Friends

01:15 pm
matociquala

[Link]

the rain came down on a coal mining town and it carried you away
[13:11]

matociquala: what's a word for when something is absolutely covered in something else?
[13:11]

hawkwing_lb: coated?
[13:11]

matociquala: I'm thinking of a wet street when the rain is coming down so hard the water in the street is all interlocking ripples.
[13:12]

hawkwing_lb: there should be a word for that.
[13:12]

hawkwing_lb: but if there is, I don't think I know it.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: street sounds
Tags: chatroom transcripts, the writer at work

(28 comments | Leave a comment)

01:11 pm
rysmiel

[Link]

got a song for me ?
I have an unsettled stomach, which I think is mostly stress. Damn it.

Had a quite productive meeting with $intern2 this morning, though. Also, the editor of the textbook for which I wrote much of a chapter, many moons ago, says it is going to the publisher next week, so that may become a physical publication soon.

49th Parallel is really good and very very weird. It has some of the best supporting parts ever; Laurence Olivier's French-Canadian trapper would be a caricature if Olivier were not so good an actor, also Anton Wolbrook's Hutterite elder, Raymond Massey's Canadian soldier, and Leslie Howard's decadent author. I'm still mulling on it; for all that it is, particularly in the opening sequences, much more conventionally filmed than much of Pressburger and Powell's later work, there are clear early signs of the directions in which their visual style would go.

02:57 am
greatpoets
[the_grynne]

[Link]

Wang Wei, "The Bamboo Groves"
(I)
THE BAMBOO GROVES

Sitting alone
in a recess of the bamboo groves,
I play the lute,
and then whistle a long tune.

No one else is visible
in the depth of the woods.

The bright moon
moves over, shining.

Translated by Qiu Xiaolong

( Two more translations )

12:37 pm
shadesong

[Link]

Ten first lines
Killing time because really I have about 10 minutes before I can reasonably leave the house to go meet

mendozawithout being crazy-early.

So! Stealing this from

khaosworks. I give you the first line of the first ten songs to pop up on my iTunes. You guess the song and artist. I'm skipping ones where the title's in the first line. :)

1. Well, I guess you left me with some feathers in my hand.
2. Like a sentence of death, I got no options left - I've got nothing to show now.
3. There's a government whip cracked across your back
4. When I was only a zygote - I still remember the time
5. My mother spent ten years sitting by a window, scared if she spoke she would die of a heart attack
6. On my way up north, up on the Ventura
7. So congratulations, boy, you kept me up til dawn again
8. Underneath the city and all that we possess, I met the prince of beggars in a place with no address
9. She came out west to find the sun - she lost her name but found a new one
10. Day after day, I will walk and I will play

(13 comments | Leave a comment)

05:44 pm
richardthinks

[Link]

scoobydooian hijinks
todays irregularwebcomic has our heroes, having drunk of the waters of the Lethe, on their way to drink the waters of the Mnemosyne - the former wash away your memories, the latter restore them.
Which first made my sad geeky brain think "restore? The Lethe is not a secure delete?" and then started me thinking - what if they weren't the same memories? It's a river - stuff can get jumbled up in there. Most likely you'd get some sort of crazy composite, but we're so good at inventing patterns where none exist, I bet it would work out just fine. Gender could be an issue.

OK. Sleep now.

11:46 am
elisem

[Link]

hamster art
bwa-ha-ha!

11:40 am
elisem

[Link]

waiting for the UPS person, or someone just like him
Want my emergency wire order.

Ah, well. Doing work down here that needs it. Well, and fiddling around with Switch Witch stuff. And e-mail. Which needs doing too.

Gonna pay some bills now. But want wire. Can has wire nao?

12:41 pm
greatpoets
[sugarblue_sunny]

[Link]

Boys and Girls Together
by Neil Gaiman

Boys don't want to be princes.
Boys want to be shepherds who slay dragons,
maybe someone gives you half a kingdom and a princess,
but that's just what comes of being a shepherd boy
and slaying a dragon. Or a giant. And you don't really
even have to be a shepherd. Just not a prince.

( In stories, even princes don't want to be princes, )

Current Mood: quixotic

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=1043a2fbb27575dd0769d1672622d945

05:15 pm
new_scientist

[Link]

Man-made 'defensin' rips resistant bacteria apart

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn13924-manmade-defensin-rips-resistant-bacteria-apart.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

A mimic of a potent compound used by immune cells could provide an alternative to antibiotics, which bacteria can become resistant to

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=ba2b746c71d3a0f7002b61d1afd6e052

04:28 pm
new_scientist

[Link]

How information escapes from a black hole

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13923-how-information-escapes-from-a-black-hole.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

A new study bolsters the idea that quantum fuzziness smoothes out a black hole's destructive 'singularity', allowing information to escape

11:27 am
jblaque

[Link]

West Virginia Douche-Off
Hilarious...

P.S. Here's an idea: Why don't just crop dust the entire state of West Virginia with anthrax and be done with it?

Current Location: Chicago
Current Mood: Amused
Current Music: Ed Schultz
Tags: '08 elections, comedy, dumb americans, hillary clinton, hillbillies, jon stewart, politics, racism

12:09 pm
james_nicoll

[Link]

Since I indirectly referred to it
Charlie's Diary discusses recent speculations about the Fermi Paradox, including Milan M. Ä†irkoviÄ‡'s idea that advanced civilizations might be inward-focused city-states (Like Singapore) rather than ruthlessly expansionistic empires (like China).

