Saturday December 21, 2013 Mnstf at Scott and Irene Raun's. (And celebration of Scott's birthday.)
Average age of attendees was lower than usual, thanks to two of Irene's grandchildren.
On
hosts' bookshelves: Virginia Frankel, What Your House Tells About You
(1972.) The details are outdated, not to mention condescending
attitudes toward gays and lesbians; but worth reading. (The author was
an interior decorator -- a profession stereotypicaly attractive to gay
men, at least in the US.)
Which prompted me to confirm my guess that one attendee had grown up
in the country. (Clue: tendency to save things which Might Be Useful
Someday.)
Sunday December 22, 2013 Late Saturday night
thoughts: Assume government does everything badly. The logical way to
fight crime is to turn it over to the government. Statist incompetence
won't abolish crime; but will ensure that socialized murder (for
example) is almost always unsuccessful.
And a story attacked me.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Friday, December 27, 2013
Friday December 20, 2013 Shopped at Dollar Tree and Aldi.
Food distribution at Community Emergency Service, run by Augustana Lutheran Church. (Augustana meets in the CES building, and I believe donated it. I suspect it was originally an Episcopalian church; the stained glass windows were donated by the Epworth League.)
The male pastor invited me to the Sunday morning. (There's also a female pastor.) He knows I'm an agnostic.
I don't think Martin Luther welcomed agnostics. And I don't think he would've cared for the idea of female pastors.
***Technology investor Tim Draper tells Tech Crunch he will file a ballot initiative to split California into six separate states.
Said Draper: "It is about time California was properly represented with Senators in Washington. Now our number of Senators per person will be about average.
"Getting such a measure on California's wacky ballot will be no easy task. Attempts to get initiatives on the state ballot can cost millions of dollars, and often fail. That said, California has a long secessionist history, and there are a number of folks who want to split the West Coast into smaller territories."
However, Rick Hasen says it can't be done through a ballot initiative.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/12/20/six_californias.html
Pedantic note: California does not include the entire West Coast of the continental United States
***From Twitter:
Arjun Basu @arjunbasu We feel the loss. The wasting away of that which defines life. The evidence of our finality. Has it been three seconds yet? I ask, hopefully
Food distribution at Community Emergency Service, run by Augustana Lutheran Church. (Augustana meets in the CES building, and I believe donated it. I suspect it was originally an Episcopalian church; the stained glass windows were donated by the Epworth League.)
The male pastor invited me to the Sunday morning. (There's also a female pastor.) He knows I'm an agnostic.
I don't think Martin Luther welcomed agnostics. And I don't think he would've cared for the idea of female pastors.
***Technology investor Tim Draper tells Tech Crunch he will file a ballot initiative to split California into six separate states.
Said Draper: "It is about time California was properly represented with Senators in Washington. Now our number of Senators per person will be about average.
"Getting such a measure on California's wacky ballot will be no easy task. Attempts to get initiatives on the state ballot can cost millions of dollars, and often fail. That said, California has a long secessionist history, and there are a number of folks who want to split the West Coast into smaller territories."
However, Rick Hasen says it can't be done through a ballot initiative.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/12/20/six_californias.html
Pedantic note: California does not include the entire West Coast of the continental United States
***From Twitter:
Arjun Basu @arjunbasu We feel the loss. The wasting away of that which defines life. The evidence of our finality. Has it been three seconds yet? I ask, hopefully
Friday, December 20, 2013
Tuesday December 17, 2013 "...author of self-published bestseller WOOL Hugh Howey has written a story set in the world of Kurt Vonnegut for Amazon's Kindle Worlds fan fiction platform. Peace In Amber, inspired by the story of Billy Pilgrim and the Tralfamadorians in Slaughterhouse-Five, will be released on January 14. (And, in turn, Howey has licensed his own trilogy to Kindle Worlds for others to write.)"
From Publishers Lunch <lunch@publisherslunchdaily.com>
***Comments of comment:
Dermot Dobson 12/16: "In similar vein, BBC 3 part documentary 'The Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England' is very interesting, and can provide much guidance for time traveller SF. You could, for instance, be accused of treason for not eating fish frequently enough (fishing fleet needed support to provide a pool of sailors for the navy). The series (on YouTube, I see) is based on a book: http://www.timetravellersguides.com/.../elizabethan.html
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
www.timetravellersguides.com
We think of Queen Elizabeth I's reign as a golden age. But what was it actually like to live in Elizabethan England? If you could travel to the past and walk the streets of London in the 1590s, where would you stay? What would you eat? What would you wear? Would you really have a sense of it being a..."
Thanks. Looks like a useful website and a useful book.
fjm 12/17: "I used to get very confused re the name of one of the Walton girls. For years I thought it was Aaron."
spiralflames 12/16-12/17: "i just hate lack of research. reading a novel that jumps back to the 12th century. she has her character say she'd like to 'waltz right by...'
"waltz. invented in the late 1700s...sigh..."
***From Twitter:
NSA Public Relations @NSA_PR We are officially no longer collecting metadata. Instead, we are immortalizing fleeting moments in our global scrapbook project.
Retweeted by Steve Silberman
From Publishers Lunch <lunch@publisherslunchdaily.com>
***Comments of comment:
Dermot Dobson 12/16: "In similar vein, BBC 3 part documentary 'The Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England' is very interesting, and can provide much guidance for time traveller SF. You could, for instance, be accused of treason for not eating fish frequently enough (fishing fleet needed support to provide a pool of sailors for the navy). The series (on YouTube, I see) is based on a book: http://www.timetravellersguides.com/.../elizabethan.html
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
www.timetravellersguides.com
We think of Queen Elizabeth I's reign as a golden age. But what was it actually like to live in Elizabethan England? If you could travel to the past and walk the streets of London in the 1590s, where would you stay? What would you eat? What would you wear? Would you really have a sense of it being a..."
Thanks. Looks like a useful website and a useful book.
fjm 12/17: "I used to get very confused re the name of one of the Walton girls. For years I thought it was Aaron."
spiralflames 12/16-12/17: "i just hate lack of research. reading a novel that jumps back to the 12th century. she has her character say she'd like to 'waltz right by...'
"waltz. invented in the late 1700s...sigh..."
***From Twitter:
NSA Public Relations @NSA_PR We are officially no longer collecting metadata. Instead, we are immortalizing fleeting moments in our global scrapbook project.
Retweeted by Steve Silberman
Monday December 16, 2013 I decided to see if there are preteen romance novels. The category exists, and contains many books.
***Comments of comment:
Lee Gold, 12/16: "'Your Character Wouldn't Say That' Back when I took Linguistics (grad school, English), we learned the International Phonetic Alphabet and tried to use it to write down sounds.
"And one of the girls in my class of thirty or so students didn't hear a difference between 'cot' and 'caught.'"
Only one?
***From Twitter:
Serendipity -- two consecutive tweets: 1) Gary Farber @GaryFarberKnows "Dinosaur erotica was something new that I’d never tried before." Q&A: The Women Who Write Dinosaur Erotica http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/10/qa-the-women-who-write-dinosaur-erotica.html …
2) Ed Yong @edyong209 Ruh-roh RT @JohnRHutchinson: Myhrvold: dinosaur growth rates have been badly mis-estimated, if his stats are right: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0081917 …
Helen O'Hara @HelenLOHara Had a confusingly contradictory moment earlier when I ordered a Virgin Pornstar martini. #TeetotalLife
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
Jim Galloway @politicalinsidr Prosecutor sez Don Balfour had BA, MA in accounting, and held CPA certificate. Defense: "D.B. hated accounting. He wasn't very good at it."
Zennie Abraham @zennie62 Nudity Activist Announces Plans For Naked Wedding At SF City Hall – CBS Local http://ift.tt/J0Ap58
Arjun Basu @arjunbasu 14 Dec He looks up from his phone clearly annoyed. Are you talking to me? he asks. Forget it, Happiness says, and walks away and plays with a child
Wall Street Journal @WSJ Want to get stock tips from tweets? A look at the tools investors use: http://on.wsj.com/1heaLX4 $TWTR
Susan Cosmos @SusanCosmos Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose & imaginative vision against the play-it-safers!
***Comments of comment:
Lee Gold, 12/16: "'Your Character Wouldn't Say That' Back when I took Linguistics (grad school, English), we learned the International Phonetic Alphabet and tried to use it to write down sounds.
"And one of the girls in my class of thirty or so students didn't hear a difference between 'cot' and 'caught.'"
Only one?
***From Twitter:
Serendipity -- two consecutive tweets: 1) Gary Farber @GaryFarberKnows "Dinosaur erotica was something new that I’d never tried before." Q&A: The Women Who Write Dinosaur Erotica http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/10/qa-the-women-who-write-dinosaur-erotica.html …
2) Ed Yong @edyong209 Ruh-roh RT @JohnRHutchinson: Myhrvold: dinosaur growth rates have been badly mis-estimated, if his stats are right: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0081917 …
Helen O'Hara @HelenLOHara Had a confusingly contradictory moment earlier when I ordered a Virgin Pornstar martini. #TeetotalLife
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
Jim Galloway @politicalinsidr Prosecutor sez Don Balfour had BA, MA in accounting, and held CPA certificate. Defense: "D.B. hated accounting. He wasn't very good at it."
Zennie Abraham @zennie62 Nudity Activist Announces Plans For Naked Wedding At SF City Hall – CBS Local http://ift.tt/J0Ap58
Arjun Basu @arjunbasu 14 Dec He looks up from his phone clearly annoyed. Are you talking to me? he asks. Forget it, Happiness says, and walks away and plays with a child
Wall Street Journal @WSJ Want to get stock tips from tweets? A look at the tools investors use: http://on.wsj.com/1heaLX4 $TWTR
Susan Cosmos @SusanCosmos Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose & imaginative vision against the play-it-safers!
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Friday December 13, 2013 "What's this tickertape thing? Doesn't everybody see spoken words printed out in front of them?"
I keep learning that people often don't know either how differently their minds work from everyone else's, or how similarly they work.
***From Twitter:
trendwatching.com @trendwatching 11 of the world's 20 fastest-growing countries are in sub-Saharan Africa http://buff.ly/1dpkK9u #2014trends #FABA
***From file770.com:
(1) Now we know – The Green Slime is really black. And it’s living inside the Chernobyl reactor!
Like out of some B-grade sci fi movie, a robot sent into the [Chernobyl] reactor discovered a thick coat of black slime growing on the walls. Since it is highly radioactive in there, scientists didn’t expect to find anything living, let alone thriving. The robot was instructed to obtain samples of the slime, which it did, and upon examination…the slime was even more amazing than was thought at first glance.
This slime, a collection of several fungi actually, was more than just surviving in a radioactive environment, it was actually using gamma radiation as a food source. Samples of these fungi grew significantly faster when exposed to gamma radiation at 500 times the normal background radiation level. The fungi appear to use melanin, a chemical found in human skin as well, in the same fashion as plants use chlorophyll. That is to say, the melanin molecule gets struck by a gamma ray and its chemistry is altered. This is an amazing discovery, no one had even suspected that something like this was possible.
I keep learning that people often don't know either how differently their minds work from everyone else's, or how similarly they work.
***From Twitter:
trendwatching.com @trendwatching 11 of the world's 20 fastest-growing countries are in sub-Saharan Africa http://buff.ly/1dpkK9u #2014trends #FABA
***From file770.com:
(1) Now we know – The Green Slime is really black. And it’s living inside the Chernobyl reactor!
Like out of some B-grade sci fi movie, a robot sent into the [Chernobyl] reactor discovered a thick coat of black slime growing on the walls. Since it is highly radioactive in there, scientists didn’t expect to find anything living, let alone thriving. The robot was instructed to obtain samples of the slime, which it did, and upon examination…the slime was even more amazing than was thought at first glance.
This slime, a collection of several fungi actually, was more than just surviving in a radioactive environment, it was actually using gamma radiation as a food source. Samples of these fungi grew significantly faster when exposed to gamma radiation at 500 times the normal background radiation level. The fungi appear to use melanin, a chemical found in human skin as well, in the same fashion as plants use chlorophyll. That is to say, the melanin molecule gets struck by a gamma ray and its chemistry is altered. This is an amazing discovery, no one had even suspected that something like this was possible.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Your Character Wouldn't Say That
It's snowing for Christmas in cities all over the world, including Honolulu. At an expert conference, the viewpoint character says "It never snows in Hawaii."
I stopped reading.
An expert would know that it snows in Hawaii. At rather high elevations, not every winter, and not enough for safe skiing; but it does snow in Hawaii.
It is barely, barely possible an expert talking down to laymen would say that. But not when talking to fellow experts.
The story is Connie Willis's "Just Like The Ones We Used to Know." I still read sf and fantasy by her -- but I don't count on her to get her facts right. And if it's a kind of story which depends on factual accuracy (for example, set in the past), I don't read it.
How do you get expert speech right? Run it past that kind of expert.
Now: let's say you have reason to consider yourself well informed about politics. You're a well-read conservative or a well-read liberal. Your character is of the opposite persuasion; but you know exactly how Those People talk and write.
No. You don't. Unless you're a professional linguist and this is your area of research.
If you aren't, consult people of that political persuasion. That EXACT political persuasion, of course.
Or you're writing a character who grew up where and when I did. You know me, and you've listened to me enough to know how such a character would talk.
Bad news -- there may be sounds you don't hear.
Some Americans and Canadians pronounce "Aaron" and "Erin" identically, and find it difficult to hear the difference when I say these names. Most Americans pronounce "horse" and "hoarse" identically; I don't.
If you're English, and you speak Received Pronunciation or a London-area dialect, you're likely to have trouble hearing when Americans do or don't pronounce r-sounds at the ends of syllables. (That's real, genuine R's; not the sound Ian Fleming meant when he said Americans pronounced his name "Iarn.")
And: there are people who clearly remember me saying I grew up in a small town. No. I grew up in the country. There are places where "It's the same thing, isn't it?" -- but Ulster County NY isn't one of them. (Or wasn't.)
The good news: Dialecticians and theatrical coaches have produced written and audio material on dialects.
But it's still a good idea to have at least one native speaker look over what you've written.
But what if you story is set in the future? I know of one useful reference work: Allan Metcalf, Predicting New Words: The Secret of Their Success; Houghton Mifflin, 2002; ISBN 0-618-13006-3.
It's snowing for Christmas in cities all over the world, including Honolulu. At an expert conference, the viewpoint character says "It never snows in Hawaii."
I stopped reading.
An expert would know that it snows in Hawaii. At rather high elevations, not every winter, and not enough for safe skiing; but it does snow in Hawaii.
It is barely, barely possible an expert talking down to laymen would say that. But not when talking to fellow experts.
The story is Connie Willis's "Just Like The Ones We Used to Know." I still read sf and fantasy by her -- but I don't count on her to get her facts right. And if it's a kind of story which depends on factual accuracy (for example, set in the past), I don't read it.
How do you get expert speech right? Run it past that kind of expert.
Now: let's say you have reason to consider yourself well informed about politics. You're a well-read conservative or a well-read liberal. Your character is of the opposite persuasion; but you know exactly how Those People talk and write.
No. You don't. Unless you're a professional linguist and this is your area of research.
If you aren't, consult people of that political persuasion. That EXACT political persuasion, of course.
Or you're writing a character who grew up where and when I did. You know me, and you've listened to me enough to know how such a character would talk.
Bad news -- there may be sounds you don't hear.
Some Americans and Canadians pronounce "Aaron" and "Erin" identically, and find it difficult to hear the difference when I say these names. Most Americans pronounce "horse" and "hoarse" identically; I don't.
If you're English, and you speak Received Pronunciation or a London-area dialect, you're likely to have trouble hearing when Americans do or don't pronounce r-sounds at the ends of syllables. (That's real, genuine R's; not the sound Ian Fleming meant when he said Americans pronounced his name "Iarn.")
And: there are people who clearly remember me saying I grew up in a small town. No. I grew up in the country. There are places where "It's the same thing, isn't it?" -- but Ulster County NY isn't one of them. (Or wasn't.)
The good news: Dialecticians and theatrical coaches have produced written and audio material on dialects.
But it's still a good idea to have at least one native speaker look over what you've written.
But what if you story is set in the future? I know of one useful reference work: Allan Metcalf, Predicting New Words: The Secret of Their Success; Houghton Mifflin, 2002; ISBN 0-618-13006-3.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Tuesday December 10, 2013 General Mills was dumping nasty stuff in my neighborhood for several decades. Minneapolis city government found out about it in 1981. Now, a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Southeast Como property owners, to get General Mills to clean the stuff up.
This evening, there was a meeting at Van Cleve Park with the lawyers handling the suit.
The stuff is called TCE. It gets into water; it also vaporizes and gets into indoor air. It's known to cause medical problems, and suspected of causing others.
Repeat: the city government learned of the problem in 1981.
***"Paul Walsh of the Strib says: 'A Twin Cities gymnastics coach has been put on leave after a Cottage Grove father accused him of tattooing his 15-year-old daughter without her parents’ knowledge. Along with being put on leave as the girls gymnastics coach at Park of Cottage Grove, Terry Hardy, 37, of Hastings, has been fired as coordinator of gymnastics for the South Washington County School District’s community education program. He is not a teacher in the district.… Rasmussen, who is not a gymnast, showed KMSP-TV, Channel 9, her tattoos and told the station that Hardy tattooed a cross on the back of her neck, the word "strength" on her wrist and her favorite song lyrics across one shoulder. She also told the station that Hardy pierced her tongue, but she removed the stud.' So it was kind of a religious thing …?"
minnpost.com
***Comments of comment
venacava, 12/09: "I have that flavour of synesthesia (and a couple others). What a headache. Good for writing fiction though."
I didn't realize I had any kind of synesthesia till I was 17. Didn't notice most of my synesthesias till I started taking meds for ADHD.
***From Twitter:
CynInHerts @CynInHerts There was once a US politician called Azariah Cutting Flagg.
Retweeted by Lynne Murphy
Charles M. Blow @CharlesMBlow Ann Coulter tweets: "When asked why he shook a dictator’s hand, Raul Castro said it seemed like the polite thing to do.” I can't. I give up.
This evening, there was a meeting at Van Cleve Park with the lawyers handling the suit.
The stuff is called TCE. It gets into water; it also vaporizes and gets into indoor air. It's known to cause medical problems, and suspected of causing others.
Repeat: the city government learned of the problem in 1981.
