Why being a "logistics city" could be Louisville's ultimate downfall

UPS-Truck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A staggering number of us Louisvillians are giddily patting ourselves on the back for the flattering portrait of our hometown recently painted by the National Journal, the apex of which was this brief missive on how much business the UPS WorldPort has brought to the Derby City.

In truth, that article just threw down the gauntlet of how and why Louisville must prepare for the future, because that which makes us wealthy now will not persist.

The advent of 3D printing will decimate the logistics industry just as surely as the advent of the Internet decimated the content publishing industry. If Louisville is to survive the next-thirty-years' shift from centralized to distributed bespoke manufacturing, we need to position ourselves now.

Everything wrong with Star Trek Into Darkness, according to three random geeks

Star Trek into Darkness (Photo credit: David Holt London)

In one those rare moments of serendipitous geekery, Paul Weimer and Shaun Duke threw out a random "anybody want to jump on a podcast about Star Trek Into Darkness in five minutes?" flares on Twitter and, to my own surprise, I had a free evening.

The result is an hour of unremitting podcast hostility towards the Hollywood machine that is dismantling Star Trek, as only ad hoc nerdrage can deliver it.

If you liked the movie and want to understand why you were wrong to do so (he said, tongue only half in cheek), this is the podcast for you. Tune in and unlearn all that J.J. Abrams foolishly tried to teach you. It's fun to use anger for good.

Related articles

• Matt Smith: 'I would love a role in Star Trek or Star Wars'
• No, Abrams Will Not Leave Star Wars For Star Trek
• Rumor Patrol: 'Star Trek 3′ Script Duties Currently in Hands of 'Thor' Writers
• STAR TREK 3 gets two new writers and J.J. Abrams might dump STAR WARS: EPISODE VII
• Star Trek Into Darkness Review

The best stories of April 2013 (according to my Twitter feed)

Superheroine Long Beach Comic Con 2011 (Photo credit: richcz3)

1. Drawing the impossible? Fully dressed Superheroines (560)
2. The one true secret to sustained creative success (82)
3. Using Moore's Law to explain the Fermi Paradox (55)
4. “Straight Male Gamer” told to ‘get over it’ by BioWare (27)
5. A T-Shirt for Louisville Web Nerds (15)
   xkcd: Authorization (15)
6. ALL THE WANTS!!! (14)
7. Relationships Are More Important Than Ambition (13)
8. Data journalism busts lawbreaking cops, wins Pulitzer (12)
9. The fact that this pizza franchise doesn't exist is a personal insult to all nerds (11)
   10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America (11)

Stats gathered via Buffer

Are fantasy readers less demanding (or less logical) than sci-fi fans?

Storm Trooper Jayne (Photo credit: Cayusa)

We all know that one guy who claims to love science fiction but throws a galactic hissy fit if any story involves faster-than-light travel. But is that FTL-snob typical of science fiction in a way that, say, historical swordcraft experts are not typical of epic fantasy?

In other words, are sci-fi fans more anal about details than fantasy readers?

SF Signal convened another panel of qualified experts (and me) to debate the issue via podcast. Those answering better than me include:

• Jeff Patterson
• Paul Weimer
• Josh Vogt
• Jamie Todd Rubin
• Patrick Hester

I hesitate to say we arrived at a conclusion, except for, "FTL snob guy? Lighten up."

As always, my litany of past SF Signal podcast sins is available here.

Related articles

• The Hard, Soft, High and Low of it
• New Documentary Sets Out to Rewrite Science Fiction History
• How Do You Like Your Sci-Fi?
• Top 33 Writing Terms You Should Know
• Chris Nolan is going hard sci-fi with his next movie Interstellar

Kickstarter doesn't validate your product; it validates your pitch (and that's okay)

I came here to praise Kickstarter, not to bury it, but this article on major corporations using Kickstarter for product research reminded me of a lesson we covered at the Louisville Digital Association's crowdfunding workshop a few months ago: Kickstarter is sales training, not product research.

Well, that's not entirely fair. Kickstarter does provide some basic market research about your product description and maybe your price point, but only in the context of your marketing. Kickstarter can't validate a product that doesn't exist. It can only validate what you're putting in front of the consumer and all Kickstarter puts in front of the consumer is your marketing pitch.

Kickstarter validates your marketing pitch, not your product.