Outside The Interzone: Jun 27, 2010

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Saturd80's: It's Not Sunday Yet Edition

Yello, I Love You:

X, Nausea:

Altered Images, Happy Birthday:

Sunday Funnies: Oops Edition

Man, what a week! Time for some funnies.

Followup: Oops. Like I said, difficult week... it's still Saturday. I could take 'em down, but I'll go ahead and leave a record of my muddle-headedness. Enjoy!

Engrish Funny

Pundit Kitchen

Criggo

Keith Richards Totally Looks Like Ramses After 3000 Years Of Being Dead

see more Celeb Look-A-Likes

see more Lol Celebs

Medium Large

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Bug

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Breaking News: Pope is horny. Sofa Pizza

Sofa Pizza

Roflrazzi

Vader Lives! Great White Snark

FuckYeahAlbuquerque

Criggo

Looks like somebody hates freedom. MthruF

Shoebox

Criggo

Cyanide and Happiness

Sofa Pizza

Fuck Yeah Stupid Gifs

The Frogman

Criggo

"How do I tell them apart?" Hacked IRL

This is the epitome of most science journalism... Criggo

FailBlog

My First Dictionary

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

PhD Comics

The Daily What

The Daily What... be careful with abbreviations.

Pygalgia

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Today's Anniversary... You Get Used To It

Via The Daily What. What you don't get used to is the way fixed periods of time- say, for example, 13 years- seem to get shorter and shorter and shorter. At some point you realize that it does seem that way, but you never really get used to it.

Followup, Thurs. July 1: Gad! Another 13-year anniversary! According to The NYT, "On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony." I don't really recall the publication of the HP book, nor do I remember when it really started to get traction. But I do remember the reversion of Hong Kong... I probably would have guessed it was before 9/11, but not much earlier. Speaking of which, 9 years already? Sheesh!

Boo!

Olivia Judson is taking "a year's sabbatical." It's not clear whether she's returning to write columns for the NYT at the end of that time; it's quite possible one or both parties aren't sure whether to continue the commitment. It is clear she's going to work on a new book, to which I say, "Yay!"

Her first book, Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation (2002), grew out of that article. Written in the style of a sex-advice column to animals, the book details the variety of sexual practices in the natural world and provides the reader with an overview of the evolutionary biology of sex. The book was praised by critics as being witty and engaging, without compromising its scientific integrity. It became an international best-seller and was nominated for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2003.

I have not had the opportunity to read that book, but I've read any number of reviews, from bloggers, to scientists, to press reviewers. I can't recall a single negative one. I've deeply enjoyed her columns at The Times, and will miss them. If you haven't been reading these, and you have any interest in evolutionary biology- or amazing information about living things at all, for that matter- I have a treat for you: here's the archive of her columns.

Life moves forth, and in the grand scheme of things, this is pretty trivial. Nevertheless, she has become my favorite science columnist since Gould. (I guess I don't think of McPhee as a columnist, nor does he strictly do science, nor, at the end of the day does his writing have the coherence of the other two. It really helps to bring a little background knowledge to much of his writing. That said, I think I'd have to point to him as my favorite non-fiction author overall.) I doubt Dr. Judson will read this, but I'm already feeling deprived.

Followup: I forgot to mention the content of today's column. If you're interesting in learning some of the processes by which she turns out such readable, sharp material, this is a good one. Nothing really surprising I suppose, but an admirable role model to emulate.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

High 8 Us

Lotsa things on my plate, so I probably won't be in to the Interzone (at least, much) over the next 2 or 3 days. Little to no posting at any of my assorted web locations either.

Keep a cuppa warm for me... And, by the way, Katie, if you're reading this, the cats and I are getting along swimmingly. Jack has spent the last 15 hours staring at the front door and generally expressing misery. When I put food down for him this morning, he was uninterested, but when I picked him up and set him down in front of it, he cleaned the bowl. So he's eating, but definitely feeling abandoned. I think we'll be good.