***"Paul Walsh of the Strib says: 'A Twin Cities gymnastics coach has been put on leave after a Cottage Grove father accused him of tattooing his 15-year-old daughter without her parents’ knowledge. Along with being put on leave as the girls gymnastics coach at Park of Cottage Grove, Terry Hardy, 37, of Hastings, has been fired as coordinator of gymnastics for the South Washington County School District’s community education program. He is not a teacher in the district.… Rasmussen, who is not a gymnast, showed KMSP-TV, Channel 9, her tattoos and told the station that Hardy tattooed a cross on the back of her neck, the word "strength" on her wrist and her favorite song lyrics across one shoulder. She also told the station that Hardy pierced her tongue, but she removed the stud.' So it was kind of a religious thing …?"
minnpost.com
***Comments of comment
venacava, 12/09: "I have that flavour of synesthesia (and a couple others). What a headache. Good for writing fiction though."
I didn't realize I had any kind of synesthesia till I was 17. Didn't notice most of my synesthesias till I started taking meds for ADHD.
***From Twitter:
CynInHerts @CynInHerts There was once a US politician called Azariah Cutting Flagg.
Retweeted by Lynne Murphy
Charles M. Blow @CharlesMBlow Ann Coulter tweets: "When asked why he shook a dictator’s hand, Raul Castro said it seemed like the polite thing to do.” I can't. I give up.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Saturday December 7, 2013 Pearl Harbor Day
Comments of comment: Ed Meskys 12/06: Thanks. A good view of what SF is really about. I am also a Gilbert & Sullivan fan, and their parodies are of their current stuation, whether it be set in Japan (MIKADO) or the middle ages (PRINCESS IDA). So many stf writers see a future like ours. How many stories had an interstellar civilization continuing to fight a Soviet empire!
***From Twitter:
Jonathan Martin @jmartNYT Vintage @newtgingrich, pushing back w a history lesson at conservs who knocked him for praising Mandela > http://www.gingrichproductions.com/2013/12/what-would-you-have-done-nelson-mandela-and-american-conservatives/ …
Marcus Chown @marcuschown Retweet if you think the NHS would be safer run by this baby owl in a knitted hat than by David Cameron pic.twitter.com/3xCWyvTiHy
Retweeted by Moonbootica
Al Jazeera America @ajam Judge says Denver bakery must sell wedding cakes to gay couples http://alj.am/1hF24YF
Comments of comment: Ed Meskys 12/06: Thanks. A good view of what SF is really about. I am also a Gilbert & Sullivan fan, and their parodies are of their current stuation, whether it be set in Japan (MIKADO) or the middle ages (PRINCESS IDA). So many stf writers see a future like ours. How many stories had an interstellar civilization continuing to fight a Soviet empire!
***From Twitter:
Jonathan Martin @jmartNYT Vintage @newtgingrich, pushing back w a history lesson at conservs who knocked him for praising Mandela > http://www.gingrichproductions.com/2013/12/what-would-you-have-done-nelson-mandela-and-american-conservatives/ …
Marcus Chown @marcuschown Retweet if you think the NHS would be safer run by this baby owl in a knitted hat than by David Cameron pic.twitter.com/3xCWyvTiHy
Retweeted by Moonbootica
Al Jazeera America @ajam Judge says Denver bakery must sell wedding cakes to gay couples http://alj.am/1hF24YF
Monday, December 9, 2013
Sunday December 8, 2013. A telepath is investigating the mind of someone with very strong synesthesia (synaesthesia.) From John Brunner, The Whole Man:
"...Howson found himself on the top of a dizzying slide, lost his grip, and went headlong, skidding and slipping into a vast uncharted jungle of interlocked sensory experiences.
"...Howson had experience of minds with limited audio-vision -- those of people to whom musical sounds called up associated colors or pictures -- but compared to what went on in Rudi's mind that was puerile.
"...Images presented themselves: a voice/velvet/a kitten's claws scratching/purple/ripe fruit -- a ship's siren/fog/steel/yellowish-gray/cold/insecurity/sense of loss and emptiness -- a common chord of C major struck on a piano/childhood/wood/black and white overlaid with bright gold/hate/something burning/tightness about the forehead/shame/stiffness in the wrists/liquidity/roundness..."
Rudi Allef has been unable to convey his artistic visions to an audience, frustrating him to the point of trying to kill himself. Later on, with the help of Gerry Howson, another telepath, and another artist, he becomes able to do so.
My synesthesia is nowhere near this strong. However, I do want to communicate aspects of it to an audience. And so far I haven't been able to.
I'm not remotely frustrated enough to consider suicide; a good thing, since I don't know any helpful telepaths.
My preferred medium is printed words (or the electronic equivalent.)
"...Howson found himself on the top of a dizzying slide, lost his grip, and went headlong, skidding and slipping into a vast uncharted jungle of interlocked sensory experiences.
"...Howson had experience of minds with limited audio-vision -- those of people to whom musical sounds called up associated colors or pictures -- but compared to what went on in Rudi's mind that was puerile.
"...Images presented themselves: a voice/velvet/a kitten's claws scratching/purple/ripe fruit -- a ship's siren/fog/steel/yellowish-gray/cold/insecurity/sense of loss and emptiness -- a common chord of C major struck on a piano/childhood/wood/black and white overlaid with bright gold/hate/something burning/tightness about the forehead/shame/stiffness in the wrists/liquidity/roundness..."
Rudi Allef has been unable to convey his artistic visions to an audience, frustrating him to the point of trying to kill himself. Later on, with the help of Gerry Howson, another telepath, and another artist, he becomes able to do so.
My synesthesia is nowhere near this strong. However, I do want to communicate aspects of it to an audience. And so far I haven't been able to.
I'm not remotely frustrated enough to consider suicide; a good thing, since I don't know any helpful telepaths.
My preferred medium is printed words (or the electronic equivalent.)
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Thursday December 5, 2013 Cold!
Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***From Twitter:
Hari Kunzru @harikunzru
I remember the 'Hang #Mandela' young Conservative crowd at Oxford in 89. Now in govt. I know some have genuinely changed their minds 1/2
Retweeted by William Gibson
Hari Kunzru @harikunzru
2/2 but I've never heard anyone say they're ashamed of being part of that. Tonight they're all on social media writing #Mandela homilies.
Retweeted by William Gibson
***Comments of comment:
don_fitch (don_fitch) 11/30: "'On the Net, someone asked: Given an Earthlike, mostly-rural colony
planet, what weapon would be used to hunt wild turkeys?
"'My response: Depends muchly on the level of technology.
"'And a warning against use of atomic grenades, which wouldn't leave the meat in condition to be cooked and eaten.'
"Ummm... yes, hunting turkey would probably depend largely on the level of technology... unless there were a Ritual element involved. Using net traps might well be considered best -- I remember all too well the 'watch out for the bird-shot' admonition regarding the turkey, duck, and pheasant at Thanksgiving Dinner up at Aunt Peggy & Uncle George's farm near Adrian, Michigan, in the '30s & '40s. Fortunately, it was a baby-tooth I cracked, but even so.... Mind you, the Domesticated Turkeys we have nowadays are a world away from the wild ones of my childhood, and I miss the duck, goose, pheasant, and venison. Hey, for that, you need A Big Family Gathering -- I settled, this year, for a package of turkey necks for stock, and a pair of thighs for meat."
Lady Sheherazahde Lachesis (sheherazahde) 12/03
"I love reading old futurist Sci-fi, it says so much about the culture it comes from. I have a very old copy of Bellamy's 'Looking Backward 2000-1887' and a matching copy of a story called 'Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999' by Arthur Bird. They are two very different visions. I also have Mack Reynolds retelling of 'Looking Backward'.
"But even 'Erehwon' is an interesting exercise in social [commentary].
"Science fiction may take place in the future but but one is a fool to think it is about the future."
Some of it is intended to be.
The writer might be certain about what the future is going to be like. (I don't recall any story in this category which got the future right.)
Like historical novels intended to be about the pasts in which they're set, fiction in this category which is mostly present-oriented is at least a partial failure.
Or might intend to speculate on what might happen. Murray Leinster's 1946 story "A Logic Named Joe" is the most successful I can think of in this category. Leinster got the Internet a whole lot closer to right than anyone managed in the 1980s. (And closer than most in the 1990s.)
Some sf authors write about the way things have always been, and always will be. Oddly enough, their futures become outdated as quickly as anyone else's.
And some intend to write about the present.
But often, fiction set in the future is about the past rather than either future or present. This might be inadvertent: the author hasn't noticed changes which have already happened. The rock you listened to in the 1970s isn't the dominant popular music of the future -- or even the present! Italians aren't the latest immigrant group in New York City! California politics has changed in the last few decades!
Sometimes it's deliberate. Spaceships will not only be run like sailing ships; they will have sails.
Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***From Twitter:
Hari Kunzru @harikunzru
I remember the 'Hang #Mandela' young Conservative crowd at Oxford in 89. Now in govt. I know some have genuinely changed their minds 1/2
Retweeted by William Gibson
Hari Kunzru @harikunzru
2/2 but I've never heard anyone say they're ashamed of being part of that. Tonight they're all on social media writing #Mandela homilies.
Retweeted by William Gibson
***Comments of comment:
don_fitch (don_fitch) 11/30: "'On the Net, someone asked: Given an Earthlike, mostly-rural colony
planet, what weapon would be used to hunt wild turkeys?
"'My response: Depends muchly on the level of technology.
"'And a warning against use of atomic grenades, which wouldn't leave the meat in condition to be cooked and eaten.'
"Ummm... yes, hunting turkey would probably depend largely on the level of technology... unless there were a Ritual element involved. Using net traps might well be considered best -- I remember all too well the 'watch out for the bird-shot' admonition regarding the turkey, duck, and pheasant at Thanksgiving Dinner up at Aunt Peggy & Uncle George's farm near Adrian, Michigan, in the '30s & '40s. Fortunately, it was a baby-tooth I cracked, but even so.... Mind you, the Domesticated Turkeys we have nowadays are a world away from the wild ones of my childhood, and I miss the duck, goose, pheasant, and venison. Hey, for that, you need A Big Family Gathering -- I settled, this year, for a package of turkey necks for stock, and a pair of thighs for meat."
Lady Sheherazahde Lachesis (sheherazahde) 12/03
"I love reading old futurist Sci-fi, it says so much about the culture it comes from. I have a very old copy of Bellamy's 'Looking Backward 2000-1887' and a matching copy of a story called 'Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999' by Arthur Bird. They are two very different visions. I also have Mack Reynolds retelling of 'Looking Backward'.
"But even 'Erehwon' is an interesting exercise in social [commentary].
"Science fiction may take place in the future but but one is a fool to think it is about the future."
Some of it is intended to be.
The writer might be certain about what the future is going to be like. (I don't recall any story in this category which got the future right.)
Like historical novels intended to be about the pasts in which they're set, fiction in this category which is mostly present-oriented is at least a partial failure.
Or might intend to speculate on what might happen. Murray Leinster's 1946 story "A Logic Named Joe" is the most successful I can think of in this category. Leinster got the Internet a whole lot closer to right than anyone managed in the 1980s. (And closer than most in the 1990s.)
Some sf authors write about the way things have always been, and always will be. Oddly enough, their futures become outdated as quickly as anyone else's.
And some intend to write about the present.
But often, fiction set in the future is about the past rather than either future or present. This might be inadvertent: the author hasn't noticed changes which have already happened. The rock you listened to in the 1970s isn't the dominant popular music of the future -- or even the present! Italians aren't the latest immigrant group in New York City! California politics has changed in the last few decades!
Sometimes it's deliberate. Spaceships will not only be run like sailing ships; they will have sails.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Wednesday November 27, 2013 Thanksgiving Eve
On the Net, someone asked: Given an Earthlike, mostly-rural colony planet, what weapon would be used to hunt wild turkeys?
My response: Depends muchly on the level of technology.
And a warning against use of atomic grenades, which wouldn't leave the meat in condition to be cooked and eaten.
***Comments on "Wrong Futures: James Blish, 'Beep'"
Andre Guirard, 11/26: "Of course, for most people the point of science fiction isn't prediction -- it's story."
Dan Goodman @Andre Guirard, 11/27: Probably true. However, some people like accuracy; and if an sf writer makes inaccurate guesses about the future, that part of the readership can become annoyed -- years, decades, centuries, or millenia before the time in which the story is set.
I remember seeing new "USSR invades America" novels in bookstores for a while after the fall of the Soviet Union. I suspect their reprint value is relatively low.
Jordan 179 11/27: "You're assuming that the current Third World countries will _retain_ their independence. I would not take this for granted, given the high number of failed Third World states and the increasing danger this poses the Great Powers due to improved international communications. I will grant that the _Netherlands_ re-colonizing Indonesia is unlikely for various reasons, but I could easily see Indonesia winding up under the domination of Australia, or China."
I don't think Indonesia is among the most likely to be re-colonized. But one never knows.
"The popularity of smoking has historically waxed and waned. (If you don't believe me, note the original 17th century reaction to the first tobacco-smoking)"
Slight correction -- first outside the Americas.
As happens with various other drugs. Moral panic cycles: A behavior is considered something to joke about and otherwise taken lightly at certain points in the cycle. Then it becomes regarded as A Major Menace.
Apparently, cocaine and heroin have reciprocal cycles. Sometimes cocaine is seen as a relatively safe drug; and there are experts saying it's not really addictive, etc. Not like that horrible drug heroin. Then cocaine becomes The Big Menace -- and at least some druggies turn to nice, safe heroin.
Harry Turtledove's story "The King of All" is set in an alternate world where caffeine is the Big Bad Drug.
"The medical issue might be trivial by the end of the 21st century ('Oh darn, I have lung cancer. Gotta go down to the doctor for a shot to clear that up!').
"I agree with you on the unlikelihood of an extensive interstellar empire by the end of the 21st century. Too many critical energy and social thresholds to cross. In fact this prediction is unlikely even from a c. 1950 point of view.
"I certainly _hope_ that women continue to enjoy the equality with men that they do in the modern Western world, but there are already strong counter-trends, most notably from the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. As to whether or not _America_ still dominates the world of the late 21st century, that's up for grabs. Depending what happens over the ensuing decades, our global leadership might be greater, less or about the same as it is today. America is certainly the country most likely to become the Universal State of the West -- our main rival in that regard would currently be China.
"I don't think 'dumb-paper' newspapers will be that important centuries from now, but people may still want print-outs or other highly-portable displays on surfaces larger than pocket-sized. Though I suspect the information will be projected directly into their retinas, or even brains.
"We're all very lucky that the Soviet Union collapsed without a full-scale World War. It very pleasantly surprised _me_, when it happened. I think it surprised a _lot_ of people."
On the Net, someone asked: Given an Earthlike, mostly-rural colony planet, what weapon would be used to hunt wild turkeys?
My response: Depends muchly on the level of technology.
And a warning against use of atomic grenades, which wouldn't leave the meat in condition to be cooked and eaten.
***Comments on "Wrong Futures: James Blish, 'Beep'"
Andre Guirard, 11/26: "Of course, for most people the point of science fiction isn't prediction -- it's story."
Dan Goodman @Andre Guirard, 11/27: Probably true. However, some people like accuracy; and if an sf writer makes inaccurate guesses about the future, that part of the readership can become annoyed -- years, decades, centuries, or millenia before the time in which the story is set.
I remember seeing new "USSR invades America" novels in bookstores for a while after the fall of the Soviet Union. I suspect their reprint value is relatively low.
Jordan 179 11/27: "You're assuming that the current Third World countries will _retain_ their independence. I would not take this for granted, given the high number of failed Third World states and the increasing danger this poses the Great Powers due to improved international communications. I will grant that the _Netherlands_ re-colonizing Indonesia is unlikely for various reasons, but I could easily see Indonesia winding up under the domination of Australia, or China."
I don't think Indonesia is among the most likely to be re-colonized. But one never knows.
"The popularity of smoking has historically waxed and waned. (If you don't believe me, note the original 17th century reaction to the first tobacco-smoking)"
Slight correction -- first outside the Americas.
As happens with various other drugs. Moral panic cycles: A behavior is considered something to joke about and otherwise taken lightly at certain points in the cycle. Then it becomes regarded as A Major Menace.
Apparently, cocaine and heroin have reciprocal cycles. Sometimes cocaine is seen as a relatively safe drug; and there are experts saying it's not really addictive, etc. Not like that horrible drug heroin. Then cocaine becomes The Big Menace -- and at least some druggies turn to nice, safe heroin.
Harry Turtledove's story "The King of All" is set in an alternate world where caffeine is the Big Bad Drug.
"The medical issue might be trivial by the end of the 21st century ('Oh darn, I have lung cancer. Gotta go down to the doctor for a shot to clear that up!').
"I agree with you on the unlikelihood of an extensive interstellar empire by the end of the 21st century. Too many critical energy and social thresholds to cross. In fact this prediction is unlikely even from a c. 1950 point of view.
"I certainly _hope_ that women continue to enjoy the equality with men that they do in the modern Western world, but there are already strong counter-trends, most notably from the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. As to whether or not _America_ still dominates the world of the late 21st century, that's up for grabs. Depending what happens over the ensuing decades, our global leadership might be greater, less or about the same as it is today. America is certainly the country most likely to become the Universal State of the West -- our main rival in that regard would currently be China.
"I don't think 'dumb-paper' newspapers will be that important centuries from now, but people may still want print-outs or other highly-portable displays on surfaces larger than pocket-sized. Though I suspect the information will be projected directly into their retinas, or even brains.
"We're all very lucky that the Soviet Union collapsed without a full-scale World War. It very pleasantly surprised _me_, when it happened. I think it surprised a _lot_ of people."
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Wrong Futures: James Blish, "Beep"
About the future of science fiction, I can make one surefire prediction. Writers will make wrong predictions. And the kinds of mistakes they'll make can be predicted by reading old sf stories.
James Blish's short story "Beep" was published in 1954. It begins centuries in the future, jumps back to 2089 or 2090, then returns to the far future.
Here is the late 21st century heroine: "Dana Lje -- her father had been a Hollander, her mother born in the Celebes...The conqueror Resident who had given the girl her entirely European name had been paid in kind, for his daughter's beauty had nothing fair and Dutch about it."
The Netherlands acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. Dutch colonial officials were probably scarce for a while before that. In the last years of the 21st century, Dana is a bit old to be called a girl.
1949 was before 1954. The author missed social and political changes which had already happened.
Dana smokes incessantly, in other people's offices. Today's smoking restrictions weren't in place; but by 1954 there were medical studies which showed smoking caused lung cancer. Tighter rules on smoking could have easily been foreseen.
Technology, Blish overestimated and underestimated.
