[links] Link salad for a high altitude Wednesday
Cloned video GIFs — This is so cool. (Via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1)
threeoutside.)
The Phosphorous Atom Quantum Computing Machine — An Australian team unveils the fundamental building block of a scalable quantum computer that could be embedded in today’s silicon chips.
New Efforts to Overhaul Psychiatric Diagnoses Spurred by DSM Turmoil — (Via Marta Murvosh.)
If the Earth had rings — (Via Lisa Costello.)
Red Sprite Lightning with Aurora — A strange photo from APOD. Well worth reading the write-up.
Had the Cookie Crumbled Differently: East and West Dakota
Pat Robertson shrugs off adultery, CBN regrets the misunderstanding — Robertson said the “secret” was to “stop talking about the cheating. He cheated on you. Well, he’s a man. OK.” So glad religious conservatives had this viewpoint during the Clinton years. Imagine the political circus if they’d taken adultery seriously back then.
Asked by Wolf Blitzer if She Thanked God for Surviving the Tornado, Oklahoma Woman Responds: ‘I’m Actually An Atheist’ — Heh. It’s a stupid question on the face of things. If we’re supposed to thank God for surviving such an event, aren’t we equally blaming God for the lives lost? (Via shsilver.)
Anti-Sandy-relief Oklahoma Senator: Aid for Oklahoma is “totally different” than Sandy — The only difference is that the tornado victims vote in Oklahoma. Just like government support for hard working farmers is totally different from food stamps for the lazy urban poor. Ah, that justly famed conservative intellectual consistency.
Oklahoma GOP Sen. Tom Coburn Will Seek To Offset Tornado Aid — At least he’s being intellectually consistent in his conservative cruelty, unlike Senator Inhofe cited above. Unusual for a Republican, that.
Fisheries could be in hot water due to climate change — Warming waters are altering the distribution and abundance of fish species. Amazing, the lengths liberals will go to for their global warming hoax. Even to warming entire oceans. Thank god for Rush Limbaugh and the Republican party, otherwise we might have to do something about this.
Will Republicans Screw Up Again? Some Are Already Overreaching — Republicans allowed themselves to look as if they were primarily interested in scoring political points and overturning the results of the 1996 election, even if it meant paralyzing the government. That same danger exists once again for the GOP. “Look as if…” That’s remarkably kind to a party whose top legislative priority was ensuring that Obama was a one-term president. Not jobs. Not the economy. Not healthcare. Not our foreign wars. No, overturning the results of the 2008 election. And now, the 2012. They’re practically built their entire brand and message around it.
QotD?: What did you read yesterday?
5/22/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (workshop)
Hours slept: 5.5 hours (fitful)
Body movement: n/a
Weight: n/a
Number of FEMA troops on my block scamming disaster aid slush funds: 0
Currently reading: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Art, climate, Cool, Culture, healthcare, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, Science, weird
Posted: 5:38 am Wed May 22 2013 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad wanders off to New Mexico
A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste — Me and John Scalzi.
Mark Twain Captured on Film by Thomas Edison in 1909. It’s the Only Known Footage of the Author. — Oh, wow. (Thanks to scarlettina.)
How the Mighty Winds of Uranus and Neptune Blow — Uhh…
Earth’s Richat Structure — Oh. this is cool. Geology from space.
Has Justin Bieber Abandoned His Monkey?
Up to 1 in 5 children suffer from mental disorder: CDC — Sigh.
In the Box: A Tour Through the Simulated Battlefields of the U.S. National Training Center
Climate Change Denial is Costing us Trillions, Threatening Farming, Fishing, Animals (Video) — Rush Limbaugh and the GOP keep us better informed than any of those liberal “facts” and “data” possibly could.
Colorado GOPer Accused Of Storming Away From Aurora Victim’s Dad — Conservative policies have ugly, ugly consequences. Republican support for widespread private gun ownership with minimal responsibility or accountability kills 30,000 American adults and children every year. Running away from that doesn’t change anything, it just confirms once again the moral and political cowardice inextricably interwoven with the pro-gun position.
QotD?: Ever been to New Mexico?
5/19/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (con time)
Hours slept: 4.25 hours (fitful, yikes!!!)