Whatever the Hypotheticals are/were like, it doesn't seem to have involved exploiting Earth in any way that we recognize. This could be because using planets (especially ones with native biology) is a mug's game or because they never got to our stellar system but it could also be because the Earth is an active planet and if the Hypotheticals showed up two or three billion years ago, all of the evidence might have been subducted into oblivion.

I wouldn't advocate funding purely SETI-focused planetary science but at the same time it might be an idea to keep an eye out for evidence of ETI on bodies in the solar system that have remained relatively unchanged over long periods of time that are at the same time interesting objects someone or something else might once have looked at.

12:11 pm
nihilistic_kid

[Link]

Some some some I some I murder some I some I let go
I sold a brief (<1000 words) personal essay about my days as a pedestrian on aftokinocentric Long Island to Howl Press, which is a private publisher for the cruise and hospitality industries. They do slim volumes of essays and short-short fiction for people to read while waiting for room service to come in or the shuffleboard area to open up. It's not a bad payday, a quarter a word for what is essentially a blog post or a bit of sudden fiction. It was funny though, that the publisher actually called me with the acceptance, because she had important news. It went a little like this...

Pub: Hello, this is L-- from Howl Press. Congratulations, we'd like to buy your essay "Walking On L.I."

Me: Great!

Pub: However, we need to make a change.

Me: Okay.

Pub: So we have to—

Me: It's fine.

Pub: Huh?

Me: When might the money come, if I may ask?

Pub: Oh, but the edit...

Me: You want to get rid of the bit about how people in cars shout "Fag!" at me as if I were pushing a lover in a wheelbarrow in front of me.

Pub: How did you know?!

Me: Eh, it's for cruiseline people. I thought about taking it out when I sent it to you, but then I figured a little edginess might get me noticed. They could just take it out if they didn't like it.

Pub: Yeah, yeah, I left it in! I thought we'd have to take out the part where you step into that dead opposum and have to scrape the guts off on the shoulder of the road for a quarter of a mile. I thought, "This is great, but I want to give him a chance not to gross out the client."

Me: It's all fine. I'm a real freelancer, I stop caring about anything but the money till it comes and then I stop caring about that too. I heard about you from Grub Street, where I teach, so I'm always hustling for paydays.

Pub: Well, in that case let me just email you the invoice. I was writing this email about the cut and wondering how to break it to you, then I figure, "Oh, I'll just call him!" but it doesn't matter! You don't care! That's great. Send me the invoice, and I'll send you the $250 and copies of the book.

Me: Great, thanks again!

Current Music: "Paper Planes," M.I.A.

(10 comments | Leave a comment)

09:10 am
patrissimo

[Link]

Children's Discovery Museum pics
Are here. Don't have time for detail, but I'll just say: water vortex open at top and bottom is pretty cool. Bernoulli-effect balls is even cooler - and simpler to implement. The balls with the short streams in the picture are totally stable, they just sit there. In the long-stream setup, the balls sit at the top for 1-10 seconds before falling.

10:57 am
starcat_jewel

[Link]

Hallelujah!
Spam King Alan Ralsky indicted!

This is the creep responsible for something like 90% of the non-Nigerian spam that hits your in-box. He's been gaming the system for a long time, but it's finally caught up to him. And his script-kiddie network is freaking out, because they know damn good and well he'll rat them out to save his own sleazy hide. "Honor among thieves," my ass.

Me, I have no sympathy whatsoever. Ralsky engaged in massive fraud, theft of services, hijacking of other people's property by means of virus propagation, and who knows what all else. He claimed that what he was doing was legal, when what he really meant was, "You can't prove anything against me, nyah-nyah!" Looks like he was wrong, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving target. And if a bunch of the script-kiddies go down with him, so much the better.

Current Mood: jubilant
Tags: spammers

12:08 pm
theweaselking

[Link]

Today's Math Moment.
Because it's Friday, and nobody loves random stupid work on a Friday more than me.

The question!:

Expand:
(x-a)(x-b)(x-c)(x-d)( ... )(x-y)(x-z)

You should be able to do this one in your sleep, if you've passed high-school algrebra.

EDIT:

(25 comments | Leave a comment)

10:42 am
fidelioscabinet

[Link]

Geometrical Opera
I'm not sure what Gluck would have made of this production of his opera Alceste; I think he'd have loved Anna Sophie Von Otter in the title role, but the staging may have had him either jumping on his wig and running for the hills. Then again, he might have really, really loved it, once he got used to the overwhelming blueness of it all.

This was a very blue thing. It had layers of blueness. Blue was everywhere. It was so blue that the first time I watched it, before the DVD had decided to cooperate and show me the subtitles, I ended up drifting off to sleep about the time Admetus strode onto the stage at the beginning of the second act, fit and full of life, and wondering who to give the credit for his recovery.

Besides being blue, the staging was exceedingly geometric. There was the Big Whirling Cube of Divinely-ordained Doom, the Pillars of More than Architectural Significance, the Small Glass Plates of Divine Illumination, the Triangle of Dramatic Effect, the Extremely Unsafe Staircase of Prophecy, and the Big Blue Square of Plot Resolution and Happy Ending. To relieve the Euclidean effect of all that (which may have been too rational even for the Enlightenment) there were also the Wrinkled Curtain of Doomfulness, the Stage Trap-door of Mortality, the Platforms on Wires of Divine Intervention, and the Slide Projection of the Divinity as a Very Well-Endowed Archaic Kouros.

