[links] Link salad wonders where the week is going
Westward Weird came out yesterday — I have a story therein, “The Temptation of Eustace Prudence McAllen”, first in the doc, which is a nice position. Various of my co-authors have commented on the anthology and their stories, including Seanan McGuire, Dean Wesley Smith, and Steven Saus.
Próba Kwiatów – Jay Lake — A mixed review, in Polish, of the Polish edition of my novel Trial of Flowers.
SF in SF — Just a reminder that this coming Saturday, 2/11, I will be at SF in SF with K.W. Jeter and Rudy Rucker. If you’re in the Bay Area, come on down.
10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy — He’s talking about ad copy, not fiction, but this is still interesting and worthwhile stuff. (Via Curiosity Counts.)
Kill the Local News — Writer Jeremy Tolbert on sensationalism.
Mindful Eating as Food for Thought
Scale of the Universe — Another fun take on the “powers of 10″ meme. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)
What did people do: in a Medieval City? — (Via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1)
danjite.)
Self-Cloning Seagrass May Be World’s Oldest Living Thing
Mars-bound NASA rover carries coin for camera checkup — This is cool and kind of poetic.
Mapping the Road Ahead for Autonomous Cars
Turing’s Enduring Importance — The path computing has taken wasn’t inevitable. Even today’s machines rely on a seminal insight from the scientist who cracked Nazi Germany’s codes. An interesting article, although I wish in mentioning his suicide it had acknowledged the disgusting way Turing was treated by his own people.
The State of Gay Marriage — Being a handy map to show you where bigotry has triumphed, and where respect for basic human rights is gaining ground.
The Single Most Powerful Quote From California’s Prop 8 Ruling — “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.” Like opposition to interracial marriage forty years ago, Prop 8 is bigotry, pure and simple, a combination of narrow-minded religious privilege and typically unfounded conservative alarmism. Like opposition to interracial marriage today, forty years from now people will be ashamed to admit in public what they once voted and for and believed.
The Business Case Against Karen Handel — John Scalzi with a very sensible take on the (surprising to me) resignation of Karen Handel from the Susan G. Komen foundation. For my own part, I’ll observe that as usual when the Right tries strong-arm tactics, they only see unfairness when they get caught out.
Planned Parenthood’s Deep Bench — Ta-Nehisi Coates with some interesting thoughts on the fight that Komen picked when they decided to show their true conservative colors.
Why the Energy-Industrial Elite Has It In for the Planet — Social and political commentary on the funding impetus behind the intellectual fraud of climate change denial.
Jesus versus the GOP — The man from Nazareth would have been appalled by the “Christian” Republican candidates. The only thing I have to say to political Christianists is “Matthew 6:6“.
‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World — The declining influence of the US Constitution overseas.
Republicans Finally Realize They’re Helping Obama — Like their counterparts from 16 years before, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives last year filled with revolutionary zeal, assuming that they could leverage their hold over one branch of Congress into sweeping changes in the national agenda. And like their predecessors, they blundered into high-profile confrontations with a Democratic president and suffered prolonged and deep damage in their public standing, with each new defeat slowly leeching the fanatical determination out of them.
Santorum Upsets G.O.P. Race With Three Victories — I really can’t decide who would be the bigger disaster for this country, Senator Frothy Mix or Governor 1%. Our last Republican president set an extremely low bar for destructive incompetence, something the GOP electorate seems to have very conveniently forgotten.
?otd: How was your Tuesday?
2/8/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.25 (solid)
Weight: 230.8
Currently reading: n/a (between books)
Tags: Books, Cancer, cars, climate, Conventions, Cool, Culture, Food, games, gay, gender, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, reviews, Science, sex, stories, Tech, Trial, Writing
Posted: 6:24 am Wed February 08 2012 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad enjoyed the reading
A reader reacts to Endurance — I think they liked it.
The Self-Sabotaging Writer — Kameron Hurley on the perils of being a writer. (Via Steve Buchheit.)
What the Nook Means — A new Nook’s on its way. Can it save books?
The Milhous Collection — A meticulously assembled selection of mechanical musical instruments, vintage automobiles and more. (Via danjite.)
Cloud Cover’s Role in Exoplanet Studies
Study measures mammalian growth spurt — It takes 24 million generations for mouse-sized mammals to evolve into elephants — but shrinking back is much faster.
Mind-reading program translates brain activity into words — The research paves the way for brain implants that would translate the thoughts of people who have lost power of speech.
cassiealexander on Rick Santorum, privilege, healthcare, and sick kids — What she says.
The End of Health Insurance Companies — I don’t think I actually believe this piece, but it’s a nice thought.
Inside the heresy files — Interrogation. Surveillance. Ethnic profiling. Censorship. The words come from 21st-century headlines, but they have an ancient pedigree. Cullen Murphy on how the Inquisition ignited the modern police state. (Snurched from Scrivener’s Error.)
