Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad’s mind is not for rent

Some Lists Apropos of Nothing — Related to book discovery and social media.

The Wunder Project — Raising money to beat colon cancer. Um, yes. (Via Jo Maurer.)

Thoughts on being broken — alumiere responds to my recent comments with a description of her own experience.

Radiation while flying — Oooh. Someone does the numbers by direct observation. (Via reynardo.)

Kardashev scale — An oldie but a goodie. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Asperatus Clouds Over New Zealand — Whoa…

To save science, try celebrating “high quality ignorance” — Getting the public excited about science means changing perceptions.

Shark Relative Had Buzz Saw Mouth

North Korean citizens told: Socialist haircuts are a thing… go get some — Ah, life in the People’s Paradise. (Snurched from @jackwilliambell.)

Marginal Cost of the 26th Naked Actor — Because reasons.

Cardinal Who Resigned Over ‘Inappropriate Acts’ Was Harsh Foe Of Gay Rights — Golly. Another closet case anti-gay bigot. With religious conservatives, it’s hard to know where the morality ends and the hypocrisy begins.

Reflections on Racism, Both Individual and Systemic — This story depresses me profoundly.

What Researchers Learned About Gun Violence Before Congress Killed Funding — What the research showed was not only did having a firearm in your home not protect you, but it hugely increased the risk that someone in your family would die from a firearm homicide. It increased the risk almost 300 percent, almost three times as high. Silly old liberal “facts” and “data”. (Via danjite.)

Liberal Super PAC Goes After Mitch McConnell’s ‘Chinese’ Wife — Really? Does the American Left truly need to sink into the moral quagmire the Right perpetually inhabits? Liberal-progressives are better than this.

The Republican Leadership Deficit — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on the GOP’s efforts to rebrand its losing ideology.

QotD?: Shall we put you down as arrogant?

2/27/2013
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Research for the current non-fiction project, plus 2,000 new words of draft, to 3,300.)
Hours slept: 6.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 236.4
Number of FEMA troops on my block converting golf course to concentration campsi: 0
Currently reading: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, climate, Cool, Culture, guns, healthcare, Links, nature, New Zealand, Personal, Politics, race, Religion, Science, sex, Travel, weird

Posted: 5:33 am Wed February 27 2013 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad’s back and you’re gonna be sorry

“The Stars Do Not Lie” — My Nebula-nominated novella is now online at the Asimov’s Web site.

Fantasy Fans: Where’s Your Outrage? — N.K. Jemisin on the Oscars and Quvenzhané Wallis.

Fifty Shades of Brains — Sex. Zombies. Really annoying present tense narration. (Via a friend who almost certainly wishes to remain anonymous.)

Cataloging the Borg Complex — A rhetorical device. (Snurched from Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Lisa fears zombies — What happens when good housemates go bad… Heh.

Multigene cancer tests giving doctors new hope — Not to mention patients. (Thanks to David S.)

For Sale: Famed Nobel Medal for Discovery of DNA Structure —

Finding Portland — A very nice video montage of Portland. (Via Lisa Costello.)

The Town that spent 25 Years Underwater — (Snurched from .)

Wow — Evidence exists that a large natural nuclear reactor formed and operated on Mars in the northern Mare Acidalium region of Mars. However, unlike its terrestrial analogs this natural nuclear reactor was apparently much larger, bred 233U off of thorium, and apparently underwent explosive disassembly, ejecting large amounts of radioactive material over Mars’ surface.

Earthquakes’ booms big enough to be detected from orbit — Satellites listened to the 2011 Japan quake and located fault beneath Spokane.

Why I’m quitting Facebook — Hmmm.

Why Won’t Yahoo! Let Employees Work From Home? — “What’s really troubling about this is that a technology company can’t figure out how to collaborate remotely,” says Kate Lister, president of the Telework Research Center.

Small rise in global temperatures could thaw permafrost — Stalagmites and stalactites reveal a 500,000-year history of Siberian permafrost Amazing, how liberals have managed to get half a million years of geology to support their climate change hoax.

“The Myth of Persecution”: Early Christians weren’t persecuted — (Thanks to Bellatrix.)

A Short Political Comment, In Re the US 2nd Amendment — Yes. This, too.

Comedian Beppe Grillo turns blog into Italy’s third-largest political movement — Huh. We need more of this kind of principled activism, methinks.

