I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Linkee-poo has heard about Houston, heard about Detroit, heard about Pittsburgh, PA

Great writers are great readers. Here's some books GRR Martin recommends. Got it, got it, got it, got it… oooo, that one is new. Actually, there are a few new ones on there that bear looking for, but some of the older ones I've been looking for copies for a while. (Grokked from Tor.com)

Terri Windling on writing and forgiveness. Don't miss the photo roll-overs. "And then let me keep working."

"Grad student Supap Kirksang made tens of thousands of dollars having his family buy textbooks in his native Thailand and them selling them to Americans at a profit. The publishing company John Wiley and Sons sued him for copyright infringement. But the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, saying the First Sale Doctrine applies no matter where the product was bought." One of the lawyers analyzing this case (which goes way beyond "textbooks" btw, and was a case a lot of people were worried about) gives the standard line that the publishers will just raise their prices in other countries. Yea, that probably won't happen. See, the rest of the world isn't as tied into the types of purchasing contracts that the US has (some of them also have price controls and mechanisms to negotiate lower prices). Here in the US textbook publishers charge outrageous prices. They make plenty of excuses about what that happens, but the real reason is that they can and they love those profits (so do the textbook authors, BTW). Other countries won't stand for those kinds of profit grabs. What would really stop this practice is charging reasonable prices in all countries (seriously, the end product is cheaper if the publisher first ships it over seas, someone buys it retail and then ships it back to the US where another person sells it for a profit while still undercutting those publishers here, tell me again about how they aren't gouging their US customers). If you'd like to see the reverse of this you can look at the Australian SF/F book market. Our friends down under pay much higher prices than we do.

"But there are people who spend years… trying to find a true sense of purpose… Just find… your one true passion, and do it for the rest of your life on nights and weekends when you’re exhausted and cranky and just want to go to bed… All that matters is that once you know what you want to do, you dive in a full 10 percent and spend the other 90 torturing yourself because you know damn well that it’s far too late to make a drastic career change, and that you’re stuck on this mind-numbing path for the rest of your life." Hahahahah… wait a sec. I resemble that remark. (Grokked from JGBarr)

A new theory on how SSRI drugs actually work to mediate depression. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"(T)oday is the last day children in Utah can send in their submissions for the state-sponsored Earth Day poster contest lauding fossil fuel production." Look who is using children for propaganda purposes now. You know after all the hoopla of Al Gore making a film that explained the problem so children could understand it (and then it was used as school materials to explain the issue to children) I'm sure the right will be up in arms over this transparent action. Anyone? As the Church Lady said, "Well, isn't *that* special." Bueller? Bueller? (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

Ever wonder why there's this prevalent thought among Americans that the world is just like us? Well, when you limit your sample size to mostly Americans, it's easy to be lead astray.

"Singapore has had the distinction of having prioritized social and economic equity while achieving very high rates of growth over the past 30 years — an example par excellence that inequality is not just a matter of social justice but of economic performance." And yet, as the US has become less equal in terms of the economy, our growth has stagnated and our GDP is considered "strong" if it grows at 2%. Wasn't always so here. Back after WWII till about the end of the 60s, while we had very distinct racial inequalities, our actual wage equality was pretty good. Back then 2% GDP growth would have been considered anemic. But since the 70s, as economic inequality has become greater (and racial equalities has somewhat gotten better), our overall economy has become shoddy. At the print shop, the old timers told tales about how great it was back in the day. Unfortunately there's a whole political movement and party that believes the exact opposite. Too bad their policies are the ones we end up following. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

It's almost magical. If there's a major political event, say like CPAC, if I wait long enough Jim Wright will explain my thoughts better than I could.

Want to know just how far into wackaloon land the conservatives have gone? How about Lindsey Graham fighting for his fictional family with an AR-15 in a fictional apocalypse. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Richard Perle looks back on the start of the Iraq War. Want to know what's wrong with the conservative mind set. See if you can pick out all the misdirection, rationalization, and thought contradictions in that interview. Including the final comments about Syria. What he's basically saying is, "Oh sure, we were wrong about our intelligence going into the Iraq War" (a mistake, BTW, that he helped contrive with Curveball) ", but we're dead wrong for not getting involved in Syria, even if we don't know which insurgents to support or trust." Yea, because that'll work out so well.

A list of ten things that our war in Iraq harmed. Far more than just blood and treasure (and there was plenty of that). One item missed here (although sideways mentioned in 4 and 7) is we managed to fuck-over another generation.

Your county by county map of life expectancy. Actually it shows the disparity between male and female life expectancies. (Grokked from John Scalzi)

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