Overestimation: An extensive interstellar empire by the end of our century is unlikely. In the implausible future we inhabit, even Mars hasn't been settled yet.
By the way, Earth and its empire are run almost entirely by American men. The only female government employee shown is a secretary.
Underestimation: When the viewpoint character of several hundred years later is introduced, he's hiding behind a newspaper. A printed newspaper.
Print newspapers have gotten thinner, and include pointers to material only available on the Web. I do not expect them to be common centuries from now.
"Jo hailed a hopper." The hopper is apparently a flying taxi. Its driver -- male, of course -- is a hoppy.
Self-driving cars are becoming practical now. I expect human-piloted cabs to be very scarce in the far future.
Would readers have found anything implausible about this future? Perhaps the absence of the Red Menace. It was obvious to the meanest intelligence that the Soviet Union would still be strong at the end of the 21st century.
James Blish's short story "Beep" was published in 1954. It begins centuries in the future, jumps back to 2089 or 2090, then returns to the far future.
Here is the late 21st century heroine: "Dana Lje -- her father had been a Hollander, her mother born in the Celebes...The conqueror Resident who had given the girl her entirely European name had been paid in kind, for his daughter's beauty had nothing fair and Dutch about it."
The Netherlands acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. Dutch colonial officials were probably scarce for a while before that. In the last years of the 21st century, Dana is a bit old to be called a girl.
1949 was before 1954. The author missed social and political changes which had already happened.
Dana smokes incessantly, in other people's offices. Today's smoking restrictions weren't in place; but by 1954 there were medical studies which showed smoking caused lung cancer. Tighter rules on smoking could have easily been foreseen.
Technology, Blish overestimated and underestimated.
Overestimation: An extensive interstellar empire by the end of our century is unlikely. In the implausible future we inhabit, even Mars hasn't been settled yet.
By the way, Earth and its empire are run almost entirely by American men. The only female government employee shown is a secretary.
Underestimation: When the viewpoint character of several hundred years later is introduced, he's hiding behind a newspaper. A printed newspaper.
Print newspapers have gotten thinner, and include pointers to material only available on the Web. I do not expect them to be common centuries from now.
"Jo hailed a hopper." The hopper is apparently a flying taxi. Its driver -- male, of course -- is a hoppy.
Self-driving cars are becoming practical now. I expect human-piloted cabs to be very scarce in the far future.
Would readers have found anything implausible about this future? Perhaps the absence of the Red Menace. It was obvious to the meanest intelligence that the Soviet Union would still be strong at the end of the 21st century.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday November 13, 2013 Minnesota Daily story on the Hawaii legislature passing a bill legalizing same-sex marriage: "Sen. Sam Slon...said the government should stay out of legislating marriage.
"'People have differences, and you can't legislate morality. You can try, but you can't do it' ...."
I see an inconsistency there.
***To Waite House for NAPS (Nutritional Assistance for Seniors) food.
And for the twice-monthly produce distribution. Abundant apples, radishes, and cabbage available.
***Southeast Como neighborhood organization Annual Meeting at Van Cleve Park. Attendance was light. And only three or four were college age, in a neighborhood where 52 percent of the population is 18 to 24.
In fiction, political meetings are usually exciting. In real life? File that trope with "War is fun."
***Comments from: Bonnie Randall Schutzman 11/13: "I think in images and sounds, but there's also usually a word-based narrative going on."
tickertape synesthesia
Carole Zastera Michels 11/13 "Words for me. I asked a friend in Germany which language he thought in, and he said he didn't think in a language."
Carol Kennedy 11/13 "In something like patterns, but as I have said before, if one doesn't think in words, it's very hard to describe in words how one thinks!"
John Shannonhouse 11/13 "I think in processes."
Lee Gold 11/13 "Words
"Memory flashbacks (embedded experiences, which includes all senses)"
***From Twitter:
Jeff Noon @jeffnoon My dead wife often speaks clearly: “In two miles turn left.” Other times her voice is garbled, fuzzy with static. The car veers on the road.
Jesse Sheidlower @jessesheidlower Reading Dictionary of Old English online; Chrome asks, "This page is in Malay. Would you like to translate it?" Hmm.
PLOS ONE @PLOSONE Stone-Tipped Spears Predate Existence of Humans http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/stone-tipped-spears-pre-date-existence-of-humans-131113.htm … via @Discovery_News
[More precisely, they predate our species of human.]
Wonkette @Wonkette Help Us Keep Our Day Drinking Sexy And Discreet With This Bra That Holds Wine - http://happynicetimepeople.com/help-us-keep-day-drinking-sexy-discreet-bra-holds-wine/ …
"'People have differences, and you can't legislate morality. You can try, but you can't do it' ...."
I see an inconsistency there.
***To Waite House for NAPS (Nutritional Assistance for Seniors) food.
And for the twice-monthly produce distribution. Abundant apples, radishes, and cabbage available.
***Southeast Como neighborhood organization Annual Meeting at Van Cleve Park. Attendance was light. And only three or four were college age, in a neighborhood where 52 percent of the population is 18 to 24.
In fiction, political meetings are usually exciting. In real life? File that trope with "War is fun."
***Comments from: Bonnie Randall Schutzman 11/13: "I think in images and sounds, but there's also usually a word-based narrative going on."
tickertape synesthesia
Carole Zastera Michels 11/13 "Words for me. I asked a friend in Germany which language he thought in, and he said he didn't think in a language."
Carol Kennedy 11/13 "In something like patterns, but as I have said before, if one doesn't think in words, it's very hard to describe in words how one thinks!"
John Shannonhouse 11/13 "I think in processes."
Lee Gold 11/13 "Words
"Memory flashbacks (embedded experiences, which includes all senses)"
***From Twitter:
Jeff Noon @jeffnoon My dead wife often speaks clearly: “In two miles turn left.” Other times her voice is garbled, fuzzy with static. The car veers on the road.
Jesse Sheidlower @jessesheidlower Reading Dictionary of Old English online; Chrome asks, "This page is in Malay. Would you like to translate it?" Hmm.
PLOS ONE @PLOSONE Stone-Tipped Spears Predate Existence of Humans http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/stone-tipped-spears-pre-date-existence-of-humans-131113.htm … via @Discovery_News
[More precisely, they predate our species of human.]
Wonkette @Wonkette Help Us Keep Our Day Drinking Sexy And Discreet With This Bra That Holds Wine - http://happynicetimepeople.com/help-us-keep-day-drinking-sexy-discreet-bra-holds-wine/ …
Friday, November 15, 2013
Thursday November 14, 2013 Novel about synesthetic vampires: Susan Hubbard, The Society of S. Seen at Minneapolis Central Library.
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Topic: Laundry List traits 7 and 8:
We get guilt feelings when we stand up for ourselves instead of giving in to others.
We became addicted to excitement.
***Comments from:
bubbleblower, 11/13 "I sometimes think in words, and sometimes in pictures. The pictures are sometimes electronic schematics or other diagrams, and sometimes move (that includes animated diagrams).
"I may occasionally think in other modes, but not often."
Dreamshark, 11/13 "Words, mostly."
stardreamer, 11/13 "I think in words, unless I'm specifically trying to visualize something. This is also one of the reasons I can't read and carry on a conversation at the same time; I 'hear' the words in my head when I'm reading, and they compete for the aural-processing channel."
houseboatonstyx, 11/13 " Pictures Movies Visual diagrams
and
Kinesthetic choreography!
"What NLP calls 'Derived Kino'. As when Lewis said, 'Our muscles respond as we read it.'"
Andre Guirard, 11/13 "I think in condiments."
Lois Fundis, 11/13 "All of the above? Plus music!"
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Topic: Laundry List traits 7 and 8:
We get guilt feelings when we stand up for ourselves instead of giving in to others.
We became addicted to excitement.
***Comments from:
bubbleblower, 11/13 "I sometimes think in words, and sometimes in pictures. The pictures are sometimes electronic schematics or other diagrams, and sometimes move (that includes animated diagrams).
"I may occasionally think in other modes, but not often."
Dreamshark, 11/13 "Words, mostly."
stardreamer, 11/13 "I think in words, unless I'm specifically trying to visualize something. This is also one of the reasons I can't read and carry on a conversation at the same time; I 'hear' the words in my head when I'm reading, and they compete for the aural-processing channel."
houseboatonstyx, 11/13 " Pictures Movies Visual diagrams
and
Kinesthetic choreography!
"What NLP calls 'Derived Kino'. As when Lewis said, 'Our muscles respond as we read it.'"
Andre Guirard, 11/13 "I think in condiments."
Lois Fundis, 11/13 "All of the above? Plus music!"
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Do you think consciously in:
Words?
Pictures?
Movies?
Visual diagrams?
Non-visual diagrams?
Something else?
***"That hilarious moment when a black talk show host gives DNA results to a white supremacist, 'Hey Bro!'"
....
"The studio audience laughed while Goddard, who is a black woman, told him the news that genetically he is 14 per cent Sub Saharan African, 86 per cent European, which Cobb promptly dismissed as 'statistical noise.'"
http://preview.tinyurl.com/n4hxjqb
Via Wolf Bro on Facebook
The figure I've seen for White Americans with nonwhite ancestry is 20 percent. However, I suspect this assumes all European immigrants have been of pure White ancestry.
***From Twitter:
Ben Zimmer @bgzimmer My latest for @lexiconvalley: Batman bin Suparman Arrested on Drug Charges. Here's How He Got His Name. http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/11/11/batman_indonesian_man_with_superhero_name_runs_afoul_of_the_law.html
Political Animal @politic_animal In debate on probation, Richard Drax MP suggesting replacing the Border Agency with a 'militaristic' organisation of conscripted offenders.
Retweeted by Moonbootica
Political Animal @politic_animal They would apparently, use the armed forces' cast-off ships and aeroplanes to patrol the borders. Quite frankly, I'm a bit scared.
Retweeted by Moonbootica
Words?
Pictures?
Movies?
Visual diagrams?
Non-visual diagrams?
Something else?
***"That hilarious moment when a black talk show host gives DNA results to a white supremacist, 'Hey Bro!'"
....
"The studio audience laughed while Goddard, who is a black woman, told him the news that genetically he is 14 per cent Sub Saharan African, 86 per cent European, which Cobb promptly dismissed as 'statistical noise.'"
http://preview.tinyurl.com/n4hxjqb
Via Wolf Bro on Facebook
The figure I've seen for White Americans with nonwhite ancestry is 20 percent. However, I suspect this assumes all European immigrants have been of pure White ancestry.
***From Twitter:
Ben Zimmer @bgzimmer My latest for @lexiconvalley: Batman bin Suparman Arrested on Drug Charges. Here's How He Got His Name. http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2013/11/11/batman_indonesian_man_with_superhero_name_runs_afoul_of_the_law.html
Political Animal @politic_animal In debate on probation, Richard Drax MP suggesting replacing the Border Agency with a 'militaristic' organisation of conscripted offenders.
Retweeted by Moonbootica
Political Animal @politic_animal They would apparently, use the armed forces' cast-off ships and aeroplanes to patrol the borders. Quite frankly, I'm a bit scared.
Retweeted by Moonbootica
Monday, November 11, 2013
Friday November 9, 2013 Arika Okrent, In the Land of Invented Language. Spiegel & Grau, 2009. Begins chronologically with Hildegarde of Bingen's Lingua Ignota (first invented language of which there's written evidence.) More about people who invent languages, and those who adopt them, than about the languages themselves. Recommended.
****"A few days ago they tore down a house at the other end of the block. I pass the site fairly often on the way to other places, and so far it doesn't look much different from any other torn-down house.
"But you never know. Since the last time I looked the cops may have planted the lot with poison ivy to keep time-traveling burglars from camping there and going back in time to when there was a house there that their campsite would have been inside of. That's not a common M.O. for burglars, but that may be because the cops are diligent about planting poison ivy where houses have been torn down.
"You may doubt me because you've never seen cops planting poison ivy at the sites of torn-down houses. That's because they're careful not to stir up too much publicity lest they start a panic about time-traveling criminals and government agencies abusing time travel to fight them. Likewise, if you go to the police station and ask them if they plant poison ivy on the sites of torn-down houses they'll look at you funny and say No.
"If the police do tell you they don't plant poison ivy on the sites of torn-down houses it's best to at least pretend to believe them. This is not the kind of thing you want to get into arguments with the cops about."
Tom Digby, SILICON SOAPWARE #232
http://www.well.com/~bubbles/
http://www.plergb.com/Mail_Lists/Silicon_Soapware_Zine-Pages.html
Sunday November 10, 2013 Wax hair removal isn't just for women. An ad offers men "Free Eyebrow, Ear or Nose to spruce you up." Women can get "Free Bikini Line, Eyebrow or Underarm....Upgrade to a cheeky Brazilian for $21.00."
***Thought experiment: To qualify as a voter, one must serve one year as a civilian government employee. In theory, this means voters have some idea of how government actually works.
I realized that this solves a problem with my current story.
****"A few days ago they tore down a house at the other end of the block. I pass the site fairly often on the way to other places, and so far it doesn't look much different from any other torn-down house.
"But you never know. Since the last time I looked the cops may have planted the lot with poison ivy to keep time-traveling burglars from camping there and going back in time to when there was a house there that their campsite would have been inside of. That's not a common M.O. for burglars, but that may be because the cops are diligent about planting poison ivy where houses have been torn down.
"You may doubt me because you've never seen cops planting poison ivy at the sites of torn-down houses. That's because they're careful not to stir up too much publicity lest they start a panic about time-traveling criminals and government agencies abusing time travel to fight them. Likewise, if you go to the police station and ask them if they plant poison ivy on the sites of torn-down houses they'll look at you funny and say No.
"If the police do tell you they don't plant poison ivy on the sites of torn-down houses it's best to at least pretend to believe them. This is not the kind of thing you want to get into arguments with the cops about."
Tom Digby, SILICON SOAPWARE #232
http://www.well.com/~bubbles/
http://www.plergb.com/Mail_Lists/Silicon_Soapware_Zine-Pages.html
Sunday November 10, 2013 Wax hair removal isn't just for women. An ad offers men "Free Eyebrow, Ear or Nose to spruce you up." Women can get "Free Bikini Line, Eyebrow or Underarm....Upgrade to a cheeky Brazilian for $21.00."
***Thought experiment: To qualify as a voter, one must serve one year as a civilian government employee. In theory, this means voters have some idea of how government actually works.
I realized that this solves a problem with my current story.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Friday November 8, 2013 Certain I wasn't going to get any fiction written. But then... This is the zero draft beginning of "The Touch of Any Color" (working title.)
"Whatever he's on, I want some of it." An unprofessional thing for an Interstellar Terminal security employee to say; but Gatha Laken was new.
"That's his ordinary brain state," Jenny Tyler said. "Synesthesia, including kinds rarer than seeing sounds and hearing colors."
"I had synesthesia once," Gatha said. "But my parents had it cured."
After a pause, Jenny replied. "It's not officially classed as a disease."
"My parents were Edenic Orthodox. They believed it was a disease. Like lefthandedness and being attracted to only one sex."
***Comments: Shelley Adrienne Mimi Belsky 11/8: "Amazing how many folks voted on the basis of how folks answered the question？
Do you support the new Vikings Stadium？——"
***In spam listing: No expensive surgeries - if you mix 2 products you can do it at home
***From Twitter:
The Raw Story @RawStory Albania has become Europe’s main marijuana supplier http://ow.ly/qDjqf
Tsholetsang [Kai] @The_Galanteador RT @Lit_Review: 'for Martha, in dismantling me, dredged a voice out of me I did not know I owned' #BadSex
alt_medicine.txt @altmed_txt Is eating just a habit that enslaves us? Is it such a stretch to think people who learn to cultivate their prana can live on that instead?
Retweeted by Ken MacLeod
Ken MacLeod @amendlocke .@altmed_txt If you believe that, I say go for it.
"Whatever he's on, I want some of it." An unprofessional thing for an Interstellar Terminal security employee to say; but Gatha Laken was new.
"That's his ordinary brain state," Jenny Tyler said. "Synesthesia, including kinds rarer than seeing sounds and hearing colors."
"I had synesthesia once," Gatha said. "But my parents had it cured."
After a pause, Jenny replied. "It's not officially classed as a disease."
"My parents were Edenic Orthodox. They believed it was a disease. Like lefthandedness and being attracted to only one sex."
***Comments: Shelley Adrienne Mimi Belsky 11/8: "Amazing how many folks voted on the basis of how folks answered the question？
Do you support the new Vikings Stadium？——"
***In spam listing: No expensive surgeries - if you mix 2 products you can do it at home
***From Twitter:
The Raw Story @RawStory Albania has become Europe’s main marijuana supplier http://ow.ly/qDjqf
Tsholetsang [Kai] @The_Galanteador RT @Lit_Review: 'for Martha, in dismantling me, dredged a voice out of me I did not know I owned' #BadSex
alt_medicine.txt @altmed_txt Is eating just a habit that enslaves us? Is it such a stretch to think people who learn to cultivate their prana can live on that instead?
Retweeted by Ken MacLeod
Ken MacLeod @amendlocke .@altmed_txt If you believe that, I say go for it.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Thursday October 7, 2013 Mayoral election counting continues. There were 118 write-in candidates; their second choice votes have been redistributed. This left only the 35 candidates who filed. The 29 who didn't get a serious percentage of the vote will have their second choices redistributed, from the bottom up, till one candidate (almost certainly Betsy Hodges) has a majority. [Update: Winner announced 10:14 PM -- Betsy Hodges]
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. It amuses me that several times a month, I'm a religious anarchist.
***Paging Marty Helgesen:
"Imagine a future like McLeod's Engines of Light or Anderson's The Long Road Home
"Where there is relatively easy light speed travel between stars: it's not hard to get to Tau Ceti but when you get home a quarter century will have gone by. And let's say the recent reports that [one in five stars have] Earth-mass worlds in habitable zones are right and so within 50 light years there are a hundred or more lifebearing planets that for reasons we won't examine too closely get settled.
"Imagine that there is also a Catholic Church.
How do they handled the Pope issue? One Pope in Rome issuing comments that spread to the scattered faithful at the speed of light?"
http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4668615.html
***From Publisher's Lunch list of books bought: "Notre Dame MFA grad (and soon to be emergency room physician) Tom Miller's THE PHILOSOPHER'S WAR and a sequel; part coming-of-age, part love story, part literary fantasy set in 1917 and pitched as Harry Potter for adults."