4 Bogus Right-Wing Theories About Poverty, and the Real Reason Americans Can’t Make Ends Meet

I won’t be Rushed — A conservative defends her criticisms of Rush Limbaugh. For one, part of the point I was trying to make was that the impulse to defend anything and everything that a party heavyweight says — to the death — has the deleterious effect of making conservatives seem irrational and herd-like.

If spending is cut, GOP will get the blame — Well, duh. The Republicans are the ones who keep gaming the budget and spending process, all while never producing an actual, detailed alternative budget. The amazing thing is that Your Liberal Media has for once done enough reporting for the accountability to be clear to the public.

Deluded Republican Reformers — Conservative pundits’ ideas about fixing the GOP are totally meaningless, says Michael Tomasky, until they deal with the problem of their party’s rage-driven fanaticism. (Via threeoutside.)

QotD?: Hey la, who’s back again?

2/26/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (Research and correspondence for the current non-fiction project.)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 235.8
Number of FEMA troops on my block converting golf course to concentration campsi: 0
Currently reading: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Awards, Cancer, Christianism, climate, Culture, economy, Fiction, Funny, guns, healthcare, Italy, jerseygirl, Language, Links, Mars, media, Movies, nature, Personal, Photos, Politics, Portland, race, radiantlisa, religions, Science, space, stories, Tech, Videos, weird

Posted: 5:40 am Tue February 26 2013 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad sees a little silhouette-oh of a man

SMBC on the perils of editing — Hahaha.

I Am Not a Camel … but I Do Have Epilepsy — On disease, treatment and medical stigmatization. (Via David Goldman.)

Pad Thai — The odd history of a favorite dish. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Abandoned — National Geographic television on treasure hunting in abandoned properties. Some cool stuff here. (Via threeoutside.)

Sea slug’s ‘disposable penis’ surprises — Yeah, I’ve been on dates like that.

Carbon Sponge Could Soak Up Coal Emissions — Emissions from coal power stations could be drastically reduced by a new, energy-efficient material that adsorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide, then releases it when exposed to sunlight.

NASA: Rapid Loss of Freshwater from Middle East Region — Oi. Not good news for anyone.

Zen Groups Distressed by Accusations Against Teacher — Sigh. Religious hypocrisy is religious hypocrisy, no matter where it comes from.

Papal cuts: why is he really resigning? — Something I suspect that is very close to the sad, hard truth.

AP bans use of words “husband,” “wife” for legally-wed gay couples — Ah, the bigotry continues, to the delight of conservatives across the land.

The New York Times is Stupid on Plagiarism — Cora Buhlert on the American view of German politics and politicians. This brings us to the fact that a whole lot of German politicians, including most of the current cabinet, have advanced degrees and doctorates. For some reason, this seems to boggle American minds, which in turn boggles mine, because don’t Americans want politicians who are smart and educated? That said, looking at some of the American politicians who cropped up during the recent election season – you know, the sort who consider the Soviet Union a valid threat for the 21st century or displayed profound ignorance about human biology and reproduction – I guess the answer is “no”. That institutionalized political anti-intellectualism would be a conservative tic, Cora, and every bit as stupidly destructive as you imply.

Missouri bill redefines science, gives equal time to Intelligent Design — Bill has a long list of brain-melting stipulations. If nothing else, I could never be an American conservative because it requires endorsing this kind of deep intellectual dishonesty. Even those Republicans who personally know better enable this idiocy with their votes, their campaign contributions and their political support.

Ted Nugent Is Not Amused — Republicans hear very little they like in the president’s State of the Union address. Hey, Nuge, I thought you said you’d be dead or in jail if Obama was re-elected. So, pick one and get on with it.

The Art of Infinite War — Ta-Nehisi Coates on the American obsession with “security”.

QotD?: Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?

2/13/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (2,500 words on novella in progress, to 8,700 words, 30 minutes on a joint project with the_child)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 231.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block helping illegal immigrants infiltrate America: 0
Currently reading: Mort by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Christianism, climate, Cool, Culture, Food, Funny, gay, gender, Germany, healthcare, Iraq, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, sex, Tech, Writing

Posted: 6:05 am Wed February 13 2013 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad missed out on the apocalypse again, darn it!

In praise of … roquefort — Just in time for Christmas comes news the cheese harbours anti-inflammatories that work wonders for the heart. Mmm. (Via Scrivener’s Error, among others.)

