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, October 31, 2012

Linkee-poo, BOO!

There's lots of polling news, but do you really want to hear about it? Yeah. I didn't thinks so. Although the polls at this point probably do have a closer correlation to the final vote, there's too much of the "we're up/down 1 hurrah/zomg!" going on. In Florida, conservatives are worried that the liberals are getting the majority of early voting done. Doesn't really matter except for the "it looks a lot like 2008" (which all those voter ID laws were supposed to stop) worries.

One interesting application of an ebook, Horrible Hauntings. That's a video trailer for the book which has a companion augmented reality app that "brings the book alive" as they used to say. Very cool implementation. Heard about this on NPR the other day.

Jim Hines wants to pump you up. For NaNoWriMo that is. I'll just point to two of his points, "Give yourself permission to write crap" and "Watch out for scams". As it should surprise none of you, when I write the crap is about 50% these days. That's down from 80% crap when I started. And money flows toward the writer (Yog's Law).

Penguin and Random House set up joint venture. I still vote that they should have named it House Penguin. So besides the various teeth gnashing going on, now that Pearson and Bertelsmann have shaken hands, I bet the conspiracy theory people are apoplectic. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Maybe this dates me, but (other than the Windows OS) this MYST linking book hack is totally cool. (Pointed to by Dan)

"According to two separate studies, recent laws that limit smoking in public places are contributing to fewer tobacco-related hospital visits and deaths… Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF…, has argued previously that smoke-free laws work to improve health… because they protect non-smokers from harmful health effects of secondhand smoke, but they also protect smokers, by discouraging them from smoking as much, or even encouraging them to quit." I'm sure it was all that market-based initiatives and freedom loving Americans that helped bring about this result and not some evil government regulations. And before anybody talks about "freedom" etc, the "freedom to smoke" is the same as religious groups complaining about how Obamacare is restricting their religious freedoms. Sorry, your rights don't get to trump mine. And if you want to argue about how government shouldn't be involved in this, I've got two words for you. Medicare and Medicaid. Guess when people start having major health problems, where those younger people who have problems end up and who is paying for it. Want to lower government spending, support the anti-smoking laws. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Wind power surpasses hydro power generation (for a few hours) in the Northwest. You know that whole, "wind can't supply hardly any power" meme? Turns out with a critical mass of turbines and a good windy morning (where other electrical generation is down), you can now see wind surpassing other forms of generation. Not exactly a hoop-de-doo, but still a milestone. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"During the storm last night, user @comfortablysmug was the source of a load of frightening but false information about conditions in New York City that spread wildly on Twitter and onto news broadcasts before ConEd, the MTA, and Wall Street sources had to take time out of the crisis situation to refute them." Turns out @comfortablysmug is a conservative political consultant. Ain't that happy news. I guess spreading disinformation gets this guy off. (Grokked from Phiala)

Fred Clark with a little history on the antiabortion movement. Yeah, the religious right has pretty well rewritten history to claim they had always been at war with Eastasia. "Have white evangelicals in their 50s and 60s really completely forgotten the 1970s already? I don’t think so. But they are willing to pretend they have — en masse. Not for religious reasons, and not for ethical reasons. For political reasons." In case you ever wondered what Jefferson and the Methodist and Baptist preachers of his time meant about making sure religion and politics never mixing because bad things could happen, this is what they were talking about.

Good thing global climate change isn't happening or we'd get cyclones the size of the US. Sandy from space, at night. Those lights at the bottom left, that Florida. That light blog up at the top in the middle, I believe that's Toronto. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Steve King, the representative form Iowa, doesn't want any Sandy' Relief Money to go for Gucci Bags or massage parlors. Does this happen? I don't know how they do it in Iowa, but the rest of the country isn't so hung up on those things when homes and infrastructure need rebuilding. Why is this idiot still in a position of power?

"Before he became a fiscal conservative hero in the last two years, Ryan was a typical Bush-era Republican with all of the considerable baggage that goes with it. The idea that we can trust a Romney administration to be better fiscal stewards than most of their Republican predecessors is to ignore everything we know about how Republicans typically act once in power." And that is from The American Conservative. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

2 comments:

Random Michelle K said...

What? NO! It should totally be called "Random Penguin"

Steve Buchheit said...

Random Michelle, I would expect you to support any other name permutation. :) Although Scalzi's preferred answer of Penguin House still has a good ring to it. But it's some place you go, where as Random Penguin and House Penguin and things you can take home with you.