Fantasist’s Scroll

Happy birthday, Bond!
Well, it’s more accurate to wish his creator, Ian Flemming, happy birthday.
Yes, today is Ian Flemming‘s birthday, according to the Wikipedia. Born in London, England in 1908, Flemming wanted to be a diplomat, but he failed the Foreign Office examination and decided to go into journalism. He worked for the Reuters News Service in London, Moscow, and Berlin, and then during World War II, he served as the assistant to the British director of naval intelligence. After the war, he bought a house in Jamaica, where he spent his time fishing and gambling and bird watching. He started to get bored, so he decided to try writing a novel about a secret agent. He named the agent James Bond after the author of a bird-watching book.
After a several books that sold less and less well, Flemming started to write with the movies in mind. He wrote more sensational books filled with a larger than “normal” helping of psychopathic killers, beautiful women and bizarre plots to conquer the world. Though his books began to sell better, it was only years later that the movie industry took an interest, thus sealing the hopes of budding novelists everywhere of selling the movie rights to their novel.

Well, happy birthday anyway.

Here’s why….

Or, at least, here’s why some people think you’re feeling spooked. According to this article on Reuters, sub-sonic “music” may cause people to experience strange, otherwise unexplainable feelings. Something about this particular ultra-low bass sound just freaks people out. The speculation is that sites where people are convinced there are ghosts have something that generates this sound naturally. Okay, it’s kind of far-fetched, but still…

And, Happy Halloween!

Well, I’ve never bought one, but…

According to this article on YahooNews, but from Reuters, e-books are basically dead. Not quite dead, but almost. Seems that they never sold as well as they were hyped and the competing formats damaged their overall reputation. Still, there is still a small market for e-books. I know, for instance, that there’s a market for e-book gaming suppliments, adventures and the like. But, overall, that’s a pretty small slice of the pie, so I can see how publishers would be less than willing to layout the expense.
In any case, it’s an interesting article. Just make sure to read between the lines. E-books aren’t really dead, just way, way ahead of their time.