Jay Lake: Writer

[process] Do we need Sauron and Voldemort?

A day or two ago, I asked the question on this blog, “Do we need Sauron and Voldemort”? By which I meant, do we as writers need strong antagonists to make a story compelling?

Obviously, that’s a storytelling modality that works very well. One can hardly argue with the commercial success of either Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. Either of those series probably moves more books in any given month than I’ll sell in my entire publishing life.

Humans, or at least humans living in the storytelling and cultural traditions of the West, have a strong affinity for dualism. Perhaps we’re all birthright Manichaeans. The simplicity of moral contrast, of a binary choice, appeals strongly to us. Many people distrust nuance in ethics, in morality, in politics, in law. There’s something very comforting about a simplistic good-vs-evil dynamic. You know who the “us” are, and you know who the “them” are. And certainly in both Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, that is unambiguous on the page.

Yet there’s a gentleman down in New Mexico who’s shifted more than a few million books writing about a world where the good guys aren’t very good, and most of the bad guys have mixed or even noble motives. Kind of like real life, where everyone is a protagonist, a hero of their own story. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has proven in a big, big way that you don’t need stark moral dualism to sell well. Damned near everything in those books is ambiguous. There is still a decidedly strong moral dimension. It’s just ambiguous and complex to the point of being non-Euclidean.

So I think about my own work in this context. Most of my books don’t have clear-cut, central antagonists. (Well, maybe none of them do.) My plots tend toward one of two models — the hero(es) opposed by a shifting collage of shadowy forces; or a set of interlocking protagonists with conflicting goals. I like what I write. Bluntly, if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t write it. But I don’t write like Tolkien or Rowling. Or Martin, for that matter.

I write like Jay Lake. And Jay Lake is a guy who sees the world as complex and nuanced, and largely filled with people who think they’re trying to do the right thing, even if too many of us cannot see the consequences of our own actions and beliefs for what they really are. (Yes, that’s a not-very-veiled reference to contemporary American politics, but it also really is how I see the world in general.) So I write fiction where the world is complex and nuanced. I don’t think I could write a Sauron or a Voldemort. I just don’t believe in pure evil for evil’s sake, any more than I believe in pure good for good’s sake.

So, no towering antagonists for me. Which makes me wonder about Sunspin, which is decidedly in the vein of interlocking protagonists. Much as the precursor novel Death of a Starship was. It also makes me wonder about my sales figures. Am I really writing stories people want to read? Or am I doing it wrong?

What do you think? Do we need Sauron and Voldemort? Or does George R.R. Martin have the right of it? Where do you fall as a reader? Where do you fall as a writer?

Tags: Books, Culture, Politics, Process, Starship, Sunspin, Writing

Posted: 5:54 am Wed May 09 2012 | Comments(11) |

[links] Link salad has never been more ready in its entire life

One in six cancers worldwide are caused by infection

Bandersnatch Cummerbund: not a typo, not a cupertino — Hahahah.

An Economic Lifeline of Barley and Hops — An interesting story about beer and small town economics in rural Oregon.

Abraham Lincoln Filed a Patent for Facebook in 1845 — As it were. Weird. (Via danjite.)

Space weather expert has ominous forecast — Mike Hapgood, who studies solar events, says the world isn’t prepared for a truly damaging storm. And one could happen soon.

Pacific ‘garbage patch’ changing insect mating habits

Physicists Store Short Movie In A Cloud of Gas — Sometimes the jokes just write themselves. (Though this is in fact a cool science story.)

Shuttle Enterprise Over New York — Very nice photo from APOD.

NC pastor created lies about gay sex because of his ‘religious views’ — This is why ‘real Americans’ vote Republican – for the moral leadership provided by conservatives. What are a few bald-faced lies so long as they validate your worldview, right? That bit about bearing false witness in the Ten Commandments isn’t nearly as important as God’s hatred of gay people, right?

North Carolina voters approve amendment defining marriage as union between a man and woman — Another victory in the conservative march toward a closed and intolerant society. I really don’t want to live in their America. Do you?

Moving the economic goalposts — But the other concern here is historical — over the last three decades, the unemployment rate has dipped below 4% just four times out of 496 months. Each of those four months was during Bill Clinton’s presidency. In other words, Romney’s goal was achieved, but only after a Democratic president raised taxes in 1993. Ah, conservatives and their cherished ignorance of history.

