Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad wonders where the week is going

Westward Weird came out yesterday — I have a story therein, “The Temptation of Eustace Prudence McAllen”, first in the doc, which is a nice position. Various of my co-authors have commented on the anthology and their stories, including Seanan McGuire, Dean Wesley Smith, and Steven Saus.

Próba Kwiatów – Jay Lake — A mixed review, in Polish, of the Polish edition of my novel Trial of Flowers.

SF in SF — Just a reminder that this coming Saturday, 2/11, I will be at SF in SF with K.W. Jeter and Rudy Rucker. If you’re in the Bay Area, come on down.

10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy — He’s talking about ad copy, not fiction, but this is still interesting and worthwhile stuff. (Via Curiosity Counts.)

Kill the Local News — Writer Jeremy Tolbert on sensationalism.

Mindful Eating as Food for Thought

Scale of the Universe — Another fun take on the “powers of 10″ meme. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

What did people do: in a Medieval City? — (Via danjite.)

Self-Cloning Seagrass May Be World’s Oldest Living Thing

Mars-bound NASA rover carries coin for camera checkup — This is cool and kind of poetic.

Mapping the Road Ahead for Autonomous Cars

Turing’s Enduring Importance — The path computing has taken wasn’t inevitable. Even today’s machines rely on a seminal insight from the scientist who cracked Nazi Germany’s codes. An interesting article, although I wish in mentioning his suicide it had acknowledged the disgusting way Turing was treated by his own people.

The State of Gay Marriage — Being a handy map to show you where bigotry has triumphed, and where respect for basic human rights is gaining ground.

The Single Most Powerful Quote From California’s Prop 8 Ruling — “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.” Like opposition to interracial marriage forty years ago, Prop 8 is bigotry, pure and simple, a combination of narrow-minded religious privilege and typically unfounded conservative alarmism. Like opposition to interracial marriage today, forty years from now people will be ashamed to admit in public what they once voted and for and believed.

The Business Case Against Karen Handel — John Scalzi with a very sensible take on the (surprising to me) resignation of Karen Handel from the Susan G. Komen foundation. For my own part, I’ll observe that as usual when the Right tries strong-arm tactics, they only see unfairness when they get caught out.

Planned Parenthood’s Deep Bench — Ta-Nehisi Coates with some interesting thoughts on the fight that Komen picked when they decided to show their true conservative colors.

Why the Energy-Industrial Elite Has It In for the Planet — Social and political commentary on the funding impetus behind the intellectual fraud of climate change denial.

Jesus versus the GOP — The man from Nazareth would have been appalled by the “Christian” Republican candidates. The only thing I have to say to political Christianists is “Matthew 6:6“.

‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World — The declining influence of the US Constitution overseas.

Republicans Finally Realize They’re Helping Obama — Like their counterparts from 16 years before, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives last year filled with revolutionary zeal, assuming that they could leverage their hold over one branch of Congress into sweeping changes in the national agenda. And like their predecessors, they blundered into high-profile confrontations with a Democratic president and suffered prolonged and deep damage in their public standing, with each new defeat slowly leeching the fanatical determination out of them.

Santorum Upsets G.O.P. Race With Three Victories — I really can’t decide who would be the bigger disaster for this country, Senator Frothy Mix or Governor 1%. Our last Republican president set an extremely low bar for destructive incompetence, something the GOP electorate seems to have very conveniently forgotten.

?otd: How was your Tuesday?

2/8/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.25 (solid)
Weight: 230.8
Currently reading: n/a (between books)

Tags: Books, Cancer, cars, climate, Conventions, Cool, Culture, Food, games, gay, gender, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, reviews, Science, sex, stories, Tech, Trial, Writing

Posted: 6:24 am Wed February 08 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad joins the Center for the Easily Amused

Five Authors + Five Questions : Goals — Shimmer‘s blog on various writers on various issues. Including me.

Philip Glass on style

Darwin Day — Portland celebrates the Antichrist one of the heroes of modern science on February 12. (Via threeoutside.)

DNA Turning Human Story Into a Tell-All — Humans and Neanderthals and Denisovans, oh my. I especially liked this bit: [O]ur modern era, since H. floresiensis died out, is the only time in the four-million-year human history that just one type of human has been alive. (Thanks to Dad.)

Steampunk Pocket Watch Winds Via Solar Power — So to speak… Some neat lateral thinking here. (Via markbourne.)

