Próba Kwiatów – Jay Lake — A mixed review, in Polish, of the Polish edition of my novel Trial of Flowers.

SF in SF — Just a reminder that this coming Saturday, 2/11, I will be at SF in SF with K.W. Jeter and Rudy Rucker. If you’re in the Bay Area, come on down.

10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy — He’s talking about ad copy, not fiction, but this is still interesting and worthwhile stuff. (Via Curiosity Counts.)

Kill the Local News — Writer Jeremy Tolbert on sensationalism.

Mindful Eating as Food for Thought

Scale of the Universe — Another fun take on the “powers of 10″ meme. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

What did people do: in a Medieval City? — (Via danjite.)

Self-Cloning Seagrass May Be World’s Oldest Living Thing

Mars-bound NASA rover carries coin for camera checkup — This is cool and kind of poetic.

Mapping the Road Ahead for Autonomous Cars

Turing’s Enduring Importance — The path computing has taken wasn’t inevitable. Even today’s machines rely on a seminal insight from the scientist who cracked Nazi Germany’s codes. An interesting article, although I wish in mentioning his suicide it had acknowledged the disgusting way Turing was treated by his own people.

The State of Gay Marriage — Being a handy map to show you where bigotry has triumphed, and where respect for basic human rights is gaining ground.

The Single Most Powerful Quote From California’s Prop 8 Ruling — “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.” Like opposition to interracial marriage forty years ago, Prop 8 is bigotry, pure and simple, a combination of narrow-minded religious privilege and typically unfounded conservative alarmism. Like opposition to interracial marriage today, forty years from now people will be ashamed to admit in public what they once voted and for and believed.

The Business Case Against Karen Handel — John Scalzi with a very sensible take on the (surprising to me) resignation of Karen Handel from the Susan G. Komen foundation. For my own part, I’ll observe that as usual when the Right tries strong-arm tactics, they only see unfairness when they get caught out.

Planned Parenthood’s Deep Bench — Ta-Nehisi Coates with some interesting thoughts on the fight that Komen picked when they decided to show their true conservative colors.

Why the Energy-Industrial Elite Has It In for the Planet — Social and political commentary on the funding impetus behind the intellectual fraud of climate change denial.

Jesus versus the GOP — The man from Nazareth would have been appalled by the “Christian” Republican candidates. The only thing I have to say to political Christianists is “Matthew 6:6“.

‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World — The declining influence of the US Constitution overseas.

Republicans Finally Realize They’re Helping Obama — Like their counterparts from 16 years before, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives last year filled with revolutionary zeal, assuming that they could leverage their hold over one branch of Congress into sweeping changes in the national agenda. And like their predecessors, they blundered into high-profile confrontations with a Democratic president and suffered prolonged and deep damage in their public standing, with each new defeat slowly leeching the fanatical determination out of them.

Santorum Upsets G.O.P. Race With Three Victories — I really can’t decide who would be the bigger disaster for this country, Senator Frothy Mix or Governor 1%. Our last Republican president set an extremely low bar for destructive incompetence, something the GOP electorate seems to have very conveniently forgotten.

?otd: How was your Tuesday?

2/8/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.25 (solid)
Weight: 230.8
Currently reading: n/a (between books)

A reader reacts to Visitants, ed. Steve Jones — Including comments on one of my stories.

Not So Wild Review: Schlock Mercenary — I’ve said before that I think Schlock Mercenary is some of the very best long form SF around. This reviewer frames his praise differently, but seems to share my same fundamental opinion. (Via @howardtayler.)

Release the hounds! — Miranda Suri on learning to outline novels. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

I Greet You in the Middle of a Great Career: A Brief History of Blurbs — Heh. (Via @legalnomads.)

How Do We Get There? — Cat Valente asks about the development of post-scarcity societies.

An obsessive history of The Elements of Style and what makes it a cultural treasure. — Even unto being wrong on a number of points of grammar and usage…

Indie Game: The Movie — For those interested in that sort of thing.

Space voyages shouldn’t become politically incorrect

Komen Reverses Decision on Planned Parenthood Funding, Is Still Likely Full of Shit — Komen blatantly, obviously, and deliberately targeted Planned Parenthood. Their board room is still staffed with conservative donors and at least one vocal anti-choice politician. They’re still a conservative political organization masquerading as a feel-goodery for people who just want to help cure cancer.

