[links] Link salad flies to Oz today
arcaedia reminds us that today is the release date of my collection The Sky That Wraps — For some value of “today”, as I write this post on the other side of the International Date Line.
Steampunk Wallpaper — (jimvanpelt via lt260.)
Lady Clankington’s Cabinet of Carnal Curiosities — And via danjite, further steampunk curiosities. NSFW.
Is that my son wearing a dress? — I’m a progressive, supportive dad. Why was I so troubled by the sight of my little boy dressed as Snow White? (Thanks to willyumtx.)
How to Remake Life — Venter Institute researchers have made the first viable cell with a synthetic genome. Cool stuff. I’m waiting for someone to do this ab initio.
Metrocontextual science map — This is seriously cool as well.
It’s Witch-Hunt Season — ‘Tis autumn and a conservative’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of impeachment and political harassment.
Beck, Christianity and Social Justice — Yeah, well…
?otD: Have you ever wrapped the sky?
9/1/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (NZ tourism)
Body movement: airport walking to come
Hours slept: 9.0 (fitful, plus 90 minute nap as well)
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 3/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Deliverer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Books, Culture, Funny, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, Sky, steampunk, stories
Posted: 1:17 pm Tue August 31 2010 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad wakes up, still on the far side of the world
Nick Gevers discusses steampunk on BBC’s World Service
Adjectives from country names? — Another fun post from Language Log. Be sure to check out the comments.
Retirement Haven Hunts Youthful Violators — A weird twist on the ongoing economic crisis in America.
Olbermann on religious intolerance in the US — Attention Islamaphobes: We have this little thing called the First Amendment. May I recommend it to you? I am certain conservatives of all stripes are with me on this, being the strict Constitutionalists that they are.
The D’Oh of Xenophobia — Must be hard to be a wing nut in America and keep up properly with the hate list…
?otD: Have you seen the Southern Cross?
8/30/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (convention time)
Body movement: urban walking to come
Hours slept: 10.25 (interrupted)
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 5/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Deliverer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: audio, Culture, Language, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, steampunk
Posted: 12:26 pm Sun August 29 2010 | Comments(5) |
[links] Link salad gets didactic
A glowing review for my new collection The Sky That Wraps
A profoundly negative review of my tor.com story, “The Speed of Time” — I continue to be baffled that people seem to think this is political fiction. Unless the absence of white male characters makes it “political”?
Educational Chemistry Crayons complete set of 48 crayons with labels — (Thanks to .)
The power of anecdotes — Bad Science on research, reporting and anecdotal evidence.
The right-wing, blinded by its own hysteria — Yet right-wing commentators and politicians have twisted themselves in knots to portray the Park51 project as a grievous assault — and “the American people” as victims. Victims of what? Rauf’s sinister plot to despoil the city with a fitness center, a swimming pool and — shudder — a space for the performing arts? Hahaha.
?otD: How political is your fiction?
8/29/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (convention time)
Body movement: urban walking to come
Hours slept: 8.5 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 3/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Deliverer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Books, Culture, Fiction, Funny, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, Sky, stories
Posted: 12:59 pm Sat August 28 2010 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad hangs out in Kiwi country
My tor.com story draws a lot of flak in comments — Apparently I write with tired, politically correct tropes. Good thing I always believe the story belongs to the reader.
SMBC on ending sentences with a preposition
Wombats, pangolins and platypuses in a Victorian mansion… in Wales — Huh.
A Battle of Britain anniversary poster — Some very nice design here.
Tags: Art, Cool, Culture, Fiction, Funny, gay, Language, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, stories
Posted: 2:01 pm Fri August 27 2010 | Comments(3) |
[links] Link salad eyes the fall publishing schedule
A rather nice review of Pinion in Analog
io9.com includes my forthcoming collection The Sky That Wraps in their list of “All the books you’ll be lusting for this fall season”
Never Wake Up: The Meaning and Secret of Inception — Some interesting analysis here. Partially dovetails with the take that calendula_witch and I are developing. (Thanks to goulo.)
Pulsar Timing: An Outer System Tool — This is some seriously weird science. And cool as all get-out.
The End of Management — Corporate bureaucracy is becoming obsolete. Why managers should act like venture capitalists.
Why do pundits think Bush regularly attended church? — He didn’t. Neither did that conservative saint, Ronald Reagan. Obviously Reagan was a secret Muslim!
Stewart: Fox Smears Owner Alwaleed bin Talal! — Hah!
Covert Operations — The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. And the Right gets its panties in a wad over George Soros… (Via danjite.)
What are the Republicans trying to hide behind the Ground Zero Mosque? — Not sure I buy this, but it’s an interesting argument, and not the least bit out of character for the party of Atwater, Ailes and Rove.
The GOP and the “Ground Zero” Mosque — The Cato Institute weighs on rank political opportunism by Republicans. See Competing Perspectives on the Mosque Controversy for more.
The GOP’s Long, Hot, Racist Summer — Ah yes, nothing like standing on your principles to make your point.
?otD: What forthcoming books are you lusting for?
8/24/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0.75 hours (WRPA, Kalimpura outline)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.25 (interrupted)
This morning’s weigh-in: 244.2
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 4/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Destroyer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Books, Culture, Links, Movies, Personal, Pinion, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, Sky
Posted: 5:09 am Tue August 24 2010 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad gets marked down from 22,000 days
I plan to close the steampunk caption contest voting poll tomorrow and declare a winner — Vote now if you haven’t!
A reader reacts to Mainspring — They liked it.
A reader reacts to “In the Forests of the Night” — They really hated it.