Megapiranha, Prehistoric Piranha, May Have Had Strongest Bite Ever — 1.3 meter long piranha? Wow…

Hawaiian Islands ‘dissolving from within’ — Oh noes Runa away!

The 12 Instruments of Deathmas (Fa-la-la-la-la!) — Implements of pre-anesthetic surgery. Really, don’t click through to this unless you have a strong morbid streak and a good stomach. On the other hand, if you can hack it (see what I did there?) this is pretty amazing stuff. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Boston Priest to Lead Vatican’s Oversight of Sexual Abuse Claims — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday named a priest from Boston, the epicenter of the sexual abuse crisis in the United States, as the Vatican’s new sex crimes prosecutor. Also known as the Vatican office of “La la la I can’t hear you, and besides it’s the fault of those sultry boys and the dirty hippies”, or for short, “Suffer the little children.” I’d be a lot more impressed with the Vatican’s efforts in this regard if anyone in the Church’s senior leadership had ever taken responsibility or accepted punishment, rather than simply being transferred out of the relevant jurisdictions.

Scrivener’s Error on sociopathy and the NRA — With documentation. This.

The NRA and the positive good of maximum guns — In short, the NRA has become a neo-Confederate movement that sees Federals as foes, and that stokes the paranoia of its followers by claiming, as LaPierre did this year, that Obama’s re-election marks “the end of our freedom forever.” That’s more or less what Fire-Eaters said about Lincoln in 1860. And alongside the dominant right wing of the Evangelical movement, the NRA is pretty much the face of evil in mainstream America today.

Random Thoughts on the Ramblings of a Mad Man — Steve Buchheit says a lot of what I would have said (if my brain weren’t so fogged by illness) about the moral depravity and political insanity of Wayne LaPirere and the NRA as evidenced by Friday’s press conference. Yes, I have a bias here. My bias is people should be safe to live in peace.

U.S. Shooting Deaths Since Sandy Hook Top 100 — Your gun rights have cost 100 more lives since Sandy Hook. I sure hope you feel safer, because I sure as hell don’t.

?otD: Everyone still here?

12/22/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo brain)
Hours slept: 11.5 hours (10.5 hours solid, 1.0 hour napping)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (30 minutes on the stationary bike)
Weight: 212.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block confiscating firearms and shutting down the Internet: 0
Currently reading: The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks

Tags: Cheese, Christianism, climate, gender, guns, Hawaii, healthcare, history, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, sex, weird

Posted: 8:50 am Sat December 22 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad observes that the solstice is the end of the world as we know it

Has Fiction Lost Its Faith? — Sort of weird reading this critique of religion in fiction from my perspective.

The 13 Dwarves In The Hobbit, Ranked By Hotness — Uhh…

Hammerspace — Hammerspace (also known as malletspace) is a fan-envisioned extradimensional, instantly accessible storage area in fiction, which is used to explain how animated, comic and game characters can produce objects out of thin air. Huh. I didn’t know this. Makes sense, so to speak. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flies with rocket motor for first time — The hope is to start passenger flights as early as 2013.

Drastic cuts in fish quotas expected — With fishery regulators poised to impose devastating cuts Thursday on the New England fleet, blame for the disappearance of once-abundant cod and flounder populations is shifting from fishermen to a new culprit: the changing ocean. Warming waters and an evolving ocean ecosystem possibly related to man-made climate change are contributing to the anemic populations, not just decades of overfishing, government officials say. Man, even the fish in the sea are responding to liberal lies about climate change. Al Gore must be the most powerful person on Earth. I’m sure Rush Limbaugh can explain this away. Probably black helicopters over the Grand Banks or something — that would make as much sense as any other conservative ideas on the subject, after all.

Newt Gingrich Supports “Reality” Of State-Sanctioned Marriage Equality — Wait, doesn’t this mean God has abandoned the Republic, and we’re due for rivers of blood in streets? I’m pretty sure that’s what the GOP’s been saying for years.

Government Mistakes Cartoonist’s Paycheck for Terrorist Funds — I certainly feel safer now. Don’t you? (Via goulo.)

Misinformer Of The Year: Rush Limbaugh — The hilarious part is when Limbaugh claims to have acted with integrity. That delusion would be cute if it wasn’t so toxic, sort of like FOX News employees somehow imagining they are journalists.

To Keep and Bear Arms — A long article on the semantics of the Second Amendment. (From some time back, fwiw, this is not a response to recent events.)

