Linkee-poo, you poor old sod, you see it's only me

Noted, the Andre Norton Award Committee is announced. And look who is chair! Booyea! Congrats, Mer.

Four steps to a better twitter bio. Also useful for scribbling out that author's bio.

"Crabs are never happy and they LIKE being in the bucket. They can’t see they will soon be made into crab salad." Kristin Lamb on finding the right writers group and avoiding the crabs.

Some exercises from David B. Coe on word choice and voice. If you're just starting out writing, these concepts might mean very little, but they are very powerful. Don't worry if your voice sounds like other people. Keep writing (and reading). Eventually your voice will emerge. And in it you will hear the echos of all those people you used to sound like.

Also from Mr. Coe, and good explanation on rewriting and changing the story from agent and editorial requests. It's not all bad. "Nothing about our current projects is etched in stone."

Matt Wendig gives a double special with 50 random bits of storytelling advice. Some occasional f-bombs, and I will need to reread when I have more time for it. But so far there's a number of gems hidden in that text. Including "Stop drifting in and out of narrative tense. It makes Story Jesus shoot puppies with lightning."

Some more writing tips with enough f-bombs to require an MRAP to read it. (Grokked from Joe Hill)

Kids these days. An article on school reading lists and how kids are being given "lighter fair." Look, I didn't read Catcher in the Rye until I was way out of any school. And you know what, it sucked. So forcing kids to read "classics" (ie. "the things we were taught to read when we were your age which we also didn't understand because the world had changed") is one sure way to make sure they never develop a love of reading. Get them into the habit, and they will eventually challenge themselves to read more and wider. And even if they don't read beyond the recent bestseller that all the literary people love to hate on, what's the harm? (Grokked from Joe Hill)

A bike light that projects a grid in front of the bike. Okay, severely SFinal solution to what could be helped with a stronger bike light. While I think this would be totally cool, it doesn't help with drivers and others seeing the bicyclist. You know, the other part of having a light. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Plant circadian rhythms don't stop after harvest. The researchers are surprised to see by recreating the light patterns of day and night, plants still produce beneficial (and other) compounds while "on the shelf" (okay, in the lab). They shouldn't be, because even if the food may not be "vigorously alive", once things are "dead" they tend to rot quickly. So maybe the light in the fridge shouldn't go out when we close the door.

Six exoplanets orbit in the habitable zone of Gliese 667C. And they're only 22 light years away. (pointed to by Dan)

"The graph (in the article) shows the answers that physicians give when asked if they would want various interventions at the bitter end. The only intervention that doctors overwhelmingly want is pain medication." Say, remember when conservatives killed that provision in Obamacare that allowed Medicare to pay for end-of-life consulting with your doctor? Guess what information you doctor probably won't give you now. Things like CPR only working 8% (only 3% have a positive outcome). What they don't talk about in the article is that with CPR you get broken ribs (very painful), the possibility of pneumothorax, trauma to the people performing CPR, too much air in the stomach, chance of blood clots… Yea, don't see that in those medical shows, do ya? (Grokked from Jay Lake)

So what do you do when you don't trust your boss? Gnash you teeth, or hold him as a prisoner in his own factory until he pays back wages and severance? Apparently in China, you do the later (if you can). And before you start feeling bad for the American boss who is being held, re-read that part about his business not paying workers for the past two months. And, yea, it also happens here in the US (although any attempt to hold managers captive would quickly devolve into a situation involving the local SWAT team).

About that Times article that stated you don't see atheists handing out hot meals after natural disasters, atheists working on the ground in Oklahoma would like to talk with you about that. Unfortunately they're busy helping people in need and don't have time to talk to the press. Sloppy, sloppy reporting and editing Time. Say, ever wonder why your numbers just keep dropping? Maybe pissing off readers isn't the way to keep them? Also, quoting idiots who have no idea what PTSD is about (and represents the "they need to get over it" mind set) isn't a way of gaining support either. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Fred Clark asks, remember back when we used to have a voting rights act?

It always amazes me that people still try to pull this crap in the age of the internet. After the Texas senate vote for their abortion bill was recorded by the automated software as occurring too late, the page was pulled form the server, adjusted, and then reposted showing it was taken before the senate session expired. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

Rick Santorum gets into the movie business. Wait, didn't he rail against Hollywood-types in the last campaign? Well, my guess is the money in politics was starting to dry up (is he still on Fox?) and so when for the smaller donors bills from more of the people.

Oh look, besides "Patriot" and "Tea Party" there were a whole bunch of other words in the IRS BOLO list like "Progressive" and "Occupy." Plus the whole, "'We have not found evidence of intentional wrongdoing by anyone in the IRS or involvement in these matters by anyone outside the IRS,'(said Danny Werfel acting IRS chief)". So, a whole bunch of sturm und drang and not a lot of meat here. But, I'm sure the conservative groups made enough money off the controversy while it lasted (not to mention that I figure this will also become one of those zombie conspiracy theories we'll keep staking only to have it rise back up from some other low information pundit). (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Tweet of my heart: @jaymgates: 1.) I am fucking proud to be an American woman right now. 2.) I am fucking terrified of being an American woman right now. #goWendy