Links and Minifeatures 10 10 Monday

Seems like every time I go to a con these days I'm disappointed at how small they are. Mind you, Conjecture is supposed to be a small local con, but still the number of attendees in evidence was disappointing. The good news is Vernor Vinge told me he just turned in a new book to his publisher (he had a reading, but it was fully subscribed when I arrived). Saw a good friend of mine on an excellent panel on believable villains. A panel on fandom activity with the intent of vacuuming more people into fandom spent way too much time on costuming and con-going. The former is about the highest investment in fandom there is, and the latter can be intimidating to newcomers, not to mention that even one day passes to cons are twenty-five to thirty dollars. Going into an event at a hotel with a bunch of strangers that all know each other when you know nobody is a tough thing to talk a lot of people into. The thing that will pay dividends is the once or twice a month group that meets over coffee or soda or cheap dinner to discuss books or movies or ideas or gaming or all of the above. Yes, you're still wandering into a group of strangers, but the initial level of commitment is much lower, and the group is small enough not to be so intimidating. It's the first in a series of low bar items that gets them hooked. Put it on or near a college campus if you can. The worst mistake I've ever seen a club make was move away from its college roots.

So what if the people who make all the big decisions are 40 or 50 now? College campuses are your best source of new victims members.



All I can say is that the multiplier for science fiction entertainment units sold (books, games, movie tickets/DVDs) versus number of active fans is several times what it was in the years after the first Star Wars movie. They're selling more sf all the time, and fandom is getting both smaller and older. The people are there and available if we get them interested. Comic Con gets bigger every year (107,000 last year).

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Michelle Malkin has excellent coverage of Louis Farrakhan and his second attempt on the "Million Man Mooch". He's an embarrassment to the entire species.



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La Shawn Barber writes a very good article on a subject I've talked about any number of times: why our upper level politicians don't see the threat posed by illegal immigration. They've already got jobs, most of them with excellent pensions and health care for life. If they were to actualy be voted out of office, they would be set on the "consultant" or lobbyist gravy trains for life. They don't go to the same health care most of us do. Their children don't attend the same schools. They are not competing for jobs with illegal immigrants and they are not competing for contracts with those who employ illegal immigrants. If they opposed illegal immigration, what it would mean is that it would align a very vocal special interest group against them, making winning elections harder. And they are all about making election wins easier, not harder.



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I usually don't bother linking stuff I find through Instapundit, figuring most of my readers will see it anyway. But this Gateway Pundit article about the advancement of democracy in China is too important to pass up. Lest you not understand, China is a strong federal system where all power flows outward and downward from Beijing. They've had bottom level elections for a while now, but the communists are resisting allowing the elections to move any further up the chain of power. Why? Because the low level elections have convinced them that they will get tossed out on their keisters, of course. There is significant and increasing tension between the government and those who advocate democracy. I'm not certain where they're going, but China has a long and colorful history of civil wars.



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I've had a close family member admitted to hospice care in another city. I and my youngest brother are off early tomorrow to spend a couple of days saying goodbye. For the rest of today, I'm going to be busy winding up loose ends so my wife can more easily deal with issues while I'm gone. Not being a laptop type of person, I won't have access to the internet until I return late Thursday or sometime Friday unless I visit a public library or some such, which is unlikely. I'll probably have a repost of a past article tomorrow morning, but no further activity until I return.