The N.R.A.’s Blockade on Science — The Dickey Amendment is why we don’t have good science or public health info on gun violence. Because of the typical conservative response to actual data — an authoritarian shutdown of any discussion at all, while hiding the facts.

Do Armed Civilians Stop Mass Shooters? Actually, No. — Oh, those pesky little facts, getting in the way of the conservative narrative again. Not that we’d know for sure, what with the gun types getting laws passed to ban actual research on the topic here in the free marketplace of ideas.

Kids find gun, loaded and safety off, in cinema after concealed-carry guy “loses” it, doesn’t call cops — A man carries around a loaded gun, safety off, then loses it in a public place frequented by children (it’s “The Hobbit,” of all movies), and doesn’t “think” to call the police. Oh, yeah, I feel hella safer now. Because nothing improves the public welfare like a lost handgun in a public space frequented by children.

Evil, Mental Illness, and the Responsibility of the Free — [I]t could also be argued merely feeling the need to possess and bear a piece of artillery designed to kill a hundred human beings in a hot minute is actually a sign you have some kind of mental illness in the first place. Um, hell yes. This one of those things that’s painfully obvious unless you’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid and have convinced yourself that being a free and moral human being requires that you be able to deal death at the flick of a finger. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

The Connecticut school massacre: How the world sees us — I realize that to conservative Americans, the rest of the world is a series of Socialist hells that can be ignored, but a lot fewer people die in those Socialist hells of gun violence. Personal safety is a small price to pay for surrendering our gun pathology. Not that we likely ever will…

House Republicans Vote to Throw 300,000 Kids off Food Stamps In Order to Cut Taxes for Millionaires — Because that’s how conservatives roll. With justice and compassion for none.

?otD: Are you dancing in the dark?

12/21/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo brain)
Hours slept: 90 hours (9.0 hours fitful, 1.0 hour napping)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (30 minutes on the stationary bike)
Weight: 213.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block confiscating firearms and shutting down the Internet: 0
Currently reading: The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks

Tags: Christianism, climate, Cool, gay, guns, Links, media, Movies, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, space, Tech, Writing

Posted: 6:27 am Fri December 21 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad wakes up in time to go to work

Green and Kalimpura Sweepstakes! — Tor.com celebrates my forthcoming book release.

An ABC proof too tough even for mathematicians — In Kyoto, a solitary thinker unveils a solution that’s either a dizzying advance — or a blind alley. Outsiders in? (Snurched from Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

A Shape-Shifting Smartphone Touch Screen — A microfluidic panel lets users push buttons on a flat interface.

Riverbeds in Reverse — Inverted riverbeds? Wow. That’s as weird as some of the Missoula Flood topology.

New age of exploration in the hunt for extreme life

Doha: fighting climate change best hope for UK economy — Fighting global warming by selling renewable energy like wind turbines to the rest of the world is the best chance for Britain to grow economically, according to Greg Barker, the Energy and Climate Change Minister. In other words, economic opportunity, not ideological freak out.

Is Yahweh a Boy? — The Concept of the J Text Deity in Genesis. (Via ulfhirtha by request of zxhrue.)

Court Denies Atheists Right to Choose How to Get Married — More of that modern persecution of by the Christians.

Fracking industry refusing to report which chemicals they’re using — Confidential to GOP in America: Tell me again why industry self-regulation is superior to Federal regulation? Or do you plan to stop drinking water for the rest of your life?

Are Independents More Immune to Bias Than Liberals or Conservatives? — What this doesn’t address is whether the bias is acknowledged or compensated for. There really isn’t any equivalent phenomenon on the American “left” to the Right’s extremely well-documented epistemic closure. When your one of your core biases is in favor of examining new concepts and questioning assumptions, speaking as a liberal-progressive it’s hard not to see that as a subjectively more useful bias than one in favor of reflexively rejecting evidence over ideology and always embracing the Argument from Authority.

Republicans, welcome to the reality-based community — Defeat has shattered the US right’s impenetrable front on tax and healthcare. The party’s pragmatists are finding their voice. A Uk perspective on the conservative disaster of epistemic closure. (Or, in simpler terms, GOP idiocy.)

?otD: Mooch much?

