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)

It Must Follow, as the Night the Day — Madeleine Robins on writers who don’t read. Huh?

Don’t Waste Transportation — New in our gallery and store: From WWII, “War Traffic Must Come First.” Mmm, steam locomotive. Trains. Mmm.

Uh oh! Netflix doesn’t own the @Qwikster Twitter account — Glad to see they’re on top of Marketing 101.

Capitalism, Animals, and the Ownership of Icons — This may be perfectly well within the law, but it’s also nuts.

Is the World Running Out of Oil? — Poo pooing the Peak Oil hypothesis. Again.

Harvesting ‘limitless’ hydrogen from self-powered cells — US researchers say they have demonstrated how cells fuelled by bacteria can be “self-powered” and produce a limitless supply of hydrogen.

Circumbinary Orbits and Stellar Radii — “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!”

Fighting back against creationism — Hooray for scientists in the UK for having the temerity to fight back against the religious charlatanism of evolution denial.

‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ formally ends — Openly gay people will now be able to serve in the US military after repeal of controversial 18-year-old DADT law. One manifest conservative injustice finally ends, at least. (Yes, I know DADT was a Clinton-era “compromise”, but but it was a concession to rank GOP bigotry.) Watch now for all the alarmist rhetoric from the Right to completely fail to come true. As always.

Study Links Medical Costs and Personal Bankruptcy — Harvard researchers say 62% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. in 2007 were caused by health problems—and 78% of those filers had insurance. Unpossible! Everyone knows Rush said HCR was a socialist plot! Like I’ve said, in general, the people who oppose HCR are people who’ve never had to deal with the real consequences of serious illness. The conservative failure of empathy and imagination is firmly in play, along with some good old fashioned Calvinist/Christianist vindictiveness. (Thanks to danjite.)

Through The Looking Glass: Bachmann’s Long History Of Strange Statements — The national media is now starting to figure something out: Michele Bachmann says a lot of things that aren’t just kind of crazy, but manifestly false. No wonder the GOP base has been so enthralled with Bachmann. She fits right in with FOX News’ twisted version of America.

Boehner’s ‘Tea Party Challenger’ Really a Randall Terry Plant? — Golly. Imagine that. The Tea Party being used for conservative political ends. No one could have possibly foreseen this.

?otD: I still got nothing.

9/20/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (ill from chemo side effects)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.0 hours (severely interrupted, plus napping)
Weight: 218.0
Currently reading: Matter by Iain M. Banks

kenscholes

Who has time for cancer?

Written but unpublished

The January Machine (time travel/millenial SF, project abandoned)
Rocket Science (zero draft)
Death of a Starship (zero draft)
The Murasaki Doctrine (space opera/military SF, could not sell)
The Heart of the Beast (with Jeff VanderMeer, project abandoned)
Our Lady of the Islands (with Shannon Page, at my agent)
Other Me (YA lost colony/identity paranoia SF, awaiting rewrite)

Written, in progress or planned

Rocket Science

Death of a Starship

Mainspring
Escapement
Pinion

Green
Endurance (forthcoming)
Kalimpura (forthcoming)

Trial of Flowers
Madness of Flowers
Reign of Flowers (not a committed project)

Calamity of So Long a Life (in progress)
The Whips and Scorns of Time (to be drafted in 2012)
Be All Our Sins Remembered (to be drafted in 2012)

Original Destiny, Manifest Sin (American Old West fantasy/AH, to be drafted in 2012 or 2013)

Black Tulip (Dutch historial thriller/mystery, to be drafted in 2013)

The Rockefeller Plot (1970s diplomatic thriller with Ambassador Joseph Lake, in progress)
[untitled Biafran war novel] (1960s diplomatic thriller with Ambassador Joseph Lake)

Review: Hail, Caesar! ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ delivers

Man with Breast Cancer Denied Medicaid — Because he’s not a woman.

Are Smart People Getting Smarter?

Antiproton ring found around Earth — Cool stuff, Maynard. (Via Chris W. Johnson.)

Google’s self-driving wreck: Really human error?

Texas State University researcher discovers pirate shipwreck — Mmm, Captain Morgan.

Boeing pilots to make space trip — Commercial space.

Should the DMV Be Allowed to Censor Vanity Plates?

Police officers convicted over Katrina bridge shootings — I am very glad to see some justice in this awful case.

The Right Wing’s Thin Skin — They sure do love to dish out the abusive labeling, but they sure do hate to take it.

