Saturday June 29, 2013 Picked up books being held at Southeast Library.
***Shopped at the Wedge Coop.
Across the street to Steeple People Thrift Store. The free box included a couple of things useful as exercise equipment.
For some reason, I'm more likely to use exercise equipment not intended for that purpose. In this case, more accurately, intended for other kinds of exercise: used golf balls and a dog toy.
***The #6 bus passed the [gay] Pride Festival in Loring Park. I spotted several attractive women; for some reason, did not get off the bus and try to pick one up.
More seriously: I thought briefly about taking in the Festival, decided I wasn't interested enough.
***At the Minneapolis Central Library, spotted books with spec-fic elements but classified as mainstream fiction. Among them: One in which the Beatles were zombies, and a time travel mystery with H. G. Wells as protagonist.
***From politicowire.com:
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) "was equipped with a catheter, but nixed an offer of a continuous IV drip" to help her make it through an 11+ hour filibuster earlier this week.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pqbcgd9
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday June 28, 2013 Misheard radio news: Minnesota is cracking down on drunken voters. Actually, drunken boaters.
Meanwhile, there's no law here against biking while intoxicated. And there are bicycle (actually, ten-wheeler) beer pubs, with the patrons pedaling, in Minneapolis.
***Figured out a new reason for travel to alternate worlds -- bird-watching. Beginning with passenger pigeons and other easy-to-find birds, then ones which never evolved in our past.
***Came home, realized I didn't have my keys with me. First time in a while this had happened.
Called landlord, who came over with spare keys.
He noticed there were keys in the door of my efficiency. The front door locks automatically....
***The Canadian news program "As It Happens" had something new to say about a US news story. A girl who was on a Christian high school's football team was removed lest she inspire impure thoughts in her male teammates. (I haven't yet learned what denomination the school is associated with -- after looking at the school's website, among other sources.)
The journalist interviewing the girl and her mother asked whether there were cheerleaders at the team's games. Yes; dressed rather more provocatively than football players.
Meanwhile, there's no law here against biking while intoxicated. And there are bicycle (actually, ten-wheeler) beer pubs, with the patrons pedaling, in Minneapolis.
***Figured out a new reason for travel to alternate worlds -- bird-watching. Beginning with passenger pigeons and other easy-to-find birds, then ones which never evolved in our past.
***Came home, realized I didn't have my keys with me. First time in a while this had happened.
Called landlord, who came over with spare keys.
He noticed there were keys in the door of my efficiency. The front door locks automatically....
***The Canadian news program "As It Happens" had something new to say about a US news story. A girl who was on a Christian high school's football team was removed lest she inspire impure thoughts in her male teammates. (I haven't yet learned what denomination the school is associated with -- after looking at the school's website, among other sources.)
The journalist interviewing the girl and her mother asked whether there were cheerleaders at the team's games. Yes; dressed rather more provocatively than football players.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday June 27, 2013 Ad for the Hmongtown Market in St. Paul. Recently in the news for being raided because of medications which were illegal in various ways (sold by 15 of about 200 vendors.)
***From Minnpost.org:
Imagining a Minneapolis subway system — of the 1970s
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pzv34gf
***Via the American Name Society mailing list:
Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, is in a spot of toraburu with a disgruntled viewer who has filed a damages lawsuit against the company for the "mental distress" caused by its excessive use of words derived from English....
Among the words he cited as particularly troublesome were kea (care), toraburu (trouble), risuku (risk) and shisutemu (system). He also noted the frequent use of loan words in programme titles, such as BS Kosheruju (BS Concierge) and Sutajio Paaku Kara Konnichiwa (Hello from Studio Park).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/japan-broadcaster-sued-english-words
Without looking these words up, I can spot four of the seven as borrowings from other languages into English.
Later: Checked. Six loanwords out of seven.
***From Minnpost.org:
Imagining a Minneapolis subway system — of the 1970s
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pzv34gf
***Via the American Name Society mailing list:
Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, is in a spot of toraburu with a disgruntled viewer who has filed a damages lawsuit against the company for the "mental distress" caused by its excessive use of words derived from English....
Among the words he cited as particularly troublesome were kea (care), toraburu (trouble), risuku (risk) and shisutemu (system). He also noted the frequent use of loan words in programme titles, such as BS Kosheruju (BS Concierge) and Sutajio Paaku Kara Konnichiwa (Hello from Studio Park).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/japan-broadcaster-sued-english-words
Without looking these words up, I can spot four of the seven as borrowings from other languages into English.
