
Your Saturday moment of zen.

Lizard, photographed in Mendocino County, CA.
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Coffee 'may reverse Alzheimer's' — Guess I need to take up a new habit. (Thanks to danjite.)
Vintage ads for women's fragrances — Uh huh.
Donnie's Deusie: 1924 — Mmm. Duesenberg. Mmm.
Best to only ever fight wars you already won. — The Edge of the American West on conservatives, Obama and library cards. Also William Ayers. Funny stuff.
?otD: What time did you wake up?
7/8/2009 Body movement: n/a (overslept due to incipient chest cold) This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house) Currently reading: The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (re-read)
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I think it is teh awesome! Artwork by Mari Kurisato.
Avatar © 2009 Mari Kurisato. Original photo © 2009 B. Lake.
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calendula_witch's brother, with the bee stinger carefully pulled from his hand. He was stung while playing darts, dropped the dart, tried reflexively to catch it, and stabbed himself in the hand several times during the resulting mayhem.
She sure knows how to show me a good time.
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bravado111 with a photo spread on Green [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ] — Heh.
Flags of forgotten countries — Dark Roasted Blend with one for the vexillologists among you. Actually, I remember most of these countries.
Igniting Fusion — Mmm, warm.
Centauri Dreams with a roundup — I draw your attention to the subsection entitled "Superluminal Radio Waves and their Uses", in turn referring to this article. Paging Sam L. Tannaity to the office. I'm just a poor little low-rent SF writer with a liberal arts degree, so maybe it's just me, but I'm really struggling with this one. Comments from the better informed?
?otD: How long is Long Beach?
7/6/2009 Body movement: n/a (will beach walk later) This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house) Currently reading: n/a (just finished P.S. Your Cat is Dead by James Kirkwood)
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| 2009-06-29 04:30 |
| [links] Link salad comes back from Iron Springs |
| Public |
| books, cool, culture, escapement, green, links, personal, photos, politics, reviews, science |
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Jay Lake's Green: A Departure for the Clockwork King — jeffvandermeer with a brief interview of me about Green [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ].
mordicai comments on Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ]
1909 Russia in living color: The photos of Sergey Prokudin-Gorskii — A piece of history most of us don't see much of.
7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics — (Thanks to jaborwhalky.)
SETI: A Detectable Neutrino Signal? — Oooh. With bonus Antarctic science pr0n.
To fight deflation, abolish cash. Could Japan make reality of 'science fiction'? — Curious news from the economic front.
The Redder They Are, The Harder They Fall — WaPo somewhat disingenuously asks why Democrats "get away" with more sex scandals, apparently ignores their own answer - it's the hypocrisy, stupid.
Ante Up or Leave The Table — Conservatives and climate change denial, specifically the low cost of such denial in personal, political and social terms. One thing this analysis leaves out is how conservatives have been dead wrong in their opposition to just about everything in the past century or more — child labor laws, women's rights, civil rights, minimum wage, interracial marriage, opposition to entry in WWII, support for the Iraq War. An America run on the principles espoused by conservatives in every one of those losing battles would be a much bleaker, harsher place. Why do they have any credibility on climate change?
?otD: Who put the "Mon" in Monday?
6/29/2009 Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride, 10 minutes of stretching and meditation This morning's weigh-in: 221.4 Currently reading: P.S. Your Cat is Dead by James Kirkwood
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| 2009-06-21 06:15 |
| [links] Link salad says happy Father's Day Solstice |
| Public |
| books, cars, cool, culture, links, personal, photos, politics, publishing, science, writing |
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Booking the future — One view of the next generation of publishing. (Thanks to lrcutter.)
The Latke number thread — In case you were wondering about literary collaboration with me.
What Amazon Does Not Want You To Know About The Kindle — More DRM hell. (From a mailing list I'm on.)
The Unevenness of Space-Time Convergence — Strange Maps with a rendering of travel times which is pretty interesting, and also somewhat reminds me of the most famousest New Yorker cover EVAR.
Brute-Force Engineering and Climate — Centauri Dreams with some unsettling speculation. Also more fodder for near term futurism of both the apocalyptic and optimistic flavors.
Sunrise over the Parthenon — More photographic coolness from APOD.
io9.com with a visual gallery on the evolution of spaceships in movies — Cool stuff.
Maytag-Mobile: 1939 — Shorpy with home-made car from the pre-WWII era. I'm fascinated by the tiny wheels. That thing must have ridden like holy hell. And speaking of hell, Shorpy has this bus image, a 1938 Greyhound ready for the Gehenna run for certain.
ericjamesstone answers my question from yesterday about the Robert court ruling on DNA testing — Ok, not batshit. Still not happy about it, but I understand the point now. (And wish the reporting on this had done a better job of conveying that point, or that I'd done a better job of reading the reporting, or both.) Thanks, Eric!
?otD: Was it a new day yesterday?
6/21/2009 Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride, 10 minutes of stretching and meditation This morning's weigh-in: 219.8 Currently reading: n/a (Finished The Human Disguise by James O'Neil)
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| 2009-06-16 02:56 |
| [links] Link salad wakes up in the Midwest again |
| Public |
| art, books, cool, funny, green, links, personal, photos, process, publishing, science, writing |
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Jumping Off the Cliff, Looking for Water on the Way Down — Me at Tor.com, on the process of creating a novel.
