You all were busy, busy beavers cranking out the good content while I was off doing the convention naval-gazing. Still working through the backlist. Until I get through, here's some cool stuff.
Oh, BTW, link salad and linkee-poo met and shook hands over the weekend. That the world didn't explode was a good sign. I'm still waiting to hear from NASA if we caused any planetary perturbations or if we'll see Comet Lake-Buchheit come wizzing by in 2015.
UPDATE According to SpaceWeather.com: "RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Solar protons accelerated by this morning's M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications… ALMOST-X FLARE AND CME (UPDATED): This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind… This is a relatively substantial and fast-moving (2200 km/s) CME. Spacecraft in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits passing through Earth's ring current and auroral regions could be affected by the cloud's arrival. In addition, strong geomagnetic storms are possible, so high-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras." And yesterday's "JAN. 22ND CME IMPACT: Arriving a little later than expected, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on Jan. 22nd… the CME strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field and briefly exposed satellites in geosynchronous orbit to solar wind plasma. For the next 24 hours, Earth's magnetic field reverberated from the impact, stirring bright auroras around the Arctic Circle." And you though I was being facetious.
Jeff VanderMeer offers some good advice on how to handle a writing career.
Jim Hines posts his own con neurosis.
The slightly humorous s*it designers say video. Dudes, really, this is all you could come up with? Okay, well, you all look young. And I didn't even hear the word "juxtaposed" anywhere in there. Not trying hard enough.
Carol Elaine with some cool art production using a manual typewriter and special ribbons.
The legendary licked book of Epic Confusion. And, in case you're wondering, yes, this was talked of in hushed tones during the barcon. As in, "Legend says a warrior will come from the land of the rounded Hi, and he shall call forth and gather the saliva and ink…".
An NPR story on the myth of serotonin levels causing depression. This is what science looks like when money is involved. This is also an insight into how science evolves finding more sophisticate and elegant solutions, how science (especially pharmaceutical and medical science) can be blinded by the "but it has to be one thing" mentality, an expression of how science often doesn't work in reverse (the serotonin level relationship is like the melatonin relationship to sleeping, I believe I covered that earlier) and the power of story in society. The good thing is I expect a much more nuanced definition of depression (big-D) will come out of this. Also, that we'll see depression put on a spectrum scale (tip of the hat to Christine Purcell for that last one).
In case you're still belaboring under the notion that liberals are all swishy on muslims. Yeah, not so much. I would make the point about how this isn't just an action that could only occur in "Islam" but I've seen Christians pull the same shit. Being an ass about one's religion seems to cross all cultural boundaries. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Janiece talks about her community become more diverse. As someone who lives in a predominately white community, yes to this. Considering that Don King's prime training camp is just a mile south of the village (within the township), it still feels strange when I encounter the vapid racism in my community.
Just who are the discouraged workers? I have often wondered just what I would be doing if I hadn't found this job. And how do people who become "discouraged" make ends meet? Of course, we need to add in the stories of people who "pulled themselves up by the boot=straps" and the person who took any job available because it was the only job available. Can't destroy too many of our cherished "stories we tell ourselves." (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Tweet of my heart:
@tnielsenhayden: Overheard in doctor's office this morning: "God has always blessed me with great insurance coverage."
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