Experts Build Crab-Like Robot to Remove Stomach Cancer — Huh. (Via danjite.)

How Neutrino Beams Could Reveal Cavities Inside Earth — Commander Laforge to the bridge.

Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake

Team to investigate underwater ‘UFO’ – is it sunken ships or Millennium Falcon? — Duh, of course it’s a life size replica of a completely fictional starship. At the bottom of the ocean.

Far side of the moon filmed by Nasa spacecraft — One whole face of the Moon can never be seen from Earth because it does not spin on its axis, meaning we always have a view of the same side. Umm… stupid much?

Bill legalizing same-sex marriage passes Washington state Senate — Someday fairly soon, opposition to gay marriage will have all the social panache and credibility as opposition to interracial marriage, and for much the same reason. This shameful bigotry will be the province of bitter, aging cranks, largely behind closed doors.

I Don’t Care About Your Invisible Jeebus — But from where I stand these days, the only thing I see religion doing in the public sector is gay bashing and telling women, mostly poor and desperate and in deplorable financial and personal situations, what to do with their bodies. I see busybodies deciding what drugs they can dispense to which customers, or deciding that they don’t have to issue a marriage license because of some petty deity that I don’t believe in told them to hate their fellow citizens and ignore the law.

Indiana Senate passes bill putting religion in science class — Conservative America: driving all our children deeper into ignorance every year. Yet another of the myriad reasons I can never be conservative, and honestly don’t understand how any thoughtful, self-aware person can be.

Teleprompters are stupid … only when Obama uses them — Ah, conservative “logic”.

The Conservative Backlash That Isn’t Coming — Some thoughts from conservative commentator Daniel Larison. I will observe that since no one in the GOP seems to remember the eight years of the Bush administration, preferring to blame the disastrous outcomes of his governing on conservative principles on Obama who inherited Bush’s mess, how could there be a backlash?

Have Democrats Succeeded in Pre-Destroying Romney? — A conservative leaning narrative complaining about the Democrats using the same tactics that have been so successful for the GOP these past decades.

?otd: Are you ever bored? Why?

2/2/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 (solid)
Weight: 227.2
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

Tags: Cancer, Cool, Culture, Funny, gay, healthcare, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, steampunk, Tech, Washington, weird, Writing

Posted: 6:32 am Thu February 02 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad returns to its labors

The Rules of Magic, According to the Greatest Fantasy Sagas of All Time — (Brought to my attention by willyumtx.)

You Eat That? — Disgust is one of our most basic emotions—the only one that we have to learn—and nothing triggers it more reliably than the strange food of others.

Honda revives Ferris Bueller — Zombie Matthew Broderick?

Genetic or Not, Gay Won’t Go Away

Ritalin Gone Wrong

Hysteria and the Teenage Girl

Testicular zap ‘may stop sperm’ — A dose of ultrasound to the testicles can stop the production of sperm, according to researchers investigating a new form of contraception.

U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected — The Pentagon has proposed delaying a plan to replace the U-2s with RQ-4 Global Hawk drones because of Defense Department cutbacks.

Too Much of a Bad Thing: Monsanto Did NOT Buy Blackwater — Hmmm. (Via danjite.)

Newt Gingrich’s moon base plan a ‘cheap trick’ to get votes, space experts say — Experts call Gingrich’s plan a gimmick that is too expensive to work. I am shocked that Newt might have said something deliberately misleading. Shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

Gingrich’s Absurd Outsider Pose — But it works with the low information voters who make up the GOP base. Who cares if his claims are true?

?otd: What are you working on this week?

1/30/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 (fitful)
Weight: 227.8
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

Tags: Food, Funny, gay, healthcare, Links, Movies, Personal, Politics, Process, sex, Tech, weird, Writing

Posted: 6:16 am Mon January 30 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad sits at the bar and puts bread in your jar

The Darth Vader Burger is Here — (Via my brother.)

Airline pilot startled by flying shark — Life imitates, uh… I got nothing. (Via David Goldman.)

The Apollo 11 lunar landing, told through data.

The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See — Made by one guy in Oregon.

Center produces chimeric monkeys — That’s a hell of a headline. Interesting story, too.

Indonesia’s underwater masters of disguise — Meet the fish that mimics the octopus that mimics scary sea creatures.