Later: Checked. Six loanwords out of seven.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Wednesday June 26, 2013 Learned from National Public Radio that the Defense Of Marriage Act had been partly invalidated. Same-sex married couples in states which recognize their marriages can now get various Federal benefits.
In 1996, some liberals in Congress voted for DOMA. And a liberal President signed it into law.
There are science fiction stories in which immortal politicians rule the world. (Or the United States, the rest of the world being unimportant.) I find this implausible; it's hard enough for politicians to keep up with twenty years of social change. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with less than a year of social change.
If Alexander the Great had been immortal, how long could he have held onto power?
***My knees loosened up. I don't know what I've done right.
***Produce distribution at Waite House, preceded by a presentation on legal remedies for housing discrimination. Including -"If the apartment is for rent when you call, but when you arrive the landlord doesn't like the color of your skin..."-
I remembered reading that some time ago a linguist (Raven McDonald?) found out he was more likely to be told a place was available if he showed up in person rather than calling. He was a white man with a Southern accent, and the landlords assumed anyone with such an accent was Black.
In 1996, some liberals in Congress voted for DOMA. And a liberal President signed it into law.
There are science fiction stories in which immortal politicians rule the world. (Or the United States, the rest of the world being unimportant.) I find this implausible; it's hard enough for politicians to keep up with twenty years of social change. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with less than a year of social change.
If Alexander the Great had been immortal, how long could he have held onto power?
***My knees loosened up. I don't know what I've done right.
***Produce distribution at Waite House, preceded by a presentation on legal remedies for housing discrimination. Including -"If the apartment is for rent when you call, but when you arrive the landlord doesn't like the color of your skin..."-
I remembered reading that some time ago a linguist (Raven McDonald?) found out he was more likely to be told a place was available if he showed up in person rather than calling. He was a white man with a Southern accent, and the landlords assumed anyone with such an accent was Black.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
On Researching For Fiction
Make a list of things you're sure you don't need to check.
Research them.
Okay, not everything. If you have extensive personal experience (for example, of belonging to a particular gender,) you only have to figure out how your characters' experience might be different.
And how their tastes could be very, very, very different. One heterosexual man's red hot momma is another's lukewarm stepmother. Some people who grew up in the country live there by choice; others prefer city life.
By the way, I mostly grew up in a state which many people assume is entirely covered with skyscrapers. New York State isn't entirely urban.
For that matter, New York City isn't entirely urban.
And if you think you've seen the most urban portions on TV or in movies, those scenes might have been shot in a Canadian city. "I've seen it in the movies so I know what it looks like" never works well.
New York is more uniform than some other states. It has only four main dialects of English, only three of which extend beyond state borders.
I stopped reading one fantasy story when a weather expert said "It never snows in Hawaii." (There was snow for Christmas in cities all over the world, including Honolulu.) It does snow in Hawaii, at very high altitudes. An expert would know this.
Why didn't the writer know it? She probably thought "It never snows in Hawaii" was a no-brainer.
Make a list of things you're sure you don't need to check.
Research them.
Okay, not everything. If you have extensive personal experience (for example, of belonging to a particular gender,) you only have to figure out how your characters' experience might be different.
And how their tastes could be very, very, very different. One heterosexual man's red hot momma is another's lukewarm stepmother. Some people who grew up in the country live there by choice; others prefer city life.
By the way, I mostly grew up in a state which many people assume is entirely covered with skyscrapers. New York State isn't entirely urban.
For that matter, New York City isn't entirely urban.
And if you think you've seen the most urban portions on TV or in movies, those scenes might have been shot in a Canadian city. "I've seen it in the movies so I know what it looks like" never works well.
New York is more uniform than some other states. It has only four main dialects of English, only three of which extend beyond state borders.
I stopped reading one fantasy story when a weather expert said "It never snows in Hawaii." (There was snow for Christmas in cities all over the world, including Honolulu.) It does snow in Hawaii, at very high altitudes. An expert would know this.
Why didn't the writer know it? She probably thought "It never snows in Hawaii" was a no-brainer.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Friday June 21, 2013 "I was drinking a vampire's blood when the phone rang."
Story potential: ? I don't yet know what the phone call is about.
Stimulus: Reading Down These Strange Streets, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. It's a collection of original supernatural detective stories. "Original" in the sense that they're not reprints; only three of the sixteen were original enough for my taste.