Full Bodied with bonus topic cleavage! — Green is so proud.
The infinitely receding future — Tom Tomorrow on working for exposure.
Stephane Halleuxs wonderful steampunk sculptures — Very nice.
Carried down the bay — Screw pile lighthouses?
The story of Schroedinger's cat (an epic poem) — A Straight Dope classic.
"Burning Walls" May Stop Black Hole Formation — Some heavy iron SFnal stuff from Technology Review.
A Longer Life for Earth's Biosphere? — More heavy iron from Centauri Dreams. Deep time rocks!
?otD: Why?
6/16/2009 Body movement: 70 minute suburban walk, 10 minutes of stretching and meditation This morning's weigh-in: n/a (in hotel) Currently reading: The Human Disguise by James O'Neil
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This entry in the Green [ Powell's | Amazon ] photo contest is so damned funny I nearly wet myself laughing.
More here.
Bonus Green awesomeness: scalzi features the book on Whatever as part of his Big Idea feature.
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Green [ Powell's | Amazon ] is released Tuesday, June 9th. Post or paste your photo of the book in the wild (or on the store shelves or in your hands). Weirder/funnier the better. I'll host a voting poll in the usual manner, winner to get some signed books from me.
To be eligible for the contest, you must post by Friday, June 12th. Bonus points for posting tomorrow!
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Today the_child and I went to the Eco Car Show in Forest Grove, OR with K— and a friend of hers. This wasn't new green cars so much as old mini and microcars, plus a few serious oddities like a US street-legal Nissan Figaro (who knew?) and an Alfa-Romeo 6C engined Lloyd. Go figure.
( The photos... )
As usual, more at the Flickr set.
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the_child and I shot some derelict railway equipment during our father-daughter day on Saturday. This is rolling stock and equipment associated with the Portland Traction Railway, a very small spur line in this area which runs active freight and passenger excursion operations.
( Some photos... )
As usual, more at the Flickr set.
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| 2009-05-31 09:11 |
| [links] Link salad wakes up and yawns |
| Public |
| art, books, cancer, cool, funny, language, links, music, personal, photos, reviews, science, trains, weird |
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Subterranean Press with a nice Booklist review of METAtropolis
Spiderwick Meets Dinotopia — Hahahah.
Watchmen, sort of — Heh. Weird in a very fun way. (Thanks to goulo.)
Ski Hindi — A charming story from Language Log.
Ways of Going: 1865 — Shorpy with multimodal transportation, Civil War style.
Put down the duckie — And speaking of ducks... Sex with Ducks.
Space Torso Reveals Cancer Risk for Astronauts
?otD: Where did I leave my dogma?
5/31/2009 Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride This morning's weigh-in: 214.6 Currently reading: The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold; A Long Line of Cells by Lewis Thomas
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JayCon is a week from today! Mark your calendars: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Mexican church half-buried in lava — (Snurched from Dark Roasted Blend.)
Terrible Yellow Eyes — Sendak!
On the whole, it was a good colonoscopy — Hahahahahah. (Thanks to goulo.)
Video Surveillance on the Fly: Heres Looking at You! — This must be a hoax. (Thanks to danjite.)
You Should Get Out More — Living abroad gives expats greater creativity in problem solving, according to new research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. I've always thought that if every American had to spend a year or two abroad, we would have a very different and far stronger country — greatly improved and significantly more progressive politically and socially.
Suddenly it's OK to call a judicial nominee a racist — More principled consistency from Your Republican Party and the Liberal Media.
Californias crisis and the collapse of the Republican Party. — The Edge of the American West with some political history. Their thesis mirrors what I've said about the GOP and the Christian Right for years. Playing into fear and hatred might be a great short term electoral tactic, but it's horribly destructive long term political and social strategy.
?otD: I found somebody else's thrill on Blueberry Hill. Will there be a reward?
5/23/2009 Body movement: 30 minute staionary bike ride This morning's weigh-in: 216.4 Currently reading: The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold; A Long Line of Cells by Lewis Thomas
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| 2009-05-28 04:16 |
| [links] Link salad discovers Thursday under the carpet |
| Public |
| conventions, cool, funny, links, personal, photos, politics, publishing, reviews, science, stories |
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JayCon is next week! Mark your calendars: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Dept of Things Man Was Meant To Wot Not Of: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — What I look like in a corset. Luckily, you can also see calendula_witch in the photo, which takes away some of the pain.
A reader reacts to METAtropolis — Well, ok, a listener.
Crime fiction to science fiction
Maps of an alien Earth — Centauri Dreams with some cool exoplanetary science.
Green-glowing monkeys have green-glowing babies — (Thanks to lillypond.)
Aircraft factories! — (Snurched from Dark Roasted Blend.)
How gliders are like nuclear deterrence — Freakonomics with a squib on risk analysis.
It Sticks in My Craw — The National Review on pronouncing Sotomayor's name. Always a class act, those conservatives.
Sotomayor and 2010. And 2012. — The Edge of the American West with an interesting piece on the Sotomayor pick. I think he's right — the GOP just can't stop themselves.
?otD: Arugula? WTF is arugula?
5/28/2009 Body movement: 60 minute staionary bike ride This morning's weigh-in: 219.2 Currently reading: The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold; A Long Line of Cells by Lewis Thomas
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