2009 September | jlake.com

[links] Link salad dons a fool’s cap

Last Drink Bird Head — And so we write for charity.

Ongoing Google Books Settlement neepery from Scrivener’s Error

The X-15 rocket plane, just prior to launch — Wow…

Craters Show 1970s Viking Lander Missed Martian Ice by Inches — Give an inch, take 80 million mile.

A Better Bug for Biofuels — Scientists are optimizing a lipid-producing microbe to make biofuels. Mmm, growing your own gasoline in a Mason jar would be cool.

Thanks For Not Killing Us Anymore — The decline of public smoking, environmentalism and us. (FWIW, I can recall back in the 1970s asking people please not to light up and having them laugh and blow smoke in my face. We’ve come a long way, baby.)

?otD: Biscuits or toast?

9/25/2009
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 5.75
This morning’s weigh-in: 235.8
Currently reading: The Real Wizard of Oz by Rebecca Loncraine

Tags: Books, Cool, Culture, Links, Personal, Photos, Publishing, Science, Tech

Posted: 5:53 am Fri September 25 2009 | Comments(2) |

[photos] Your Thursday moment of zen

Your Thursday moment of zen.

Photo (apparently) taken by me in Austin, TX, in the spring of 1983. From a box of slides (!) my sister scanned. I don’t remember ever shooting with slide film in my life, but I do remember being at the event this series of photos records. No one else in my family was there, as it was a departmental picnic for the Plan II program at the University of Texas at Austin, which was my major in college.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Posted: 5:57 am Thu September 24 2009 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad smiles for the camera

GBS: Named Plaintiffs Go Streaking — Scrivener’s Error with more Google Books settlement fun and games.

The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins: review

COMBO: collaboration animation by Blu and David Ellis — This is a damned amazing video.

Giz Explains: How To Fix the Airlines’ Stupid Portable Gadget Rules — Speaking as a frequent traveler, um, yes.

Water on the Moon… kinda — Ok. Cool. Where’s me pump?

Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse — This is kind of cool, albeit likely distorted by the lens of pop-sci journalism. Though I do wonder, are there any such thing as non-mysterious ruins?

What’s Augmented Reality’s Killer App?

That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger — A very curious article in the NYT about the limits of human endurance. Interesting stuff. (Thanks to .)

Misplaced Fears About the ‘Czars’ — Former Republican DOJ officials about the czar weirdness. Not that little things like facts or the historical record matter to most Republicans today — everyone from Glen Beck to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has piled on to this moronic bandwagon. Confidential to conservative America: Your outrage might have some moral authority if you could be outraged about things which are real, or at least substantive, instead of bizarre fabrications and cynical misrepresentations such as death panels, czars and birth certificates. Y’all just keep making yourself look like morons.

?otD: Digital or analog?

9/24/2009
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 6.0
This morning’s weigh-in: 235.0
Currently reading: The Real Wizard of Oz by Rebecca Loncraine

Tags: Art, Books, Cool, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, reviews, Science, Tech, Travel, Videos

Posted: 5:50 am Thu September 24 2009 | Comments(0) |

[sale] Short story “Embers” to Lace and Blade 3

As announced by here, our collaborative short story “Embers”, a romantic fantasy, has been acquired for Lace and Blade 3.

Tags: Calendula, Sale, stories

Posted: 3:43 pm Wed September 23 2009 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Wednesday moment of zen

Your Wednesday moment of zen.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Posted: 5:39 am Wed September 23 2009 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is too sweet to be sour, too nice to be mean

SF Signal‘s Mind Meld on how anthologies are put together — In which I am a participant. Worth reading if you want to know more about the anthology sausage factory, or editing short fiction in general.

on the evolution of her writing process

British Fantasy Society admits ‘lazy sexism’ over male-only horror book — Authors shocked as new horror anthology fails to include any female writers.

Airship Akron leaving for Cuba with bomber escort (1933) — A terrific photo from x planes.

Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs — Read this piece science fictionally. Some lovely worldbuilding elements here.

The Holy Grail of the Unconscious — Fascinating true story of the Liber Novus of Carl Jung.

Protecting the powerful is a feature, not a bug — Ben Goldacre on British libel laws.

Obama: US Determined to Act on Climate Change — It’s sure nice to have the reality-based community back in the White House. The Republican tendency to visualize the change you want to be may be a great political strategy, as well as a good tool for personal growth, but it collapses like a chocolate teapot in the face of actual facts.

?otD: Shaken or stirred?

9/23/2009
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 6.25
This morning’s weigh-in: 233.6
Currently reading: The Real Wizard of Oz by Rebecca Loncraine

Tags: Calendula, Cool, Culture, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Process, Publishing, Writing

Posted: 5:27 am Wed September 23 2009 | Comments(9) |

[contests] Flash Fiction open has a winner

Hat by criada

Photographed at the Whatcom Creek Estuary, in Washington State, by .

The Flash Fiction Open contest [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] now has a winner! Jonathan won with “Untitled“, capturing 71 votes out of 162 votes cast. Jonathan, please contact me in comments or via email, and I’ll send you an autographed copy of Green to celebrate your blue hat.

The rest of y’all drop by and read Jonathan’s winning story.

Tags: Contests, Photos, Polls, stories

Posted: 5:49 am Tue September 22 2009 | Comments(6) |

[photos] Your Tuesday moment of zen

Your Tuesday moment of zen.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Funny, Photos, signs, Texas, weird, zen

Posted: 5:41 am Tue September 22 2009 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad bestirs itself

A reader reacts to Green [ Powell's | Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Borders ]

A reader reacts to Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon thb | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Audible ]

A reader reacts to Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ]

A reader reacts to METAtropolis [ Audible.com | Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ]

Post-Medium Publishing — An interesting take on the value propostion of publishing. Counterpoint regarding ebooks here, “What’s Wrong With eBooks?” Note all the discussion of the relationship between content, formats and prices. (Via a mailing list I’m on.)

Black Holes Cannot Exist in Latest Theory of Quantum Gravity — Some fascinating intellectual contortions here.

The Why of METI and SETI — Centauri Dreams asks some important questions. “Because it’s cool” isn’t really enough of an answer. Except maybe it is…

Simpler Colon Cancer Screening — A new blood test could improve cancer-screening compliance. Pay attention, people. This almost killed me.

‘Smoking kills’, doctors warned in 1606 — Heh. (Thanks to .)

Glenn Greenwald: CIA Directors conclude CIA shouldn’t be investigated for murder — I can remember when conservatives at least pretended to stand for the rule of law, and railed against criminals getting off on technicalities. Even Watergate worked the way it did because many in the GOP chose principle over party. But somehow when it comes to torture and murder in the name of antiterrorism, situational ethics born of fear have displaced Constitutional loyalty among Republicans.

?otD: Chocolate or vanilla?

9/22/2009
Body movement: n/a (up late last night)
Hours slept: 6.5
This morning’s weigh-in: 233.4
Currently reading: The Real Wizard of Oz by Rebecca Loncraine

Tags: Books, Escapement, Green, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, Publishing, reviews, Science, stories

Posted: 5:38 am Tue September 22 2009 | Comments(3) |

[photos] Steam engine time (again!)

Yesterday, while coming back from ‘s Oregon coast writing retreat in Rockaway Beach, OR, we passed a steam engine, an 0-4-4-0 logging locomotive, to be specific. The Genre car tends to want to pull over in such situations, so I let the vehicle have its head. and stayed in the vehicle and chatted while I walked around the steaming hunk of iron and steel.

It was stopped in Rockaway Beach at the far end of an excursion run from Tillamook. The fireman was wandering around checking the valves and whatnot, while the locomotive belched steam and burbled like a baleen whale with terminal indigestion.

Photos, as may be expected, were taken: