Saturday March 29, 2014 From sciencedaily.com:
Mass participation experiment reveals how to create the perfect dream
Date: March 26, 2014
Source: University of Hertfordshire
Summary: Psychologists have announced the results of a two-year study into dream control. The experiment shows that it is now possible for people to create their perfect dream, and so wake up feeling especially happy and refreshed. Researchers also discovered that people's dreams were especially bizarre around the time of a full moon.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140326212710.htm
Technofossils: Unprecedented legacy left behind by humans
Date: March 25, 2014
Source: University of Leicester
Summary: Scientists suggest that the fossil impact humans have made on the planet is vast and unprecedented in nature -- and that there's been nothing remotely like it since the Earth formed, over four and half billion years ago. The researchers argue that, like dinosaurs, who left their bones and footprints behind for future generations to discover, humans will also leave a footprint behind -- one made up of material goods unique to humankind that are so different from anything else produced by animals in the history of Earth that they deserve their own name: technofossils.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140325094806.htm
***From Twitter:
Retweeted by Lillian Cohen-Moore
UEL ARAMCHEK @ThePatanoiac "Specifically, I'm an umbratarian." She cut another slice from the smoky black slab. "I don't eat the flesh of animals, just their shadows."
Monday, March 31, 2014
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Thursday March 27, 2014 Joined LinkedIn. I'd gotten an invitation to join someone's network.
Once I joined, turned out several other people I knew were on LinkedIn.
I quickly got invites from some people I didn't know and hadn't heard of.
Next: figure out how LinkedIn can be useful to me.
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Learned something I needed.
The topic was making amends. In discussion, someone brought up making amends to one's body.
***From Twitter:
Retweeted by Kory Stamper
Colleen Barry @CopyCurmudgeon I strongly support word-makeupification.
Retweeted by Blake Hounshell
New York Times World @nytimesworld At least one artist whose name appeared on petition hailing annexation of Crimea was dead. http://nyti.ms/1iE31iD
Retweeted by William Gibson
MattHardigree @MattHardigree "I was coming off of amphetamine and I was pursuing a blonde lady whom I met in a Nazi poster" -- Leonard Cohen
Start Your Novel @StartYourNovel "Progressive rock songs are actually fairy tales in disguise." http://tmblr.co/Z7JSKp1BM-nYC via @lolmythesis
Once I joined, turned out several other people I knew were on LinkedIn.
I quickly got invites from some people I didn't know and hadn't heard of.
Next: figure out how LinkedIn can be useful to me.
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Learned something I needed.
The topic was making amends. In discussion, someone brought up making amends to one's body.
***From Twitter:
Retweeted by Kory Stamper
Colleen Barry @CopyCurmudgeon I strongly support word-makeupification.
Retweeted by Blake Hounshell
New York Times World @nytimesworld At least one artist whose name appeared on petition hailing annexation of Crimea was dead. http://nyti.ms/1iE31iD
Retweeted by William Gibson
MattHardigree @MattHardigree "I was coming off of amphetamine and I was pursuing a blonde lady whom I met in a Nazi poster" -- Leonard Cohen
Start Your Novel @StartYourNovel "Progressive rock songs are actually fairy tales in disguise." http://tmblr.co/Z7JSKp1BM-nYC via @lolmythesis
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Monday March 24, 2014 Started drafting a future. One I would find plausible long enough to set stories there.
Some of my assumptions: 1) There isn't going to be "the end of history" -- a time when society is properly organized and everyone is rational. There won't be an end to wars and other waste motion.
2) Cosmology and physics will not achieve The Final Theory That Explains Everything.
3) There will be unexpected social and technological changes. But things which are obviously going to change won't.
4) Spaceships are not going to be run just like sailing ships.
