FIRST! OR Zeroeth.

Beyond their reactionary attitude toward social issues, the thing that really scares me about modern-day media-enabled conservatism is their attitude toward science, and the uncomfortable things that science digs up.

I'm moved to say this by the FREAKING WEIRD WEATHER outside right now. By June Oregon is supposed to be well into its glorious sunny summer, where the occasional brief sprinkle is almost a relief.

Right now we've got tail-of-a-hurricane (as we'd say on Long Island) rains out there.

If we've broken the climate, really fucked things up good the way that Gore, Hansen, et al have been warning, how could conservatives possibly respond? Any rational response will require national or global action. That's off the table if you're a conservative of the modern stripe. We're left with: Deny it, minimize it, say people getting washed out to sea or blow away had it coming, offer tax breaks to the sandbag industry . . . down the road a bit, say it's the fault of gays getting married or Muslims being tolerated in our country.

Uggh.

So first they wanted us to call it global warming but then when we caught on to that they wanted to call it global climate change, but I heard about this one guy in Oregon in the summer who was frozen to absolute zero and still managed to show up online so I guess that means its Ok.

More doggie vet good vibes requested. Having made a full recovery from TPLO (knee) surgery, Ardala went and had a spondylosis flare-up. Got home last night and she wouldn't put weight on either back leg - the left, which was the most affected by nerve damage anyway - and the right, which was the fully recovered bionic-knee one. She seemed to be having lots of pain in her right foot.

After $450 worth of radiographs showing nothing odd in the way of her leg or foot, the vets have put their heads together and decided it's actually a back injury. She spent last night there, being given about $650 worth of the good drugs - including steroids - and is said to be in good spirits. The vet has once again mentioned myelograms or MRIs, and possible surgery.

I had ALMOST paid off her TPLO surgery when this happened. I cannot afford to take on another surgery, either financially and emotionally. My roommate maybe could financially(if she opened up a new line of credit, which would also stretch her pretty thin) possibly. But it is not my business to tell her to handle her finances as cavalierly as I have managed mine.

I'm totally sick with worry: On the one hand, Ardala is otherwise tremendously healthy (her graying muzzle concealed by her overbite) and youthful, but on the other hand, she is 11/12 years old and already had a rough recovery from the TPLO.

When I spoke to the vet on the phone this afternoon, he mentioned Ardala was starting to put some weight on her right leg again and was trying to escape from the kennel and ate well this morning - all good signs, he says. He also mentioned putting her on oral cortico steroids, which sounds OK to me. But then he mentioned the diagnostic tools again. I really love this veterinary practice and I don't think they're trying to pad out their bottom line with unnecessary surgeries, but I do think they really, really like to do them. How on earth am I going to get through this appointment without feeling like I'm signing my dog's death warrant because of my lousy finances?

#4: Argh, awful situation. I've been very fortunate*, pet-health-wise, but my sister has been through the much the same with her no-longer-young dog.

* (SO FAR . . . Kira has a golf ball sized and growing fatty growth on her elbow that may someday pinch nerves and who knows what else.)

Many good vibes from here, nerdycellist. (And for anyone else having animal-health-troubles that neads some good vibes.)

I've got my fingers crossed and am hoping to hear good news about Jim Young.

Good pet health vibes from here as well, to wherever they're needed.

There's reason for our silence at your boast
of honours gained, but we would never mock
the complex manner in which you take stock
of those who might give unto you the most
value for effort. There's certainly no ghost
of a chance that our sharpest words would rock
your placid mind, nor ever serve to shock
your foolish heart. That is why you are toast.
Our hopes are otherwise: for you to learn
new meanings in the light, and make it plain
that you have understood the open word
of those who do far more than simply yearn
for what has been, who go far past their pain
into the laughing world of the absurd.

Stefan Jones @2: Climate stuff is slow enough, and we don't see much happening that's outside the normal range of Stuff That Happens. It's very easy for people who have a lot invested in the way things are done currently to just say that it's all within normal variation, and the fact that a lot of the analysis has to be done on a statistical basis leads them not to trust it (remember the quote about "lies, damned lies and statistics"?). It doesn't feel that different here, so I'm not going to worry about a bunch of people getting their toes wet on some island somewhere. I don't know any of them, so they don't count.

Denial is very easy on this one.

Over at CNN: More record warmth as scientists warn of global tipping point

But we can ignore that because, as everyone knows, "CNN" stands for either "Communist News Network" or the "Clinton News Network."

My part of the country had an unusually mild winter even by recent standards and has been regularly near or above record temperatures for most of this year. "Outside the normal range" is actually pretty clear.

Was the man named Steve Rogers, Jim?

He was still....

If his name wasn't Kelvin it was all for naught.

Tom Whitmore @9:

I actually live on one of these low-lying barrier islands, down here in Florida. Lately we've been concerning ourselves a lot with shoreline erosion. There are riches to be made, by the way, in coastal dredging. At least for now.

For me, I'm hedging my bets and buying some land in the mountains while it's still cheap. And learning how to farm it.

Climate change: June gloom is starting in May now, and doesn't last as long.

There was apparently something squirrely going on when the transformer blew.

Tom, #9: It's worse than that. Things change slowly enough that only the oldsters really notice any difference; for everyone else, this is the way it's always been. We're all frogs in the pot, and Big Oil is turning up the heat a little bit at a time.

Open threaded video recommendation -- all those in favor of purest aesthetic eye and ear pleasure should pay a visit to Timescapes and get the DVD or Blu-Ray.

Tom Lowe's incredible time-lapse video work is unsurpassed. As an astronomy fanatic, I loved the night sky shots, but the whole film is an odyssey of beauty. I mean it. I had tears during some of the shots.

Get it.

Thanks for the good vibes. Ardala is home sleeping now. We had a nice long talk with the vet, who seems to have backed off his surgery talk. He says it's tough when a dog is still alert and happy, but agrees surgery at her age is risky. He also appreciates our financial concerns, and says we are by far not the only clients with those issues. He says we'll see how she's doing on the medications. She's trying to get up, but she still can't put a lot of weight on the right leg. We may have to carry her down for potty. Luckily we still have her Little Red Wagon from her knee surgery. He has suggested some modifications to her current support harness and says that eventually she may need a cart. We said that was OK - we just wanted her not to be in pain. He says she's close to pain-free now.

So. No irreversible decisions had to be made this evening. We have a vet who understands us (as well as his own desire as a surgeon to immediately jump to that treatment) and a course of action to take. Now to figure out how to get her to potty...

Of course we can always deny, deny, deny reality.

Just like the legislature in North Carolina, which is considering banning the use of extrapolated data in sea level rise projections.

Canute tried that, and it didn't work.

Perhaps not as blatant as when Indiana tried to legislate the value of pi.

A shame, really. Catelynn and I have vacationed a couple of times with her family in the Outer Banks. Nice place, it'll be a shame when it's gone.

Lori Coulson @935 on OT173 - Thanks. Looks like Gandalf would take a Large. He's a long tall 13 pounds.

nerdycellist - Here's hoping for the best for Ardala.

Stefan Jones @ 2:

Portland is actually a very sensitive measure of climate change because of the surrounding topography and the average temperatures during the winter. For a large part of the 20th century, up until sometime in the 90s, there was a regular occurrence of ice storms in which the temperature in the city hovered right around freezing, with cold, wet air coming down out of the Columbia Gorge meeting warmer air above the city. The result was freezing rain, freezing fog, or wet and heavy snow (often all three at once). This happened on average 2 or 3 times a winter, and at least one of those would be heavy enough to close down the city for a day or so. Several of them in the 1980s (after I moved here) knocked down enough power lines and blew up enough transformers that it took 3 or 4 days to restore most of the power.

But the weather patterns have changed so that the conditions required for those ice storms (temperature within a degree either way of freezing, temperature inversion over the city, etc.) don't happen together very often any more. IIRC we've only had one (not very bad) ice storm in the last 3 years. We've had heavy snow storms, but that's not the same.

When something that's very sensitive to local conditions continues for years and than, over the course of 5 or 10 years, pretty much disappears, you know that there's been a change in the climate. But Portland is a liberal urban area surrounded by conservative rural areas, so that's dismissed as just our liberal propaganda.

nerdycellist: good wishes for healing from Bella and me.

Bella's been having those rear leg problems too -- she's 14. What sort of support harness do you use? As I recall, Ardala and Bella are similar in size and shape. We tried one out yesterday and it was a hopeless mess.

Sending you hugs and skritches.

That was weird. Twice I was told my post had failed, would I please try it again. Have the off-duty gnomes been drinking again?

Open threadiness. Funny how bracing it is, finding that a person one thought one knew can suddenly turn into a bigot. A former classmate said to me, in a low confident voice, as if she were saying something important: "All these gay men selling perfume at the counters. They're gay because their parents were promiscuous and that's their punishment." It's times like these that I am grateful I am not the face-eating type. I had a laugh later, by myself, as I couldn't bring myself to even try to let her know how wrong she was, other than to shake my head.

I needed my 14-year-old to explain the original post to me. (She can't believe I am actually posting this. At her request, I am adding: she is greatly amused.)

I needed my 14-year-old to explain the original post to me. (She can't believe I am actually posting this. At her request, I am adding: she is greatly amused.)

I heard it as "Absolute zero is cool, 0K." but that was a graffito a long time ago (even in moose years).

Steve C. at #19 - the Timescapes trailer is indeed beautiful and I intend to order it once the piggybank says yes.

(Along with The Apocalypse Codex and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance for when those are released.)

nerdycellist, I shall be keeping my fingers crossed for you and for Ardala.

We have recently acquired two hens (who have given us twelve eggs each in the fourteen days they have been with us), so I may be making the acquaintance of a local vet at some point.

To put it in British terms from the 70s: Lord Kelvin rules, 0K.

Or for Brits from the early 1980s, ZX-81 rules 1K?

Gomputer Graphics Animation rules, IK

Tracie @#24

Well, right now we're using a hybrid. The belly band is from a size medium 4-in-1 support harness and the top/front part is a kurgo car harness in medium. The size medium of the support harness was too small in the chest, but the next size up was ginormous. We chose that style because it had a longer lead. Many support harnesses pre-suppose that your dog is only a foot or so from your arm for optimal helping height. This is problematic for those of us with short but dense dogs, like corgis and basset hounds. The belly band seems to work well with the car harness. Basically you just need something to attach it to their back with. For the record, Ardala is about 28 lbs and probably a corgi mix or swedish vallhund. She's very "busty" which means a lot of off the rack dog stuff doesn't fit her.

She is currently lying in her x-pen, agitated by the roofers, dragging her butt around, attempting to walk and sometimes barking at the noise. Her tail still knows how to wag. I think she's going to be OK.

Hyper-Local news:

Graffiti has appeared at a street-car stop that reads "Winter Always Yields the Saddest Lays." A bit further on, it says, "No Reason Not to Keep on Trying, Though."

My neighborhood graffiti is in iambic pentameter, apparently.

If at first you don't fricassee,
fry fry a hen.

My partner and I will be at the Scalzi signing at Brazos Books this afternoon. We'll be wearing "trolling for fen" sort of T-shirts. Anyone we should be looking for?

For the second time, my planned downtown (Portland) movie run happens to coincide with the Rose Festival Parade.

Leaving early in case the train stops to let the floats and marching bands pass by . . .

Lee, I'll see you at the Scalzi signing. I'll be wearing a Texas Star Party t-shirt.

This OT seems to be dated May 25, 2013...

So it does... odd.

Fixed. Or it'll mess up post order.

There was Arcane Logic involved. Don't ask or there will be killin'.

Current news on Jim Young is less than wonderful.

HLN: Took my new car (a Kia Soul named Shuttlecraft Feynman Mark II, or Shirley for short) out for a longish break-in drive and experienced an Oklahoma icon. If you are ever on the road from Tulsa to OKC or getting your kicks on Route 66, do make time for Pops. They routinely carry some 500 varieties of soda. The place was far too packed to sample their food, though it sure smelled good. I sampled a diet ginger beer from Australia.

Canmore, Alberta had 10 cm snow today; north and east of there, Red Deer had a tornado watch. I'm not sure I've heard of that combination before. Maybe 100 miles between locations, although Canmore is higher.

Hyperlocal news... Man is introduced to Len Wein, creator of the Swamp Thing.

This afternoon while watching the delightfully abysmal Theatre of Blood (starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, and a whack of cheese, in that order), I suggested that Roman numerals survived as long as they did in part because they kept recent acquisitions to the Empire uncertain about things like major transfers of money, debt, etc. Given that the First Triumvirate also brought us the Marcus Licinius Crassus Fire Brigade, it didn't seem like such a stretch.

A little Googling suggested otherwise, of course. But I wondered if anyone else had the same conspiracy theory, or if there was a similar theory/complaint among colonized populations at the time. I immediately wished that there was an open thread here to ask the assembled company, and lo -- it appeared.

So: Innumeracy as conspiracy? Has this appeared anywhere?

I went to see John Scalzi today. (Yes, somebody brought a ukulele.) The bookstore was sold out of Redshirts before I arrived, but I noticed that they had some SF and humor books out on display...and one of them was Isaac Asimov's Treasure of Humor. So I took the opportunity to try to look up that verse Xopher quoted. Well, the index failed me: not a single word from the song was indexed. But by flipping through a couple of times I managed to find it.

The verdict: 50-50. It did say "testicular" rather than "glandular", but it had "Rayleigh" spelled correctly.

I still very distinctly remember "glandular" in the science essay. I guess Asimov quoted from memory and unconsciously revised it to scan better.

(Scalzi was very entertaining -- I took the opportunity to ask him "What's this I hear about 'President-for-life of SFFWA'?" -- and it was good to meet Steve C. in real life.)

Scalzi's reading at Brazos was indeed very entertaining, and I ordered a couple of the books. As David mentioned, they had sold out, which I'm sure must be gratifying to the author.

He gave a reading from a upcoming short story. I'd love to tell you about, but he swore us all to secrecy. Really.

My friend and I also enjoyed some tapas afterward with Lee and David, at a place I've never tried before called Mi Luna. Very tasty stuff along with enjoyable conversation.

Lee, email me at sclayworth99 at gmail dot com if you get a second. I snapped a picture of Russ at the signing table with Mr. Scalzi.

I saw "Moonrise Kingdom" this afternoon. Another peculiar, whimsical-in-an-austere-way, dry-humored, understated-performance film from Wes Anderson.

I can understand why his style aggrevates some people, but I enjoy it. This was one of his best, I think.

Here's some Flamer Bingo squee from Isabel Fay

Backyard Botanizing: The Enormous Orange Vine in our back corner (same vine as was all over my grandmother's big house on the south side when I was a kid; was told then it was called "Jack in the Pulpit," which it totally IS NOT) is probably either crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) or trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), both native around here, which is interesting. Very rarely are popular bought-from-nurseries-and-planted plants even vaguely native to the Midwest.

The diagnostic difference between the two appears to be leaf-shape, in which case we have trumpet creeper (because the leaf-edges have toothy bits); hard to tell, because none of the ones coming up in Google Image Search are anywhere NEAR as mature and adoringly happy as mine is. They mostly seem to photograph eeny baby ones, and, um, yeah. Very different growth habit.

Wow, trumpet vine. I am in favor of it in places where it can be, as the Wikipedia article recommends, ruthlessly controlled. Big, striking, gorgeous, and it'll eat what it grows on.

Elliott @52--an image search at Google under 'trumpet vine' (the name I'm used to here in the southern US) produces some pictures of substantial and enthusiastic specimens. I thought this part of the article at Wikipedia was right on target:

The vigor of the trumpet vine should not be underestimated. In warm weather, it puts out huge numbers of tendrils that grab onto every available surface, and eventually expand into heavy woody stems several centimeters in diameter. It grows well on arbors, fences, telephone poles, and trees, although it may dismember them in the process. Ruthless pruning is recommended. Outside of its native range this species has the potential to be highly invasive, even as far north as New England. The trumpet vine thrives in many places in southern Canada as well.

It's not as dire as kudzu, but it can certainly be demonstrative when sharing its pleasure in good growing conditions. Wikipedia has a good shot of a sprig of leaves. They're right that birds love it.

fidelo @54: Those are photos of vigorous specimens, yes, but they don't show the trunk structure -- I basically have the trumpet-vine equivalent of a tree rose, in that there's a wrist-thick single ropy trunk supporting it to roughly human waist-high (well, that and the stick it's tied to and the fence it's eating), and then a lollypop/bush of foliage and flowers at the top.

Where it is in the yard, I have no objections to it taking over. We'll prune it off the garage's gutters as needed (and have already whacked a human-sized walkspace under it), but if it wants to grow laterally onto a purpose-built trellis/arbor to limn the entire property line in virulent red-orange flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies, I'm definitely down for that. :-> And so are the neighbors who share the property line, which is important.

I finally have photos to share!

The 'tree' itself, long view; that's a standard-height door on the left edge of frame, and the gap under the branch pointing at it is just barely high enough for me to walk under (I'm 5'6").

A diagnostic sprig, close up and pretty for botanical-identification purposes.

We have three more mystery plants, all flowering now, for those who like to play the home game:

- Purple bell-sprigs Just the right size and shape to make Tinkerbell a very cunning hat. They used to all be dark dark violet; the sun has bleached them. Spikes come to about knee-high.

- The Football John calls it that because for the longest time it was a sphere of veiny, substantial, dark green foliage. This one has finally bloomed (the ones in the back are still just leaves). Looks kind of like a massive Hulked-out hosta, sort of ... white flowers. For scale, that clump there is well over 2 feet across; each leaf is nearly the size of a picnicware disposable plate (though not the right shape for such use).

- The Lavenderoid Possibly actual lavender, I suppose. It's dead-center of the lily-of-the-valley-crammed bed, so someone clearly planted it on purpose. No particular smell to the leaves when crushed. Those spikes were formerly crowded with tiny purple flowers, though the heat seems to have dropped a lot of them in the last couple of days. That'll teach me not to take photos on first sighting when it's still pretty. :->

re plants: In Feb. we were in the SF Bay area, and I retrieved my grape, and my olive (the latter much smaller than the former), by bare-rooting them and trust UPS to ferry them across the country.

The Olive went into a pot, and seemed to recover in no time.

The Grape was dormant. I've a strong sentimental attachment to this grape, it's the only one of four I used to have, which survived the perigrinations between Pasadena and SF. I grew it from a cutting, and the parent plant was eaten by horses.

It only decided to be awake at the tail end of April.

One of the branches seems to have died; the one which I find the most attractive (it's a semi-bonsaied) grape. But with a bit of care it will live a long, if constrained, life (I say constrained because, as a grape from cutting it's Vitus vinifera rootstock, and there are few places which are free of the risk of phylloxera; as well as my not being sure we won't move.