Komen May Continue to Fund Some Planned Parenthood Grants — A pro-life site accuses Planned Parenthood of being “dishonest thugs”. This coming from the political movement that operates “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (profound dishonest fake clinics meant to deceive and entrap desperate pregnant women) and actively encourages the murder of doctors (unconditional thuggery)? Project much? Of course you do, you’re conservatives.

Komen backlash: Public turns fury on vice president Karen Handel

The big backlash against bullying women — Sadly, conservative America controls the discourse, and profits politically and culturally from the bullying of women. It’s not going to stop.

Indiana backing away from bill allowing creation “science” into classrooms — Many similar bills are introduced in state legislatures each year and, in cases where their sponsors speak to the press, they tend to reveal a great deal of ignorance regarding both science and the law. In terms of science, they tend to misunderstand the meaning of the term “theory,” think that there are multiple scientific explanations for life’s diversity, or suggest evolution is a theory for life’s origin. The Indiana bill’s sponsor, Dennis Kruse, appears to get all of these wrong. It’s tough getting ahead when you’re flat fucking wrong in terms of both reality and the law, but conservatives will persevere. And they succeed far too often.

Romney’s political success is a mixed blessing for Mormon Church — His presidential candidacy could be a breakthrough ‘JFK moment for Mormons,’ but it could also stir up more negative publicity for the church. I was sympathetic to Romney on the issue of religious criticism until he made it clear he wouldn’t have a Muslim in his cabinet.

Chris Christie and the Nation-State Project — Ta-Nehisi Coates on conservative ignorance of history. Many of the actual people who were beaten and killed “in the streets”–Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, for instance–were attempting to secure the very right which Christie, bizarrely, believes they should have exercised. It’s almost as if he doesn’t know what the Civil Rights movement actually was.

As Romney’s slip-ups show, gaffes nearly unavoidable on modern campaign trail — Nush mostly just babbled. Romney’s gaffes are golden soundbites for his opposition.

?otd: Ink much?

2/4/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (busy with tattoos and Dad time)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 (solid)
Weight: 229.8
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

The self-epublishing bubble — (Snurched from @lilithsaintcrow.)

Pythons linked to Florida Everglades mammal decline

Little Ice Age was caused by volcanism

Russia blames radiation for space probe failure

Toward a New ‘Prime Directive’

While temperatures rise, denialists reach lower — The WSJ OpEd makes a lot of hay from having 16 scientists sign it, but of those only 4 are actually climate scientists. And that bragging right is crushed to dust when you find out that the WSJ turned down an article about the reality of global warming that was signed by 255 actual climate scientists. Ah, ideology: trumping facts in the conservative mind since 4004 BC.

The Condom’s Cousins — Health care coverage is one horse that the Church has chosen to ride in order to protect its belief in the sanctity of its beliefs. Sex, rather than God, is its focus. If God’s perceived commandments on how one deals with one’s fellow man come into conflict with the Church’s opinion on sex, its opinion on sex wins out every time, irrespective of the effect it may have on fellow man.

The Austerity Debacle — Haven’t we learned a lot about economic management over the last 80 years? Yes, we have — but in Britain and elsewhere, the policy elite decided to throw that hard-won knowledge out the window, and rely on ideologically convenient wishful thinking instead. “Ideologically convenient wishful thinking” pretty much describes most of the conservative mindset these days, at least on the budget, jobs, climate change, foreign policy, etc.

Brewer Has History Of Getting Facts Wrong — In the past, when Brewer has been confronted about inaccurate statements, her first move has been to maintain she was right no matter how clear the matter was. Republican to the bone.

Wash. Post’s Parker Wildly Distorts Charitable Giving Of Obama, Romney — Because when you’re taking the GOP party line, facts don’t matter, the message does. Even flat out lies like this pass unchallenged in Your Liberal Media.

Trillions in tax cuts — The Republican presidential candidates claim to abhor debt, yet propose tax cuts that would add trillions more. Supply side economics hasn’t worked yet, but why stop believing in it now? Who said New Math was dead?

Election angst hits Hill Republicans — What amazes me is that for most of my adult life, the GOP has had fantastic party discipline. Since about 2006, that seems to have really weakened. Not that I’m complaining about anything that undercuts the toxic conservative agenda, but I find it surprising.

Kansas Speaker O’Neal asks House GOP to pray for Obama’s death — Stay classy, GOP. It’s what you do best.