Why yes, this was a very minimalist production, in a very modern style. The costumes were exceedingly simple; the dancers wore sheath dresses in a quasi-Egyptian style, with headdresses a la Nefertiti and the principal singers wore very simple a-line floor length tunics, in dark shades for the most part. The staging had everyone moving slowing, with hieratic postures and gestures that wouldn't have looked out of place in an Egyptian tomb-painting. This was awkward at times, but quite effective, and must have required enormous effort of the part of the singers, who are not normally as constrained in their movements as the dancers. The music was beautiful, the singers knew their jobs, and once I had the subtitles on hand to help me figure out what was going on (the action was not particularly helpful with this, lovely though it was) this was great to watch.

The handling of the role of Hercules was a severe disappointment, I have to say. Dietrich Henschel doubled the roles of the Priest of Apollo and hercules, and while the costuming and make-up for the priest worked well, the choices for Hercules did not. As Hercules, arch-hero of all the Greek heroes, Henschel ended up looking like either a vampire with extremely old-fashioned taste in clothing, a demon from the cover of a Tanith Lee novel, or an alternative fan costume of Severus Snape. There was no lion skin in evidence, and the combination of the blue lights, pallid foundation makeup and excessive eye makeup didn't look like any Hercules anyone ever imagined. The gestures wished on the singer did not help. As he made his vow to save his friend's wife, we were treated to rotations of the right arm that were highly suggestive of fast-pitch softball. The assault on the forces of the Underworld looked more like Snapeish cosplay, with hand-waving gestures that only needed a wand to look like an attempt at a wizards' duel. It's a good thing Apollo showed up to announce that Alcestis could go back home after all, because, lacking either a knockdown or a knockout, I'm not sure Hercules had scored enough points for the judges to give him the fight without a serious fix being put in. I don't know whether Henschel had drunk enough of the Kool-aid to go with this staging of the role, or if he just gave up and quit arguing, but Hercules's entire time onstage was a WTF? from beginning to end.

It was nice to see Yann Beuron in something besides Offenbach--not that he doesn't do Offenbach well; he does Offenbach so well that it's good to be reminded he can do more.

Overall, the whole thing was a lovely production, and worked well with the music. It's hard to realize just how radical Gluck was until you've seen enough Italian opera seria to see what he was working against. The coherence of narrative and music, the discipline required of the singers (they are not permitted, under Gluck's view of things, to add their own ornaments or inject other additions to their parts, which was something traditional opera seria accommodated, to such an extent that they were nearly able to get away with murder--some singers would reject the scored aria altogether, and sing something from another opera, since it was their signature piece and very popular, and surely that's what people had come to the opera to see, wasn't it?), and the close integration of dance with singing, so that, as in classical Greek tragedy, it actually has something to do with the plot--all these were major changes. Nowadays, he's just another composer who was Not-Mozart, but in his day, Gluck was a dangerous troublemaker, who wrote music beautiful enough that he couldn't be ignored.

It was awfully blue, though. And geometric.

Tags: doc?, what's opera

10:55 am
baldanders

[Link]

belated adulthood notes

Originally published at Memory Machine. You can comment here or there.

Just had my credit limit raised today, without requesting it. That’s my first credit limit raise.

I’d like a second card, but I’m still getting turned down when I apply for decent ones. I don’t bother applying for anything with annual or initial fees. It’s just a matter of time, I’m sure; I’m being very good about using the card and paying it down.

I haven’t been posting much, and I hope to pick up next week; I’ve been working my tail off, and that’s going to continue through the weekend. At that point, we should be in pretty good shape for our trip to Seattle to see family (a very short trip, but I’m still going to lose four work days).

Back to the grind now.

05:43 pm
solri

[Link]

8 REASNOS Y TEH PREVIOUST GENARATION WZ TEH DUMBEST EVAH!!11
Dear me, yet another academic has published a book complaining about how the Internet is making us stupid. I haven't had a chance to read Mark Bauerlein's The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, but there's a summary at the Boston Globe: "8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation". It seems to be the usual stuff: young people are stupid because they can't spell, do maths or remember the name of the President, and what is making them stupid is progressive education and ~~rock'n'roll~~ ~~TV soaps~~ ~~LSD~~ the interwebs. Now there may be a grain of truth in Bauerlein's book (I'll let you know if our library buys it) but from the synopsis, it looks like he is simply taking a few of the skills prized by his generation, noting that the new generation don't seem to possess them to the same extent, and concluding that young people are "dumb". (By the way, is that really the sort of vocabulary one expects from an English professor?) I could use the same methodology to show that the previous generation is not that bright.

1. Computer Illiteracy

In a sample of 50 white, college-educated males* between the ages of 40 and 60, only two respondents were able to correctly explain the difference between the regular expressions "?" and "*", and none were able to read "#!/" as "hash bang slash". Similarly, in a study conducted among members of the Faculty of Humanities at Emory University, 77% were unaware that Java was not only a type of coffee or an island in Indonesia but was also a computer language, 58% thought that C++ was a grade somewhere between C+ and B-, and 18% failed to complete the questionnaire because they could not navigate to the web page.

2. Poor cell-phone skills

Most people over the age of thirty either cannot use SMS at all, or type so slowly one would think they did not have reversible thumbs.

3. Impoverished vocabulary

Large numbers of middle-aged and older people are completely unaware of words like "anime", "machinima" or "mashup".

4. Orthographical fixedness

Many older people are unable to decode even the simplest of letter-transformations, such as "teh" for "the". They also tend to be poor at phonics: in the aforementioned Emory University survey, less than half of the tenured faculty were able to read "ur" as "you're", though TAs did much better here.

