[links] Link salad is barely awake
A few more OryCon reports here and here
One model, fifty years — Aging through lighting and makeup. (Thanks to willyumtx.)
Juan Cole on Red Sea piracy and Bush military policy
5 Myths About Our Ailing Health-Care System — Food for thought on healthcare finance reform.
Question of the day: Princess Leia or Barbarella? Discuss.
11/23/08
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
Tags: Conventions, Cool, healthcare, Links, Politics
Posted: 11:42 am Sun November 23 2008 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad sings Aïda
A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS — (I lost track of who sent me this, I’m sorry.)
A brief encounter and life erupts — Not valid for Young Earth Creationists or ID proponents. (Thanks to lt260.)
Fly Stick Van De Graff Levitation Wand from ThinkGeek — :: wants :: (Thanks to willyumtx.)
European tram makers stand to gain from U.S. streetcar push — Including my own fair community here.
Loot! — Chicago, the Iraq War and archaeology. (Thanks to Scrivener’s Error.)
Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions — And so the nation begins to be governed again, instead of simply be politicked from the White House. (Thanks to lt260.)
The Importance of Being Careful — “Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn’t raise his standards, he will exceed Bush’s total before he is inaugurated.” Um. Wow. Talk about a bad case of the conservative stupid virus. On the other hand, this is the same guy who said a few years ago, “It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.” Cult of personality, anyone? (Hat tip to Talking Points Memo.)
Question of the day: How tall was Charles the First when he ascended the throne? How tall was he when he left it?
11/11/08
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: 223.0
Currently reading: A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
Tags: Cool, healthcare, Iraq, Links, Personal, Politics, Science, trains
Posted: 5:18 am Tue November 11 2008 | Comments(1) |
[links] “Madmen, drummers, bummers, and Indians in the summer”
clarkesworld cites a Locus review in which I am mentioned favorably for my story ““The Sky That Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and into the Black”
A Softer World on the vagaries of authorship
A Balloon in Titan’s Skies — Come on. Say it with me. Zeppelins! In! Space!
Astronomy Picture of the Day — APOD with a lovely image of high altitude evidence of a meteor’s disintegration, plus some cool science squibs anent same.
At the End of Life, a Delicate Calculus — More on the ethics and social implications of medical suicide, which seems to be an issue peculiar to the Pacific Northwest, insofar as the US is concerned. (Thanks to lt260.)
Creationism should be taught as science, say 29% of teachers — England catches the conservative stupid virus. (Thanks to tetar.)
bovil with an open letter to Republicans
Media Matters: All over but the lying — Coverage post-election conservative spin on how the (socialist, Islamic theocrat, most liberal Senator) Obama victory is in fact a conservative victory.
Paul Krugman on the Monster Years — for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people. The GOP and the Democrats really aren’t equivalent brands of political behavior, and they haven’t been for a long time. You kind easily find crazy assertions of the above sort by self-identified lefties, but these were the statements, and apparent beliefs, of the people in charge on the right. (Thanks to chriswjohnson.)
Question of the day: What does Long Island Sound like?
11/8/08
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: 223.2
Currently reading: Love and Mayhem at the Patsy Cline Memorial Trailer Park by Karen G. Berry
Tags: Cool, Culture, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, reviews, Science, stories, Writing
Posted: 7:06 am Sat November 08 2008 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad, in which I apparently have a lot to say
Article serie: Building Jay Lake’s Colon — More from the indomitable Mary Robinette Kowal.
stacia_kane on how to be a sex-writing strumpet — Some pretty good stuff on writing sex and erotica. (Thanks to calendula_witch.)
Newspaper Misspells Own Name on Front Page — (Thanks to danjite.)
World’s Oldest Bible Pieced Together — Interesting story, but the story-behind-the-story looks even more interesting.
Portuguese team makes first paper based transistor — Whoa. Serious cool potential here. (Thanks to lt260.)
Fish pedicures — Um, right. (Thanks to lillypond.)
A disease called “previous cesarean” — Another triumph of market-based healthcare finance. Speaking as someone with the mother of all pre-existing conditions, my interest in, and anger with, the distorted system of healthcare finance in this country only mounts. And I’m one of the lucky ones. I have compassion and sympathy for the 40 million uninsured, and the 40 million more underinsured. What I don’t understand is why the Republican Party, the AMA, and so many conservative voters do not. HSA’s (a long time Republican panacea) are meaningless to the unemployed, the underemployed and those on or near minimum wage. I had one in a previous insurance plan, and it was damned near meaningless to me. There’s an underlying unspoken social assumption that the poor somehow have earned their lot (residual Calvinism perpetuated by the GOP and other social forces, I think), combined with a spoken social assumption that if they’d only work a little harder they’d be fine. That’s an opinion which speaks very poorly of Americans’ human nature. Is it good social policy to force people into $1,000 ER visits because they don’t have the insurance coverage or the cash for a $120 doctor visit? It’s not like the market-based system has produced a viable outcome, not when you look at American life expectancy (42nd worldwide) and infant mortality rates (34th worldwide) — two very basic measures of healthcare success. (Thanks to dinogrl.)