The Grover Norquist “Impeach Obama” Fantasy — [T]he Republicans wanted [Clinton] removed from the first day he took office, and that they were not waiting for a crime so much as they were waiting for the moment when they had the votes to do it. (That this is a monumental act of contempt for the people who elected him their president should not concern us here, because it apparently never concerned the Republicans.)

Why Gingrich is a Liability to Down-Ticket Congressional Races — And the GOP establishment continues to dog pile on poor, misunderstood Newt.

?otd: Got milk?

1/31/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 (solid)
Weight: 228.6
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

willyumtx

You Eat That? — Disgust is one of our most basic emotions—the only one that we have to learn—and nothing triggers it more reliably than the strange food of others.

Honda revives Ferris Bueller — Zombie Matthew Broderick?

Genetic or Not, Gay Won’t Go Away

Ritalin Gone Wrong

Hysteria and the Teenage Girl

Testicular zap ‘may stop sperm’ — A dose of ultrasound to the testicles can stop the production of sperm, according to researchers investigating a new form of contraception.

U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected — The Pentagon has proposed delaying a plan to replace the U-2s with RQ-4 Global Hawk drones because of Defense Department cutbacks.

Too Much of a Bad Thing: Monsanto Did NOT Buy Blackwater — Hmmm. (Via danjite.)

Newt Gingrich’s moon base plan a ‘cheap trick’ to get votes, space experts say — Experts call Gingrich’s plan a gimmick that is too expensive to work. I am shocked that Newt might have said something deliberately misleading. Shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

Gingrich’s Absurd Outsider Pose — But it works with the low information voters who make up the GOP base. Who cares if his claims are true?

?otd: What are you working on this week?

1/30/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 (fitful)
Weight: 227.8
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

Why Men Need To Cheat — Interestingly, this entire article on men and sex is really making a strong case for polyamory without ever using the word or explaining the concept. Ah, the magic power of embedded assumptions.

Top tips on women for Stephen Hawking

Rare Gorilla Encounter — American wildlife photographer sits in awe and disbelief as a troop of wild Ugandan mountain gorillas coddle and groom him.

Tomorrow’s office, imagined in 1969

If them neutrinos are faster than light, physicists have a lot of work to do

Why can’t we use lasers as ray guns? — Mmm, laser-cooked bacon.

This Girl Snuck Into a Russian Military Rocket Factory — Some bad ass photos here. (Via mlerules.)

Iran welcomes ‘humanitarian’ rescue from pirates

Why Tornadoes Take the Weekends Off in Summer — Not just anthropogenic climate change, but anthropogenic weather change.

Priscilla Of Boston Spray-Paints Unsold Wedding Gowns To Keep Them From Grubby Poor People — Classy, very classy.

Report: Federal workers ‘pressured’ to approve citizenship papers — Anecdotally speaking, everyone I’ve ever known to go through the citizenship process (including the_child, as a 1-2 year old) has had pretty much the opposite experience: endless and seemingly pointless delays and weird make-work bureaucratic impediments.

Food Stamp President — Ta-Nehisi Coates on Gingrich and Santorum’s recent racist idiocy.

Frothing at Santorum — Bill Shunn rants, very much along my line of thinking.

Bain, Barack and Jobs — Mr. Romney and those like him didn’t destroy jobs, but they did enrich themselves while helping to destroy the American middle class. And that reality is, of course, what all the blather and misdirection about job-creating businessmen and job-destroying Democrats is meant to obscure.

Self-Styled Conservatives Run the GOP, Except When They Don’t — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison with a fascinating discussion of the GOP nominating process from a far right point of view. I always find him interesting, though sometimes he’s way off base, like his recurring contention that Bush was not a conservative. So far as I can tell, that’s the “No true Scotsman” fallacy in action, as Bush was a self-identified conservative elected by conservatives who governed from conservative principles in the most disastrous presidential administration in modern history. He sure as heck was no liberal, progressive or moderate. To claim now he wasn’t a conservative is a cowardly effort to wriggle out of responsibility for horrendous failures of conservatism under Bush.

?otd: Caper much?

1/7/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 (fitful)
Weight: 215.2
Currently reading: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Getting out of the way — Roger Ebert on prodigies and the creative process.

5 Timeless Books of Insight on Fear and the Creative Process — The only time I experience fear in my creative process is immediately before diving into a large scale project.

Mysterious 16th-Century Sext Discovered in Copy of Chaucer — Heh. (Via danjite.)

Led by the child who simply knew — Raising a transgendered child.