5. Lack of critical thinking

Many older people are so uncritical of what they read that they send money to people claiming to be trying to smuggle funds out of Nigeria.

6. Inability to multi-task

Psychologists at the Stanford Research Institute recently conducted an experiment to measure the multi-tasking abilities of subjects aged over fifty from a variety of ethnic and educational backgrounds. In the first phase of the experiment, subjects were asked to write an essay on well-known subject; the answers were then graded by Freshman English instructors to provide a standard metric. In the second phase, a similar essay task was given, but this time it had to be performed while holding a conversation on a cell phone, chatting using IM and listening to indie rock: performance dropped dramatically.

7. Cultural sterility

Walk into any retirement community in America and you will be hard-pressed to find anyone who can name three characters from Battlestar Galactica. You might do better with Star Trek, but only TOS.

8. Ignorance of local geography

To be fair, older people often have an impressive knowledge of national and even world geography, but they are alarmingly ignorant of the geography of their home towns. In a series of interviews conducted on a typical suburban street, CNBC found that most older people were unable to give directions to well-known locations like the best park for skateboarding or a cool mall to hang in.

* All statistics are invented.

10:49 am
baldanders

[Link]

name that tune today

Originally published at parlando. You can comment here or there.

Name That Tune game seventeen goes live at Popdose today at 12:30 PM Eastern. Come over and play!

11:43 am
filkertom

[Link]

Insert Geek Cliche Here
Which is being played on this week's "Wandering Geek" podcast. Thanks, Curt!

I'm going to have a new page in the next few days, with every podcast I can find that has played my stuff. Lots of stuff from Podsafe. :) Are there any others you know about -- or have you played my stuff on your podcast? Provide links, please.

(4 comments | Leave a comment)

11:41 am
hbruton

[Link]

Home on the Range
Friday is errand day. Marg gets off early on Fridays and we have lunch out (Pho today!) and then run errands. Good thing I checked my supply of illustration board as I'm down to little bits. So today, I'm off to the art supply store to buy more to work on AC art. However, I woke up early today and was itchy to do some art while I waited for Marg. Oh ho, parchment! So here's a quickie I did up this morning. Lots of folks really liked the cowboy ponyboy I did as a recent commission, so I decieded to revisit him. Here's the results. This one there are prints available and the original will be at AC. 9x12 sepia markers on parchment paper.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Current Mood: happy

(7 comments | Leave a comment)

09:24 am
jimvanpelt

[Link]

Writing a Book: Getting Students Involved
As I announced earlier, I'm planning on writing a novel as a kind of public performance piece during the next school year. I realized yesterday that I should be able to get more out of the project (and not make it nearly as self serving) if I can involve the students. So, we are starting a "Write a Book in a Year Club." Students who are interested in completing a book-length project in the course of the next school year will meet regularly to report their progress, give and receive support, share their experiences, and learn helpful tips.

The club is in the formational stages right now, but tentatively each member will set their goal for the year (complete a novel, collection of stories, collection of poetry, collection of non-fiction essay, or some other book-length project), and then meet during lunch periodically. I'll also set up a wikki page for students to chat and to share info.

I suspect, if it goes, that it will be a small club, but it will be fun.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: "Deja Vu," Crosby, Stills and Nash
Tags: teaching, writing

11:21 am
james_nicoll

[Link]

One benefit of FBoFW
Is that I get to read conversations like this.

At the risk of being a namby-pamby liberal, I come down somewhere around "Yes, Liz is clueless and self-centered but one of the risks Warren accepted by choosing his strategy is that she'd accept the rides but still have no romantic interest in Warren." Expecting a 100% success rate for any approach is unjustifiably optimistic. Do we really want to let hopeless optimists fly helicopters?

The moral that I take from parts of this thread is that the most agonizing thing about being male in the 21st century is the expectation that we will actually pay attention to what woman want rather than relying on simple rituals and unspoken payment schedules. It's like we're expected to put effort into the whole relationship thing.

11:19 am
ursulav

[Link]

Scent Blogging!
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Tags: bpal

04:08 pm
lotrfic_crit
[lexin]

[Link]

Fannish 5
From the

fannish5, "In what five fictional locations would you love to live?"

First response to this question has to be 'Oh, heck, there are so many.'

(1) Rivendell. Not, as some might prefer, Lórien. I think Lórien, from the description in the books, involves too much climbing about.

(2) Hogwarts. OK, it involves even more stairs than Lórien, but perhaps we could make arrangements for my rooms (for in my mind I am a professor rather than a student) to be somewhere on the lower couple of floors. Or install some kind of magical lift? I can't see Tolkien's elves having a lift but it seems well within the abilities of Rowling's wizards.

(3) Roke Island. Again, I see myself as a teacher rather than a student.

(4) Talking of ability to build lifts, how about the Lonely Mountain? Of course this would have to be post-dragon. Or even the Dwarrowdelf at its height? I do think of all the places on Middle-Earth, the dwarf cities get the shortest shrift and I'd like to see them.

(5) The most difficult choice as there are so many left. The Chalet School of Elinor Brent-Dyer? Oxford as described in "Gaudy Night"? (Though obviously sans the murderer.) I think Oxford has to win out, I'm not sure I could cope with the constant company of even fictional teenage girls.

So, for those of you who don't follow

fannish5, and to keep this vaguely on topic, where on Middle-Earth would you like to live? Why?

Current Mood: curious
Tags: lotr, meme

10:53 am
james_nicoll

[Link]

Discover Institute pundit recapitulates bad SF.
Are (white) Americans a super-race bred for risk taking? One film critic thinks so!

A godless biologist is less keen on the idea.

ObSF: Any one of Heinlein's books where he talks about pioneering versus In the Wet, where we learn that colonials are general second-raters who prosper because of an advantageous set of circumstances (1). Amazingly, Heinlein was a colonial while Shute was British.

1: This is FILTH, isn't it? "Failed in London, Try Hong Kong"?

(14 comments | Leave a comment)

02:23 pm
debunkingwhite
[annwfyn]

[Link]

UK centric - new London initiative on knife crime
I seem to be posting a lot on UK specific issues lately. If it's inappropriate, please tell me and I'll stop.

I read this on a friend's LJ this morning, and thought it was something this community might want to hear about. It's about the new Mayor of London's crackdown on knife crime.

( Text for the link phobic )

Current Mood: tired

10:51 am
ellen_kushner

[Link]

Louise Marley
Just found out our pal, author Louise Marley ,is on LJ as

lmarley! For people looking for discussions of fiction & how to write it: she's got a lot of good stuff to say, here.

10:46 am
twistedchick

[Link]

My family is lousy at keeping in touch, with the exception of a couple of cousins. So I have a Google news alert set for all the family names, just to keep up on what they're doing if anything happens to hit the press. This may sound odd, but there are enough relatives who occasionally show up somewhere (not counting the reporters) that it's worthwhile.

And today it turned up a press release about one of my younger cousins (my cousin's daughter) who's putting out her first CD. There are links to some of the songs, and some photos. I've listened to a few of the cuts, but it's not my genre of music. Anyone want to let me know whether you think they're good or not? I've heard her sing occasionally, and she has a sweet voice, but the sample songs sound a little overproduced to me. Opinions, anyone?

ETA: She has a YouTube music vid: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lKkwefBUtxs
This is one of the songs I like.

10:37 am
rm

[Link]

LJ Advisory Board
Well, I've been officially certified as a candidate in the LJ Advisory Board Election and I've been offered the opportunity to talk a little bit about where I stand in a post that will be linked to from the poll.

Four questions were suggested to all the candidates for this post, and since this isn't a format I've pursued before, I decided to run with it.

As some of you know, I will actually be in Sicily for the next week (I leave later today), so my access may be sporadic during that time, but what online time I have will be dedicated to this election process, which I believe has the potential to make LJ a better place regardless of the outcome.

What do you think is the value of LJ?

For me personally, LJ has been a way to stay in touch with friends, hone my writing and document my life for myself, and at least intermittently, for the amusement of others. I met my partner here. I found support when I was diagnosed with a rather unpleasant genetic disease. And I have fun talking about the things I'm passionate about from fencing to fandom.

While those LJ experiences are far from uncommon, they don't even begin to speak to the totality of LJ's value both as a platform for personal expression and a tool for community development. LJ gives the user the unique ability to feel both less alone in the world and more singular, whether on issues serious or trivial.

LJ allows users to experience both the world as they wish it to be, through connections with like-minded individuals, and to witness the world as it is through exposure to those of completely different circumstances and views.

What changes would you like to see LJ make in the next year?

The number one issue has to be better and more respectful communications between LJ and its users. Every other concern (and there are a whole bunch we'll get to in just a second) can only be addressed if this happens. That means LJ has to recognize that users generate the content that brings in even more users that in turn generate the revenue in an ideally constant cycle. LJ's users -- free, plus and paid -- are the building blocks of the revenue model and should be treated accordingly.

What does that mean?

It means we need a clear TOS that is uniformly enforced.

It means we need communication with users whenever the TOS is updated.

It means we need a system for dealing with abuse and other user concerns that is transparent and allows users to present their side of the case -- justice without defense or appeal is not justice.

It means we need an LJ administration that recognizes and is comfortable with the diversity of its users and their interests.

Practically, what needs to happen in the next year?

LJ needs to finally resolve the free speech issues that began with ~~Strikeout~~ and Boldthrough. While as a private corporation LJ has the right to decide what type of content it will and won't allow, my argument is for the broadest range of speech permissible under the laws of California (where LJ is incorporated). This level of free speech should be the right of all LJ users, regardless of location or topic. Political speech needs to be protected. Religious speech needs to be protected. Creative speech needs to be protected. If it's legal speech it should be permissible on LJ.

LJ is a platform. Not a parent.

LJ needs to address disability issues. This includes getting the ALT tag working for our visually impaired users and apologizing to users with mental health/illness issues for essentially erasing their existence from the site in the debacle with the top 100 interests list.

LJ needs to honor its original commitments made to the users. These include the ongoing availability of free accounts and the right of every user to experience an ad-free LJ if they so choose.

Why do you want to be the elected representative?

To be frank, I hemmed and hawed about running at the beginning. This job is going to be hard. It's going to be time-consuming and it's going to be thankless.

But the fact remains that I have a set of unique characteristics and credentials that make me believe I am the person who can most make the LJ powers-that-be listen.

Why?

I currently have early adopter, paid and free accounts.

I am a professional author whose publisher advertises on the site.

I have an extensive professional background in public relations and marketing.

I have the previous experience of working for an on-line community of which I was also an active part.

I already have a good rapport with staff members on several of the current user concerns. At the same time, I have no personal friendships or loyalties to the staff or other powers that be.

I am relentless, clear, and systematic when it comes to problem solving.

I love LJ with all my heart, but I am not a cheerleader. I will call it like I see it, and can be both diplomatic and aggressive.

