[links] Link salad wings its way back west
DIALOGUE: Between the Lines — I’ll be on the radio tomorrow at 10 am Pacific.
Cat Rambo teaches some online classes — Check it out.
New search planned for Amelia Earhart’s aircraft
NASA considering space station as dry run for 500-day Mars trip
10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts — Amazingly enough, these are all conservative issues. Equally amazing, conservatives don’t care what the rest of the world thinks.
Rick Santorum under fire over ranting rightwing pastor — Rick Santorum is facing some awkward questions after footage emerged of a radical evangelical preacher opening a campaign rally with calls for all non-Christians to “get out” of America. Ah, those precious Constitutional freedoms so beloved of conservatives. Like freedom of religion. NOT. (Via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1)
shsilver.)
?otd: Portland, OR or Portland, ME?
3/21/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (0.5 hours on WRPA, 0.5 hours on Little Dog)
Body movement: airport walking to come
Hours slept: 5.75 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy
Tags: healthcare, interviews, Links, Mars, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, Writing
Posted: 2:51 am Wed March 21 2012 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad goes all Clara Peller
Apex magazine interviews me — They also will be reprinting my story “Lehr, Rex”. (Link to come when it is available.)
Strong Female Characters, My Own Definition — Mur Lafferty Is Wise.
H.P. Lovecraft for Beginning Readers
Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany — Collection of fairytales gathered by historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth had been locked away in an archive in Regensburg for over 150 years. (Via @pauljessup.)
The Fiction to Reality Timeline
Scrivener’s Error on, among other things, agents practicing law — Also some good political commentary there today.
The Disciples of Memory — Aging and memory, and Alzheimer’s. (Via someone on Twitter, but I forget whom.)
Alien invasion a threat to Antarctic ecosystem
Quantum Biology and the Puzzle of Coherence
Why Do Cats Run the Internet? A Scientific Explanation — Because no one knows you’re a dog? (Via David Goldman.)
Surviving “the Tyranny of E-mail”
A Review of the Lytro Camera — Man, do I want one of these. (Via my Dad.)
Neil deGrasse Tyson: How Space Exploration Can Make America Great Again
The Diabetes Dilemma for Statin Users — I have both elevated cholesterol and am pre-diabetic, so this one hits close to home.
The Specter of Denialism — Conspiracy theories surrounding the global HIV/AIDS epidemic have cost thousands of lives. But science is fighting back. Anti-science denialism can cost lives. Vaccine denialism certainly does. Global warming denialism will almost surely be a significant contributor to serious future losses of life and property.
Abortion-Mental Illness Link Doesn’t Hold Up, Researchers Find — What do you know? Ideologically driven “research” doesn’t actually produce valid results. Millions of conservatives would be shocked, if they weren’t impervious to facts. (Courtesy of threeoutside.)
Sluts Unite — By standing up to Rush Limbaugh’s slur, Sandra Fluke shows how sex positivity is recharging feminism.
Women react to Rush’s apology: Not accepted?
Rush Limbaugh has so much more to apologize for — The man is the heart and soul of the modern GOP. He has nothing to apologize for that every conservative in America doesn’t share. Even those GOPers who are now pretending to be shocked by Rush’s remarks have been very happy to ride his vitriol to electoral success these past two decades.
Republicans, Be Bold! — For the Republican Party to be attractive again to the various groups that have historically found a home under the “Big Tent,” whether it be 2012, 2016 or even 2020, it needs to think big and put forward a new generation of bold ideas that fit neatly within the overarching themes of Republican values. It wouldn’t hurt to have a nominee willing and able to stand strong on their convictions either. Unfortunately for the GOP, when your convictions are based on peevish bigotry, denialism and big old helping of paranoid hate (c.f. Santorum), it doesn’t actually pay to advertise them too far outside your own base.
The greatest actress in American political history — Roger Ebert on Game Change, the HBO film about Palin in the 2008 presidential campaign. When Newsweek’s David Frum asked Schmidt what he thought about the film, he said it was “an out-of-body experience.” Neither he nor Wallace (who confessed that after working with Palin she was unable to vote for McCain) has questioned its accuracy. Inflicting Palin on American politics will be McCain’s enduring political legacy.