***From Twitter:
Lindsey Mastis @LindseyMastis Would you try it? "Glow-in-the-dark jellyfish ice cream -- for $225, you can have a scoop" http://lat.ms/HHxaQs
ANDC @ozworders The language of criminals on the mean streets of Melbourne in the 1890s. See our new blog! http://goo.gl/ZihE4s pic.twitter.com/RewGEvJZom
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. It amuses me that several times a month, I'm a religious anarchist.
***Paging Marty Helgesen:
"Imagine a future like McLeod's Engines of Light or Anderson's The Long Road Home
"Where there is relatively easy light speed travel between stars: it's not hard to get to Tau Ceti but when you get home a quarter century will have gone by. And let's say the recent reports that [one in five stars have] Earth-mass worlds in habitable zones are right and so within 50 light years there are a hundred or more lifebearing planets that for reasons we won't examine too closely get settled.
"Imagine that there is also a Catholic Church.
How do they handled the Pope issue? One Pope in Rome issuing comments that spread to the scattered faithful at the speed of light?"
http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4668615.html
***From Publisher's Lunch list of books bought: "Notre Dame MFA grad (and soon to be emergency room physician) Tom Miller's THE PHILOSOPHER'S WAR and a sequel; part coming-of-age, part love story, part literary fantasy set in 1917 and pitched as Harry Potter for adults."
***From Twitter:
Lindsey Mastis @LindseyMastis Would you try it? "Glow-in-the-dark jellyfish ice cream -- for $225, you can have a scoop" http://lat.ms/HHxaQs
ANDC @ozworders The language of criminals on the mean streets of Melbourne in the 1890s. See our new blog! http://goo.gl/ZihE4s pic.twitter.com/RewGEvJZom
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Wednesday November 6, 2013 Odd notice in the local laundromat. The handwritten ad for a dryer wasn't strange in itself. But it was on paper which said at the bottom "testosterone restored."
***My city council member was re-elected with 87 percent of the vote. (Cam Gordon, Green Party, Ward 2.) I'm surprised his opponent got as much as 13 percent. She belongs to the Socialist Workers Party; members of other Trotskyite groups, and non-Trotskyite Marxists, wouldn't be eager to vote for her. And she didn't do much campaigning.
Ward 2 is not prime conservative territory. Other parts of Minneapolis are farther to the right. Some even vote right of San Francisco and Portland OR.
Note: Municipal elections are nonpartisan. However, parties make endorsements. Minnesota politics -- if you're not confused, you don't understand the situation.
***Comment: Andre Guirard 11/06 "I think any convention in Antarctica can be considered continent-wide, because really, what else is there to do?"
Winter sports, I would think.
***Citation: Dina Fainberg. Review of Leitch, Gillian I., ed., _Doctor Who in Time and Space: Essays on Themes, Characters, History and Fandom, 1963-2012_. Jhistory, H-Net Reviews. November, 2013. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=39534
***From minnpost.com: ...at MPR, Bob Collins covers the state Supreme Court's reversal of a Court of Appeals ruling. "The Minnesota Supreme Court today reversed a Court of Appeals ruling that granted a new trial for a St. Paul priest who said religious doctrine was used in his prosecution in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Christopher Wenthe was convicted in 2011 of having sex with a young woman he was counseling. … The priest was prosecuted under a Minnesota law that prohibits a clergy member from having sexual contact with a parishioner when the parishioner is seeking or receiving 'religious or spiritual advice, aid, or comfort', in private. He argued that the law unconstitutionally singles out clergy, which fails a test for determining whether it violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. He also argued that the statute 'inhibits' religion. But today the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected the argument, saying 'it covers only those clergy who choose to use their position as a clergy member, or who hold themselves out as a clergy member, to enter into sexual relationships with vulnerable individuals.'"....
***From Twitter:
Ari Berman @AriBerman Democrats swept local elections in Boone NC yesterday, where GOP tried to restrict student voting http://www.journalnow.com/news/elections/local/article_cf560e1a-4686-11e3-8741-0019bb30f31a.html …
Retweeted by Ray Radlein
Digital Spy @digitalspy Lady Gaga will break a world record and become the first artist to sing in space in 2015: http://dspy.me/1aFVb6m
***My city council member was re-elected with 87 percent of the vote. (Cam Gordon, Green Party, Ward 2.) I'm surprised his opponent got as much as 13 percent. She belongs to the Socialist Workers Party; members of other Trotskyite groups, and non-Trotskyite Marxists, wouldn't be eager to vote for her. And she didn't do much campaigning.
Ward 2 is not prime conservative territory. Other parts of Minneapolis are farther to the right. Some even vote right of San Francisco and Portland OR.
Note: Municipal elections are nonpartisan. However, parties make endorsements. Minnesota politics -- if you're not confused, you don't understand the situation.
***Comment: Andre Guirard 11/06 "I think any convention in Antarctica can be considered continent-wide, because really, what else is there to do?"
Winter sports, I would think.
***Citation: Dina Fainberg. Review of Leitch, Gillian I., ed., _Doctor Who in Time and Space: Essays on Themes, Characters, History and Fandom, 1963-2012_. Jhistory, H-Net Reviews. November, 2013. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=39534
***From minnpost.com: ...at MPR, Bob Collins covers the state Supreme Court's reversal of a Court of Appeals ruling. "The Minnesota Supreme Court today reversed a Court of Appeals ruling that granted a new trial for a St. Paul priest who said religious doctrine was used in his prosecution in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Christopher Wenthe was convicted in 2011 of having sex with a young woman he was counseling. … The priest was prosecuted under a Minnesota law that prohibits a clergy member from having sexual contact with a parishioner when the parishioner is seeking or receiving 'religious or spiritual advice, aid, or comfort', in private. He argued that the law unconstitutionally singles out clergy, which fails a test for determining whether it violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. He also argued that the statute 'inhibits' religion. But today the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected the argument, saying 'it covers only those clergy who choose to use their position as a clergy member, or who hold themselves out as a clergy member, to enter into sexual relationships with vulnerable individuals.'"....
***From Twitter:
Ari Berman @AriBerman Democrats swept local elections in Boone NC yesterday, where GOP tried to restrict student voting http://www.journalnow.com/news/elections/local/article_cf560e1a-4686-11e3-8741-0019bb30f31a.html …
Retweeted by Ray Radlein
Digital Spy @digitalspy Lady Gaga will break a world record and become the first artist to sing in space in 2015: http://dspy.me/1aFVb6m
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Tuesday October 5, 2013 Ranked Choice Voting was supposed to bewilder Minneapolis voters this year. Not me. I've used versions of what used to be called the Australian Ballot for decades, in two science fiction clubs.
For that matter, this was the second mayoral election using RCV. But in 2009, a popular mayor was running for reelection and had weak opposition. R.T. Rybak got a majority of first place votes.
This time, 35 people ran. Voters were supposed to mark their first, second, and third choices.
The city council race was simpler. My Ward's incumbent (Green Party) is competent. His one opponent belonged to the Socialist Workers Party, and doesn't seem to have campaigned much.
I voted at Van Cleve Park. And answered a survey after I voted.
***As Joseph Lykken, a theorist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Maria Spiropulu, of the California Institute of Technology, put it in a new paper reviewing the history and future of the Higgs boson:
"Taken at face value, the result implies that eventually (in 10^100 years or so) an unlucky quantum fluctuation will produce a bubble of a different vacuum, which will then expand at the speed of light, destroying everything."
The idea is that the Higgs field could someday twitch and drop to a lower energy state, like water freezing into ice, thereby obliterating the workings of reality as we know it. Naturally, we would have no warning. Just blink and it’s over.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/opecdqz
For that matter, this was the second mayoral election using RCV. But in 2009, a popular mayor was running for reelection and had weak opposition. R.T. Rybak got a majority of first place votes.
This time, 35 people ran. Voters were supposed to mark their first, second, and third choices.
The city council race was simpler. My Ward's incumbent (Green Party) is competent. His one opponent belonged to the Socialist Workers Party, and doesn't seem to have campaigned much.
I voted at Van Cleve Park. And answered a survey after I voted.
***As Joseph Lykken, a theorist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Maria Spiropulu, of the California Institute of Technology, put it in a new paper reviewing the history and future of the Higgs boson:
"Taken at face value, the result implies that eventually (in 10^100 years or so) an unlucky quantum fluctuation will produce a bubble of a different vacuum, which will then expand at the speed of light, destroying everything."
The idea is that the Higgs field could someday twitch and drop to a lower energy state, like water freezing into ice, thereby obliterating the workings of reality as we know it. Naturally, we would have no warning. Just blink and it’s over.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/opecdqz
Monday October 4, 2013 Science fiction conventions include one for
North America (only in years when the World convention is elsewhere),
Eurocon, and the Australian National Convention. How long till the
remaining continents have continent-wide sf conventions?
My guesses: Asia and South America by the middle of this century. Africa toward the end of 21st or beginning of the 22nd century.
Antarctica will take longer.
***From Twitter:
Tim Maly @doingitwrong Cassandra makes a killing on the stock market and is indicted for insider trading. #modernmythology
Farhad Manjoo @fmanjoo Every year I'd like someone to do a list of news stories of the past year that seemed really important at the time but turned out not to be
Retweeted by Adam L. Penenberg
FOX 8 New Orleans @FOX8NOLA 15 Jan A dense dog advisory remains in effect until 6 pm tonight.
Retweeted by NaturallyCurlyHair
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld Fifteen telephone girls employed by the New England Telephone Co. were discharged for taking dinner in "disgraceful" Chinatown. MA1908
My guesses: Asia and South America by the middle of this century. Africa toward the end of 21st or beginning of the 22nd century.
Antarctica will take longer.
***From Twitter:
Tim Maly @doingitwrong Cassandra makes a killing on the stock market and is indicted for insider trading. #modernmythology
Farhad Manjoo @fmanjoo Every year I'd like someone to do a list of news stories of the past year that seemed really important at the time but turned out not to be
Retweeted by Adam L. Penenberg
FOX 8 New Orleans @FOX8NOLA 15 Jan A dense dog advisory remains in effect until 6 pm tonight.
Retweeted by NaturallyCurlyHair
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld Fifteen telephone girls employed by the New England Telephone Co. were discharged for taking dinner in "disgraceful" Chinatown. MA1908
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Sunday November 3, 2013. Daylight Losing Time; All Hallows Day. And in one fantasy story, St. Hammer-and-Sickle's Day.
***David Tenner in soc.history.what-if: "Richard Albert. 'The Constitutional Politics of Presidential Succession,' Hofstra Law Review 39, no.3 (2011): 497-576, http://tinyurl.com/kr2wlp5 argues that the current system is all wrong and proposes an alternative I have never seen mentioned before...."
I downloaded the PDF. "Here is what I suggest: the solution is to revise the order of succession to insert former living Presidents—in reverse chronological order of service, beginning with former Presidents of the same party as the unavailable president—into the line of succession and to concurrently remove the Speaker of the House and the Senate President pro tempore. Under this new presidential succession sequence, a former President will serve only temporarily until a special election is held to elect a new head of state. Former Presidents are the only ones equipped with the proven competence, domestic repute, and foreign stature needed to pull the United States out of the depths of disaster. Moreover, they are known quantities seen as motivated by the public interest and not driven by political posturing."
"To illustrate the line of succession more vividly, here is the order of presidential succession assuming it had been activated on March 1, 2010, under the administration of President Barack Obama: assuming Vice President Joe Biden were unavailable, the first four statutory successors would be former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, and George H. W. Bush, followed by the Cabinet."
Note: Hypothetical Presidents and successors are referred to as "she" and "her," with one exception that I spotted.
Commenters on the newsgroup were divided between those who thought it was a stupid idea and those who thought it was an outstandingly stupid idea.
***From Twitter:
US Reality Check @USRealityCheck Monsanto's Losses Widen as #GMO Seed Sales Decline http://dld.bz/cSGAY #GMOs #RightToKnow #LabelGMOs
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld A Chicago physician says small feet indicate a hot temper and an evil tongue. KY1883
***David Tenner in soc.history.what-if: "Richard Albert. 'The Constitutional Politics of Presidential Succession,' Hofstra Law Review 39, no.3 (2011): 497-576, http://tinyurl.com/kr2wlp5 argues that the current system is all wrong and proposes an alternative I have never seen mentioned before...."
I downloaded the PDF. "Here is what I suggest: the solution is to revise the order of succession to insert former living Presidents—in reverse chronological order of service, beginning with former Presidents of the same party as the unavailable president—into the line of succession and to concurrently remove the Speaker of the House and the Senate President pro tempore. Under this new presidential succession sequence, a former President will serve only temporarily until a special election is held to elect a new head of state. Former Presidents are the only ones equipped with the proven competence, domestic repute, and foreign stature needed to pull the United States out of the depths of disaster. Moreover, they are known quantities seen as motivated by the public interest and not driven by political posturing."
"To illustrate the line of succession more vividly, here is the order of presidential succession assuming it had been activated on March 1, 2010, under the administration of President Barack Obama: assuming Vice President Joe Biden were unavailable, the first four statutory successors would be former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, and George H. W. Bush, followed by the Cabinet."
Note: Hypothetical Presidents and successors are referred to as "she" and "her," with one exception that I spotted.
Commenters on the newsgroup were divided between those who thought it was a stupid idea and those who thought it was an outstandingly stupid idea.
***From Twitter:
US Reality Check @USRealityCheck Monsanto's Losses Widen as #GMO Seed Sales Decline http://dld.bz/cSGAY #GMOs #RightToKnow #LabelGMOs
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld A Chicago physician says small feet indicate a hot temper and an evil tongue. KY1883
Monday, November 4, 2013
Saturday November 2, 2013 "Aeroflot, which says its classic Soviet
emblem of a winged hammer and sickle now represents a smile, has been at
the forefront of a broad and transformative trend in the Russian
service industry brought about by the rising demands of middle-class
consumers."
New York Times
That's an interesting rebranding method.
***On my way to the Mnstf Halloween Party at Richard Tatge and Sharon Kahn's, I passed Goda Restaurant. Sahara Cuisine -- wonder what they serve?
Hoagies and sandwiches, apparently.
A bit over 44 people signed in at the Halloween Party; and there were people who didn't sign in.
One person signed in backwards.
It was a good party.
New York Times
That's an interesting rebranding method.
***On my way to the Mnstf Halloween Party at Richard Tatge and Sharon Kahn's, I passed Goda Restaurant. Sahara Cuisine -- wonder what they serve?
Hoagies and sandwiches, apparently.
A bit over 44 people signed in at the Halloween Party; and there were people who didn't sign in.
One person signed in backwards.
It was a good party.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Thursday October 31, 2013 Halloween. People in costume. And people
wearing clothes which a few decades ago would have been classed as
costumes, but are now unremarkable.
***The Minnesota Daily had an interview with an exorcist. He attributes his relatively few failures to those patients not wanting to give up their connections to Satan.
("How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?" "Only one; but the lightbulb has to want to change.")
Thoughts: Perhaps there are specialists who serve those who want to be demon-possessed, and can't manage it on their own.
And perhaps others who help people possessed by angels who want to be freed.
***To the Adult Children Anonymous meeting. The two people leading the meeting had keys to the church. However, the keys didn't work.
I returned home.
***From Publishers Lunch listing of books bought: "Michael Grant's YA trilogy that re-imagines the second World War in an alternate world where young women are drafted along with men...."
And: "THE STOLEN CHILD author Keith Donohue's THE INSIDE BOY, set in coastal Maine about a young boy, deathly afraid of the outdoors, whose drawings of monsters begin to cross the line between fantasy and reality; Simon Unsworth's THE SORROWFUL, set in Hell, pitched as 'The Wire meets Clive Barker...."
***From Twitter:
Erin M @tad_overdue Why was the vampire nervous about the library board meeting? Too many stake-holders! #halloweenlibrarypuns #sorrypunhaters
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
The Daily Beast @thedailybeast The forgotten reign of England's lesbian queen http://thebea.st/19gj2Hw
***The Minnesota Daily had an interview with an exorcist. He attributes his relatively few failures to those patients not wanting to give up their connections to Satan.
("How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?" "Only one; but the lightbulb has to want to change.")
Thoughts: Perhaps there are specialists who serve those who want to be demon-possessed, and can't manage it on their own.
And perhaps others who help people possessed by angels who want to be freed.
***To the Adult Children Anonymous meeting. The two people leading the meeting had keys to the church. However, the keys didn't work.
I returned home.
***From Publishers Lunch listing of books bought: "Michael Grant's YA trilogy that re-imagines the second World War in an alternate world where young women are drafted along with men...."
And: "THE STOLEN CHILD author Keith Donohue's THE INSIDE BOY, set in coastal Maine about a young boy, deathly afraid of the outdoors, whose drawings of monsters begin to cross the line between fantasy and reality; Simon Unsworth's THE SORROWFUL, set in Hell, pitched as 'The Wire meets Clive Barker...."
***From Twitter:
Erin M @tad_overdue Why was the vampire nervous about the library board meeting? Too many stake-holders! #halloweenlibrarypuns #sorrypunhaters
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
The Daily Beast @thedailybeast The forgotten reign of England's lesbian queen http://thebea.st/19gj2Hw
Thursday October 31, 2013 Halloween. People in costume. And people
wearing clothes which a few decades ago would have been classed as
costumes, but are now unremarkable.
***The Minnesota Daily had an interview with an exorcist. He attributes his relatively few failures to those patients not wanting to give up their connections to Satan.
("How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?" "Only one; but the lightbulb has to want to change.")
Thoughts: Perhaps there are specialists who serve those who want to be demon-possessed, and can't manage it on their own.
And perhaps others who help people possessed by angels who want to be freed.
***To the Adult Children Anonymous meeting. The two people leading the meeting had keys to the church. However, the keys didn't work.
I returned home.
***From Publishers Lunch listing of books bought: "Michael Grant's YA trilogy that re-imagines the second World War in an alternate world where young women are drafted along with men...."
And: "THE STOLEN CHILD author Keith Donohue's THE INSIDE BOY, set in coastal Maine about a young boy, deathly afraid of the outdoors, whose drawings of monsters begin to cross the line between fantasy and reality; Simon Unsworth's THE SORROWFUL, set in Hell, pitched as 'The Wire meets Clive Barker...."
***From Twitter:
Erin M @tad_overdue Why was the vampire nervous about the library board meeting? Too many stake-holders! #halloweenlibrarypuns #sorrypunhaters
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
The Daily Beast @thedailybeast The forgotten reign of England's lesbian queen http://thebea.st/19gj2Hw
***The Minnesota Daily had an interview with an exorcist. He attributes his relatively few failures to those patients not wanting to give up their connections to Satan.