Amanda Peet apologizes for calling vaccination protestors “parasites” — She goes on to explain her position. Very long time readers of this blog will recall I am passionate on this subject. the_child has a disease-specific immune disorder which means she is a lifetime carrier (asymptomatic and healthy) of a rather nasty viral disease which part of the ordinary childhood vaccination course. Almost half her kindergarten class were unvaccinated due to a high prevalence of vaccination protestors among the Waldorf population. Several parents suggested my daughter not be included in the class because of the health risk she presented to their children. My child, who was completely unresponsive to a widely-available vaccine, was considered a health risk by parents who were one clinic visit away from medical safety. You can imagine my response to this at the time. It’s an iteration of the free-rider problem, but basically, anti-vaccination parents are banking on all the parents around their child doing something they would not do to their own child in order to protect their child from communicable diseases. I’m sorry, “parasite” might have been a poor word choice, but Amanda Peet was right in the first place.
Exposing Bush’s historic abuse of power — An investigative report from Salon on domestic spying. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along smartly, now. (Thanks to my Aunt M.)
Maryland State Police spying on peace activists — Because, you know, all the great American terrorists of recent years have been leftie peaceniks. Like Eric Rudolph! And Timothy McVeigh!
Why you should vote for McCain — Straight from the Great Orange Satan, whom I don’t usually bother to link. (I rather imagine that most of you already read Daily Kos, or you don’t care.) But this is very funny, because it has the benefit of being objectively true, as opposed to editorial opinion.
7/24/08
Time in saddle: n/a (airport walking today)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: Green by Jay Lake
Tags: Cancer, Culture, Funny, healthcare, Language, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science
Posted: 5:11 am Thu July 24 2008 | Comments(0) |
[cancer] A tiny bit more post-op followup
Back from the doctor, dipping into the blogosphere for a moment before I return to work. Basically, we did some post-op baselining on glucose and lipids (which represent my most significant non-cancer health risks based on family history.) Glucose level was decently below the pre-diabetic threshold. Cholesterol was the best result I’ve had in eight years with this clinic. Also, my morning dry weight was back below 250 this morning.
I think I’m kicking everything’s ass. Now to work on stabilizing weight and not getting silly with diet, once the lower GI problem clears. I may never play the violin again, but it looks like I’m going to live a long time yet.
Tags: Cancer, healthcare, Personal
Posted: 8:57 am Thu July 17 2008 | Comments(2) |
[links] Link salad for a Thursday
Rick Kleffel with a podcast interview of me at SF in SF
In other news, I seem to have eleven Honorable Mentions in the Dozois-edited YBSF, according to a little birdie. No linkie, unfortunately.
Are SF conventions doomed? — (Link via Bad Astronomy Blog.)
Tips for meeting your future self — (Link via Bad Astronomy Blog.)
Running for office, XKCD style — I sent him $8.34, just for the sheer enterainment value. After all, I’ve spent more for books I enjoyed less than that link. (Thanks to danjite.)
Italian space pod babes! — Or as chriswjohnson puts it, “the return of the fall bag.” I’ll try to find some less Page 3 style coverage of this.
Detecting Life in Enceladus’ Plume — Astrobiology, baby!
How do you weigh a supermassive black hole?
Renegade parents teach old math on the sly — I especially like the part about having the wrong appendix taken out. (Thanks to lt260.)
SF officials locked out of computer network — Weird doings here. A different class of information vulnerability. (Thanks to danjite.)
Monkey Business: Keith Chen’s Monkey Research — An old article on monkeys and economics. Money shot: The data generated by the capuchin monkeys, Chen says, “make them statistically indistinguishable from most stock-market investors.” (Thanks to danjite.)
Barack Obama’s super marketing machine — The politics of marketing and the marketing of politics.
American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy — “The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age.” Yep, that market-based healthcare finance we have is really paying off. I’d hate to live in a country with socialized medicine, where all they get is increased life expectancy and decreased infant mortality. We get profit margins. I’m glad the GOP has done such a good job of protecting me from those evils.
7/17/08
Time in saddle: 5 minutes
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: 249.4
Currently reading: n/a
Tags: Conventions, Cool, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Science, Writing
Posted: 6:20 am Thu July 17 2008 | Comments(1) |
[personal] More updatery of various sorts
Spent the afternoon and evening at the Fireside. I did some critique and some editing, then dug back into “In the Forests of the Night.” 1,700 new words, which was less than I’d hoped but still reasonable. Clearly I’m not writing as fast as I used to pre-op, but the prose seems to be holding up, so I’m going to accept it and keep moving forward. And I’m very glad to be back in the saddle. There will be more writing time tomorrow.