?otd: Where’s the beef?
3/6/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (30 minutes of WRPA, 1.5 hours on the Going to Extremes nonfiction proposal)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.25 (solid)
Weight: 237.0
Currently reading: 1491 by Charles C. Mann; Permeable Borders by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Tags: Antarctica, climate, Cool, Culture, Funny, gender, healthcare, interviews, Links, media, Movies, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, Science, sex, stories, Tech, weird
Posted: 6:36 am Tue March 06 2012 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad for a funereal Thursday
The last installment of Shimmer blog’s series of Five Authors + Five Questions — This one on advice for newer writers.
SFWA is redirecting Amazon.com links — As usual, Amazon is abusing their market power to the detriment of authors. This is why I started boycotting them two years ago. If you love books and writing, consider doing the same.
Wayfarers: Quest for the Cure — Walking through Scotland in quest fantasy drag to raise money for cancer. (Thanks to Jason Block.)
Colonialism in Africa helped launch the HIV epidemic a century ago
How To Build A Speech Jamming Gun — Japanese researchers build a gun capable of stopping speakers in mid-sentence.
Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years — (Via threeoutside.)
Massive Jurassic Fleas Indulged on Dinosaurs/
Astronomers find hints of life on Earth by looking at the Moon
Oldest Arctic Sea Ice is Disappearing — A new study by NASA scientist Joey Comiso has found that the oldest and thickest Arctic sea ice is disappearing at a faster rate than the younger and thinner ice at the edges of the ice cap. The rapid disappearance of older ice makes the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice cap more vulnerable to further decline. Nope. No climate change going on here. Nothing to see, move along citizen. Who are you going to believe, Rush Limbaugh or the hard data?
How do the Times and the Journal Report a Drop in Wall Street Bonuses? — We consume the media we consume in large part because it confirms our preexisting biases, even if we’re sure such biases don’t exist.
In Veritas Vino — Ta-Nehisi Coates on the latest bit of conservative racism. [T]his embrace of cruelty is arguably the dominant feature of the present conservative movement.
My family’s involvement with a criminal conspiracy — Slacktivist Fred Clark with a painful personal story about the rampant cleric sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
The growing intolerance of Mormon intolerance — Does it make you an anti-Mormon bigot if you’re anti Mormon bigotry? Is it really a bad thing to be intolerant of intolerance? And in any case, the Mormon church is happy to enter the political realm, but it’s somehow not right to treat them as we would any other player in politics. Why?
Romney Has Big Night; So Does Obama
?otd: Did you know Mark Bourne?
3/1/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.75 hours (0.5 hours of WRPA, 2.25 hours of Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: n/a
Hours slept: 8.25 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: 1491 by Charles C. Mann
Tags: Cancer, climate, Cool, Culture, healthcare, interviews, Language, Links, media, nature, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, race, Religion, Science, Tech, Writing
Posted: 7:57 am Thu March 01 2012 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad is a day tripper
A reader reacts to the anthology Cthulhu’s Reign — Not so much with the love for my story.
A reader reacts to the anthology Westward Weird — In which I have a story.
cassiealexander on themes in fiction — [A]ny verb that might occur to you while running out of supplies on the arctic tundra is a good verb to make a theme out of.
I am interviewed about the Writers of the Future Contest
The Fantasy Author’s Handbook Interview: Mats Minnhagen
The Subterrene War — An interesting approach to a book trailer. (Via Jeremiah Tolbert.)
King Street Station gets more rehab — A slide show of Seattle’s railroad station. (Thanks to garyomaha.)
Will CBS Consider New Star Trek Television Series?
Waterworld: Hubble reveals new class of planet outside the solar system
Some Planets Are Alien Invaders
Rocks hint at strong quakes on Mars
Ash-covered forest is ‘Permian Pompeii’ — Scientists reconstruct ancient ecosystem from plants preserved in volcanic eruption.
Are gluten-free products a waste for those without celiac disease?
Tibetans cancel New Year celebrations
Gay marriage ban supporters seek second review by circuit court of ruling — Bigots don’t quit.
Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control — And Why We’ll Still Be Fighting About it 100 Years From Now
Va. vote on abortion ultrasound bill pushed back a day — I suppose it’s too much to hope that Virginia’s GOP loons are actually embarrassed by their own extremism.
71% of Americans think Iran already has the Bomb (Also we used to have pet triceratops) — Welcome to FOX News America, where facts are irrelevant in the face of GOP talking points.
Sarah Palin: Media ‘wee-weed up’ about Rick Santorum — Sarah Palin came to the defense of Rick Santorum for his “Satan” comments as she condemned “lame-stream media characters” for getting “all wee-weed up about” the candidate’s past remarks. Right, poor Senator Frothy Mix. Yoyr Liberal Media has never gone after any Democratic politician for anything they’ve said in the past. Also, “wee-weed up’? Is Santorum running for kindergarten class president?
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Santorum” — The evolving politics of an absolutist bigot.
Santorum: “You’re Not A Christian” — This guy really is a fruit loop, even by GOP standards. And that’s a bar set so low I think it’s buried in the ground.
Four reasons Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t win the GOP nomination in 2012 — Neither would Ronald Reagan.
?otd: Did she take you half the way there?
2/22/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bicycle ride
Hours slept: 6.0 (solid)
Weight: 235.2
Currently reading: 1491 by Charles C. Mann
Tags: Books, China, Christianism, Cool, Food, gay, healthare, interviews, Links, media, Personal, Photos, Politics, Process, Religion, reviews, Science, trains, video, Writing
Posted: 6:29 am Wed February 22 2012 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad points up the folly of man
Ooligan Press interviews me
The physics of funerals — I can’t decide if this is hilarious or horrifying. (Via danjite.)
Traveling Light in a Time of Digital Thievery
Putting the squeeze on planets outside our solar system — Using high-powered lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators discovered that molten magnesium silicate undergoes a phase change in the liquid state, abruptly transforming to a more dense liquid with increasing pressure. The research provides insight into planet formation.
Watery Alien Planets Might Be Stripped Dry by Gravity
UK scientists create robot that uses loo like humans — What could possibly go wrong?
What Dr. Seuss Books Were Really About
Babies and Kittens Venn Diagram — Hahaha.
Karen Handel calls Planned Parenthood a ‘gigantic bully’ — Project much, Ms. Handel?
Manchurian Catholic Democrats and JFK’s Speech about Religion — Whatever issue may come before me as president — on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject — I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. That’s what religion in politics should look like.
Obama Plans Shift in Birth Control Fight, Aides Say — I can’t figure out if this is a win for good policy or a surrender on women’s health to the usual conservative false witness and religious idiocy.
The unconscionable consequences of conscience exemptions — Catholics respond to their hierarchy’s role in the latest birth control kerfuffle. It’s not kindly. (Via houseboatonstyx.)
Obama and Purple America — Ta-Nehisi Coates on the politics of the last few years.
Repulsive progressive hypocrisy — Of Guantanamo and drones. Sigh. I hate it when my guys are the bad guys.
A political tip sheet for the rest of us — A lighter hearted rundown of the candidates to date. Laugh about it, shout about it.
Republicans Retreat on Domestic Violence — Why on earth is this a partisan issue? Disgusting, GOP. Just disgusting.
Quote of the Week: Creative Destruction — A squibs about the failures of Romney style capitalism.
Doing the math on Romney’s budget promises — Uh huh.
When will we get details from the Republicans? — If the only goal of the Republican Party is to make sure that the president is either a one-term president or that he fails, what does this say about the party?
?otd: Where did Tokyo go?
2/11/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.75 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 (solid)
Weight: 232.6
Currently reading: Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal
Tags: Books, Culture, Funny, interviews, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, sex, Tech
Posted: 7:03 am Sat February 11 2012 | Comments(0) |
[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 tries to wake up
Interview: Lilith Saintcrow, author of ‘The Hedgewitch Queen’
Could This Be The End Of Cancer? — It’s a disease that kills millions a year and a slew of hoped-for miracle treatments have gone nowhere. Now scientists say vaccines could hold the key—not just to a cure but to wiping out cancer forever.