***From sciencedaily.com:
Electric 'thinking cap' controls learning speed
Date: March 23, 2014
Source: Vanderbilt University
Summary: Caffeine-fueled cram sessions are routine occurrences on any college campus. But what if there was a better, safer way to learn new or difficult material more quickly? What if "thinking caps" were real? Scientists have now shown that it is possible to selectively manipulate our ability to learn through the application of a mild electrical current to the brain, and that this effect can be enhanced or depressed depending on the direction of the current.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140323171904.htm
Some of my assumptions: 1) There isn't going to be "the end of history" -- a time when society is properly organized and everyone is rational. There won't be an end to wars and other waste motion.
2) Cosmology and physics will not achieve The Final Theory That Explains Everything.
3) There will be unexpected social and technological changes. But things which are obviously going to change won't.
4) Spaceships are not going to be run just like sailing ships.
***From sciencedaily.com:
Electric 'thinking cap' controls learning speed
Date: March 23, 2014
Source: Vanderbilt University
Summary: Caffeine-fueled cram sessions are routine occurrences on any college campus. But what if there was a better, safer way to learn new or difficult material more quickly? What if "thinking caps" were real? Scientists have now shown that it is possible to selectively manipulate our ability to learn through the application of a mild electrical current to the brain, and that this effect can be enhanced or depressed depending on the direction of the current.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140323171904.htm
Monday, March 24, 2014
Thursday March 13, 2014 Comments of Comment:
kevrob: There's a $T [Dollar Tree] near the gas station I use on my way home from work, and another just as I turn onto the last thoroughfare I take before pulling into my driveway.
I always find small quantities there much cheaper than I would find them elsewhere, such as a supermarket or convenience store. There are good deals on brand name toiletries, frex. I'm only buying for myself, so I appreciate spending $1 on, say, a stick of deodorant or a can of shaving cream when another store would charge me $3, or give me the same per unit price, but only if I purchased in bulk. Since both stores are close by supermarkets I shop at, if I don't like the price on, say,facial tissue, I know where I can get a 120-count box of Scotties for a buck.
I carry a 3-AAA battery LED flashlight with me that $T sells. Flashlight=$1, 4-pack of alkaline batteries = $1. The thing is cheaper than "disposable" flashes sold elsewhere, and if I lend it out and don't get it back, lose it or break the demned thing, I still have gotten my money's worth. The place is HQ for the /c/h/e/a/p/s/k/a/t/e/ frugal bachelor outfitting his quarters. Then again, I shop places like Goodwill.
I echo the mention of Big!Lots. There's a New England chain called Ocean State Job Lot that's good, too. Just installed new RainX wipers on my car. OSJL sold me a pair for $10. Both of those stores sell a lot more, and more expensive items than a dollar store, but also plenty of $1-ish items. OSJL has a great spice wall: small containers of just about anything I'd want for a buck apiece.
Also, 40 count boxes of Barry's Tea Bags (Irish Breakfast or Gold) show up regularly, along with Newman's Own cookies, and various inexpensive imported pastas. An old housemate of mine can't eat gluten. He was hurting himself making himself regular pasta, because the gluten-free stuff was too expensive. The Pasta del Oro (made from corn) I found there for him solved that problem. There also one of the few places that regularly has affordable wild rice, and not only mixed with brown rice, but just by itself.
***From politicalwire.com:
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) said the U.S. Constitution is 400 years old, TPM reports.
Said Lee: "Frankly, maybe I should offer a good thanks to the distinguished members of the majority, the Republicans, my chairman, and others for giving us an opportunity to have a deliberative constitutional discussion that reinforces the sanctity of this nation and how well it is that we have lasted some 400 years, operating under a Constitution that clearly defines what is constitutional and what is not."
***From Twitter:
Weird History @historyweird 1967: "Stuffed girl's heads" - because no bar or living room would be complete without a memento of your "conquests". http://twitpic.com/dy7xtc
kevrob: There's a $T [Dollar Tree] near the gas station I use on my way home from work, and another just as I turn onto the last thoroughfare I take before pulling into my driveway.
