to recruit IT talent.”
“We apologize to anyone offended by this ad and have taken it down,” the statement added. “Alibaba is committed to providing equal opportunity and fair treatment to all employees on the basis of merit, without discrimination.”
The ad had the flair of an April Fool’s joke, if an extremely offensive one. But according to Bloomberg, Alibaba is still advertising for a “programmer encouragement specialist,” just with the references to porn stars and women removed.
Quartz has translated the ad in its entirety below. It used to live at this link, but here’s a screenshot instead.
You didn’t read that wrong. This isn’t a job for a programmer. It’s for a Programmer! Encouragement! Specialist!
What the job is: Effectively encourage teams of developers, bring them closer together, inspire excellent and lasting work.
Basic requirements: Recognizably good looks. You don’t seek to be a peerless talent, but strive to adequately inspire programmers.
Location: Hangzhou city, the one and only origin of Alibaba.
First off we are very social and talkative. Job requirements:
Your appearance is adequately stunning to programmers. Even a quick glance at you should excite and inspire them greatly. You might be an open-minded lolita like Sora Aoi, who can face the greatest of challenges. Or you’re like Song Hye-kyo. From a wealthy family and with a Korean demeanor, possessing female beauty that exceeds nature itself; even without makeup countless programmers chase after you. You could also have a foreign demeanor, with bold style, a dignified way of speaking, encouraging the team the way a martial arts master does her students.
You must understand how to compliment and encourage programmers, and you can recognize the difference between praise and flattery. You can put engineers and programmers at ease, developing a spirited relationship with these co-workers and removing barriers between them. This relationship will develop like the inseparable bond of soldiers on a battlefield, together able to overcome the greatest challenges.
You must wake up programmers early for morning meetings, communicate to them their daily responsibilities, and verify and encourage completion of their duties.
You are able to identify the hidden potential in every programmer and engineer. With excellent listening and communication skills, you can turn them into soft-hearted men and women. You are warm to the complicated and difficult work they do, encouraging excellent and lasting work.
You are open to new things. You can tolerate highly garlicky and spicy foods that may contain strong flavors such as MSG and soy sauce.
You are capable of going anywhere in the world—whether to the United States, Canada, France, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, or the Philippines—to praise and encourage local programmers.
Finally, what is this job all about, and what’s in it for you?
Nothing, not even in our imaginations, is beyond reach when it comes to our footprint in the world of global business. We are working hard to create a social network at Alibaba, to make our mark on the world of business both in China and in the world at large. We won’t witness these changes, but take hold of them.
It’s true that 99% of the people around us think our team is crazy, “Working on groups at Alibaba, fuck.” But we’ll just say that even if it’s 100%, we don’t care. After all, working with a creative team on an awesome product is not something everyone understands. We are the dingtalk team.
Job requirements:
Team-oriented. Do you prefer one programmer to others, causing those sidelined to feel left out? Points subtracted.
A flatterer. Do you give off negative vibes to programmers? Points subtracted.
Is your photo is too beautiful, Photoshopped to the point that programmers can’t recognize you? Points subtracted.
Is your CV densely packed, with thousands of words, but none mention the feelings of programmers? Points subtracted.
You must understand technology and dingtalk, otherwise your mystification in conversation might slow the programmers down. 200 points sub-sub-subtracted and get away from our team!
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler told Republicans in Congress yesterday that their proposals to "improve" the FCC's decision-making process would instead make it nearly impossible to get anything done.
In a hearing titled "FCC Reauthorization: Improving Commission Transparency," the House Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology subcommittee brought in Wheeler to discuss adding new requirements to the commission's rulemaking process. It was the latest in a series of hearings that Republicans have called to chastise Wheeler for decisions opposed by Internet service providers, especially the ruling to reclassify the providers as common carriers and enforce net neutrality rules.
Republicans have proposed wiping out the new net neutrality rules and an FCC decision to boost municipal broadband, but yesterday's hearing focused on changes to prevent future decisions that Republicans don't like.
'Ringo wanted to make a point about Social Justice Warriors and how they’ve tainted science fiction in general, except for Baen, apparently the lone SJW-free SF/F publisher, whose political/social purity is thus being financially rewarded.'
(This is not specifically Hugo neepery, but it is related, so again, ignore if the subject bores you.)