Will the Debt Deal Force Higher Taxes on the Rich? — (Thanks to Dad.)

Downgraded US Credit Rating: What comes of Coddling the Super-Rich — I understand why Republican politicos and donors go along with their tax policy. I have never understood why rank and file Republican voters do, when it is so profoundly against both their personal interests and against the national interest.

?otD: What?

Urban fantasy author J.A. Pitts is featured in the Seattle Times

Book Marketing 101: Getting Into the Right Shelf Category — Andrew Wheeler is educational.

New Yorker‘s unfinished cover contest

Calling America: Phone Zones as Alternate States — Interesting, and also impinging slightly on my Day Jobbe.

How Seawater Can Power the World — Mmm, fusion.

Argentus on the completion of the first Neptunian year since the planet’s discovery — (Via shsilver.)

Chemists discover freezing point of supercooled water — Vitrified water? What? Huh?

New for Aspiring Doctors, the People Skills Test — For the most part, the doctors on my multiple rounds of cancer care have been excellent in this regard.

The Science of Beauty — Weird. (Thanks to e_bourne.)

How did the hamsters even *get* jet lag? — The Bloggess on hamsters and Viagra. (Via AH.)

Hidden Beneficiaries of Federal Programs — A look at how people don’t recognize that they benefit from Federal programs, especially middle and upper class people. (And there’s an implicit issue of privilege in why food stamp receipients have to be closely supervised by program administrators but mortgage interest deduction recipients do not, but that’s a topic for another time.) The article ties this to class rather than political leanings, but I’d be shocked if this didn’t bias far to the Right. “Keep your government hands off my Medicare” indeed. Also, see this old post of mine on the topic of benefiting from government: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Moral leper Senator Orrin Hatch digs himself in deeper explaining his remarks about the poor taking their fair share — You, sir, confirm my every belief about the ethical untenability of conservative positions.

Bachmann Responds To Slavery Controversy With Another Slavery Analogy — Speaking of conservative ethical untenability.

Qualifications — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on Michele Bachmann’s absurdly thin political resume, with comparisons to Obama.

Is Sarah Palin sending mixed messages in her Newsweek article? — Isn’t she always?

Tea Party groups to target lawmakers on debt ceiling — Tea Party activists will be going after 21 Democrats — mostly moderate-to-conservative members in swing districts, organizers say. They also said they would go after Republicans but did not name them. Ah, yes, the politically independent Tea Party once again demonstrates how it is not part and parcel of the GOP machine.

?otD: If this Tuesday, this must be where?

A reader reacts to Green — Somewhat tepidly so, in a footnote to a different review.

Of Bestsellers, and Their Lists — Andrew Wheeler is grumpy.

Abandoned Tupolev Tu-22M “Backfire” bombers at Vozdvizhenka Air Base, Ussuriysk

De Nieuwe Batavia: Reduce — Abi Sutherland on consumer goods in space.

We have a wheelbarrow — Slacktivist Fred Clark on unemployment.

?otD: Ever bought pork belly futures?

The Sun Is the Best Optometrist — So that’s why I drive a ragtop… (Via David Goldman.)

Robot Hand Design — This is cool.

Star Found Shooting Water “Bullets” — Stellar sprinklers may help irrigate cosmos, study suggests. Huh? What?

A Feat of Engineering That Doubles as a Home — I’ve been on dates like that. (Thanks to Dad.)

Living the Good Lie — Therapists who help gay and lesbian clients stay in the closet. Hmm…

Shame Of America: Desperate Man Robs Store For One Dollar In Order To Go To Jail To Get Health Coverage — Best healthcare system in the world. Ask any Republican. (Via willyumtx.)

Two more pundits who don’t count — More on the irrational and counterfactual pundit obsession with politicians and personal pronouns. Seriously. Yes, these comments are made by adults with ready access to objective information that disprove their assertions.

Tory MEPs defy David Cameron over greenhouse gas targets — Though this seems to be based on an issue of economic policy (ie, something that liberal-progressives and conservatives can and probably should disagree over), it’s worth noting that conservatives in the UK are also anti-science loons. What is it with you guys and reality?

For Press, Secession No Longer Campaign “Roadblock” For Gov. Rick Perry — Ah, yes. Conservatives and their deep reverence for the Constitution.

?otD: Do you remember the summer of ’69?

Publishing — The Short Synopsis

mlerules on my hair styling session of yesterday

Adventures in health insurance — cathshaffer with a summary of her experiences amid the reality of independent health insurance.