Elliott @55:

I'm not great with plant identifications, but the Football you linked is definitely a hosta of some variety. I think my mom may have that particular one in her rather large hosta collection, too.

From the picture and your description, you could reasonably dig it out and divide it to put in two or maybe even three locations (including one clump back in the original spot). I'd do this either in the fall or early spring (sometime when it's not blooming, IOW).

Elliott Mason @ #55: Not lavender. Lavender has thin little leaves like rosemary.

Elliott Mason @55--Singing Wren is right--that's a hosta (fortuitously, one letter away from horta!). A good plant to stick in a shady spot, as it will do well even if it's too shady for grass. Not a glamorous plant, perhaps, but possessed of quiet virtues.

Down here in Tennessee, trumpet vine is more commonly seen in the wild rather than as a cultivated plant, but that stout central trunk is what you'd get from an established specimen that has survived many hard freezes, especially if pruned unmercifully (which, even in the Chicago area, it will need). Needless to say, the wild ones don't get the same degree of pruning a garden planting would. Your leaf sprig is clear enough to be diagnostic.

As for the others, the first ones are familiar as a wildflower, although I can't come up with the name. If I can find my wildflower guide I'll take a look. I don't suppose the stuff in the lily of the valley bed is a type of delphinium, or of the other larkspur group...

56
Terry, if you keep it in a pot, the phylloxera might be a relatively small risk. You can get it to fruit while in a 20-inch pot, maybe smaller.
(I'm currently dealing with a cutting from last winter's pruning of my Muscat. It's stuck at about four leaves, but it's still growing a root system.)

Teresa is being very tricksy with the most recent link, and has me in giggles. (Check the word "Provenson" very carefully.)

Better yet, check "Provensen."

@55 Elliott, your lavenderoid looks like some sort of ornamental sage to me. There are loads of different kinds (many with aromatic leaves); this is a common one and looks quite like yours.

The purple bell-flower looks like a campanula (which is basically just Latin for "bell-flower"); there are hundreds of different species grown in gardens.

I'm rather envious of your vine; here in southern England I've made a few attempts to grow the damn thing over the years, and it just keeled over and died every time. It's amazing how dependent invasiveness is on climate zone - I've had the same trouble trying to grow porcelain vine, which is apparently pretty invasive on its home turf. Maybe I should have a go with kudzu next.

HLN: Local woman prunes lonicera shrub struggling to keep it within the bounds of the space available without leaving it looking butchered, and swears that she shall never again plant a variety that's too big for its spot. She walks past the brand new pot of loropetalum, not yet tucked into the front bed, and and blurts, "That's different. They are easily shaped, and the foliage is so pretty!"

Elliott @55, your lavenderoid may be a salvia of some type. The one that looks like a hosta probably is!

(Also, I followed you over at the ocracy of Fit; I was the one trying to figure out if messages were publicly visible.)

My first gnoming! I don't bake, but I do have a large variety of delicious teas.

Alyx @63: In re trying to find a pretty vine that will thrive in your garden, it might be worth your time to research native species ... one of my base tenets of Lazy Gardening (along with PERENNIALS! and I Refuse to Coddle Plants) is to plant what already likes the conditions where you're planting it.

I have amazed neighbors during hot drought summers by how flowery and nice my yard is -- because I planted stuff that evolved in and for this climate, and that likes it just fine here. Plus, of course, I don't coddle them beforehand with biweekly copious watering; why let them get used to a lifestyle to which I do not wish them to become accustomed?

If you can find a local native-plants nursery they often have ideas. I was certainly sure I wasn't going to find anything 'pretty enough' to plant just among my natives until I really went looking -- and even so, I missed trumpet creeper entirely until I suddenly had one in my yard. :->

Failing that, look at parts of the world with climate similar to your yard's: the Pacific Northwest of North America, perhaps, if you're in the rainier end?

Elliott Mason @ 67: The Pacific Northwest rains pretty steadily for 9 or 10 months of the year, but has quite dry summers. It's sometimes called a Mediterranean climate, though I have trouble seeing that myself. We have far less rain in the summer than the midwest or east coast.

Trumpet creeper does thrive here. Most things do, except for those that need more summer heat than we get, or which suffer from damp roots in the winter. Western Oregon is full of plant nurseries because of our growing conditions.

I just wanted to say that when I saw TNH's latest particle, "Why do celebrities have more legal rights than commoners?", I assumed without even noticing that I had assumed it that she was exaggerating, was talking about how celebrities are actually *treated* as opposed to commoners, rather than... an actual law giving celebrities rights.

Oh boy we live in a decaying culture don't we.

HLN: Area woman discovers that area woman's new Weight Watchers meeting leader is area woman's former 6th grade teacher.

NYC is often a much smaller place than people think it is.

HLN: Area woman, husband, and two brothers-in-spirit spend weekend up in Cross Plains, Texas for the annual Robert E. Howard Days. Area woman discovers that she has ideas to contribute to various panels, receives entirely unexpected appreciation for speaking up, is invited to join various REH-related organizations. (Husband and brothers-in-spirit are entirely unsurprised that woman's contributions are appreciated.) Overall, weekend deals severe blow to area woman's Impostor Syndrome.

In "revenge", area woman convinces husband (with help of brothers-in-spirit") to GM first roleplaying game ever run at REH days, which is smashing success.

In toto, area woman sleeps a little, laughs a lot, has her horizons widened, makes new friends and re-connects with old ones.

Weekend successful.

Jennifer Baughman @71:

You realize that you don't really have Impostor Syndrome, don't you? You just want people to think you do.

;-)

Yay, Jennifer! How splendid!

HLN: Area woman about to go in for assessment to find out whether exercise and nutrition components of ongoing Resilience Training are making measurable differences in particular areas. (Other areas are already showing distinct progress.)

abi @72: I think you just made my head explode. ;-)

Is there a "Prometheus" thread yet?

Sandy B @75:

There is now.

And another racist piece of shit kills another innocent and unarmed black teenager. Sprinkle 'allegedly's as desired, but this time there was an eyewitness (the kid's mother, for gods' sake), and the kid (Darius Simmons) was taking out the garbage at his own house.

This kind of shit really makes me crazy. This bastard just walked up to this kid, accused him of stealing from his extensive gun collection (the police had already ruled the kid out as a suspect), and shot him with a 9mm.

At his own house.

In front of his mother.

This stirs a kind of vigilante justice in my own heart. I want to take John Henry Spooner out and [too gross for outside a horror novel, even in ROT13]. I won't do any such thing, of course, and not just because he's off in Wisconsin. But I really don't know what to do with the rage I feel over this.

13 years old. Taking out the garbage. Dammit.

Recent comments oddness: I click on a link to a comment, and ?tw_p=twt gets added to the URL, thereby breaking the direct connection to the comment.

Jacque @78:

Please describe the problem in more detail.
1. What link, precisely, were you clicking on?
2. Please paste the link from your browser into a comment.
3. Browser/version/OS, please?

Thanks

Rest in peace, Jim Young. Going off to cry now.

abi:

Seems to happen with any of the direct-to-comment links in the "Recent Comments" sidebar on the front page.

Frex, if I click on the direct link to your @79: abi on Open Thread 174 the status bar at the bottom of the window correctly shows:
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013974.html#767642
but what appears in the address bar when the page comes up is:
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013974.html#767642?tw_p=twt

Far as I can tell, this is only happening from the front page.

I'm on Windows XP using (hangs head) IE7.

This has only started happening today that I've noticed.

R.I.P., Jim. Didn't know him, but he was, by all accounts, a good one.

Jacque @81:

Try it now.

I begin to suspect that the script that Twitter wants to use to show its prettified display isn't behaving well with The Browser Whose Name is a Cry of Pain. Because that suffix looks Twitteresque.

abi: Yup. Works fine now. And I had similar suspicions.

As to The Browser Whose Name is a Cry of Pain, I've asked around as to when we get an upgrade(!), and I'm told: "We're still doing compatibility testing." ::heavy sigh::

Whitmore @80: Rest in peace, Jim Young. Going off to cry now. Yeah. Solidarity from here.

If it helps any, I just told T that I figured Mike was meeting him, and after a little chat he'd mention that David Stemple was waiting for them in the bar. (Probably with a whole bunch of other good people.)

Yeah. Definitely crying. But the thought of them all catching up on stuff together is a good thought to hold right now.

Condolences to all who miss him.

Did someone just rattle the backend? My feed reader now thinks every article and comment made on ML in the past year or so (since I started using it to keep up) is new... and it lacks a "mark all as read". sigh

by asking if they just disturbed something...

Heard about Jim's death a few hours ago, and it hit me harder than I expected it to. He was one of the good ones. The odds of him recovering were always long, but damn I hoped he was going to beat them.

He reportedly had a lot of fun with his last film role, playing Adolf Hitler:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3430073

I hope I get to see that one some day.

Stefan@2: You're not the only ones experirencing weird weather. Here in London it's both wet and cold and I'm still wearing a heavy winter jacket to work - in mid June! There are also parts of the country experiencing major flooding that haven't known such a thing in living memory.

I did not know him, but my heartfelt condolences to those who did.

Jim was one of the best. I've known him since we were teenagers in APA-45. We learned to dance la volta at Baycon in 1968. That seems so long ago -- I guess it was. Knowing Jim was a blessing.

Don't know if anyone's posted this before....

Just read some of the reviews.

Three Wolf Moon T-shirt

I really don't think I have any other choice but to get this.

After doing a little Googling, I must be the LAST person on earth to hear about Three Wolf Moon. :)

Not the last. ;-) Thanks.

(I recognize a name or two in those reviews. And as soon as I saw "customers also viewed Tuscan Whole Milk" I knew that the deal was.)

I cordially invite Senator Orrin Hatch and nine other Senators to eat shit and die. Go on, Senator. Make the world a better place, you disgusting bigot.

"There is no indication in the court's opinion that anyone could oppose same-sex marriage without being infected by 'animus' as the court defines the term," says their brief. Well, yeah, that's because there's no reason other than "animus" to oppose same-sex marriage. Well, to sincerely oppose it, as opposed to just taking a position out of political opportunism. So really, long walk, short dock. Or take a stroll across the Grand Canyon...straight across the top. I'll watch and laugh.

I don't like your horse, either.

Link format? Cursing? It was about Orrin Hatch, so there was some cursing, naturally.

Why is it that I feel guilty about not filling up the green waste cans for tomorrow's pickup despite the facts that it was well over 90º today AND I somehow managed to screw up my hip in my sleep last night to the point of limping all day?

I *did* manage to mow the small front lawn, though. The big back lawn will have to wait for cooler weather and sufficient motivation. Or at least the latter, since we're not guaranteed cooler weather for the next three months.

Same-sex marriage is being described as the greatest threat to the Church of England in 500 years:

Let's see:

481 years ago: Henry VIII prosecutes the whole English clergy, pardons them on condition they accept his spiritual jurisduction; 476 years ago: Cromwell dissolves the monasteries and takes their possessions; 469 years ago: reading the Bible restricted to the nobility; 457 years ago: the Marian Persecutions.

More recently, the Tithes Commutation Act, the abolition of tithes in the Finance Act 1977, the abdication of Edward VIII, the disestabishment campaign of the late 19th century, the distestablishment campaign over the 1929 Book of Common Prayer; the schism over homosexual clergy; the flight of the Roaming Catholics over the ordination of women; the Consecration of Bishops Abroad Act 1786 and the separation of the US and Canadian churches.

Yep, civil marriage equality is definitely up there.

Anyone here been to see Snow White and the Huntsman yet?

If so, did the ending feel like a set up for a sequel?

A neighbor and the boyfriend of one his daughters cut down The Maple That Will Not Die the other day--I girdled it from the ground to as high as I could reach in the fall, and several times scraped the bare trunk. It leafed out and thrived despite that... the chainsaw had to be sharpened partway through the sawing of it.

Elsewhere in the yard it would not have been a nuisance tree--it was overshadowing my yellow cherry tree. The neighbor said that the center of the tree was very wet. The heart of the tree was much darker wood than the surrounding rings. Talk about "rock maple"...

#97 Xopher--generally the Republicans in Congress make the sons of Haman look worth spending a breath on reciting the names of.... Cornyn and Graham are highest on my "which have committed the most egregious crimes against the USA lately" list... they are witch hunting Eric Holder for having resurrected the US Department of Justice's terminated-2001-2008 enforcement of the Civils Rights Act, and actually has investigated and convicted and fined individual and health care corporate parasites for Medicare fraud...

#100 thomas
The Episcopalian Church in the USA is not in compliance with the Church of England regarding same gender marriage.... Do I detect a power conflict perhaps?

Could anyone spread some light on what is happening on TV tropes? As far as I understand, one "please remove this" from Google AdSense about one specific page has spawned a full-fledged moral panic, including a band of censors with unlimited powers.

They've wiped out pages on questionable manga, Five Shades of Grey, and all tropes that have the word "rape" in it, to start with. Possibly more - it's pretty difficult to get an overview of what's happening.

I am bemused, and worried.

Wandering thought of the moment: Acronyms require literacy. What were the acronym-equivalents before literacy was widespread? Nicknames, maybe?

Rhyming slang.

Not all acronyms require literacy, Sandy B. One can build an acronym out of the starting sounds of words, not letters; and this will be a good mnemonic for the words intended. It doesn't even require the concept of writing to be effective (and might be as effective in ideographic cultures as in alphabetic ones, looked at that way).

#103 Kit

Sounds like the US Constitution dies again... the Constitution supports denotes parody etc. as Protected Free Speech....

Once upon a time
Google in the Brave New Net World
Had a paradigm
"Don't be evil" was its motto,
But its leaders changed
And the new ones profit-raising,
Bow to greed and pressure now they censor us all.

Bullies of the world
Get in bed with politicians
Put religion first
Theirs above to stomp all others
And they scream and yell

Once upon a time
Google in the Brave New Net World
Stood for liberty
Fought against the greed and censors
But those days are gone
And they have joined with the fascists
Bow to greed and pressure now they censor us all.

Kit @103: Yeah, I just went and looked at tvtropes, and what the hell is going on there?

By taking down the pages that mention rape, I guess we are prevented from examining the use of it as a cheap plot device, et cetera. The use of it as a cheap plot device doesn't go away; our ability to talk about it on that website does. All the previous info that was there is no longer available; all the critique, all the examples, gone.

I am aghast. This isn't going to stick, is it?

#106 elise

It sounds like Google has become part of the Rape Culture, de facto, then....

Oops, forgot to change my header. Please forgive. (Edit if you like.)

Also, I went and poked around on TV tropes, and this is all part of an ongoing thing since April. It's complicated.

Here's more about the TV Tropes fracas from Slashdot.

Sigh. I guess I shouldn't be shocked any more that same-sex couples are considered "sexual content" or "dirty" by the duh-heads of the world, but TVTropes' putting any "two-mommies" references behind a content warning still saddens me and pisses me off.

Please join me in referring to this as TVTropes Fail going forward.

HLN: Local woman goes to ER with severe abdominal pain, ends up needing emergency surgery. "I'm okay now," she says. "The surgery fixed what needed fixing, and I'm not left with any major or permanent losses of function. This might not have been the case if I hadn't gone to the ER, though."

Local woman is grateful for it being laparoscopic surgery, which meant she was back home the same day. Also very happy to have dealt with very good and communicative doctors and nurses, who explained what was going on, what was going to happen, and provided time and space for her to think of questions and ask them. "You know how someone gives you a long speech and asks if you have any questions, and you say 'No, none that I can think of right now,' and then you immediately think of five?" she says. "These doctors and nurses waited a few seconds after hearing 'No,' so I could say 'Well, actually, what about …'"

(She is also grateful to have good enough health insurance that this incident will not destroy her financially. And angry that that even has to be a concern, for her or for anyone else.)

Returning to first-person:

Recovery is going fairly well so far. I've had non-laparoscopic abdominal surgery before, and by comparison, this is a piece of cake. My husband and parents are taking good care of me. Still, changing positions and coughing do not go well with abdominal incisions. And unfortunately, intubation during surgery left me with a lingering sore throat, so I need to cough with some frequency. Ow. (I've got pain meds, and they help, but anything that engages the ab muscles still hurts.)

But I can walk around (slowly and carefully) and eat real food. And I am specifically forbidden from doing housework for two weeks, and even more specifically forbidden from vacuuming, sweeping, or mopping for six weeks. I really do not mind having housework be Someone Else's Problem for once in my life.

Caroline: eek! Glad all went well and that the medical people responded appropriately.

Rest, get well, feel better.

Xopher HalfTongue @112

From the slashdot page it seems like this is due to pressure from Google due to standards on advertizing that pays for the site. Perhaps it should be a Google Fail? Or did I misread the situation?

RE the Provensen particle: Squeeee! My grandparents gave me that book (Myths & Legends) when I was 12; I've hung onto it since, through many moves and much chaos. I love that book.

elise @ 86:

If Heaven doesn't have a pub where you can sit down for long chats with old friends and new, I'm not going (and if there are Senators in Hell, I'm sure not going there).

Caroline @ 113:

Good to hear that you're all right, and really happy to hear that you found a medical team that did it all right including the talking part. I hope all the aches and pains go away soon.

In which I propose a way to piss off our Galtian Overlords and maybe even make a little money (over their dead bodies).

Mishalak, my reading is that Google pressured them to create the content warning wall, and TVTropes decided what to put behind it. Deciding that two mommies aren't "family friendly" is homophobic; if Google supplied the list, than it is indeed GoogleFail.

Xopher @119: I might be misunderstanding what you mean by "content warning wall," but certain things at TV tropes aren't behind a wall now; they're completely gone.

Crud. Why does my name keep reverting to the "sees spam" format? Please to fix, and I'll go thump my browser, clear the cache, and stuff.

Hyperlocal news... Man has been told by local writer Victor Milan that, in the followup to his Tor novel "Dinosaurs Lords" edited by David Hartwell, there will be a Necessary Villain modeled after local man, due to his supposed elegance. Necessary Villain is to be called Dragos. Man approves of villainous name, but questions his reputtion for elegance.

AKICIML: A dear friend's relative, whose sense of humor remains intact even as everything else is going away, has stated a preference to have a particular piece of music played at her funeral services: a slow, dirge-like version of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead". Does anyone know of such a thing or where to start looking for someone who can do this in the Washington, D.C. area?

So I'm definitely giving ABC Family's new show Bunheads another few episodes. I was dubious, because, well ... ABC Family does not generally make shows I want to watch. But the trailers looked interesting, so I popped it on and expected to click it off going "Ugh, drama-llama garbage full of people I dislike" within ten minutes.

