It's raining birthdays! Happy birthday to the wonderful jasonbsizemore and dannyboy8406 today, the fabulous dracschick and juxiantang tomorrow, and the magnificent wellinghall the day after tomorrow. All of you deserve to have terrific birthdays, and many more to come!


* In other news, my article "Florida's Forgotten Rebels: Rediscovering the most successful slave revolt in American history," from the April 2007 issue of Reason, is now online at the magazine's website. (My past articles for Reason are available here.)


* Apparently The "Life Is Too Grim Already" League is the latest literary movement in science fiction, followed closely by the New Comprehensible and New Space Princess movements. Ah, remember the heady days of the Mundane Science Fiction debate with Geoff Ryman and Ian McDonald, complete with manifestos?


To me, one of the strengths of SF is that it is an allegorical literature: parables and myths of our age. - Ian McDonald