McConnell’s Revisionist History: Congress Gave Obama Everything He Wanted! — Can he possibly believe this? McConnell, of all people? More to the point, why does anybody else believe this?
Marsh on Obama: The Party’s Over — Sigh.
Delusions of Obama the Idiot — It’s amazing that the GOP has somehow convinced itself that Obama is some kind of beguiling intellectual lightweight. Once you accept that ideology trumps reality, it’s easy to put faith in any whackdoodle idea that enters one’s head.
Gingrich, Romney, and “Reckoning with the Base”
Romney versus Gingrich slugfest is harbinger of Republican civil war — We can only hope. Meanwhile, I continue to marvel at the Republican base’s vitriolic view of liberals, who are guilty of bringing America such heinous sins as the forty hour work week, paid vacations, child labor laws, clean air and water, and other such violations of our civil rights, all over the strong objections of conservatives.
Welfare Drug Testing Bill Withdrawn After Amended To Include Testing Lawmakers — Don’t worry, it will be back. Oppressing the poor is a club sport for the GOP.
Huh? Mitt claims Newt outspent him in S.C. — Huh. Republicans lying about each other. The candidates and party leadership know it doesn’t matter. The message always trumps facts. The low information voters who make up the GOP base will just nod and follow along like they always do.
The Myth of the American Political Intelligence Gap
?otd: When’s the last time you attended a live reading?
2/1/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.5 (solid)
Weight: 228.8
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor
Tags: Books, cars, Cool, ebooks, Endurance, healthcare, Links, music, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, Videos, Writing
Posted: 6:23 am Wed February 01 2012 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad head back west
The unbearable loss of words
Dear 16 year old me — A video about malignant melanoma. (Via David Ivory.)
Mercedes apologizes for using Che Guevara image — Using a mass murderer to sell cars. Classy.
Great Science Frauds — Science is not known for drama, except when a researcher commits fraud.
New Storage Device Is Very Small, at 12 Atoms
NASA able to observe a long time ago, in newly found galaxies far, far away — Researchers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to find five tiny but bright galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years from Earth.
Saturn’s Iapetus: Painted Moon
Exosaturn — Discovering a ring system around a planet orbiting a distant star. Wow.
How Do Iraqis View the Effects of the Iraq War? — Ahem.
Uncompassionate Conservatism — The point isn’t necessarily that Romney has lived in privilege all his life; so did FDR. It’s his apparent inability or unwillingness to imagine what it’s like for those less privileged, his complete failure to try, even in his imagination, walking in someone else’s shoes that stands out. This echoes a point I’ve made a number of times in the past is that the contemporary incarnation of conservatism involves a failure of both empathy and imagination. (Via David Goldman.)
?otd: How many of you have never flown in an airplane?
1/13/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (not enough time)
Body movement: Airport walking to come.
Hours slept: 6.5 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes
Tags: Cancer, cars, Cool, Culture, healthcare, Iraq, Language, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Science, Tech
Posted: 3:52 am Fri January 13 2012 | Comments(3) |
[personal|cancer] Driving my way toward radicalism
Last night I dreamt that a former boss (and still good friend) of mine wanted to hire me for an unusual project. She said I wasn’t radical enough, and she asked me in my dream to drive a Mercedes-Benz from Jerusalem to Beijing.
The dream wasn’t about the road trip itself, though in real life I’d take that on in a heartbeat, but rather about all the preparation. Which borders could or should I cross? How to outfit the vehicle? Do I have friends in the Middle East or Central Asia I could call upon for help?
It was fascinating, how into the project I was, and a bit melancholy to know even within the dream that it was only a dream.
And so goes cancer. A journey that keeps changing, where I look for borders and boundaries and friends and wonder who to call for help. Likewise, I suspect this is the Antarctica project lurching into view from somewhere deep within me. Still, I’d drive that car from here to there, and take ten thousand photos on the way.
Wouldn’t you?
Tags: Cancer, cars, dreams, health, Personal
Posted: 6:25 am Tue November 22 2011 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad enters November
Hudspith Steam Powerd Bicycle — (Via danjite.)
U.S. Navy Expands Algae Biofuel Testing At Sea And In The Air
Your average, everyday zombie — Real life zombies from our friends in the animal kingdom.
Self-similar textures in 3D computer graphics — This is pretty cool.
Would Jesus Occupy Wall Street? — No, old JC run them down with His SUV. Ask anyone in the GOP base.
Obama Wrote 5% Fewer Rules Than Bush While Costing Business — Hey, look, another conservative talking point about Obama turns out to be a lie. Who could possibly have foreseen such a thing?
?otD: How many souls today?
