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 The details are outdated, not to mention condescending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.
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