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/ …