I always find small quantities there much cheaper than I would find them elsewhere, such as a supermarket or convenience store. There are good deals on brand name toiletries, frex. I'm only buying for myself, so I appreciate spending $1 on, say, a stick of deodorant or a can of shaving cream when another store would charge me $3, or give me the same per unit price, but only if I purchased in bulk. Since both stores are close by supermarkets I shop at, if I don't like the price on, say,facial tissue, I know where I can get a 120-count box of Scotties for a buck.
I carry a 3-AAA battery LED flashlight with me that $T sells. Flashlight=$1, 4-pack of alkaline batteries = $1. The thing is cheaper than "disposable" flashes sold elsewhere, and if I lend it out and don't get it back, lose it or break the demned thing, I still have gotten my money's worth. The place is HQ for the /c/h/e/a/p/s/k/a/t/e/ frugal bachelor outfitting his quarters. Then again, I shop places like Goodwill.
I echo the mention of Big!Lots. There's a New England chain called Ocean State Job Lot that's good, too. Just installed new RainX wipers on my car. OSJL sold me a pair for $10. Both of those stores sell a lot more, and more expensive items than a dollar store, but also plenty of $1-ish items. OSJL has a great spice wall: small containers of just about anything I'd want for a buck apiece.
Also, 40 count boxes of Barry's Tea Bags (Irish Breakfast or Gold) show up regularly, along with Newman's Own cookies, and various inexpensive imported pastas. An old housemate of mine can't eat gluten. He was hurting himself making himself regular pasta, because the gluten-free stuff was too expensive. The Pasta del Oro (made from corn) I found there for him solved that problem. There also one of the few places that regularly has affordable wild rice, and not only mixed with brown rice, but just by itself.
***From politicalwire.com:
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) said the U.S. Constitution is 400 years old, TPM reports.
Said Lee: "Frankly, maybe I should offer a good thanks to the distinguished members of the majority, the Republicans, my chairman, and others for giving us an opportunity to have a deliberative constitutional discussion that reinforces the sanctity of this nation and how well it is that we have lasted some 400 years, operating under a Constitution that clearly defines what is constitutional and what is not."
***From Twitter:
Weird History @historyweird 1967: "Stuffed girl's heads" - because no bar or living room would be complete without a memento of your "conquests". http://twitpic.com/dy7xtc
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Monday March 10, 2014 Warm; up to 49F (9.44...C). I went outside wearing a sweater. Took it off after a while; put it back on in the evening.
Some people wore winter coats. One man wore a short-sleeved shirt.
***Comments of Comment:
thnidu 3/8/14: Subject: the Oscar Mayer smellophone
How does it give off SCENT?
[There's an attachment -- not exactly free -- which does it with the help of scent cartridges. I suspect it would be simpler and cheaper to rig up something to light scented candles. Twenty years from now, it might be a standard function of smartphones.]
***From sciencedaily.com:
First animals oxygenated Earth's oceans, study suggests
Date: March 9, 2014
Source: University of Exeter
Summary:
The evolution of the first animals may have oxygenated Earth's oceans -- contrary to the traditional view that a rise in oxygen triggered their development. New research contests the long held belief that oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans was a pre-requisite for the evolution of complex life forms. The study builds on the recent work of scientists in Denmark who found that sponges -- the first animals to evolve -- require only small amounts of oxygen.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140309150540.htm>.
***From Twitter:
Bruce Lansky @BabyNameNews The Most Popular Names in Canadian Provinces and Territories http://ow.ly/urHuN #CanadianNames
Some people wore winter coats. One man wore a short-sleeved shirt.
***Comments of Comment:
thnidu 3/8/14: Subject: the Oscar Mayer smellophone
How does it give off SCENT?
[There's an attachment -- not exactly free -- which does it with the help of scent cartridges. I suspect it would be simpler and cheaper to rig up something to light scented candles. Twenty years from now, it might be a standard function of smartphones.]
