Linkee-poo reserves the right to remain silent, but blathers on anyway

Edited, Saladin shares that his financial needs are met for the moment (edit to his post linked below).
Saladin Ahmed breaks the wall of silence and asks for help. And for your help, he offers what a writer can. He offers a short story. He also shares his own struggles with depression and how it's affected his situation. As someone who has struggled with depression, been dependent on my spouse's income when my own employment waved bye-bye, and lived for years with glasses that were heavily scratched, I am so there. I met Saladin at Penguicon, and from that little experience I can say he is a genuinely nice guy.

I'll make a short speech here. This is why I share my experience with depression. Because there are people out there who think they're the only ones going through it. I was one of those. It can be embarrassing in our culture to admit to depression (even little-d). But that wall of silence that separates us, one from another, that's the reason why we have that cultural admonition against admitting we have problems. There are people deeply invested in that wall, mostly to protect themselves from the reality of the world. Unfortunately many in control of our cultural discourse are among their number. Fuck 'em.

The Oxford English Fictionary tumblr. Bwahahaha. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Patrick Nielsen Hayden explains territorial publishing rights as they pertain to e-book releases (but also relate to physical books). (I would say "Grokked from John Scalzi", but it's actually on John's Whatever, but I probably wouldn't have seen it if he didn't call it out, but… Norman, coordinate!)

On a related note, HarperCollins launches HarperCollins 360 which promises to get English language books to where ever english language books can be sold. "When the program is fully implemented, the HarperCollins global catalog… will be available, limited only by the rights held, not by technology or geography." Please see PNH's comment about this (link right above). I wonder if HC will offer larger advances to secure exclusive world-wide English language publishing rights? Yeah, I don't think so either. What is more important about this release (IMHO) is the rolling out of POD capabilities in the different countries to print the actual product instead of shipping hard copy. I wonder if HC will offer larger advances to secure… (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

Jim Hines on setting boundaries and saying "no." This is one of those things I keep relearning, but mostly on my end. The reason why I now have evenings free (that's a relative term, given my experience of this week) is that I started saying no. No, I won't replace being a councilman with working on this other social organization. No, I won't use my spare time to do all these other activities to help someone else out. No, I won't fill that time with something new. I already have my plans to use that time, something that being a councilman took me away from. That I need to learn a new profession is enough of a drain on my time. It's hard to say no. Learning that I can say that has been a journey.

On the corrosive effect of women's magazines, "The only way for me to extricate myself from this cycle of self-loathing has been to cut women’s magazines out of my life. I lost access to a lot of good things in the process…, but it was something I needed to do… The world is a challenging enough place to be as it is. I am no longer interested in making it harder than it needs to be." (Grokked from matociquala)

Boys and their toys. That's a story about a filmmaker using LiDAR (a type of ranging radar used for detailed mapping) and "discovering" a "lost city." It's not like filmmakers are adverse to controversy and making big claims that are never really matched by their product. But what I think is interesting is that archeology, and the sciences in general, are now experiencing an equivalent revolution that the graphic design industry experienced with the advent of "desktop publishing." Sophisticated tools, once in the purview of trained professionals, and now being democratized and the general attitude of "what makes those people think they're so smart, I can do this," is once again rearing it's ugly head (it's a form of know-nothingism). There have always been amateurs to tinker, and the history of archeology is rife with examples of bad apples who have destroyed what they sought to venerate and preserve, so I understand that profession's abiding disdain for newbies thinking they've rediscovered the wheel. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Not only the future of teacher evaluations, but I expect we'll see these galvanic response skin bracelets in industry soon. It's too good for it not to be made useful. Heck, all we need to do is add a haptic response part to the bracelet to remind people to keep focus on the job. Add in electric shock capability and it would fulfill certain MBAs wet dreams of management. Not to mention echo a Star Trek episode. (Grokked from Stewart Sternberg)

Reality shows that conservative claims, and in specific, Mitt Romney's claims, about the ACA as a "job killer" aren't true. The conservatives take a page from Mythbusters and say, "I reject your reality and substitute my own." Just like they have for many issues. It's about the only thing they've been consistent on these past years. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

John Stewart on the Florida Voter Purge move. And why wouldn't Florida purge it's voter poll ranks when it's worked so well for them in the past. Fortunately, this time the DoJ is taking an interest. History, she may not repeat, but man can she rhyme.

Tweet of my heart: @snurri: First they came for the trolls and everyone was like OH MY GOD FINALLY