11/1/2011
Wriing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 11.0 hours (fitful overnight plus napping)
Weight: 215.8
Currently (re)reading: Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
Tags: cars, Cool, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science
Posted: 5:21 am Tue November 01 2011 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad for a sleepy Wednesday
A thoughtful and rather starkly negative review of Green — One might well imagine my intentions for the book were rather different than this reviewer’s experience of the book.
What are the most interesting societies, alien or otherwise, in SF/F? — Another SF Signal Mind Meld, including comments from me.
Parents Urged Again to Limit TV for Youngest — Yeah, no kidding. Mother of the Child and I have raised the_child without television and with only limited access to video, and she seems to have done just fine.
Android debuts Ice Cream Sandwich — Really, I just love this headline. Context is for the weak.
When Hacking Your Car Is a Civic Duty
Seeing through walls — Researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Lab have developed new radar technology that provides real-time video of what’s going on behind solid walls. I’m sure Harry Potter has a spell for this.
Habitable, Not Earth-like — Centauri Dreams on exoplanets.
Dust storm shrouds Texas city — An enormous cloud hits Lubbock, where residents compare it to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The ongoing drought helped produce the storm, an expert says. So where are the Christianists claiming some imagined slight against their deity? If God can punish Orlando or DC, why not Lubbock?
Spain’s stolen babies and the families who lived a lie — The role of the religious leaders of Spain in this story is disgusting. Can you imagine the reaction if atheists were stealing babies from Catholic hospitals?
David Barton and Ken Ham aren’t mistaken, they’re just lying — Creationists lying? Perish the thought.
Ralph Reed: When the Government Helps the Poor, It Takes Away Our Liberty — I’m sure it says exactly that in one of my Bibles here.
Glenn Beck: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Will ‘Kill Everybody’ — Right. Because the first impulse of liberal-progressives is to proclaim the need for Second Amendment remedies and talk about watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants. Oh, and to bomb clinics, too. Projection much, Glenn?
?otD: What questions did you ask today?
10/19/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (fitful)
Weight: 218.6
Currently reading: The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod
Tags: Books, cars, Christianists, Cool, Funny, Green, Links, Occupy Wall Street, parenting, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, Spain, Tech, Texas, Writing
Posted: 5:38 am Wed October 19 2011 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad wishes for improbable food
selfavowedgeek with a review of my short novel Death of a Starship
Deciding to fish or cut bait. Jonesing for MMORPGs. — Urban Fantasy author J.A. Pitts on why he used to game obsessively, and why he doesn’t any more. I could have written this same post, except that I quit RPGs before MMORPGs came along. As I’ve said before, if Everquest or World of Warcraft had existed in my teens or twenties, I wouldn’t have a writing career today. I’d be an umpteenth level wizard-thief or whatever instead of an author. And I continue to wonder how many voices never came to being in SF/F because they chose the rewards of a collaborative, immersive gaming environment over hours, days and years alone at the keyboard. Who knows what stories we’ll never read?
Fantasy: High, Low and…? Part Two: Saving the World Six Times before Breakfast (Or Not) — Author A.J. Luxton continues their ruminations on fantasy.
B&N and DC: Exclusivity Rears Its Ugly Head Once Again — Crap. I’ve been boycotting Amazon for the past year and a half for doing eaxctly what Barnes & Noble just did. That is, abuse its market power to punish print authors for an only tangentially related dispute in a different product line. B&N’s actions don’t affect me directly, as I’m not a DC comics author nor a reader, but god damn it, I don’t want to run out of big bookstores. (And yes, I buy independent when I can, but sometimes big is useful.)
World’s oldest running car fetches $4.6 million at auction — Now this is just awesome. (Snurched from jimvanpelt.)
Electric TRON Lightcycle Outed by Parker Brothers — (Via David Goldman.)
Will the Large Hadron Collider Explain Everything?
Octopi Wall Street! — (Thanks to danjite.)
Herman Cain: pizza boss, radio host, ballistics expert, minister. President? — Once the butt of late-night comedians, the Tennessee-born politician has emerged as the unlikely darling of the right.
Palin pulls a Palin — Sarah-watchers were not surprised when she announced she wouldn’t run for president. It was never her goal. A con’s a con. Thank you John McCain for visiting this woman upon America. She will be your political legacy.
Will Romney-Perry race be Christian vs. Christian? — I will point out that claiming the Mormon church is not Christian isn’t equivalent to saying it’s a cult. Whether something is a cult is a matter of perspective. As an atheist, to my view Mormons are no more or less a cult than Southern Baptists. As for Christian, I’m not in charge of those labels, but that would seem to be a definable matter. What I do know is that conservative party is infested with Christianists, that is, people who use the trappings of Christianity as clubs to wage political and cultural war for their personal bigotry and wilful ignorance. Mormon, Southern Baptist, I could not care less; it’s the Christianists I fear and despise. It’s the Christianists who’ve been busily destroying the social fabric of our nation my entire political lifetime.