("How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?" "Only one; but the lightbulb has to want to change.")
Thoughts: Perhaps there are specialists who serve those who want to be demon-possessed, and can't manage it on their own.
And perhaps others who help people possessed by angels who want to be freed.
***To the Adult Children Anonymous meeting. The two people leading the meeting had keys to the church. However, the keys didn't work.
I returned home.
***From Publishers Lunch listing of books bought: "Michael Grant's YA trilogy that re-imagines the second World War in an alternate world where young women are drafted along with men...."
And: "THE STOLEN CHILD author Keith Donohue's THE INSIDE BOY, set in coastal Maine about a young boy, deathly afraid of the outdoors, whose drawings of monsters begin to cross the line between fantasy and reality; Simon Unsworth's THE SORROWFUL, set in Hell, pitched as 'The Wire meets Clive Barker...."
***From Twitter:
Erin M @tad_overdue Why was the vampire nervous about the library board meeting? Too many stake-holders! #halloweenlibrarypuns #sorrypunhaters
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
The Daily Beast @thedailybeast The forgotten reign of England's lesbian queen http://thebea.st/19gj2Hw
Thursday October 31, 2013 Halloween. People in costume. And people
wearing clothes which a few decades ago would have been classed as
costumes, but are now unremarkable.
***The Minnesota Daily had an interview with an exorcist. He attributes his relatively few failures to those patients not wanting to give up their connections to Satan.
("How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?" "Only one; but the lightbulb has to want to change.")
Thoughts: Perhaps there are specialists who serve those who want to be demon-possessed, and can't manage it on their own.
And perhaps others who help people possessed by angels who want to be freed.
***To the Adult Children Anonymous meeting. The two people leading the meeting had keys to the church. However, the keys didn't work.
I returned home.
***From Publishers Lunch listing of books bought: "Michael Grant's YA trilogy that re-imagines the second World War in an alternate world where young women are drafted along with men...."
And: "THE STOLEN CHILD author Keith Donohue's THE INSIDE BOY, set in coastal Maine about a young boy, deathly afraid of the outdoors, whose drawings of monsters begin to cross the line between fantasy and reality; Simon Unsworth's THE SORROWFUL, set in Hell, pitched as 'The Wire meets Clive Barker...."
***From Twitter:
Erin M @tad_overdue Why was the vampire nervous about the library board meeting? Too many stake-holders! #halloweenlibrarypuns #sorrypunhaters
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
The Daily Beast @thedailybeast The forgotten reign of England's lesbian queen http://thebea.st/19gj2Hw
***The Minnesota Daily had an interview with an exorcist. He attributes his relatively few failures to those patients not wanting to give up their connections to Satan.
("How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?" "Only one; but the lightbulb has to want to change.")
Thoughts: Perhaps there are specialists who serve those who want to be demon-possessed, and can't manage it on their own.
And perhaps others who help people possessed by angels who want to be freed.
***To the Adult Children Anonymous meeting. The two people leading the meeting had keys to the church. However, the keys didn't work.
I returned home.
***From Publishers Lunch listing of books bought: "Michael Grant's YA trilogy that re-imagines the second World War in an alternate world where young women are drafted along with men...."
And: "THE STOLEN CHILD author Keith Donohue's THE INSIDE BOY, set in coastal Maine about a young boy, deathly afraid of the outdoors, whose drawings of monsters begin to cross the line between fantasy and reality; Simon Unsworth's THE SORROWFUL, set in Hell, pitched as 'The Wire meets Clive Barker...."
***From Twitter:
Erin M @tad_overdue Why was the vampire nervous about the library board meeting? Too many stake-holders! #halloweenlibrarypuns #sorrypunhaters
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
The Daily Beast @thedailybeast The forgotten reign of England's lesbian queen http://thebea.st/19gj2Hw
Thursday, October 31, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy 10/29/13 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. http://dsgoodman.blogspot.com 612-298-2354
Tuesday October 29, 2013 "Of course the Romans had starships. Why else would they build pyramids on Mars and Earth?"
Ouch! At least I hadn't been seated with one of the people who don't believe Earth ever existed.
From The Queen of Stone and Fire (working title.)
***At the Wedge coop, there were samples of hemp milk. Since I don't care for cold milk, I can't say what it tasted like.
***"Google and some carmakers are developing technology for driverless cars, and a company in Israel is working on flying cars."
http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2013/10/despite-population-growth-car-use-declining-twin-cities
Flying cars have been about to make ground cars obsolete Real Soon Now since at least the 1920s.
***From Twitter:
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner Retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor performed a wedding for a same-sex couple at the Supreme Court today: http://bloom.bg/1dK1nvA
Retweeted by Zerlina Maxwell
H & I Voices @HI_Voices "10 languages indigenous to British Isles & spoken today: English, Scots, BSL, Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, Cornish, Manx, Angloromani and Shelta".
Retweeted by Ken MacLeod
Tuesday October 29, 2013 "Of course the Romans had starships. Why else would they build pyramids on Mars and Earth?"
Ouch! At least I hadn't been seated with one of the people who don't believe Earth ever existed.
From The Queen of Stone and Fire (working title.)
***At the Wedge coop, there were samples of hemp milk. Since I don't care for cold milk, I can't say what it tasted like.
***"Google and some carmakers are developing technology for driverless cars, and a company in Israel is working on flying cars."
http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2013/10/despite-population-growth-car-use-declining-twin-cities
Flying cars have been about to make ground cars obsolete Real Soon Now since at least the 1920s.
***From Twitter:
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner Retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor performed a wedding for a same-sex couple at the Supreme Court today: http://bloom.bg/1dK1nvA
Retweeted by Zerlina Maxwell
H & I Voices @HI_Voices "10 languages indigenous to British Isles & spoken today: English, Scots, BSL, Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, Cornish, Manx, Angloromani and Shelta".
Retweeted by Ken MacLeod
Monday, October 28, 2013
Sunday October 27, 2013 Fanfiction I'm not going to write: 1) "Hail Emperor Chewbacca and Empress Leia!"
2) Mirror world in which Hannibal Lecter is a vegetarian; and all decent people are cannibals.
***Comments:
Mike Glyer 10/26: "Car Chasers Anonymous -- like it. Remember the Bill Cosby joke about why do dogs chase cars. And what would a dog do if it caught one? Punchline -- 'Ohhhhh....'"
Tyler Tork 10/26: "Adult children? That sounds like basically everyone I know."
Full name: Adult Children of Alcoholic and Otherwise Dysfunctional Families Anonymous.
Bill Detty 10/27: As it happens, I have a high school buddy who joined the Ukrainian Orthodox church in his fifties, when he was called upon to be somebody's godfather and it was realized that somehow he'd never been baptized, despite having nominally been a Baptist since 1955.
***From Twitter:
Michael A. Ventrella @MikeVentrella Fantasy fans will be interested in my interview with NY Times bestselling author Steven Brust. We discuss his... http://fb.me/1Gti1nD6U
Retweeted by Steven Brust
2) Mirror world in which Hannibal Lecter is a vegetarian; and all decent people are cannibals.
***Comments:
Mike Glyer 10/26: "Car Chasers Anonymous -- like it. Remember the Bill Cosby joke about why do dogs chase cars. And what would a dog do if it caught one? Punchline -- 'Ohhhhh....'"
Tyler Tork 10/26: "Adult children? That sounds like basically everyone I know."
Full name: Adult Children of Alcoholic and Otherwise Dysfunctional Families Anonymous.
Bill Detty 10/27: As it happens, I have a high school buddy who joined the Ukrainian Orthodox church in his fifties, when he was called upon to be somebody's godfather and it was realized that somehow he'd never been baptized, despite having nominally been a Baptist since 1955.
***From Twitter:
Michael A. Ventrella @MikeVentrella Fantasy fans will be interested in my interview with NY Times bestselling author Steven Brust. We discuss his... http://fb.me/1Gti1nD6U
Retweeted by Steven Brust
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Saturday October 26, 2013 In Dinkytown, a musical group was performing on the sidewalk. Turned out to be a missionary group.
Their literature included a listing of U of MN area churches. (Actually, only Minneapolis Campus ones.) Not nearly a complete list; only the theologically correct ones. Which did not include Catholic or Lutheran churches. And except for one Baptist church, none whose names identified them as belonging to any mainstream Protestant denomination.
***At Southeast Library, I returned books and picked up books being held.
***Comments of comment:
thnidu, 10/25, on LiveJournal: "How about Unitarians?" Not mentioned. I think it's unlikely the Orthodox churches would consider Unitarian Universalists to be Christians.
Don Fitch, 10/26, on LiveJournal: "I'm not sure about the ins and outs of Church Politics, and don't know much more about the Greek churches than I've picked up by way of some years of attending the annual Festivals at St. Nectarios', here in Covina, but my impression is that the operative word is not 'Greek', but 'Orthodox'. I suppose a certain number of Greek immigrants adopted 'American-sounding' family names, either originally or in the course of time, but some members of the congregation are likely to be Armenian, Russian, Serbian, and possibly Coptic or Anglo-Catholic, depending (I think) on how the various local Bishoprics stand on inter-Communion & ecumenism."
Some of the non-Greek names are Scandinavian and German. My guess: in most cases, the wife took the husband's name and the husband the wife's religion.
There are Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, and Serbian Orthodox churches in the Twin Cities area. And The Orthodox Church in North America.
"(I have no knowledge whatsoever, but sometimes indulge in fascinated speculation on the possible involvement of the Maronite Church here -- it's one of the Patriarchies of the Eastern Rite/Orthodox Church(), but has long had a close relationship with (and under) the Bishop of Rome.)"
Minneapolis has Maronite, Byzantine, and Ukrainian Catholic churches.
The Liberal Catholic Church of St. Francis is descended from a group which split off because it found some of Vatican I's results unbearable.
***PROTOZOSIN:
PROFILE: Alpha blocker notably effective against Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder
BANNED BECAUSE: Banned on request of DARPA, who are trying to use epidemiology of Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder to predict the course of future conflicts. Lobbying to overturn ban by “Future Veterans of the Pakistani War” thus far ineffective.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/25/list-of-fictional-drugs-banned-by-the-fda/
***From Twitter:
Mental Floss @mental_floss In the 1890s, the University of Nebraska football team was called the Bugeaters.
Their literature included a listing of U of MN area churches. (Actually, only Minneapolis Campus ones.) Not nearly a complete list; only the theologically correct ones. Which did not include Catholic or Lutheran churches. And except for one Baptist church, none whose names identified them as belonging to any mainstream Protestant denomination.
***At Southeast Library, I returned books and picked up books being held.
***Comments of comment:
thnidu, 10/25, on LiveJournal: "How about Unitarians?" Not mentioned. I think it's unlikely the Orthodox churches would consider Unitarian Universalists to be Christians.
Don Fitch, 10/26, on LiveJournal: "I'm not sure about the ins and outs of Church Politics, and don't know much more about the Greek churches than I've picked up by way of some years of attending the annual Festivals at St. Nectarios', here in Covina, but my impression is that the operative word is not 'Greek', but 'Orthodox'. I suppose a certain number of Greek immigrants adopted 'American-sounding' family names, either originally or in the course of time, but some members of the congregation are likely to be Armenian, Russian, Serbian, and possibly Coptic or Anglo-Catholic, depending (I think) on how the various local Bishoprics stand on inter-Communion & ecumenism."
Some of the non-Greek names are Scandinavian and German. My guess: in most cases, the wife took the husband's name and the husband the wife's religion.
There are Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, and Serbian Orthodox churches in the Twin Cities area. And The Orthodox Church in North America.
"(I have no knowledge whatsoever, but sometimes indulge in fascinated speculation on the possible involvement of the Maronite Church here -- it's one of the Patriarchies of the Eastern Rite/Orthodox Church(), but has long had a close relationship with (and under) the Bishop of Rome.)"
Minneapolis has Maronite, Byzantine, and Ukrainian Catholic churches.
The Liberal Catholic Church of St. Francis is descended from a group which split off because it found some of Vatican I's results unbearable.
***PROTOZOSIN:
PROFILE: Alpha blocker notably effective against Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder
BANNED BECAUSE: Banned on request of DARPA, who are trying to use epidemiology of Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder to predict the course of future conflicts. Lobbying to overturn ban by “Future Veterans of the Pakistani War” thus far ineffective.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/25/list-of-fictional-drugs-banned-by-the-fda/
***From Twitter:
Mental Floss @mental_floss In the 1890s, the University of Nebraska football team was called the Bugeaters.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Thursday October 24, 2013 There was a dog at the Adult Children Anonymous meeting. I began thinking about 12-Step groups for dogs, but didn't get farther than Carchasers Anonymous.
***From Publisher's Lunch list of books sold: "Author of In the Hand of Dante Nick Tosches's untitled historical thriller about the life of Jesus, here seen as an erstwhile street-punk outlaw from Galilean society"
***From Twitter:
Poynter @Poynter Candidate endorses himself in ad on @Cleveland_Scene's cover: http://bit.ly/1fYkMK3 Criticism of move is "pretty boring," editor says
Co.Exist @FastCoExist Feeding Future Megacities With Floating Hydroponic Farms http://f-st.co/lxD4ISC
***Friday October 25, 2013 "For two years I was involved with 'The Lifestyle'...Then I met an incredibly sexy man and the four of us had 'Moby sex.'"
"The Lifestyle" involved "bondage and pigtails." Advice columnist Alexis had never heard of Moby sex.
http://www.vita.mn/alexis/229006181.html
***From laughingsquid.com, via Facebook:
Sound Engineer Who Wasn’t Paid by Band Remixes Their Hardcore Song into Electronic Dance Music Tune
http://preview.tinyurl.com/mzrdfx5
***From Publisher's Lunch list of books sold:
Reif Larsen's second novel, I AM RADAR, about a love-struck epileptic radio operator from the New Jersey Meadowlands who becomes involved with a secret international society of scientists and puppeteers that perform avant-garde shows about particle physics for populations suffering from genocide
Laurie McKay's THE LAST DRAGON CHARMER series: THE VILLAIN KEEPER (Book 1), in which a prince is pulled from his realm into Asheville, NC, and discovers the local middle school is staffed with banished villains from his world
***From Publisher's Lunch list of books sold: "Author of In the Hand of Dante Nick Tosches's untitled historical thriller about the life of Jesus, here seen as an erstwhile street-punk outlaw from Galilean society"
***From Twitter:
Poynter @Poynter Candidate endorses himself in ad on @Cleveland_Scene's cover: http://bit.ly/1fYkMK3 Criticism of move is "pretty boring," editor says
Co.Exist @FastCoExist Feeding Future Megacities With Floating Hydroponic Farms http://f-st.co/lxD4ISC
***Friday October 25, 2013 "For two years I was involved with 'The Lifestyle'...Then I met an incredibly sexy man and the four of us had 'Moby sex.'"
"The Lifestyle" involved "bondage and pigtails." Advice columnist Alexis had never heard of Moby sex.
http://www.vita.mn/alexis/229006181.html
***From laughingsquid.com, via Facebook:
Sound Engineer Who Wasn’t Paid by Band Remixes Their Hardcore Song into Electronic Dance Music Tune
http://preview.tinyurl.com/mzrdfx5
***From Publisher's Lunch list of books sold:
Reif Larsen's second novel, I AM RADAR, about a love-struck epileptic radio operator from the New Jersey Meadowlands who becomes involved with a secret international society of scientists and puppeteers that perform avant-garde shows about particle physics for populations suffering from genocide
Laurie McKay's THE LAST DRAGON CHARMER series: THE VILLAIN KEEPER (Book 1), in which a prince is pulled from his realm into Asheville, NC, and discovers the local middle school is staffed with banished villains from his world
Friday, October 25, 2013
Wednesday October 23, 2013 The bookstore at Minneapolis Central Library had a 25 cent sale. Bought a Lonely Planet guide to Papua New Guinea.
***On to the Wedge Coop's annual meeting. It was held at St. Mary's Greek Orthodox Church's event center.
St. Mary's Church's congregation is apparently mostly English-speaking. And not all the surnames are Greek.
Looked at some church literature. They perform marriages to other kinds of Christians, but not to non-Christians. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are classed as non-Christians.
This year, the Wedge had charged five dollars for dinner up to a certain date -- to be refunded at the meeting. Purpose: to get a reasonably accurate count of how many people needed to be fed. (And how many were vegetarian or vegan.) After the cut-off date, the cost was ten dollars and not refundable.
The refund turned out to be a Wedge gift card.
Appetizers available during the formal meeting were organically correct, with a good selection of gluten-free items.
Speeches, announcements. And a short film about Gardens of Eagan (organic farm owned by the Wedge) and its associated school. It would have made farming seem attractive to me, if I hadn't grown up in the country.
And then, dinner. I ate well.
***On to the Wedge Coop's annual meeting. It was held at St. Mary's Greek Orthodox Church's event center.
St. Mary's Church's congregation is apparently mostly English-speaking. And not all the surnames are Greek.
Looked at some church literature. They perform marriages to other kinds of Christians, but not to non-Christians. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are classed as non-Christians.
This year, the Wedge had charged five dollars for dinner up to a certain date -- to be refunded at the meeting. Purpose: to get a reasonably accurate count of how many people needed to be fed. (And how many were vegetarian or vegan.) After the cut-off date, the cost was ten dollars and not refundable.
The refund turned out to be a Wedge gift card.
Appetizers available during the formal meeting were organically correct, with a good selection of gluten-free items.
Speeches, announcements. And a short film about Gardens of Eagan (organic farm owned by the Wedge) and its associated school. It would have made farming seem attractive to me, if I hadn't grown up in the country.
And then, dinner. I ate well.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Tuesday October 22, 2013 CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.
Ambrose Bierce
***Comment from Don Fitch on LiveJournal 10/22 "May I suggest (without checking-out the site, because my computer/browser is wonky) that you probably do not have _the_ answer to the question 'what color is an orgasm?'. You seem to have _an_ answer. Probably quite a good one, but only one of many. (Okay, I might be missing something,because you're usually sharper than that.)"
The article does give several diverse answers. And it's not always, or only, visual.