12/4/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo brain)
Hours slept: 11.0 hours (9 hours fitful plus napping)
Body movement: 0.5 hours stationary bike ride
Weight: 219.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block teaching evolution to children and redistributing wealth: 0
Currently reading: The Rhesus Chart by Charlie Stross

Tags: Books, Christianism, climate, Cool, Green, healthcare, Kalimpura, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Tech

Posted: 6:32 am Tue December 04 2012 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad rocks the air guitar out of key

Review: Dark Faith: Invocations — LaShawn Wanak with some good things to say about Dark Faith: Invocations and my story “The Cancer Catechism” in particular.

New Pill Could Do Wonders for Cancer Patients — Leukemia, in this case.

Supreme Court to rule on patentability of human genes — Lower court ruled that genes can be patented once isolated from the body.

Prepare to trek new legal landscape after WA pot law change — Yeah, I’ll bet.

Smart Tip: Peel an entire head of garlic in 10 seconds — I’ve seen this done before. (Via David Goldman.)

MIT develops miniature shape-shifting robots

Comfort noise — We actually deal with this in my day jobbe, but not by that terminology. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Electromagnetic Test Town — Ok, this is weird.

Man on Fire — One man’s story of protest.

Attacker at Wyoming college kills two, commits suicide — A man armed with a sharp-edged weapon that some media reports described as a bow and arrow killed two people, including a college faculty member, in Casper, Wyoming, before taking his own life on Friday. Yep, sometimes it isn’t guns. But the mindless, nuance-free, literalistic conservative defense of the Second Amendment means that instead of being rare, thanks to the widespread availability of firearms, these kinds of killings are an almost daily occurrence. Feel safer now?

Pat Robertson challenges creationism — “If you fight science, you are going to lose your children, and I believe in telling them the way it was,” Robertson concluded. What do you know? Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. (Thanks to Rick York.)

UN calls for urgency on climate, says Doha deal to delight no one

?otD: I know it’s only rock ‘n roll, but do you like it?

12/1/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo brain)
Hours slept: 11.0 hours (solid)
Weight: n/a (forgot to weigh)
Number of FEMA troops on my block forcing people to accept healthcare and committing voter fraud: 0
Currently reading: Neptune’s Brood by Charlie Stross

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, climate, Culture, Food, guns, healthcare, law, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, stories, Tech, weird

Posted: 8:12 am Sat December 01 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad toddles off to chemo

Sometimes there’s no unitary rule — Language Log with more than (most of) you wanted to know about the who/whom distinction.

Grotto-esque — Art guru James Gurney with a neat little squib on the history of the grotesque.

Master carpenter from Japan visits Portland to inspect tea house he built 50 years ago

Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality? — Long but nifty piece on jellyfish, science and scientists.

For Winning The Nobel Prize, Niels Bohr Got A House With Free Beer — So was free beer the reason why Bohr was able to make great strides in developing quantum mechanics? (Via David Goldman.)

Mercury’s water ice at north pole finally proven — Scientists have finally shown what has been postulated for decades: the planet Mercury holds billions of tonnes of water ice at its north pole.

Solid Chocolate Baby Heads — (Via willyumtx.)

Who Will Solve Wearable Computing’s “Jetpack” Problem? — Wearables are supposed to be the future of consumer tech–and that’s what’s holding them back.

Spaun, the new human brain simulator, can carry out tasks — I need this as a prosthetic.

Wormholes: not just for physicists anymore — A biologist investigates old illustrations to find new data about bugs. Heh. This is clever.

How Do Porcupines Mate? Very Carefully. — Their stark, night-piercing shrieks aren’t just about the quills. Yeah, I’ve been on dates like that. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Central Auckland super brothel approved — Headline of the week. (Via danjite.)

Porn star punks Pastor Hagee: ‘I considered flashing my boobs’ — “The ability to compartmentalize seems to be the hallmark of ideologues everywhere. I guess it spares them potentially lethal attacks of cognitive dissonance.” Also, this: “I wasn’t sure I’d encountered firsthand the banality of evil, but I’d gotten a solid dose of the evils of banality.” (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Heart Gadgets Test Privacy-Law Limits — I don’t like to link to the Wall Street Journal because of their deep conservative bias, and lunatic mendacity of their editorial board, but this article is fascinating.

New Study Shows Global Warming Is Rapidly Melting Ice at Both Poles — A new international study—done by 47 experts using data from multiple satellites and aircraft—shows that the Earth is losing ice at an ever-increasing rate from both poles. We’ve known for years that the Arctic has been suffering massive ice loss, with the record low broken more than once in recent years. What’s devastating about this new report is that it shows unequivocally and quantitatively that the Antarctic is also losing land ice, with the critical West Antarctica ice sheet losing on average 65 billion tons of ice every year. This would be what we in the reality-based community call “data”, which is therefore irrelevant to conservative beliefs and rhetoric. Just ask any Republican about climate change and see what answer you get.