Why Not Question Romney’s Religion? — Back in 2008, the only moment when the Obama campaign looked to be in some difficulty was when the GOP attacked his church and firebrand pastor Jeremiah Wright. The attack itself was dishonest in that the McCain campaign took the words of the sermon out of context. On the one hand, I’m perfectly happy to see the Republican party eating their own young for a change instead of pissing in the national pot as usual. On the other hand, even as atheist, I don’t think this is a legitimate line of attack. My own belief in freedom of religion is absolute, but I likewise believe it absolutely stops at the edge of the public square. In other words, Romney or Perry or whoever can believe what they will with my full support, but they can’t impose those beliefs on me on or anybody else. It’s in the second part of that belief that I find my lifelong quarrel with American conservatism, not the first.
?otD: Melon balls or mountain oysters?
10/9/2011
Writing time yesterday: 3.5 hours (revisions and WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 218.0
Currently reading: The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod
Tags: amazonfail, Books, cars, Christianism, Cool, Funny, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, Starship, Writing
Posted: 6:45 am Sun October 09 2011 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad actually sleeps for the first time in almost a week
Why Even Resolute Dieters Often Fail
Ghost cars of the world
Plant RNAs Found in Mammals — MicroRNAs from plants accumulate in mammalian blood and tissues, where they can regulate gene expression.
The Milky Way from the top of the world — Quite an image.
A Wary Look at Habitable Worlds
Baptistina Asteroid Did Not Cause Dinosaur Extinction — In the Yucatan, with an asteroid…
The Data Buffet Is Open (Grazing Welcome) — On cell phones and data plans.
Italian PM allegedly insulted German chancellor in recorded conversation with newspaper editor — The headline on this is both offensive and NSFW. (The story is even more offensive.) And weird. And this man runs a major Western democracy. (Thanks to danjite.)
Romney: Time in France Molded Life, Business — Republicans hate France. Remember when one of the GOP attacks on Kerry was that he “looked French”? Wonder how much we’ll hear about this.
Santorum’s Lament — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on Santorum on Perry. I loved this comparison of Perry to Bush, and his comment on Dubya: As it turned out, [Bush's] instinctive decision-making and ignorance were not a winning combination.
36% [of South Carolina Republican voters] Say [Obama] Was Definitely or Probably Born in Another Country — And various other blatant counterfactuals so beloved of the conservative mind. This isn’t stuff that’s open to debate, like tax policy. These are flatly untrue ideas directly counter to readily verifiable facts, which have been promoted by GOP leaders, strategists and media mouthpieces. With an entire political party and media apparatus dedicated to creating and sheltering them, we wonder why we have low information voters?
?otD: How’d you sleep?
9/21/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (revisions to Kalimpura)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.5 hours (solid!)
Weight: 219.2
Currently reading: Matter by Iain M. Banks
Tags: cars, Culture, healthcare, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Science, Tech, weird
Posted: 5:22 am Wed September 21 2011 | Comments(0) |
[photos] PDX Adult Soap Box Derby on Mount Tabor
Yesterday whilst out walking up and down Mount Tabor with my friend S—, we unknowingly stumbled into the PDX Adult Soap Box Derby. Art cars! Made to run down a steep hill in gravity’s stern clutch! Some pretty funny stuff there.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cars, Cool, Funny, Photos, Portland
Posted: 6:26 am Sun August 14 2011 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad for a quiet Saturday
A negative review of the Polish edition of Trial of Flowers
Review: Hail, Caesar! ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ delivers
Man with Breast Cancer Denied Medicaid — Because he’s not a woman.
Are Smart People Getting Smarter?
Antiproton ring found around Earth — Cool stuff, Maynard. (Via Chris W. Johnson.)
Google’s self-driving wreck: Really human error?
Texas State University researcher discovers pirate shipwreck — Mmm, Captain Morgan.
Boeing pilots to make space trip — Commercial space.
Should the DMV Be Allowed to Censor Vanity Plates?
Police officers convicted over Katrina bridge shootings — I am very glad to see some justice in this awful case.
The Right Wing’s Thin Skin — They sure do love to dish out the abusive labeling, but they sure do hate to take it.
Will the Debt Deal Force Higher Taxes on the Rich? — (Thanks to Dad.)
Downgraded US Credit Rating: What comes of Coddling the Super-Rich — I understand why Republican politicos and donors go along with their tax policy. I have never understood why rank and file Republican voters do, when it is so profoundly against both their personal interests and against the national interest.
?otD: What?
8/6/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.75 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minutes stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 227.4
Currently reading:
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Tags: Books, Cancer, cars, Cool, Culture, healthcare, Links, Movies, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science, Tech, Trial
Posted: 6:29 am Sat August 06 2011 | Comments(0) |
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