***From sciencedaily.com:
First animals oxygenated Earth's oceans, study suggests
Date: March 9, 2014
Source: University of Exeter
Summary:
The evolution of the first animals may have oxygenated Earth's oceans -- contrary to the traditional view that a rise in oxygen triggered their development. New research contests the long held belief that oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans was a pre-requisite for the evolution of complex life forms. The study builds on the recent work of scientists in Denmark who found that sponges -- the first animals to evolve -- require only small amounts of oxygen.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140309150540.htm>.
***From Twitter:
Bruce Lansky @BabyNameNews The Most Popular Names in Canadian Provinces and Territories http://ow.ly/urHuN #CanadianNames
Monday, March 10, 2014
Friday March 7, 2014 Demonstrators against the former Ukrainian government were zombies. More precisely: according to a Crimean separatist interviewed by Canadian radio news program As It Happens, they'd been given drugs which took away their free will.
***I shopped at Dollar Tree -- which, unlike other dollar stores, actually prices things at a dollar (sometimes less.)
Food giveaway at Community Emergency Services.
Saturday March 8, 2014 "Some of the rewards of the inclusion of this bilateral relationship await the reader of the footnotes, as when Langley observes that when the U.S. War Department was preparing its filing-cabinet plan for a possible invasion of Canada in the 1930s, it issued a request for maps of western Canada to the Canadian authorities. (Presumably, the request did not include the rationale.)"
Max Paul Friedman. Review of Langley, Lester D., _America and the Americas: The United States in the Western Hemisphere_.
H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. March, 2014.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31891
***Mail: Minicon 49 Progress Report 2 (resent after Postal Service screwed up.)
Suggested programming includes: Atheist Writing Panel. Apparently, no one suggested Christian, pagan, Jewish, etc. writing panels.
Rock & Roll in Speculative Fiction -- It's Hip to Be Square. I don't think rock is the music of the future; but not all spec-fic is set in the future.
I won't be at Minicon this year. I do expect to be at next year's Minicon.
***I shopped at Dollar Tree -- which, unlike other dollar stores, actually prices things at a dollar (sometimes less.)
Food giveaway at Community Emergency Services.
Saturday March 8, 2014 "Some of the rewards of the inclusion of this bilateral relationship await the reader of the footnotes, as when Langley observes that when the U.S. War Department was preparing its filing-cabinet plan for a possible invasion of Canada in the 1930s, it issued a request for maps of western Canada to the Canadian authorities. (Presumably, the request did not include the rationale.)"
Max Paul Friedman. Review of Langley, Lester D., _America and the Americas: The United States in the Western Hemisphere_.
H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. March, 2014.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31891
***Mail: Minicon 49 Progress Report 2 (resent after Postal Service screwed up.)
Suggested programming includes: Atheist Writing Panel. Apparently, no one suggested Christian, pagan, Jewish, etc. writing panels.
Rock & Roll in Speculative Fiction -- It's Hip to Be Square. I don't think rock is the music of the future; but not all spec-fic is set in the future.
I won't be at Minicon this year. I do expect to be at next year's Minicon.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Thursday March 6, 2014 From sciencedaily.com: Robotic prosthesis turns drummer into a three-armed cyborg
Date: March 6, 2014
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
Summary: Scientists have created a robotic drumming prosthesis with motors that power two drumsticks. The first stick is controlled both physically by the musicians’ arms and electronically using electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors. The other stick 'listens' to the music being played and improvises.
***Shopped at the Wedge Coop and Steeple People Thrift Store.
Attended Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***From minnpost.com:
Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Strib covers that diversity endorsement by the GOP for the House seat held by DFL Rep. Phyllis Kahn: "Over the weekend, local Minneapolis Republicans endorsed Abdimalik Mohamed Askar in his run for state House in Minneapolis. His name might be familiar: he ran for president of Somalia a few years ago. Republican Party chair Keith Downey said he is the first Somali-American the party has backed."
***From news.google.com:
In a brazen attempt to "bring home the bacon," meat producer Oscar Mayer has come up with an iPhone app that doubles as an alarm clock and gives off the sound and scent of sizzling slices of pig loin and belly.