How sensitive is the climate to added CO2? — 65 million years of Earth’s history suggest we’re in uncharted territory. Another great thing about science is that it doesn’t have all the answers, so it keeps asking questions. This is where dogma, both religious and political, fails. When you already know the truth, you have a strong disincentive to ask further questions. Especially those that might challenge a closely-held and cherished belief masquerading as that truth.

A 60-Million-Year Debate on Grand Canyon’s Age — Note this is how science works. Disagreement and revision based on experimental data and field observation. Not reasoning backward from an ideological or faith based conclusion.

America is a Christian Nation. If We Don’t Like it, We Should Get Out — Fundamentalist Christians see nothing wrong with this. To their mind, it is not the non-Christians who are the victims, but the Christians who are being told they cannot force their religion on the other students. To their mind, anything which impinges on the special rights of Christians is a form of persecution. Yep. This. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Complaints Aside, Most Face Lower Tax Burden Than in 1980 — This would be what we in the reality-based community call a “fact”, which is therefore irrelevant to conservative beliefs and rhetoric. Just ask any Tea Partier about tax burdens and see what answer you get.

Legends of the Fault — Jon Stewart of The Daily Show displays the arrant hypocrisy of Sens. McCain and Graham in opposing Susan Rice, in their own words on videotape. See, it’s ok to knowingly lie about foreign terrorism if you’re a Republican, but not if you’re a Democrat. That’s about the only difference here. Except that Republican Condoleeza Rice never has clarified her statements or apologized, while Democrat Susan Rice has — which is clearly unforgivable to the same people who supported Rice’s unrepentant lying. See the difference? More of that justly famed conservative intellectual consistency proudly on display from Sen. McCain (R-Palin) and friends.

?otD: Drugs or medicine?

11/30/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.75 hours (revisions to “Rock of Ages”)
Hours slept: 8.75 hours (very fitful)
Weight: 224.4
Number of FEMA troops on my block forcing people to accept healthcare and committing voter fraud: 0
Currently reading: Neptune’s Brood by Charlie Stross

Tags: Art, Christianism, Culture, Food, Japan, Language, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, sex, Tech, weird

Posted: 7:15 am Fri November 30 2012 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad saves the last dance for you

New evidence of ‘chemo brain’ proves cognitive damage from cancer treatment isn’t ‘all in your head’ — Duh. But yeah, i guess it has to be proven for doctors to believe it. (Via both danjite and fx4.)

The Last Laughing Death — (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Can Worms Alleviate Autism? — Autoimmune and allergic diseases are more prevalent in more developed countries where citizens are accustomed to better water quality and less contact with farm animals. Some researchers chalk this phenomenon up to the so-called hygiene hypothesis, which posits that the microbes and parasites that humans co-evolved with act to help keep our immune responses in check. The theory was spurred initially by observations in humans—that after anti-parasitic therapy, people scored higher on allergy skin prick tests, or that autoimmunity and allergies were more prevalent in more-developed West Germany than East Germany[.]

Human Evolution Enters an Exciting New Phase

3-D Chip Promises Better Brain Control — A new device will let scientists create complex patterns of activity within the brain using optogenetics. More conspiracy nut bar fodder. Ever read Mike Jay’s The Air Loom Gang?

The Monstrous Eye at Saturn’s North Pole — Wow. Just wow.

Language Is Shaped by Brain’s Desire for Clarity and Ease — Using an artificial language in a carefully controlled laboratory experiment, a team from the University of Rochester and Georgetown University has found that many changes to language are simply the brain’s way of ensuring that communication is as precise and concise as possible. (Via David Goldman.)

The Key to Science (and all learning) is…? — …being wrong and learning from being wrong. That’s what happens when you base your worldview on “facts” and “data” instead of faith and ideology. First and foremost, you admit that you can be wrong, and that you can learn from it. Facts are far more forgiving that many people’s version of faith. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Let’s Get Rid of Zero! — Denialism outside of a political/religious context. Math! (Via goulo.)

