[links] Link salad generates interest
Generating Power from Electricity in the Air — A researcher describes a potential new source of renewable energy. This is nicely SFnal.
Poul Anderson’s Answer to Fermi — Centauri Dreams on one of my favorite topics.
Penn and Teller take on vaccines — Antivaxers are endangering their children and everyone else’s. Period.
‘The Illustrated Man’ — Obama’s enemies have painted him as an alien threat. Can he fight the flight from facts? But fact-free outrage is so much more fun!
Glenn Beck’s Rally — Asking where the honor went. Speaking of fact-free outrage…
?otD: Where does your electricity come from?
8/31/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (touring Cape Palliser)
Body movement: urban walking to come
Hours slept: 9.75 (interrupted)
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 4/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Deliverer by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Science, Tech
Posted: 1:14 pm Mon August 30 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) |
[links] Link salad is gonna help build the wall
Is false hope better than no hope? — Anonymous Doc on end-of-life treatments.
Two-Handed Quick Draw — Wow. Just wow.
Layered Hills in Arabia Terra on Mars — Mmm, crunchy APOD goodness.
Thou shalt not breed: Anglicans — Wading into the population debate, the General Synod of the Anglican Church has warned that current rates of population growth are unsustainable and potentially out of step with church doctrine – including the eighth commandment, ”Thou shall not steal”. Huh. (Thanks to .)
?otD: Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?
8/15/2010
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (revisions and WRPA)
Body movement: hiking to come
Hours slept: 9.0 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: 241.2
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 4/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Defender by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Art, Cool, Culture, healthcare, Links, Personal, Religion, Science, Videos
Posted: 6:13 am Sun August 15 2010 | Comments(0) |
[cancer] Dipping from the wells of disappointment
Some more semirandom observations about cancer and its discontents.
…
This morning in Link Salad I included a link to a Roger Ebert essay about Christopher Hitchens and cancer. Ebert says a number of interesting things about dying, religion and self. As I highlighted this morning, he comments that being sick is worse than dying, at least in some ways. That was the point of my jeremiad yesterday about my cancer fears.
I also rather like the comments on prayer. As anyone who pays attention to me for more than a few moments probably knows, I am a staunch atheist. This has been a frequent topic of discussion on the blog in the past, my view of religion as such falling somewhere between the Pink Unicorn fallacy and Last Thursdayism. On the other hand, my view of human nature and the human spirit requires that I acknowledge both logos and mythos. That duality for many people is best expressed through faith.
I have one acquaintance who’s a committed Evangelical Christian, and has been pressing me hard to “get right with God.” It strikes me as moral cowardice of the worst sort for to me surrender my intellectual principles now in the face of fear of death. If I’m willing to live with my beliefs (or lack thereof, in the religious sense), I should certainly be willing to die with them. Otherwise I’m guilty of the same hypocrisy I so constantly rail against.
That being said, for all my quarrels with the formal worldly incarnations of mythos, I do have an immense respect for it, and for the value of spiritual truth. When someone says they are praying for me, I hear love and respect and caring, because I understand the importance of that prayer for them. Likewise, when people light a candle or send me energy, or whatever their spiritual practice suggests to them. That is a focus of goodwill on me that I would not dare deny for simple civility if nothing else, and far more than that, something I welcome and appreciate and for which I am profoundly grateful.
…
Coming at this from another angle, I find the response of my doctors to the latest round of cancer to be a bit unsettling. My medical oncologist was visibly upset about the new metastasis, which is decidedly not her usual modus operandi. The surgical oncologist also found this new round quite surprising. This continues to suggest to me what I’ve thought for a while, that the progress of my disease is pretty far out on the edges of what is expected for this type of cancer, and pushing the boundaries what the treatment protocols indicate.
I was discussing this with my therapist yesterday. He asked if at some point I would need to leave my current hospital and seek treatment elsewhere, at a dedicated cancer center. Since my cancer is arguably aggressive and almost certainly chemo-resistant (at least to the FOLFOX cocktail), this is not a bad question. I have a great deal of confidence in my current oncology team and in the treatments to date, but obviously the progress of my disease is ahead of the effectiveness of those treatments.
So, I don’t know. Some research on my part (or possibly on my behalf) is required. I cannot see any reason not to proceed with the current plan, but if it comes back again, especially with a repeat of the swift intensity of this most recent metastasis, I am going to have to rethink. One thing I will be asking for is a 3-month CT scan during the chemo cycle. Had we done this on the last go-round, we would have discovered far sooner the ineffectiveness of the chemo regime I spent the first six months of this year enduring for what turns out to be no good at all.