Having to think about the unthinkable — Most people don’t like to plan for dying, but in our state of denial, we leave ourselves vulnerable to conditions we would never want. Arrangements for the end of life are essential.

NASA is planning to use a giant crossbow and harpoon to capture samples from an asteroid. — Oh, the opportunities…

How the 10,000-Year Clock Measures Time> — The Earth’s rotation is notoriously unpredictable. So how can a clock keep time for 10,000 years?

Higgs boson: the particle of faith — There are parallels between the search for the ‘God particle’ and the search for God Himself, writes Alister McGrath.

Overnight Makeover for a Kosher First Kitchen — Making the White House kitchen kosher. (Thanks to Dad.)

A common atheist delusion — This is one of my mental failings as an atheist as well. I find religious dogma so preposterous and obviously suspect that I have a lot of trouble believing that other people really believe it. My default assumption is always that they are going through the motions for some other reason. Which is an error-of-thinking on my part, to be sure.

Texas school may build protective wall after 2 students shot while trying out for basketball — See, your your Constitutionally guaranteed right to defense of essential liberties with firearms requires that rather than limit firearms use near schools, or any other sensible measure, we build walls around those schools. Because otherwise students might get shot by people out exercising their constitutional rights, and after all it’s kids’ fault for getting in the way of the bullets. This is yet another reason why I can never be a conservative. I just can’t think myself that twisted and inhumane, to believe that gun rights trump the safety of schoolchildren.

Empathy, Cont. — Ta-Nehisi Coates on culture as a toolbox. I will also note, in parallel to his observation about weight and class, that there are no overweight kids in the_child‘s eight grade class, and vanishingly few in her entire school — which is a Waldorf school populated largely by the children of relatively (or heavily) monied white liberal-progressives. I am one of the few overweight parents, as well.

Non Sequitur nails contemporary politics — Read the blackboard in the background.

Physics Envy — Creating financial models involving human behavior is like forcing ‘the ugly stepsister’s foot into Cinderella’s pretty glass slipper.’

Panetta formally shuts down US war in Iraq — And we’ll just leave the money on the dresser on out way out, right?

?otd: Some you just can’t tell, right?

12/15/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 (solid, plus plus napping)
Weight: 209.6
Currently (re)reading: Retief! by Keith Laumer

Mission patch from 1930-1931 Miskatonic University Antarctic Expedition — :: wants ::

Cassini to make a double play

An Unusual Vein of Deposited Rock on Mars — Very nearly a smoking gun for running water, this.

Cosmologists Reveal Largest Ever Simulation Of The Universe — The latest computer model of the cosmos involves 400 billion particles in a box about two thirds of the volume of the universe. Sounds like the inside of my refrigerator.

Higgs boson to be unveiled (possibly) — Cern physicists are on tenterhooks as experiment sets out to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson.

Unraveling an epidemic — Autism rates have increased twentyfold in a generation, stirring parents’ deepest fears and prompting a search for answers. But what if the upsurge is not what it appears to be?

Climate Change Disaster looms despite Durban Agreement

Siri Failures, Illustrated — The apparent Christianism of Siri, who promotes fake abortion clinics that bear false witness to entrap young women, but won’t provide any info on abortion or rape crisis resources. Miserable failure, Apple. Just miserable. (Via danjite.)

What Latin America Can Teach Us — The New York Times on income inequality and the decline of the middle class. (Via @brendacooper.)

NPR Tries to Track Down Those Millionaire Job Creators — Like supply side economics, millionaire job creators are nothing but another cherished GOP myth with no basis in reality. (Via David Goldman.)

?otd: Can you touch that day?

12/12/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 10.0 (fitful plus napping)
Weight: 209.0
Currently (re)reading: Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold

Life began with a planetary mega-organism — This is cool.

Deep Intellect — Inside the mind of the octopus.

Russia’s Troubled Mars Probe Highlights Falling Space Debris Hazard

Smart-Phone App Warns Pedestrians of Oncoming Cars — I personally have eyes and ears for this purpose.

Does marriage equal monogamy?

Wal-Mart pepper-spraying customer may not be charged: report — Ah, real Americans.

Bank at Walmart? Cheap Prepaid Debit Cards Lure the Fee-Frustrated and Unbanked

Who said that? Match the Republican candidates with the quotes. — Go on. Take a bath in the crazy. You know you want to.

?otd: Where did you come from, where did you go?

11/28/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 (solid sleep plus napping)
Weight: 210.0
Currently (re)reading: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold