[links] Link salad knows there’s no love inside the icehouse
Rick Novy interviews me
The Canadian Who Won’t be Returning From the Stars — ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1)
specficrider on a joint project of ours.
Will insurance cover genetic testing, preventive surgery? — Women who discover they carry a hereditary gene mutation that dramatically increases their risk of breast and ovarian cancers face big decisions and the possibility of tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs. This story is a version of what I went through.
12 Tips from 12 Years Sick — Yep. I’m only barely into year six, but, yep. (Thanks to Lisa Costello.)
Star Trek: The Search for Science — The Bad Astronmer is much with the hilarity.
The secret laser-toting Soviet satellite that almost was — Here’s a little Cold War alt.hist for you.
Billion-Year-Old Water Found in Canada Holds Clues About Ancient Life — You really need to read the expiration dates on those gas station water bottles.
Hunting Pesky Pigs in Paradise — Ham sandwiches on the hoof, where they don’t belong.
Terahertz Image Reveals Goya’s Hidden Signature in Old Master Painting — Darkened varnish obscures Goya’s signature in a 1771 masterpiece, according to a new analysis using terahertz waves
The Spies Who Blundered — Alleged undercover CIA agent Ryan Fogle is one of many spies to bungle the job.
My Despair — Another of those sad, strange posts on Feminist Mormon Housewives where someone of apparent intelligence and progressive sensibilities finds their common sense and observations of the real world in profound conflict with their faith. If I were a faith-holder, I don’t think I could tolerate that much cognitive dissonance.
When did you choose to be straight? — Heh.
Christian denominations and marriage equality: A simple quiz — Slacktivist Fred Clark makes a point that many anti-gay bigots in pietist clothing would prefer to ignore. Christianists find it so much more comfortable to hate inconvenient people than to actually pay attention to their own morality.
What We Mean When We Say ‘Race Is a Social Construct’ — In a world where Kevin Garnett, Harold Ford, and Halle Berry all check “black” on the census, even the argument that racial labels refer to natural differences in physical traits doesn’t hold up. Ta-Nehisi Coates is far more elegant than I ever could be on this topic.
Tullahoma father being reckless when baby daughter shot, police say — Because guns make us all safer. Without the smiling protection of the NRA and the GOP, this dad wouldn’t have been able to exercise his theoretical defense of essentially liberties by blowing away his own child.
QotD?: Can you remember getting any older?
5/16/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (0.5 revisions on my novella for METAtropolis: Green Space, plus WRPA)
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block covering up evidence about Benghazi: 0
Currently reading: The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Art, Books, Cancer, Christianists, climate, Funny, gay, guns, health, healthcare, interviews, Links, Movies, nature, Personal, Politics, race, Religion, Science, stories, Tech, Videos, weird
Posted: 5:20 am Thu May 16 2013 | Comments(3) |
[links] Link salad cried because it had no shoes
The fate of today’s book bloggers — Toby Buckell is interesting.
Pear-shaped nuclei may be a key to why our universe survived the big bang — Being rather pear shaped myself, I consider this good news.
Hubble finds dead stars “polluted” with planetary debris
Moon and Earth Have Common Water Source — Researchers used a multicollector ion microprobe to study hydrogen-deuterium ratios in lunar rock and on Earth. Their conclusion: The Moon’s water did not come from comets but was already present on Earth 4.5 billion years ago, when a giant collision sent material from Earth to form the Moon. (Snurched from james_nicoll here.)
Google Earth enters fourth dimension, highlights humanity’s heavy hand — Satellite imagery lets you follow terrain changes over time.
Printing Electronics Just Got Easier — A new technique developed by researchers in China allows easier printing of electronic components onto paper.
Sim City: An Interview with Stone Librande — This is interesting. Also, a long time ago, I was addicted to Sim City, and still remember it fondly. Ta-Nehisi Coates on how EA screwed up the new launch, big.
How to Make an Implant that Improves the Brain
Gang stole $45m from cash machines across globe in hours, say prosecutors — ‘Virtual criminal flash mob’ used bogus swipe cards loaded with data from hacked bank databases to commit thousands of thefts.
That old-time religion — Yep, the intellectual consistency of the religious mind on display once more. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
After passage, same-sex supporters express bliss — Go, Minnesota. Another domino falls. There simply is no principled opposition to gay marriage, only bigotry disguised as piety and principle. (Hint: nearly identical arguments were used to oppose interracial marriage by people who thought of themselves as high-minded and moral. Does their opposition to interracial marriage seemed anything but bigoted now?)
Boy, 2, dies after shooting self at Corsicana home — Because guns make us all safer, right?
Arizona AG Pleads No Contest To Leaving The Scene Of An Accident — He was in the car with the woman with whom he was having an affair. Ah, those family values, law and order Republicans — so much better than dirty liberals who just want to make sure people have food and clothes and jobs and educations and clean air and clean water.
QotD?: Got feet?
5/10/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (stress)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 247.8
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Christianists, Cool, Culture, economy, gay, guns, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, space, Tech
Posted: 5:05 am Fri May 10 2013 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad wakes up in a different, shorter world
2013 Locus Awards Finalists — My Nebula- and Hugo-nominated novella, “The Stars Do Not Lie”, is also a finalist for the Locus Awards as well. I am quite pleased
A reader reacts to Escapement — They didn’t like it so much.
Ultraconserved words? Really?? — Language Log responds to the recent “ultraconserved words” story.
Sky Crane — A gorgeous photo of the construction of One World Trade Center.
Ridge could be piece of Pangaea — Speaking of ultraconserved.
First Quantum-Enhanced Images of a Living Cell
San Francisco gives up on cell phone warning stickers — Reuters’ reporting makes a hash of the science.
Changing U.S. Racial Demographics — This one pretty much explains itself.
Heritage: We Have Nothing To Do With Racial Immigration Study — This is the quality of conservative intellectual discourse. These are the people who produce it.
A former religious extremist explains how radicalization happens {plus, a theory of how suspected Boston Marathon bombers were radicalized} — The enemy is fundamentalism because fundamentalism is very attractive to people looking for Definitive Answers. Extremist religion provides a rigid, black-and-white framework for understanding the world. Much the same could be said of contemporary conservatism. Conservatives proudly “don’t do nuance“, and have explicitly rejected critical thinking and sneered at the reality based community. How different is that from religious extremism with its comfortingly simple answers? (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
On gun fatalities and terrorist fatalities — In the last 30 years, there have been 30,000 to 40,000 gun deaths in the United States per year, more than 900,000 people. In the last 40 years since 1970, there have been about 3,400 terror-related deaths. What would the response of a rational society be? Here in America, we will never know. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
10 Things You Can’t Do and Become President
QotD?: Are you going to do something wonderful today?
5/9/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (stress)
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 246.8
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Awards, Books, Christianists, Cool, Escapement, guns, Language, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, race, Religion, reviews, Science, stories, Tech
Posted: 5:04 am Thu May 09 2013 | Comments(4) |
[links] Link salad knows that it is not Iron Man
Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy — This is freaking genius. (Spotted lots of places, but sent to me first by Lisa Costello.)
Batman: 1966 — Adam West, back in the day. Courtesy of Shorpy.
Linguists identify 15,000-year-old ‘ultraconserved words’ — Hmmm. (Via my brother.)
European migration evident in DNA patterns — A study of people in 40 countries illustrates long-established changes in Europe’s population. Going back a few thousand years, researchers find that everyone on Earth is related to everyone else. This is cool, but hardly surprising, I should think.
More than one-third of Oregon’s National Merit Scholars live in a single Portland-area ZIP code
More than half of the world’s population lives inside this circle
US Air Force Measures Potato Cannon Muzzle Velocities
Antibiotics could cure 40% of chronic back pain patients — Really? (Thanks to David Goldman.)
On the Rise — BLDG BLOG on the elevation of Galveston, TX after the devastating hurricane of 1900.
Tropical Climate History…Shrinking — Ice in the tropics.
“While some are seeking to withhold Communion from pro-choice and pro-marriage-equality Catholics, I have heard no call to withhold Communion from priests and bishops who have engaged in horrific sexual abuse against vulnerable children, nor their enablers.” — Yes. This. Religious activism in pursuit of anti-gay bigotry is all about politics and power. Not about morality or what is right and good. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
QotD?: Do you face Stark choices?
5/8/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (stress)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (fitful)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Christianists, climate, Culture, Funny, healthcare, Language, Links, Movies, Oregon, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, Science, Tech, television, Texas, Videos
Posted: 5:22 am Wed May 08 2013 | Comments(3) |
[links] Link salad tools up to head to southern California
David: Illness and Death — Debbie Notkin with a thoughtful narrative on her brother’s death from cancer.
‘Death cafes’ normalize a difficult, not morbid, topic — Yeah, well. Welcome to my dinner table. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
Genomics to reshape endometrial cancer treatment — This is very similar to what we were hoping to do for me.
Banned Baby Names: Justice Just As Bad As Anal And 4Real, One Country Says — Ah, New Zealand.
How to play chess properly — Hahahah. (Via willyumtx.)
The Robie Metric System — Because he could? Wow… (Thanks to Lisa Costello.)
Le cigare volant est Francais! — x planes with a particularly weird piece of French aviation concept art from the 1950s.
Nasa telescope has close shave with Soviet satellite
What’s Next for Curiosity? Mars Mountaineering
Bones reveal a tale of desperation — Scientists find evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony.
Bring Your Camera — Some stunning images of arctic ice, courtesy of NASA.
The Twitter Account to Watch If You’re Worried About Climate Change — More reality-based liberal lies, of course. Ask any conservative.
While Sequestration Cuts Programs For The Poor, The U.S. Ranks Second-To-Last On Child Poverty — That’s what conservative social policies get you. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
GOP fundraising video mocks grieving Sandy Hook mom who lost 6 y.o. — Ah, those moral stewards of compassionate conservatism. Are you proud of your Republican party? The gun culture has absolutely no shame or conscience.
2-Year-Old Girl Shot, Killed By 5-Year-Old Brother With Rifle He Recieved As A Gift — Because guns make us all safer, right?
Toomey doubts second Senate gun-control vote any time soon — The toughest thing to do in politics is to do the right thing when your supporters think the right thing is something else,” Toomey said. That’s the GOP in a nutshell. In their own words, the right thing isn’t what their own base thinks the right thing is. On guns. On taxes. On deficits. On education. On climate. On jobs. On immigration. And their leadership knows better. No shame. No conscience. Are you proud of your Republican party? Doing the right thing since never, once again in their own words.
Poll: 29% Think Armed Rebellion Might Soon Be Necessary — 44% of self-identified Republicans say that “in the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.” Once again, are you proud of your Republican party?
Pat Buchanan joins Manhattan Declarers in ‘civil disobedience’ fappery — All this talk of “civil disobedience” from anti-gay folks like Buchanan and the Manhattan Declarers is just posturing. It’s part of the fantasy role-playing game in which they stroke their egos by pretending that they’re heroic champions of morality. Bigotry is bigotry, no matter how much you abuse the language of civil rights and victimhood to self-valorize. Gay marriage compels absolutely nothing upon people who disagree with it, and takes absolutely nothing away from them. The basic Christianist argument is “My right to take away your rights trumps your right to exercise rights that have nothing to do with me.” That’s about as un-American as you can get.
QotD?: Ever been to San Diego? Why not?
5/2/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.5 hours (WRPA editing work on METAtropolis: Green Space, plus lots of time prepping for San Diego trip)
Hours slept: 8.5 hours (interrupted)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block helping welfare recipients buy cell phones and big screen tvs: 0
Currently reading: The Truth by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Art, Cancer, Christianists, climate, Cool, Culture, economy, Funny, gay, guns, health, history, Language, Links, Mars, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, space, Videos, weird
Posted: 6:13 am Thu May 02 2013 | Comments(3) |
[links] Link salad listens to the children of the night
fledgist reviews Kalimpura
Why Aren’t There More Woman Sci-Fi Writers? — (Thanks to Marta Murvosh.)