I was still watching it, though with spates of dubiousness, when I hit the following scene. Note: Michelle is very drunk and has just had a horrible, disappointing day, so she's very low-filters:

Hubbell: Michelle, let me take care of you. marry me.
Michelle: Oh, Hubbell, no!
Hubbell: I can make you happy.
Michelle: No, you don't understand! I suck at relationships. I'm like Godzilla! Men run from me, they flee! -- Not just Japanese men, all nationalities flee.
Hubbell: I won't flee.
Michelle: Buy some comfortable shoes.
Hubbell: I promise you, I won't flee. I'll be the one scientist who understands you. The one who knows you're not burning the city down because you're evil, you're burning the city down to protect the giant lizard eggs you've just laid in a cave by the ocean. A cave no one knows is there … but me.
Michelle: God, that's beautiful.
Hubbell: No, you're beautiful. And you deserve to be happy. What do you say?

Hubbell, by the way, is played by Alan Ruck, who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He's doing the same low-affect-but-emotionally-vulnerable thing here, and the delivery completely made the lines.

It reminds me of Pushing Daisies: stylized, very witty, dry-but-not-stuffy lines delivered very precisely to give just the right effect.

It's not un-problematic, but every time I braced myself for Horrid Overdramatic Fail, it didn't happen. And I find myself genuinely liking and feeling for almost every single character in it, even the ones that would be 'the bitch' or 'the ditz' or whatever in more stereotypical aimed-at-young-women TV writing.

The characters have beating hearts. And senses of humor about themselves. And they don't act like ten-year-olds! I think I'm in love ...

elise, that's even worse. What I saw when I went there was a warning page to the effect that there was possibly-adult content beyond there, and asking did I really want to see it.

Xopher: Seems to me, if stuff is being put behind nanny-walls and not just removed outright, a strategy TVTropes might try to good effect would be to put everything behind the nanny-wall—with an explanation as to why. I wonder if this would aim the Internet at Google's head with sufficient precision to get the point across.

Caroline @113: Technology is so cool when it works, isn't it? (And when used by people who know what they're doing....) Glad medical intervention went as desired for you!

(And, oh, do I hear you about abs & surgery. My one abdominal surgery was followed by pain-killer-induced nausea. I do not recommend emesis using recently altered musculature.)

I find I do not have an e-mail address for Xopher. Could someone supply it privately to me?

Mail higgins at fnal dot gov.

Bill - sent.

Bruce Cohen (#118) I think your idea is great! I have no useful suggestion as to how to implement it, but if it does get off the ground, please let me know. It would be great to bet on a sure thing for once. I've been putting all my eggs in leaky baskets far too long, but everyone dies.

No, seriously, it does sound like a workable idea.

Roger Zelazny passed away 17 years ago today.

Back in Open Thread 173, I wrote a post wondering if I should attend a Richard Thompson concert being held in June at the local Music Instrument Museum.

The concert was last night, and I did end up going and enjoyed it muchly. I wrote about the experience on my blog, here.

Jacque@126:
I agree that it would be a nice strategy, but I think the TV tropes mods are using Google as an excuse for wiping out content that they don't like personally.

Kit: Oh, sigh. That's tiresome. Especially in a venue that seems to see a lot of traffic.

Then I say hell with TVTropes.

Thanks, y'all.

Jacques @ 127: Awww! I unfortunately had that experience this time (general anesthesia seems to have that effect on me). It is indeed not recommended.

Because people here know things: I bought a parasol a couple years ago and it was excellent. It lasted for about two summers, I think. I bought another from the same vendor on Amazon this summer, and... it is poorly made on many levels.

Does anyone have a particular favorite place to find Asian-style parasols that will last at least a year of regular use? I'd rather it not be a European-style one since those are much more umbrellish. But I miss having a parasol to both shield me from the sun and mark me as me.

Diatryma @137, I have a friend who makes lovely parasols... but she makes them out of umbrellas by adding lace covers and fringed trim. So probably not what you're looking for.

HLN, dateline Hoboken: Visiting physicist meets half-tongued local sage, conversation ensues. Sources close to the Fluorospherians characterized the encounter as "a pleasant afternoon in the park."

I heard a rumor Stu Shiffman is not well. Is this so, and if so is there an email address to send a get-well wish to?

"With mediocre power comes mediocre responsibility."

Daniel Abraham, or Melinda Snodgrass, on a recent panel about comic-books. That could apply to the Mystery Men.

Elise--I just looked at Facebook, and Andi Shechter has posted that Stu is in Harborview Medical Center, recovering from a stroke, and doing well given that. I have left Stu a get well message on his Facebook wall, but the significant information/updates seem to be on Andi's page.

HLN: Halftongued local has pleasant and enlightening conversation with visiting physicist, learns cool things about relativity, is startled to find the word 'sage' used as a descriptor. "That seems like an exaggeration," he remarks. Apparently dilation of both sage and thyme figured into the meeting.

Speaking of sage . . . AKICIML version:

My teenager complains about sweaty palms and soles of feet. Googling led her to a recommendation that the affected body parts be steeped in sage tea. Not bothered by this myself, I have no knowledge to offer, though I can't see that there is any downside.

Yes? No?

Other suggestions?

(I need to find her a dermatologist, I think.)

Also possibly speaking of sage:

HLN: Local couple looks back on recent savory pie-making binge, savors thoughts of another. Witnesses report sightings of Pieminister cookbook and small accumulation of smoked haddock, but couple claims to be undecided on next recipe.

Bruce @132, as someone with social anxiety, it's wonderful to hear about other people getting out and expanding their social horizons. Congrats!

In re Stu Shiffman -- I've just been with Andi. Stu had a stroke; he was doing well yesterday (responsive, showing signs of wit as well as simple responses). As of this morning, they had discovered some brain-stem bleeding and were taking him in for an operation. We should know what's happened with that in a couple of hours.

He is in the best trauma center in the NW, in the neurological ICU: it's about the best possible place to have to deal with these problems. We're hoping to get a CaringBridge site up about this sometime a bit later today, but given that things are a bit chaotic I figured an update here might help.

Andi's reserving her phone for family and doctors right now. If you need to call me, I'm available (408-807-6515) -- if it's not immediate, the CaringBridge site is probably better for information once it's running. That should be up by 2 PM, and I'll make sure it gets updated as we know more.

Things are not good, but they're as good as they can be given what's happened. He's getting top-level care. And Andi has good support in place.

More soon.

"That seems like an exaggeration," he remarks.

I was tryin' to class up th' joint.

I was quite appreciative of being so characterized, believe me! But I couldn't resist the opportunity to set up the "sage and thyme" pun.

Tom: Well, dammit. Is it a good thing to spread the news to people who may not know, or do they want that to go more slowly?

Good thoughts going to Stu and Andi and you, at any rate.

Tom - yeah, do please put the CaringBridge info somewhere where we can get it or ask for it or something. Thanks.

And thanks for helping with communications and everything.

Via Felix Salmon, a Prospect article that captures the world I grew up surrounded by--Appalachia--very very well.

With three working adults, the family’s income for 2011 was a combined $21,000, right on the poverty line.

When nearly everyone in the county is poor, the distinction between have and have-not becomes meaningless. There are have-very-little’s, but even they wouldn’t always call themselves poor.

Those in the US may have seen this already, but:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/14/155059849/michigan-state-rep-barred-from-speaking-after-vagina-comments

and

http://stupidshitsexistssay.com/vaginamovielines-trends-on-twitter-in-response-to-michigan-state-reps-lisa-brown-and-barb-byrum/

probably for links.

I don't have any baked goods, but may I offer the gnomes cherries, picked Wednesday? They are plump and a nice blend of tart and sweet.

We're going to have to plant a baby cherry in our yard to serve as a spermpollen donor for the mature tree we already have, but it's apparently going to be totally worth it -- according it used to have a buddy, before a catastrophic storm several years ago, and bore wonderful fruit.

according to our neighbors, that is. Sigh. We're definitely making a biggish order to Trees of Antiquity for next spring's planting season, though: a cherry to buddy the one we have, plus at least three apples, to include a Niedwitskaya (because zomg those are pretty trees -- very red. The bark is red. The flowers are red-pink. The LEAVES are red!).

More on Stu: the operation wasn't about brainstem bleeding, but was to relieve pressure on the brain (when I said "Trepination!" the neurologist commented that indeed, they were letting out the bad humours). Haven't seen Stu since the operation, but Andi is at the hospital, with good support. I've started a Caringbridge page for Stu, which you should feel free to tell people about. I'll post updates there from now on. Mood around this: guarded optimism.

SamChevre @152, that world is very familiar to me as well.

I was talking to some coworkers the other day about a family trip we'd taken recently. One of my coworkers stopped me and said, "Wait. What do you mean, your parents-in-law and husband had never flown before?" She couldn't believe that there were adults in the United States who had never in their lives been on a plane.

The inevitable reaction here in DC when I tell someone where I'm from (the rural South) is, "But you don't have an accent!" Well, yes, that was intentional, because when I first moved here people treated me like I was stupid. Amazing how that cleared up when I trained away my (relatively mild) accent.

This bit from the evils of cheap chic particle:

"We’ve lost sight of clothes as material goods — as things that are made. They’re now symbolic."

reminds me of this from In the Beginning ...was the Command Line:

"(The richer tourists at Disney World wear t-shirts printed with the names of famous designers, because designs themselves can be bootlegged easily and with impunity. The only way to make clothing that cannot be legally bootlegged is to print copyrighted and trademarked words on it; once you have taken that step the clothing itself doesn't really matter, and so a t-shirt is as good as anything else. T-shirts with expensive words on them are now the insignia of the upper class. T-shirts with cheap words, or no words at all, are for the commoners.)"

There's more to it than that--when it was uncommon to have more than a few changes of clothing, being able to cycle clothes weekly or daily was a mark of wealth--but there's a subtle truth about the real purpose of haute clothes in there. The value of designer clothes wasn't their superior aesthetic or material value, it was the social value of being something other people couldn't have.

Which begs the question: what possesses that social value when chic can be had for dollars? To what extent is sustainable, repurposed and vintage, hand-sewn clothing just the newest turn on the social wheel?

Question for the knitters: Aren't there things one can put on the pointy ends of knitting needles to keep the stitches from sliding off when not knitting? What would such things be called? And where would an extremely novice knitter find them? Do they come in different sizes for different sized needles?

I suspect wrapping a rubber-band around the end would work, but I'm hoping for something a little easier to put on/take off.

160
Point protectors.
Clover makes them in two sizes, and they're sold in packages of four. (I use them to turn double-pointed needles into single-pointed needles, when I need a short needle.)

Mary Aileen: Try coil wraps, or point protectors.

P J Evans and Carrie: Thanks! I was trying to call them "stops", which just doesn't google well.

TNH: *wordless delight on the "knolling" particle, and utter agreement, because he so does*

That suit against PublishAmerica is a thing of beauty. I do so love reading well written legal filings and arguments.

heresiarch@159: There's only so much GOOD old clothing, and finding it requires that you go visit three or six thrift stores pretty much every week. That's a fair amount of time and driving around. Then of course there's the vintage clothing store, where you get to pay the servants to go troll the local thrifts FOR you.

So, yeah, there are class markers available there if you want them.

HLN: A bit late in reporting it here, but Local Woman's biopsy came back with the news that the masses in her breast are benign. Much relief in the household.

Other news: She did not make it to the semi-finals in Chorus Idol, the competition to sing a solo with the Seattle Men's Chorus, but she made it farther than she would have if she hadn't entered the contest.

(Local Man now has over 80,000 pieces of music for random play on his computer; said computer seems to have developed a fondness for Richard Thompson, Columbian death metal with cookie monster vocals, and JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA.)

Velma #167: Congratulations on both the test and the tryout!

Velma: woohoo for the good news on both fronts . . . .

Velma @167: BENIGN BENIGN BENIGN YAY!

Columbian death metal with cookie monster vocals

Life at your house is always interesting.

Velma: Great news! (Been there. It's scary.)

Tom, thanks for setting up the CaringBridge site.

Velma @ 167... Benign? yay!

Wonderful news, Velma!

Yay Velma!

In other news, I've posted another Babylon 5 thing over on N2S. This one's on Soul Mates, the episode with Londo's wives and Delenn's hair.

abi: Link to Soul Mates a no work. Fortunately, the link from your name does.

Jacque @176:

Thanks. Fixed.

heresiarch @159: Which begs the question: what possesses that social value when chic can be had for dollars? To what extent is sustainable, repurposed and vintage, hand-sewn clothing just the newest turn on the social wheel?

G Bruce Boyer, being interviewed on the Ivy Style blog:

There's a memoir by Paul Watkins called "Stand Before Your God" about being an American at a British public school, and the guys who had the most prestige were the guys who wore their father's old tweed jackets and 50-year-old Lobb shoes, which had a certain cachet that New Money just didn't have.

I'm a little confused about Jim's Distraction about the threatened photographer--if I have it right after looking the Slashdot stuff and poking at the links, the photographer withdrew the DMCA and comments about it at his website and the attorney's website went down, but the website of one of her supporters is still up and opining that the photographer is guilty of almost every charge under the sun short of aggravated mopery. Is that correct?

If so, I wish that someone had gotten the news about the legal threat to Ken over at Popehat right after it was made, since threatened suits with no legal basis are just the sort of thing that causes him to send up a signal for legal representation for those that have been threatened.

HLN: Area woman has received an "explanation of benefits" for an office visit from three months ago. The only thing on it that she is sure she understands is the $25 copay, and the unrelated statement that she has spent $12.58 toward her maximum $1000 out-of-pocket expenses for 2012. She understands that part because she wrote a check for it, months ago.

Area woman decides that if they are going to send her complicated paperwork that says she doesn't owe any money, she is not going to waste her time asking them to break down the bits that her doctor billed for.

Congratulations to Tor for winning another Best Publisher Award at the Locus Awards -- setting a record with 25 wins in a row! And to Cat Valente for winning 3 fiction awards -- I think that's also a record, or at least it'll tie one.

Just heard on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me this morning that 'gorp' actually comes from an Old English word meaning to eat rapidly or carelessly (or something like that). I am skeptical, however, because my dictionary says "Origin unknown." If it were uncertain, my dictionary would say that. Wondering where WWDTM got their information.

Gimpy dog update:

So the vet wanted $1000 for an MRI on the chance that Ardala's crossed extensor reflex is a result of a slipped disc. The desired outcome for the MRI would have been disc surgery. No other options were given to us. After having her at home for a week, we noticed she seemed to be in less pain, but some discomfort (if that makes any sense) and, yes, still the inability for her to walk. Doesn't seem to have affected her appetite, her continence or her general bossy yet licky attitude. Knowing that I didn't want to pay $1k for a diagnostic that at "best" would indicate pricey, risky surgery (seriously, how many articles have I read about dogs becoming completely paralyzed after disc surgery?) and at worst would put us right back where we came from (and $1k poorer) we decided to get a second opinion.

We went to a physical therapy place and had a vet evaluate her there, along with a canine physical therapist. First off, it was so much more pleasant than the normal vet visit. Rather than a cold table, Ardala was assessed on a dog bed on the floor. The vet and therapist are somewhat baffled by Ardala's condition. They made copious notes and will be researching this week. In the meantime, Ardala had some cold laser therapy and we were instructed on some gentle massage techniques to keep the synovial fluid moving through her hind limbs. We also got a new, more helpful walking harness to help her on her potty breaks. She is now more relaxed than I have seen her all week, sleeping deeply on her bed.

The vet noted that she could find no evidence of pain in Ardala's lumbar region, or the rest of her spine. She doesn't want to rule out slipped or herniated discs, but she has serious doubts. She thinks Ardala's condition may be neurological, and if we don't notice improvement she has a great neurologist she recommends, who can run all sorts of tests more affordably than our current vet. Current vet's office, by the by, had not faxed over our records as promised by the time of our appointment and had to be harangued into it today. This did not surprise the physical therapist - evidently getting records from his practice is always difficult.

nerdycellist, that's very encouraging! There have been a lot of advances in canine rehabilitation in recent years. There's a place near us that has a state-of-the-art canine therapy facility with underwater treadmills and all kinds of cool stuff; they get excellent results. Hope your folks can continue to do well by Ardala; it sounds like a much more promising track than surgery.

Re the "Who's chasing the .book TLD?" particle:

Let me be the first (no doubt the thousandth) to say this whole new-gTLD push is a littoral-swamp sale of epic proportions. Doesn't matter whether .book is grabbed by Amazon, Bowker, or Uncle Beebody's Fire-Sale Domain Registry and Tanning Salon -- as soon as it launches, and forever thereafter, the cachet of a .book domain for your book project will be *less* than a .com domain.

Statistically, a few of these new gTLDs will probably take off and become popular and valuable. This will be because somebody (against all odds) managed to launch a *popular web service there*, not because of the domain name. Most of them will instead suffer the fate of the *typical* new web service.

Historical example: go visit http://www.nic.aero/ . Have you ever been to a .aero domain? Did you know the .aero gTLD existed? I didn't. It's been around since 2001. It was created with exactly the same sort of "look at the value!" mentality as these new proposals. It has gone nowhere.

Wheee!

I appear, very briefly, in this news story about the Eugene Mini Maker Faire:

http://kezi.com/news/local/248992

28 seconds in. The rockets at about 55 seconds are mine.

Xopher @182: Just heard on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me this morning that 'gorp' actually comes from an Old English word meaning to eat rapidly or carelessly (or something like that).

I heard that too and was... well, maybe not actively skeptical, but at least nonplussed. Whatever their source, it seems a stretch at best according to World Wide Words and various other sources elseweb.

Lila @ #184, "underwater treadmills"

For dogs and cats? How does this work? (I'm imagining little scuba tanks and regulators, probably wrongly.)

I believe the underwater treadmill is set up so the head and neck of the dog are above water. The dog also may be wearing a life vest ("float coat" they were calling it) and is supervised at all times. Ardala did not go in the water today, which is fine because water is her mortal enemy.

She has been sleeping really, really hard and is more relaxed than I've seen her in over a week. She went out and did her business in her new harness, and I gave her a gentle massage on her legs before bed. I hope we continue to see improvement - even slow improvement - and don't have to go to the neurologist in Orange County.

The Dictionary of Dubious Derivations says, "gorp - comes from the Old Glagolitic 'gorpu', one who believes questionable etymologies."

I see that Amazon is using its European subsidiary for the .book application.

The way taxes are handled in Europe, it could give them several percentage points advantage over a registry outside the EU.

On ebooks, it puts them as much as 17 percentage points ahead of a non-EU source, by putting the servers in Luxembourg.

Linkmeister @ #188, nerdycellist is correct. The water level is adjustable, and never more than shoulder deep (this allows you to select how much weight the dog is putting on its legs--you do want the dog walking, not swimming). In addition to lessening weight-bearing, the water provides resistance, so the dog can get a fairly intense workout without straining an injured or arthritic joint. (More info from our local canine rehab place.) There are similar devices for horses.

Xopher @182, Julie @187, Bruce @190

According the the Oxford English Dictionary (best birthday present EVER):

----

gorp, n. colloq. (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.).