Body movement: n/a
Weight: n/a
Number of FEMA troops on my block covering up evidence about Benghazi: 0
Currently reading: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Tags: climate, Cool, Culture, Funny, guns, healthcare, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Publishing, Science, space, Videos
Posted: 5:21 am Sun May 19 2013 | Comments(4) |
[links] Link salad wonders how it can dance when our earth is turning
JayFest — Sci-Fi Book Fair & Group Signing — My friends at Powell’s are hosting a group signing in support of my cancer journey, book sales to benefit the Clayton Memorial Medical Fund. The evening of June 13, 2013, two days before JayCon, at Powell’s Cedar Hills in Beaverton, OR.
Almost All the Way Home From the Stars: Seven Science Fiction Stories — An ebook of my collaborate work with Ruth Nestvold is now available. Includes the story we had in SCI FICTION together.
Vintage Book Jacket Art — (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)
Two uncomfortable truths: New Merida looks a little whorey. Fewer people care about this than you would think.
Brain Training Helps Clear Cognitive Fog Caused by Chemotherapy — The mental fuzziness induced by cancer treatment could be eased by cognitive exercises performed online, say researchers. I play sudoku online rather obsessively when I am in chemo, as a form of cognitive self-check.
Ranbaxy: Looking Under the Rock — Why generic drugs do not always stack up. (Via David Goldman.)
Eyeball — A throwable building-mapping sphere from Bounce Imaging was recently chosen by PopSci for a 2013 Invention Award. The “throwable, expendable, baseball-size probe,” in PopSci’s words, “has a shock-absorbing shell embedded with six cameras, plus clusters of near-infrared LEDs to light up dark rooms (for the cameras).” Wow.
Opportunity Breaks NASA’s 40-Year Roving Record
Danish Teenager Makes Rare Viking Find — Cool!
Thrilling video of Portland PD high-speed chase… wait for it… — Ah, Portland.
Survey of 12,000 studies finds strong agreement on climate change — We already knew 97% of climate scientists backed the scientific consensus. It’s amazing the lengths liberals will go to in order to spread their climate change lies, even to the extent of using reality-based “facts” and “data”.
GOP raffling AR-15 “Sandy Hook”-type rifles as macabre pro-gun stunt — Stay classy, conservative America. It’s what you do best.
CBS: It was congressional GOP who faked Benghazi email — Conservatives can almost never win on the facts, so of course they lie. That’s the entire idea behind FOX News. And the Bush administration. (WMDs in Iraq, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) Why should it be any different in the GOP congressional delegation? Water is wet, too.
QotD?: How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
5/17/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (0.5 revisions on my novella for METAtropolis: Green Space, plus WRPA)
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 249.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block covering up evidence about Benghazi: 0
Currently reading: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Books, Cancer, climate, Cool, events, Funny, guns, health, healthcare, Iraq, Links, Mars, media, Personal, Politics, Portland, Publishing, Science, stories, Tech, Videos
Posted: 4:36 am Fri May 17 2013 | Comments(4) |
[links] Link salad knows there’s no love inside the icehouse
Rick Novy interviews me
The Canadian Who Won’t be Returning From the Stars — specficrider on a joint project of ours.
Will insurance cover genetic testing, preventive surgery? — Women who discover they carry a hereditary gene mutation that dramatically increases their risk of breast and ovarian cancers face big decisions and the possibility of tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs. This story is a version of what I went through.
12 Tips from 12 Years Sick — Yep. I’m only barely into year six, but, yep. (Thanks to Lisa Costello.)
Star Trek: The Search for Science — The Bad Astronmer is much with the hilarity.
The secret laser-toting Soviet satellite that almost was — Here’s a little Cold War alt.hist for you.
Billion-Year-Old Water Found in Canada Holds Clues About Ancient Life — You really need to read the expiration dates on those gas station water bottles.
Hunting Pesky Pigs in Paradise — Ham sandwiches on the hoof, where they don’t belong.
Terahertz Image Reveals Goya’s Hidden Signature in Old Master Painting — Darkened varnish obscures Goya’s signature in a 1771 masterpiece, according to a new analysis using terahertz waves
The Spies Who Blundered — Alleged undercover CIA agent Ryan Fogle is one of many spies to bungle the job.
My Despair — Another of those sad, strange posts on Feminist Mormon Housewives where someone of apparent intelligence and progressive sensibilities finds their common sense and observations of the real world in profound conflict with their faith. If I were a faith-holder, I don’t think I could tolerate that much cognitive dissonance.