While I was there, my phone rang. It was an Obama fundraiser, pitching me to donate more money. Which I’d planned to do, until his FISA vote. And I told her that I would support him with my vote but not my money, not until he explained his switch on FISA and why he went directly opposite the positions he’d taken in the primary. I mean, if I wanted centrism I’d have supported Hillary. If I wanted amoral opportunism, I’d be a Republican. Obama’s run to the center is not losing him my vote, but it’s sapping my enthusiasm. And quite frankly, given the right’s track record of late, I don’t think he needs the center. Holding firm on his principles and explaining why he voted against a bill which primarily serves to retroactively legalize wholesale domestic spying by the Bush White House would have been a much stronger stance. The woman on the phone became very weary-sounding when I explained myself, thanked me and hung up. I suspect she’s heard that a lot.
On the healthcare front, I was back with my colo-rectal surgeon today, discussing my digestive hijinks of the past four weeks. Apparently I’ve contracted an opportunistic infection in my lower GI as an indirect result of the surgery, and these bad bugs have overwhelmed the good bugs. I’m on a 14-day course of targeted antibiotics, and under strong recommendation to consume as much probiotics as possible while doing it. I suspect the cure will be every bit as bad as the disease, but at least I have an end game now. As opposed to, say, a toilet-based lifestyle.
One last note: When I returned from California on Sunday, I walked into my house to find the_child watching Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. I’m still tangled up in the societal messaging she’s received from that movie, and why a ten-year-old would ask her mother to rent it in the first place. My kid…
Tags: Cancer, Child, Funny, healthcare, Personal, stories, Writing
Posted: 9:00 pm Tue July 15 2008 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad for a Bay Area day
Today’s Bay Area events:
10 am GeekSpeak interview. [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
3 pm Borderlands reading and signing
7 pm appearance with Susan Palwick at SF in SF
Steve York lays the smack down on Buzz Aldrin for blaming science fiction for the decline of interest in the space program — Um…earth to Buzz?
Exploring Titan by blimp — Ok, excuse my while cool-o-meter spazzes out. It’s Space 1889 come to life! (Except with fewer Belgians.)
The law of diminishing returns in late-life healthcare — This article struck a bit close to home, given my recent experiences with cancer.
Cell-phone sniffing dogs — Can I have one that can find the car keys?
Spanish parliament extends rights to apes — It’s easy to make fun of this, but there’s a serious, albeit difficult, point buried in here somewhere.
The week that should have ended McCain’s presidential hopes — Or, “Your Liberal Media Inaction.” (Thanks to lt260.)
7/12/08
Time in saddle: 0 minutes (travelling)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: n/a
Tags: Books, Culture, Escapement, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Science, Tech
Posted: 7:08 am Sat July 12 2008 | Comments(0) |
[personal] A tiny bit of updatery
In Dallas, waiting for my connecting flight. I doubt I’ll be back online much before late this evening, but I wanted to mention a couple of things before they slip my mind.
I’m an aficionado of the view above the clouds. I’ve seen some amazing things from the little ovoid aircraft window, from towering electrical storms by moonlight, to the entire Cascade volcano line backlit by blazing sunset, to streams of emergency vehicles pacing our landing, to the Zurich airport racing byvery close to the wingtip and perpendicular to my personal orientation. Today I saw two things I’d never seen before.
After a long nap, I awoke to look out. The sun was directly behind my angle of view, so I saw the shadow of our aircraft on a nearby cloud, surrounded by a circular rainbow. Moments later we broke into clearer skies, and I saw bright rays of light at a long angle, light spotlights in the sky, illuminating the ground amid the dimmer light of morning. Nothing I could possibly have photographed, but amazing images.
Also, I’ve gone about 36 hours now in something resembling normal digestive health. The relief this represents is profound. Two nights of decent sleep doesn’t hurt either. This gives me hope for an energetic and productive weekend.
Boarding soon.
Tags: Cancer, healthcare, Personal, Travel
Posted: 7:03 am Fri July 11 2008 | Comments(0) |
[cancer] A few small updates
In no particular order:
On the second flight yesterday, I went back to the sudoku. I worked it slowly and carefully, and managed the basic and intermediate puzzles with only a few correctable errors. The advanced puzzle still defeated me. As goulo has pointed out to me, that could be an issue of practice as much as an issue of cognitive capacity.
Coconut flakes, soy yogurt and fresh fruit have been procured for breakfast and snacks. It’s a weird combination to be eating, and so far the soy yogurt tastes like hell to me. I will be seeking out fresh vegetables and white meat at lunch and dinner to balance this out.
Additional minor medical TMI under cut for reader mercy: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Cancer, Food, healthcare, Personal
Posted: 5:01 am Tue July 08 2008 | Comments(1) |
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