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

Monday, March 4, 2013

Linkee-poo late, but… well, just late

Dear self-published authors, think Amazon is on your side? Think again. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

Jim Hines on preventing rape. Or, actually, our cultural warpedness that allows men (and it's mostly men) to inflict violence on women. Think he's being a little over the top on how society feels it needs to train women on how to avoid being raped, but then doesn't feel the same need to educate boys on why they shouldn't, maybe you should read this article on "why all the hate of Anne Hathaway." Those two articles mesh quite well.

Amanda Palmer's TED talk on the art of asking. Yea, that's going to take some processing.

Chuck Wendig takes a stab at processing it. He outlines some of the ideas that came to me as well, but like Chuck, I'm not sure that's entirely what is needed/being said. There's a paradigm wall I can't see through here. At least it's not a simple vision. As I've said before, the music business is not the writing business. So how Amanda Palmer is making it work, I'm not sure if it's a direct transfer to books. But how to translate it is not clear.

The difference between conjecture and real science? Real science continues to investigate even after they think they have the answers. In this case discovering that the supposed "gap" between higher CO2 levels and the end of the last Ice Age. Turns out the gap is either much smaller or non-existant. How much do you want to bet there's someone, right now (probably the same people) who are re-evaluating those results, gathering more samples, doing the thought experiments and lab follow up to see if their conjectures turn out to be true, and then double checking it all on the same subject and time frame? While it doesn't happen all the time, that's what science is supposed to do. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

A Spidey-Sense suit. Yea, I'm also surprised the article didn't mention the benefit to blind people.

Grave robbers in China arrested selling corpses for "ghost brides." Okay, so, just besides the "selling dead people" side of it, arranged marriages after death? More proof the world is stranger than we think. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

A man claims he was nearly run over by a shoplifter at Wal-Mart, so he opened fire on the shoplifter's car, missing it a few times, but managing to shatter the rear window. Turns out his initial story doesn't add up once police look at the video. Also turns out the guy didn't exactly follow safe firearm practices. Nope, instead he ran out of the Wal-Mart, chasing the shoplifter, and then fired into the shoplifter's car while a bystander was in his field of fire. And if you think that bystander wasn't in any danger, I'll have you note how close the shooter was to the car, and that one of his rounds went into the asphalt. Why? Because shooting accurately in those circumstances is damn hard. Oh, and since the shooter wasn't in danger himself, but put himself in the position to be in danger, yeah, he's going to jail. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

And then you have the shopper who was refused on her $1 coupon threatening Wal-Mart workers with a gun. Albeit standing next to her car in the parking lot, but enough that workers felt threatened and retreated back into the store. And then she was rude to the Sheriff who pulled her over. Not smart. Not with a gun in the car. (Grokked from Matt Staggs) "But couldn't my mom beat the odds?" Another story on end-of-life decisions and even when the patient's wishes are known just how hard those decisions are. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Going to jail to get medical care. Tell me again how we have the best healthcare system in the world. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

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