When did you choose to be straight? — Heh.
Christian denominations and marriage equality: A simple quiz — Slacktivist Fred Clark makes a point that many anti-gay bigots in pietist clothing would prefer to ignore. Christianists find it so much more comfortable to hate inconvenient people than to actually pay attention to their own morality.
What We Mean When We Say ‘Race Is a Social Construct’ — In a world where Kevin Garnett, Harold Ford, and Halle Berry all check “black” on the census, even the argument that racial labels refer to natural differences in physical traits doesn’t hold up. Ta-Nehisi Coates is far more elegant than I ever could be on this topic.
Tullahoma father being reckless when baby daughter shot, police say — Because guns make us all safer. Without the smiling protection of the NRA and the GOP, this dad wouldn’t have been able to exercise his theoretical defense of essentially liberties by blowing away his own child.
QotD?: Can you remember getting any older?
5/16/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (0.5 revisions on my novella for METAtropolis: Green Space, plus WRPA)
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block covering up evidence about Benghazi: 0
Currently reading: The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Art, Books, Cancer, Christianists, climate, Funny, gay, guns, health, healthcare, interviews, Links, Movies, nature, Personal, Politics, race, Religion, Science, stories, Tech, Videos, weird
Posted: 5:20 am Thu May 16 2013 | Comments(3) |
[links] Link salad for another hump day
Biology, Chemistry and Science Pick-up Lines! — Hahahaha! (Via Gabrielle Harbowy.)
It’s Time to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot Middle Class — How will a mass influx of robots affect human employment?
Synthetic Biology Could Speed Flu Vaccine Production — Advanced genetic engineering is already changing vaccine development and could make inroads into other branches of medicine.
The Extinction Orchestra — Designer Marguerite Humeau reconstructs the voices of extinct animals based on speculative extrapolations from their skull structure.
Parents sue South Carolina for surgically turning child into a female — This is about state intervention in an intersexed child’s medical care.
How climate change denial works — Fox’s broadcast was really quite ingenious. They can claim they presented “both sides,” when in fact there were never two sides to the question. That’s the typical conservative response. Their ideas are intellectually bankrupt, so they lie.
RNC Hispanic Outreach Director Becomes A Democrat — What did he expect? He was a Republican. Good for him for finally waking up when his own ox was gored. Like I keep saying, no one likes conservative policies when applied to them personally. (Via shsilver.)
National Security Brief: Poll Finds Americans Aren’t Buying GOP Benghazi Witch-Hunt — A whopping 41 percent of Republicans polled think the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi is the greatest scandal in U.S. history. “One interesting thing about the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history,” PPP adds, “is that 39% of them don’t actually know where it is.” Sometimes the jokes just write themselves. Also, Jim Wright with a lot more on the conservative “position” on Benghazi.
When the IRS targeted liberals — Under George W. Bush, it went after the NAACP, Greenpeace and even a liberal church. Yeah, remember all the Republican outrage back then? Nah, neither do I. Not that this makes what’s going on now right, but it certainly underscores yet again the profound hypocrisy of conservatism in general.
QotD?: What’s your favorite day of the week?
5/15/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (Revision on my novella for METAtropolis: Green Space)
Hours slept: 5.75 hours (fitful)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block covering up evidence about Benghazi: 0
Currently reading: The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett
Tags: climate, Cool, Funny, gender, healthcare, Links, music, Personal, Politics, race, Science, sex, Tech, weird
Posted: 5:03 am Wed May 15 2013 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad thinks of its mothers
The Latest on the Women in SFF Debate — Cora Buhlert with some interesting analysis and a number of links.
That Monkey Don’t Swim: Maps, Sex and Violence — Pongoid anthropology and cartography.
Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation — Kids today. Everyone knows the past is golden, our generation is noble, and the youth are wastrels. It’s always been true!
Plague Helped Bring Down Roman Empire, Graveyard Suggests
Nontoxic radioactive Listeriaat is a highly effective therapy against metastatic pancreatic cancer — Huh.
A patient’s view on the Oregon Medicaid experiment — (Via threeoutside.)
Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus — Another stunning image from APOD. A Maxfield Parrish sky in real life.
Then he heard the ice coming — Wow, this is weird. Several houses were destroyed, the Winnipeg Free Press reports, after “a massive ice floe rose out of Dauphin Lake” in central Canada.
