Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad is chilly

A reader reacts to Mainspring — Including a comment on my author photo.

Mid-career surgeons ‘are safest’

Alone Again, Naturally — Some good stuff in this article. Also some pretty annoying generalizations about male behavior.

Gaming Tablet Suggests New Form Factor

Where the Trees Are — You can actually see Oregon’s Willamette Valley in this image, if you know what you’re looking for.

The TSA Posts Its ‘Top Good Catches Of 2011′ List, Not One Of Which Is An Actual Terrorist — Sigh. (Via danjite, who also sent along the sigh.)

Businessmen and Economics — Really, business and economics are not the same thing.

Appeals court affirms order blocking Oklahoma sharia law ban — A federal appeals court upholds a 2010 ruling preventing the implementation of an Oklahoma constitutional amendment that would bar judges from considering international or Islamic law in decisions. Hey, look, a brief moment of sanity from our court system! I’m sure the Supremes will smack this down in due time, unfortunately.

Huntsman would pose big threat to prez, experts say

Why Rick Santorum Can’t Just Say: God Doesn’t Want You To Be Gay — Gay rights and the collapse of pseudo-secularism. An interesting analysis of the religiously-sanctioned bigotry of Senator Frothy Mix. (Via scarlettina.)

Can Romney be more than an opening act? — He’s not actually pulling a lot of votes yet, he has the advantage of a split opposition.

Romney’s Dreadful Inevitability: How Did It Come To This? — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison mulls Romney.

?otd: Is it cold where you are?

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1/11/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (work related evening social function)
Body movement: 30 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 7.25 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Tags: Books, Culture, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Tech, Travel

Posted: 5:26 am Wed January 11 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad sits at the bar and puts bread in your jar

The Darth Vader Burger is Here — (Via my brother.)

Airline pilot startled by flying shark — Life imitates, uh… I got nothing. (Via David Goldman.)

The Apollo 11 lunar landing, told through data.

The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See — Made by one guy in Oregon.

Center produces chimeric monkeys — That’s a hell of a headline. Interesting story, too.

Indonesia’s underwater masters of disguise — Meet the fish that mimics the octopus that mimics scary sea creatures.

Google Earth’s Lessons in Wave Mechanics — A close look at Google’s virtual globe reveals almost unlimited examples of the way waves behave.

X-37B spaceplane ‘spying on China’ — America’s classified X-37B spaceplane is probably spying on China, according to a report in Spaceflight magazine.

Extinctions from Climate Change Underestimated — Hmm. Actual hypotheses from actual data. I’d better tune into Rush Limbaugh to clear my head of these pesky facts.

L.A.-area bishop, father of two, resigns

I Was Shitting You People – A Message From Ayn Rand — Ah, satire. (Via danjite.)

Gay couple win suit over names on birth certificate

The Irrelevance of the Broccoli Argument against the Insurance Mandate

Magna Carta and Wingnut Legislation — I can understand, if not agree with, the conservative impulse to require all legislation to state its Constitutional basis. (I disagree simply because there are far too many issues in modern government and society which are not explicitly, or even implicitly, contemplated in the Constitution. Like many beloved conservative talking points, it’s a simple-minded attempt to solve a complex problem that doesn’t really exist.) But the Magna Carta. Really, guys? Is there a “nuttiest GOP politician” contest going on?

Here’s What Romney’s Unreleased Tax Returns Almost Certainly Hide — Every major presidential candidate for decades has released their tax returns routinely. Not Romney. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.

Santorum Becomes Millionaire in Six Years After U.S. Senate Loss — Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum describes himself on the campaign trail as a frugal man of faith and limited means. Right, Senator Frothy Mix. Limited means. And Mitt Romney is unemployed, while Newt Gingrich is middle class. What kind of idiot do you have to be to believe this crap? (I know, the question answers itself.) Not that I object to wealth in politicians or anyone else. I do object to blatantly false claims.

Rick Santorum claims same sex marriage is comparable to polygamy — Santorum is a fool and a moral leper. The more I learn about this man, the more I despise him. And mind you, this in a race where Newt is running.

Rick Santorum’s Google problem remains — As well it should, given his despicable comments on the gay community. I for one am happy to continue to support “Santorum” search results defined as “The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex”. It’s the least he deserves. See also spreadingsantorum.com.

?otd: Man, what are you doing here?

