Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad slopes into Monday

Advice on Writing from Modernity’s Greatest Writers — I like (but do not agree with) Mark Twain’s: “Write without pay until somebody offers pay; if nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.” (Snurched from Curiosity Counts.)

Defining Words, Without the Arbiters — Unmediated lexicography. (Thanks to Dad.)

BFTP: The myth of bra burning feminists — (Via @tansyrr.)

A Nigerian criticizes the ‘First World problems’ meme — As I have as well. (Via danjite.)

Boston’s Brain Drain: The Cost of Being America’s Drunkest City — Speaking of legal drugs.

States say it’s time to rethink medical marijuana — I haven’t bothered with recreational drugs in over a quarter century, but I still strongly favor legalization. Prohibition has been a disaster for everyone except law enforcement budgets and criminal profits.

12 Hangover Cures From Famous Heavy Drinkers — And speaking of drinking… Back when I occasionally drank enough to worry about hangovers, my cure was some vitamin C or orange juice, two aspirin or Advil, a Pepcid AC and a huge glass of water before going to sleep. Seemed to work pretty well for me. How about you?

International Linear Collider race starts in physics — Ah, big science. Too bad the US abandoned our leadership role in this stuff with the SSCL cancellation.

Will China Outsmart the U.S.? — The value of research and intellectual property. You know, that science stuff that the GOP voting base hates.

Manhunt in Mount Rainier park after US ranger shot dead — Another fine citizen exercising his Second Amendment rights to his defense of essential liberties. Aren’t you proud of your NRA for helping make this kind of patriotism so much easier?

?otd: Back to work today?

1/2/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 10.5 (solid)
Weight: 210.4
Currently (re)reading: The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: China, Culture, gender, guns, Language, Links, Nigeria, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, Writing

Posted: 8:50 am Mon January 02 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad says Happy Solstice

If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold And Clear — Go check out kenscholes‘ store at for.com. It’s worth your time.

First trailer for ‘The Hobbit’ arrives

Part 1. The Origins of Dinotopia: Childhood Dreams — Art guru James Gurney with a very detailed series of blog posts on how he developed Dinotopia. A wonderful series of pieces on world building for all you writers and artists out there.

Watch the Solstice Approach (and Recede) — Be sure to click through to the year clock.

Metal undergoes novel transition under extreme pressure — Under extreme pressures and temperatures, one of the main materials of the Earth’s interior has exhibited a never-before-seen transition. Cool.

Sheriff: Ohio man cleaning gun killed Amish girl — Ah, the death of a child. As my conservative friends stoutly agree in their party platforms, a small price to pay for the Second Amendment right to defense of essentially liberties. How many deaths are your guns worth to you?

In Madison, 1,000 Singers Defy Walker’s Edict — Ah, the price of free speech. (Via tillyjane, a/k/a my mom.)

Politifact, R.I.P. — The pernicious GOP “liberal media” meme strikes again.

Fox and Friends on the SpongeBob Conspiracy — Further proof that the conservative worldview is nutty crankery. (Via willyumtx.)

?otd: Long nights? Impossible odds?

12/21/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 12.5 (solid plus napping)
Weight: 208.8
Currently (re)reading: Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: Art, clockpunk, Culture, guns, healthcare, Links, Movies, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, stories, video, Writing

Posted: 6:21 am Wed December 21 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is logy

Conversations About Bigotry, Literature, and the World Fantasy Award

Novels and Short Stories… — kenscholes with more on this topic.

I’ll be Holmes for Christmas, or Sherlock Holmes and the case of the missing holiday

The iPhone’s Many Narratives — A thousand pictures are worth how many words?

Inexplicable Particle: Why Even I’m a Higgs Bozo

Autism hidden in plain sight — As more children are diagnosed with autism, researchers are trying to find unrecognized cases of the disorder in adults. The search for the missing millions is just beginning.

Illinois Sheriff: 5 Were Killed in Murder-Suicide and Couple Found Dead in Massachusetts Mansion Died From Gunshot Wounds — More proud American citizens using their Second Amendment rights in defense of their essential liberties. If you’re gun owner, how many deaths is your gun worth to you? For me, your gun rights don’t trump a single death.

Ancient Rome’s 99%

Newt Gingrich: 15 Things You Don’t Know About Him — I find Gringrich’s currently popularity with the GOP base inexplicable. He’s a serial adulator, the consummate Washington insider, a history professor and therefore one of the despised elites, and a Catholic, religion many evangelicals don’t even consider to be Christian. Beloved by the same people who despite elite professor and political insider Barack Obama, a man who’s still married to his first wife without a hint of scandal.