Brit. /gɔːp/, U.S. /gɔrp/

[Origin uncertain. Perhaps ‹ the earlier U.S. slang gorp to eat greedily (attested from 1913 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (1991) II. 744; compare to gawp up at gawp v.), although frequently explained as an acronym ‹ the initial letters of good old raisins and peanuts.]

A mixture of dried fruit and nuts, often with seeds and other high-calorie foods such as chocolate, eaten as a snack food, originally by walkers and campers.
   Its popularity with hikers accounts for its alternative name, trail mix.

----

For whatever that's worth. There is at least a second-hand 1913 cite for the WWDTM assertion, but it flat-out says that the derivation is unknown.

I am bemused: Last night I tweeted something about having taken up knitting again. No hashtags of any kind. Within two hours, I was followed by someone apparently advertising fairisle sweater patterns. The timing could be a coincidence, I suppose (she said dubiously), but it's a little creepy.

Cassy B@193: the Oxford English Dictionary (best birthday present EVER)

I've probably mentioned this here before, but when my wife and I merged our households many duplicate items were winnowed out, with two big exceptions: the two KitchenAid mixers and the two copies of the OED.

I'm not sure from the comment whether the gnomes are wishing for tasty baked goods or tasty etymologies, but both are available with the ingredients of my last note.

Mary Aileen @194

That happens to me a lot, especially if the tweet touched even vaguely either on being an expat or on writing. The tweet-trawlers are very good at what they do (or at least, at that part of it).

All this discussion of gorp must be making the gnomes hungry.

Stefan @186

Nice rockets! How did you get such a nice finish? Do you use a wrap, or paint? Me, I've surrendered to the fact that I don't paint worth a damn, so my rockets simply don't look nice and smooth and shiny. They still go FWOOM, though!

Is that blue-grey one a Lil' Nuke? I've started using that fin design on all my homebrew rockets because the lovely swept fins that look so nice on your other two rockets snap if you look at them funny.

Well, almost all my homebrew rockets; not the McDonalds Happy Meal Box. The Happy Meal Mark I and Mark II had balsa fins and That Didn't End Well, so the Mark III and now the Mark IV (which I need to finish building; I'm looking at the almost-completed guts of it right now) have Sputnik fins.

David @195,

True story. Some few years back, a friend of my husband went to him for help. The conversation as reported to me by my husband went like this, very nearly word-for-word.

Friend: "I know Cassy just had a birthday; my wife's birthday is coming up. Help! I have no idea what to get her. What did you get her for her birthday?"

Husband: "It won't help."

Friend: "No, really, help me out here, dude."

Husband: "Really. It's won't help. Trust me."

Friend: "Hey, even if it's not right for my wife, it might spark an idea. C'mon."

Husband: "Ok, but it won't help. I bought her a dictionary."

Long pause. Blank look.

Friend: "A dictionary...?"

Husband: "Yup. OED II on CD-ROM. Got a LOT of husband-points for it, too."

Friend: "You're right. It didn't help...."

------

Whatever that friend may have thought, that dictionary STILL ranks as the Best Birthday Present Ever.... {grin}

Cassy B, at least he didn't ask my husband for gift ideas. One of my favorite birthday presents to date was a load of horse manure (for my garden).

Just for the record, I would also love an OED on disk--I have a dead-tree one (with magnifying glass).

Cassy B and Lila: for my birthday one year Juan got me a domain. He came up to me with this little piece of paper with the interNIC confirmation note, and said, "I'm sorry I didn't wrap it." I got all big-eyed and mooshy, and then he danced around the house singing, "I married a geek girl, yay, yay, yay!"

An OED and some lovely manure for the garden sound like perfectly splendid gifts.

One of my favorite presents from my father was and is a pair of gun-range ear protectors to use while vacuuming. Now, instead of cringing as I hit the power button, I think how much my daddy loves me. No dictionaries or horse manure-- I sent my mother a belated Mother's Day present of worm poo once. Does that count at all?

HLN: Local woman acquires a Yahama (musical) keyboard for her birthday. "I'd been using my smartphone's keyboard app to pick out my part, and my teacher ordered me to go buy a real one. I had no idea what I was missing." However, the woman remains slightly skeptical of the X-shaped stand sold to support the keyboard. "I'm a bit worried I'll bump into it in a clumsy moment and send the whole thing flying," she said.

Just idly wondering how many of the Fluorosphere are serious students of Japanese? As in, passing the 3rd level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test or higher?

Disclosure: I'm using the computer rather a lot to decompress between study sessions of some upcoming Japanese exams, and I thought it would be nice to see if someone of this parish shared a similarly deep level of interest in the language. Looking to combine "work" (study) and play/socializing..., but not yet ready to go charging about the internet on the numerous bulletin boards and what-not.

Yes, this probably does make me the internet equivalent of the drunk looking for her car keys beneath the lamp-post. *wan grin*

Crazy(and thanks for including "Fluorosphere" in the spelling reference!)Soph

Xopher #182: The OED's etymology for gorp is "Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps "Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps

Oops. The angle brackets in the text seem to have done something. Here goes again: Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps the earlier U.S. slang gorp to eat greedily (attested from 1913 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (1991) II. 744; compare to gawp up at gawp v.), although frequently explained as an acronym the initial letters of good old raisins and peanuts.

I once married a man because he owned a copy of The Palm Wine Drinkard (at least, that's what I told people). I am currently married to a man who brought into the family a copy of the Compact Edition of the OED. That's the one with the invisibly tiny print, that comes boxed with a drawer containing a magnifying glass.

I judge a man by the books he owns.

Diatryma #203:

I misread that as "wArm poo". Now that's the sort of thing one sends one's estranged mother-in-law, not one's mother.

re #193 and 200-203: My father's favorite Christmas present one year was the new garbage can my mother got him.

@Cally: The two rockets of mine shown are two fairly small ones, cut off at top and bottom. A White and red Viking II and a home-brew Badger.

The others were brought by the Eugene Rocketry folks. I'm not sure of their lineage. I do know that the guys who brought them build a lot of their own designs.

Smooth and shiny comes from laborious filling and sanding . . . followed by priming and sanding . . . painting and WET sanding . . . and then using a damp cloth and automobile polishing compound. Followed up by a final coat of Future Floor Wax!

Older @208 -- there was a first UK edition of The Palm Wine Drinkard at the bookstore in Archer City Texas I just visited (may well still be there -- the store doesn't list online, but they answer e-mail promptly). It's a marvelous book. I grew up with my father having a copy.

Tom Whitmore @212, Older @208: I was forced to read it in high school, which will give anything a nasty taste (I still can't read or enjoy Ursula K. LeGuin's The Disposessed for the same reason; well, that reason combined with "the book described on the back matter bears no relation to the book BETWEEN the covers," which is also my problem with a lot of Vernor Vinge). That said, I found The Palm-Wine Drinkard kind of interesting, which on the scale of liking-stuff-I-had-to-read-for-that-class is basically adoration.

Stefan @211

And that's why my painting sucks. That's a LOT of work to go to when I just want it to go FWOOM! .

Cally @214,

....and then pull it out of the pond.... {gd&r}

#214, #215:

Since becoming a finishing fiend I'm a lot more careful about where I launch, and what motors I use.

Interesting, there WAS a pond at the little science center where I launched those rockets. The compressed-air rockets that another group was launching were plopping down into it. I got a good laugh from the crowd when, when I mentioned the wind, I asked if anyone had a bathing suit with them.

Stefan @216

Alas, the one Forest Preserve field we're allowed to launch in in our county has a pond. Also a river, but it's small, and hard to hit. Not that people haven't managed it. It's the reeds and cattails around the river that are the real problem, because they get 10 feet tall.

We call the pond Lake Sumo, because innumerable small rockets have hit it, but also two different Sumos (4" diameter rockets that fly on a G (or an H, but we can't legally fly high power on that field)) three different times. Including mine. Fortunately, although largely cardboard, Sumos can survive a couple hours soaking with minimal damage, as we discovered when developing the Sumo Pond Rescue Procedure.

There's another rocket club most of an hour west that used to fly on a lovely big sod farm, but they got relocated to a much smaller sod field with (you guessed it) a river along one side when their former field got planted in corn. A rather larger river than our home field's; this one I wouldn't want to wade.

And there's yet another club an hour's drive north, but they're near cornfields.

So we take what we can get, and try to aim away from the pond.

It could be worse; there's no rocket launching in Cook County at all, except on private land, and good luck finding a large enough privately-owned field in Chicago. Their forest preserve district has some lovely fields, and the park district has better ones, but they're a complete no-go. Our club gets groups of scouts from the city coming to our launches all the time, because we're the closest available legal launch.

I've got some lovely chocolate cream pie left over from a Father's Day gathering. And I think there are some shortbread cookies, as well....

Older @ 208, Tom Whitmore @ 212

Wow. I've spent the last 45 years being the only person I know personally who has read The Palm Wine Drinkard, and now I find 2 in the same thread on the same day. I originally bought it when I was a theater major in college (didn't last, long story) and was fascinated by any dramatic work from non-English language (especially non-European) traditions. Now if only I knew which box I packed it in before the remodel ...

Bruce @218

Apparently some people complained about the weight of the paint on a Saturn V.

Aviation generally, saving a small amount on the weight of a component can reduce the total weight rather more, since it ripples through the structure and the aerodynamics.

That is, less structure needed to support the lighter component.

Less weight for the wing to lift, hence less drag in flight.

Less drag, meaning less fuel burnt.

Less fuel to carry, less weight...

Re presents. My husband once gave his sister a toilet for her birthday. (She and her husband were renovating a basement half-bath at the time.)

(referent, various, from the "person asks for suggestions" postings)

A year or two ago a total stranger in a supermarket asked me, "What am I having for dinner tonight?"

I blinked and said, "What?"

He replied, "I can;t decide what to get for supper tonight. So I'm asking you to choose for me...."

At Wiscon a couple years ago, I knew I would buy one of a particular jewelrymaker's things in the art show. I didn't know which one. I held the two frontrunners up to another woman and asked, "If you were me, which one would you choose?" Then she picked the wrong one, which meant there was a right one, and so I bought it and get compliments when I wear it.

Diatryma: When I have that sort of problem, I flip a coin. If it comes up wrong...

Piet Hein has a grook about that Axiom of Choice:

“Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No - not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping. ”
― Piet Hein

Copied from goodreads -- check out other grooks there.

Does the Brutal Knitting Particle make anyone else think of Jack Vance's "The Moon Moth"?

One of my daughter's "causes" is to educate people about the correct definition and use of the term "sperm donor."

Here's her PSA on the topic, taped, edited, and put on the web in about 90 minutes yesterday. I suspect these things write themselves in her brain long before she actually begins to "work" on them out in the world; certainly the way she talks about "needing" to make a movie is an indicator of Must Do Now! because all is in readiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh9r5M4QKUc&list=UUiI1Ndt7RGr9bTtSTrYnBjA&index=1&feature=plcp

Paula @222:

I haven't resorted to asking strangers what to eat, but I have developed a website that randomly suggests dinner for us when we can't decide. It's currently optimized for us, but it is being expanded for a general audience. I'm having fun researching restaurants!

Coming late to the party, as always: I had the Provensen Iliad and the Odyssey--I think I still have the innards (the covers long since fell away. When I read the Lattimore Iliad in 8th grade, the movie in my head was all full of those illustrations. Utterly gorgeous.

#7 in the "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Time" Particle:

A week (or a month) always begins and ends in the same year.

David Goldfarb @230: "A month" can refer either to the named month or to a period of time such as from X day in month A to X day in month B. I had to deal with what Customs called "the statistical month" which was all the forms that arrived in their processing office between (e.g.) 10 January and 9 February. That would be the statistical month of January (all in one year) but the statistical month of December wouldn't be.

Cassy, #200: I am torn between being very happy for you (and your husband!), and very sorry for his friend's wife, whose husband doesn't care enough about her as a person to pay attention to her likes and dislikes. That's a sad commentary on any relationship.

Paula, #222: That would be dangerous for someone to ask me. I'd suggest something I don't like!

And if any of the statements about timestamps seem unlikely to you, just take a moment to contemplate GPS software, which works by assuming that the timestamps it receives are shifted in time relative to each other by variable amounts and measuring those amounts.

Oh, and there's a mathematical theorem that proves that it is not possible to maintain a network of distributed clocks in synchrony from a master clock, and it didn't even need to consider what happens if any of the clocks is moving.

Whenever I read that essay about names, I'm reminded of a character in an old SF novel by the name of Herkimer Herkimer Herkimer IX. Good thing he never lived long enough to collect Social Security.

Job opening, reporting to me, open to folks working remotely. Teach, encourage, and lead volunteers in software testing to improve Wikimedia's sites (such as Wikipedia) and software. What I'd love is a skilled tester who enjoys teaching, open source, and online communities. Feel free to pass it on, of course.

Question for the fluorosphere.

Sunday's Mythbuster's episode looked at assorted Hollywood gun myths. At one point in the program, the build team timed how long it took four different automatic weapons to fire off one magazine. Interestingly it took all four about the same time--two seconds.

Is there any particular reason that the magazine of an automatic weapon would tend to hold about two seconds worth of ammunition?

Choosing: my stepmother taught it me this way: Make the decision. Decide to buy the dress/car/whatever, or decide not to. If, having made the decision, you feel great - done. If on the other hand you get a sinking feeling, then it was the wrong decision - so change your mind. You now feel good? Okay, you have your correct decision.

Or if you start to walk away from a one-off (piece of artwork or whatever) and get a feeling of "but someone else might buy it and I'd never see it again!", then you really want it.

Is there any particular reason that the magazine of an automatic weapon would tend to hold about two seconds worth of ammunition?

Not directly. It the indirect effect of two factors; the cycle time is limited by the bolt mass, and the magazine size is limited by ammo weight. Lighter ammunition can use a lighter bolt, and so you have more ammunition, and a faster cycle time.

Coming soon from HBO, "Game of Thrones - A Romantic Comedy"

dcb @236: Interesting in theory, but not necessarily good in practice.

When I bought my home, I was petrified for a good 48 hours after making the offer: What had I done?! Could I get out of it?

Similarly, when I began inseminations to conceive my daughter, the first time, total terror--what if it worked, what if it didn't, how on earth would I manage, what the heck was I thinking?

In both cases, I went on despite my doubts and fears. I'm still living in that home and the daughter is now 16. But I could easily have gone the other way on both decisions.

Choosing: I tend to dither for a while, driving myself (and often everyone around me) crazy. Then a decision just crystallizes. This is most common when buying something expensive and/or technical, such as my new e-reader. When ordering in a restaurant, I often don't know what I've decided until I open my mouth and something falls out. (When eating out with other people, it helps to be the last to order.)

Apparently my brother does the same thing.

Mary Aileen @240: but how can it fall out of your mouth before you've even ordered it? (channeling Serge...)

Tom Whitmore @ 241... I see that you know the drill.

Tom Whitmore (241): Wise guy, eh?

I meant of course that the order falls out of my mouth. But I'd already used 'order' too many times.

Some people like gumming up the works.

dcb at 236: works for me. Early this year I made (after a long time of considering) one of those long-term Very Serious life decisions. My life will change tremendously in about a year and a half.

I grinned all day. Whenever I think about it, I smile.

Yeah, it's right.

Melissa Singer @239: Okay, so it's not a perfect method/doesn't work for everyone/doesn't work all the time. But I've found it useful on several occasions. (Choosing to buy our house wasn't one of them - we sat in our car after first viewing, tentatively each asked the other's opinion and discovered that each of us was scared the other hadn't liked it so much!)

Serge Broom #242/Tom Whitmore #241: That time travel protocol needs to be suspended in restaurants. It really makes it hard to taste the food.

Because I can't remember where we were discussing the use of "tutoyer", I'm posting this gem here:

ha, lovely new word found today: dudoyer "to address someone as 'Dude'"

I've just learned (by reading about "Tuckerization") that there is a Wikipedia page for Patrick Neilsen Hayden.

It redirects to the Wikipedia page for Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

Those Wikipedians are pretty clever.

This makes me want to look at the "what links here" and "External tools/show redirects only" for some other people.

Sure enough, J.R.R. Tolkein gets a redirect.

Another fantasy author is blessed with an abundance of such links:

Nail gaiman
Neal Gaiman
Neal Gamain
Neil Gaimon
Neil Gaman
Neil Gayman
Neil gaiman
Niel Gaiman

Oddly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niel_Gaiman does not appear on this list, yet it redirects nicely to the genuine page. So perhaps there is something I do not yet understand about this process.

I should go back to "Tuckerization" and fix the misspelling of Patrick's name.

(Betcha this entry gets gnomed.)

As I'd anticipated.

Mary Eileen @243: I don't think that fixes it....

I'm reminded of the time Quinn Yarbro tried to copy-edit a sentence in one of her books which ran something like "He picked up the hunks of meat in his fingers and gnawed hungrily at the steaming joints." Once that sentence has been read incorrectly, it's difficult to come up with a version that reads properly.

Tom Whitmore (251): "...until I hear the words fall out of my mouth"?

It would probably be better to recast the sentence: "...until I open my mouth and blurt something out." Or something like that.

Those work!

Well, it appears that I'm going to be migrating to Firefox v12.0 whether I wanted to or not; it popped up one of those infernal nag-boxes just as I was hitting the Enter key to insert a blank line into some text, so the next time I have to do a system reboot it will install the update. Is there anything I should know about this before it happens? Will it change my interface, or erase my bookmarks, or anything nasty like that?

Probably due to a Word of Power.

Lee (254): Can you copy your bookmarks to a flash drive or something before you reboot, just in case?

Every time I've updated Firefox, bookmarks transferred just fine. But I think I'm still on version 5.

Lee@254: My Firefox just updated itself today from 12.0 to 13.0.1. I've been on the rapid-update bus since last summer and have found them to be without trauma.

Notwithstanding my extreme annoyance at Firefox for distorting the meaning of version numbering out of all recognition. These are incremental updates, not new versions.

Melissa 227: I'm not sure how I feel about this.

There's nothing wrong with being a tap dancer. But when you call a politician a tap dancer, you're saying that s/he evades questions s/he should be answering and so forth; no insult to actual tap dancers is intended or (probably) inferred by tap dancers themselves.

On the other hand, we've had conversations here about calling things "fiction" when in fact they are lies.

Then again...if someone's job is to stamp papers with a rubber stamp (or an adjustable one with the date received), there's nothing wrong with that; but if they were supposed to vet those papers and make sure everything in them was correct, and instead just stamped them and passed them through...then there IS something wrong, and calling them out as a "rubber stamper" is an insult to them...but not, IMO, to the person with the more limited role.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't feel that pointing out that someone who was expected to fulfill a complex and important role has failed to do so, and only fulfilled a simpler or more limited role is an insult to someone who by design and expectation has fulfilled the more limited role.