Periodic Table of Swearing — Yes, this is NSFW, both visually and audibly. Funny as hell, though.
The assholocracy — Language Log with a useful new word.
Accidental Scientist Hawks ‘Online Marketplace for Brains’ — The headline on this very cool story is a bit misleading. This is about data science crowdsourcing.
Trillion-frame-per-second video — This story makes my brain hurt. In a good way. SCIENCE!
Augmented Reality for Six-Year-Olds — Toy makers bring augmented reality to the masses.
Next Big Bet for Space: Airborne Rocket Launcher — This is cool. More here.
A second life for Vietnam’s bile bears
Did walking evolve underwater? ‘Walking fish’ suggests that it did. — A study of the African lungfish suggests that our evolutionary ancestors first started walking before they migrated onto land.
Pakistan police rescue chained students from madrasa — Pakistani police say dozens of students were at the Madrasa Zakarya, an Islamic seminary, in Karachi. Several were reportedly chained in a basement, denied food and pressured to join the Taliban. The only difference between this and some Christian ‘schools’ in America is a matter of degree, not intent.
Tennessee family home burns while firefighters watch — Life in a fee-for-service conservative paradise.
What Perry gets wrong about religion in America — Everything, basically, outside the narrow box of Christianist bigotry so beloved of the GOP. Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson comments.
Post-American Iraq by the Numbers — In case you labor under the delusion that we somehow improved things in Iraq.
There Is Only One Issue In America — Hmm. Interesting article. I think he ignores the issue of faith-based social conservatism, which fatally distorts the compromise process essential to party politics, but still an interesting point.
?otd: Coffee or hot chocolate?
12/14/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 10.0 (solid, plus plus napping)
Weight: 208.4
Currently (re)reading: Return of Retief by Keith Laumer
Tags: Cancer, Christianists, Cool, Funny, health, interviews, Iraq, Language, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Tech, Videos, weird
Posted: 6:03 am Wed December 14 2011 | Comments(1) |
[interviews] What you said
Yesterday I posted a few questions on my blog, interviewing you guys. The answers were by turns funny, delightfully mundane, sublime, and in a few cases saddening. They make for wonderful reading if you want to go page through the comments on the posts at: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ].
I decided it would be fun to post the answers to my fourth and last question all rolled up together. People thinking and talking and believing in things made for uplifting reading for me. I hope it does for you, too.
4) What would you tell the world if you could, today?
martyn44: And I would tell the world the words of Kurt Vonnegut. You just gotta be kind.’
reynardo: Hard as it is, you can’t shake the whole “Are you being a writer like your grandmother/father/whatever” until you show them you’re doing something totally different. Which means actually doing it. And that English teacher who mocked your wish to start off writing formula for Mills and Boon? Was a bitch and you shouldn’t have listened to her. Oh. Sorry. The second one was just for me.
e_underwood: We only get one shot on this spinning globe so make the best of it, be nice to people, be thoughtful, and stop wasting your time messing around with things that aren’t going to matter in the long run. Things are rarely as important as they may seem, and things that don’t seem important now, tend to be what you treasure or regret most later.
fledgist: Does the world need to hear from me? I want to say something about how Jamaica managed to keep its democracy going, redefine what it was about, define itself as a country, and do so in spite of screwing up its economy. This is more political theory than anything else, and so I want to say something about the ideas that made this possible and why those ideas are worth attending to today.
None of this is clever, but it draws as much on my creativity as it does on my analytic skill.
snippy: Figure it out for yourself, then nobody can take it away from you.
tsarina: Stop texting and driving, for the love of all that’s good in the world. Especially when you’re tooling through the grocery store parking lot where there are lots of people walking! How is this so hard to understand? This is dangerous and dumb.
madrobins: Stop being stupid. Be kind to the people around you–by which I mean those in other states, other countries, etc. Sharing the wealth and making sure your fellow humans have certain basic amenities does not mean there will be less for you. Unclench.
joycemocha: Greed is NOT good.
mastadge: “I know who you are and I saw what you did.”
kproche: Applies to all of them (and my day job): take some joy in and from your work!