***The birth of Prince William’s son in July 2013 was the occasion for an outpouring of media speculation about the fate of the royal baby’s foreskin. The possibility that he might be circumcised was connected to a purported tradition of circumcision within the British royal family, said to be have been initiated either by Queen Victoria or by George I. In this article, we trace the origins and evolution of these stories and assess their validity. Our conclusion is that belief in a royal circumcision tradition derives from the reported circumcision of Prince Charles by the mohel Jacob Snowman in 1948, and the efforts of the British Israelite movement to concoct "lost tribes of Israel" origin for the British race. These elements merged into a fully developed narrative that was widely disseminated from the late 1990s. The initially separate claim that the tradition was imported from Hanover by George I can be sourced precisely to 2012. We further show that these stories are inventions, and that the royal family circumcision tradition should be regarded as a classic instance of a contemporary legend or urban myth.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kz2dmcd
****Groom Who Halted Own Wedding With Bomb Hoax Jailed
LONDON October 22, 2013 (AP)
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
Associated Press
A forgetful British bridegroom who made a hoax bomb threat rather than admit he'd neglected to book the venue for his wedding was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail.
Neil McArdle called Liverpool's St. George's Hall from a phone booth on his scheduled wedding day in April, claiming a bomb was due to go off in 45 minutes.
His fiancee, Amy Williams, was left standing in the street in her wedding gown while the building was evacuated.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pg98wmk
***From Twitter:
Guy Kawasaki @GuyKawasaki Looking for a thrill? Pay to get kidnapped http://is.gd/jO6YPo
Antonio Regalado @antonioregalado Million-year storage disk able to outlast civilization features a QR code etched in tungsten. http://www.technologyreview.com/view/520541/million-year-data-storage-disk-unveiled/ …
pourmecoffee @pourmecoffee I study history. The founders recommended open source code and rigorous load testing for sites like Obamacare. Read a book why don't you.
Retweeted by Richard S. Crawford
Dr. Phil Metzger @Philtill777 How to hunt for alien transmitters in our own solar system.
http://bit.ly/H5SgI6
Retweeted by Winchell Chung
Ian Katz @iankatz1000 Senior employee in nuclear industry had "degree" from "university" that offered our dog an MBA for £4,000 #newsnight
Ambrose Bierce
***Comment from Don Fitch on LiveJournal 10/22 "May I suggest (without checking-out the site, because my computer/browser is wonky) that you probably do not have _the_ answer to the question 'what color is an orgasm?'. You seem to have _an_ answer. Probably quite a good one, but only one of many. (Okay, I might be missing something,because you're usually sharper than that.)"
The article does give several diverse answers. And it's not always, or only, visual.
***The birth of Prince William’s son in July 2013 was the occasion for an outpouring of media speculation about the fate of the royal baby’s foreskin. The possibility that he might be circumcised was connected to a purported tradition of circumcision within the British royal family, said to be have been initiated either by Queen Victoria or by George I. In this article, we trace the origins and evolution of these stories and assess their validity. Our conclusion is that belief in a royal circumcision tradition derives from the reported circumcision of Prince Charles by the mohel Jacob Snowman in 1948, and the efforts of the British Israelite movement to concoct "lost tribes of Israel" origin for the British race. These elements merged into a fully developed narrative that was widely disseminated from the late 1990s. The initially separate claim that the tradition was imported from Hanover by George I can be sourced precisely to 2012. We further show that these stories are inventions, and that the royal family circumcision tradition should be regarded as a classic instance of a contemporary legend or urban myth.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kz2dmcd
****Groom Who Halted Own Wedding With Bomb Hoax Jailed
LONDON October 22, 2013 (AP)
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
Associated Press
A forgetful British bridegroom who made a hoax bomb threat rather than admit he'd neglected to book the venue for his wedding was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail.
Neil McArdle called Liverpool's St. George's Hall from a phone booth on his scheduled wedding day in April, claiming a bomb was due to go off in 45 minutes.
His fiancee, Amy Williams, was left standing in the street in her wedding gown while the building was evacuated.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pg98wmk
***From Twitter:
Guy Kawasaki @GuyKawasaki Looking for a thrill? Pay to get kidnapped http://is.gd/jO6YPo
Antonio Regalado @antonioregalado Million-year storage disk able to outlast civilization features a QR code etched in tungsten. http://www.technologyreview.com/view/520541/million-year-data-storage-disk-unveiled/ …
pourmecoffee @pourmecoffee I study history. The founders recommended open source code and rigorous load testing for sites like Obamacare. Read a book why don't you.
Retweeted by Richard S. Crawford
Dr. Phil Metzger @Philtill777 How to hunt for alien transmitters in our own solar system.
http://bit.ly/H5SgI6
Retweeted by Winchell Chung
Ian Katz @iankatz1000 Senior employee in nuclear industry had "degree" from "university" that offered our dog an MBA for £4,000 #newsnight
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Monday October 21, 2013
Via Facebook:
What color is an orgasm?
People with a condition known as synesthesia are prone to swapping their senses. They can feel colors, see music, and smell words. This raises an important question for science: What's it like to have sex when you've got synesthesia? Thanks to some inquisitive researchers, we have the answer.
http://io9.com/what-color-is-an-orgasm-1449322041
***From Twitter:
MarkMillerITPro @MarkMillerITPro Flying cars? "Just imagine the DMV issuing licenses. I'd be building the thickest roof I could come up w and never go outside." Andreesse...
Future Aware @futureaware Transition to Renmembi as the world?s reserve currency on track for sometime in the 2020s #future http://bit.ly/16rqivZ
Peg @ethnobot Yikes! Creepy: App enables users to accept offers such as plastic surgery or a tank of gas in exchange for a date http://alj.am/1bQOjQT
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
Alex Wild @Myrmecos @bug_girl @edyong209 @slugnads @pwthornton I understand that the strategic spider reserve helped us win the war in Arach.
Retweeted by Bug G. Membracid
Marketplace @MarketplaceAPM Credit Suisse launches an index with only LGBT-friendly companies, will you invest? http://mktplc.org/1fRvz8G
Via Facebook:
What color is an orgasm?
People with a condition known as synesthesia are prone to swapping their senses. They can feel colors, see music, and smell words. This raises an important question for science: What's it like to have sex when you've got synesthesia? Thanks to some inquisitive researchers, we have the answer.
http://io9.com/what-color-is-an-orgasm-1449322041
***From Twitter:
MarkMillerITPro @MarkMillerITPro Flying cars? "Just imagine the DMV issuing licenses. I'd be building the thickest roof I could come up w and never go outside." Andreesse...
Future Aware @futureaware Transition to Renmembi as the world?s reserve currency on track for sometime in the 2020s #future http://bit.ly/16rqivZ
Peg @ethnobot Yikes! Creepy: App enables users to accept offers such as plastic surgery or a tank of gas in exchange for a date http://alj.am/1bQOjQT
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
Alex Wild @Myrmecos @bug_girl @edyong209 @slugnads @pwthornton I understand that the strategic spider reserve helped us win the war in Arach.
Retweeted by Bug G. Membracid
Marketplace @MarketplaceAPM Credit Suisse launches an index with only LGBT-friendly companies, will you invest? http://mktplc.org/1fRvz8G
Monday, October 21, 2013
Sunday October 20, 2013
Comment from Don Fitch on LiveJournal 10/20:
"I was all set to post a response similar to soon_lee's, but in a final re-reading realized the import of your concluding sentence (something about an alternate universe in which some other fowl had been domesticated) -- you were perfectly solid on 'liver', and 'giblets', but were questioning (or noting that you were assuming) the 'turkey' aspect because the market did not use this word on the package. (That was probably just a careless error, but it was also probably illegal... and I'd guess that someone in the store has noticed it (or will soon) and it won't happen again, for a while, although the giblets might be a trifle more expensive if they have to move up to a larger label-printing machine.)"
The Wedge Coop used to label it as "turkey giblets."
10/21 -- I complained, and the problem is supposed to get fixed.
Comment from Al Zorra on LiveJournal 10/20:
"By coincidence I looked at The Last Werewolf in my local branch yesterday, along with the book that comes after it. Look was all I did though, because really, like to you, to me it looked so ho-hum dull, why bother?
"Love, C."
***From Twitter:
Spring Heel Patrick @SpringaldJack
#dearStudent Jewish people do not study Talmud "to learn how God wants Muslims to live." PLEASE PROOFREAD
Retweeted by Lillian Cohen-Moore
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
A strange airship was seen last night in the sky over St. Louis. It was a fiery red ball of light, as big as a Ben Davis apple. IL1897
Science Fiction @ScienceFiction0
Science fiction can rescue black communities - Frost Illustrated http://dlvr.it/49ZjyL
Lynne Murphy @lynneguist
I just sent round a quote attributed to Ronald Searle, cartoonist. Looks like it was really by John Searle, philosopher. Always check 1st.
Lynne Murphy @lynneguist
"You can never understand one language until you understand at least two" --John Searle
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
Roanoke Fine Lager Beer is highly recommended for a family tonic. Call for it at the Dispensary. VA1915
Comment from Don Fitch on LiveJournal 10/20:
"I was all set to post a response similar to soon_lee's, but in a final re-reading realized the import of your concluding sentence (something about an alternate universe in which some other fowl had been domesticated) -- you were perfectly solid on 'liver', and 'giblets', but were questioning (or noting that you were assuming) the 'turkey' aspect because the market did not use this word on the package. (That was probably just a careless error, but it was also probably illegal... and I'd guess that someone in the store has noticed it (or will soon) and it won't happen again, for a while, although the giblets might be a trifle more expensive if they have to move up to a larger label-printing machine.)"
The Wedge Coop used to label it as "turkey giblets."
10/21 -- I complained, and the problem is supposed to get fixed.
Comment from Al Zorra on LiveJournal 10/20:
"By coincidence I looked at The Last Werewolf in my local branch yesterday, along with the book that comes after it. Look was all I did though, because really, like to you, to me it looked so ho-hum dull, why bother?
"Love, C."
***From Twitter:
Spring Heel Patrick @SpringaldJack
#dearStudent Jewish people do not study Talmud "to learn how God wants Muslims to live." PLEASE PROOFREAD
Retweeted by Lillian Cohen-Moore
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
A strange airship was seen last night in the sky over St. Louis. It was a fiery red ball of light, as big as a Ben Davis apple. IL1897
Science Fiction @ScienceFiction0
Science fiction can rescue black communities - Frost Illustrated http://dlvr.it/49ZjyL
Lynne Murphy @lynneguist
I just sent round a quote attributed to Ronald Searle, cartoonist. Looks like it was really by John Searle, philosopher. Always check 1st.
Lynne Murphy @lynneguist
"You can never understand one language until you understand at least two" --John Searle
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
Roanoke Fine Lager Beer is highly recommended for a family tonic. Call for it at the Dispensary. VA1915
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Saturday October 19, 2013 Picked up two fantasy novels from Southeast Library.
Maz Gladstone, Three Parts Dead. Tor, 2012. Enjoyable. Pulpish, with interesting characters and a background which held up.
Note: the cover shows a young Black woman, fully clothed. (Since the book isn't set in our world, "Afro-American" would be inaccurate.)
Glen Duncan, The Last Werewolf. Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Found it boring.
***Rain mixed with ice pellets today. Rain mixed with snow coming up. I think I can put away my shortsleeved shirts.
***comment from soon_lee on LiveJournal, October 19:
"Liver (more mushy) & giblet (more chewy, even sometimes rubbery) have very different textures."
Here's what the OED has to say:
giblets...
the liver, heart, gizzard, and neck of a chicken or other fowl, usually removed before the bird is cooked, and often used to make gravy, stuffing, or soup.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/giblets?view=uk
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/giblets
***In conclusion, _Hideous Progeny_ is a thoroughly researched and
well-structured introduction to eugenicist thought on disability in
classic horror films. It reveals eugenicist uses of disability as
pernicious, and offers a variety of nuanced and developed arguments
about the use of horror to undercut eugenical rhetoric, and, more
importantly, presents it as fundamentally unstable, "obsessively
fascinated with the deviance it claimed to abhor" (p. 7). Such
fascination is as relevant to contemporary cultural studies of
disability as it is to 1930s horror films, and _Hideous Progeny_ is a
valuable contribution to discussions of disability, spectacle, and
eugenics in genre fiction and film.
Citation: Hannah Tweed. Review of Smith, Angela M., _Hideous Progeny:
Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema_. H-Disability, H-Net
Reviews. October, 2013.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38628
***From Twitter:
Mr Rossignol @jimrossignol
The internet contains so many sentences starting "Am I the only person who..." and the answer is always "no".
Retweeted by Texas Triffid Ranch
Al Jazeera America @ajam
Video: California man secures health insurance for $1 per month through Obamacare http://alj.am/1c4C4V6
Lauren Hall-Lew @dialect
Labov announces that the Atlas of North American English is being made available for Open Access! Whoo hoo! #NWAV42
Retweeted by Benjamin Lukoff
Davho Pldal @SnarkOnTap
Freedomworks CEO says shutdown was a brilliant strategy. Freedomworks is going broke. Coincidence? Uh, no.
Maz Gladstone, Three Parts Dead. Tor, 2012. Enjoyable. Pulpish, with interesting characters and a background which held up.
Note: the cover shows a young Black woman, fully clothed. (Since the book isn't set in our world, "Afro-American" would be inaccurate.)
Glen Duncan, The Last Werewolf. Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Found it boring.
***Rain mixed with ice pellets today. Rain mixed with snow coming up. I think I can put away my shortsleeved shirts.
***comment from soon_lee on LiveJournal, October 19:
"Liver (more mushy) & giblet (more chewy, even sometimes rubbery) have very different textures."
Here's what the OED has to say:
giblets...
the liver, heart, gizzard, and neck of a chicken or other fowl, usually removed before the bird is cooked, and often used to make gravy, stuffing, or soup.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/giblets?view=uk
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/giblets
***In conclusion, _Hideous Progeny_ is a thoroughly researched and
well-structured introduction to eugenicist thought on disability in
classic horror films. It reveals eugenicist uses of disability as
pernicious, and offers a variety of nuanced and developed arguments
about the use of horror to undercut eugenical rhetoric, and, more
importantly, presents it as fundamentally unstable, "obsessively
fascinated with the deviance it claimed to abhor" (p. 7). Such
fascination is as relevant to contemporary cultural studies of
disability as it is to 1930s horror films, and _Hideous Progeny_ is a
valuable contribution to discussions of disability, spectacle, and
eugenics in genre fiction and film.
Citation: Hannah Tweed. Review of Smith, Angela M., _Hideous Progeny:
Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema_. H-Disability, H-Net
Reviews. October, 2013.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38628
***From Twitter:
Mr Rossignol @jimrossignol
The internet contains so many sentences starting "Am I the only person who..." and the answer is always "no".
Retweeted by Texas Triffid Ranch
Al Jazeera America @ajam
Video: California man secures health insurance for $1 per month through Obamacare http://alj.am/1c4C4V6
Lauren Hall-Lew @dialect
Labov announces that the Atlas of North American English is being made available for Open Access! Whoo hoo! #NWAV42
Retweeted by Benjamin Lukoff
Davho Pldal @SnarkOnTap
Freedomworks CEO says shutdown was a brilliant strategy. Freedomworks is going broke. Coincidence? Uh, no.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #8 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Friday October 18, 2013 Last night, I ate turkey livers. Today, I was over whatever I'd had. I think the turkey livers contributed.
Pedantic note: I ate what I'm certain was turkey giblets, including livers. The Wedge Coop has been labeling them just "giblets." For all I know, they're imported crosstime from an alternate world in which different fowl were domesticated.
"Keep calm and chive on" Seen on a car.
***Got a flu shot.
***From Twitter:
Tim O'Reilly @timoreilly
RT @make First two 3D printers in Haiti will be put to work printing umbilical cord clamps & other medical devices. http://bit.ly/1c2Ia8s
Laura Anne Gilman @LAGilman
"Dear God." - otherwise jaded houseguest on reaction of cats to my opening a tin of sardines... #furrysharks
Means of Exchange @MeansofExchange
What happens when a slum in Mombasa adopts its own complementary currency: http://bit.ly/1115ID3 via @BrookingsInst
Elf Sternberg @elfsternberg
Dennis Miller told a caller, "This is the America Americans chose in 2012." Caller: "Most Americans aren't Americans then!"
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
The U. S. bureau of education has endorsed the effort to educate high school girls to make them efficient wives and housekeepers. MO1913
Hard Sci-Fi Movies @HardSciFiMovies
Police begin using "pre-cognitives" to prosecute crimes that have not yet occurred. The Supreme Court deems the practice unconstitutional.
Friday October 18, 2013 Last night, I ate turkey livers. Today, I was over whatever I'd had. I think the turkey livers contributed.
Pedantic note: I ate what I'm certain was turkey giblets, including livers. The Wedge Coop has been labeling them just "giblets." For all I know, they're imported crosstime from an alternate world in which different fowl were domesticated.
"Keep calm and chive on" Seen on a car.
***Got a flu shot.
***From Twitter:
Tim O'Reilly @timoreilly
RT @make First two 3D printers in Haiti will be put to work printing umbilical cord clamps & other medical devices. http://bit.ly/1c2Ia8s
Laura Anne Gilman @LAGilman
"Dear God." - otherwise jaded houseguest on reaction of cats to my opening a tin of sardines... #furrysharks
Means of Exchange @MeansofExchange
What happens when a slum in Mombasa adopts its own complementary currency: http://bit.ly/1115ID3 via @BrookingsInst
Elf Sternberg @elfsternberg
Dennis Miller told a caller, "This is the America Americans chose in 2012." Caller: "Most Americans aren't Americans then!"
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
The U. S. bureau of education has endorsed the effort to educate high school girls to make them efficient wives and housekeepers. MO1913
Hard Sci-Fi Movies @HardSciFiMovies
Police begin using "pre-cognitives" to prosecute crimes that have not yet occurred. The Supreme Court deems the practice unconstitutional.
Friday, October 18, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #6 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Thursday October 17, 2013 From brotherguy on LiveJournal: "...Since it has significant theological content (the title is, Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?) and both my co-author and I are members of a religious order, that means that we have to be sure not to embarrass the order too much with what we say, so it has to go past someone higher up to check for theological howlers. (My last book garnered a comment that 'the statement you make on page 213 was specifically condemned by the Council of Nicea'. Well, I didn't know... I added the word 'not' to that sentence.)"
***Feeling better, but not up to par. Skipped the Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***From email:
The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum, "Where Everyone is Treated like Family," is the former home of Lizzie Borden, who remains in the center of a whodunnit involving the murder of her parents--to this day
***From Twitter:
Dan Goodman @dsgood
.@USRealityCheck "Genetically modified crop pioneers" How were they modified? Were the geneticists who modified them also honored?