Google Earth’s Lessons in Wave Mechanics — A close look at Google’s virtual globe reveals almost unlimited examples of the way waves behave.

X-37B spaceplane ‘spying on China’ — America’s classified X-37B spaceplane is probably spying on China, according to a report in Spaceflight magazine.

Extinctions from Climate Change Underestimated — Hmm. Actual hypotheses from actual data. I’d better tune into Rush Limbaugh to clear my head of these pesky facts.

L.A.-area bishop, father of two, resigns

I Was Shitting You People – A Message From Ayn Rand — Ah, satire. (Via danjite.)

Gay couple win suit over names on birth certificate

The Irrelevance of the Broccoli Argument against the Insurance Mandate

Magna Carta and Wingnut Legislation — I can understand, if not agree with, the conservative impulse to require all legislation to state its Constitutional basis. (I disagree simply because there are far too many issues in modern government and society which are not explicitly, or even implicitly, contemplated in the Constitution. Like many beloved conservative talking points, it’s a simple-minded attempt to solve a complex problem that doesn’t really exist.) But the Magna Carta. Really, guys? Is there a “nuttiest GOP politician” contest going on?

Here’s What Romney’s Unreleased Tax Returns Almost Certainly Hide — Every major presidential candidate for decades has released their tax returns routinely. Not Romney. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.

Santorum Becomes Millionaire in Six Years After U.S. Senate Loss — Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum describes himself on the campaign trail as a frugal man of faith and limited means. Right, Senator Frothy Mix. Limited means. And Mitt Romney is unemployed, while Newt Gingrich is middle class. What kind of idiot do you have to be to believe this crap? (I know, the question answers itself.) Not that I object to wealth in politicians or anyone else. I do object to blatantly false claims.

Rick Santorum claims same sex marriage is comparable to polygamy — Santorum is a fool and a moral leper. The more I learn about this man, the more I despise him. And mind you, this in a race where Newt is running.

Rick Santorum’s Google problem remains — As well it should, given his despicable comments on the gay community. I for one am happy to continue to support “Santorum” search results defined as “The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex”. It’s the least he deserves. See also spreadingsantorum.com.

?otd: Man, what are you doing here?

1/6/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.0 (fitful)
Weight: 214.2
Currently reading: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Tags: China, climate, Cool, Food, gay, healthcare, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, Tech, Travel, Videos, weird

Posted: 6:16 am Fri January 06 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad looks toward the weekend

A reader reacts to Green — Rather much with the liking.

The language of stamps — A little bit of lost culture. (Via David Goldman.)

Pass the Large Grain of Salt — I found this article on cuisine to be hilarious.

Old, million-dollar violins don’t play better than the new models

US Cancer Deaths Continue To Fall, ACS Report

Cubelets Are Modular Programming in Meatspace — I still love this concept.

How researchers learned to stop time (and maybe enable hackers)

“Nobody has the right to take another life” — Roger Ebert on the death penalty. Worth the read, as most of his posts are.

Petitioners Ask Portland To Stop Regarding Corporations As People

Boehner: Richard Cordray appointment ‘unprecedented power grab’ by Obama — Right. Because no Republican president ever made a recess appointment. Not ever. Nope. No way, no how. No, no, don’t go look up the facts! Believe my opinion!

Could a mystery candidate for GOP race still emerge? — “Anybody but Romney” is still a powerful force in GOP politics. And in a party that has made a fetish out of mixing religion and politics, specifically Christianism, his Mormonism will always be an issue.

Gingrich is out for revenge — Ah, the Newt we know and love, long time GOP standard bearer.

Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies

?otd: Cheese, Grommit?

1/5/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 (fitful)
Weight: 213.2
Currently reading: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Tags: Books, Cancer, Culture, Food, gay, Green, healthcare, Links, music, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science, Tech

Posted: 6:21 am Thu January 05 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad salivates

Statisticians Reveal What Makes America Happy

The Hump Master: 1942 — I know what humping is in railroad operations, but I never realized there was such a person as “the hump master.” How’d you like that on your business card?

Would Colleges Be Better Off Without Football? — Everything we think we know about college football’s impact on students’ grades, graduation rates, rankings, and school finances adds up to this: Football might be bad for some colleges. Yes, this.

Power in Numbers — A profile of scientist Eric Lander.

AGNES (Age Gain Now Empathy System) — An aging simulator from MIT. I note passim that late stage chemotherapy does a pretty good, if not precise job, of this same thing. (Via Curiosity Counts.)