In the mean while, we await the results of Wednesday’s CT scan to determine whether calendula_witch and I get to go traveling, or just dive back into the medical system that much sooner. Not that I’ve really left it…
I say to you again that I do not recommend cancer as a hobby.
Tags: Calendula, Cancer, health, healthcare, Personal, Religion, Travel
Posted: 5:29 am Fri August 13 2010 | Comments(4) |
[links] Link salad has the roadhouse blues
Don’t forget the new caption contest [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
A reader reacts to Mainspring
Another review of Is Anybody Out There?
5 Resources to Assist Your Research (Pants Not Required) — (Thanks to lt260.)
Toad-licking chef ticketed — Oh, those whacky Midwesterners. (Thanks to garyomaha.)
Traveler to the undiscovere’d country — Roger Ebert on Christopher Hitchens, also religion and dying. Dying isn’t so bad. It’s getting sick and dying that’s the hard part.
?otD: Did you wake up this morning and get yourself a beer?
8/13/2010
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.75 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: 242.0
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 3/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Defender by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Books, Cancer, Contests, Funny, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Process, reviews, weird, Writing
Posted: 4:40 am Fri August 13 2010 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad dreams of futures past
Don’t forget the new caption contest [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers — I wonder what this list would look like for our field? Now there‘s playing with fire.
Early Gangbanger Fiction — This is both funny and thought-provoking.
Free ice scraper with every colonoscopy — Umm… I am so about people getting ‘scoped, but… um…
Anonymous Doc on the line between life and death
Portugal’s Green Energy Revolution and the true Cost of Gas, Coal and Oil
On Mosques — A Christian meditates on the current conservative fixation with interfering with freedom of religion and restricting property rights. More principled consistency from the American Right! (Via lt260.)
Myths and Facts about Gay Marriage — When opponents of same-sex marriage explain their views, the reasons vary from person to person, but a few of the same false beliefs crop up almost every time. Most of these are spread through misdirected emotional appeals, misinformation about our legal system, and a lack of basic knowledge about the venerable history of marriage. Notice how politely the site fails to mention bigoted fearmongering as a key source of these myths.
Gingrich Reconciles Cheating On His Wife While Harping On Family Values: “It Doesn’t Matter What I Do” — Gingrich has himself admitted to continuing his illicit affair with Callista — 23 years his junior — while simultaneously prosecuting Clinton’s adultery. Hypocrisy? In family values and Republican leadership!? Excuse me while I have the vapors. (And yes, AFAIK Clinton was being prosecuted for perjury, not adultery, but the PR and political optics being driven by Newt’s GOP were all Lewinsky all the time.)
?otD: Who among us?
8/11/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours
Body movement: 40 minute urban walk
Hours slept: 7.0 (interrupted)
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 6/10 (emotional distress, fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Books, Cancer, Contests, Funny, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion
Posted: 5:39 am Wed August 11 2010 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad considers forswearing fructose
Don’t forget the new caption contest [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Sheep take over the old Lord of the Rings set — Baah.
Cancer cells slurp up fructose, US study finds — Hmm. So my long-term aversion to high fructose corn syrup may be even more helpful. However, if this is borne out, I’ll need to cut way back on juice and fruit. (Via danjite and tillyjane.)
A Strange New Take on Telepresence — Could a blob-like robot better convey the presence of a remote user? Uncanny valley, my ass. That’s more like the uncanny ravine.
Worker Issues Vex Deepwater Drilling — Getting Enough Trained, Rested Employees Is Persistent Problem for Offshore Oil Industry as the Number Of Rigs Soar. Tell me again why industry self-regulation is the conservative solution?
Professor Newt’s Distorted History Lesson — What really happened in Medieval Cordoba. Confidential to Gingrich: If you’re going to use history to make your point, you might want to try to get it at least a little bit right.
Same-Sex Marriage Decision: “Far From Over” — There simply wasn’t any evidence, there weren’t any of those studies. There weren’t any empirical studies. That’s just made up. That’s junk science. It’s easy to say that on television. But a witness stand is a lonely place to lie. And when you come into court you can’t do that. [...] That’s what we proved: We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice lost,” Boies said.
?otD: Apples or pears?
8/9/2010
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hour (revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: 242.8
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 2/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Cancer, Contests, Funny, gay, healthcare, Links, Movies, Personal, Politics, Religion, Tech
Posted: 4:59 am Mon August 09 2010 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad heads west once more
Michael Swanwick, on me
Southpaws: The Hops in Humanity’s Beer? — Chirality, fiction and you. Science In My Fiction on handedness.