Thursday October 17, 2013 From brotherguy on LiveJournal: "...Since it has significant theological content (the title is, Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?) and both my co-author and I are members of a religious order, that means that we have to be sure not to embarrass the order too much with what we say, so it has to go past someone higher up to check for theological howlers. (My last book garnered a comment that 'the statement you make on page 213 was specifically condemned by the Council of Nicea'. Well, I didn't know... I added the word 'not' to that sentence.)"
***Feeling better, but not up to par. Skipped the Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***From email:
The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum, "Where Everyone is Treated like Family," is the former home of Lizzie Borden, who remains in the center of a whodunnit involving the murder of her parents--to this day
***From Twitter:
Dan Goodman @dsgood
.@USRealityCheck "Genetically modified crop pioneers" How were they modified? Were the geneticists who modified them also honored?
Thursday, October 17, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #6 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Wednesday October 16, 2013 Sickish. At least partly Fall allergies, I suspect.
***In my opinion, the House Republican leadership has done for responsible conservatism what Frank and Jesse James did for the banking industry. But now, at the last minute, they acted responsibly.
****October 15 Seawasp says:
"> Thoughts: Ability to transmit sensations other than sight and sound might
> make computer dating sites more interesting. 'This is what my [body part]
> feels and tastes like.'
"> I haven't seen this done in science fiction. Has anyone else?
"Well, that sounds like immersive VR with selectable transmission (for your dating idea).
"OOO! How about this! Computer dating where your date controls the sensations you can access! So like many games, you get achievements at various levels of successful dating. *Bing* Your recent dates have made _Your Date_ very happy. You have unlocked Breasts!"
I was thinking about using the Net to find people for in-person dating. But this does sound interesting.
From Twitter:
RAND Congressional @RAND_OCR
Just ended: brief on preparing for possibility of #NKorea regime collapse. Download book free http://bit.ly/1cupGuk pic.twitter.com/d9ZdYZMHuS
Retweeted by RAND Corporation
Davho Pldal @SnarkOnTap
*spit-take* RT @AlanColmes: GOP Rep: Press To Blame For Falsely Reporting We Wanted To Repeal Obamacare http://colm.es/1cuObHC #p2
Kory Stamper @KoryStamper
Oh, email: "Just because a word is in historic print, or because people used it, doesn't make it a word!!" By this logic, words don't exist.
Retweeted by Copyediting
Wednesday October 16, 2013 Sickish. At least partly Fall allergies, I suspect.
***In my opinion, the House Republican leadership has done for responsible conservatism what Frank and Jesse James did for the banking industry. But now, at the last minute, they acted responsibly.
****October 15 Seawasp says:
"> Thoughts: Ability to transmit sensations other than sight and sound might
> make computer dating sites more interesting. 'This is what my [body part]
> feels and tastes like.'
"> I haven't seen this done in science fiction. Has anyone else?
"Well, that sounds like immersive VR with selectable transmission (for your dating idea).
"OOO! How about this! Computer dating where your date controls the sensations you can access! So like many games, you get achievements at various levels of successful dating. *Bing* Your recent dates have made _Your Date_ very happy. You have unlocked Breasts!"
I was thinking about using the Net to find people for in-person dating. But this does sound interesting.
From Twitter:
RAND Congressional @RAND_OCR
Just ended: brief on preparing for possibility of #NKorea regime collapse. Download book free http://bit.ly/1cupGuk pic.twitter.com/d9ZdYZMHuS
Retweeted by RAND Corporation
Davho Pldal @SnarkOnTap
*spit-take* RT @AlanColmes: GOP Rep: Press To Blame For Falsely Reporting We Wanted To Repeal Obamacare http://colm.es/1cuObHC #p2
Kory Stamper @KoryStamper
Oh, email: "Just because a word is in historic print, or because people used it, doesn't make it a word!!" By this logic, words don't exist.
Retweeted by Copyediting
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #5 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Tuesday October 15, 2013 Ada Lovelace Day
Method of recording brain activity could lead to mind-reading devices, scientists say
http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/october/parvizi.html
***Gary Shteyngart wrote recently that he chose to set his novel, “Super Sad True Love Story,” “in an unspecified near future, because setting a novel in the present in a time of unprecedented technological and social dislocation seemed to me shortsighted.” Even so, Mr. Shteyngart’s novel “proved prescient all too quickly.” Soon after it was published, many aspects of the book’s satirical near-future world — from transparent clothing to smartphone apps that help people hook up in bars — had become commonplace.
It’s a problem all novelists have to contend with, to a certain extent. Fiction is supposed to reflect reality, in some way or another. But reality is constantly changing. It can take years to write a novel and in those years, history marches on. Wars break out and governments are toppled, perceptions shift and new gadgets are invented....
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lt6jg54
Not mentioned in the article: Failure to observe what's already happened. In the 1950s, English science fiction writers (notably Arthur C. Clarke) took for granted that England would continue to be a Great Power on Earth, and would become one in space. The UK was no longer a Great Power.
I'm not sure when it should have been obvious that the Soviet Union wasn't going to take over the world.
***From Twitter:
Eric W. Dolan @EWDolan
Lithuania moves to takes advantage of Polish ban on ritual slaughter http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/15/lithuania-moves-to-takes-advantage-of-polish-ban-on-ritual-slaughter/ …
Tuesday October 15, 2013 Ada Lovelace Day
Method of recording brain activity could lead to mind-reading devices, scientists say
http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/october/parvizi.html
***Gary Shteyngart wrote recently that he chose to set his novel, “Super Sad True Love Story,” “in an unspecified near future, because setting a novel in the present in a time of unprecedented technological and social dislocation seemed to me shortsighted.” Even so, Mr. Shteyngart’s novel “proved prescient all too quickly.” Soon after it was published, many aspects of the book’s satirical near-future world — from transparent clothing to smartphone apps that help people hook up in bars — had become commonplace.
It’s a problem all novelists have to contend with, to a certain extent. Fiction is supposed to reflect reality, in some way or another. But reality is constantly changing. It can take years to write a novel and in those years, history marches on. Wars break out and governments are toppled, perceptions shift and new gadgets are invented....
http://preview.tinyurl.com/lt6jg54
Not mentioned in the article: Failure to observe what's already happened. In the 1950s, English science fiction writers (notably Arthur C. Clarke) took for granted that England would continue to be a Great Power on Earth, and would become one in space. The UK was no longer a Great Power.
I'm not sure when it should have been obvious that the Soviet Union wasn't going to take over the world.
***From Twitter:
Eric W. Dolan @EWDolan
Lithuania moves to takes advantage of Polish ban on ritual slaughter http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/15/lithuania-moves-to-takes-advantage-of-polish-ban-on-ritual-slaughter/ …
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #3 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Monday October 14, 2013 Columbus Day, Anti-Columbus Day, Canadian Thanksgiving
Thoughts: Ability to transmit sensations other than sight and sound might make computer dating sites more interesting. "This is what my [body part] feels and tastes like."
I haven't seen this done in science fiction. Has anyone else?
***I'm not in the target audience: Emailed invitation to a presentation on the Shroud of Turin.
***From Twitter:
Evil Wylie @EvilWylie
I’ve read Amish vampire fiction before, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect. You don’t need electricity to change into a bat.
Reason @reason
Ohio Republicans Attempt to Eliminate Minor Parties; Libertarians and Greens Push Back - http://bit.ly/18fwaMz
Retweeted by Benjamin Lukoff
Hard Sci-Fi Movies @HardSciFiMovies
A boy and his sister discover a space alien and provide him refuge in their home closet. Their parents correctly identify it as a groundhog.
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
Andrew Shaffer @andrewtshaffer
The long-awaited 3rd chapter of my NSFW Edward Snowden erotic fanfic: http://www.literaryrogue.com/edward-snowden-fanfic/chapter-3.html …
Retweeted by Evil Wylie
Evil Wylie @EvilWylie
"She stared at him for a moment and then flung out her arms, shouting, 'There is no baby, lizardman!'" actual line from "lizard erotica"
Monday October 14, 2013 Columbus Day, Anti-Columbus Day, Canadian Thanksgiving
Thoughts: Ability to transmit sensations other than sight and sound might make computer dating sites more interesting. "This is what my [body part] feels and tastes like."
I haven't seen this done in science fiction. Has anyone else?
***I'm not in the target audience: Emailed invitation to a presentation on the Shroud of Turin.
***From Twitter:
Evil Wylie @EvilWylie
I’ve read Amish vampire fiction before, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect. You don’t need electricity to change into a bat.
Reason @reason
Ohio Republicans Attempt to Eliminate Minor Parties; Libertarians and Greens Push Back - http://bit.ly/18fwaMz
Retweeted by Benjamin Lukoff
Hard Sci-Fi Movies @HardSciFiMovies
A boy and his sister discover a space alien and provide him refuge in their home closet. Their parents correctly identify it as a groundhog.
Retweeted by rivenhomewood
Andrew Shaffer @andrewtshaffer
The long-awaited 3rd chapter of my NSFW Edward Snowden erotic fanfic: http://www.literaryrogue.com/edward-snowden-fanfic/chapter-3.html …
Retweeted by Evil Wylie
Evil Wylie @EvilWylie
"She stared at him for a moment and then flung out her arms, shouting, 'There is no baby, lizardman!'" actual line from "lizard erotica"
Monday, October 14, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #3 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Sunday October 13, 2013 "A Few Geniuses More" (working title, sf short) is now going well.
***Comments to me:
October 9 Lee Gold. "A recent article I noticed on Salon or on GoogleNews disclosed that federal rules allow unpaid interns to continue working for free, with the result that interns are now doing a lot of work during the shutdown."
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/08/government_quietly_being_staffed_during_shutdown_by_unpaid_interns/
"You might be interested in the various rumors recently debunked by Snopes in which the Federal Government cloaks Mount Rushmore, shuts down the Amber Alert system, and threatens to arrest Catholic chaplains in the military if they hold Mass."
I wonder why specifically Catholic chaplains?
August 23 Lee Gold <lee.gold@ca.rr.com>
"On 8/23/2013 4:09 PM, Daniel S. Goodman wrote: 'I sometimes wonder how a teleportation network would affect where people live. If they could commute from places with extremely low housing prices to jobs anywhere, how many would do it?'
"Places with extremely low housing prices may have higher rates for heating & air conditioning
(or will you cheaply teleport hot/cold air to them?). They may also have more annoying noise levels and smells and other problems."
These are among the things which people who now make such moves run into. Plus weather they're not used to, high food prices, unaccustomed poisonous plants, less choice of utility providers ....
August 20 Fred Lerner. "Deer certainly are kosher, if slaughtered properly. A bit of googling should take you to sources for kosher venison. We used to get kosher bison from a butcher in New Haven, but they haven't had any lately. (I'd hate to be the guy who has to get up close and schecht the critter!)"
Thanks for the correction.
August 22 Lee Gold. "> Friday August 16, 2013 The New York Times has a culinary report from Montana, where meat slaughtered in a most unkosher manner is more legal than it had been.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/us/roadkill-gains-traction-as-a-home-menu-item.html?hpw
>
> Deliberately running down deer for eating has not been legalized. And human roadkill doesn't seem to be discussed.
"How do they tell whether a deer was accidentally hit or deliberately run down?
Or illegally shot (out of season, maybe) and then disguised as an accident victim?"
"> From politicalwire.com:
> Iranian politician Nina Siakhali Moradi had her city council election overturned by religious conservatives, who barred her from office for being too pretty, Iran Wire reports.
> http://iranwire.com/en/projects/1961
"Did the article say she was too pretty?
Or just that she was a young woman behaving improperly?"
It said she was too attractive.
""> [Note: Deer, pegasi, and most insects are not kosher.]
"Deer split the hoof and chew cud, and therefore are kosher -- if they are properly slaughtered.
http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm -- 'Cattle, sheep, goats, deer and bison are kosher.'
"Pegasi would probably get classed as a variant of horse -- which doesn't split the hoof OR chew cud. But if you could persuade your rabbis to class pegasi as flying animals, then they might get by on the grounds that they're not any of the forbidden species. In practice, though, kosher rules only accept birds for which there's a tradition of Jews eating them. The turkey squeaked through on its resemblance to chickens, as I understand it. A "pegasus" built on a deerlike or goatlike body might qualify, and this means that deerlike depictions of unicorns would qualify and horselike ones wouldn't."
Sunday October 13, 2013 "A Few Geniuses More" (working title, sf short) is now going well.
***Comments to me:
October 9 Lee Gold. "A recent article I noticed on Salon or on GoogleNews disclosed that federal rules allow unpaid interns to continue working for free, with the result that interns are now doing a lot of work during the shutdown."
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/08/government_quietly_being_staffed_during_shutdown_by_unpaid_interns/
"You might be interested in the various rumors recently debunked by Snopes in which the Federal Government cloaks Mount Rushmore, shuts down the Amber Alert system, and threatens to arrest Catholic chaplains in the military if they hold Mass."
I wonder why specifically Catholic chaplains?
August 23 Lee Gold <lee.gold@ca.rr.com>
"On 8/23/2013 4:09 PM, Daniel S. Goodman wrote: 'I sometimes wonder how a teleportation network would affect where people live. If they could commute from places with extremely low housing prices to jobs anywhere, how many would do it?'
"Places with extremely low housing prices may have higher rates for heating & air conditioning
(or will you cheaply teleport hot/cold air to them?). They may also have more annoying noise levels and smells and other problems."
These are among the things which people who now make such moves run into. Plus weather they're not used to, high food prices, unaccustomed poisonous plants, less choice of utility providers ....
August 20 Fred Lerner. "Deer certainly are kosher, if slaughtered properly. A bit of googling should take you to sources for kosher venison. We used to get kosher bison from a butcher in New Haven, but they haven't had any lately. (I'd hate to be the guy who has to get up close and schecht the critter!)"
Thanks for the correction.
August 22 Lee Gold. "> Friday August 16, 2013 The New York Times has a culinary report from Montana, where meat slaughtered in a most unkosher manner is more legal than it had been.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/us/roadkill-gains-traction-as-a-home-menu-item.html?hpw
>
> Deliberately running down deer for eating has not been legalized. And human roadkill doesn't seem to be discussed.
"How do they tell whether a deer was accidentally hit or deliberately run down?
Or illegally shot (out of season, maybe) and then disguised as an accident victim?"
"> From politicalwire.com:
> Iranian politician Nina Siakhali Moradi had her city council election overturned by religious conservatives, who barred her from office for being too pretty, Iran Wire reports.
> http://iranwire.com/en/projects/1961
"Did the article say she was too pretty?
Or just that she was a young woman behaving improperly?"
It said she was too attractive.
""> [Note: Deer, pegasi, and most insects are not kosher.]
"Deer split the hoof and chew cud, and therefore are kosher -- if they are properly slaughtered.
http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm -- 'Cattle, sheep, goats, deer and bison are kosher.'
"Pegasi would probably get classed as a variant of horse -- which doesn't split the hoof OR chew cud. But if you could persuade your rabbis to class pegasi as flying animals, then they might get by on the grounds that they're not any of the forbidden species. In practice, though, kosher rules only accept birds for which there's a tradition of Jews eating them. The turkey squeaked through on its resemblance to chickens, as I understand it. A "pegasus" built on a deerlike or goatlike body might qualify, and this means that deerlike depictions of unicorns would qualify and horselike ones wouldn't."
Saturday, October 12, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #2 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Thursday October 10, 2013 At Steeple People Thrift Store, found a manbag which I liked better than the one I'd been using.
Across Lyndale Avenue to the Wedge Coop.
***Among the new books at Central Library, found: Paula Guran, The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons. (Mammoth is the publisher; unfortunately, none of the angels or demons are mammoths.) Recommended; theological accuracy not guaranteed.
***I arrived at the Adult Children Anonymous meeting place with a large backpack. Someone remarked that I was obviously prepared for any emergency.
No, I said. I only had one elephant gun.
***From politicalwire.com:
Drunk Dial Congress
A new service randomly connects you to the office of a Member of Congress so you can yell at them.
drunkdialcongress.org
***From Twitter:
Jim Antle @jimantle
Don't believe the liberal pollsters on the shutdown. These are the same skewed polls that said Obama would be reelected.
Retweeted by Josh Gerstein
Friday October 11, 2013 The Star Tribune had an article on the upcoming Zombie Pub Crawl. The Brain Eating Contest will use veal brain tacos, which I'd never heard of before.
***Intentional communities designed for autistic people:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/garden/the-architecture-of-autism.html?hpw&pagewanted=all&_r=0
***From Twitter:
Nancy Friedman @Fritinancy
Portmonthteau of the day: Socktober. http://soulpancake.com/socktober/
Swedish Canary @SwedishCanary 9 Oct
Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords as a basis for a system of government is starting to sound better every minute.
Retweeted by Bug G. Membracid
Thursday October 10, 2013 At Steeple People Thrift Store, found a manbag which I liked better than the one I'd been using.
Across Lyndale Avenue to the Wedge Coop.
***Among the new books at Central Library, found: Paula Guran, The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons. (Mammoth is the publisher; unfortunately, none of the angels or demons are mammoths.) Recommended; theological accuracy not guaranteed.
***I arrived at the Adult Children Anonymous meeting place with a large backpack. Someone remarked that I was obviously prepared for any emergency.
No, I said. I only had one elephant gun.
***From politicalwire.com:
Drunk Dial Congress
A new service randomly connects you to the office of a Member of Congress so you can yell at them.
drunkdialcongress.org
***From Twitter:
Jim Antle @jimantle
Don't believe the liberal pollsters on the shutdown. These are the same skewed polls that said Obama would be reelected.
Retweeted by Josh Gerstein
Friday October 11, 2013 The Star Tribune had an article on the upcoming Zombie Pub Crawl. The Brain Eating Contest will use veal brain tacos, which I'd never heard of before.
***Intentional communities designed for autistic people:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/garden/the-architecture-of-autism.html?hpw&pagewanted=all&_r=0
***From Twitter:
Nancy Friedman @Fritinancy
Portmonthteau of the day: Socktober. http://soulpancake.com/socktober/
Swedish Canary @SwedishCanary 9 Oct
Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords as a basis for a system of government is starting to sound better every minute.
Retweeted by Bug G. Membracid
Friday, October 11, 2013
I Don't Want to Be Normal. I Want to Be Healthy. #1 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Wednesday October 9, 2013 To Waite House for NAPS and produce distribution.
***The Geek Partnership Society (currently the major sf/fantasy fandom(s) group in the Twin Cities Metro) is now on Meetup.
***From politicalwire.com:
Headline of the Day
"IRS Official Says She Never Consorted With the Devil"
-- Associated Press, October 9, 2013.
