Linkee-poo has seen things you people wouldn't believe; attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

I really have to use shorter titles for these things. It really messes up my working view of blogger.

The 2016 (Ohio) Governor's Award for the Arts recipients. Hey, I know people on that list! Congrats John Scalzi. We knew you'd make it big, one day.

The SF writer's hierarchy of doubt. Just in case you think you're the only one who worries about this stuff. "Why is Neil Gaiman disappointed in me?" More like "Why does Neil Gaiman act like he doesn't know who I am?" (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)

Philip Pullman pens an open letter saying that authors need fairer terms from publishers. (Grokked from Astrid Julian)

So, you've probably seen the whiskey named "Writers Tears". But have you seen the salt made from those tears? (Grokked from Vince O'Conner)

Richard St. John gives you his 8 secrets to success. While most of what he says is true (you should love what you're doing, and you should persist in chasing your dreams), I've been re-evaluating the TED Talk universe. Mostly because of a conversation I had recently about someone discussing a "self made (rich) man" and how that person's father took him to board meetings when he was your so he learned business early. My response was, "Wait, if his Dad was taking him to board meetings, I don't believe he one: started at the bottom without resources and two: was 'self made'." There's a lot of other things in TED, but a lot of what I've been seeing have been those same "self made men" whose Daddies took them to board meetings when they were young so they cold learn business. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

"According to a study covering more than 880,000 births in Denmark, the overall rate of birth defects was consistent for women who had never taken the pill at all, for those who had used it before getting pregnant and for those who continued on the pill in early pregnancy." Also pointed out to demonstrate some of the fallacies of medicine.

The social media arms race. It's a long advertisement for a site, but a pretty good allegory of what happens in social media (at least from the corporate side of it). And here I will just state that I love you all, but I'm gonna publish what I'm gonna publish because I wanna publish it, not because I'm trying to track my numbers up. Seriously, see any ads on this site (if you do, they're not from me and I'm not getting anything from it, you better check your security settings)? That said I have done the mental gymnastics over the question "why the hell did that post get so many hits? What did I do there people liked?" Most of the time I chalk it up to picking lyrics that people are searching for (or if I get a mention on someone else's site).

And the numbers are in! "The United States saw its second-hottest year on record in 2015, federal scientists announced on Thursday." Hoopla! Note that's just the US, we're still waiting on the international numbers. (Grokked from Vince O'Conner)

Boy, talk about your entitlement mindset. TransCanada is suing for $15B over the Keystone XL. Their basic claim is "The President can't deny us our permits, also because other projects had been approved we were certain this one would be." Uh, no. One, after lobbying the President to approve the project you don't get to say he didn't have the right. And two, past performance is not indicative of future performance. Also, I'm sure this has nothing to do with the price of oil being in the dumpster. Not at all.

Well, Chris Christy, when you lie for political expediency, it's pretty easy to forget what you said previously.

Did you know that there's actually a law that requires healthcare facilities with emergency rooms to accept any patient in an emergency and stabilize them all without regard to their ability to pay? Apparently Liberty Calhoun Hospital hasn't heard of that. And I get it, I have had my share of patients who are faking it (pain, disability, health status). And talking with the sheriffs who we deal with often, they've commented that it's customary to complain about a health problem to gain advantage. But here's the thing, until you can confirm that it's not the case, you should proceed with accepting that what the patient is telling you is truthful. Because if you don't, you have this problem (also note the case of Freddie Grey and Eric Gardner).

"Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson asked a group of fifth graders Thursday at a campaign rally in Iowa who the worst student in the class was and the students responded by singling out a classmate…" Of course, you know, he was making a point about how he was once the worst student in his class (which has been debated if that was true). He also talked directly with that student one-on-one after the rally. But seriously, how tone-deaf was that? "Hey kids who are at an age where everyone is self-conscious to the emo-extreme, who's the weirdo in your class?"

"…Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) finally addressed the hubbub surrounding a pair of his black leather boots that took the Internet by storm this week, wondering Thursday whether people have 'lost their minds.'" Hi, Marco, I see you're new here. Let me introduce you to the GOP News Machine and its expectation of behavior, demeanor and strict adherence to social norms that have been out of style for more than 4 decades.

Sometimes I'd like to see Trump as president, but only to see his face when someone he can't fire tells him to fuck off. Seriously, this is the mindset you have when you don't understand grade-school level civics.

Jeb! Bush blames "bad parenting" for crime in black neighborhoods, but not his own kids problems with crimes. To remind you, his daughter was arrested for both pill shopping and for impersonating a doctor, forging prescriptions on a stolen pad, and then attempting to fill those prescriptions. (Grokked from Jim Wright)

Maine Gov. Paul "… LePage responded to a question about how he was tackling substance abuse in Maine. He began talking about how much of the heroin is coming into Maine from out-of-state drug dealers… 'These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty … these types of guys… they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home,' LePage told a large crowd. 'Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.'" Now now, wait. "Peter Steele, the governor’s communication director, said in a written statement Thursday night that LePage’s remarks were not about race, but about the emotional toll drugs have on children." Yea, not so much. I mean, Peter gave the good ol' college try to spin that, but seriously, dude, that didn't even polish the turd. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)