***Returning to the real world, there's an English politician who's certain his real mother was an alien. Via nwhyte on LiveJournal:
Other people believe equally unlikely things, says Simon Parkes. And anyway, aliens know more about Whitby's needs than Scarborough council does
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/mar/27/whitby-councillor-alien-mother-simon-parkes
***Seen at the Wedge Coop: Crapola. Cranberry-apple granola.
Story potential: ? I don't yet know what the phone call is about.
Stimulus: Reading Down These Strange Streets, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. It's a collection of original supernatural detective stories. "Original" in the sense that they're not reprints; only three of the sixteen were original enough for my taste.
***Returning to the real world, there's an English politician who's certain his real mother was an alien. Via nwhyte on LiveJournal:
Other people believe equally unlikely things, says Simon Parkes. And anyway, aliens know more about Whitby's needs than Scarborough council does
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/mar/27/whitby-councillor-alien-mother-simon-parkes
***Seen at the Wedge Coop: Crapola. Cranberry-apple granola.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday June 20, 2013 The May/June issue of Writers Digest has an article on writing dialect. Okay as far as it goes.
What it doesn't say: Other people's dialects have sounds you might not hear. If your dialect conflates two sounds which are separate in another dialect, you might not hear the difference between "Don" and "Dawn" or "Erin" and "Aaron." Or between "horse" and "hoarse."
There's evidence that at least some speakers of some English dialects can't tell when Americans end a syllable with "r" and when they don't. Ian Fleming stated that Americans pronounced his name as "Iarn."
And you don't know what your dialect sounds like to people who speak differently.
***Butch Malahide, rec.arts.sf.written:
Yes, a televised moon landing was predicted in one Golden Age story that I know of: Harold M. Sherman, "All Aboard for the Moon" (novel, 55000 words), Amazing Stories, Volume 21, Number 4, April, 1947. Never reprinted as far as I know.
****Spam: Escape Death With This Natural Mineral From The Ocean
****From Twitter:
ANNE LAMOTT @ANNELAMOTT
Write because you have to, want to, and can; because you have a story to tell, & because no one, not even you, is going to stop you again.
Retweeted by Shira Lipkin
What it doesn't say: Other people's dialects have sounds you might not hear. If your dialect conflates two sounds which are separate in another dialect, you might not hear the difference between "Don" and "Dawn" or "Erin" and "Aaron." Or between "horse" and "hoarse."
There's evidence that at least some speakers of some English dialects can't tell when Americans end a syllable with "r" and when they don't. Ian Fleming stated that Americans pronounced his name as "Iarn."
And you don't know what your dialect sounds like to people who speak differently.
***Butch Malahide, rec.arts.sf.written:
Yes, a televised moon landing was predicted in one Golden Age story that I know of: Harold M. Sherman, "All Aboard for the Moon" (novel, 55000 words), Amazing Stories, Volume 21, Number 4, April, 1947. Never reprinted as far as I know.
****Spam: Escape Death With This Natural Mineral From The Ocean
****From Twitter:
ANNE LAMOTT @ANNELAMOTT
Write because you have to, want to, and can; because you have a story to tell, & because no one, not even you, is going to stop you again.
Retweeted by Shira Lipkin
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Wednesday June 12, 2013 To Waite House, for the monthly NAPS (Nutritional Assistance Program for Seniors) distribution.
And the twice-monthly produce distribution. Which this time included ten pounds of chicken leg quarters, and a large amount of pork patties.
***New Kind of Dark Matter Could Form 'Dark Atoms'
by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor
Date: 10 June 2013 Time: 06:05 PM ET
http://tinyurl.com/ktnm3o7
***From politicalwire.com:
Maine State Rep. Ken Fredette (R) declared that he and most of his Republican colleagues oppose accepting federal funds to expand health care coverage because the genders think differently.
Said Fredette: "From the other side of the aisle I hear the conversation being about 'free this is free, we need to take it and it's free and we need to do it now' and that's sort of the fundamental message that my brain receives. Now, my brain being a man's brain sort of thinks differently, because I say, well, it's not if it's free is it really free because I say in my brain there's a cost to this."
Here's the video....
http://tinyurl.com/pe42srs
Perhaps this gender difference in brain function explains why it's always been women who fight duels?
And the twice-monthly produce distribution. Which this time included ten pounds of chicken leg quarters, and a large amount of pork patties.