Recently author John Ringo (in a Facebook post previously available to the public but since made private) asserted that every science fiction house has seen a continuous drop in sales since the 1970s — with the exception of Baen (his publisher), which has only seen an increase across the board. This argument was refuted by author Jason Sanford, who mined through the last couple of years of bestseller lists (Locus lists specifically, which generate data by polling SF/F specialty bookstores) and noted that out of 25 available bestselling slots across several formats in every monthly edition of Locus magazine, Baen captures either one or none of the slots every month — therefore the argument that Baen is at the top of the sales heap is not borne out by the actual, verifiable bestseller data.
(This is all related tangentially to the current Hugo nonsense, as Ringo wanted to make a point about Social Justice Warriors and how they’ve tainted science fiction in general, except for Baen, apparently the lone SJW-free SF/F publisher, whose political/social purity is thus being financially rewarded.)
Sanford is correct in his point that as a matter of books from Baen whose individual sales can compete with the sales of individual books from other science fiction publishers on a month-to-month basis, as charted by the Locus list, Baen’s showing is modest (the May Locus lists, incidentally, show no Baen books, whereas Tor shows up five times, Orbit five times, DAW four times, Del Rey three times, Ace and Harper Voyager once each, and non-genre-specific publishers like Bantam and Morrow taking the rest of the slots).
But does that mean Ringo’s larger assertion (sales of SF/F publishing houses are down since the 70s except for Baen) is false? Not necessarily! Here are some reasons Ringo might still be right:
1. Ringo’s first assertion (SF/F publishing houses sales down since the 70s) is independent of how any individual title by any publishing house stacks up against any other title by any publishing house in the month-to-month or week-to-week horse races known as the best-seller lists. That a book is #1 on the Locus list one month does not mean it sold the same number of books as any previous #1; nor does it speak to the overall sales of any particular publishing house.
2. Bestseller lists don’t (generally) track backlist sales or month-to-month sales of books that don’t hit the lists but nevertheless sell steadily. A book that initially sells modestly but keeps selling regularly can (and sometimes does) eventually sell more than a book that cracks the bestseller lists but then falls off precipitately. If Baen books are good backlist sellers — and better so than other publishers’ books — then Ringo’s assertion could be correct.
3. Publishing houses expand and contract all the time, and some years are better than others. If you’re charting the existence of a publishing house over 40 years — genre or otherwise — then its sales history is going to reflect that. It’s possible Baen’s own history has been one of consistent (although, if so, I would suspect very modest) growth, as it’s stuck to its knitting, specializing largely but not exclusively in specific sub-genres of science fiction and fantasy.
Now, in order for Ringo’s assertion to be proven true, he’d need to provide actual data that show all of these things, otherwise, he’s just asserting. Does he have that data? Well, hold up for a moment, because I have some other things I want to get to first.
Ringo’s assertion could be correct. But here are some various ways that Ringo could be — intentionally or otherwise — putting his thumb on the scale:
1. Baen has only been in business since 1983; comparing its sales history to a house like, say, Ace, which was founded 30 years prior and whose own sales history went through a couple of boom-and-bust cycles (not to mention changes in ownership) before Baen even came into being, not to mention other publishers who participated in the business cycles of the 70s that Baen did not, might be misleading.
2. If Baen’s initial sales were modest, then growth from that modest number would not necessarily be all that impressive; one can grow from modest numbers to only slightly less modest numbers and still see significant growth, percentage wise. Likewise, continued growth can be fractionally modest and still be growth. “Growth” without context is not a useful metric.
3. Additionally, “growth” in itself doesn’t necessarily mean that what Baen publishes does particularly well in sales, either by itself or in competition with other publishers. Scale is important. If Baen sells “X” books one year, and another publisher sells 3X, and then next year Baen sells X+1% while the other publisher sells 3X-1%, then Baen has experienced growth where the other publisher hasn’t — and the other publisher is still selling a healthy multiple of Baen.
4. Likewise, “growth,” while a nice thing, does not necessarily directly equate to success as a publisher. A publisher could shrink the number of titles it sells but end up making more money than it did with a larger list by focusing on core titles, paring off costs associated with selling an extended list (marketing, touring, advances, etc) and negotiating better deals with retailers, etc. Whereas growth, unchecked and unplanned, can lead to ruin; off the top of my head I can think of at least a couple of publishers in the genre who experienced enviable growth and then fell on their ass because their businesses didn’t scale.