Mad Men: 1955 — Mmm. The chromocritic.
Male and female ability differences down to socialisation, not genetics — Behavioural differences between the sexes are not hard-wired at birth but are the result of society’s expectations, say scientists. (Via The Edge of the American West.)
Dear Rev. Graham: Obama was not born a Muslim and neither is anyone else — Those Americans who insist on seeing Obama as a Muslim are othering him, and probably are using religion as a proxy for race. Since the Civil Rights movement, it has been unacceptable in the United States for a public figure to engage openly in racist discourse, as shock jocks Dr. Laura and Don Imus discovered. But apparently it is still all right to be a religious bigot, so Islam is being scapegoated by the Republican Party, as its ability openly to play on racial fears is being increasingly constrained.
?otD: What would you do if this were the last day of your life?
8/22/2010
Writing time yesterday: 3.5 hours (revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute suburban walk to come
Hours slept: 8.25 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 4/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Destroyer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Books, Contests, Culture, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Photos, Politics, Polls, Religion, reviews, stories
Posted: 6:35 am Sun August 22 2010 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad knows Major Tom’s a junkie
Get Fuzzy with more on fiction — Put down the coffee before you read this.
Shel and Jez: 1922 — Cute knows no decades.
The Ice Kingdom — A photographic portrait of the Arctic — or what’s left of it — in all its glacial beauty.
Perseid storm — Golly this is gorgeous.
A Near-Term Read on Life in the Galaxy — Pay attention, skiffy types.
Why We Should Actually Thank Dr. Laura for Her N-Word Rant
?otD: Ashes to ashes, funk to funky?
8/21/2010
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hour (revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 9.75 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: 242.0
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 5/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Destroyer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Art, Culture, Food, Funny, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, Writing
Posted: 8:52 am Sat August 21 2010 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad is taken up by the fire in the sky
Get Fuzzy on fiction as a foreign country — Hahahah.
Developing nations to bear cancer brunt, unprepared
Rural Pennsylvania WPA poster
The Republic of Spies — Abkhazia, one of the breakaway provinces over which Russia and Georgia fought in 2008, has been colonized by Russia’s state security services. And the locals are hardly thrilled.
Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050 — It would solve some ethical problems, too.
Ten things I know about the mosque — Once again Roger Ebert is eloquent about conservative idiocy. His first point is far and away his best.
Top 10 Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories — The American radical right has to be considered a strong contender for the title of modern conspiracy champion. “Radical right” is being far too kind. This stuff is mainstream conservative fare, supported daily by prominent Republican politicians and media figures.
?otD: Ever seen a UFO?
8/20/2010
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (revisions)
Body movement: n/a (colonoscopy prep)
Hours slept: 6.75 (fitful)
This morning’s weigh-in: 241.0
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 4/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Destroyer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Art, Culture, Food, Funny, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, Writing
Posted: 4:25 am Fri August 20 2010 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad goes on a diet of clear liquids
Fossils may be ‘earliest animals’ — Tiny, irregularly shaped fossils from South Australia could be the oldest remains of simple animal life found to date.
What Does ‘P vs. NP’ Mean for the Rest of Us?
Minnesota Tornadoes 2010: We’re #1! — Repeat after me, weather is not climate. Still, the trends don’t look good. Darn that liberal bias in reality.
The Boondocks with a strip re-run from seven years ago that is eerily on target today — Le plus que ça change…
In US 20% believe Obama is Muslim — The poll found one third of conservative Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim, nearly double the figure who said so last year. This is what we call “the crazy”, and it’s reinforced by constant messaging from conservative media outlets and political leaders. Confidential to conservatives in America: Your ideals are mighty damned weak if you have to rely on bald-faced lies to advance your agenda.
Olbermann: There is no ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ — A little unaccustomed reality to counter the conservative hysteria. Not that it will help… Still, worth watching if you want to understand this story from a reality-based perspective.
?otD: What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
8/19/2010
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hour (revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.75 (interrupted)
This morning’s weigh-in: 243.2
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 4/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Destroyer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Culture, Funny, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science
Posted: 4:52 am Thu August 19 2010 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad heads into the daylight, blinking
Don’t forget the steampunk caption contest voting poll
A reader reacts to Green — Definitely did not like it.
Cthulhu’s Reign reviewed — Including my story “Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names”.
Judge a Book by Its Cover — The proverbial blog… A Softer World weighs in.
The Art of the Exhale — Cancer, coping and horses. (Via joycemocha.)
The Power Trip — Power corrupts. Absolute power is pretty nest. A piece on why nice people become sociopaths once they reach the top. (Via Scrivener’s Error.)
Vintage lunch boxes — There was a Kill Bill lunch box? Really?
Shenango of Fairport: 1909 — Look at that prop…
1978 Cryptosystem Resists Quantum Attack — Duuuude.
Disgust As a Guide to Morality — Interesting. I don’t agree with it all, and am especially troubled by this line: Though Haidt is a secular liberal, he cautions that you can’t just say that moral judgments made by drawing on the other three areas — Purity, Authority, and Loyalty — are illegitimate, unless you’re willing to privilege the point of view of secular Western liberals, and write off most of the human race.. Still, interesting.
Kilpatrickism — On the racist strain in American conservatism.
?otD: Where did you go? What did you do when you got there?
8/18/2010
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (revisions, WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 4.25 (sleep fail!)
This morning’s weigh-in: 242.2
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 3/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Tags: Art, Books, Cancer, Cool, Culture, Funny, Green, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, reviews, stories, Tech
Posted: 5:48 am Wed August 18 2010 | Comments(1) |
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