San Jose Mercury News
Written by Pat May
Date: March 6, 2014
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
Summary: Scientists have created a robotic drumming prosthesis with motors that power two drumsticks. The first stick is controlled both physically by the musicians’ arms and electronically using electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors. The other stick 'listens' to the music being played and improvises.
***Shopped at the Wedge Coop and Steeple People Thrift Store.
Attended Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***From minnpost.com:
Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Strib covers that diversity endorsement by the GOP for the House seat held by DFL Rep. Phyllis Kahn: "Over the weekend, local Minneapolis Republicans endorsed Abdimalik Mohamed Askar in his run for state House in Minneapolis. His name might be familiar: he ran for president of Somalia a few years ago. Republican Party chair Keith Downey said he is the first Somali-American the party has backed."
***From news.google.com:
In a brazen attempt to "bring home the bacon," meat producer Oscar Mayer has come up with an iPhone app that doubles as an alarm clock and gives off the sound and scent of sizzling slices of pig loin and belly.
San Jose Mercury News
Written by Pat May
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Tuesday March 4, 2014 Mardi Gras. For those giving up marijuana for Lent, Mardi Grass?
Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 3/3/14: My parents got married in 1938, during the Depression.
My mother was 24; my father was 30.
I was born about four years later, after they'd built themselves a house.
[My parents married during WW II, and I was born not long after. I remember an elementary school teacher exclaiming we were the largest class she'd ever taught. I wonder how she reacted when the Boomers came along a few years later.]
My mother died at 85 after a lot of problems caused by the radiation that had cured of her cancer some twenty years earlier. (The cancer was probably caused by a doctor giving her estrogen to help her with hot flashes.)
My mother's mother was supposedly born in 1890 (but my mother said she lied about her age to make it seem she was younger than her husband, born in 1887, when she was actually a year older), so she had her first child in 1913 when she was nominally 23 but really 27. (She was born in Russia on the first night of Chanukkah and didn't know the secular date.) My grandmother died at about 90.
The first night of Chanukah in 1890 was December 6th.
The first night of Chanukah in 1886 was December 21st.
[My paternal grandfather knew the year in the secular calendar, and the month and date in the Jewish calendar. Some decades later, someone in the family figured out when he was born.]
Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 3/3/14: My parents got married in 1938, during the Depression.
My mother was 24; my father was 30.
I was born about four years later, after they'd built themselves a house.
[My parents married during WW II, and I was born not long after. I remember an elementary school teacher exclaiming we were the largest class she'd ever taught. I wonder how she reacted when the Boomers came along a few years later.]
My mother died at 85 after a lot of problems caused by the radiation that had cured of her cancer some twenty years earlier. (The cancer was probably caused by a doctor giving her estrogen to help her with hot flashes.)
My mother's mother was supposedly born in 1890 (but my mother said she lied about her age to make it seem she was younger than her husband, born in 1887, when she was actually a year older), so she had her first child in 1913 when she was nominally 23 but really 27. (She was born in Russia on the first night of Chanukkah and didn't know the secular date.) My grandmother died at about 90.
The first night of Chanukah in 1890 was December 6th.
The first night of Chanukah in 1886 was December 21st.
[My paternal grandfather knew the year in the secular calendar, and the month and date in the Jewish calendar. Some decades later, someone in the family figured out when he was born.]
Monday, March 3, 2014
Saturday March 1, 2014 Got my zine for Link Online sent off, including "Some Their Gold, and Some Their Gear, and Some Their Maidenhead." Also sent the story to the Writers list.
***Comments of Comment:
novapsyche, 2/27/14: My mother had her first child very young, at 18. That child, my sister, had her only child at age 19. Her son had his first (probably not only) child at 21. Thus, my mother is a great grandmother in her 60s while my sister became a grandmother at the age of 40.
***In newsletter from Foreign Affairs, 2/27/14:
Crimean Punishment
Why Russia Won't Invade Ukraine
By Kimberly Marten
When it comes to Russia and Ukraine, Western policymakers are most worried about two possible scenarios: First, that Russia would embargo gas to Ukraine, and second, that it would invade Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. But neither is likely. Here's...