5. Ringo’s focus on SF/F publishers elides that other non-SF specific houses have done a very good job selling science fiction and fantasy in recent years. The Martian, arguably the best-selling adult science fiction book of the last year, is published by Broadway. Ernie Cline, whose Ready Player One sells very well, is published by Crown. Neil Gaiman is published by Morrow. George RR Martin is published in paperback by Bantam. Lev Grossman is published by Viking. It also elides the entire YA market, which is a huge market for SF/F, almost all of which is published by YA-specific imprints rather than SF/F-specific imprints. So even if Ringo’s claim were broadly true, with regard to specific SF/F houses, the claim is so narrowly tailored with regard to how SF/F written work sells today — and by whom, and to whom — that it is of dubious utility.
6. Finally, Ringo appears to fall prey to the old “correlation is not causation” thing, in that even if Baen is experiencing growth where other SF/F houses are not, it’s not necessarily the case that it’s because its authors (or stories) are “SJW-free.”
Ringo appears wants to make to two arguments: One, that Baen has experienced consistent, across-the-board growth in its sales where other SF/F publishers have not. Two, that this is due to Baen not publishing authors or tales that are “SJW”-y; only “cracking good tales” allowed, the definition of which apparently preclude any Social Justice Warrior-ness (although apparently may include any number of conservative/reactionary tropes).
The first of these, naturally, would appear to be the easiest to prove or disprove. Here’s what you would need: Baen’s complete sales numbers from 1983 onward, and every other publisher’s sales numbers, since 1970 (or whenever they started business).
You’d need the first to establish that Baen’s sales have indeed always shown an upward trajectory of growth, which is to say 32 years of absolutely unbroken sales increases (and you’d need to make sure that sales were actual sales — i.e., exchange of money as opposed to downloading freely available ebooks, which Baen laudably offered well before anyone else). I’m going to go on record saying that while this is certainly possible, I suspect it’s unlikely; if nothing else there’s likely to have been a divot in 2008/2009, when the world economy crashed and everyone freaked out. But it could be true! And if so, good for them.
Then you’d need the second to establish that every other publisher in the genre has seen continuous decreased sales since the 1970s. This will be more difficult. Some of the most prominent publishers in the genre weren’t around in the 1970s; Tor, the largest US SF/F publisher, as an example, wasn’t founded until 1980. Others have almost certainly seen their sales expand as their reach has expanded; for example Orbit, which was founded in 1974 in the UK but which is now an international house with the distribution might of Hachette behind it. Still others have probably seen their sales grow since their founding simply because they are new houses; Saga Press, Simon and Schuster’s new SF/F imprint, will see infinite percentage sales growth this year because it literally did not exist last year. That alone, I would note, would invalidate Ringo’s assertion.
(And in all cases, again, you would have to show that the drop was continuous — that is, no uptick in sales at any point by any of these publisher in at least 35 years. Which seems, well. Unlikely.)
This is of course where the quibbles and caveats would come, but, you know. Words do mean things. If you’re going to say without qualification that every single SF/F publisher except one has seen continuous sales drops for decades, while that lone exception has seen a continuous increase in the same timeframe, it’d be nice to see the evidence of that assertion. Actual data, please!
Which might be hard to come by, as several SF/F publishers are owned by, or are themselves, privately owned companies. Baen is; so is, if memory serves, Tor Books. They are under no obligation to offer sales data to the public. Also, what sales data is publicly available is often incomplete — Bookscan, the most prominent book sales tracking apparatus in the US, does not track all sales (I’ve noted before that it tracks only a small percentage of my own overall sales). Authors can eventually learn their own total sales, but the key word here is “eventually,” as royalty statements can arrive semi-annually, and record sales with a six month lag. And of course authors themselves have no requirement to accurately report their specific sales to anyone.
All of which is to say that I wish John Ringo joy in actually proving his assertion. It’s rather easier to disprove.
The second part of Ringo’s assertion, the implication that Baen’s continuous sales upswing is due to cracking good SJW-free tales, I’m not going to bother to address seriously, because what a “Social Justice Warrior” is at this point is something of a moving target, the most consistent definition of which appears to be “Anyone left of Ted Cruz who certain politically conservative authors want to whack on in order to make whatever dubious, self-serving, fact-free point they wish to make at the moment.” I believe George RR Martin has recently been relegated to SJW status for being upset with the action of the Puppy slates and the Hugos; this is a curious maneuver if we’re talking “cracking good tales” and sales numbers as a proxy for… well, whatever they’re meant to be a proxy for.