***New Kind of Dark Matter Could Form 'Dark Atoms'
by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor
Date: 10 June 2013 Time: 06:05 PM ET
http://tinyurl.com/ktnm3o7
***From politicalwire.com:
Maine State Rep. Ken Fredette (R) declared that he and most of his Republican colleagues oppose accepting federal funds to expand health care coverage because the genders think differently.
Said Fredette: "From the other side of the aisle I hear the conversation being about 'free this is free, we need to take it and it's free and we need to do it now' and that's sort of the fundamental message that my brain receives. Now, my brain being a man's brain sort of thinks differently, because I say, well, it's not if it's free is it really free because I say in my brain there's a cost to this."
Here's the video....
http://tinyurl.com/pe42srs
Perhaps this gender difference in brain function explains why it's always been women who fight duels?
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Tuesday June 11, 2013 Late last night, thinking what a sane human might be like.
Answer this time: calm and relaxed.
And what is your answer?
***In the morning, thought about science fiction stories in which anyone can easily spy on anyone else.
***Shopped at the Wedge Coop. Then across Lyndale Avenue to Steeple People Thrift Store, where I bought a deck of cards.
At Southeast Library, picked up a book on hold: Becky Lang & Jay Gabler (eds.), Future Cities, a fiction compilation by the Tangential. A couple of the stories were mildly interesting.
***James Nicoll asked for titles of famous problematic short stories.
A high percentage of the ones which fit his criteria could be summed up as "There is only one solution, and it's morally repugnant to the reader." An innocent young woman must die; most of Earth's population must die; civilization must die in atomic wars again and again if the human species is to survive.
Problem with the first two: I can think of other solutions.
There are other things which can be tossed out the airlock.
The inferior people who can't be persuaded to use contraception could be sterilized; or the superior minority could donate sperm and ova to raise the average intelligence.
With the third? Other intelligent species reach their limits and die out. I don't think that's really a worse outcome. If humans become extinct, Earth can spawn another intelligent species.
***From Twitter:
Davho Pldal @SnarkOnTap
Donald Trump called Edward Snowden a 'grandstander'. In other news, irony just took cyanide and stabbed itelf [sic] while jumping off a bridge.
Retweeted by Mark Brooks
Foreign Policy @ForeignPolicy
The academic paper that predicted the NSA scandal http://atfp.co/12jYrAh
Answer this time: calm and relaxed.
And what is your answer?
***In the morning, thought about science fiction stories in which anyone can easily spy on anyone else.
***Shopped at the Wedge Coop. Then across Lyndale Avenue to Steeple People Thrift Store, where I bought a deck of cards.
At Southeast Library, picked up a book on hold: Becky Lang & Jay Gabler (eds.), Future Cities, a fiction compilation by the Tangential. A couple of the stories were mildly interesting.
***James Nicoll asked for titles of famous problematic short stories.
A high percentage of the ones which fit his criteria could be summed up as "There is only one solution, and it's morally repugnant to the reader." An innocent young woman must die; most of Earth's population must die; civilization must die in atomic wars again and again if the human species is to survive.
Problem with the first two: I can think of other solutions.
There are other things which can be tossed out the airlock.
The inferior people who can't be persuaded to use contraception could be sterilized; or the superior minority could donate sperm and ova to raise the average intelligence.
With the third? Other intelligent species reach their limits and die out. I don't think that's really a worse outcome. If humans become extinct, Earth can spawn another intelligent species.
***From Twitter:
Davho Pldal @SnarkOnTap
Donald Trump called Edward Snowden a 'grandstander'. In other news, irony just took cyanide and stabbed itelf [sic] while jumping off a bridge.
Retweeted by Mark Brooks
Foreign Policy @ForeignPolicy
The academic paper that predicted the NSA scandal http://atfp.co/12jYrAh
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Saturday June 8, 2013 Picked up Alan Weisman, The World Without Us from Southeast Library. So far, looks like the best speculation I've seen on what Earth might be like if humans died out.
***Damnation Army
Disassembly of God
Unethical Culture Society
***From Facebook:
Virginia Tadrzynski via Anne Rice
So, apparently the Queen, in all reality, could have been a 'Queen'........
Is this proof the Virgin Queen was an imposter in drag? Shocking new theory about Elizabeth I...
www.dailymail.co.uk
According to a controversial new book Queen Elizabeth I died aged 10 of a fever, and a young male imposter was put in her place.