?otd: Have you ever eaten kimchi?

12/17/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Hours slept: 12.25 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently (re)reading: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: Awards, Culture, guns, healthcare, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, Tech, Writing

Posted: 10:25 am Sat December 17 2011 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad heads for the last chemo session

The Evolved Self-Management System — The placebo effect is a particular kind of priming effect. And what I want to do now is to explain a whole range of other priming effects by invoking the existence of an “evolved self-management system”… I want to know why individual human beings turn out like they do, why we respond to “messages” from our social and physical environments in such interesting ways… (Via Curiosity Counts.)

NASA unravels mystery of rare supernova image

Red Moon Rising — This APOD photo reminds me of Heinlein’s “Lifeline”.

Good Climate News: The “Methane Time Bomb” Apparently Isn’t — Thus climate science marches on, not with irrational ideological denialism but with a continued evaluation of the data. Which itself is a form of liberal bias these days.

Why hospital rooms don’t work

Christopher Hitchens, militant pundit, dies at 62 — Cancer weakened but did not soften Christopher Hitchens. He did not repent or forgive or ask for pity. I resent the assumption that one is seriously ill, one will naturally turn to God. For some people, faith is an essential part of coping. But there’s nothing inherent in the universe or automatic in the human condition about holding faith. When and if cancer takes me, I plan to go like Hitch. Proud and true to my principles. If I am reported to have a deathbed conversion to some religious tradition, mourn the fact that I lost my mind and my integrity before I lost my body.

St Matthews unveils provocative Christmas billboard — (Via Bill M.)

Three shot at courthouse in northern Minnesota — Another patriotic American exercising their Constitutional right to defense of their essential liberties. No need for gun control in this country. Move along, citizen, nothing to see here.

Revealed: huge increase in executive pay for America’s top bosses — Glad the economy has improved for someone. (Via danjite.)

Why Does Romney Lie? — Because anyone who would vote Republican after surviving the disasters of the Bush administration has no functional political memory anyway. Viz the Tea Party who blame Bush’s deficit and bank bailouts on Obama.

?otd: Chemo much?

12/16/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 11.25 (solid)
Weight: 209.6
Currently (re)reading: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: Cancer, climate, Culture, Funny, guns, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, weird

Posted: 8:41 am Fri December 16 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad thinks some they do and some they don’t

A French review of Extraordinary Engines — Including my story, “The Lollygang Save the World on Accident”.

Getting out of the way — Roger Ebert on prodigies and the creative process.

5 Timeless Books of Insight on Fear and the Creative Process — The only time I experience fear in my creative process is immediately before diving into a large scale project.

Mysterious 16th-Century Sext Discovered in Copy of Chaucer — Heh. (Via danjite.)

Led by the child who simply knew — Raising a transgendered child.

Having to think about the unthinkable — Most people don’t like to plan for dying, but in our state of denial, we leave ourselves vulnerable to conditions we would never want. Arrangements for the end of life are essential.

NASA is planning to use a giant crossbow and harpoon to capture samples from an asteroid. — Oh, the opportunities…

How the 10,000-Year Clock Measures Time> — The Earth’s rotation is notoriously unpredictable. So how can a clock keep time for 10,000 years?

Higgs boson: the particle of faith — There are parallels between the search for the ‘God particle’ and the search for God Himself, writes Alister McGrath.

Overnight Makeover for a Kosher First Kitchen — Making the White House kitchen kosher. (Thanks to Dad.)

A common atheist delusion — This is one of my mental failings as an atheist as well. I find religious dogma so preposterous and obviously suspect that I have a lot of trouble believing that other people really believe it. My default assumption is always that they are going through the motions for some other reason. Which is an error-of-thinking on my part, to be sure.

Texas school may build protective wall after 2 students shot while trying out for basketball — See, your your Constitutionally guaranteed right to defense of essential liberties with firearms requires that rather than limit firearms use near schools, or any other sensible measure, we build walls around those schools. Because otherwise students might get shot by people out exercising their constitutional rights, and after all it’s kids’ fault for getting in the way of the bullets. This is yet another reason why I can never be a conservative. I just can’t think myself that twisted and inhumane, to believe that gun rights trump the safety of schoolchildren.

Empathy, Cont. — Ta-Nehisi Coates on culture as a toolbox. I will also note, in parallel to his observation about weight and class, that there are no overweight kids in the_child‘s eight grade class, and vanishingly few in her entire school — which is a Waldorf school populated largely by the children of relatively (or heavily) monied white liberal-progressives. I am one of the few overweight parents, as well.