Two more states allow same-sex civil unions — Note that civilization continues to not collapse, and traditional marriage continues to endure despite the horror of gay nuptials.

The spectre of 1932: How a loss of faith in politicians and democracy could make 2012 the most frightening year in living memory —

Conservative White People’s Primary — Juan Cole compares Iowa’s ethnic makeup with the US as a whole. Why do we care about the caucuses?

Nobody Understands Debt — Paul Krugman on the deficit. Warning: this column will only make sense if you are a member of the reality-based community.

George W. Bush presidency barely mentioned in Republican contest — Why talk about one of your most epic failures? Not that voters seem to be able to remember that.

Eric Cantor’s Press Secretary Interrupts 60 Min Interview to Claim Reagan Never Raised Taxes — This is why the rest of us think conservatives are basically nuts. Bald-faced denial of basic historical fact isn’t a coherent governing philosophy. It isn’t even a coherent philosophy for sane daily living. Yet millions of low-information GOP voters will nod along with the assertion rather than believe the facts.

The Truth Inside Romney’s Swift Boat Moment — Sooner or later, we will grow as a nation and realize that a political smear doesn’t become true just because enough people believe it to make it effective. Some day, the truth of things will matter again. At which point, the entire Republican campaign playbook would be null and void. A victory for reality like that ain’t gonna happen in FOX News America.

?otd: When’s the last time you ate a Midwestern pork tenderloin sandwich?

1/3/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 (lights out time, absolute insomnia with no sleep)
Weight: 212.0
Currently reading: Daughter of the Sword by Steve Bein

Tags: Culture, Funny, gay, healthcare, history, Links, media, Personal, Politics, Science, Tech

Posted: 6:10 am Tue January 03 2012 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad tastes funny

Author Interview – Philip Athans

What’s the ‘value’ of a cancer treatment? — A discussion of cancer treatments and costs in the UK. (Via Curiosity Counts —

Ecosystems shift as climate changes — By 2100, nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems – forest, grassland or tundra, for example – will have moved from one type to another. More liberal bias in the facts.

This poll tells you everything that’s wrong with American politics

The GOP’s Long and Winding Road — Primary politics on the Right.

G.O.P. Monetary Madness — Paul Krugman on Ron Paul’s fiscal policy.

Newt Gingrich: Gay People Choose To Be Gay Like Priests Choose Celibacy — Playing the bigot card always seems to go over so well with conservatives. Are you proud of your Republican party?

?otd: Do clowns taste funny to you?

12/19/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 13.25 (solid plus napping)
Weight: 209.4
Currently (re)reading: Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: Cancer, climate, gay, gender, healthcare, interviews, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, Science

Posted: 8:43 am Mon December 19 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad didn’t sleep at all

From Jack Kerouac to Ayn Rand: Iconic Writers on Symbolism, 1963 — Including a squib from Ray Bradbury. (Snurched from Curiosity Counts.)

George Takei on Star Trek vs Star Wars — Hahahahahahah. (Via willyumtx.)

How Doctors Die — It’s Not Like the Rest of Us, But It Should Be. This piece really made me think. (Via David Goldman.)

Eye Ball — A globe studded with cameras captures a panorama if you throw it in the air. :: wants ::

World’s Smallest Steam Engine Is Size of Fog Droplet — Nanosteampunk?

Photo of a Nuclear Explosion Less than 1 Millisecond After Detonation — Weird, haunting and cool in an eerie way. (Via @dduane.)

The search for the Higgs Boson: How does the Large Hadron Collider work?

Polar Bears Are Turning To Cannibalism As Arctic Ice Disappears — I’m sure Rush Limbaugh has an explanation of how this is another liberal plot. (Via danjite.)

Gun accidentally fired at Atlanta airport checkpoint — Thankfully the gun owner’s Second Amendment rights to his defense of essential liberties were being protected at the time. We all know that’s the main reason for people to carry guns.

News Networks Regularly Promote Anti-Gay Family Research Council On Air — Because you know, that liberal bias and all.

When Cooter took on Newt — “Dukes of Hazzard” star Ben Jones tells Salon what it was like to run for Congress against “a great demagogue”. (Via shsilver.)