I am resilient.

I am an active and proud part of fandom (HP, Torchwood/Doctor Who, Riverside, His Dark Materials, Kushiel, etc.)

Everything that makes me not cuddly in most circumstances makes me perfect for this job.

What do you think are the community's greatest concerns?

Communication. Respect. The safety to be ourselves. The right to be ourselves. What the TOS really means. Free expression. A high quality user experience. Features that work. Features that matter. Preservation of community. Preservation of LJ's unique culture. Accessibility. Usability.

vote RM!
Keeping LJ a place we want to be;
Making LJ a place we want to stay.

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=1160d031ad8c5c21fb40aed0f96f9b75

09:06 am
jblaque

[Link]

"Nevelin Chambers"
Watch as Hardball's Chris Matthews rips a gaping hole in right-wing hack Kevin James's belly on Bush's "appeasement" comments:

*chuckle*
Kinda like watching a nightcrawler writhing to death on a hot sidewalk, isn't it? ☺

Current Location: Chicago
Current Mood: Amused
Current Music: Stephanie Miller
Tags: barack obama, gop meltdown, loathsome people, republican smear, right-wing hack, right-wing hate radio

(13 comments | Leave a comment)

10:07 am
shadesong

[Link]

A light against the darkness
I last did this in 2003. Set up a poll much like this one.

Ended up lighting 236 candles. And it was not just me - people across the country lit candles.

Why?

A sort of alchemy. An attempt to exchange shared pain for peace. A way of reaching out across the dark and sharing love.

You are not alone. We are not alone. We are strong, even if it doesn't always feel that way. We are loved. We will survive this.

Why do I do this on the anniversary of my rape? Not to revisit the darkness. To honor the light. To remind myself that I emerged from that. To hold my flaming sword high.

I lived. More than that - I survived. And more even than that.

Let me light a candle for you. Let me hold you in my heart, if only for a moment - let me remind you that you made it through, too. That you're not alone.

And take whatever healing I can pass on.

If you feel comfortable talking about what happened to you, please do so here. Either way,please take the poll - I'll be buying candles (tealights, as that's what I can afford hundreds of) based on this headcount, and it's a good semi-anonymous way to disclose. Only I will ever see the results of this poll.

Please feel free to pass this on to any other survivors you know. And if you want to - light a candle with me the evening on June 6th.

Poll #1188827
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

Are you a survivor of rape and/or sexual assault?

Yes; please light a candle for me.
43 (70.5%)

Please light a candle for one of my loved ones.
25 (41.0%)

May I have your name (and/or the name of anyone you want a candle lit for)?

Tell me what happened, if you want to (not mandatory).

Tags: candles

(24 comments | Leave a comment)

02:50 pm
new_scientist

[Link]

'Self-digesting' biofuel plants could ease food crisis

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn13920-selfdigesting-biofuel-plants-could-ease-food-crisis.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

As biofuel helps push up food prices, researchers say that unusual genetic engineering may be the best way to get cheap ethanol from inedible plants

10:18 am
matociquala

[Link]

i've been warned that you and your friends are crazy
Good run this morning, or at least the first half was good, and the second half was acceptable. The uphill mile out in13:35, and I started running half a block early because I had the opportunity to jaywalk, due to traffic patterns. I got a late start today because I slept in until 8 (I've gotten addicted to Thursday night homicide documentaries on the Murder Channel. There's one pair of cops whose names I really need to steal and use in something.) but it's rainy, so though it was humid, it wasn't too hot.

The mile out was mostly easy and comfortable--I didn't even really notice I was running until the last eighth, and only the last tenth--coincidentally, some of the steepest uphill--was hard. While I was flopped down on the stone steps at the park entrance to gasp like a landed fish and listen to my heart thump, a nice Yankee in a pickup truck pulled over to shout and see if I was okay. (I said, "Yes, thank you for asking!") Nice guy; I'm glad he didn't actually discover a body on his way to work today.

Then I walked the half-mile around the park in 8:22, stretched out, and did intervals home, because either my allergies were acting up or my cardiopulmonary fitness was inadequate to the task (I was wheezing and coughing.) Because I only ran about half the distance, the trip back took 14:58.

I'm going to blame it on allergies, because I did well on the way out, and my entire neighborhood is fragrant of lilacs and pungent with marigolds currently. (I'm particularly enamored of a the dusty-purple-and-green four-color Victorian (It's not a Queen Anne: it's the other less fussy kind, without all the gingerbread) on the corner, about whose foundations some genius has planted lilacs and deep, deep purple irises that pick up all the colors of the paint and trim.

My left shoulder is still unhappy, which interferes with the climbing and archery both (I was having one of my best shooting nights ever last night, but my arm tired really quickly), but the left big toe which has been bothering me was very well behaved today. It was present, but not painful, and I'm calling that a win.

Last night, there were bats in the twilight. I like bats.

164.9 miles to Lothlorien.

According to the high-tech bathroom scale this morning, I am 239 lbs (17 stone 1 pound, because for some unknown reason it freaked out and gives me my weights in British now, and I can't make it go back). I've actually gained about twenty pounds (I was at about 15.13 last October, and I peaked up to 17.7, but some of that was bloooatttt.) since I started climbing (I'm a mesomorph, and I put on muscle like nobody's business given half a chance. Unfortunately, I'm also Ukrainian and have had a couple of bouts with crash weight loss due to major illness, and my body is very adamant about hanging onto those energy reserves In Case of Famine.) I'm still wearing the same jeans size I was in November, however, and if anything they're a little looser, and I think some of the fluff is starting to come off now finally. Which would be nice, because it's really not helping me on the overhangs.

