Stanislaw Lem died yesterday. The NYT has a nice obit on C-19.

My favorite detail:

In the 50s, for reasons presumably known to themselves, Polish censors wouldn't allow anything to do with cybernetics to be published. Lem, accordingly, wrote about "mechanioristics" instead, a term of his own devising that meant exactly the same thing. It is unclear whether this helped in ultimately getting the stuff published.

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On a much lighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Hal Duncan's ten points about writing. Without showing any of my cards about my actual agreement or disagreement with any of this, it makes for hilarious reading, particularly his description in Point 7 of the Zone: "Remember: sleep-deprivation is the poor man's hallucinogen."

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A disturbing thought:

If God wanted us to use our precious coffee and whiskey money to buy stamps, why did he give us e-mail?

The theological issues raised by the refusal of certain big pro-markets--you know who you are!--to take e-subs are staggering.