The Opportunity Society — Does Tagg Romney actually believe that his dad had nothing to do with his successful entry into the private equity game, and the millions he has made and will continue to make are the result only of his own merit? That his life is radically different from those of the millions of people struggling to get by only because they don’t work as hard as he does, or have his gumption and entrepreneurial spirit? (Snurched from Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Romney: I Take Credit for the Auto Rescue — Wow. He’s not even pretending to consistency any more. This would be the same Mitt Romney who wanted to let the automakers fail, right? Good thing for him that likely Republican voters are largely divorced from reality and will fall for the Etch-a-Sketch routine every time. It must be nice to have a low-information, ideologically blinkered base like the GOP does. Helps avoid those pesky requirements for accountability and consistency.

?otd: Could it be nice to be alive?

5/9/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (brain break)
Body movement: 1.0 hour urban walk
Hours slept: 6.25 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: The Constantine Affliction by T. Aaron Payton

Tags: business, Cancer, Cool, Culture, Food, Funny, gay, healthcare, Language, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Science, sex, Tech, weird

Posted: 5:47 am Wed May 09 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad hangs out in Seattle

Non Sequitur on the glamor that is publishing

Terminally Illin’: A Graphic Novel About a 20-Something Battling Cancer — Yeah, this. (Via mikigarrison.)

Something in the prehistoric air that helped keep it warm – methane from dinosaur digestion

Google gets a license for self-driving cars in Nevada

Radio-Controlled Genes — Radio waves can be used to activate calcium-sensitive genes by heating injected nanoparticles.

So you’re a cyborg — now what? — The brain and information technology.

Do as I Do, Not as I Say — An interesting essay on the differences in thinking between conservative Evangelicals and secular liberals. Unfortunately, the author doesn’t at all address the pervasive intellectual dishonesty, shrieking bigotry and gospel of hatred that are so deeply entwined in the Evangelical movement, but rather seems to idealize the movement.

Advocates of same-sex marriage in Maryland hope to break losing streak — Speaking of shrieking bigotry and the gospel of hatred.

Don’t blame the Bible — Many in North Carolina — many around the country — are swimming against the tide of human freedom and blaming God for it. Again, this is not a new thing. We saw it back when God was for segregation and against women’s suffrage.

The most, and least, safe states in America — Amazingly enough, those law-and-order Red states full of gun toting’ “real Americans” are the least safe. All us unarmed coastal liberals live in better, safer conditions. I’m sure Rush Limbaugh can explain this.

Mitt Romney Was Arrested For Disorderly Conduct In 1981 — The charges were dropped after Romney threatened to sue. Yeah, that works so well for most of us. Can you say ‘entitlement’?

Treason? — At live event, Romney doesn’t dispute questioners suggestion that President Obama should be tried for treason. A bit later, in response to reporters’ questions, he said “of course” he doesn’t believe the president should be tried for treason. Wow, the Romeny Etch-a-Sketch is operating in near realtime. Wonder what Your Liberal Media is saying about this?

Obama’s Afghan war unhindered by partisan fights — “Should Mitt Romney win the election,” he observed, he doubts many on the left “who have refrained from criticizing President Obama for such things as the use of drones will extend the same courtesy” to Romney. Sigh.

?otd: Been to University Books lately?

5/8/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (0.75 hours and 1,400 words on Their Currents Turn Awry to first draft completion at 149,100 words; 1.25 hours of WRPA)
Body movement: 1.0 hour urban walk
Hours slept: 7.0 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: The Constantine Affliction by T. Aaron Payton

Tags: Cancer, cars, Cool, Culture, Funny, gay, healthcare, Iraq, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Tech

Posted: 5:31 am Tue May 08 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad’s flag boy and your flag boy, sittin’ by the fire

Angelesen: Die Räder der Welt (Jay Lake) — What appears to be a positive review of the German language edition of Mainspring.

A natural history — Roger Ebert with a moving essay on growing up, and lost friends.

“Crab” chips, fruity Oreos? They’re big overseas — More on on-USAnian flavors. Snack food crack for me is Maui onion flavored Hawaiian kettle chips in creamy French onion dip.

Tornado near Tokyo kills 1, injures dozens — I’m always a bit surprised when I read about tornadoes outside the North American Great Plains.

Reminders of Secular Authority Reduce Believers’ Distrust of Atheists — Many of my Christian friends seem to have grown fond of the self-valorizing myth that they are being oppressed or persecuted in modern America, but it is still true that atheists poll at the bottom of trustworthiness. Amazing, the power we secular types have as a small and least-trusted percentage of the population.