It’s also bunk because while Baen is being used by Ringo as a synecdoche for a certain subgenres of science fiction (and the non-SJW agendas of the authors who produce it and the readers who read it), I have to wonder whether Baen itself wants that responsibility or affiliation. I mean, as just one example, we’re all aware that Baen published Joanna Russ, yes? More than once? Joanna Russ, part of the “new wave” of science fiction that Ringo identifies as a proto-SJW movement? Joanna Russ, who was the very definition of what is labeled a Social Justice Warrior before any conservative or reactionary person even thought to spit such an epithet from out between their lips? That Joanna Russ? The only way that Joanna Russ does not fully qualify for retroactive SJW status is if the definition of “SJW” actually includes “cannot be published by Baen Books.” And yet, apparently, she could tell a “cracking good tale,” because that’s what Baen publishes. Strange!
You know, here’s a thing. I am published by, and frequently associated with, Tor Books. I have a pretty good idea of how the place works. I do not presume to talk for them, or to suggest how they might proceed with their business, other than in the most general terms of “They’re going to mostly buy and sell science fiction and fantasy.” Why? Because that’s not my gig. I think if I started to tell people what sort of science fiction Tor is only going to sell, or who it will publish and who it will not, it might eventually get back to me that I should maybe not do that. Because who knows how that would play out? What authors who might be a great success at Tor — and for whom Tor could do a great job — would shy away from the house because I flapped my gums in apparent certain knowledge of what my editor and publisher wanted? What damage might I do associating the publishing house with politics and personalities they might wish to stay far away from? How uncomfortable might I make other authors my publisher works with by asserting what will and will not be published there? And how foolish would I look if I asserted something about what the publishing house would never do — and then the publishing house went and did it?
That previous paragraph is not entirely directed at Ringo, incidentally. I’ve seen a number of authors published by Baen asserting what the house would or would not do, with regard to stories and books and authors, and what is and would be published, and what is and would not, and to whom any of the above is sold. I can’t help wonder how many of them will be surprised one day. Baen is a house that publishes some very good science fiction, mostly of a certain type, and, one presumes, largely to a certain audience. But I would submit that the type of science fiction, and the audience for it, is rather more varied than is currently being asserted. I can scan my own shelves and find at a whole lot of Baen, and a whole lot of other publishers. It all goes into the pot for me. I suspect that it might irritate or annoy certain folks (not Ringo, but some others, I feel sure) that I like, read and promote Baen Books, but you know. The hell with that stupidity. Being a “social justice warrior” means I get to read (and incidentally, vote for on award ballots) what I want, rather than waiting to be told by someone else what I should like and what I shouldn’t.
In any event: Let’s put to rest the myth of exceptionalism of Baen Books. It’s like Tor, or Ace, or Orbit or Del Rey or lots of other SF/F houses (and other publishers) you might care to name. It’s in the businesses of selling books. Sometimes it has good years, sometimes it has less good years. Sometimes its authors win awards, sometimes they don’t. At the end of the day, however, it does the same thing as any publisher: It publishes books that it hopes, when you get to the end of them, you say “I’d like to read more like that.” Good for them. Good for any publisher who does that.
Super Opinionated.
Recently author John Ringo (in a Facebook post previously available to the public but since made private) asserted that every science fiction house has seen a continuous drop in sales since the 1970s — with the exception of Baen (his publisher), which has only seen an increase across the board. This argument was refuted by author Jason Sanford, who mined through the last couple of years of bestseller lists (Locus lists specifically, which generate data by polling SF/F specialty bookstores) and noted that out of 25 available bestselling slots across several formats in every monthly edition of Locus magazine, Baen captures either one or none of the slots every month — therefore the argument that Baen is at the top of the sales heap is not borne out by the actual, verifiable bestseller data.
It’s also bunk because while Baen is being used by Ringo as a synecdoche for a certain subgenres of science fiction (and the non-SJW agendas of the authors who produce it and the readers who read it), I have to wonder whether Baen itself wants that responsibility or affiliation. I mean, as just one example, we’re all aware that Baen published Joanna Russ, yes? More than once? Joanna Russ, part of the “new wave” of science fiction that Ringo identifies as a proto-SJW movement? Joanna Russ, who was the very definition of what is labeled a Social Justice Warrior before any conservative or reactionary person even thought to spit such an epithet from out between their lips? That Joanna Russ? The only way that Joanna Russ does not fully qualify for retroactive SJW status is if the definition of “SJW” actually includes “cannot be published by Baen Books.” And yet, apparently, she could tell a “cracking good tale,” because that’s what Baen publishes. Strange!
teens
teens 