Topic of Cancer — Christopher Hitchens on his own cancer.
Fashion plates from the 1800s
Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 — (Via .)
The Goode Mansion: 1939 — Shorpy with a haunting photo.
Mary we crown thee with blossoms today! — Roger Ebert on his childhood. As usual, a terrific read.
Sharia vs. The New Deal. — Conservative paranoia regarding liberals and Islamic banking. I have never understood the conservative notion that liberals want to promote Islamic law. That fails a common sense test that any fourth grader could see through. We don’t even want Biblical law in this country, why on earth would we want a Shariate?
?otD: On the whole, would you rather be in Philadelphia?
8/6/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0.25 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: airport walking
Hours slept: 6.0 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 4/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, emotional distress)
Currently (re)reading: Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Cancer, Cool, Culture, healthcare, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Process, Religion, Science
Posted: 2:18 am Fri August 06 2010 | Comments(0) |
[cancer] Class privilege and chemotherapy
I was having breakfast with and this past Saturday morning at Portage Bay Cafe in Seattle’s U district. The wait staff were moving back and forth, every one of them fast on their feet, when it occurred to me to wonder how someone with a job like that would have fared through the chemotherapy regimen I just endured.
That in turn unfolded to realization that most people working in the service industry would be at risk of their livelihood in my situation. I spent the last two months of chemo sitting down, and moving very slowly when I was up, the two months before that not so much better. A job that required me to be on my feet all day, or driving a vehicle to service calls, or shifting stock or pulling parts, would have been impossible.
How would a waiter, or a plumber, or bookstore clerk, maintain their livelihood through such an experience?
I am lucky. I have a well-paid job that mostly involves sitting still and thinking. Or reading and writing, but those are still essentially sitting and thinking. I have a job I could meet the requirements of even through the worst of chemo. A high-end, white collar job open only to someone with a decent-or-better education and the life skills to navigate corporate politics and policies, and the intricacies of American business.
Even then, if I’d been a daily commuter, I’d have been sidelined badly. That my sit-down-and-think job is work-at-home employment meant I was almost perfectly suited to continue through chemotherapy without financial or workplace disruption.
This strikes me as class privilege, a benefit of being a (relatively) high end white collar worker with seniority both in my field and with my employer. And therefore, ultimately a benefit of the accident of my having been born white, male and middle-class into a household with high educational and professional expectations that was able to raise me with the skills to meet those expectations. I cannot imagine the stress of making my living as a waiter at Portage Bay, then having to accept the time and energy limits I endured in the chemotherapy process. That’s completely outside the narrow medical issues, and even largely outside the issues of insurance coverage and so forth.
Do oncologists take this sort of thing into account? Do employers with shift work and hourly wages allow this much latitude to their employees? Watching the wait staff made me realize how damned lucky I have been, and continue to be. As brutal and difficult as this all has been, I keep finding new things for which to be thankful.
Tags: Calendula, Cancer, health, healthcare, Seattle, work
Posted: 5:20 am Mon August 02 2010 | Comments(12) |
[links] Link salad rubs sand from its eyes, resolves not to sleep on beaches
A reader reacts to METAtropolis
msagara on why it’s okay you haven’t read her books — Yeah. What she said. (Via matociquala and others.)
The Most Revealing #Wookieleaks — Hahahah.
Monogamy unnatural for our sexy species — Interesting bit of pop-sci. (Via Year of the Word.)
Coin shrinkers — A hobby I’d never heard of. One that comes with fatality disclaimers.
Clear CT Scans with Less Radiation — Researchers are devising new ways to get the same results with fewer x-rays. Among other things, this article explains how CT scans work.
A design feature — Certainly not all Republicans are racists, but the Republican Party deliberately exploited and exacerbated racial tensions for political gain for decades. Those Republicans now being shoved to the party’s new margins have no standing to complain. Where were they when they and their party were benefiting from the extremism that now is taking control of their party? Where was their sense of civic duty and basic morality?
Take that, Dennis Miller; Climate Change is Real and Dangerous — [G]lobal warming is not a partisan political issue, however much some people want to make it one. It is science. … Reality doesn’t have a political party. Actually, according to the GOP it does. Those of us in the “reality-based community” so sneeringly dismissed by the GOP are quite happy not to be Republicans.
?otD: Whilom or wherefor?
8/2/2010
Writing time yesterday: 3.25 hours (revisions, WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.25 (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: 239.1 (yikes!)
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 3/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy)
Currently (re)reading: Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
Tags: Books, Funny, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, race, reviews, Science, sex, stories, Tech
Posted: 5:09 am Mon August 02 2010 | Comments(0) |
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