The Coming GOP Civil War Over Climate Change — We should be so lucky. I was struck by this: Soon after his experience in South Carolina, Emanuel changed his lifelong Republican Party registration to independent. “The idea that you could look a huge amount of evidence straight in the face and, for purely ideological reasons, deny it, is anathema to me,” he says. Hello? You were a Republican? Virtually any GOP position requires precisely that approach.
QotD?: Where is your mother today?
5/12/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (WRPA, editing METAtropolis: Green Space)
Hours slept: 9.75 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Cancer, climate, Culture, gender, healthcare, history, Links, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Science
Posted: 8:04 am Sun May 12 2013 | Comments(3) |
[links] Link salad is hopelessly devoted to you
In which it is announced that I am a Sturgeon Award finalist — For my Sunspin novella, “The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future“, published by Subterranean Online.
Joss Whedon’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Will Bring Marvel Universe to TV
Big-Bird Brain — Children watching clips of Sesame Street inside fMRI scanners yield unprecedented insights into the functioning of their brains.
Side-By-Side Photos Illustrate Inequality in America — Wow. (Thanks to willyumtx.)
Portland, Ore., is magnet for gay couples wanting babies — I am so proud of us.
Oregon Insurers vying to lower premiums because of Obamacare — What do you know? Obamacare is enabling market forces by forcing carriers to compete on a level playing field.
Climate Milestone: Earth’s CO2 Level Passes 400 ppm — Greenhouse gas highest since the Pliocene, when sea levels were higher and the Earth was warmer. Nothing to see here, citizen, move along. Just some more liberal “facts” and “data”, no cause for alarm.
No Need to Worry About Global Warming, Folks: More Carbon Dioxide Will Be Awesome
Global Warming: We are halfway to a mass extinction event — We could try to do something about this. Or we could just stifle the science and political discourse on the topic. Which course has Your Republican Party chosen?
Proposed bill that would regulate NSF research funding faces backlash — Scientists not amused, bill’s backers appear confused. Republicans confused about science? Really? The party of Creationism and climate change denial? Also, this just in: water is wet, sky is blue.
IRS targeted conservative groups, official says — Organizations seeking nonprofit status were improperly singled out for extra scrutiny, a top agency official says. This is seriously wrong. Infuriatingly, it’s also a rare piece of validation that further fuels the endless bizarre conspiracy thinking on the Right. Sigh.
QotD?: Ever seen Grease?
5/11/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (WRPA, editing METAtropolis: Green Space)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (fitful)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 251.8 (!)
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Awards, climate, Cool, gay, healthcare, Links, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Science, stories, television, weird
Posted: 4:59 am Sat May 11 2013 | Comments(1) |
[links] Link salad knows that it is not Iron Man
Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy — This is freaking genius. (Spotted lots of places, but sent to me first by Lisa Costello.)
Batman: 1966 — Adam West, back in the day. Courtesy of Shorpy.
Linguists identify 15,000-year-old ‘ultraconserved words’ — Hmmm. (Via my brother.)
European migration evident in DNA patterns — A study of people in 40 countries illustrates long-established changes in Europe’s population. Going back a few thousand years, researchers find that everyone on Earth is related to everyone else. This is cool, but hardly surprising, I should think.
More than one-third of Oregon’s National Merit Scholars live in a single Portland-area ZIP code
More than half of the world’s population lives inside this circle
US Air Force Measures Potato Cannon Muzzle Velocities
Antibiotics could cure 40% of chronic back pain patients — Really? (Thanks to David Goldman.)
On the Rise — BLDG BLOG on the elevation of Galveston, TX after the devastating hurricane of 1900.
Tropical Climate History…Shrinking — Ice in the tropics.
“While some are seeking to withhold Communion from pro-choice and pro-marriage-equality Catholics, I have heard no call to withhold Communion from priests and bishops who have engaged in horrific sexual abuse against vulnerable children, nor their enablers.” — Yes. This. Religious activism in pursuit of anti-gay bigotry is all about politics and power. Not about morality or what is right and good. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
QotD?: Do you face Stark choices?
5/8/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (stress)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (fitful)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Christianists, climate, Culture, Funny, healthcare, Language, Links, Movies, Oregon, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, Science, Tech, television, Texas, Videos
Posted: 5:22 am Wed May 08 2013 | Comments(3) |
[links] Link salad has scan anxiety
10 Classic TV Shows You Still Can’t Watch Online — (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)
Has Big Data Made Anonymity Impossible? — As digital data expands, anonymity may become a mathematical impossibility.