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1/6/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.0 (fitful)
Weight: 214.2
Currently reading: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Tags: China, climate, Cool, Food, gay, healthcare, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, Tech, Travel, Videos, weird

Posted: 6:16 am Fri January 06 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad lazes

History of Science Fiction — And here’s one for sci-fi geeks: Artist Ward Shelley’s hand-drawn flowchart tracks the literary genre’s 2,500-year legacy, from nascent roots in mythology to the post-Star Wars space operas of today. I object to characterizing space opera as somehow a post-Star Wars phenomenon, but that’s a headline writer problem. The chart is weirdly cool. (Via Curiosity Counts.)

The Law of Online Sharing — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will eventually have to deal with the fact that all growth has limits.

Hashtags’ mission creep — Language Log with more than you ever wanted to know about #hashtags.

Disruptions: Norelco on Takeoff? Fine. Kindle? No. — You can shave during takeoff and landing?

Lie of the Jungle: The Truth About Cheeta the Chimpanzee — The truth about Cheeta? Also, an interesting story about publishing. (Via danjite.)

Smokin’ hot island rises up from depths of the Red Sea — How, um, Mosaic.

All Four Oregon Wolf Packs Are Making Babies — The politics of this are rough, as rural conservatives out here hate wolves almost as much as they hate liberals, and for no better reason, but it’s good to see them growing.

Christian Priests Brawl at Jesus’ Birthplace — I think the spiritual life has great value, but when you get to the point in your religious attachments where you are beating people up over your claims to an old building, you’re no longer talking about spirituality, and a sane secularism would be far preferable. Um, good God yes.

Bachmann’s Iowa chairman quits, endorses Paul — Oops.

“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” Mr. Perry said — Um. Canada, she is not foreign? And conservatives wonder why the rest of us think you guys have lost your minds.

?otd: Ever drive a Ferrari?

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12/29/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 10.0 (solid)
Weight: 206.4
Currently (re)reading: The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: Cool, Culture, Language, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Tech, Travel, weird

Posted: 8:01 am Thu December 29 2011 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad beams down

F106 4CH Infared RC Helicopter NEW with Gyro Radio Remote Control Mini Size (Yellow) — Just go read the copy on this one. Preferably aloud as a dramatic presentation. (Via lillypond a/k/a my sister.)

Do you really want to know what your doc is writing about you?

Restoration Projects Bring Coho Back To Johnson Creek — Nuevo Rancho Lake isn’t far from Johnson Creek.

Mysterious ‘space ball’ crashes down in Namibia grasslands

Rare Galaxy from ‘Dawn of Time’ Photographed — That just seems so cool.

1,100-year-old Mayan ruins found in North Georgia — Mayans? In Georgia? Really? (Snurched from @bethmeacham.)

Baboons kidnap and raise feral dogs as pets — Odd but cool. (Via danjite.)

Bachmann’s overlaps — Heh. (Via Scrivener’s Error.)

Ron Paul gets testy, walks out over talk of racist newsletters — So Ron Paul was a nasty racist when it paid well to scare the rubes and drum up donations, but no longer now that it’s embarrassing. Remember, kids, character counts. I know some political party told me that once, very loudly, but maybe it only applies to liberal-progressives. Also, Ta-Nehisi Coates with more on this.

For Gingrich in Power, Pragmatism, Not Purity — A profile of the Newt which may be of interest to you political junkies. (Thanks to my Dad.)

So… You’ve Been Indefintely Detained — Ah, democracy. We used to live in one, I think.

?otd: Green blood or red?

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12/23/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 11.5 (solid plus napping)
Weight: 207.0
Currently (re)reading: The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: Cool, Culture, Funny, healthcare, history, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, race, Science, Tech

Posted: 6:07 am Fri December 23 2011 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad says Happy Halloween

Tumors closer to committing “cellular suicide” are more sensitive to conventional anticancer drugs. — Tumors closer to committing “cellular suicide” are more sensitive to conventional anticancer drugs.

What’s Luck Got to Do With It? — My personal experience with very successful entrepreneurs is that they often confuse luck for skill. Interesting stuff.

Gorey Manor: 1939

Pa. Researchers Unable to Unearth Irish Mass Grave — Labor history.

Japan nuke radiation higher than estimated

Occupy protesters arrested in Texas, Oregon — Ah, Portland.

Republican House Majority Vulnerable In 2012: Poll — Not in this economy, no. Even though the long-running freakshow that is GOP party politics is finally getting acknowledged in the press after all these years.