#Womentoread — Kari Sperring wants you to recommend SF by women.
The Prejudices We Permit — I’ve certainly been on the sharp of this stick. The point still stands.
What Kind of D&D Character Would You Be? — I scored out as Neutral Good Human Druid/Wizard (4th/3rd Level). (Snurched from james_nicoll.)
Giant floating head found in Hudson River — Headline of the week.
Scientists in Antarctica Find Invading Neutrinos from Another Galaxy!
Remains of a supernova fall to Earth — Tiny pieces of silica in meteorites predate the Solar System.
What Happened When One Man Pinged the Whole Internet — A home science experiment that probed billions of Internet devices reveals that thousands of industrial and business systems offer remote access to anyone.
20 Pounds? Not Too Bad, for an Extinct Fish
Elephant Bird Egg Fetches Over $100,000 At Christie’s Auction In London
Placentas provide clues about autism risk at birth, study says
Antibody triggers bone marrow stem cells to become brain cells — Wow… strange. (Via seventorches.)
Conservative evangelicals’ persecution complex and same-sex marriage — Despite being one of the largest voting blocs in the most powerful and wealthy nation in the world, American evangelical Christians often have a penchant for framing themselves as a persecuted minority. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
30 Of The Most Offensive, Idiotic, And Bizarre Conservative Arguments Against Marriage Equality — It’s pretty clear from these kinds of statements that conservatives have no concept of “consent”. But then, this isn’t exactly a surprise. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
Liberty Counsel redefining ‘Christian’ just as Falwell did — Now, as then, the word “Christianity” is being used as a synonym for unvarnished bigotry. Yet another of the myriad reasons I am an atheist. I have no use for a God whose followers can do this in his name and still consider themselves good and moral people.
Oregon same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, federal judge says in employee discrimination case — Another bigotry domino falls. As usual, conservatives are on the wrong side of history with this one, too.
Bobby Jindal: I’m fine with teaching creationism in public schools — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says that he wouldn’t mind if public school students were taught creationism and intelligent design in addition to evolution, as long as it’s “the best science.” Conservative willful ignorance is so hermetically sealed. And an entire state elected this fool to be their governor…
House GOP Freshmen Feel Left Out Of Failed Obamacare Repeal Rituals — This story is just sad. It encapsulates everything that’s wrong with Republican party politics today. The saddest part is that the people involved don’t see anything wrong with it at all.
Bush and the American Right Wing: Top Ten Ways they are Like the Children of an Alcoholic — This piece is sort of Poe’s Law in reverse. Satire that is also way too close to the truth.
Truman, Bush, and Rehabilitating Presidential Reputations — The core Bush loyalist assumption is that a more dispassionate interpretation of his presidency will redound to his benefit, but that’s probably wrong. The less that people have at stake in defending Bush, the less eager they will be to bother. In another forty or fifty years, there will hardly be anyone interested in salvaging Bush’s reputation, and the truth is that he leaves behind no significant positive domestic legacy that later Republicans will feel obliged to defend and mythologize. Wow, how deluded do you have to be to imagine that anything of the Bush administration will be vindicated by history? Thanks to the Bush administration, we have stark, objective evidence about what happens when Republicans are allowed to govern: political, military and economic disaster.
QotD?: What beautiful music do they make?
4/26/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (400 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin plus quite a bit of background reading)
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.0 hours (foot hurt all night)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block helping welfare recipients buy cell phones and big screen tvs: 0
Currently reading: The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Books, Christianists, Culture, Funny, gender, healthcare, Kalimpura, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, sex, space, Tech, weird
Posted: 5:22 am Fri April 26 2013 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad dreams of electric sheep
Science and Technology Knowledge Quiz — You answered 13 of 13 questions correctly. […] You scored better than 93% of the public and the same as 7%. As I said in comments on james_nicoll‘s LiveJournal post about this, “One question I actually had to think about for a moment, the rest were general knowledge on a par with knowing the points of the compass or how to conjugate an English verb.”