For those of you playing along at home, by the way, I'm around a size sixteen currently. (I have the bone structure of a plowhorse and ginormous tits, and start to look awkwardly thin and feel frail if I drop below 160 or so. If I'm in muscle, I should weigh around 175. So yes, of course, all the sports I love are the ones where it pays to be light and quick and strong for your size. Go figure.)

Now, I'm going to shower and make tea and toast myself a bagel and spend the rest of the day working on Seven for a Secret, because I have eaten my live frog and have no other plans, and nothing worse is likely to happen all day.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Ian Anderson - In The Times Of India (Bombay Valentine)
Tags: eat a live frog and--, get out in the park, project less-of-me, quinnehtukqut, shooting things

(38 comments | Leave a comment)

08:54 am
elisem

[Link]

Jon Singer's work on fluorescent glazes
There are some nifty photos in this article, and I am always inspired by whatever Jon's up to.

09:56 am
shadesong

[Link]

Friday!
Administration
Happy early birthday to

goddessfarmer,

kissmythistle,

oneagain,

theloriest, and

tofu_cat, who all advance a year over the weekend!

Medical
Still mind-numbingly exhausted. Pain levels are low, though.

Help a kid get to camp!

mslaynie's son goes to diabetes camp every summer. The camp is paid for - but the transportation isn't, and it's a bear.

mslaynie says: "A brief history- kiddo was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 10. He's 14 now (turning 15 next month) and Camp Sweeney is the one activity every year that he really, really looks forward to. Unfortunately, it's north of Dallas, Texas, so we have to make the 1000+ mile round trip twice in one month. My husband works two jobs, I do what I can (but can't work with the fibro), and putting the trip together is insanely difficult for us. Camp is covered by a scholarship, but travel isn't. Help? And thank you... We leave June 7."

Click here to help. Also to see a cute picture of a sea slug.

Myanmar

hammercock explains just how bad it is.

Link Soup
* Adorable tiny hog species saved from extinction
* Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions.
* Fabulous scrap metal sculptures. Also robot sex.
* "After 9,000 years of silence, Chile's Chaitén volcano (pictured on May 3) is erupting with lava, ash — and lightning."

Daily Science
In a boon to cancer treatment and regenerative medicine, scientists have discovered that a trick used by tumor cells that allows them to migrate around the body can cause normal, adult cells to revert into stem cell–like cells.

Large quantities of these reverted cells could be used to treat anything from spinal cord injury to liver damage without the risk of tissue rejection, said Robert Weinberg, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and co-author of a study appearing in Cell. Learning more about how cancer cells move around the body is also providing scientists with new insights that could thwart the spread of the disease.

Daily BPAL
( The Buggre Alle This Bible, The Ifrit, Nanny Ashtoreth, The Stormhold )

Friday memage!
Wearing: Grey tank top and matching girly-boxers.
Reading: Scar Night,by Alan Campbell; WisCon workshop manuscripts.
Writing: I need to get further on Katrianna's visit, and hopefully some more of her mother's story.
Planning: Today, lunch with the fabulous

mendozaand the return of the medical wrangling from yesterday; tomorrow, one or two parties, depending on transport. Sunday may be family movie day.

You?

And a bonus: remember me blathering on about roller skating? Have a picture (by

drwex). And if you're local, come skate with us!

Have a happy Friday and a great weekend!

Current Music: Blue October - Congratulations

(26 comments | Leave a comment)

09:51 am
filkertom

[Link]

Three Out Of Four Ain't Bad

Superhero Team Quiz

LiveJournal Username

Your Primary Super Power

Cape?

Identitiy

Origin

Location of Head Quarters

Primary Costume/Uniform Colors

Why are you a Superhero?

Your Superheroic Codename

The veteran grim member of the team

firedrake_mor

The sexist and crass but annoyingly effective one

peteralway

The bright-eyed novice or sidekick

darkwolf69

The teammate that will eventually go evil or insan

selenesue

The inept yet determined/reoccurring supervillain

malkchild

The sinister Arch-Villain and team's greatest foe

jedilora

The perky civilian that keeps getting kidnapped

celticferret

How often does your team actually 'save the day'?

76%

This Fun Quiz created by Shannon at BlogQuiz.Net

Car Videos at Car-Videos.Biz

What hero would you really want to be? I've always envisioned a character called Blue Streak, a martial artist with flight and a little extra speed. Made him into a girl for the Hero League notes in The Last Hero On Earth. Almost twenty years since I had the physique for it....

(10 comments | Leave a comment)

06:46 am
the_red_shoes

[Link]

09:41 am
haikujaguar

[Link]

Women and Games
By happy chance yesterday I caught glimpse of a sign for a new game store, one that had opened literally just a couple of hours earlier. I did a u-turn and went for a visit. It's been a while since I've stepped foot in place like that, since most of the RPGs I've bought lately I've gotten online.

Imagine my delight to find that 90% of the store was devoted to... meeting space. Places to play card games and tabletop RPGs. Refrigerators full of food and drinks. Even a more cozy room in the back for people who want a quieter zone.

I got to talking with the owners, ex-IT guys who'd rather make less money doing something they enjoy than go back to coding (there's an interesting story there I'd like to hear). Anyway, since I was a woman with a baby, the topic came up: Why don't more women hang out at this places? Because... well, they're no longer dark, mysterious little caves crammed full of angry miniatures, posters of scowling dwarves and elves in chain mail bikinis. They're... well... social clubs. Places for people to get together and play games. And a lot of women now play games, thanks to MMPORGs.