makoiyi: No matter how cliche this sounds, to live every single moment because you never know if it will be your last.
jimvanpelt: What would I tell the world? Hmmm. Don’t vote Republican? No, that would be too easy. How about look at the facts before you vote.
autopope: I haz new varifocals!
vsherbie: Be generous, no matter how much you have. If you won’t at all miss what you gave, you were not generous. Give more.
feorag: antipope_cats(and Mafdet in particular) are wickle twaitors who have rejected the comfy cat basket in front of the (on) radiator in my study to sit with autopope.
klwilliams: No wisdom for the world, except possibly, “Pay attention. Respect each other.” At least that’s what I’m working on.
birdhousefrog: It’s a gorgeous fall day in Virginia.
sillylilly_bird: Be more compassionate and tolerant. also, mind your own business.
jennifer_brozek: Share the love. Really. By helping others succeed, you succeed too.
la_marquise_de_: Big Money is never your friend. It lies a lot and pretends it is, but in the end, it only serves itself.
jakobdrud: That humanity can accomplish much more if we work together than if we continue to make war on each other. Space should be our destination, peace should be our credo, and brotherhood should govern Earth and beyond. (I know, old-school statement, but the world needs a reminder now and then.)
talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com: That every cultural assumption is worth questioning, that what people try to tell us comes always out of their own vision, and that we should pursue knowledge on a deeper level, trying both to see greater detail, and to see how those details contribute to the bigger picture.
Stephen A. Watkins: “Writing is an act of love.”
Ken Davis: “Dig deeper.”
Matt H: You can have whatever it is you want but nobody is going to hand it to you.
Elf Sternberg: “It’s coming, it’s coming. Just gimme a little while longer.”
Steve Buchheit: Slow down, I’m having trouble with the brass ring.
frabjouslinz: Be kind to each other: everyone is fighting a battle. (And to paraphrase from The Bloggess, Also some of them might have knives.)
mmegaera: I have laughed more in the last month and a half since the new kittens moved in than I have in a very, very long time. Which I think is one reason I’m unstalled, to be honest.
jackwilliambell: Last night I had a dream. In the dream I was standing, stark naked, in front of a huge audience about to give a speech. The title of the speech was “Overcoming your fears.”
Don’t be afraid of anything that isn’t getting ready to kill or maim you right this second. Fear of success can hobble you just as much as fear of failure. Fear of not measuring up can lead you to never actually try. Fear of other people’s opinions is an utter waste of time better spent doing things you want to do.
silvertwi: Flu shots fucking hurt.
…More seriously, I would want to raise awareness of what it’s like to live with a chronic illness or other disability and hope that someone else hearing or reading it learns that they are not alone in feeling the many emotional and physical tolls such things take.
e_bourne: It doesn’t matter if you’re afraid. Everyone’s afraid. While there are mean people out there, most folks want you to succeed. Your efforts give them hope and happiness. So take heart.
jodysherry: After reading most commenters’ #4, to say what I thought originally would be preaching to the choir. See the commonalities not the differences. But don’t forget to celebrate the differences. Look beyond your horizon. We’re all in this together.
paulcarp: All of us are at a potluck. Don’t bogart the dessert.
Tags: interviews, Personal
Posted: 6:44 am Wed October 19 2011 | Comments(1) |
[interviews] Now I’ll interview you
Turnabout is fair play. Answer in comments if you like.
1) What creative project are you working on right now?
2) If you’re stalled, why?
3) How do you motivate yourself?
4) What would you tell the world if you could, today?
Especially clever and/or interesting answers may be promoted to blog posts of their own hereabouts.
ETA: Due to a server error at my Web host, the original version of this post was lost, with all its comments. This is a repost. However, many of the comments were preserved by me in another post here: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Tags: interviews
Posted: 5:50 am Tue October 18 2011 | Comments(0) |
[interviews] Reader interview of me
A week ago I posted a call for interview questions in comments [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]. Some were profound, some were funny, one or two were snarky. Nonetheless, I have answered them all.
Here under cut for reading mercy are the answers: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: interviews, Personal
Posted: 5:58 am Mon October 17 2011 | Comments(0) |
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