Hundreds of Potential Drug Targets to Starve Cancer Tumors Identified — Huh. (Thanks to Bruce Taylor.)
Physicists Build World’s First “Magnetic Hose” For Transmitting Magnetic Fields — Magnetic fields decay rapidly and so have never been transmitted over long distances. Until now… I initially misread this headline as “Magnetic Horse”, which would be a lot funnier.
The Scientific Process Through Stock Photography — Hahah! I love nerd humor. (Via Gabrielle Harbowy.)
Penises on Mars? Grow Up, Internet. — At least it wasn’t cat .gifs.
Life’s Trajectory Seen Through Facebook Data — Data donated by Facebook users to Stephen Wolfram yields interesting patterns that may reveal how people change over time.
Why I Let My Students Cheat On Their Game Theory Exam — Teaching people game theory is good. Making them live it is even better, says UCLA professor Peter Nonacs. (Thanks to David Goldman.)
As they turn 150, Adventists still pray for the apocalypse — Adventist leaders say the apocalyptic pull is still strong at church headquarters, especially during planning sessions. “I see that in our education system,” said Beardsley-Hardy. “Not wanting to over-invest in building because Jesus is coming.” Religion doesn’t have to make you stupid, but it sometimes does an awfully good job of exactly that. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
Jesus and Muhammad and the Question of the State — Juan Cole on scriptural authority for political power. Long but worth the read.
GE Halts Financing for Firearm Retailers as Gun Lenders Vanish — Unlike the gun culture conservatives in senate, GE can read polls that identify an overwhelming support for increased firearms regulation. Good for them.
Scenes From a Multiverse nails the conservative view of gun control
Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament — Charlie Stross is fascinating.
The Problem of Redaction — Hah. Interesting security wonk stuff. This seems right up autopope‘s alley. (Thanks to seventorches.)
Intelligence Is No Guarantee of Good Judgment — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison: [T]here was a frightening resemblance between Romney and Bush in their shared overconfidence and ignorance about the world. Romney endorsed misguided foreign policy ideas because he didn’t know much about the subject, didn’t care about it very much, paid it very little attention.
Bush 43: ‘History will ultimately judge … I’m a content man’ — He was completely delusional while in office. I don’t know he’d be any less delusional now.
Fight Club on the Hill — After thirty years of their proclaiming the evils of government, is it any surprise we have a Republican Congress that cannot govern? I continue surprised at the collapse of Republican party discipline, however. Another Bush 43 legacy, that, and one of the very few things America and the world should thank him for.
GOP quits public policy — Evidence reveals that today’s conservatives have been historically bad at writing bills or developing an agenda. When you elect people to govern who don’t believe in good government, why would you expect anything like good government? Conservatives: ruining America for the majority of us.
President Obama to daughters: if you get a tattoo, I will too
QotD?: Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind about your mother.
4/25/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (2,300 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin)
Hours slept: 5.75 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (very carefully on the stationary bike)
Weight: 246.4
Number of FEMA troops on my block helping welfare recipients buy cell phones and big screen tbs: 0
Currently reading: Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Cancer, Christianists, Cool, Culture, economy, education, Funny, guns, healthcare, Links, Mars, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, Science, space, Tech, weird
Posted: 5:25 am Thu April 25 2013 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad knows the cider’s laced with acid
Magazine Monday: Subterranean, Spring 2013 — Including a review of my Green novelette, “A Stranger Comes to Kalimpura”. I liked this bit: Green’s voice is, as always, sharp and clear and pitiless. She is a haunting character.
Lois Tilton reviews “A Stranger Comes to Kalimpura” — She didn’t like it quite so much.
Cancer Centers Racing to Map Patients’ Genes — Welcome to my life.