White evangelicals and contraception: reversal and revision redux — Slacktivist Fred Clark on Evangelicals and contraception. Just five years ago it would have been unthinkable for American evangelicals to rally against contraception. Religious opposition to contraception was strictly a Catholic thing and evangelicals, as Protestants, did not accept the baroque theological arguments supporting that Catholic teaching. That has begun to change. I’m pretty sure the Forced Pregnancy Movement, masquerading as ever as a right to life effort, has had their sights on contraception a hell of a lot longer than the past five years.

Services Announce Recruiting Numbers for Fiscal 2012 — All four active-duty services and five of the six reserve components met or exceeded their recruiting goals for fiscal 2012, officials announced today. That means that repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell had no impact on recruiting. Yet another in the endless parade of histrionic conservative talking points that turned out to be nothing at all. But yelling about the evil gays sure helps generate more angry white guys, which is the keystone of the GOP’s electoral strategy. Much easier to be hysterical than to look at the truth.

The Killing of Jordan Russell Davis — Ta-Nehisi Coates on a Florida man using his Second Amendment rights to his theoretical defense of essential liberties to murder an unarmed teenager with whom the man had picked a fight. Thank God for the NRA and the Republican Party, or that teen ager wouldn’t now be dead for the crime of playing his music too loud. Guess he learned his lesson. More to the point, the shooter may well walk free because of Florida’s NRA-sponsored ‘Stand Your Ground’ law. Feel safer now?

Movement Conservatives Foisted Romney on Themselves — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on the history of the Romney candidacy.

GOP divide over Obama tax plan goes public — Ah, Grover Norquist. If you don’t know who he is, you really don’t understand the deep Republican irrationality on this topic.

?otD: What song do you want to dance to?

11/29/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.25 hours (revisions to “Rock of Ages”, including an editorial meeting with kenscholes)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (30 minutes on stationary bike)
Hours slept: 8.25 hours (interrupted)
Weight: 223.4
Number of FEMA troops on my block forcing people to accept healthcare and committing voter fraud: 0
Currently reading: Neptune’s Brood by Charlie Stross

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, Cool, gay, guns, healthcare, Language, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, sex, space, Tech, weird

Posted: 6:24 am Thu November 29 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad has too many places it’s got to see

In which I am a finalist for an award of which I was previously unaware — My novella “A Long Walk Home” was a finalist for the Hawthorne Citation. Their Web site says, Welcome to the Hawthorne Citation, which recognizes Excellence in Short Fiction, English-language. Now in our third year (2012) of the annual prize, we’ve cited some of the great short works in those years, from both well-known writers and yet-to-be-known writers.

Timothy Anderson Art — ZOMG, such retro art reconcepting for some of my favorite books and movies. I lust for the Argonath travel poster. (Thanks to Lisa Costello.)

Raymond Chandler’s Private Dick — Ta-Nehisi Coates with an incredible essay on misogynist and masculinity, using Raymond Chandler’s work.

Apple fires Maps manager — They waited this long? I cannot wait til Google Maps comes back to the iPhone and I can dump the ridiculously flawed Apple Maps. Apple’s biggest failure of both delivery and consumer trust in years, at least that affected me personally.

Can You Crack The Pigeon’s Code? — A WWII mystery comes to light. Or not, as the case may be.

Time for the U.S. to Partner with China in Space?

Earth’s Core & Carbon: Planetary Center Holds Largest Store Of Common Element, Computer Simulation Suggests — Talk about sequestration.

Tobacco companies ordered to admit they lied over smoking danger — US judge says tobacco firms must spend their own money on a public campaign admitting deception about the risks of smoking. Let’s see if this sticks.

Can Culture Create Mental Disease? The Rise of “Hikikomori” in the Wake of Economic Downturn in Japan — Can culture create mental disease? Look at gun fetishism and religious mania in the U.S. Both are heavily culturally influenced, and both have broad swathes of adherents who go way beyond reasonable and well-socialized behavior. (Snurched from Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

The Simpsons‘ take on Obamacare — Hahahah. (Thanks to Lisa Costello.)

Enclaves, Long Gated, Seek to Let In Storm Aid — So the wealthy who wanted to go Galt in their gated communities need public assistance after all? I wonder if Tea Partiers in the tri-state area are expecting to have the government help repave their roads and restore their utilities. Pretty tough for me to find much sympathy here.

‘Change is a mofo’: The GOP and white evangelicalism are in the same situation — The Christian Right rendered themselves unto Caesar, and in doing so lost the respect of younger generations for the church as a whole.

