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

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Linkee-poo let's get together before we get much older

No, I'm not going to point to that supposed alter-Hugo awards thing. Back in my day, when idiots decided to circle-jerk they did so in private.

Neil Gaiman's tips on writing.

The SciFi Airshow. If only. Man, I'd buy a ticket so fast. (Grokked from Ken McConnell)

You might be a feminazi if… (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

Didn't reserve a copy of Windows 10 for your compatible device? Don't worry, if you have autoupdates turned on, Microsoft will push Windows 10 installers to your computer. Because they're nice that way. (Grokked from Dan)

So you may have heard about the Marine Corps assessment of women in combat units and how units of mixed-gender under performed all male units. I heard it, and then wondered about a certain qualification that might alter the results of the test. "The tests come with at least one important caveat: As the Marine Corps Times notes, many of of the male study participants had previously served in combat units, whereas female participants, by necessity, came directly from infantry schools or from noncombat jobs." That's the one. So, basically, what this test really confirmed is those Marines with actual combat experience out performed Marines without combat experience. To which most observers would say, "Duh." Experience will always trump training (both for combat honing skills by necessity, as well as time in practice/doing the job). And it's not like the Marines couldn't have tested teams with the same level of experience against each other. (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)

Conservatives are all about smaller government and not wasting federal money, unless it's spending in their state and then they'll sue you if you threaten to shut down a massively over budget project. In this case the SC Attorney General threatening to sue the Obama Administration because they're going to pull the plug on a breeder reactor to reprocess plutonium which is over due and over budget by a few billion. Just keep that in mind as the federal government debates taking the few hundred million in Medicaid dollars away from Planned Parenthood.

How the GOP plan to embarrass the President blew up in their lap. Usually this is the Democrats imploding over the differences of intensity. But having fed the trolls, riding their wave back into power they thought they could control the beast. They're not realizing they were wrong. (Grokked from Vince O'Connor)

So, conservatives, under the money lash of big carbon, are now actively trying to destroy climate talks. And this after they've seen the "Let's get Mikey to eat it…" strategy of saying "China will never agree to limiting their carbon output" fell through, because China can visually see the problem and has pledged to correct their ways. There's an old Sting song that says, "I hope the Russians love their children, too". While that was about nuclear war, it makes me wonder if the various GOP Senators secretly hate their grandkids. (Grokked from someone, sorry, lost the link)

In the fight over defunding Planned Parenthood, the GOP seems to have forgotten that they had set up the "no-negotiations on our core-values" theme a long time ago. So they miss that those who have their undies in a bunch over killing Planned Parenthood have no interest in a middle-ground. Also that they think (in their own world view) that they won the last time they shut the government down. So the GOP leadership asking for calmer heads to prevail is spitting in the wind. (Grokked from Dan)

That's okay, they've forgotten how bad the previous shutdowns had been for them. Just like (our governor and) presidential aspirant John Kasich has forgotten (of course, he was one of the architects who set up the shutdown in 95, and while he'll say the balanced budget came out of that shutdown, remember that it wasn't a balanced budget that Clinton vetoed leading to the shutdown).

Oh sure, you might be happy that emojis come with several faces showing the panoply of the human race, but I'm more excited that Apple is about to ship an emoji that has more practical application. Yep, Apple will ship a "middle-finger extended" emoji. Now we just need it in tones that express the full panoply of the human race, because I know a number of my friends who aren't white who will want to use it. (Grokked from Dan)

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