The ‘Big Four’ markers of the evangelical tribe — Slacktivist Fred Clark with some fascinating social history of the Evangelical movement.

Family Battle Offers Look Inside Lavish TV Ministry — This is precisely what our country needs more of, not those godless, immoral liberals.

Biden on gay marriage: ‘Absolutely comfortable with men marrying men, women marrying women’ — Good. As it should be, assuming you value an open, tolerant society. Which conservatives explicitly do not. Another of the many, many reasons I can never be a conservative.

Republicans! Get in my vagina! — Very sarcastic video, funny as hell decidedly not worksafe. (Via willyumtx.)

The Right-Wing’s 20 Biggest Sex Hypocrites — The ones who scream the loudest about how godly they are often turn out to be the exact opposite. Only twenty? But, but, but, Clinton had a blow job! (Via danjite.)

How to End This Depression — Paul Krugman is, as usual, sensible.

Republicans on ‘Politicizing’ Terrorism, Then and Now — Well, it was fine when Bush did it, just not when Obama does it. Like so many other things. Just ask any Tea Partier about deficit spending, foreign wars or corporate bailouts. Those only became a problem for conservatives after an African-American progressive was elected to the Oval Office. The GOP: setting the standards for intellectual consistency in political discourse since, well, never.

Schwarzenegger: GOP, take down that small tent — You didn’t mind that ‘small tent’ when it got you elected, Arnie. I despise so-called moderate Republicans almost more than I despise the whackaloon conservatives that dominate the GOP these days, simply because while in a lot of cases the whackaloons really can’t seem to help being who they are, the Republican moderates are people who know better and went along with the nuts anyway for electoral advantage.

Historic campaign collision of race and religion likely to arouse both pride and prejudice — Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney, an African-American and a white Mormon, representatives of two groups and that have endured oppression to carve out a place in the United States. How much progress has America made against bigotry? By November, we should have some idea. Hint: which man is running from a party that has built and sustains its political fortunes foursquare on bigotry and intolerance?

?otd: Jockamo fee na nay?

5/6/2012
Writing time yesterday: 3.5 hours (2.5 hours and 5,600 words on Their Currents Turn Awry, 1.0 hours of WRPA)
Body movement: 1.5 hour suburban walk
Hours slept: 9.25 (solid)
Weight: 240.0 (!)
Currently reading: The Blade Itself Joe Abercrombie

Tags: Books, business, Christianism, Culture, Food, gay, gender, Japan, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, race, Religion, reviews, sex, Videos, weird

Posted: 9:38 am Sun May 06 2012 | Comments(4) |

[links] Link salad’s man MCA’s got a beard like a billy goat

Making Progress Against Clutter — This has nothing to do with me. Nothing whatsoever. Nosirree, Bob.

The Surprising Shortcut to Better Health — A discussion of body movement which happens to dovetail well with my own exercise strategy.

Grief in the Time of Facebook

Map’s Hidden Marks Illuminate and Deepen Mystery of Lost Colony — Virginia Dare, where are you?

11 Rivers Forced Underground — A cool piece from National Geographic. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

‘Supermoon’: Large Full Moon Tonight — For all you skywatchers.

Full Moonrise — Speaking of the moon…

Heartland Institute compares belief in global warming to mass murder — US thinktank launches poster campaign comparing Unabomber and Osama Bin Laden to those concerned about global warming. I don’t even know where to begin with this. Heartland Institute’s logic for this is identical to saying Hitler was a Christian, therefore to believe in Jesus is equivalent to Nazism. As is so often the case with conservative causes, they fail on the merits and so resort to sensationalism. Also, I disagree with the headline. It misleads in implying that climate change is an article of faith rather than objective reality overwhelmingly supported by both data and theory and a nearly-universal scientific consensus. “Believing” in global warming is like “believing” in gravity. (Thanks to gummitch.)

Never forget — Never forget…Dorothy Counts being mocked by an entirely white audience on enrollment day at Harding High School. September 4th, 1957. It’s moments like this that make me ashamed to be white.

Tagg Romney has twin boys through surrogate — Good for them. But, um, isn’t this pretty unconservative?

Missouri Republican Rep After Coming Out As Gay: “It’s A Moment Of Peace” — Man, do I feel sorry for this guy. To be a gay Republican these days must be an intolerable tension.

Love the people, hate the plumbing — Hahaha. As tipster Gabrielle Harbowy points out, “This is what happens when aggregator bots repost any mentions of their keywords, without human audit. You get a plumbing news site accidentally promoting a queer sf book when the author’s “love the people, not the plumbing” post is retweeted.”