On the other hand, there's a real person out there (your daughter) who is obviously quite upset about this use of the term, and that inclines me to proceed with caution at the very least. Also, I can imagine a sperm donor saying "now wait a minute, I was a sperm donor in college, and I did exactly what was expected of me; your father wasn't a sperm donor, he was a failed father."

Obviously my thoughts on this are far from settled. My goal is to hear more on this and come to a conclusion that will let me decide what to do (though I'm probably going to be careful how I use the phrase in the future in any case).

The link with the pics of the South African couple keeping a tiger in their LIVING ROOM what the HELL had me unconsciously leaning further and further away from the monitor. Anybody want to take a bet on which person or dog will get mauled first?

And even if it never hurts any of them, how much is life in that house shaped by the need not to tick the tiger off? Look at the photo of the man of the house eating his breakfast on the tiny patch of kitchen counter left to him by the lounging tiger. If the tiger decides he wants the whole counter, what happens then?

"Where does a 400-lb tiger sleep?" I guess they know. (27 stone multiplies out to about 400 lbs -- more than 1/3 of the mammalian biomass in the house, I'd wager...)

Lee @248: "dudoyer"!! Dude, I am so gonna use that. Thanks!

The video that I want to see is 400 lbs of big cat vs the physics of claws on a marble floor.

Cause I know what it looks like when 8 lbs of feline comes tearing down the stairs into my office, slams on the brakes, and then bodyslams the sliding glass door.

Jenny Islander #259: When I read that story, my second thought was "Why do these people have such an urgent need to become lunch?"

Tom Whitmore #260: 27 stone is 378 lbs (having weighed that myself in recent memory, that number is graven in my mind).

#263: Your bathroom scale is graduated in stones?

262
I haven't seen that, but I've seen twelve pounds of cat leap onto a table that had newspaper on top of it. I seem to recall that the claws didn't do serious damage to the table. And the cat was much more cautious about leaping onto surfaces it couldn't actually see.

Falsehoods song writers believe about time:

time is always slipping into the future

time is on my side

time is a river and it keeps on flowing nowhere

time was when love and I were well acquainted

Ardala is a ninja. We left her new butt harness on her while we went to work. It's neoprene, has velcro and is impossible for one person to put on her at the moment, due to her weird hip twistedness. We loosened it a little so as not to cut off her tummy circulation and velcro-ed it closed. Then we gave her the traditional peanutbutter kong and closed up her X-pen. When I came home at lunch to walk her, she was in the exact same position I left her in - except the harness was no longer on her butt, and instead in front of her face, next to her empty kong. It was still velcro-ed shut. I don't know how she did this, but I'm going to reiterate my disbelief that this is a herniated or slipped disc.

Lee @232:

The idea of "your wife is a woman, therefore a gift for her will work for my wife" is dubious, but if it's "I can never think of gifts/we have most of what we need already, please make a suggestion," I can entirely understand. I can almost never think of what I would like for my birthday, and I think I know myself pretty well. But at some point either it's ridiculously extravagant (since my current finances are such that I can buy a lot of practical things, including a new winter coat if I need it, or any one hardcover book I want) or is basically a research project: e.g., I could ask for "a pair of warm slippers, in my size, that has some arch support." I did ask for that. After several weeks my beloved gave up, because he hadn't been able to find them either.

Xopher @258: trying not to be ranty here, though obviously this is a subject of substantial importance to me.

Part of the problem is that using the term in a derogatory way may dissuade people from donating. Also, it is a gender-specific slur--you never hear a mother who abandons her duties referred to as an "egg donor."

Part of the problem is that kids like mine, who are upfront about being conceived by donor sperm, constantly run into people who say, "oh, you mean your father abandoned you and your mother" when they say, "I have a sperm donor, not a dad." Well, no, not at all, not in any way.

Plus some of the DI-conceived teens who are the children of single mothers feel that this is also a slur on their _mothers_--as women who could not "hold onto a man" rather than women who chose to have children without being partnered (whether the women are straight, gay, or something in between).

Additionally, this kind of disparagement may contribute to the unwillingness of partnered parents who used donor sperm (because of male factor infertility) to tell their children that they were conceived by donor insemination. The majority of male-female partnerships who use donor sperm do not disclose that to their children, partially because of the male's reluctance to reveal and partially because "sperm donor" has increasingly been used as a derogatory term.

And not telling a child about her or his antecedents is, I think, a really bad decision. Children have a right to know their genetic heritage, medical information about their biologically-connected relatives, etc.

/end rant/

Stefan Jones #264: My bathroom scale is digital. It has three settings, pounds, kilograms, and stones/pounds.

Melissa, #269: Datapoint -- I have heard abusive and unfit mothers called "egg donors" by their traumatized children, although it is not as frequently used as the other term.

Your daughter does have a valid point, and I will keep that in mind in the future.

AKICIML

Can anyone recommend a particular translation of Don Quixote into English, for reading for enjoyment?

Xopher HalfTongue @258: I guess what I'm saying is that I don't feel that pointing out that someone who was expected to fulfill a complex and important role has failed to do so, and only fulfilled a simpler or more limited role is an insult to someone who by design and expectation has fulfilled the more limited role.

...actually, when you put it that way, I think that explains pretty well why it's inappropriate.

A sperm donor goes through a vetting process, and signs an awful lot of paperwork, and, with the help of professionals, is never presented as anything other than a person filling that specific and limited role. An absentee father has, in fact, failed to meet the standards of a good sperm donor, by not going through that process. So calling absentee fathers "sperm donors" is an insult to sperm donors, who did take all the legal and ethical steps required to make the terms of their involvement with the mother clear.

Fade @273:

There are a couple of further complications to the sperm donor thing, of course.

They're paid for their donations, by the banks, not the women/couples who use the sperm. Even those who give altruistic answers to the why did you donate questions on the banks' questionnaires are paid for their work.

Also, there is a new(ish) category of donors known as "willing to be known" or "ID release" donors--men who have agreed to keep their contact information up to date with the bank and who have agreed to allow that information and their names to be disclosed to their offspring when the children turn 18. This is not a promise of any kind of relationship, just a promise to be reachable. It's too soon to know how well this will work out; most of the children conceived with ID release donors are just barely reaching their majority.

(I know a lot about this because I'm so active in the Single Mothers by Choice community; if anyone has any questions related to donation of sperm/eggs or to SMCs, I'm happy to answer. My own SMChood is of the least-complicated variety: anonymous donor insemination in my mid-30s with no other medical stuff required. But in my 16+ years as a member of the SMC community and my 5+ years as a community moderator, I've learned much.)

Melissa Singer @274:

Oh, yes, I'm simplifying enormously. Sorry about that. My point was more that "sperm donor" involves a lot of responsibilities--arranging matters legally with the help of an overseeing organization and what not--which absentee fathers clearly haven't done.

Book-title bleg: a young woman goes to the big sophisticated planet to study, basically, psychohistory; final class project is on a planet that doesn't know about the interstellar civilization, where they are to forestall war. There's also a chapter with a grounded human-powered spaceship and 'max safe mean input.' Someone may be called the Ancestral Cad. It reminded me of _Mirabile_, but that isn't it.

Melissa, Fade, that all makes a lot of sense. Thanks. I'll watch that from now on (not that I used it in my own case...my own dad had his faults but not taking care of his family was emphatically not one of them).

Sounds like that might possibly be _Unwillingly to Earth_ by Pauline Ashwell?

In the beginning, she's one of the few non-miners on a mining colony planet and starts to reshape a "frontier town" society more or less by accident; her meddling (and instinctive talent) comes to the attention of an expert and she's more or less forcibly shipped off to university via scholarship.

In my #260, I should have said "usually because of male factor infertility." There folks who choose donor sperm because because of genetic risk factors.

Incoherent, thank you, that's it!

Jenny Islander @259: The thought that depresses me is: what happens to the tiger when things go sideways? I mean, it could be argued that the fate of the humans is simple Darwinian selection in action. I hope South Africa has the equivalent of this place.

Interesting trademark takedown letter sent to Ravelry by the US Olympic Committee. (If you're on Ravelry, it can be seen here; if you're not, it shows up on the RSS feed for that forum, at least temporarily.)

Personally, I'm not surprised by the trademark side of things; I am, however, insulted by this part:

"We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work."

The games on Ravelry involve people deciding on a personal challenge and then trying to succeed at that challenge during the time frame of the Olympics. I fail to see how knitting or crochet or weaving or spinning yarn are disrespectful to athletes.

I suspect for mention certain athletic games originating in Greece.

I don't have cookies, but I do have homemade ginger peach ice cream to share...

[Excellent ice cream. Thank you. It's so good that I hesitate to mention that it wasn't so much the athletic games themselves as the very long-distance race that forms part of them that brought you to our humble gathering. — Lignia Obscura du Noir, Duty Gnome]

I call it !Thermopylae.

Naomi, didn't you know that athletics are the most important thing humans do, and any comparison drawn between them and anything else is insulting to our very humanity?!?!

Yeah, me neither.

Xopher @284 me neither.

It's funny how I happen to be a human being without engaging in any athletics, isn't it? And yet, making articles of clothing from fiber, a human activity which goes back for millennia, is somehow less worthy.

Beats me. (I wonder if the law clerk who wrote that letter had had tacky handcrafts inflicted upon him by a family member at some point?)

@282: I do hope Ravelry is able to invite the USOC to take a flying fsck at a rolling donut....

quoted in #282: "We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work."

You can believe that. But you would be wrong.

I am shocked -- shocked! -- that there is gnoming taking place in this establishment!

Jacque @286: The one that gets me is they also requested name changes and trademark removals from all the Olympics-themed projects and patterns on Ravelry -- the ones where people made a chart to knit rings on a white hat with a year, the ones that have, say, an outline of a swimmer and a year, the ones that are tributes to/inspired by individual Olympic athletes and say so ...

Would be nice, Jacque, but they have a long history of winning some rather ridiculous lawsuits. There's a reason why the Gay Games stopped being called the Gay Olympics (they were formed when being gay was enough by itself to get you kicked out of Olympic competition, and there are still some people who want Greg Louganis' medals taken away from him).

As both a sometime athlete and a sometime fiber-crafter, I suspect the real issue here is Things That Make Big Piles of Corporate Money vs. Things that Don't. With a side order of Girl Cooties. (Yes, I know there are male fiber crafters and female Olympic athletes, but the shenanigans surrounding, e.g., women's ski jumping and uniforms for female wrestlers from Muslim countries suggests to me that some folks feel the Olympics are a boys' club that has to let dumb girls in.)

In other annoyances, I heard an NPR reporter, in an otherwise formal report, refer to something as "ginormous."

What did we fight and bleed for, lawn, cane, muttering.

I'm glad that Seattle didn't get the olympics when they were pondering trying for them. It would have been something of a nightmare with the trademark issues, since we have a quite well established mountain range by that name which would have been infringing.

Open threadiness: Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria? If you want to skip the math, go straight to section 4 for the punchline.

If you want to skip section 4, the punchline given is that it's a feature, not a bug, for email scammers to look a bit dodgy: it cuts down on the number of marks who waste the scammers' time by getting part way through the process and then drop out. (There's more in the paper, but that's the answer to the title question.)

This may be of interest to the Fluorosphere: A certain Ursula Le Guin, who seems to know whereof she speaks, on "Literature v. Genre", Episode the 12,133rd.

Yes, the 'Olympic games' are very protective of their first name, to the point where they cross over into something that might call for being turned into a pinata. I remember they went after a taqueria in Los Angeles because it was named Olympic - but it was named for the street it was on, and wasn't infringing on their Sacred Name at all.

I got yer Cracker Jack and cold beer here, O gnomes!

Risking more gnomulation, Le Guin's essay was in response to an article in the current New Yorker. Lev Grossman has also responded to the New Yorker article here.

Re: gnomulation. If we were to ROT13 everything, we would reduce the odds of matching a 'word of power'.

And then anything posted in plaintext could automatically be assumed spam.

Open threadiness: A wonderfully opaque headline in the Otago Daily Times today: Student fires damaged seal. It displaces my previous NZ Herald favorite English fears high kiwi drag

Definitely possibilities for an art form here.

Spoilers: damaged seal: Fgerrg sverf, yvg ol tenqhngvat fghqragf, unir zrygrq cneg bs gur frnyvat ynlre ba gur ebnqf.

high kiwi drag: Gur Svanapr Zvavfgre, Ovyy Ratyvfu, vf pbaprearq gung gur uvtu inyhr bs gur AM qbyyne pbhyq fybj rpbabzvp tebjgu

thomas@300: Language Log has an ongoing catalog of "crash blossoms". These are typically headlines that are not merely opaque, but opaque in such a way that you can't even determine the grammatical structure reliably; the prototype was a headline that read "Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms". Searching for "crash blossom" on Language Log will turn up lots of other remarkable examples.

(At the risk of giving the gnomes extra work with too many links, here's a New York Times column by Ben Zimmer about the phenomenon; Zimmer is also a regular on Language Log.)

thomas @300 and David Wald @301 I love these. Thanks for the laugh.

The NYT article David linked to had this thread-crossing gem: “McDonald’s Fries the Holy Grail for Potato Farmers.”

In connection with Jim's Existentialist Cat Diffraction: A third video, wherein Henri and his ennui have a medical examination is now up at Youtube. Here's a link to the second video as well.

As for the quality of Henri's French--well, either you're willing to overlook it for the sake of the fun, or you're willing to accept that as all cats are perfect, it follows that Henri's French is perfect, since he is a cat, or you're missing the point.

SamChevre #272: I'd recommend the Cohen translation.

If you're interested in reading it in the original, the edition I read was the Ríquer. He also edited the Tirant lo Blanc.*

Hyperlocal statement of personal interest: The Second Part of the Quijote is dedicated to the Count of Lemos, my ancestor.

Combining comment 276 with the 'sperm donor' subthread, The Ancestral Cad seems like a good name for the father we don't want to refer to as a sperm donor.

Fathers who walk away from their responsibilities: someone I know used the phrase "their worthless biodad" to mean someone who seems to have done almost nothing for his children after being involved in their conception. (This person was describing a friend's situation, not their own.)

Open Thready day brightener:

(Where the Hell is) Matt Harding has a new dance video.

I brought cucumber sandwiches! (Honest, I was just trying to point to Matt Harding's new v*deo.)

Flood pictures from Duluth.
The bridges hanging suspended in midair after their support has been washed away are... disturbing.

That’s it. Ardala is now just fucking with us. I get home to walk her this afternoon and can’t find her; turns out she has removed the courtesy sheet I wrapped around her bed-bolster, made a nest, and is now sleeping comfortably between the back of her super-expensive memoryfoam bed and her x-pen wall. Yesterday I had to “chase” her with her harness while she did her one-butt-cheek waddle remarkably fast toward her wagon – not the front door. Nope. She stopped at her wagon. I’m beginning to think she’s faking her lameness so that she can continue to enjoy being lifted, carted around on her royal doggie sedan chair and walked on her exciting crotchless neoprene speedo. If she thinks I don’t recognize drug-seeking behavior when I see it and that I’m going to up her dose of narcotics, she’s got another thing coming.

@310: "Hey, check this out! Look what I've trained my humans to do!"

I am reminded the corgis, border collies and other herding dogs do not make good service dogs because they "get their own ideas" and sometimes try and do things their own way.

At our Physical Therapy appointment the vet asked what Ardala's job was in the house. We told her Ardala's job was to accept petting. I think this weekend I'll change her occupation to "trickster god".

The Duluth Zoo has been devastated. The polar bear and seals made it out okay but the other animals not so well.

The flooding there yesterday and today is severe.

Here's something for smulp fans.

One of my friends elseNet has summed up the USOC/Ravelry kerfluffle thusly:

US OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: My lawyers have just discovered you gave away a pin called "Ravelympics".

RAVELRY (an international community for knitters and crocheters): Not anymore, you asked us not to.

USOC: Yeah, only now we've taken a really good look at your site and we're about to put our bitch boots on.

RAV: WTF? We took the pin down.

USOC: Three times now you've had this thing called Ravelympics and it coincides with the Olympics.

RAV: That would be the point, yes.

USOC: TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT, TRIPLED!

RAV: Or at least squared; this is the second time we've dealt with you. Mind you, that there is a second time ought to be a hint that someone has a poker lodged somewhere inappropriate.

USOC: Thou Shalt Knock It The Hell Off.

RAV: Ravelry Games? Will you get heartburn over Ravelry Games.

USOC: We'd like to, but our lawyer says we can't copyright that. Also, remove all these patterns with rings on them.

RAV: Okay, we'll remove trademark infringement patterns, but you do realize that at least one of those isn't a pattern, it's someone just posting a picture of something they did?

USOC: Don't care. It goes. We will protect our copyright and the dignity of our games. Your whole concept is denigrating to the games and disrespectful of the athletes.

RAVELRY: YOU SAID WHAT NOW? OH IT! IS! FUCKING! ON!

USOC: WOW, there are a shitload of people pissed at us. Let's issue an apology. It was standard boilerplate, honest! Send us knitted stuff? That would be cool?

RAVELRY: "Denigrate" is in all your C&D letters? NOT. FUCKING. GOOD. ENOUGH. APOLOGY.

USOC: Whoa, fuck, you're still piling on. We have to protect our trademark, but yeah, bad wording. Really really bad wording. Really really not what you're all about. Honestly, we're sorry. Please don't hurt us with all those pointy sticks.

Knitters are like filkers -- never piss them off.

A longish post with 1 link and a bunch of Bad Language.

["WOW" (all caps) meaning "World Of Warcraft" and turns up in spam All The Friggin' Time. -- Marcellus Pittipani, Duty Gnome]

Funny...I was just looking up Gary Brolsma's last name because it had slipped my mind, and here's Matt Harding a day or two later with a new video.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first: was Harding just going to be retreading the same ground (as Brolsma did with his "New Numa")? But no, he does in fact take things in some new directions. This new video isn't as magical as the 2008 one, but I suspect it's just not possible to capture that sort of lightning in a bottle more than once -- and if not as magical, it's still fun.

I recognized the Houston location, although not the Oakland one.

David @ 317

I got a real kick out of the 2012 version. It had a playful element that felt like a natural evolution.

Am I the only one who thinks there's an interesting story-quality to the progression of the three videos? It's not exactly narrative, but it has a nice build, I think. It makes me think interesting questions.

Couldn't posters with an established history be 'white listed' and have their comments passed through before the spam filters are run?

It would save a lot of false positives, and corrective measures could still be applied if one were to take a turn to the dark side.

Rob @319:

Believe me, if Movable Type had such an option, we'd be using it.

Really, we're not doing this level of filtering for fun, or to inconvenience the commentariat, or because we've not investigated the various plugins that we could be using.

Regarding Jim's diffraction about the London Olympic committee denying knitters/crafters the right to give the Olympians their handmade gifts....