?otD: Boo?

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10/31/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 hours (fitful overnight plus napping)
Weight: 217.4
Currently (re)reading: Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Tags: business, Cancer, healthcare, Japan, Links, Occpuy Wall Street, Oregon, Personal, Photos, Politics

Posted: 6:27 am Mon October 31 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad perseverates

talekyn reviews Endurance — He liked it but didn’t love it.

iPads Change Economics, and Speed, of Hotel Wi-Fi

NASA Confirms ‘Suspicious Events’ in Satellite Hacking Report — Hmm. Oh wow.

Time Lapse: Crater Lake — One of Oregon’s beauty spots, and I’ve never been there.

Who was Karl Marx? — In American political discource, Marx is a man whose name is invoked out of ignorance to provoke fear.

DOJ Inspector General Retracts $16-Muffin Claim — See all the widespread coverage of the retraction in Your Liberal Media? Not to mention fairly unbalance FOX-GOP?

Is Michele Bachmann dragging the Tea Party down with her? — Quick! Someone throw her an anchor!

DesMoinesRegister.com Iowa Caucuses — A GOP candidate making a factual error on the campaign trail? One that just happens to incite the idoelogical misconceptions of her votng base? Inconceivable.

The Republican Addiction to Attack Politics Has Backfired — The Serious Republicans built the politics that now so embarrass them, so it’s a little late to be overcome by the vapors at the unseemliness of it all. Something I’ve been saying for ages. GOP strategists and leadership have shit the bed hard over the years. Unfortunately we all have to lie in their crap.

?otD: Did you notice?

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10/30/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: none (on the chemo pump)
Hours slept: 11.5 hours (solid overnight plus napping)
Weight: 222.4
Currently (re)reading: Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Books, Green, Links, Oregon, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science, Travel, Videos

Posted: 7:29 am Sun October 30 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad won’t do much this Sunday

Check all boxes — Language Log rants (at length) about the that/which idiocy in US copy editing. Including identifying the original source of the problem. Ultimately, language is how you use it, not what some dead guy with an illogical grammar peeve said.

Gresham Gator Still At Large — Gresham is just a little east of here. I’ll have to watch for alligators in the sewers now.

Kinect Turns Any Surface Into a Touch Screen — Researchers combine a Kinect sensor with a pico projector to expand the possibilities for interactive screens. Headline is slightly misleading, but the story is still cool.

Science Fiction-Style Sabotage a Fear in New Hacks — Not sure it’s SFnal, but it’s relevant to the world we live in.

Happy 6015th Birthday to Earth! — (Greeting offer valid only to the wilfully ignorant.)

Is the US Declaration of Independence illegal? — Surely it was not legal, in the context of its moment?

Bill Maher Explains Why the GOP Fails to Understand OWS — This is worth it.

The GOP Wins by Bruising — The debates have been an unexpected success. The Wall Street Journal with a conservative analysis of the Republican primary debates. They focus on the candidates, not on the bizarre audience reactions.

Programmer under oath admits computers rig elections — A video of some congressional testimony that will have you thinking again about the 2000 and 2004 elections. This on top of the Brooks Brother Riot, the John Ellis call, the rigged Supreme Court “this is no precedent” vote in Bush v. Gore, the successful move to destroy the disputed Florida ballots so there will never, ever be a full hand count. History is going to judge the GOP very, very harshly. Unless they get to write it, of course. (Thanks to danjite.)

?otD: Is Sunday your day of rest?

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10/23/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 hours (solid)
Weight: 215.8
Currently (re)reading: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Cool, Florida, history, Language, Links, Occupy Wall Street, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, Tech

Posted: 7:37 am Sun October 23 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is like a very small hurricane

Cancer Discrimination in the Hospital — cathshaffer on her mother’s cancer course. Sigh.

Fish known as wrasses are found to use tools — Cool.

Fermi Bubbles Are Burps From A Star-Eating Black Hole… — That wins my award for headline of the day.

Lost in Time and Lost in Space — Centauri Dreams with an analysis of the Fermi paradox.

Church insurer stops cover for acts of God — Très amusant. (Thanks to danjite.)

Jurors in faith-healing trial say evidence overpowered a weak defense — This makes me proud of Oregon, though the whole story is very sad.

Rights for me, but not for thee — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the AFA’s Bryan Fischer and conservative views of freedom of religion, for the right kind of Christian but no one else. Personally, I’ve long believed freedom of religion includes freedom from religion.

