Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/all/1

Phantom Menace Review
The best (and longest) movie review I’ve ever encountered.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/12/17/watch-this-70-minute-video-review-of-star-wars-the-phantom-menace/

Star Wars quotes in Japanese
http://nihonshock.com/2009/12/star-wars-quotes-in-japanese/

Can tongue surgery improve English-speaking ability?
http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/12/21/can-tongue-surgery-improve-english-speaking-ability/

Richard K Morgan on the Pointlessness of Arguing About Genres
http://www.richardkmorgan.com/article_soundfury.htm

Satan Takes Pokemon Seriously

Kim Peek, the original Rain Man, dies
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6964730.ece

Using Menu Psychology to Entice Diners
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/23menus.html?pagewanted=all

Robot Invasion YouTube Video from Uruguay leads to Hollywood contract
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8417789.stm

HP Computers Are Racist

Reading By Numbers, my first SFWA-level published story has garnered some nice feedback.

Fantasy Magazine interviewed me about the story.  After reading the interview, quite a few people (including computer programmer friends) realised they’d missed the hidden codes in the story.

Sean Wallace, Fantasy Magazine’s publisher wrote: “Here at FM we like to occasionally run something really strange and wonderful,
and you don’t get stranger than with Aidan Doyle’s “Reading By Numbers”:
http://oldcharliebrown.livejournal.com/287013.html

Molly Tanzer, the magazine’s assistant editor describes it as “weird, creepy and beautiful.”
http://paperfruit.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/newsfeed/#more-557

Readers left some very nice remarks in the story’s comments section.  The most common reaction seemed to be that the story was “creepy.” One reader even went as far as saying “This is the most enjoyable story I’ve read all year.”
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2009/11/reading-by-numbers/#comments

Language Computeer writes: “any number of you mathematico-linguistic slipstream fiction fans might enjoy this story: Reading by Numbers, by Aidan Doyle.  If you like math or horrorish SF — and especially if you like both — you’ll probably enjoy it.”
http://trochee.livejournal.com/2009/11/24/

My fellow Clarionite and Queen of Wrongtown, Angela Slatter graciously plugged the story, writing: “This story has a higher IQ than I do.”
http://angelaslatter.com/2009/11/23/reading-by-numbers/

The most awesome Tessa Kum, a Clarion Souther from 2005 describes the story as “naaaaasty”
http://silence-without.blogspot.com/2009/12/see-these-other-horns-lo-i-blow-them.html

Lois Tilton at The Internet Review of Science Fiction gave it a recommendation, saying: “the narrative is original, fresh and engaging.”
http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10609

Rich Horton describing Fantasy Magazine’s fiction for 2009 says: “Other good work came from Catherine J. Gardner, Ari Goelman, Paul Jessup, Megan Arkenberg, and Aidan Doyle.”
http://ecbatan.livejournal.com/87459.html

http://www.theage.com.au/world/terrorist-scare-puts-pressure-on-obama-20091228-lh9e.html?autostart=1

But around the nation, politicians and security experts were questioning Ms Napolitano’s assessment, particularly in light of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s father, a former Nigerian government minister, notifying the US embassy in Abuja six months ago of his son’s increasingly radical views and that he had travelled to Yemen.

Umaru Abdulmutallab expressed surprise over the weekend that his son had been permitted to fly.

The younger Abdulmutallab had been put on a broad watchlist, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, which contains more than 500,000 names and is shared by law enforcement agencies.

But his visa to enter the US was not revoked and he was not put on the no-fly list or the list that would have required additional screening.

The real reason the terrorism watchlist wasn’t taken seriously:

Dear Department of Homeland Security,

I am a former Nigerian government minister and I am writing to you with very important information.  My son …

Mark as spam.

Trained-up ninja monkeys ‘turn on master’
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/984812/trained-up-ninja-monkeys-turn-on-trainer

Chinese opera face-changing
http://www.reuters.com/article/video/idUSTRE5BA0I720091211?videoId=12268497

Coconut Collecting Octopus

The Inexplicable Adventures Of “Zombie vs. Ninja”
http://io9.com/5429240/the-inexplicable-adventures-of-zombie-vs-ninja

Creepy Japanese Baby Simulator
http://gizmodo.com/5429651/japanese-baby-simulator-is-1000-times-creepier-than-a-normal-baby

Your Chance to buy a Japanese island previously used by the Imperial Navy as a disinfection station.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/6811348/Japan-auctions-Hiroshima-island-to-help-balance-books.html

Economist “Did you know?” on Social Media & Technology

R.I.P. Alien Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon
http://io9.com/5429739/rip-alien-screenwriter-dan-obannon

John Scalzi -- The Winners and Losers of ’00s SciFi Movies
http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2009/12/scifi-winners-and-losers-of-the-decade.php

John Scalzi -- The Ten Worst SciFi Blockbusters of the ’00s
http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2009/12/worst-scifi-movies-of-the-00s.php#more

Anything that happens in December is irrelevant.

That’s the impression you could get from the fact that swarms of best of the year lists were released in November and early December.

It seems just a tad presumptious to chronicle the best books or films of the year when the year hasn’t even finished.

Publishers Weekly published their Top 10 Books of 2009 at the start of November!
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6704595.html

And even organisations that you might suspect would be a bit more accurate in defining what they meant by “year” didn’t have the patience to wait.  Google released their list of search terms that had increased the most in popularity in 2009 (this is different from “most popular” search terms) on December 1st.

2009 Year-End Google Zeitgeist
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/press/zeitgeist2009/

The abundance of best of the year lists ranged from the widely inclusive:
Time’s Top 10 Everything of 2009
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1945379,00.html

to the more specialised:
Best Lesbian Films of 2009    
http://www.shewired.com/Article.cfm?ID=24057

And since (depending on what point you start counting from) it’s the end of a decade, there are more lists covering the 00s.

The 100 Best Films of the Decade
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6902642.ece

The 100 Best Books of the Decade
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_reviews/article6914181.ece

20 Best SF Books of the Decade
http://io9.com/5423847/20-best-science-fiction-books-of-the-decade

20 Greatest SF Movies of the Decade
http://io9.com/5426147/20-greatest-sf-movies-of-the-past-decade

Is this just another symptom of our impatience?  When you can get information so easily, why do you want to wait until it’s relevant?

I don’t buy the argument that nothing significant is released in December (or indeed November).  It isn’t all just family Christmas fare.  Just a couple of days ago,  a small film called Avatar hit cinemas.  Many of the early reviews haven’t been favorable, but excluding a new James Cameron film sight unseen from consideration for a list of best SF films of the year strikes me as a dubious practice.

I enjoy reading best of lists and indeed making my own lists.  But since the Christmas/New Year period is often a time when I get a lot of reading done, you’ll have to wait until 2009 is over before you can get my opinion on what I thought were the best books and movies of 2009.

I’m sure you all can’t wait.