30+ Examples of Christian Privilege — Yep. And like most forms of privilege, completely invisible to the vast majority of its beneficiaries. Because with 73% of the population, and 89.3% representation in Congress, many Christians and Christianists are pleased to fancy themselves as a persecuted minority. It’s a comforting and self-valorizing narrative which is absolutely laughable from outside their own framework. (Thanks to Lisa Costello.)

Dying for the Right to Choose — Ta-Nehisi Coates on the conservative view of abortion. Walsh was lying in his refusal to admit that women actually do die during the work of pregnancy. But his position — “without exceptions” — strikes me as the honest one. The problem here isn’t packaging. There is no way to honestly modify its import. Either you believe that women who have sex should run the risk of being remanded to potentially lethal labor, or you don’t. No exceptions.

Fox News Exec VP: Guest Who Slammed Network Apologized – But Not Publicly — Or maybe not. Looks like another Fox lie. Unlike Ricks, who stated a simple, obvious fact when he said on the air that Fox News was “operating as a wing of the Republican party”. As we have long seen proven over and over again, in conservative America you lie boldly (as FOX has previously sued to preserve their right lie under the First Amendment) but apologize for telling the truth. FOLLOWUP: “[The FOX News] MO is that when the facts aren’t on their side, they attack the person.” Hahah. Ad hominem attacks are the conservative MO in general, given that the facts are rarely on their side in liberally biased reality. Ever listen to Rush Limbaugh? Or John McCain on Susan Rice? Mocking people is much more fun than responding substantively, and it helps generate more angry white men, which in their own words is the GOP’s key electoral strategy.

RINO Hunters Fire Warning Shots At Republican Senate Candidates — That Tea Party farce the GOP dreamed up to help mobilize their base against the threat of Kenyan Muslim socialism is biting them in the ass again, as it did in this election cycle just past. I’d say it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch, except sometimes the far right gets their people elected, and that is a major disaster for everyone, including the oblivious chumps in the Tea Party themselves.

Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation — A European view of our country. The United States is frittering away its role as a model for the rest of the world. The political system is plagued by an absurd level of hatred, the economy is stagnating and the infrastructure is falling into a miserable state of disrepair. Gee, which party has made hatred a key electoral strategy? Which party has blocked almost all efforts at economic stimulus? Which party refuses to allow the government spend money on infrastructure? Would that be the party whose highest priority these past four years was to make Obama a one-term president, and thus spent all their political capital denying him anything that might make him look successful? Rather than, say, fixing this country’s problems? Nope, can’t quite put my finger on it. Must be Kenyan Muslim socialism at work. Ask any of Sarah Palin’s “Real Americans”, they’ll tell you that. (Via Pharygula.)

Revenge of the Reality-Based Community — A formerly prominent Republican laments discovering reality about three decades too late. So here we are, post-election 2012. All the stupidity and closed-mindedness that right-wingers have displayed over the last 10 years has come back to haunt them. It is now widely understood that the nation may be center-left after all, not center-right as conservatives thought. Overwhelming losses by Republicans to all the nation’s nonwhite voters have created a Democratic coalition that will govern the nation for the foreseeable future.

Mandate with Destiny — Obama’s electoral mandate. In 2004, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, conservatism’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, congratulated President Bush for “what by any measure is a decisive mandate for a second term” and exulted, “Mr. Bush has been given the kind of mandate that few politicians are ever fortunate enough to receive.” This year, examining similar numbers with different labels, the Journal came up with a sterner interpretation. “President Obama won one of the narrower re-elections in modern times,” its editorial announced. Kind of reminds me of Dick Morris predicting a 325-213 Romney “landslide” in the Electoral College, then proclaiming that Obama “eked out” a narrow 332-206 victory in the Electoral College. More of that vaunted conservative intellectual consistency all around. Or in shorter words: “The conservative stupid, it burns.” (Snurched from Ta-Nehisi Coates.)

?otD: If I leave here tomorrow would you still remember me?

11/28/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (revisions to “Rock of Ages”)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (30 minutes on stationary bike)
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 222.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block forcing people to accept healthcare and committing voter fraud: 0
Currently reading: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Apple, Art, China, Christianism, climate, Culture, Funny, gender, healthcare, Japan, Links, Personal, Politics, publishing cool, Religion, Science, space, weird

Posted: 6:27 am Wed November 28 2012 | Comments(5) |