Non Sequitur nails contemporary politics — Read the blackboard in the background.

Physics Envy — Creating financial models involving human behavior is like forcing ‘the ugly stepsister’s foot into Cinderella’s pretty glass slipper.’

Panetta formally shuts down US war in Iraq — And we’ll just leave the money on the dresser on out way out, right?

?otd: Some you just can’t tell, right?

12/15/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 (solid, plus plus napping)
Weight: 209.6
Currently (re)reading: Retief! by Keith Laumer

Tags: Books, Cool, gender, guns, healthcare, history, Iraq, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, reviews, Science, sex, stories, Tech

Posted: 5:55 am Thu December 15 2011 | Comments(2) |

[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 from long, long ago

Review: ‘Hugo’ is a cabinet of wonders — CNN on Hugo, which I highly recommend to all of you.

SFFWRTCHT 1 Year Anniversary Show Giveaway

10 easy (but awesome) DIY Star Wars crafts projects — An R2D2 dreidel. Really? (Thanks, I think, to my brother.)

Cancer’s Escape Routes — Scientists are beginning to discover myriad strategies tumors use to avoid attacks by anti-cancer drugs. Yeah, well. That’s why I had to have a second round of chemo.

Kodak’s long fade to black

What’s in a Name? Ask Google

As Water Levels Drop, Texas Drought Reveals Secrets of the Deep — Interesting. (Thanks to Dad.)

Terraforming: Enter the ‘Shell World’

Nano Paint Could Make Airplanes Invisible to Radar

Air Force Extends Secret Space Plane’s Mysterious Mission

The American-Western European Values Gap — From the Pew Research Center. (Via danjite.)

Obama Gun Control Policy: President Stays Virtually Silent On Issue — You really have to wonder why the “Obama is coming for our guns” meme has so much traction among the GOP base. It’s not connected to reality in any way, shape or form.

The World According To Cain — The Cain campaign’s foreign policy document is laughable. I realize that the GOP thrives on low information voters, but low information candidates? Is that really a good idea? And speaking of low information candidates, Michele Bachman says she would close the US embassy in Iran. Uh, hasn’t been one those in over thirty years. Hello? GOP presidential field? This is the reality-based community calling…

Reporter’s Notebook: The Rise and Fall of the real Herman Cain

?otd: How far, far away is your galaxy?

12/5/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 (fitful)
Weight: 212.6
Currently (re)reading: Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

Tags: Books, Cancer, Culture, Funny, guns, health, Links, Movies, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science, Tech, Texas

Posted: 9:31 am Mon December 05 2011 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad watches old movies

Don’t forget to drop me a question in my interview thread. [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort Out Language

Black Death genetic code ‘built’ — The genetic code of the germ that caused the Black Death has been reconstructed by scientists for the first time. What could possibly go wrong?

Scrivener’s Error is contrarian (what else!?) about Steve Jobs

Graf Zeppelin vs Goodyear Blimp — A classic photo via x planes. No, they’re not dogfighting.

Seal Beach shooting: Death toll rises to eight — Another patriot exercises his Second Amendment rights in defense of his essential liberties. Guns don’t kill, just ask any conservative. It really is about the guns people. This has to stop somewhere.

Speaker at Occupy L.A. calls for violence, gets cheers from crowd — ericjamestone points to a counterexample of an OWS protestor advocating violence. Fair enough. How many OWS protestors bring firearms to the protests? How many talk about Second Amendment remedies? Does a rare counterexample balance against the violence-soaked eliminationist rhetoric of the American Right?

Occupy Wall Street: Who Are the 1%?

Open Letter to that 53% Guy — I’m a liberal, so I probably dream bigger than you. For instance, I want everybody to have healthcare. I want lazy people to have healthcare. I want stupid people to have healthcare. I want drug addicts to have healthcare. I want bums who refuse to work even when given the opportunity to have healthcare. I’m willing to pay for that with my taxes, because I want to live in a society where it doesn’t matter how much of a loser you are, if you need medical care you can get it. (Via Via @gregvaneekhout.)

How I Communicate With People Less Right Than Me — A Tiny Revolution on talking to the 53%’ers.

Occupy Wall Street: A Banker Explains What Really Happened to America

Wagging the Dog with Iran’s Maxwell Smart — Juan Cole with a takedown of the alleged Iranian DC assassination plot. Pursuing this as a grievance against Iran, as they are currently doing, is going to make the Obama administration look every bit as clownish and incompetent as the Bush administraton was with respect to Iraq.