US returns stolen Tyrannosaurus dinosaur to Mongolia
In Poland, Pursuing Valuable Energy Deep in the Earth Fuels Dissent Above Ground — Fracking oil.
Why did Komen for the Cure give Nancy Brinker a 64 percent raise? — Now that the Komen foundation has become a shill for right wing politics and policies, as opposed to a non-partisan charity devoted to cancer research, I think all of our cancer donations should go almost anywhere else. And believe me, nothing about this story convinces me otherwise. I’ve certainly stopped supporting any Races for the Cure.
Brady resigns as Illinois GOP chairman amid gay marriage controversy — The ‘controversy’ being that Brady showed insufficient bigotry to retain his qualifications as a good conservative. The GOP keeps pretending to clean up its brand, but the true face of conservative America keeps showing through.
5 Lowlights From The NRA Convention — Because the gun culture is all about high-minded principle, reasoned discourse and keeping it classy. Remember, according to the NRA you are safer with guns, even if you happen to be one of the 30,000 who die unnecessarily every year. (Thanks to danjite.)
Blade Runner, Terminator, Minority Report and the deliberate sabotage of the Postal Service — So if your whole political shtick is based on being anti-government, then the Postal Service is a threat you’ve got to get rid of. That’s why, back in 2006, Republicans in Congress passed something called the “Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act,” requiring the agency to “pre-fund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span.” If you haven’t heard of this, pay attention. It’s all the GOP’s intellectual dishonesty and ongoing vandalism of government rolled into one neat package.
QotD?: What scares you?
5/7/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hour (WRPA)
Hours slept: 7.75 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Cancer, Culture, gays, guns, healthcare, Links, Mongolia, nature, Personal, Poland, Politics, Tech, Videos
Posted: 5:18 am Tue May 07 2013 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad celebrates M’aidez
A reader reacts to Escapement — They liked it better than Mainspring.
Worldbuilding with Maps — Art guru James Gurney (of Dinotopia fame) is interesting.
Rob and Laura: 1963 — I’m not quite old enough to remember this as a prime time series, but it was in regular rerun rotation when I was a little kid, in the year or so I actually watched television during my childhood.
Could Body Armor Have Saved Millions in World War I? — The follies that led to poor helmets and a lack of torso protection for men in the trenches. (Snurched from james_nicoll.)
Google Glass: Let the evil commence — Glass has now been ‘jailbroken’ with a well-documented exploit. So what can you (or others) do with a hacked headset? Apparently, a whole lot.
More than 20,000 people apply for one-way ticket to Mars — Wow.
Would an antimatter apple fall upward from the earth?
Sun Plus Nanotechnology: Can Solar Energy Get Bigger by Thinking Small?
Atoms star in world’s smallest movie from IBM — Researchers at IBM have created the world’s smallest movie by manipulating single atoms on a copper surface.
A Sense of Where You Are — I have an excellent sense of both location and direction. I know people who have very little internal sense of either of those things. Finally, an explanation.
Prenatal DNA Sequencing — Reading the DNA of fetuses is the next frontier of the genome revolution. Do you really want to know the genetic destiny of your unborn child? I sure would. Also note, this story is about the company that did my own Whole Genome Sequencing.
Representing Transracial Adoptions — Wow. As a white parent in an adopted transracial family, just wow.
Pro-Environment Light Bulb Labeling Turns Off Conservatives, Study Finds — Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
Poll: Democratic edge for 2014 — Slightly more voters say they’ll vote Democratic in the 2014 congressional elections than Republicans, bucking a historical trend of the president’s party losing seats in his sixth year, a new poll Wednesday shows. I’ll believe it when I see it, but if true, this represents a welcome trend away from the fever swamp of destructive insanity that the GOP has become.
QotD?: Est-ce que vous êtes internationale?
5/1/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (WRPA editing work on METAtropolis: Green Space)
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block helping welfare recipients buy cell phones and big screen tvs: 0
Currently reading: The Truth by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Art, Books, Cool, Escapement, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, Mars, nature, Personal, Photos, Politics, Process, race, reviews, Science, space, Tech, television, weird, Writing
Posted: 5:01 am Wed May 01 2013 | Comments(0) |
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