A Trip Around the Moon: Yours for $150 Million — Space Adventures announces a tourist seat aboard a new moon mission. Damn it, I need to put out a tip jar or something.

Student discovers new virus in ancient cave mud — Adventurous 20-year-old Purdue University student was exploring an ancient glacial cave, untouched since the last ice age, when she made the discovery.

4.5 billion-year-old meteorite yields new mineral

A Prophet Who Dares Admit the Limits of Prophecy — Interesting snippet on pundits and punditry.

Hasidic newspaper edits Hillary out of Situation Room photo — A publication brushed both women present out of the iconic image. I really don’t understand how this isn’t both bigoted and flat stupid. Freedom of religion certainly includes the freedom to be flat wrong, but one of my biggest quarrels with faith is the editing of reality it seems to require from many believers.

Secret Pakistani Deal with US on Bin Laden

The Unwisdom of Elites — Paul Krugman on how we got into the current economic mess.

Falsehood? Or Mostly Accurate Prediction? — Republicans want to gut the medical safety net, and old people will die prematurely as a result. That’s not a nice thing to say in polite company, but it’s the truth. Yep. Compassionate conservatism for the win.

GOP finding it hard to make progress — Republicans struggle to appease the right and appeal to the center, resulting in fits and starts in the party’s agenda. Their retreat on Medicare is a prime example. Really? But pandering to the base while sending psychotically mixed messages to the center has always worked so well for them in the past. (Sadly, I am not being sarcastic.)

Tea Party Leader: We’ll Take The Debt Ceiling Hike If You Put Gay Troops Back In The Closet — As my friends on the Right keep assuring me, the Tea Party is about ordinary Americans concerned with small government and fiscal responsibility. No social backlash or bigotry here, no sirree bob. That’s why the Tea Party was so vocal during the Bush administration, when government intrusiveness ballooned and the deficit spiraled out of control. Under a white president. Oops. Was that my outside voice?

?otD: When’s the last time you had surgery?

The Skokie Public Library blog comments on Mainspring — They seem to like it.

Where bad writing advice comes from — robin_d_laws on aspiring writers and the opinions of others. (Via biomekanic.)

The usually interesting Freakonomics with a somewhat fatuous discussion of the Google Books Settlement — In which I fight the good fight in comments.

Beyond the Red Edge — Centauri Dreams on the atmospheric signatures of plant life.

The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science — How our brains fool us on climate, creationism, and the vaccine-autism link.

GOP official who sent Obama chimpanzee email: ‘I am not a racist’ — Also, in Conservativeland, water is not wet and the sun does not rise in the east.

Former Senator Alan Simpson on GOP homophobes and misogyny

?otD: Ever done a PET scan? Did you acquire superpowers as a result?

A reader reacts to Green — Definitely not with the liking of the book. My favorite bit: Green is a bog-standard fantasy with pretensions to be more. I have achieved mediocrity!

A Hungarian commentary on Trial of Flowers

A reader reacts to my collection Dogs In the Moonlight — Not so much with the liking of the book.

A reader reacts to my Sunspin short “A Long Walk Home”

A partial review of Love and Rockets — Including some commentary on my short story, “The Women Who Ate Stone Squid”, a pastiche of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joanna Russ. Because, yes, I could.

Non Sequitur on editors

Wind and Mr. Ug — Quite a sweet video with a mathematical inclination. (Via willyumtx.)

A Bracing Look at the Unseen Universe — Centauri Dreams on dark energy. Interesting read.

Alabama Governor Insults All Seven or So Non-Christian Alabamans — The snark, she burns us. (Thanks to lt260.)

Rush Limbaugh Rips Fox News Panel For ‘Slobbering’ Over Obama Speech, Panel Responds (VIDEO) — Limbaugh’s comments as quoted in this piece pretty much capture everything that’s so very wrong with conservative America. Personally, I don’t want to live in a society where having a smart, articulate, oratorical leader is a bad thing. C.f. Sarah Palin.

George Lucas Destroyed Modernity — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison compares Star Trek and Star Wars in discussing a rather odd thesis advanced by Michael Lind. Science fiction meets politics.

?otD: How cold does it have to be before you say ‘enough already’?

1/20/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (4,000 words on Calamity of So Long a Life, Sunspin book one)
Body movement: n/a (still too damned cold to walk from hotel to gym)
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (interrupted)
Weight: n/a (no scale here)
Currently reading: Dancing With Bears by Michael Swanwick