Linkee-poo doesn't know where this is going, but guesses it'll do the driving from now on

The 5 things about publishing that surprised David B. Coe.

In my story (that has been accepted, but I have no contract, cough, cough) War Stories, the bookend POV character says that it's better to talk about what you've seen and done in war. "Because all those old guys who fought the last great war came back and kept their mouths shut. The demons they carried home ate them from the inside." Reference for some of those "old guys" I knew who informed that part of the story. My great uncles fought in the war. I know some things of their service, but not their full stories. In January we buried the second to the last one of them. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"Minimum of four years book publicity experience." I'm out. But, hey, if you know someone who wants to move around in the world of publishing, maybe you know someone who could be a Sr. Publicists at Tor/Forge Books. Maybe it's even you.

Ikea instructions for Stonehenge. (Grokked from matociquala)

In case you every really wanted to know what paranoid sounds like, here ya go. I have to admit I only got halfway though (or less, it's really damn long) before giving up. And now I'm wondering if this person is checking linked sources and my photo will appear in there as part of the code. Because, BTW, if you translate my last name in German (it's Slavic) it means "The Book of Life." And I'm named for two saints. Code much? (Pointed to by John)

Of relation to the newly uncovered War on Women, the women's economic opportunity index. Damn those socialist countries like Germany and Austria for making us look bad. (Grokked from Jeffery Beeler)

You know, dilithium crystals make anti matter experiments so much easier. And with that, Steve punches his geek card to be valid for the next month. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Anti-government extremists groups proliferate when the President is a Democrat? Not to mention African-American? Shocked, shocked I am… Good thing the conservatives quashed that DoHS report on the rise of conservative militia groups and the threat they pose. It's good to know conservatives are consistent in their reality denial.

And this just in, velociraptor chokes on chicken bone and dies. Okay, well, it was a really, really big chicken. And technically, so was the velociraptor. I always find it interesting when researchers are faced with the obvious. Look, "predator" is not an eating strategy. Obligate carnivore is. And if you observe any obligate carnivores you will notice that they will also scavenge meat when they can (because it poses less risk to them and doesn't require great energy expenditure). (Grokked from Jay Lake)

When I was in college I attended a lecture on shipwrecks and the presenter was going on and on about how this wreck he had just finished excavating was so strange because there were personal items from all across the Mediterranean (Egypt to what would become Southern Spain). And the hold included some artworks of renown (Egyptian and Peloponnesian statuary). And they were stunned at the variety of items. I asked if they had considered the possibility of piracy and theft. Their response was, "Almost all the ships of this time were engaged in some piracy, and they were all merchant vessels with items for trade. But all these different things just perplex us." Um, pirates have always been the most egalitarian crews (pulling from all types of people and both sexes), so having a wide range of personal items seems pretty natural to me for a mixed crew (after all, at the time the Mediterranean was a vast network of commerce between nation states from both sides of Gibraltar to the Red Sea). And that they were hauling plunder for sale in foreign ports also seems an obvious fit. But the archeologist just wasn't getting it.

Alligator Quotient: Alligators on a plane. All I'm sayin'.