Monday, June 28, 2010

A Matter of Some Gravity

The BBC has a very well done article on the geoid as mapped by the GOCE satellite. A geoid is a surface of gravitational equipotential. Other ways to say the same thing would be that the force of gravity is the same at all points, or that an observer walking on that surface would feel no uphill or downhill- he might be able to see high places (farther from the Earth's center) or low places, but it would require the same amount of energy to walk "uphill" as down. A ball placed on the surface wouldn't roll.

The article does a good job of explaining that idea, how the data is gathered, and the uses to which it can be put. I'm delighted- and a little puzzled- by the high-frequency "waves" (which are even more pronounced in the full-size version at the link) in the image, but the article implies that they are real, and not some artifact of processing. Another mind-boggling bit of info is that the satellite has a precision of one part in 10^13! Geowhizzics amazes me.

JUNE 28 IS CAPS LOCK DAY!

OKAY, ONLY FOR ONE POST, BUT HERE'S WHY!

(IMGUR!) BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

(BUSINESS PUNDIT!) THAT'S LIKE TWO GREAT PHOTOS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! AND IF YOU ACT NOW, WE'LL THROW IN ANOTHER AT ABSOLUTELY NO ADDITIONAL COST!

(RANDOM FUNNY PICTURE!)

WE NOW RETURN TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING! (And none too soon. Whew.)

Turn, Turn, Turn

Senator Robert Byrd has died. I grew up across the river from West Virginia, and his name, up until this morning, probably has been the living political name I have known longest. He began his tenure as a senator 10 months before I was born. I don't have strong feelings one way or the other about the guy; sometimes I agreed with him, other times not, though I have to admit in recent years when he has come to my attention it has more often been with a vigorous nod of agreement. The thing I haven't seen pointed out (yet) is his sheer eloquence. His voice wasn't that of James Earl Jones, or Morgan Freeman, but his choices of wording, phrasing and delivery at its best could be breathtaking. I always admired his oratory, and I will miss him.

Followup: Jill of Brilliant at Breakfast offers a much more fitting and poignant eulogy, along with some extended quotes, that illustrates the magnitude of our loss. On the subject of US torture policy, he said:

The rule of law is not just a lofty concept to which we should aspire only when convenient. It is a fundamental principal upon which our Republic was founded, and it is the foundation of our free society. I understand the desire to look forward and to forge a new path on high ground instead of on the low road of the past eight years. But to use the need to move on as a reason not to investigate basic human rights violations is unacceptable. Excusing individuals at the highest levels of government from adhering to the rule of law, whether in wartime or not, is a dangerous precedent, for it undercuts the principle of accountability which permeates representative democracy.

Sadly, the world will discover more and more about the acts committed at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, and elsewhere around the world. There is no avoiding that eventuality. It is our choice as a nation whether to pursue the path of truth ourselves, or leave the details of the abuse to be painfully revealed by others. Releasing the OLC memos was a courageous and admirable first step. But we must not stop there.

Whether it is through an independent investigation, a "Truth Commission," a Congressional investigation, or a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, action must be taken. As long as those who condoned and approved these despicable acts are permitted to escape the consequences, we allow our moral standing in the world to be severely compromised. September 11 did not suddenly legalize torture, nor did it exonerate those who authorized such a heinous deviation from the rule of law. How we address these abuses will shape the image of the United States for decades. In order to truly clear our good name and put the past behind us, the United States must strive to be sure that this dark period of sick and secretive torture schemes receives the scrutiny it deserves.

Followup 2: The Guardian knows how to do a good biographical obituary. Fascinating man. One quote in particular shows how Byrd didn't fit with the Dixiecrats:

His attitude changed irrevocably in 1982, after a teenage grandson was killed in a road accident: "The death of my grandson caused me to stop and think. I came to realise that black people love their children as much as I do mine."

I don't think this simple, humane thought ever crossed Strom Thurmond's mind.