What’s Tylenol Doing to Our Minds? — The same pathways that help with physical pain seem to moderate existential distress. Wow. (Via danjite.)
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today — (Via @daviddlevine.)
Inside the Race to Build the World’s Fastest Bitcoin Miner — Stories like this are making me feel like a tech dinosaur.
Two-Track Mind — The MTA’s “track geometry car” slides around through the New York City subway, using “a variety of sensors, measuring systems, and data management [software] to create a profile of the track being inspected.” This is cool.
Microraptor: A 4-Winged, Fish-Eating Dinosaur
Fellowship of the Tree Rings — New Zealand researchers probe history and climate science by looking at wood. It’s pretty amazing how liberals have planted evidence for climate change even deep inside ancient trees. Thank God we have Rush Limbaugh and the Republican Party to keep us focused on the truth instead of that pesky old reality.
Exploring public concerns about geoengineering the climate — UK researchers talk about pumping reflective aerosols into the atmosphere. What could possibly go wrong?
Terrorism and the other Religions — It takes a peculiar sort of blindness to see Christians of European heritage as “nice” and Muslims and inherently violent, given the twentieth century death toll.
Actual 4th Grade science test in South Carolina — I hope to Ghu this is a spoof. Thanks to Poe’s Law, it’s impossible to separate conservative willful ignorance from parody of conservative willful ignorance. I simply do not understand how any parent would want to so dreadfully miseducate their child. (Via goulo.)
2nd Child of Pa. Couple Dies After Only Praying — Religion really can make you stupid. Fatally stupid. The deliberate miseducation and intellectual stunting so beloved of religious conservatives is bad enough. Those poor kids died of abuse and neglect privileged under the mantle of faith.
FMH Podcast Episode 52: Women That Leave Because of Gender Inequality — What I find fascinating about the blog Feminist Mormon Housewives is the intellectual train wreck always in progress there. Most of the post and comments on that blog are from intelligent, progressively-minded women who are struggling mightily to reconcile what their education and identities tell them with what their faith demands of them by way of subservience, submittal and acceptance of discrimination and flat counterfactuals. To my atheist outsider’s view, almost all of them would a lot happier listening to themselves rather than their faith.
GOP Ex-Congressman Testifies About Struggle Getting Visa For His Gay Partner — Words fail me. You do remember you’re a Republican, right? Further proof that no one likes conservative policies when applied to them personally.
Texas wants federal disaster aid it refused to give others — Ah, the justly famed intellectual consistency of conservatives is once more on display. Of course, these are Sarah Palin’s “real Americans” in trouble, not undeserving East Coast liberals.
The Senate’s gun control fail: dead children and monied politicians — A UK perspective. A sane man’s contempt for the United States Senate must now be certain and complete. Given the inertia on even the most modest legislative response to the mass murder of schoolchildren, those still credulous enough to believe that our governance is representative of popular will are either Barnum-sized suckers, or worse, tacit participants in tragedies soon to come.
Jeff Flake’s Rhetorical Games On Background Checks Come Back To Haunt Him — Speaking of intellectual consistency. As ever, conservatives value their guns over your safety.
Arkansas county GOP is unhappy that we can’t shoot politicians, as the Second Amendment intended — More of that measured reason we have all come to expect from conservatives in the gun culture. I sure feel safer knowing people like this are exercising their Second Amendment rights to theoretical defense of essential liberties.
WSJ Columnist Taranto Uses Gabby Giffords’ Injuries To Silence Her On Gun Violence — Stay classy, conservative America. It’s what you do best. (Honestly, if I were a Republican, I’d die of shame.)
‘I am the senator. You are the citizen. You need to be quiet.’ — This is how Republicans respect our democracy. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
QotD?: What is the Holy Spirit crying?
4/23/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo day)
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (very carefully on the stationary bike)
Weight: n/a (couldn’t stand on scale due to injured foot)
Number of FEMA troops on my block faking evidence for climate change: 0
Currently reading: Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Boston, Cancer, Christianists, climate, economy, education, gay, Green, guns, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, stories, Tech, Texas, weird
Posted: 5:16 am Tue April 23 2013 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad wasn’t fuzzy, was he?
Reviewing the Nebulas: The Novellas — I’m not a fan of Lake’s writing. Generally, I find it hard to parse his stories, it’s something about my brain stumbling over his word choices. I’m also no fan of steampunk. So the fact that I enjoyed this story, that it’s the best thing of Lake’s I’ve ever read, is some sort of minor miracle. Heh.
My Reddit Fantasy AMA — Essentially an open source interview with me by several dozen questioners.
For Whom the Bell Tolls — The inexorable decline of America’s least favorite pronoun.
Interactive map plots locations of more than 100 million species — This strikes me as being awfully useful for writers as well as scientists.
What Happens When You Wring Out a Washcloth in Space — Mmm, science. (Via shelly_rae.)
Exploring the Grand Canyon — The view from space.
Dinosaur ‘fills fossil record gap’
Poor, cute bunnies likely to get eaten when the snow melts early — Hares change coat color for winter based on the calendar, not the conditions. Nothing to do with climate change, of course. Just ask any Republican.
Barcodes let scientists track every ant in a colony — A team of Swiss scientists glued barcodes to hundreds of ants living in six laboratory colonies and recorded all of their movements for more than a month. Now, there’s a job description.
Brain Research, as Only Vegas Can — Weird doings.
Psychedelic Portuguese Man-of-War Photos Prove God Is a Stoner — (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)
When tragedy turns to joy — People doing good. (Via threeoutside.)
The Chosen Few: A New Explanation of Jewish Success — Congregationalism and individual literacy?
Fathers and Sons and Chechnya — Juan Cole on the heritage and family dynamics of the Boston bombing suspects.
Chechens, Czechs, whatever — This kind of ignorance drives me batty. This is basic knowledge about the world.
Building a Picture of the Bomb Suspects through Social Network Analysis — Police can obtain huge quantities of social network data, but must sort out the junk to glean useful information. Hmmm.
Pre-Viking Tunic Found In Thawing Glacier Shows How Climate Change Aids Archaeology — Ah, a benefit of climate change. (Via corwynofamber.)
How did Jesus come to love guns and hate sex? — One of many, many reasons I am an atheist is issues like this. Because matters of faith are heavily privileged in our society, religion has a vast power to make people very stupid without ever being challenged on it. Mind you, that’s not an inherent property of religion, and likewise people make themselves stupid in myriad other ways, but the confluence of faith and stupidity is toxic. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
LePage Spins Windmill Conspiracy Theory — It’s hard to trust any policy stance of someone who is either so incredibly gullible or is willing to cynically and habitually lie in such a transparent way in order to advance his own agenda. Um, that would be every single conservative politician in the United States. At least every conservative who won’t condemn evolution denial, doesn’t stand up to climate change denial, won’t condemn Birtherism as arrant racist nonsense, believes in supply side economics, or supported the Iraq War. Like I said, every single one.
NH GOP back in news – for the wrong reason — Once more, conservatives in the gun culture exhibit their justly famed calm rationality in the face of perceived adversity. Are you proud of your Republican party?
Architecture review: Bush presidential library is fittingly blunt — Really, they could have installed it in a restaurant booth. How much room do you need to store My Pet Goat? That’s about all they have left after shredding the incriminating evidence.
QotD?: Did your bear have no hair?
4/20/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (1.25 hours and 2,300 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin)
Hours slept: 10.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.0 hours (injured foot)
Weight: n/a (couldn’t stand on scale due to injured foot)
Number of FEMA troops on my block checking the magazine sizes of gun owners: 0
Currently reading: The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Awards, Boston, Christianists, climate, Cool, Culture, guns, history, interviews, Language, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, space, stories, weird
Posted: 9:25 am Sat April 20 2013 | Comments(4) |
[links] Link salad is trying to catch the Devil’s herd, across these endless skies
Reddit Fantasy AMA — Today, Thursday, April 18th, I’ll be participating in the Reddit Fantasy Ask Me Anything. It starts at 5 pm (Pacific) this afternoon.