The USOC, who sent an insulting cease and desist order to Ravelry.com, got their heads handed to them by the Facebookers.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/knitting-community-outraged-over-olympic-dig-usoc-apologizes-211254677--oly.html.

Is it too radical of me to suggest that the knitters in Great Britain yarn bomb the Olympics? I'd be afraid the knitters would get arrested. I guess I'll have to see how bad the media makes the LOCOG look. Not to mention public feedback via the social network.

My previous post just got gnomed. Should I be elated or concerned?

Couldn't posters with an established history be 'white listed' and have their comments passed through before the spam filters are run?

If there's a way to do this with the Moveable Type backend, it's obscure to me.

There is a "trust commenter" checkbox, which I have been using, but so far it seems to have no effect.

Content warning: Trayvon Martin case

This one's for Terry Karney:

A link to the interoggation of George Zimmerman, via Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Victoria (321): For the Atlanta Olympics, quilters in Georgia made a series of (absolutely gorgeous) quilts to honor the athletes. Two quilts per country: one to the flagbearer and one to the committee.

I am enraptured by the sentence: "He was convicted of obtaining oats by false pretence."

I now desperately want to create a random Victorian crime generator, but lack the skills entirely.

Victoria @321:
Some of them did.

heresiarch #326:

Misread as "obtaining cats by false pretence."

An early moment of import in Speculative Fiction.

joann @ 328: "Misread as "obtaining cats by false pretence.""

Hee! The random Victorian crime generator is so powerful its randomizing precedes its origin.

Subject is accused of (obtaining|misprision|removal|theft) of (dogs|cats|oats|door nails) by (fraud|force|false pretense|night|subterfuge). Sentenced to (two|three|five) (weeks|months|years) hard labour. Next case!

I've started getting active on Everyblock for my immediate neighborhood, and I spotted some really Fluorospherian facetiousness (and participated), in this thread. The initial post is asking if anyone knows what a suddenly-appeared crane in a particular parking lot is likely to be there to work on, and after some simple, straightforward responses, veered off into these beauties, among others:

Poster A: Wonder if it will lay eggs? Honestly, I wonder if that was what may have made our building shake this morning -- twice. Maybe it flew onto our roof.

Poster B, in response to A: Don't tell my girlfriend it was the crane. I told her "It's always that way with me, baby...."

Killjoy (paraphrased): Why are we still going nuts about this? It's a stupid question, and it was answered!

Community members (paraphrased): Oh, come on, they're FUNNY!

And then my new favorite poster over there, who I'm starting to love more than a little, posts this:

Poster C: Oh Sure. JUST a crane in a parking lot. Until it's two cranes, then three, then a dozen. It's a slippery slope! Do not be lulled into a false sense of security. These cranes aren't good neighbors. The noise. You won't believe the noise they make. It's bad enough to have to hear one of them, let alone a dozen, but it's gonna happen. Summer is their breeding season and that lot is perfect for them. Just wait until they start doing their noisy courting dances. Then, once the eggs are laid, the males will get very territorial. And, have you seen how big they poop?

Having him show up in threads almost makes up for the knee-jerk, predictable "TAXES BAAAAD! City govt WAAAASTEFULL! Neighbor SMAAAAASH!" stuff I have to scroll past.

As Scalzi would say, "Random Victorian Crime Generator" is the name of my next band.

For the intersection of those who haven't seen it and those who would care: today's Google Doodle is a cute little Turing machine puzzle (thereby supporting the Church-Turing Thesis: even silly pictures are equivalent to other models of computation when supplied with enough tape).

Presumably someone took exception to the link. I haven't started cooking yet, but there should be some savory fish pies later today if the gnomes would find them acceptable.

Happy birthday, Alan Turing.

John A Arkansawyer @ 329: Thank you for An early moment of import in Speculative Fiction - it explains so much!

Elliott Mason @ 332: Everyblock looks interesting.

Everyblock hasn't reached Honolulu yet. Drat.

Hyperlocal news... This afternoon Man went to Alamosa Books, where James S.A. Corey was autographing "Caliban's War", Book Two in the "Expanse" series that began with "Leviathan Wakes", one of this year's Hugo nominees. The two-headed author answered questions from the audience, in the course of which the Daniel Abraham half announced that local man will appear in Book Three as the commander of a big military ship. The Ty Franck half, when he autographed "Caliban", added the inscription "Sorry about what happens to you in the second book...", but the Daniel half then said that the doomed fate of man's tuckerized self's was no reflection of how either of them feels about him.

HLN--

Local woman receives call from her younger sister that the sister got a reverse 911 call to prepare for pre-evacuation. The sister lives a couple of miles away from the bumpteenth wildfire burning out of control here in Colorado.

The fire would have to jump an eight lane highway to reach my sister's house. But these wildfires have jumped rivers.

The good news is that my sister only has six or seven deep scratches from trying to wrangle Fred the killer cat into his carrier, none of them deep enough to need stitches.

It hit 104 degrees here today. Driest March on record (and March is our snowiest month). And it's only a couple of days into summer.

Gonna be a long one. All we need is a good earthquake and I'll feel like I never moved home to Colorado from good old Califor-NI-yay.

Wow. Le Guin's done it again. A modest proposal that all fiction is literature, and literature consists of many genres.

"If critics and teachers gave up insisting that one kind of literature is the only one worth reading, it would free up a lot of time for them to think about the different things novels do and how they do it, and above all, to consider why certain individual books in every genre are, have been for centuries, and will continue to be more worth reading than most of the others."

Go read the whole article. If it could have been said as well in fewer words, she would have.

But then, who wouldn't?

HLN: Area man has job interview tomorrow morning so has spent the last hour catching up on the Open Thread. "I liked the random Victorian crimes," he said, "It reminded me of when I went to the Port Arthur convict colony and was dealt a card that represented a convict I could follow around the museum. Mine was a horse thief."

Also: abi @83 ...The Browser Whose Name is a Cry of Pain. - I'm now hearing Conan saying "Chrome".

Tom Whitmore at #341, Ahem.

One hopes your link posting will garner more attention than mine did. ;)

Linkmeister @344, I remembered that someone had posted the LeGuin link before Tom Whitmore did but hadn't yet taken the time to go back and identify who so I could point it out. Thanks for saving me that little chore.

I read it and enjoyed it when you first posted it, but didn't have anything to say, so didn't comment. I think posted comments don't begin to show the ripples of impact that things said here on ML often have.

Ah, Linkmeister! Good job catching the article, but I didn't find quite enough info in your comment to lead me to click through to the Le Guin. Don't worry, that often happens to my comments here (the idea gets brought up many posts later, gets credited to the later poster, and sometimes even takes off...).

Favorite headline:

Good people food for dogs

Another falsehood about time:

The Dawn of Time is Jan. 1, 1970

I am typing this on an iPod And it's like riding an elevator on roller skates.

I watched and thoroughly enjoyed Brave this morning. It is beautiful to see, the story moves along quite nicely, it is very funny in spots, fairly scary in others, and moving when it needs to be.

The best character is the Queen, after a certain transformation. Seeing her attempt something like Charades with certain physical disadvantages provides some of the funniest bits in the movie.

Note: Repeat to yourself "This is a fable set in non-specific country where the people happen to sound Scottish but aren't" and you'll save yourself lots of misery.

Tom Whitmore @ #346: "but I didn't find quite enough info in your comment to lead me to click through"

Grins. Let that be a lesson to me.

I just now noticed in Abi's Parhelia that it's Prada Sticks Some Gears On It rather than Pravda Sticks Some Gears On It.

This whole time I was wondering why a Soviet newspaper was running a men's fashion section and whether this was what the New Russians were wearing in Moscow.

Just imagining Yuri Andropov in some of those rigs made me ... well, I thought that the world would have been a better place.

Soviet Steampunk WWII would be an amazing setting for something, but I have no idea what. Cyborged punishment battalions would almost certainly be part of it. "My arms were weak; they took them, and gave me these engines of destruction in their place, that I may serve the People!"

Somebody HAS to have done that already, right?

Erik Nelson #347
I am typing this on an iPod And it's like riding an elevator on roller skates.

And you need little teeny hands for reading little teeny print.

Annals of "How could this possibly have looked like a good idea?"

Merck has been using Madagascar 3 to do marketing tie-ins for the children's version of an allergy medication that the gnomes are probably sensitive to. Ticket give-aways, branded labelling, astroturfing via a "Moms Crew", branded 'viewing parties'.

mfgates #351 Somebody HAS to have done that already, right?

The Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service? (more or less)

Nil W @ 343... Area man has job interview tomorrow morning

I hope it went well.

Did you know that today is the 30th anniversary of the premiere of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner", and of John Carpenter's "The Thing"?

thomas @352: And you need little teeny hands for reading little teeny print.

Like you need teeny license plates for bees.

Well, good thing I brought home-baked chocolate chip cookies.

Wow. That was fast.

THe US Forest Service maintains a fire incident website. There are lots of useful announcements and updates,if you think you may have a serious Need to Know (and I hope you don't, but still, it's good to have).

They are set up for RSS and Twitter feeds, it appears.

I've got some iced tea right here.

# 353 Annals of "How could this possibly have looked like a good idea?"

They wanted to do a marketing tie-in with Pandemic (Madagascar closes its port!) but someone made a simple, understandable mistake?

#357 ::: Jacque [...]

Like you need teeny license plates for bees.

Wow, talk about pile-ups, much less traffic jams - I gave up trying to determine the potential rear-enders.

Science for Princesses.

Summary: It doesn't help much if we say that okay, girls can do science, but girly girls can't. What's wrong with liking both science AND fashion?

Watched "Captain America" for the first time last night, and I find myself wondering if Agent Carter ended up marrying Howard Stark...since Stark didn't bother to try to find Cap once he had the Tesseract...

And why do I get the feeling that Stark didn't tell the US Government he'd found it?

Paging Jacque!

Check your email, if you haven't recently. A blue-haired person is trying to make contact, now that the school year is over.

Lori@365: Well, as of The Avengers, the government has it.

(Not a spoiler -- we see it within the first five minutes.)

I just saw Captain America last night too (for the first time) and I'm not convinced that Stark stopped looking once he found the tesseract. He tells the guy to go on to the next set of coordinates, after all.

My impression was that the plane went on for some amount of time after the cube fell through the floor, so that it wound up crashing "not close enough" for Stark to have found it before the government called him off. There was, after all, a pretty long goodbye scene between Steve and Carter.

My teen, watching with me, wondered if the cube was what gave Stark part of the idea for the Arc Reactor, and we both really liked seeing early repulsor technology on the car.

Part of my mind expected Tommy Lee Jones to get out of the car in Times Square at the end, probably because I saw Men In Black 3 so recently.

Melissa Singer @366: Contact made, plots & schemes afoot. Blue hair approved! :)

"Bluing" used to be dumped in laundry rinse water to counteract the yellowish tinge from the body oils and grime that lye-based homemade soap eventually poohed out on (long before detergents/phosphates). Many old gals figured if it worked for their linens and "aperns" it'd work on their hair, too.

Susan Crites got me past that one, but there doesn't seem any common ground between the forty-year-apart extremes.

You can search "Mrs. Stewart's Concentrated Liquid Bluing" for more info - that's the brand my Nana used (in her washtubs). I don't have anything on hand to offer the gnomes so am attempting to sneak around them.

Catching up on Open-Threadiness...

nerdycellist @ 310, ***reader laughs until tears fill eyes*** and is glad there appears to be improvement in Ardala's condition, even if she's not exactly using Her Powers For Good right now. :)

Jacque @ 311, ***head essplodes of the funny***

Elliott Mason @ 332, ditto.

Gee, weren't the gnomes busy! I hope they're all happily fed and beveraged now!

I once, deliberately, but a new blue T-shirt in with a load of whites. The very light blue tinge did "brighten" my old undershirts and tighty-whities.

Carol @370: No, I mean *blue* as in Ramona Flowers, Manic Panic, screamingly bright blue (faded a bit toward turquoise after 6 weeks now).

I should perhaps mention that the hair (and head) in question belongs to a 16-yo, not to me.

Yes, I was referring to my massive cognitive dissonance between my previous concept of "blue-haired woman" and what was fairly obvious was your daughter.

Here's Susan Crites.

Oh, hello. I'm back from the other thread that I mistakenly bookmarked as an OT and kept checking and checking, astonished at the lack of activity. B'deah, b'deah, b'deah...

Anyway, posting just that would be silly, so I'll pass along one of my tips for better living: When you cut up a credit card, snip out and save your first name (or other appropriate portion) to use as a nifty vanity plate on a toy car of a certain size. That's if your first name is short, like mine, I guess.

ps: Sidelights: "Constintuencies" (when viewed in Google Reader as the title of the post). Since it's correct on your front page, I'm guessing that you fixed it, but such fixes don't get picked up by Google. Anyway, it made me curious enough to mention it in hopes of an explanation.

Carol: Sorry!

Plenty of the other kind of blue-hair still around, at least in my part of NYC, though older Russian women seem to all go a fairly obviously artificial pinkish shade, at least while they still have some dark hair to work with.

I wonder if blue would work for my beard. It's in a way more advanced white state than the rest of my hair.

AKIML: Is there a real risk associated with children, sleepwear, and fires? I'm trying to figure out some plausible risk other than cigarettes (which is not an issue in this house), and I'm just not getting anywhere. Most fire sources are going to be less prevalent in bed, and I don't see pjs being helpful in a 'shield them from fire as they're escaping'.

Eric@378: Little girls wearing long, flowing nightgowns in close proximity to open-flame gas heaters, fireplaces, and candles.

Eric @ 378: is there some context for this question? For instance, my husband found one of our onesies had this rather peculiar tag (I hope that link works for non-facebook-friends, if not, I'll describe it) which led us to many questions. But all the warnings specific to sleepwear I know are about not using loose blankets, extra sheets, or bumpers due to suffocation hazard. Nothing about fire.

As I understand it, it's not so much direct flame as flying embers that are the risk factor being considered; most clothing these days is made of polyester, which at a relatively low temperature will melt — and worse, molten polyester is sticky, so you have a glob of hot goop sticking to the skin and causing a severe burn (and trying to scrape it off will just spread it and make things worse).

Treated polyester resists embers; natural fiber will burn away while minimally involving the skin.

Stefan, #372: I once had a very pretty Celtic-design T-shirt which was printed on ash-grey, which is not a color I really like. So I deliberately threw it into a wash load with a burgundy gauze top that I knew was highly likely to fade. I also added some white underwear (because I wanted pink), and the rest of the load was black jeans and T-shirts. My amateur dyeing attempt came out very well indeed; the underwear was just the right shade of pink, and the T-shirt turned a pretty rose heather. I was insufferably pleased with myself. :-)

GlendaP: Ok, I can see that. But it doesn't explain why sleepwear, and not playwear or dress-up stuff. Nor does it explain boys, which is an unstated qualification, as I have 3 of them. Then again, I'm not sure anything really explains boys.

Lenora Rose: Context would help, I guess. Boy # the oldest is on the spectrum, aspie like is the easiest way to explain it. He's sensitive to clothes textures and tags and fit and such. Polyester is not acceptable, and tight cotton gets pulled up and stretched out, and then portions end up getting shredded (knees, elbows, cuffs, crotch). Upcycled flannel is ok when made to measure, but the seams get destroyed with stunning speed and then they all end up in a pile beside the sewing machine for repairs. His Hannah Andersen ones (initially tight cotton) had a long and stretched out life, but we're not really into multiple $40 sets of jammies at the accelerating rate of destruction.

That tag is golden. I wonder what happened to the previous one.

geekosaur: I'm reminded of Snowcrash, with the little crips jammies that were either flame resistant or non-carcinogenic, but not both. Melted, sticky, hot goo is a significant drawback.

Eric @ 383 - re: fire-resistant sleepwear

I believe the theory is that children are most likely to have difficulties escaping a home fire that starts when they're asleep. Consider that home fires that start when the children area wake are also likely to happen when there are awake adults ... usually involved in something that starts a fire. So while they have to escape it, the risk is detected early in the burn when there are more available escape routes. So escaping through flames (whether under one's own power or carried) is perceived as most likely occurring when a child is wearing sleepwear.

I'm not sure if the statistics make a better argument than the feel-good factor.

eric @383 You might take a look at the cotton pajamas in the CWDkids catalog. My kids are enough older now that I can't remember about tags in those, but I know the cotton knit was soft and comfy (though not cheap). I might have gotten around the snug-fitting bit by ordering a size up. Pajama link to online catalog

Here are two sources of information about the reasons behind the regulations about the fire safety of children's pajamas:

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Pediatric Safety Web site

Rob Rusick @319: Couldn't posters with an established history be 'white listed' and have their comments passed through before the spam filters are run?

Jim Macdonald @323: If there's a way to do this with the Moveable Type backend, it's obscure to me. There is a "trust commenter" checkbox, which I have been using, but so far it seems to have no effect.

Apologies upfront if this is hlepy. I am not working with your software or your systems, so by definition I am ignorant.

I did a little google-searching on the theory that maybe there was some obscure bug with the 'trust commenter' checkbox which someone may have observed and found a workaround.

I found one instance where someone described the MovableType commenting controls not working as expected (the article Community and Context: Thoughts on Closing Comments by Alexis Madrigal in The Atlantic) because it turned out they were using a system apart from MovableType to handle their comments.

I found a Movable Type Feedback And Community Management page on a wiki, describing the use of a free service called TypeKey.

It went on to describe a process by which commenters are authenticated (requiring an email addr was one method).

Marking authenticated commenters 'trusted' was a two-step process: selecting individual commenters on the authenticated commenter listing screen to mark as trusted (by clicking anywhere in the item rows, or checking the box next to the commenter's name), then clicking the button labeled Trust on the action bar above the commenter listing table.

This particular wiki made it sound like the TypeKey service might be a default comment managing system for MovableType, but trying a link to the home page of the service resulted in a 'page not found'.

Of course, my google-search also turned up more descriptions of managing comments using one plugin or another, so without knowing which (if any) you might be using, it didn't make any sense digging further.

Again, apologies for the hlepiness...

Melissa @ #377 -

I was told that Women of a Certain Age in the former Soviet Bloc often have hair in various magenta shades because that was the only color available when the Communists ruled. When more colors became available, it was harder to switch because they had already committed to the Magenta, and changing over would require expensive and/or damaging processing or just waiting to let the hair grow out, leaving you with an unattractive piebald effect in the interim.

I did notice an abundance of Slightly-More-Garish-Than-Sharon-Osborne-Magenta on ladies a generation older than me in Poland a couple of years ago. I'll bet that color fades to an alarming pink when applied to "slippery" grey hair.

nerdycellist @388: fascinating!

Stefan Jones: May I have your e-mail address?

Signed,
higgins at f n a l dot g o v

Carol & Melissa: Yes, I've been chuckling over that very cognitive dissonance.

eric: Go with purple.