Let’s go out to the lake, Earl — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the social realities of the GOP blocking the jobs bill. You know, those real life stories conservatives never tell, or even believe. This is the kind of thing that stokes my notion that conservativism is rooted in a failure of empathy (for the problems of other people) and imagination (the inability to believe they might ever experience those problems for themselves).

The Tea Party vs. The Establishment — A conservative view of the GOP primary process. (Which includes the deeply hilarious assertion that 2010 Tea Party candidates like Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle were principled. That makes for a pretty warped worldview if you can believe that while also walking and chewing gum. Either that or you have a really strange idea of what principles are.)

?otD: What’s up, Tiger Lily?

10/13/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (WRPA, including 1,000 words on two small nonfiction projects)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.0 hours (fitful)
Weight: 222.8
Currently reading: The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod

Tags: Cool, Culture, guns, healthcare, interviews, Iran, Iraq, Language, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Photos, Politics, Science, Tech, Videos

Posted: 5:42 am Thu October 13 2011 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad can kill you with its mind

Two Writers In Dialogue: A Conservative Evangelical And Gay Liberal Can Be Friends? Part 1

Two Writers In Dialogue: A Conservative Evangelical And Gay Liberal Can Be Friends? Part 2

Four years into the ebook revolution: things we know and things we don’t know

That’s it, I’m done with the internet for today. I think I’ll go outside. — Hilariously random YouTube video, not utterly worksafe or brainsafe for several reasons. (Thanks to danjite.)

2,000-Year-Old Dead Sea Scrolls Go Online

Invisible Ink Made Out of Engineered Bacteria

Fire in the Sky and on the Ground — The aurora australis, photographed from the ISS, and some Australian wildfires.

One third Of Sun-Like Stars Have Earth-Like Planets In Habitable Zone — Special creation my ass.

The Fraying of a Nation’s Decency — The things the article is talking about are fundamental outcomes of the application of conservative principles.

The bogus `third party’ dodge

Obama Rips Perry, GOP Debate Audience: Not Who We Are — You’re damned skippy that’s not who we are. “Let him die” isn’t an American sentiment. It never should be.

Correcting the Abysmal ‘New York Times’ Coverage of Occupy Wall Street — More on this from Dangerous Minds. (Thanks to danjite.)

Palin ‘on the Verge’ of Decision About Presidential Run — The circus is thinking about whether to come to town. That’s just what the GOP field needs — the kind of gravitas Palin can bring.

Romney and the “Apology Tour” — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on Romney, foreign policy, and another of the stream of knowing, self-serving lies put forth by the GOP to rile their base.

?otD: Do you always cut your apples?

9/27/2011
Writing time yesterday: 3.0 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.5 hours (solid)
Weight: 223.6
Currently reading: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Tags: Africa, business, gay, guns, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, sex, Writing

Posted: 5:36 am Tue September 27 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad curses your sudden but inevitable betrayal

Reading in Public: Advice from the Pros — Alex Bledsoe collects some commentary in mini-interviews.

A baby sea-serpent no more: reinterpreting Hagelund’s juvenile Cadborosaurus — Some biology and cryptozoology neepery for you.

Space station dweller shares orbital views

Saudi women to be given right to vote and stand for election in four years — It would be very easy for me to be sarcastic about this in comparison to the deeply retrograde ambitions of the American Taliban within the GOP, but honestly, this is something to celebrate. Juan Cole comments further on this.

Presidential Candidates’ Positions on Gay Rights — A handy and interesting chart. No real surprises.

Our budget problem in two charts (and one issue) — (Thanks to danjite.)

Fla. GOP sweats over Social Security — Is it possible that for once the GOP’s nutball rhetoric might actually have consequences? Normally they have a permanent “get out of jail free” card from Your Liberal Media and the voters at large for their bizarre crap.

DNC Chair: All GOP candidates are “the same” — “It doesn’t much matter which one of the Republicans gets nominated because they’re all the same,” the Florida Democrat said. “They are all embracing and bear-hugging the Tea Party. Moving to the right – they can’t move to the right far enough.”

Birther Civil War Breaks Out Over Marco Rubio — Extremist idiocy breeds extremist idiots.

Obama says Republicans would ‘cripple’ America — Well, yeah. Look what they did to the country the last time they were in power. Why anybody who cares a whit about our future as a country would vote Republican is beyond me, on the simple face of the recent historical evidence.

?otD: Feeling the serenity?

9/26/2011
Writing time yesterday: 5.0 hours (novel outlining and short story revision, WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (solid)
Weight: 222.2
Currently reading: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Tags: Africa, business, gay, guns, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, sex, Writing

Posted: 5:22 am Mon September 26 2011 | Comments(0) |