The Disaster of a Gingrich Nomination — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on everyone’s favorite post-Cain GOP frontrunner. If the goal is to make sure that the general election is decided by popular disgust with the Republican candidate, he is the ideal Republican nominee. The problem, of course, with rooting for Newt is that he just might win. Remember, they used to laugh at Reagan. (I still do, but millions of people back in 1980 went insane and voted for the dangerous, senile old fool anyway.)

?otd: Seriously. You?

12/13/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 10.0 (lights out but sleepless, plus plus napping)
Weight: 209.0
Currently (re)reading: Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

Tags: climate, Cool, Culture, Funny, gay, guns, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, Tech, Videos, Writing

Posted: 6:13 am Tue December 13 2011 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad for a frozen Sunday

A reader reacts to Mainspring — Really, really not with the liking. At some length.

Everyone Speaks Text Message — Technology and ‘heritage languages’. (Via my Dad.)

The dos and don’ts of Googling people

NASA: Earth’s Prehistoric Record Warns of Nearing Rapid Climate Change — Yeah, except that since the Earth is 6,000 years old, this can’t possibly be true. Take that, reality!

Study: Greenland faces land crisis as global warming heats up

Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica — A cool APOD photo. I can’t wait for my brain to come back online post-chemo so I can work on my own Antarctica project.

You Press the Button. Kodak Used to Do the Rest. — Kodak saw the shift from analog to digital photography coming. Here’s why it couldn’t win. Young Sidney Kodak will never come to be, I’m afraid, Mr. Bester.

Evolution: The Natural History of Animal Skeletons, Stripped Down — What a flamingo, a capybara, and a guinea pig have to do with the beginnings of recorded time. Offer not valid for the willfully ignorant. (Via Curiosity Counts.)

Won the battle and lost the war? How about lost the battle and won the war? — elusivem on the normalization of being gay.

Imaginary Farm Dust Regulation Banned By House — Ah, conservative “reality”. Where the sky is occasionally blue, even.

There Will Be No Spoilers in 2012 — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on the GOP ticket. If conservatives were not motivated enough to rebel against the GOP in 2008 at the tail end of one of the most disastrous Republican administrations of the last eighty years, they are hardly going to start casting protest votes in large numbers when there is an opportunity to defeat a Democratic incumbent. In a rational world, after the miserable failure that was the Bush administration, the GOP shouldn’t be able to elect a dog catcher. Their incompetence at governance has solid, very expensive proof.

Mitch McConnell flunks College — So what is Mitch McConnell on about? Does he not know his Constitution? Is he merely pandering to the crowd he was addressing? Hello? He’s a Republican. Both of those things are true pretty much by definition in the GOP these days. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

?otd: Billy or ice cream?

12/11/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 11.0 (badly interrupted plus napping)
Weight: 207.8
Currently (re)reading: Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold

Tags: Antarctica, Books, climate, Culture, gay, Language, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science

Posted: 7:42 am Sun December 11 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad emerges from the caves of sleep

Neo-opsis with a classic review of my short novel Rocket Science

The Importance of Voice or Style in Writing — jimvanpelt is wise.

American Booksellers Association Attacks Amazon’s Price Check App — Amazon.com just gets more evil by the month.

2011 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology — Some really smart kids out there. (Via danjite.)

Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse Will Include ‘Impossible’ Sight — Your word of the day is “selenelion”. (Via lillypond, a/k/a my sister.)

Biophysicists Discover Four New Rules of DNA ‘Grammar’

Rick Perry’s ‘war on religion’ ad becomes a meme — Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving fool.

Perry’s Anti-Gay Rights Focus Is Divisive Even to Staff — Don’t worry, Rick. Vile bigotry is always a good sell to the “family values” crowd.

Should Rick Perry’s YouTube ad be banned as hate speech? — Banned, no. I’m all about the First Amendment. Prominently labelled as hate speech? Absolutely. Along with much other GOP campaign rhetoric from the “God, guns, gays” parts bin, sadly. Not that Perry or the GOP will ever for a moment be embarrassed about that.

The Muppets Are Communist, Fox Business Network Says — In case my conservative friends are somehow still wondering why those of us in the reality-based community think you’re nuts…

?otd: Zzz?

12/10/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 11.5 (fitful plus napping)
Weight: 209.0
Currently (re)reading: Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold

Tags: amazon, Books, Cool, Culture, gay, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, reviews, Rocket, Science, Videos

Posted: 8:14 am Sat December 10 2011 | Comments(0) |