***Via nwhyte on LiveJournal:
What if…Ireland had joined the Allies in World War II?
http://tinyurl.com/lc3283f
***From Twitter:
BringMeTheNews @BringMN
With cigarette tax eminent, sales catch fire as smokers stock up to save bucks http://dlvr.it/3V4HPv
***"This peanut butter is loved by many in our office, so much so that we can't keep a jar full! The unique blend of spicy jalapeños, sweet honey crystals and sea salt make for the perfect mixture of salty and sweet."
***Damnation Army
Disassembly of God
Unethical Culture Society
***From Facebook:
Virginia Tadrzynski via Anne Rice
So, apparently the Queen, in all reality, could have been a 'Queen'........
Is this proof the Virgin Queen was an imposter in drag? Shocking new theory about Elizabeth I...
www.dailymail.co.uk
According to a controversial new book Queen Elizabeth I died aged 10 of a fever, and a young male imposter was put in her place.
***Via nwhyte on LiveJournal:
What if…Ireland had joined the Allies in World War II?
http://tinyurl.com/lc3283f
***From Twitter:
BringMeTheNews @BringMN
With cigarette tax eminent, sales catch fire as smokers stock up to save bucks http://dlvr.it/3V4HPv
***"This peanut butter is loved by many in our office, so much so that we can't keep a jar full! The unique blend of spicy jalapeños, sweet honey crystals and sea salt make for the perfect mixture of salty and sweet."
Monday June 10, 2013 Felt better than in about a week.
***On Twitter, Janet D. Stemwedel (aka docfreeride) had discussed certain comments about a philosophy professor's resigning from a university after accusations of sexual harassment. She didn't find explanations of why it couldn't really have been sexual harassment convincing.
A reply I made to her was quoted in her Storify entry: "Baffling things I have read in blog comments discussing Colin McGinn's exit from University of Miami"
http://tinyurl.com/qdtn95n
Recommended for feminists who suffer from low blood pressure, or difficulty in feeling anger.
[Insert advocacy of providing male faculty with vatgirls here.]
***Seen: Packaged naan, with the explanation that naan is Indian pizza.
***On Twitter, Janet D. Stemwedel (aka docfreeride) had discussed certain comments about a philosophy professor's resigning from a university after accusations of sexual harassment. She didn't find explanations of why it couldn't really have been sexual harassment convincing.
A reply I made to her was quoted in her Storify entry: "Baffling things I have read in blog comments discussing Colin McGinn's exit from University of Miami"
http://tinyurl.com/qdtn95n
Recommended for feminists who suffer from low blood pressure, or difficulty in feeling anger.
[Insert advocacy of providing male faculty with vatgirls here.]
***Seen: Packaged naan, with the explanation that naan is Indian pizza.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Friday May 31, 2013 YOUR URGENT RESPONDS IS HIGHLY NEEDED,IF YOU ARE STILL LIVING.
I was tempted to reply that I'm a zombie.
***foreignaffairs.com
Essay - May/June 2013
Africa's Economic Boom
Shantayanan Devarajan and Wolfgang Fengler
Sub-Saharan Africa's GDP has grown five percent a year since 2000 and is expected to grow even faster in the future. Although pessimists are quick to point out that this growth has followed increases in commodities prices, the success of recent political reforms and the increased openness of African societies give the region a good chance of sustaining its boom for years to come. http://tinyurl.com/kdgxvnp
Snapshot
Africa's Accidental Advancement
Morten Jerven
The GDPs of many African countries appear to be soaring, which is partly a statistical fluke due to recent corrections of decades of bad data. African countries now face the challenge of rewriting their poorly recorded economic histories and adopting up-to-date statistical measures that will capture the continent's future growth. http://tinyurl.com/l378l4w
I was tempted to reply that I'm a zombie.
***foreignaffairs.com
Essay - May/June 2013
Africa's Economic Boom
Shantayanan Devarajan and Wolfgang Fengler
Sub-Saharan Africa's GDP has grown five percent a year since 2000 and is expected to grow even faster in the future. Although pessimists are quick to point out that this growth has followed increases in commodities prices, the success of recent political reforms and the increased openness of African societies give the region a good chance of sustaining its boom for years to come. http://tinyurl.com/kdgxvnp
Snapshot
Africa's Accidental Advancement
Morten Jerven
The GDPs of many African countries appear to be soaring, which is partly a statistical fluke due to recent corrections of decades of bad data. African countries now face the challenge of rewriting their poorly recorded economic histories and adopting up-to-date statistical measures that will capture the continent's future growth. http://tinyurl.com/l378l4w
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