Mass. terror suspect was asked to leave mosque — This can’t be true! And any Real American™ about Muslims. Most Republicans can’t find Mecca on a map, but they know all about the alleged creeping horror of Islam. Now if they only understood the real life creeping horror of Christianism.

GOP activists walking — not running — to Romney

Why conservatives hate Warren Buffett — Many of the same people who think the rich should be free to spend unlimited sums influencing our politics without having to disclose anything are now asking Buffett to make his tax returns public. I guess if you’re indifferent to consistency, you have a lot of freedom of action. That’s the conservative movement in a nutshell.

?otD: Are you the dreamer or the dream?

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9/30/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (took the day off)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.75 hours (solid)
Weight: 224.4
Currently reading: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Tags: Cancer, Christianism, Cool, healthcare, Links, nature, New Zealand, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science

Posted: 5:50 am Fri September 30 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad Sundays quietly

Jay Lake, ND

Water Wheel at Columbia Springs turns back years — Replica installed at environmental education center is a legacy to lumbering.

New Aircraft Flies Without Wings or Helicopter Blades

Metal on the Plains of Mars

The Giant Drill Underneath Park Avenue

Unraveling the Mystery of Murderous Minds — Prison psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple asks why we feel compelled to understand monsters like Anders Breivik, but no need to explain others’ righteous behavior.

McCain erupts: Conservatives are lying to America — And already he’s walking it back.

Evangelicals Without Blowhards — Yeah, well. A lot of those mild-mannered, big-hearted Evangelicals have gone along with the Christianist political agenda for years, enabling the madness in name of one or two single issues. Being an enabler of political poison isn’t much better than being a perpetrator.

Tempest in a Tea Party — Consider what the towel-snapping Tea Party crazies have already accomplished. They’ve changed the entire discussion. They’ve neutralized the White House. They’ve whipped their leadership into submission. They’ve taken taxes and revenues off the table. They’ve withered the stock and bond markets. They’ve made journalists speak to them as though they’re John Calhoun and Alexander Hamilton.

?otD: Whilom?

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7/31/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (post-op recovery)
Body movement: 30 minutes stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 hours (solid)
Weight: 224.6
Currently reading: The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

Tags: Cool, Links, Oregon, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, Tech

Posted: 7:24 am Sun July 31 2011 | Comments(1) |

[photos|travel] Yes, we have no aurora

Yesterday after work I completely played hookie from writing and pretty much anything else. the_child and I ran a couple of necessary errands, then picked up goulo and a2na on the Portland leg of their American tour. (They are visiting from Poland, goulo is good friend from my Austin days.)

mlerules had noted there was a possible viewing of the aurora borealis at Portland’s latitude last night, so along with Mother of the Child we hied off to dinner at the SE Belmont food cart pod, where another old Austin friend J— met up with us.

The guests of honor eat a delicious vegan meal not purchased at the Mexican place right behind them

the_child in her natural state

mlerules goes vegan as well

I utterly fail to go vegan, instead having a pork belly sandwich from Lardo, dressed with a fried egg, cheddar cheese, aoili and arugula

After that we piled into two cars and drove out to the Columbia Gorge in hopes of viewing the aurora from Crown Point if (a) the clouds cleared and (b) the current solar outburst actually drove the aurora this far south.

The Gorge near dusk from Chanticleer Point

(a) didn’t really happen, and according to the forecast, neither did (b) — solar intensity was 5 on a scale of 10, and 6 or more would be required to push the aurora to our latitude. But we did have a great time touring about.

goulo and a2na at Multnomah Falls, along with J— and the_child — if you squint, you can see them up there

My chemo-addled self did not make the walk up to the viewing bridge, and in fact I spent most of this small road trip in the vehicle of mlerules with the seat laid flat, under a blanket, dozing or talking quietly with her. I didn’t even get out of the car at Latourelle Falls. (Everyone else was in J—’s car, except for when mlerules ran us back to Nuevo Rancho Lake at the end of the evening, well past both my bedtime and that of the_child.)

Even though we had no aurora, a very satisfying evening, even if I didn’t get a lick of responsible work done. Heading to the Gorge always reminds me of one of the biggest reasons I moved to Oregon. It’s freaking pretty here. I love sharing this experience with friends.

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Photos © 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Child, family, Food, friends, nature, Oregon, Photos, Travel

Posted: 5:34 am Thu June 09 2011 | Comments(0) |