All this talk about ladies with unusual hair color reminds me it's been a long time since I've watched an episode of "Are You Being Served?"

nerdycellist @388: piebald effect in the interim.

Susan (mentioned in Carol's @374) went through a period of changing her hair color ever [interval] (whether it needed it or not). But, being Susan, and therefore not inclined do do anything by halves, decided to start out with black. (She is naturally flaxen blonde.)

Then, after a week or two, she decided she was tired of that, so she got some hair bleach which was, as one might expect, more effective on the younger hair.

The result was gradient, running from shiny blonde at the roots, through screaming carrot-top, into mahogany, and finally ending at black at the tips. The result was ... rather spectacular.

(I can't remember if this was before or after the gold bikini and gentian violet costume for MileHiCon, described elsethread.)

On the interactions of bleach and dye: I remember a morris team showing up for an event with all their hair dyed a uniform bright red. The only break in the uniformity was the one man whose natural hair was white, and who therefore hadn't bleached his hair first; as a result he came out looking like a natural redhead who hadn't participated in the group hair coloring.

Grey hairs do not take vegetable color well - manic panic and other such bright colors being vegetable based. The shaft of the hair is incredibly smooth and the color just slides right off it. As someone who's been going grey since the age of 14 and is now about 65% grey, I am deeply disappointed that no one has developed an unnatural color that will adhere to the white parts; I'd love to have my naturally dark brown hair highlighted in purple or blue, like an old comic book character. Now in order to get unnatural colors, I have to strip the hair first and hope that it's damaged the greys enough for the color to grab. Double processing is a boring, itchy and expensive process. I'm considering going back to the Vampire Black (as my hairdresser calls it) I had for about 15 years straight - at least it's easy to do.

Re: Netflix must meet ADA requirements online parhelion.

"the high cost of adding accessibility features to all online entertainment services could pose an undue burden on Internet companies and lead to reduced choices for consumers, said Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington."

Translation: "They gambled that the law that they knew about when they started (and knew why it existed) wouldn't apply to them. They lost that gamble - but It's Not Fair that they shouldn't be allowed to chisel out on it."

That seems to be the modus operandi for modern capitalism. We can make more money doing things this way, and if it turns out that that's a problem, oh well, someone else will pay for it.

I find this sickening.

My hair was noticeably white by my late 20s, when I started dying it. I am not one of those women who looks good in long grey or white hair. When I lived in California, I would occasionally use semi-permanent "cellophanes", which would wash out into fun pastels. Being California, this was quite professional enough for a respectable government engineering manager. Eventually I got tired of the time and expense of coloring long hair and cut it off. I abandoned coloring ("normal" color) it when I decided that white hair no longer impeded my career advancement. (Yes, boys and girls, there was a time when women professionals could not afford to look over 40, and it wasn't that long ago. In some places, it is still the case. )

I use lavender or blue tinted shampoo to brighten the white, but I'm toying with getting a little section of lavender, pink and pastel blue. A (completely) white-haired lady of my acquaintance did it, and it looks fun without looking crazy.

Jacque, #393: That does sound spectacular, and a fortuitous accident as well -- that sort of look would be hellishly difficult to achieve on purpose!

Re: hair

I've been silvering since I was 25--I was still getting carded in bars, thanks to my youthful face, when the first silvers started showing up. And they are silver, for the most part, not grey or white.

I've gone quite a bit lighter on the front and top of my head in the last two years but am still more dark than not; it's just much more obviously shot through with silver hairs. I have something of a Bride of Frankenstein streak at my left temple--usually I part my hair on that side, so I get a silver swath across the front of my bangs and a not-quite-matching bit of silver down the left side of my forehead. It looks kinda cool.

Because the rest of my hair is still brown, when/if I dye it, I have to bleach it first, so I get decent color pickup.

I'm toying with the idea of one of the Lush hennas, but I'm completely unsure about how that will look/take on my hair. I don't really want to do "colors not found in nature" at the moment, though my kid wants me to go purple. (not sure why)

This is a family pattern--my maternal g'ma was "black in the back" at 88 and my mother is much the same at nearly 80.

Lush colors much like any other henna, but I actually kind of recommend against it--it's not just henna. It's a solid block that includes rosemary, lemon and cocoa butter, and whenever I use it my hair is greasy until I can wash it the next day and I spend 72 hours or so smelling like I should be marinating chicken in my hair. If you're going to try henna, go for the pure, powdered kind. There are a couple of companies that sell box kits that include a pre-treatment for grey hair.

My great-grandmother started getting white hairs in her early twenties, and was all white in front of her ears before she had grandchildren. When she died, at the age of 92, she was still battleship-grey behind her ears (with occasional darker hairs), and snow-white in front. Her preferred hairdo was a sort of gibson-girly back-half-in-bun, front half smoothed up high and poofed to give a sort of almost-pompadour. Because of the bicolor hair, the hairdo was bicolored too.

I always, always desperately wanted to inherit her white-forelock gene, but it doesn't look like any of us great-grandkids have. I've (at 36) got a smattering of white spread out evenly throughout, as is appropriate for my age. My husband is definitely getting some Nick Fury white temple-stripes going on, and his beard is more than half white.

Of course, his beard was always seriously multi-colored; he had every natural hair color known to man when I met him in his very late teens, from white and blonde through two reds and several browns and a few black hairs too, just randomly distributed around through the beard area.

His head hair is mostly a medium brown (except the white and a few strands that go reddish in sun).

Our kid is right riding the fence between blonde and brown. Compared to her parents, she reads 'blonde'; compared to my cousin's towheaded kids, she looks seriously brunette.

Could change, though; I've had four or five natural haircolors throughout my life, and so has my mother.

If I let my hair grow out, it would be entirely silver-white and would add 20 years (at least) to my visual age. Fuck that, says I; that's not me, and I don't like looking in the mirror and seeing someone else. OTOH, it does give me the chance to play a little; there's a streak in the front that I leave undyed, that shows up against the red like a lightning bolt. I get a lot of compliments, and (in the right company) Rogue references.

This is my major privileged indulgence; it's worth it to me to have someone else deal with the mess and stink, so I have it professionally dyed even though that is not cheap. I have a very good colorist who mixes my red to a shade that looks natural on me.

Oh, in re haircolor; those of you in Europe and Canada can get a brand called Ice Cream, which is manufactured by an Italian company who have no American distributors.

It comes in tubes of pure color (yellow, green, blue, red, black) and bottles of varying concentrations of bleach, so you buy whatever matchup you want and mix your own custom.

The blue is intended to de-brassy your blondes, but I found out that if you take my (mid-dark brown) hair, and use the strongest bleach option with a full measure of JUST blue, I get Superman hair. Dark dark dark looking, with blue highlights, especially in sunlight. Awesome.

The Ice Cream blue dye is also UV-reactive: it sparkles and glows upon exposure to sunlight or black lights, which is utterly utterly mega-awesome.

I have my sister-in-law import me some from Toronto each time she visits, if I'm out. :->

eric 378: I wonder if blue would work for my beard. It's in a way more advanced white state than the rest of my hair.

Don't do this if you have a wife, unless making her very suspicious is your goal.

Bill: Sent!

(Just in case: Ess Eee Jay At A O L D Ot Com)

Open-threadiness: my first thought on seeing Abi's "Crowdsourced Panopticon? The Met has an app for that" parhelia† was that it would be terrible, TERRIBLE if their servers were flooded with submissions along the lines of "David Cameron, 45, Downing Street"; "Boris Johnson, 48, Henley, occasionally London but on this occasion Canada".

My second thought was that my first thought is probably thoughtcrime‡ and I should unthink it right sharpish.

† parhelium?

‡ almost certainly obstructing the course of justice, at least

James E @406:

Parhelion.

And yes, that would be a terrible, terrible thing to do. It would be particularly bad if many people did it.

Very bad indeed.

(Actually, they'd just build a filter.)

We use Astor Place Hair to avoid the high cost problem--very reasonable even for bleaching and dying, and I can get a haircut for under $20 when my hair is short. I overtip, percentage-wise, when I get a "cheap" haircut.

The stylists are not trainees or beginners, unlike most other inexpensive hair places.

Thanks for the tip about Lush hennas. I've done the powdered stuff, but I had longer hair then and it was a giant PITA. Plus my cats always tried to make love to my head while the henna was curing--something about the smell, I guess.

There's been a mall collapse in Ontario (one known dead, about 30 missing), and I just read an article that I thought Jim (and maybe some others) might be interested in:

Rescuers at Elliot Lake mall collapse obey rule: Don't make things worse

Let's see... Chocolate chocolate chip Smartie cookies? Or the Almond Raisin Cassonade?

I just had Bella put to sleep. It was time, and she went very quickly. Bella was a beautiful dog. As a puppy, she was rejected by several people because she was "ugly", but throughout her life people would tell me how beautiful she was.

And the rainbow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.. Genesis 9:16

Tracie, I'm sorry for your loss.

Tracie @411, I'm so very sorry.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Tracie.

Tracie @411, I'm very sorry. I know how it feels to make that decision. Even when you know it's for the best, it still hurts.

Tracie (411): I'm sorry for your loss.

I was going to say this before, but couldn't find the words: Tracie, I honor you for having the courage to make that decision, incurring pain yourself to spare it to her.

Tracie, #422: My condolences. I think she was pretty too, but some people just don't like brindles.

Tracie, it's a hard loss, and my feelings go out to you.

re: Fires and children, one thing that I was told many years ago is that kids who accidentally start a fire often try to hide from it, out of fear or guilt feelings.

That's all I can say about it.

Come to think, we need a new smoke alarm.

I'll echo Xopher's thoughts. My dog is getting on, and it probably won't more than a year or two when I have to make hard choices, and can only hope I don't wait too long.

Tracie, I'm sorry. That's so hard to do.

Tracie, I'm sorry.

//rant

Balloon Juice reports that Politico reports that -- deep breath -- Senator Rand Paul is trying to attach an amendment defining "when life begins" to a flood insurance bill. A flood insurance bill.

Meanwhile, the city of Stockton, CA is filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. One of the things that's on the chopping block in the reorganization: the retired city employees health care plan. So a bunch of people mostly 65 and up, all with pre-existing conditions, you betcha, are suddenly going to be looking to the Glorious Free Market for health insurance.

Beam me up, Scotty.

//end rant

Tracie, my condolences on your loss.

Tracie:

I'm sorry for your loss, and for how hard that decision must have been.

396
They seem to not understand that (a) deaf people watch movies and TV, and (b) hearing people appreciate captioning. Then there's (c): many people are (or will be) losing their hearing in the middle parts of the audio spectrum due to loud noises, and will need captioning just to understand speech in movies and on TV.

399
My sister used one of the Lush hennas on her (mostly white or light grey) hair. It looks wonderful. (It doesn't hurt that she has the complexion to go with red hair.)

Hugo Voting AKICIML: I have my membership number; I have my PIN. I went to the link where I can supposedly vote, and there are typey-boxes to the left of all my choices -- what goes there? An x? a number to indicate preference (ascending or descending)?

There is no description anywhere on that page of what the hell I am meant to do to vote. Help!

I would have gotten Netflix a long time ago if they had captions. Now I have to wait to have a job, but the captions will still be a barrier.

Elliott Mason (428): In each category, rank your choices in order of preference. #1 is your top choice, #2 is your second choice, and on down the line.

Oh! And anything you really *don't* want to win shouldn't be ranked at all (or should go below No Award, which comes to the same thing).

Tracie: my condolences and support. She looked like a happy dog.

Regarding captions: my hearing is fine, but sometimes the sound balance in a movie/program is really bad, and keeping the program at a bearable volume for sound effects and music can wind up making the dialog too soft. And though I have a good ear for accents, there are some that I can't always catch, especially if people are talking fast (American accents included). I regularly--as in at least once a week--turn on the captions on something I recorded from the airwaves.

Aw, Tracie...

It's a mystery. I'm offering calamari salad, which is being regarded with the same suspicion as my post.

When my household watches The Wire, we put captions on. It's partly that we honestly can't hear/understand what's going on and partly that most of the time, we have handwork going on and are looking at that to some extent. You'd think this would mean no captions... but I, at least, can read the captions faster than the actors can read the script, and I have better luck keeping up that way than trying to follow when I can't even see their mouths. Which is also a problem sometimes, as there's lamp glare on the TV.

And I just took a pound cake out of the oven. It's going to work later this week, because our engineering intern (paid, I understand) just got a 'real' job at another location in the company.

Cheryl @ 409

The Elliot Lake mall collapse is developing in moderately real-time. There's a cultural clash between the old-time miners and the urban rescue team; the mine rescue guys are willing to take risks the urban rescuers think are unacceptable. Some additional heavy equipment has now arrived.

Tracie, I'm sorry for your loss.

Elliott Mason 428: What the hell! I just found that voting page, and you're right. Not only did the Chicon concom assume that all voters would know how to vote, they also used text boxes for input (instead of drop-down menus), so newcomers to the awards have no guidance. Anyway, here, The Hugo Awards: The Voting System:

How to vote in the final ballot

The final ballot is a bit more complicated. You get to rank each of the final five nominees in order of preference. Place a 1 against the work or person you most want to win, 2 against your second favorite and so on. You are not required to vote for all five items --- vote for only as many as you have read/watched/know about. Easy, isn’t it?

No Award

Under each category you will also be given the choice of voting for No Award.

You should vote for No Award as your first choice if you believe that none of the nominees are worthy of the Award, or that the Award category should be abolished. If you vote for No Award in any other position it means that you believe the nominees you placed above No Award were worthy of a Hugo, but that those not placed above it were not worthy. However, as we shall see, it is possible to rank nominees below No Award and have an effect on the outcome.

Weird. When I move my cursor over the link in #409, the link (and everything subsequent to it) jumps back and forth by one line's worth, several times per second.

It's as if the preceding blank line is being deleted and replaced on a rapid cycle. (Though I'm not sure if that's what's actually happening.) I've never seen anything like this happen before, here or elsewhere. Tried refreshing the page, but the problem still continues, and only with that one particular link.

Although it has no relevance to the ADA case, or to any action Netflix is likely to take, I do appreciate having subtitles in other languages available, especially when they're languages I understand imperfectly. Watching becomes a fun language learning exercise, in which I include the particular fun of spotting bad translations.

(I suppose lack of language fluency is a disability, but it's not, as far as I know, covered by the ADA.)

Avram @439: That entire worldcon website is chock-full of mystery meat navigation, unexplained jargon, and no idea where you look for Thing X if you don't already know exactly what worldcon concoms think Thing X is about.

Apparently there is significant behind the scenes dysfunction going on; I'm going anyway, but I'm braced. I still haven't been told what (if any) panels I'm going to be on, for example, and we're about two months out ...

David Wald @441: one of the funniest things I found on the complete box set of Firefly DVDs was setting the audio track to French: Doctor Tam had the lowest voice of the entire French voice cast, and Jayne sounded reasonably cultured (a French-fluent friend said he was using all the cliches and accent one would expect of a French Foreign Legion character in a mid-70s-made, 30s-set French action flick).

Tracie @ 411: I'm so sorry for your loss.

Tracie, my sympathies -- and I loved the quote.

Following up on my own #409, a remarkably ignorant article in the Toronto Sun:
Questionable efforts in Elliot Lake rescue

Bruce @440
Weird. The URL is
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/national/Rescuers+Elliot+Lake+mall+collapse+obey+rule+Dont+make/6843832/story.html

I don't know what could be causing your issue.

For the URL, I guess?

They finished up all the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Smartie cookies last time. I still have Almond Raisin Cassonade cookies, or I could whip up an Avocado Lime pie?

Tracie, my condolences.

On Netflix and captions: my goodness, captions would be wonderful. I don't have a hearing problem, I have an auditory processing problem.

Once I got it sorted out that the auditory processing was a Real Thing and not just a character flaw (see: adult-diagonsed ADHD, inattentive type) I started noticing all sorts of quirky things about it, like, for example, that knitting while listening improves my comprehension. I have a note from my doctor in my accommodations file at school saying "please allow Rikibeth to knit in class."

The most recent thing that I've noticed is about accents. Normally I think I'm pretty good at decoding unfamiliar accents. One-on-one conversation with a person whose accent is unfamiliar to me doesn't seem to create any more "what? oh, wait, never mind, I got it" moments than conversation with a person whose accent matches or approximates my own. Nor does a single strongly-accented character in a movie or TV show.

But stick a whole LOT of accented characters together? Even if they're all speaking in the same accent or close-on? Even if the accent itself isn't especially opaque to me? I'm rewinding about one conversation out of three to pick up words I missed, ones that noticeably impair my comprehension by being missing.

This came up the other night when I was trying to watch "True Dare Kiss," set in Manchester. Possibly not all of the actors were using Manchester accents -- one of the cast (and the reason I was watching) was Paul McGann, and his accent is Liverpool, and also there was an Irish character who was no trouble to understand at all -- but in any case, three-or-more-person conversations, even when they were all taking turns nicely, were FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE.

Captions would have helped a LOT.

I'm now wondering if that had more to do with my inability to understand any of the dialogue in "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" than any quality of the accent itself.

Tracie @411: Bella

Oh, yes, what a beauty! Good on you for giving her a loving home, and for sending her on to the Rainbow Bridge when it was time.

Test 2!

Test 8!

Test still unsat.

Lyricslinger Peter Berryman examines "Clementine Partially Parsed" (PDF), finding the devices of consonance, asyndeton, cataphora, tautophrase, meiosis, feminine rhyme, apostrophe, simile, paradox, anastrophe, alliteration, masculine rhyme, merism, archaism, elision, idiom, and a paraprosdokian. And his modest employment of "partially" in the title suggests he's not sure he's found everything that's in there.

Mr. Berryman writes an entertaining column on folksongs.

Bruce Arthurs @440: Weird.

Yeah, I've occassionally seen that wonkiness. My guess is that it's a javascript issue, though beyond that, Zathrus has no clue.

Elliott Mason @442: Apparently there is significant behind the scenes dysfunction going on

Hah! That would actually induce me to go, had I the means; it's consistently been my observation that the fun I have at a con is inversely correlated with how well organized the concom is.

Cheryl @447: Avocado Lime pie

Ooo!! Recipe, plzkthx?

HLN: Boulder just cancelled the July 4 fireworks show. I guess they're worried about the county (state?) going up in flames.

Lee @402, I'm an old-school geek: a white streak through red hair makes me think of Jim Corrigan, aka the Spectre.

Elliot Mason @403, my gorgeous red hair turned a dreary brown as I approached adulthood, and every attempt I have made to restore it has failed: my hair either remained brown or came out dazzling blond. I wonder if Ice Cream hair color would work better for me.