A ‘Whom Do You Hang With?’ Map of America — A fascinating expansion on some recent data about social connections and money circulation. (Thanks to scarlettina.)
Talk to Your Children About Death! — (Via controuble.)
The 30′s were a time of testing limits. Like, for example, can a lion ride in a motorcycle sidecar in a velodrome? — Hahahah. (Via goulo.)
The 33 Most Beautiful Abandoned Places In The World — (Snurched from art guru James Gurney.)
Google Is Forbidding Users From Reselling, Loaning Glass Eyewear
Have You Embarrassed Yourself Online? — Many web services offer an accidental megaphone. They need to protect us from ourselves.
Kessler syndrome — Ah, collisional cascading. We didn’t need outer space anyway, did we? (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)
As Oregon Town Evolves, Caveman Heads the Way of the Dodo — I don’t normally link to the Wall Street Journal, as their relationship to reality is only marginally less tenuous than that enjoyed by FOX News, but this story has very little political implication and thus might contain a few grains of truth. Besides which, it is amusing.
‘Living fossil’ coelacanth genome sequenced
Aquageddon — A disappearing island shows what rising sea levels mean for the Chesapeake Bay. Man, those liberals are even sinking islands in Chesapeake Bay to keep up their climate change hoax. Amazing, the lengths people will go to. (Via Lisa Costello.)
Stephen Hawking: So here’s how it all happened without God — In a speech in Pasadena, Calif., the famed physicist wonders what God was doing before the universe was created and says he’s grateful that he wasn’t subject to a church inquisition. I’ve always said that Creationism and its intellectually fraudulent stalking horse, Intelligent Design, are driven by a poverty of imagination.
Creationism and taxes in Louisiana — A Baptist minister opposes teaching Creationism with public funds.
New Zealand House of Reps bursts into song after legalizing same-sex marriage — This is what happens in a country with sane politics and an ethical society. Bigotry is never the answer. (Via threeoutside.)
Rubio Rushes To Quiet The Right-Wing Rumor Mill — Good luck. Senator Rubio. Your party thrives on deliberate misinformation, knowing distortions of the truth and deliberate outright lies in order to keep manufacturing angry white men. You expect to get this one through your own rumor mill undamaged? Welcome to the reality-based community.
Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness — White privilege is knowing that even if the Boston Marathon bomber turns out to be white, his or her identity will not result in persons like yourself being singled out for suspicion by law enforcement, or the TSA, or the FBI.
A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip — Senators say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. Once again, conservatives have proven they value their guns more highly than they value your life or mine.
Enraged President Obama Rips Senate GOP For Blocking Background Checks — Once again conservatives prove they value bullets over babies. You’d think anyone who claimed to be for the right to life would be for gun regulation.
Why the GOP Remains in Bush’s Shadow — Most Americans outside the party view Bush unfavorably because they regard him (correctly) as a failed president whose policies inflicted serious damage on the country. Most people inside the party see him in an entirely different light. If 65% of Republicans and 60% of self-identified conservatives view Bush favorably, it’s not surprising that there is so much resistance on the right to acknowledging Bush’s errors and learning from them.
Why Do We Have Taxes? — A cartoon history that your crazy Fox News watching uncle simply won’t believe, as it’s based on those pesky liberal “facts” and “data”.
QotD?: Who was it that went riding out one dark and windy day?
4/18/2013
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (60 minutes and 1,800 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin, plus 60 minutes minutes of WRPA to produce 2,400 words of nonfiction)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 247.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block checking the magazine sizes of gun owners: 0
Currently reading: The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Christianists, climate, Cool, Culture, gay, guns, healthcare, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Photos, Politics, race, Religion, Science, space, Tech, Videos, weird
Posted: 5:27 am Thu April 18 2013 | Comments(0) |
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