North Carolina Pastor Sean Harris: Parents Should ‘Punch’ Their Gay-Acting Children — Ah, conservative Christians. You shall know them by their love.

American lifespan by county — Tobias Buckell talks about the gaps in American life. I’d be very interested in a map overlaying this data with political affiliation. I’m pretty sure I know what it would show.

No Separation of Church and State, Say Conservatives (Except on Health Care, Food, and Other Jesusy Things Like Peace) — Conservatives respond to the culture war by asserting that we’re a Christian nation with the can’t-miss implication that our government (when not highjacked by liberals) is godly, founded by Christian men, with laws and freedoms based on Judeo-Christian principle. I know these positions well, having grown up in conservative circles. But when it comes time for the government to act in ways congruent with Christianity, like feeding the hungry (food stamps) or caring for the sick (health care), conservatives grimace, play the small government and personal responsibility card, and argue that we can’t have government in the role of the church. So which is it? (Snurched from Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Do Nothings and Know Nothings — More on Republicans in Congress.

?otd: What’s up with your bad breath? Onion rings?

5/5/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.75 hours (3,900 words on Their Currents Turn Awry)
Body movement: 2.0 hour suburban walk
Hours slept: 8.5 (fitful)
Weight: n/a (forgot)
Currently reading: The Blade Itself Joe Abercrombie

Tags: climate, Cool, Culture, Funny, gay, health, history, Links, Personal, Photos, race, Religion, Science, sex

Posted: 8:25 am Sat May 05 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad knows your history

Jay Lake. The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future — Best SF with a review of my recent Sunspin novella at Subterranean Online.

Talking pineapple question on state exam stumps … everyone! — And more on this. Plus a hilarious response from author Daniel Pinkwater, who wrote the original source material from which the test was extracted. Weird stuff. (Via corwynofamber.)

Rhetological Fallacies — Errors and manipulations of rhetoric and logical thinking. Oddly, the second chart I saw yesterday illustrating this point. (Via tillyjane.)

Sticking hand into bee colony and moving them — A nifty video. (Via willyumtx.)

Quantum decision affects results of measurements taken earlier in time

‘History of Space Photography’ is out of this world

Rosetta Approaches Asteroid Lutitea — What would it look like to approach an asteroid in a spaceship? Though I also love this comment: Lutetian is currently the largest asteroid or comet nucleus that has been visited by a human-launched spacecraft. Since when have we needed to qualify the noun “spacecraft” with the adjective “human-launched”?

Private company does indeed plan to mine asteroids… and I think they can do it — Bad Astronomer Phil Plait on some very cool stuff.

Primate Change — Hahahaha.

Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012 — In memoriam: After years of health problems, Facts has finally died.

Legal Theory Lexicon: Persons and Personhood — In case you were wondering. (Via Scrivener’s Error.)

The day-to-day reality of enforcing immigration laws

Shift on Executive Power Lets Obama Bypass Rivals — Strangely enough, this story in Your Liberal Media makes it sound as if Obama had come up with this all on his own, for his own reasons, without ever actually mentioning deliberate Republican obstructionism or the GOP’s stated highest legislative priority of making Obama a one-term president. Nope, he’s just a power mad liberal, apparently.

The Amnesia Candidate — Mr. Romney wants you to attribute all of the shortfalls in economic policy since 2009 (and some that happened in 2008) to the man in the White House, and forget both the role of Republican-controlled state governments and the fact that Mr. Obama has faced scorched-earth political opposition since his first day in office. Basically, the G.O.P. has blocked the administration’s efforts to the maximum extent possible, then turned around and blamed the administration for not doing enough. But, but, Tea Party!

Jon Huntsman and the Grand Old Communist Party — Hahahah.

Rubio: George W. Bush Was a “Fantastic” President — By what conceivable standard? National security? 9-11 happened on his watch, and we were drawn into the Iraq war on blatantly false pretenses. Domestic security? The response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans should have been the scandal of the decade. The economy? That’s a farce that goes without saying. The Bush administration was one of the most colossal political failures since at least Herbert Hoover, proudly following conservative philosophies while driving this nation as deep into the ditch as we’ve been since the Great Depression. And Republicans think it was a success? Unfortunately for reality-based Americans, we really do get the government that we deserve.