Cheryl @446, rescue operations are heartbreaking at the best of times, and I hate how people dramatize and romanticize them. I remember the final scene of Hero at Large, where a man rushes into a burning building and brings out a child, then runs in again for another, and when he doesn't emerge, a whole crowd of people charge in and carry him out, apparently pushing back the flames by sheer massed virtue. Feh.

Rikibeth @448, I can't stand to not be doing something while I watch a movie. If I am not eating or mending my sweater [http://thesweater.blogspot.com] or cutting up magazines for collage, I'm massaging the feet or shoulders of anyone nearby who will sit still for it.
Re subtitles, I have become seriously spoiled by having the option of watching a film with English subtitles, to the extent that I snarl with frustration when a disk only offers subtitles in other languages.
But then, I believe that subtitling is an underdeveloped art form: there should be italics, different type faces for translating, song lyrics across the top while the dialogue runs across the bottom, popup windows reminding viewers of previous scenes and contemporary historical events....
Okay, I get carried away with subtitling. Even so.

They aren't even *trying*.

@454 Jacque Recipe, plzkthx?

Sure. Here it is, the world's easiest, fastest, no-bake Avocado Lime Pie:

Ingredients

· 1 (9 inch/22 cm) prepared graham cracker crust
OR make your own with ground up graham crackers and butter.
· 2 ripe avocados - peeled, pitted and puréed
· 1/2 cup/120 ml lime juice
· block (8 oz/226 g) of reduced fat cream cheese
· 1 (10-12 oz/296 ml) can sweetened condensed milk†

Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl combine avocado, lime juice, and condensed milk. Blend well and pour into graham cracker crust. Chill.

Once chilled, cover with whipped cream (about 1 c/240 ml 35% cream makes an awful lot), or, your favourite whipped equivalent, I guess.

Garnish with your favourite fruit. I like strawberries and lime slices.

† I'm a little fuzzy on the amount. For me, it's "one can", but of course, your cans may vary. It's a bit more than a cup, anyway. And this thing is super forgiving.

I'm finding myself more and more doing what my grandmother used to do that used to drive me crazy: "add enough". How much is enough? "You'll know". Umm... no? Anyway, sorry for non-specific measurements. If you make it, let me know how it turns out!

Also, my sister lives in Longmont, which is now roughly surrounded by at least four fires, according to Weather Underground. I'm hoping she doesn't have to evac -- she's living with a friend as it is, and trying to build up some money so she can get into her own housing. I'm worrying.

Workin' on it, fast as I can. No need to flag right at the moment.

Oops, didn't see the above right away.

Over 450 spams in the past 8 minutes.

Abi -- you can unpublish any you find, but let me do the filtering-adjustments and deleting, okay?

Tracie #411: My sympathies.

Now current threads are being spammed, as above.

Tracie @411--I'm sorry--the couple of times I met Bella she was an Awesome Dog, and a real sweetie.

Well over a thousand spams in the past half-hour.

Working on it.

Abi, you can unpublish 'em as they come in.

I'm adjusting the filters as fast as I can.

John M. Burt @455: I did like the rescue scene in PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, where Pee-wee sees a burning pet shop and nobody around, so he runs in and starts bringing out animals. He passes the snakes, pauses briefly, makes a face, and rescues more cuddly creatures. It happens again, and he shows more regret. Finally, he's rescued everything else in the place (including fish), so he screws up his courage and makes one last run, emerging screaming and completely festooned with sarpints.

And then he passes out, a true hero. He rescued all those m'ucking snakes from the m'ucking flames, despite apparently strong personal feelings of EW.

Jennifer Baughman @458: My sister, who lives in the hills near Bellvue, was out of her house for something like a week (cooling her heels in Embassy Suites). They let them back in for about four hours one day — long enough for them to throw out all the perishable food and put $250 worth back in the fridge and freezer — then yanked them back out again. Fire bad. They're home again, along with my visiting father.

Ara Dewinne @465: "You have remarked very interesting points! ps nice web site."
That's lovely. Say, did you know we were getting spammed a while back? True story.

Check the ML-Mods message, Jim. Fodder for the filters in there.

We're on it. Instead, defy them all! Make good conversation! Go!

Since I'm heading to visit relatives there soon, I thought I'd check out what the current shows at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City are; I see several interesting ones. Does anyone have anything nifty at the local msueums? The Frist, here in Nashville (long-distance diagnosis of your medical conditions on request only) has a show on the Gee's Bend quilts, and one on Constable's oil sketches.

All hail Abi and Jim, leaders of the Gnomish Army that liberates us! Abi destroys the spam as it appears, wielding the sword of deletion and freeing us from the crushing tyranny of noise. Clever Jim steals their secrets and cuts them down in infancy. Behind them, beside them, march the gnomes, quick-handed and fierce. We sing their praises and the poets throw flowers and plums before them. Hail!

All hail Abi and Jim, leaders of the Gnomish Army that liberates us! Abi destroys the spam as it appears, wielding the sword of deletion and freeing us from the crushing tyranny of noise. Clever Jim steals their secrets and cuts them down in infancy. Behind them, beside them, march the gnomes, quick-handed and fierce. We sing their praises and the poets throw flowers and plums before them. Hail! Hail them twice, even!

Fidelio, have you been to the Steamboat Arabia museum? I've been talking about it for years-- it really made an impression. And it's given me something to think about if I ever won the lottery.

(the double post must have come through just as you were changing something; it said the post failed and I ran with it.)

Yes, Distryma, and when my brother's family or my mother have friends visiting, the Arabia Museum is near the top of the list of Things To Do. It's fascinating.

Well over a thousand in right now. Nine-ten per minute.

The filters are starting to gain traction.

Ack! Diatryma, I do know how to spell your name, really!

Still coming. No sign of slowing.

Open threadiness, media meltdown subclass:

This Greenwald post is classic. Seriously, go read the linked column by some CNN talking head. I swear, it's really CNN and not The Onion.

Glenn Greenwald points out many other examples of the same mentality. Whatever is wrong with the country and the world (and no doubt there's plenty wrong), one thing that makes it hard to fix and easy to make worse is our incredibly broken media.

This example is almost too easy to pick on--it's like slamming that Illinois politician a while back who turned up at a Nazi Party celebration of Hitler's birthday, just so completely indefensible and awful that it's as funny as it is offensive.

Jennifer Baughman @458: Also, my sister lives in Longmont, which is now roughly surrounded by at least four fires

Well, it of course depends exactly on where in Longmont she is, but according to this site, there's nothing much happening closer than about ten miles away. This corresponds reasonably well with the scuttlebutt I've been hearing around the office.

Most of the action seems to be happening (as one might expect) in the foothills, amongst the beetle-kill-stricken forests.

abi @468: defy them all! Make good conversation! Go!

Okay, don't know if this qualifies, but it's certainly puzzling:

So what's up with this? I seem to have some neurological quirk whereby I grab the thing right next to the thing I'm aiming for. "What? Extra Hot Chili? Noooo!" Not generally a problem, except when I don't discover my error until I get home.

It's weird; I'm not fumbling around, just...well okay: last weekend at the movie theater, I reach for Milk Duds, but discover, upon arrival at the cash register, that I've picked up Reeses Pieces. But now I have a witness: my buddy Brian watched me do this, and said that it looked for all the world like I meant to do that. Only reason he commented is that I always get Milk Duds at the movie theater.

Turns up in all sorts of weird contexts: logging accounts at work, I've learned I have to watch that I don't select "Void" in the drop-down menu instead of "Hold." And I don't always catch myself even if I'm paying specific attention.

So last night, I've collected the boys and put them into their houses, and am starting to get their dinner. But I notice that Woofie is acting weird. I notice after a moment that noises are coming from Woofie's bedroom (a corner of the cage with towels draped about to make a "room"). I lift up a towel—and discover that I've put Yeti in Woofie's house, instead of his own, next door.

Fortunately, nobody felt compelled to try to kill anybody, but both boys were thoroughly freaked out for the rest of the evening. "There's MONSTERS in my bedroom! They're trying to EAT ME!!" Woofie even tried to jump out of his cage once or twice. I did eventually get them calmed down, but I had to leave both their bedroom "doors" open to prove that, no, there's nobody in there.

Anybody else ever experience this kind of thing? (I mean the neurological thing, not the freaked-out-guinea-pigs thing.)

Looks like it's over. Didn't get an exact count but well over 1,600 comment spams in around an hour and a half.

The regular filters got most of them, but a few had unique features that allowed the spam to post until we got the filters adjusted.

The gnomes are still going through the sludge to see if any legitimate messages were caught by the bear traps and tiger pits that we hastily employed.

Hail to the gnomes!! Thank you, abi and Jim.

I assume most of the spam was not generated by, you know, actual people. But some human agent must be responsible, at some point of origin, right? I do not get it. What's the point?

//rhetorical question, don't bother to answer.

Finished the cleanup. Four hours, end to end.

Jacque @ 478 : You're describing something that sounds like close kin to what I study. I'm interested in how we're able to make accurate eye movements (and reaching movements for that matter) to items in the world, when they're surrounded by visual clutter.

Unless this is a very regular occurrence, I'd say it sounds more like a transient targeting error between spatial representations and/or a temporary failure of the eye movement mechanisms that diminish visual crowding. Much as we think all of our eye movements are perfectly accurate, they're not - even under well-controlled conditions, with well-trained subjects, they're not.

That said, I'd expect that if this was a continual problem that your visual system and your visuomotor system would compensate for it in pretty short order (e.g., if you always grabbed the item closer to you, you'd show adaptive reaching to compensate for that undershoot).

I can go on about this in considerable detail - I'm mostly working on the eye movement side of things these days, but I wrote my graduate fellowship back in 2010 on visual crowding and visuomotor interactions.

For folks in Boulder County concerned about fires and suchlike, here's the Boulder Office of Emergency Management's web page.

Benjamin Wolfe @482: Well, this happens to me regularly enough (if not exactly frequently) that it's a known bug in my functioning, and irritates the hell out of me when it does happen.

I get that there's considerable slop in the system, modulo adjustment/adaption/etc.

The only consistency I've noticed is that the confusion seems to be between "like" types, such as two guinea pig cages with two male guinea pigs, or two boxes of candy on a shelf, or two options in a pull-down menu. (For example, I don't recall it ever happening that I reach for a can from one part of the shelf and end up with a box from an immediately adjacent part.)

I expect that there are also confounding factors such as fatigue, distraction, muscle memory, type confusion, and so on.

It's just, you know, weird. And tiresome.

The other thing I'm curious about is if this is a common failure mode, but I don't recall hearing other people complaining about anything similar. So I conclude (a) it's so common as to be unworthy of note, or (b) it's fairly uncommon.

It seems like it might be not dissimilar to the phenomenon we noticed when I was growing up: if some odd item turned up missing, go check the refrigerator. Seems that my mom's default "where things get put away" location was the fridge, so that's where her hands would put things if left unsupervised.

If I had to guess (without having you do a controlled task in the lab), I'd call it a failure to fully break crowding (which is the deleterious effect of visual clutter on object identification) - you can get enough information to make an accurate movement, but not enough to identify which box of candy you want. Why this happens to you is much more than I can guess.

Same spammers are back.

The filters seem to be holding.

Please flag any that get through.

102 spams in the last 60 seconds.

#457

Mmm, mmm, mmm. Never heard of Avocado Lime Pie. Mmm, mmm, wish I could have tried it in my pie-eatin' days.

PJ Evans's sister

The Avocado Lime Pie sounds very like the no-extra-flavor-added cream cheese and condensed milk (and a touch of lemon juice) pie my mom used to make regularly when I was little. She called it "easy cheesecake" or "cream cheese pie".

Those have been some busy spambots.

I picked one of the distinctive phrases from one of the (numerous) different comment spams of this afternoon, and got 2.3 million hits out on the web.

All hail the filters and their tenders.

OtterB (491): So say we all!

I'd just like to say that I for one welcome our gnomish overlo <serious> deeply appreciate Jim and abi and the hard work they put in to kill all the spam that comes flooding here from time to time, and to keep the filters updated, and to release the legit messages that get caught in the spam trap et hoc genus omne. </serious>

And, of course, the gnomes. Here are some Black Hole Brownies (not the kind that are your relatives!), my gnomic friends.

466
An exotic pet shop about a mile down the street caught fire one day. When the firemen showed up, a lot of the animals were ready and waiting to be rescued. Including some of the snakes.

488
Probably better for you than the pound cake I made. But I bet the pound cake goes a lot better with ice cream.

Benjamin Wolfe @485: Why this happens to you is much more than I can guess.

It's a puzzlement, it's true. The thing that bemuses me is that it happens so cleanly in a way that makes the result look as if it was the intended one. Like those website hacks that redirect you to an advertising site instead of the site you actually wanted.

That's it! It's a virus! No, wait—

M.Evans @488: Mmm, mmm, mmm. Never heard of Avocado Lime Pie.

Caught my eye because it seems to be a variant of the Avacado Pudding served by the late lamented Indo-Ceylon Restaurant in Boulder. That and the rice were about the only things on the menu I could actually eat, due to the owner's preference for recipes in the N^∞ Scovilles range.

That's where I discovered I don't get that nice endorphin rush so treasured by lovers of hot food; I just get >>RAGE<<

But the avacado pudding was very nice.

P J Evans @495: I bet the pound cake goes a lot better with ice cream.

Not a bet I'd take. I'll bet the pie has a nice, very mild, flavor that would go quite well with ice cream. Hm. May have to try it. Probably need to try many different flavors of ice cream, just to be sure. (Hm. Maybe combine it with a nice tangy sorbet....)

@Jacque #496--

I think this is a fairly common glitch. I know I have reached for the cream of celery soup for a recipe and come home with cream of broccoli soup, a waste of good cream and good broccoli.

A patient once called me and asked when the shape changed for her heartburn medication she'd been on for a couple of years. Fortunately, it was a brand name drug, so the shape stays the same.

I told her to go back to the pharmacy and ask the pharmacist to check bottles near the bottle of the heartburn med I'd prescribed.

The pharmacist accidentally grabbed a diabetic med by mistake. Too bad the patient took the pill before she called me. Her family stayed up all night checking her blood sugars and she did fine.

But, yeah, I think a not uncommon glitch.

Ooh, I know, tl,dr, but all knowledge is here.

Somebody mentioned a new Brin Uplift novel*, but I can't find anything on Ammy.

I would love a new Uplift to read, enough to figure out how to use my Kind__le.

Hints?

*Ok, it was on DailyChaos, so I know I need a largish grain of salt, but still, a new Uplift?

I guess my feeble attempt to disguise words of power, was, well, feeble.

Nothing for the gnomes, I don't cook.

In the Department of Exes Acting As If High School Still Ruled: I had decided to tackle a storage room in my basement, in which I could see many boxes. To my surprise, most of the first half-dozen were filled with my Ex's papers, but that wasn't the really surprising part. No, the surprise was in how old this stuff was: I found trash -- bills, old papers, notes -- from the mid-70s. High school lab notes, christmas cards, utility bills, and so on -- plus a Reader's Digest from 1976. So I photographed that and posted it to Facebook, captioning it "time to toss these out". When one of my friends pointed out, in the first comment, that it was from the bicentennial, I explained that it was on top of a pile of "the Hex's stuff", and our conversation went on to discuss the possibility of finding Tut's tomb, etc. Other friends chimed in as well.

Then, the Ex replied, in a nicely snarky tone too, and told me that she could tell tales about what I'd left lying around too. She signed herself "xo-- the Hex" and griped about not being "Herself".

I have been very careful for the past two and a half years not to post anything on FB because she might read it. Clearly, she does still read my posts, even though she could easily block my posts from view -- as I did to her posts 2.5 years ago.

This time I didn't have to hide from her. I pointed out that I had not mentioned her, so she outed herself. I am really tired of being careful not to anger her, and I don't have to worry anymore. The house is in my name, and I've changed the lock on the front door. She's mad at me because she wants the rest of her buyout payment, which I haven't sent yet.

I told her it was in the mail.

I also told her to yob tebya pereyob and not to let the door hit her.

I knew I'd feel better about getting her off the mortgage. It feels like freedom. I'm not afraid of her anymore.

Dear God, here it comes. Predicted highs for the next few days here in North Georgia: tomorrow, 96. Friday, 100. Saturday, 101. Sunday, 102. Monday, 100.

And we're already (after upper 80s-mid 90s for the past week) at high fire danger status.

I very much hope we don't end up costing Colorado some of their badly needed personnel and gear.

Go, Ginger!

As for FB, if you block her doesn't that stop her from seeing your posts as well? (Hmm, maybe only if you set Friends Only on your settings...?)

Not sure why.

Jacque, #484: I don't have anything like that, but what has been happening to me of late (as in, the last year or so) is that when I'm typing something, I'll be thinking one word and my fingers type another one -- usually one that starts with the same 2 or 3 letters -- and I won't notice it until I look back over what I've typed. This is a relatively new phenomenon, unlike my previous known glitches (e.g. sometimes I'll type "toin" instead of "tion" on the end of a word), and as such it's... not worrisome exactly, but I do wonder what's going on that's different.

I am picturing the moderators as dragonriders flying up to intercept a threadfall of spam.

Xopher @501: I didn't block her as much as "refuse to view her posts". I should block her, I suppose, but I think I'm going to enjoy this. Freedom, I mean; not fighting with her in public.

Throwmearope @ 497: Existence is a new Brin novel, but it doesn't appear to be Uplift.

I have a typing quirk too, but quite limited.

My mind will think "with" and my fingers will type "this" (and, occasionally, vice-versa).

It's not consistent and doesn't seem to track to tiredness, stress, focus, or anything else I can observe.

Throwmearope @ 497: Actually, Afficianado is a chapter which introduces the beginnings of uplift on Earth, so this is set in the same universe, but earlier.

I looked at the scientific pun and got the earwig of The Cremation Of Sam McGee.

497, 506:

I read an early draft of Existence.

It is not set in the Five Galaxies / Uplift setting or timeline in any way, but one of the threads of action does feature a genetic engineering project to make _____ smarter.

It is an odd and challenging book. A firehose of ideas, a huge cast of characters, and some very interesting twists and surprises. Near the end it narrows down the cast and plot threads to conclude in an interesting place.

Ginger @ 499... yob tebya pereyob

Neither Rot13, nor Russian or Ukrainian told me what that means, and when I googled it, I was asked if I meant 'you tube Perry'. No matter what it is, it sounds like it was cathartic to say it.

Ginger @ 499... yob tebya pereyob

Neither Rot13, nor Russian or Ukrainian told me what that means, and when I googled it, I was asked if I meant 'you tube Perry'. No matter what it is, it sounds like it was cathartic to say it.

Serge @511/512: I think you'd have to put the phrase into Cyrillic letters before the translation programs can translate it; that's been my experience anyway. It's very bad language, as you can tell.

Oh look, she's replied! I'm projecting as well as distorting the truth, and a bunch of other big Psychology terms. Yes, I'm sure she thinks she might be right.