***From sciencedaily.com:
How Earth might have looked: How a failed Saharan Atlantic Ocean rift zone sculped [sic] Africa's margin
Date: February 28, 2014
Source: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Summary: Break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana about 130 Million years ago could have led to a completely different shape of the African and South American continent with an ocean south of today’s Sahara desert, as geoscientists have shown through the use of sophisticated plate tectonic and three-dimensional numerical modelling.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140228210545.htm
***From Twitter:
Retweeted by Ray Radlein
Atrios @Atrios "The people of the Ukraine need us. They have been cut off from the world. Only Bitcoin can reach them." sigh
***Comments of Comment:
novapsyche, 2/27/14: My mother had her first child very young, at 18. That child, my sister, had her only child at age 19. Her son had his first (probably not only) child at 21. Thus, my mother is a great grandmother in her 60s while my sister became a grandmother at the age of 40.
***In newsletter from Foreign Affairs, 2/27/14:
Crimean Punishment
Why Russia Won't Invade Ukraine
By Kimberly Marten
When it comes to Russia and Ukraine, Western policymakers are most worried about two possible scenarios: First, that Russia would embargo gas to Ukraine, and second, that it would invade Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. But neither is likely. Here's...
***From sciencedaily.com:
How Earth might have looked: How a failed Saharan Atlantic Ocean rift zone sculped [sic] Africa's margin
Date: February 28, 2014
Source: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Summary: Break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana about 130 Million years ago could have led to a completely different shape of the African and South American continent with an ocean south of today’s Sahara desert, as geoscientists have shown through the use of sophisticated plate tectonic and three-dimensional numerical modelling.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140228210545.htm
***From Twitter:
Retweeted by Ray Radlein
Atrios @Atrios "The people of the Ukraine need us. They have been cut off from the world. Only Bitcoin can reach them." sigh
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Thursday February 27, 2014 Adult Children Anonymous meeting.
***Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 2/27/14: Do you *feel* your head hair being black?
Or just look at your head hair now and then in a mirror?
If the latter (as I assume), how often a day?
(How soon do you think you'd notice if the mirror started lying?)
[I see myself in the bathroom mirror at least once a day. If my hair started turning white, I would notice. Unless the whitening started in back.]
I look at myself in a mirror perhaps once a week, and then I ignore my hair color, because I know it's been dyed reddish brown to please Barry.
"How old do you feel" for me depends on my level of energy and pain.
If I have enough energy to get stuff done, then I don't feel old.
[My energy level is higher; less energy wasted on tension and worry. My pain level is considerably lower; less muscular tension, allergy symptoms under better control.]
***From Twitter:
Forbes Tech News @ForbesTech Google is paying for San Francisco's low-income kids to ride the (public) bus for free http://onforb.es/1htw8o2
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld A man at Trenton found 400 lbs of honey in a hollow and, scraping out the honey, an oyster can with $280 in gold in it. MO1887
***Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 2/27/14: Do you *feel* your head hair being black?
Or just look at your head hair now and then in a mirror?
If the latter (as I assume), how often a day?
(How soon do you think you'd notice if the mirror started lying?)
[I see myself in the bathroom mirror at least once a day. If my hair started turning white, I would notice. Unless the whitening started in back.]
I look at myself in a mirror perhaps once a week, and then I ignore my hair color, because I know it's been dyed reddish brown to please Barry.
"How old do you feel" for me depends on my level of energy and pain.
If I have enough energy to get stuff done, then I don't feel old.
[My energy level is higher; less energy wasted on tension and worry. My pain level is considerably lower; less muscular tension, allergy symptoms under better control.]
***From Twitter:
Forbes Tech News @ForbesTech Google is paying for San Francisco's low-income kids to ride the (public) bus for free http://onforb.es/1htw8o2
R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld A man at Trenton found 400 lbs of honey in a hollow and, scraping out the honey, an oyster can with $280 in gold in it. MO1887
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