RNC spokesman says Republicans will follow Bush economic policies, ‘just updated’ — Yeah, because that worked out so well during the Bush administration. I realize that all likely GOP voters blame Obama for everything that’s happened to the economy over the last twelve years, but here in reality land, some of us remember what the state of the economy, the Federal budget, and the deficit were when Bush took office, and what state they were in when he left.

?otd: Where were you born?

4/24/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (3,000 words on Their Currents Turn Awry)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 (solid)
Weight: 240.2 (!)
Currently reading: Between books

Tags: climate, Cool, Culture, education, Funny, Links, nature, Personal, Photos, Politics, reviews, Science, stories, Sunspin, Videos, weird

Posted: 5:35 am Tue April 24 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad wanders into Monday

John Cleese on Creativity — (Thanks to danjite.)

Post-Prozac Nation — The Science and History of Treating Depression.

Why North Korean ‘racist dwarfs’ really are three inches shorter than their cousins in South Korea — Headline from the Daily Mail.

Quantum Rainbow Photon Gun Unveiled — :: wamts ::

How science failed during the Gulf oil disaster

Wal-Mart probe could cost some executives their jobs — Now, if they were Wall Street execs, these guys would just get bigger bonuses.

Former presidential hopeful John Edwards faces trial — And he was supposed to be one of the good guys. Of course, if he’d been a Republican, this never would have gone to trial. See Vitter, Craig, etc. for what happens to GOPers with sex scandals.

Mitt Romney’s secrets — Mitt Romney’s contemptuous attitude toward the importance of public disclosure is increasingly troubling. Whether it involves the details of his personal finances or the identity of his big fundraisers, the presumptive Republican is setting a new, low bar for transparency.

?otd: Huh? What happened?

4/23/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (2,800 words on Their Currents Turn Awry)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.75 (solid)
Weight: 241.4 (!)
Currently reading: Somewhere Else by Sally McLennan

Tags: Cool, Culture, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, sex, weird

Posted: 5:23 am Mon April 23 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad likes both kinds of music

Endurance by Jay Lake — A review of my most recent Green novel from a feminist perspective. As it happens, this comes fairly close to my own view of the book.

Ancient language controls crime rings — Some gang members serving prison sentences are using an ancient language to try to keep control of their criminal organizations on the outside as corrections officers work fast to crack the code. (Via @lilithsaintcrow.)

Pop Culture’s 40-Year Itch

Europe as seen by… — (Snurched from Andrew Wheeler.)

Can You Make Yourself Smarter? — Maybe.

It gets to me, sometimes — Anonymous Doc on the endless round of struggle and pain he sees in the hospital. This line caught at me: That there are lots of people out there living their lives and enjoying them, and not waiting for the next shoe to drop. People who aren’t professional patients. People who aren’t just biding their time until their diagnoses come to get them. I’ve been a professional patient these last four years, especially these past three, and even now am biding my time until my diagnosis comes to get me. I’ve seen this bitterly from the other side.

Silent Hives — Colony collapse disorder and pesticides, fifty years after Silent Spring.

Global Warming & Climate Change Myths — Denialism, whether of global warming or evolution or just reality in general, is like criminal defense. The denialist pecks away at the evidence in individual chunks, never responsible for providing a coherent framework to explain the aggregate hypothesis. Each point the denialist attempts to make is under no obligation to interact sensibly with any other point. So large, well supported bodies of evidence can be safely ignored by otherwise intelligent people blinded by ideology or faith, who are being manipulated by cynical opportunists. Sort of like the OJ trial. (Snurched from Slacktivist.)

Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Struggle — …a prolonged struggle at the highest levels of Wal-Mart, a struggle that pitted the company’s much publicized commitment to the highest moral and ethical standards against its relentless pursuit of growth. See, this is precisely why we need less government regulation of business, so companies will be free to cover up their misdeeds and protect their profits. Conservative paradise! Industry self-regulation for the win!

Can young evangelicals move beyond the Religious Right? — You know, it would be very easy for me to be snarky and cynical about the message of this piece, but I really want to take it seriously. Maybe this is a step in the right direction. (Snurched from Slacktivist.)

The Bourbon Democrats rise again? — “The Bourbon [Democratic-written] constitution of 1875 was a victory for prosperous . . . Alabamians who did not want to pay taxes to improve the lives of those less fortunate than themselves and who did not want to finance commercial development that did not benefit them directly.” What contemporary political party comes to mind?

Romney blames Obama for factory that closed under Bush — Considering that the entire Tea Party movement is founded on blaming Obama for things Bush did, why is this even news?