So they asked, "How can we get more women in here?"

And I started to answer and... I had no idea. How to get all the women in their Horde Warrior or Alliance Warlock t-shirts into a store like this. How to get all the women who loved reading Harry Potter and Narnia to try rolling some dice or roleplaying a fwooshy elf lord.

I just don't know. But looking at the place, I don't want it to go out of business (and not just because they offered to sell my artwork on consignment). It's a hang-out, a way to meet people who like similar things, and it's far more wholesome than having your teenage daughter (or son) socializing at a bar. Plus, you know, we all spend a lot of time staring at computers. Having a place for face-time is important.

So... how would you do it? If you're a woman, what would get you into a place like that? Or if you already hang out at gaming places, what attracts you to them? If you're a guy, why do you think women don't come 'round? How can I help this place get the other 50% of the population?

Stardancer Home.

Current Mood: perplexed
Current Music: Disney - Honor to Us All (in Spanish)
Tags: culture, gaming

(56 comments | Leave a comment)

11:29 pm
greatpoets
[mspixieears]

[Link]

Carol Ann Duffy - 'Text'
I thought this would be an excellent follow-up to the (equally excellent) previous poem 'E-Mail'. It's taken from Duffy's collection Rapture.

Text

I tend the mobile now
like an injured bird.

We text, text, text
our significant words.

I re-read your first,
your second, your third,

look for your small xx,
feeling absurd.

The codes we send
arrive with a broken chord.

I try to picture your hands,
their image is blurred.

Nothing my thumbs press
will ever be heard.

01:54 pm
rho

[Link]

Glitter and rainbows, oh my!
Following a vaguely surreal conversation on IRC, I commented jokingly that I should write to the Zimbabwean embassy and ask them if Robert Mugabe farts glitter and rainbows. Regrettably, though unsurprisingly, I am now being encouraged to actually do so. What's worse, is that I'm actually feeling tempted to do so.

Poll #1188793 Mugabe farts
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Should I troll the state of Zimbabwe in this manner?

View Answers

You even have to ask? Of course you should!
15 (68.2%)

You even have to ask? Of course you shouldn't!
7 (31.8%)

Please, someone encourage me down the route of sanity.

08:31 am
osewalrus

[Link]

Brief California Reflections
Have not read the case yet, so really no comment on the legal reasoning. I gather it is based on the CA Sct's reading of what constitutes a fundamental civil right under CA law. If so, it would stand on sound legal reasoning (similar to the NJ decision in '06) as opposed to the condescending crap out of MA.

(Because yes, substance actually matters, not just result.)

As for electoral politics...I suspect it will not have nearly the impact folks expect, particularly desperate Rs looking for a lifeline. Culture War fades in importance in economic hard times, unless you are prepared to use scapegoating as an organizing tool and don't object to a few lynchings or pogroms. Hitler did not win on "culture war." He made a direct link between Jews, Communists, and the terrible economic situation in Germany at the time. Similarly, unless the Rs are going to find a link between the "gay agenda" and $4/gallon gas, I don't think voters outside of CA are likely to be terribly motivated by this issue.

In CA, it is a somewhat harder question. It probably does save a few Republican seats in CA, by enhancing voter turnout. But McCain can't campaign too stridently on the issue without losing support among libertarian Rs and independent who are sick of culture war taking dominance on the policy agenda.

As for the CA constitutional amendment, we'll see. There is a real irrational "ook" factor for many people raised in a generation where "alternate lifestyles" were called "perversions of nature," no matter how much they try to get past that. What would make it even more unfortunate is that CA is actually a state where the legislature has passed a same sex marriage law, albeit one vetoed by the Governor. But it was clearly only a matter of time before the political climate shifted sufficiently to make passage and signing a certainty. If the constitutional amendment passes, all that is flushed down the toilet.

04:38 pm
e_apraksina

[Link]

( крупнее )

via

forgottencat,

ru_cats_daily

Tags: кошкофильское

http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=88719c684bfeecdd770c7c0a943e435d

11:57 am
new_scientist

[Link]

Adapted aircon can track movement in the home

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn13919-adapted-aircon-can-track-movement-in-the-home.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Pressure detectors in air-conditioning units can track the movement of people through a building and could be used to save energy

07:35 am
nyuanshin

[Link]

Untermenschen
A research group at Cornell has done an initial proof-of-concept experiment for knocking genes into human embryos, and here comes the predictable response:

"It’s an important ethical boundary that scientists have been observing," said Marcy Darnovsky, associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society, a watchdog group in Oakland, Calif. "These scientists, on their own, decided to step over that boundary with no public discussion."

Good for them for having the moral fortitude to do what they think is right without feeling the need to get permission from imperious morons. If we had to wait for backward ideological attitudes to change before going ahead and putting new technology out there, we'd still be chipping flint for spears.

Tags: freedom, genetics

08:05 am
papersky

[Link]

Thud: ILE
Words: 1305
Total words: 67785
Files: 4
Tea: Jasmine
Music: NMPA
RSI: Ubuntu contains a version of Isotprog/White Worm called Nibbles. Do not play this game, it could not be worse for the repetitive strain if it had been designed by desperate and evil physiotherapists who get paid by the hour. On the other hand, the people who wrote it have clearly thought a lot about what makes the original game fun and what could make this cleverer, and it has some astonishing levels.
Reason for stopping: that's that bit, need to work out the next bit.

janetmk is arriving some time this morning.