[links] Link salad puts some Spike Jones on the box

My dear friend and fellow writer Mark Bourne has passed away suddenly and unexpectedly — My deepest condolences to Elizabeth and all his family and friends.

A reader reacts to Westward Weird — They liked my story.

Street Dates and Sales Velocity — Andrew Wheeler on Seanan McGuire and some fairly deep (and interesting) publishing neepery.

Insane art formed by carving books with surgical tools — (Thanks to scarlettina.)

Culturomics And The Google Book Project — The digitisation of over 5 million books has created a huge dataset of cultural interest. Now researchers are beginning to tease it apart using powerful number-crunching techniques.

Aardman's upcoming pirate movie — Aardman Animation, the makers of Wallace and Gromit, is putting the finishing touches on The Pirates! Band of Misfits, which may be the most technically ambitious stop-frame animated film yet.

The Book of Human Languages — Ta-Nehisi Coates on bilingualism.

The 5 Craziest War Stories (All Happened on the Same Ship) — (Via danjite.)

Hell off Earth: Blustery Exoplanet Charted in 2-D for First Time — Astronomers have made a crude two-dimensional thermal map of an extrasolar world they cannot yet see, confirming that violent winds rapidly whip around the planet.

An Astronaut's Cravings: Horseradish and Tabasco Sauce — Interesting stuff here that might be useful for SF writers. I like the bit about the biscotti.

High-precision weigh-in for W boson means fewer hiding places for Higgs

Single molecule's electric charges seen in first image

Unlimited human eggs 'potential' for fertility treatment

Climate Reality, a poignant and important PSA about climate [change] denial in schools.

Frank Rich on Media Bias — The "liberal media" meme has been one the GOP's most successful Big Lies in their decades-long attack on American culture and society.

The Difference between Romney and Obama (Picture) — This one pretty much says it all. Hey, I wonder if any FOX News viewers saw this? You know Your Liberal media is.

Ghastly Outdated Party — Welcome to Republican America.

Rick Santorum's Despicable And Hurtful Health Care Lie — I know. A Republican lying. It's like rain falling in Oregon or something. Who could possibly anticipate such a thing? (Via David Goldman.)

?otd: Can you stand to hear him sing? Do you love the way he talks?

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2/27/2012
Writing time yesterday: 4.75 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 6.25 (fitful)
Weight: 235.4
Currently reading: 1491 by Charles C. Mann