Sheriff Joe’s world crumbles — The controversial Arizona cop is prepping for a possible trial. But already, his closest allies have fallen. This amazes me. I always thought Arpaio was one of those conservative Untouchables, the real life version of what Republicans liked to pretend Bill Clinton secretly was.

?otd: Country or Western?

4/22/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (3,500 words on Their Currents Turn Awry)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.25 (solid)
Weight: 239.8
Currently reading: Somewhere Else by Sally McLennan

Tags: Books, Cancer, climate, Culture, Endurance, Funny, Green, health, healthcare, Language, Links, Mexico, nature, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, weird

Posted: 6:20 am Sun April 22 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad has fallen on the highway and is lying in the rain

Magical light effects — Art guru James Gurney is talking here about paintings, but there’s some pretty clear parallel applications of this principle in fiction writing.

Richard Prince’s Latest Act of Appropriation: The Catcher in the Rye — (Snurched from nihilistic_kid.)

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled — Roger Ebert on being a fogey about urban design aesthetic.

Studies Question the Pairing of Food Deserts and Obesity

Rubber Chicken Flies into Solar Radiation Storm — Squawk! (Thanks to threeoutside.)

3 ATs — Another awesome APOD image. I swear, there’s something about people who design observatories.

Asteroid takeout—a one-billionaire mission to bring a 500-ton asteroid to Earth by 2025

Habitable Zones in Other Galaxies

10 Things You Should Know About Hitler: Predictions From 1932

Secular or sectarian: Pick one or the other — Next question for everyone who, like Romney, rejects secularism: Which sect do you think should be established as the official one? Because if you don’t want a secular government, then you’re going to have to tell us which sect should be in charge. Freedom of religion is freedom from religion, and only freedom from religion protects all religions from whomever happens to carry the demographic majority.

The Boys Who Cried Fox — Only those with a very elastic concept of bias could interpret asking a vice-presidential nominee about her reading habits as lobbing a mortar-round rather than a softball. Warning, interesting and entertaining as it is, also as usual in Your Liberal Media, this article draws a false equivalency between the dominant beliefs and behaviors of the Right and very minor themes of the Left.

Mitt Romney: Candidate or Motivational Poster? — Ah, success.

On National Pot Day, A Speech President Obama Should Give — More Americans today support medical-marijuana use than support the death penalty. So if Obama won’t lead here, then perhaps he should follow.

?otd: How you doing?

4/21/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (took the day off to de-stress)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.25 (solid)
Weight: 238.8
Currently reading: Somewhere Else by Sally McLennan

Tags: Art, Cool, Culture, Food, Funny, history, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, Religion, Science, Writing

Posted: 8:09 am Sat April 21 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad is as stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay

Neal Stephenson on Science Fiction, Building Towers 20 Kilometers High … and Insurance

Any kind of physical activity lowers Alzheimer’s risk

Reversing a heart attack: scientists reprogram scar tissue into working muscle

The Screech Owl Cam is Live Again (at Last!)

‘Extreme Universe’ puzzle deepens — The mystery surrounding the source of the highest-energy particles known in the Universe has grown deeper.

Neutrino Communications: An Interstellar Future?

Racism vs. the Race Card — Ta-Nehisi Coates is thoughtful on conservative views of racism.

Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes — Review finds thousands of papers detailing shameful acts were culled, while others were kept secret illegally. As usually, destruction of the evidence is a lesser crime than what is being concealed. Anybody remember the Iran-Contra raid where the FBI politely waited for Oliver North and Fawn Hall to finish shredding documents?

Phony Mommy Wars — Yep.

The most amazing Supreme Court chart. Maybe ever. — This should go right next to a chart about the ideological fixations of the Court’s conservative wing.

The Bush National-Guard Story Rises from the Dead — The story itself was never discredited or disproven, quite the opposite in point of fact, but the conservative smoke screen around it, enthusiastically abetted by Your Liberal Media, has ensured the truth will never be taken seriously.

Romney’s Foreign Policy Could Be More Ideological and Reckless Than Bush’s — As someone who, apparently unlike every single likely Republican voter in the United States, can actually remember the decade just past, may I say, “Holy crap!”

?otd: Are you sentimental, if you know what I mean?

4/19/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (2,500 words on Their Currents Turn Awry)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.5 (solid)
Weight: 239.6
Currently reading: Somewhere Else by Sally McLennan

Tags: Cool, Culture, gender, healthcare, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, race, Science, Tech

Posted: 5:27 am Thu April 19 2012 | Comments(0) |