***From Publishers Lunch (free email from Publishers Marketplace):
Book deal: "NYT bestselling author of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S STAR WARS Ian Doescher's THE EMPIRE STRIKETH BACK and THE JEDI DOTH RETURN, completing the original Star Wars trilogy in iambic pentameter"
***From Twitter:
MarkMillerITPro @MarkMillerITPro
I hate it when I use the wrong word in my status and people just consume that I am stupid. Jeanette Breedt #quote
Julieanne Smolinski @BoobsRadley
I think more credit for the baby boom should go to food in the 1950s. Jello salad, or sex with just about anyone? You know what you'd pick.
Petteri Tarkkonen @ptarkkonen
"Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect." -Benny Hill #business
Gates Foundation @gatesfoundation
More than 2/3 in Kenya use mobile money. MT @BillGates: There are only 10 ATMs for every 100K adults in #Kenya. http://gates.ly/GGyAts
Retweeted by Futurist Watcher
Wednesday October 9, 2013 To Waite House for NAPS and produce distribution.
***The Geek Partnership Society (currently the major sf/fantasy fandom(s) group in the Twin Cities Metro) is now on Meetup.
***From politicalwire.com:
Headline of the Day
"IRS Official Says She Never Consorted With the Devil"
-- Associated Press, October 9, 2013.
***From Publishers Lunch (free email from Publishers Marketplace):
Book deal: "NYT bestselling author of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S STAR WARS Ian Doescher's THE EMPIRE STRIKETH BACK and THE JEDI DOTH RETURN, completing the original Star Wars trilogy in iambic pentameter"
***From Twitter:
MarkMillerITPro @MarkMillerITPro
I hate it when I use the wrong word in my status and people just consume that I am stupid. Jeanette Breedt #quote
Julieanne Smolinski @BoobsRadley
I think more credit for the baby boom should go to food in the 1950s. Jello salad, or sex with just about anyone? You know what you'd pick.
Petteri Tarkkonen @ptarkkonen
"Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect." -Benny Hill #business
Gates Foundation @gatesfoundation
More than 2/3 in Kenya use mobile money. MT @BillGates: There are only 10 ATMs for every 100K adults in #Kenya. http://gates.ly/GGyAts
Retweeted by Futurist Watcher
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Deep-fried Sashimi 10/06/13 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Sunday October 6, 2013 I thought "and their names were Adam and Eve" sf stories were no longer publishable. But at Minneapolis Central Library, new books included Tanith Lee's collection Space is Just a Starry Night; Aqueduct Press, 2013. It contains "With a Flaming Sword," one of the book's two non-reprint stories.
Another story, "Black Fire," references Adam and Eve more subtly. It appeared in Lightspeed in January 2011.
***From Twitter:
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
Samuel Rouzee seeks a divorce from William Rouzee. That two men have been living as man and wife suggests a horrible state of affairs.DC1889
Sunday October 6, 2013 I thought "and their names were Adam and Eve" sf stories were no longer publishable. But at Minneapolis Central Library, new books included Tanith Lee's collection Space is Just a Starry Night; Aqueduct Press, 2013. It contains "With a Flaming Sword," one of the book's two non-reprint stories.
Another story, "Black Fire," references Adam and Eve more subtly. It appeared in Lightspeed in January 2011.
***From Twitter:
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld
Samuel Rouzee seeks a divorce from William Rouzee. That two men have been living as man and wife suggests a horrible state of affairs.DC1889
Monday, October 7, 2013
Deep-fried Sashimi 10/05/13 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Saturday October 5, 2013 It’s clear that Bryce was conceived in Dallas. But Jocelyn and Paige were conceived in New York City (in the borough of Manhattan). However, neither of those place names seemed to work as baby names, so Ron and Cheryl [Howard] went with the name of the swanky hotel where the twins were conceived: The Carlyle. Using that logic, Reed’s middle name should have been Volvo, but that car brand didn’t work as a baby name either, so the Howards went with the name of the quiet street on which the Volvo was parked in Greenwich, Connecticut: Cross Street. (If you’ve never heard of that "celebrity lovers’ lane" before, you’re not alone.)
http://babynamesinthenews.com/2013/09/19/names-that-reflect-where-the-baby-was-conceived/
Via tweet from Bruce Lansky.
Note: Subscribing to baby name Twitter accounts got me suggestions of pregnancy and baby supplies accounts.
***From Twitter:
wwwtxt (1988–94) @wwwtxt
If the Apple II ever dies, I'd be really surprised. Nearly one out of every ten Apple computers in the world is a IIgs. 89MAR
Future Crimes @FutureCrimes
“@mbgrinberg: Predictive Policing: The Role of Crime Forecasting in LE Operations http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR233.html#.UlBNJiCTBVM.twitter … via @RANDCorporation
Saturday October 5, 2013 It’s clear that Bryce was conceived in Dallas. But Jocelyn and Paige were conceived in New York City (in the borough of Manhattan). However, neither of those place names seemed to work as baby names, so Ron and Cheryl [Howard] went with the name of the swanky hotel where the twins were conceived: The Carlyle. Using that logic, Reed’s middle name should have been Volvo, but that car brand didn’t work as a baby name either, so the Howards went with the name of the quiet street on which the Volvo was parked in Greenwich, Connecticut: Cross Street. (If you’ve never heard of that "celebrity lovers’ lane" before, you’re not alone.)
http://babynamesinthenews.com/2013/09/19/names-that-reflect-where-the-baby-was-conceived/
Via tweet from Bruce Lansky.
Note: Subscribing to baby name Twitter accounts got me suggestions of pregnancy and baby supplies accounts.
***From Twitter:
wwwtxt (1988–94) @wwwtxt
If the Apple II ever dies, I'd be really surprised. Nearly one out of every ten Apple computers in the world is a IIgs. 89MAR
Future Crimes @FutureCrimes
“@mbgrinberg: Predictive Policing: The Role of Crime Forecasting in LE Operations http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR233.html#.UlBNJiCTBVM.twitter … via @RANDCorporation
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Made From Recycled Politicians 10/03/13 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Thursday October 3, 2013 Downloaded the final volume of the Child Ballads from Project Gutenberg.
"O haud awa' frae me," she says,
"I pray ye lat me be;
I winna gang into your bed,
Till ye dress me dishes three:
Dishes three ye maun dress to me,
Gin I should eat them a',
Afore that I lie in your bed,
Either at stock or wa'.
"Its ye maun get to my supper
A cherry without a stane;
And ye maun get to my supper
A chicken without a bane;
And ye maun get to my supper
A bird without a ga';
Or I winna lie in your bed,
Either at stock or wa'."
"Its whan the cherry is in the flirry,
I'm sure it has nae stane;
And whan the chicken's in the egg,
I'm sure it has nae bane;
And sin the flood o' Noah,
The dow she had nae ga';
Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed,
And ye'se lie neist the wa'."
Captain Wedderburn's Courtship
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***Synaesthesia and Sexuality: The influence of synaesthetic perceptions on sexual experience
http://www.frontiersin.org/cognitive_science/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00751/abstract
Thursday October 3, 2013 Downloaded the final volume of the Child Ballads from Project Gutenberg.
"O haud awa' frae me," she says,
"I pray ye lat me be;
I winna gang into your bed,
Till ye dress me dishes three:
Dishes three ye maun dress to me,
Gin I should eat them a',
Afore that I lie in your bed,
Either at stock or wa'.
"Its ye maun get to my supper
A cherry without a stane;
And ye maun get to my supper
A chicken without a bane;
And ye maun get to my supper
A bird without a ga';
Or I winna lie in your bed,
Either at stock or wa'."
"Its whan the cherry is in the flirry,
I'm sure it has nae stane;
And whan the chicken's in the egg,
I'm sure it has nae bane;
And sin the flood o' Noah,
The dow she had nae ga';
Sae we'll baith lie in ae bed,
And ye'se lie neist the wa'."
Captain Wedderburn's Courtship
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***Synaesthesia and Sexuality: The influence of synaesthetic perceptions on sexual experience
http://www.frontiersin.org/cognitive_science/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00751/abstract
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Made From Recycled Politicians 10/01/13 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Tuesday October 1, 2013 Federal Government largely shut down, first day.
***Shopping day. Wedge Coop, first.
Steeple People Thrift Store.
HealthPartners Riverside pharmacy, to pick up meds. Came with the standard warning not to use if I'm pregnant or breastfeeding.
***From Ansible 315:
RUMBLINGS. _Beach of the Dead 2013:_ the annual Brighton zombie parade has been cancelled owing to 'health and safety fears.' That's what this troubled world needs -- safer and healthier zombies.
GENRE PURITY MASTERCLASS. Outing Lois McMaster Bujold as a writer of romance rather than True SF: 'Bujold tips her hand in the eloquence of her language (normally a good thing) and the attention to detail that only women would find attractive: balls, courts, military dress, palace intrigues, gossiping, and whispering in the corridors. All of this is right out of Alexander Dumas.' (Paul Cash, 'When Science Fiction is Not Science Fiction', _Amazing_, 4 September) [NL/JDN]
From politicalwire.com:
Dean Chambers, the man who helped "unskew" polls during the 2012 presidential campaign to show Mitt Romney was actually leading, now says President Obama is gay.
"I think Sullivan is right, but not for the right reason. I do believe that Barack Obama is in fact our first gay president. But I believe this for entirely different reasons. I believe the man actually is gay."
From Twitter:
Harvard Biz Review @HarvardBiz 8m
Do Depraved Thoughts Make You More Creative? http://s.hbr.org/1hjjIwt
Sara Benincasa @SaraJBenincasa 18m
Pretty psyched to have gotten health insurance in 2013 from one of the same companies that denied me in 2012. The #ACA is my jam.
Retweeted by Zerlina Maxwell
Tuesday October 1, 2013 Federal Government largely shut down, first day.
***Shopping day. Wedge Coop, first.
Steeple People Thrift Store.
HealthPartners Riverside pharmacy, to pick up meds. Came with the standard warning not to use if I'm pregnant or breastfeeding.
***From Ansible 315:
RUMBLINGS. _Beach of the Dead 2013:_ the annual Brighton zombie parade has been cancelled owing to 'health and safety fears.' That's what this troubled world needs -- safer and healthier zombies.
GENRE PURITY MASTERCLASS. Outing Lois McMaster Bujold as a writer of romance rather than True SF: 'Bujold tips her hand in the eloquence of her language (normally a good thing) and the attention to detail that only women would find attractive: balls, courts, military dress, palace intrigues, gossiping, and whispering in the corridors. All of this is right out of Alexander Dumas.' (Paul Cash, 'When Science Fiction is Not Science Fiction', _Amazing_, 4 September) [NL/JDN]
From politicalwire.com:
Dean Chambers, the man who helped "unskew" polls during the 2012 presidential campaign to show Mitt Romney was actually leading, now says President Obama is gay.
"I think Sullivan is right, but not for the right reason. I do believe that Barack Obama is in fact our first gay president. But I believe this for entirely different reasons. I believe the man actually is gay."
From Twitter:
Harvard Biz Review @HarvardBiz 8m
Do Depraved Thoughts Make You More Creative? http://s.hbr.org/1hjjIwt
Sara Benincasa @SaraJBenincasa 18m
Pretty psyched to have gotten health insurance in 2013 from one of the same companies that denied me in 2012. The #ACA is my jam.
Retweeted by Zerlina Maxwell
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Made From Recycled Customers 9/25/13 Dan Goodman, 1720 Como Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. dsgood at iphouse.com or at gmail.com. 612-298-2354
Wednesday September 25, 2013 "As early as 1804 some New England Federalists had discussed secession from the Union if the national government became too oppressive."
"Secession was again mentioned in 1814–1815; all but one leading Federalist newspaper in New England supported a plan to expel the western states from the Union. Otis, the key leader of the Convention, blocked radical proposals such as a seizure of the Federal customs house, impounding federal funds, or declaring neutrality. Otis thought the Madison administration was near collapse and that unless conservatives like himself and the other delegates took charge, the radical secessionists might take power. Indeed, Otis was unaware that Massachusetts Governor Strong had already sent a secret mission to discuss terms with the British for a separate peace."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_Convention
***Smartphone app, learned about on Twitter:
40% of the food we produce goes to waste.
25% of us don't know our neighbors' names.
70% of us are overweight.
16% of Americans lack enough food for a healthy lifestyle.
99% of us don't need a second helping of the beef lo mein.
LeftoverSwap solves all of these problems.
LeftoverSwappers don't feel the need to eat an enormous restaurant portion, and instead pass it on to a hungrier neighbor, in turn learning their name and avoiding excess calories. Through increasing the efficiency of each plot of land dedicated to food production, we can reduce our intensive use of natural resources, and reduce our expansion into sensitive environmental areas.
http://leftoverswap.com
***From Twitter:
GalleyCat @GalleyCat
Would you like a glass of "Red Satin?" E.L. James helps create ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ wines: http://mbist.ro/190wN8J
isalmanac @Disalmanac
Today in 1951, Mark Hamill was born. George Lucas has removed Hamill from the original "Star Wars," replacing him with a CGI walrus.
Jessica Misener @jessmisener
i think we're all ignoring the real news here: portland has a VEGAN STRIP CLUB
Retweeted by Ben Smith
Wednesday September 25, 2013 "As early as 1804 some New England Federalists had discussed secession from the Union if the national government became too oppressive."
"Secession was again mentioned in 1814–1815; all but one leading Federalist newspaper in New England supported a plan to expel the western states from the Union. Otis, the key leader of the Convention, blocked radical proposals such as a seizure of the Federal customs house, impounding federal funds, or declaring neutrality. Otis thought the Madison administration was near collapse and that unless conservatives like himself and the other delegates took charge, the radical secessionists might take power. Indeed, Otis was unaware that Massachusetts Governor Strong had already sent a secret mission to discuss terms with the British for a separate peace."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_Convention
***Smartphone app, learned about on Twitter:
40% of the food we produce goes to waste.
25% of us don't know our neighbors' names.
70% of us are overweight.
16% of Americans lack enough food for a healthy lifestyle.
99% of us don't need a second helping of the beef lo mein.
LeftoverSwap solves all of these problems.
LeftoverSwappers don't feel the need to eat an enormous restaurant portion, and instead pass it on to a hungrier neighbor, in turn learning their name and avoiding excess calories. Through increasing the efficiency of each plot of land dedicated to food production, we can reduce our intensive use of natural resources, and reduce our expansion into sensitive environmental areas.
http://leftoverswap.com
***From Twitter:
GalleyCat @GalleyCat
Would you like a glass of "Red Satin?" E.L. James helps create ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ wines: http://mbist.ro/190wN8J
isalmanac @Disalmanac
Today in 1951, Mark Hamill was born. George Lucas has removed Hamill from the original "Star Wars," replacing him with a CGI walrus.
Jessica Misener @jessmisener
i think we're all ignoring the real news here: portland has a VEGAN STRIP CLUB
Retweeted by Ben Smith
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Is Your Future Strange Enough?
Prediction 1: Three months from now, the weather will be exactly the same as it is today -- all over the world.
Prediction 2: Twenty years from now, human society will be exactly the same as it is today. Take the United States, for example. Americans will have the same political beliefs, consider the same matters most important, have the same sexual mores, listen to the same kinds of music (if not the exact same music you like now.)
The first prediction is more likely to be accurate.
Two hundred years from now: The United States will probably remain the most powerful country in North America. It's unlikely to still be the world's most powerful country. (I do think it's likely the US won't be among the weakest nations. The country which exported frankfurters to Frankfurt, hamburgers to Hamburg, and bagels to Warsaw is adaptable.)
If the current major parties survive, they'll be very different from what they now are.
Any music which survives from our time will almost certainly be played rather differently than it is now.
Two thousand years from now: English, like every other living language, will be changed enough so if you were brought forward into that time you'd need to relearn it. Any cities which remain from our time will be much changed.
Prediction 1: Three months from now, the weather will be exactly the same as it is today -- all over the world.
Prediction 2: Twenty years from now, human society will be exactly the same as it is today. Take the United States, for example. Americans will have the same political beliefs, consider the same matters most important, have the same sexual mores, listen to the same kinds of music (if not the exact same music you like now.)
The first prediction is more likely to be accurate.
Two hundred years from now: The United States will probably remain the most powerful country in North America. It's unlikely to still be the world's most powerful country. (I do think it's likely the US won't be among the weakest nations. The country which exported frankfurters to Frankfurt, hamburgers to Hamburg, and bagels to Warsaw is adaptable.)
If the current major parties survive, they'll be very different from what they now are.
Any music which survives from our time will almost certainly be played rather differently than it is now.
Two thousand years from now: English, like every other living language, will be changed enough so if you were brought forward into that time you'd need to relearn it. Any cities which remain from our time will be much changed.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Not Yet Overused in Urban Fantasy
These have been used (and perhaps overused) in other kinds of spec-fic. However, if they've been used in urban fantasy, they haven't reached the "Oh no -- not another ___ story!" level.
1. Once there was an evil race which terrorized the universe/multiverse. They were defeated, but:
a. A few survived on a planet they call Earth (Michael Shaara, "All the Way Back.")
b. They were imprisoned in a space with only three spatial dimensions (Colin Kapp, Transfinite Man.)
2. Organizations which can accurately predict the future compete with each other to shape it.
3. All the technology we think is science-based is really magical.
4. Devils are actually the Good Guys. William Blake seems to have believed this, at least part of the time. (Note: If you want believable characters, don't write William Blake into your story.)
5. After a catastrophe, the only people left alive are a man called Adam and a woman called Eve. This one was overused in science fiction by 1950, if not before; I suspect it's not very salable in any related genre.
6. Men and women belong to different species.
These have been used (and perhaps overused) in other kinds of spec-fic. However, if they've been used in urban fantasy, they haven't reached the "Oh no -- not another ___ story!" level.
1. Once there was an evil race which terrorized the universe/multiverse. They were defeated, but:
a. A few survived on a planet they call Earth (Michael Shaara, "All the Way Back.")
b. They were imprisoned in a space with only three spatial dimensions (Colin Kapp, Transfinite Man.)
2. Organizations which can accurately predict the future compete with each other to shape it.
3. All the technology we think is science-based is really magical.
4. Devils are actually the Good Guys. William Blake seems to have believed this, at least part of the time. (Note: If you want believable characters, don't write William Blake into your story.)
5. After a catastrophe, the only people left alive are a man called Adam and a woman called Eve. This one was overused in science fiction by 1950, if not before; I suspect it's not very salable in any related genre.
6. Men and women belong to different species.
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