Yes, I'm posty tonight. :P Tomorrow, I'm probably going to write a loooong post about ARGFest, too, so there!

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/sites/sfw19159.html

ARGN - The Alternate Reality Gaming Network - is SciFi.com's Site of the Week. Yay, ARGN!

Current Mood: bouncy

Alien contact covered up, says Apollo veteran Edgar Mitchell

Yeah, so glad I don't work at Space Center Houston anymore. The crazies will be converging for weeks now that this is in the general news! We used to get very hostile people visiting the center, DEMANDING that we (tour guides) REVEAL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ALIENS. STOP DECEIVING THE TAXPAYERS. I kid you not. The people who believe NASA is part of this big alien cover-up conspiracy are really aggressive and scary.

What's hilarious is the radio reporter's reaction to Mr. Mitchell's claims. That in itself makes the interview worth listening to.

About Dr. Mitchell... I remember him as a really cool guy. His picture is one of the few that I've ever had autographed, and he was super nice when I met him. I don't know where this alien thing is coming from, and I wonder if he's having a good ongoing joke at the reporters' (and conspiracy theorists') expense?

For the record, I don't believe we've been visited by aliens from outer space. :P

Edit: OMG, the NASA Phone Call clip is SO FUNNY. :D :D :D That poor PR guy. "Let me see if I can find someone who'll dispute what an astronaut says." I can think of a few people...

Current Mood: indescribable

I just got David to listen to the Get A War Job Propaganda Message on my phone. He visibly perked up. I also showed him the website, and my especial favorite - the pamphlet on how to recognize a subversive (apparently, all atheists and intellectuals are subversives) while warning against the Alliance for American Autonomy. I convinced him to "Enlist for Military Service" like I already have done - he promises he will do so tomorrow.

And then I showed him Project Abraham, starring the lovely Katee Sackhoff. Apparently, we're supposed to be voting to help her character, Dr. Cassandra Aklin, choose which poor schmuck gets to be injected next with a vaccine gone wrong.

I'm drawn to the game not because I've ever played Resistance but because the influenza epidemic is a part of history that particularly interests me - that, and the epidemic of encephalitis lethargica that followed (I wonder if the game designers are going to work that into the story, too?) Katee Sackhoff is also a drawing point, obviously.

But I think David might be interested in playing this one with me. AS IF I have time to play an ARG right now - but it's reallyreally interesting. Have to look over all the files - I cast my vote in the morning.

Current Mood: intrigued

Yea! I'm renewed at Second Life at the $72 rate. I'd heard that they had increased their price to $120. Maybe they grandfather current members in at the previous rate. I'll have to check.

Hope--I am beginning to go through the emails you sent. Yes, they are a lot, but they're fun. :) I'm sorry it's taken me so long.

The headache I had earlier this evening is a little better now. That's a relief. Maybe it just likes all the Propel water I've been drinking.

Current Mood: tired

The Weather Overhead: We've had nothing but rain all day today and some last night. No heavy winds, which was nice. Power was out for a while. Brays' Bayou was pretty full, though. I think another five feet of water, and it would have been up over the banks--which is interesting for a storm that has not produced heavy flooding in our area. They kept saying on the news that this would be a rainmaker, and it has been, but not a terrible one. Apparently, the south side of the storm was the 'dirty' side.

I have much email to catch up on. I hope I'll get a chance to read it tomorrow. or maybe later tonight. I'm feeling kind of tired tonight; I think I'v getting the beginnings of a cold.

I have jury duty tomorrow, and if I'm released at noon, I'll have the rest of the day off--Yea!

I've discovered that there are 'On the Go' packets of Propel water drink mix. I am addicted to the lemon flavor, so I bought two boxes of ten packets each, one for the office and one for home.

Writing: I've discovered that there is a fiction genre called steampunk (as opposed to cyberpunk). The idea is that you write a science fiction story as if your characters were people from the Victorian age, acting as they might in a Jules Verne story. It's a neat concept. Might be a useful setting the the inimitable Mr. Graves.

Mark wants to see Paul paired up with Hermione Weasley, a la The Avengers. I think Paul would rather team up with his wife, Lilith. Sorry, Hermione! No leather cat suit for you!

I'm looking forward to seeing Emma Watson in a historical film she's to be in about a teenaged girl living on St. Helena Island while Napoleon Bonaparte is being held there.

Looking forward to reading the latest Temeraire novel while in the Jury Assembly Room. I wonder if they'll let me sneak in some wasabi-soy almonds? Eh, probably not.

Current Mood: tired

Remove any and all posts indexed from this journal by/to Ljfind





***** 

This is in regards to *this*, which was making some *locked* posts searchable:

http://ljfind.livejournal.com/profile


Interesting what comes up when you put your user name in...  http://ljfind.livejournal.com/profile

Current Mood: aggravated

Google News now has three editions for India. The English-language edition came first, followed by what I'm reasonably sure is a Hindi edition.

I think the newest edition is in Tamil. If you can recognize written Tamil (or even better, can read it), could you tell me whether I'm right?

The list of national pages is at the bottom of http://news.google.com.

Note: Other countries with both English-language and other language Google News pages are Canada (French) and the US (Spanish). There's nothing in Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Scots, Maori, or Afrikaans.

From http://eurekalert.org:

Public Release: 24-Jul-2008
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
Why play a losing game? Study uncovers why low-income people buy lottery tickets
Although state lotteries, on average, return just 53 cents for every dollar spent on a ticket, people continue to pour money into them -- especially low-income people, who spend a greater percentage of their incomes on lottery tickets than the wealthier segments of society. A new Carnegie Mellon University study points to income as an influential factor in the decision to invest in a product that provides poor returns.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/cmu-wpa072408.php
"In the study, the researchers note that lotteries set off a vicious cycle that not only exploits low-income individuals' desires to escape poverty but also directly prevents them from improving upon their financial situations. They recommend that state lottery administrators explore strategies that balance the economic burdens faced by low-income households with the need to maintain important funding streams for state governments.

"'State lotteries are popular revenue sources that are unlikely to go away anytime soon,' said George Loewenstein, a study co-author and Herbert A. Simon professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon. 'However, it is possible to implement measures that can actually benefit low-income lottery players and lead to fairer outcomes.' Loewenstein noted that one such potential method for addressing income inequality, which has shown promise in other countries, is tying lottery tickets to savings accounts."

Public Release: 23-Jul-2008
Perception
Study suggests human visual system could make powerful computer
Rensselaer professor Mark Changizi has begun to develop a technique to turn our eyes and visual system into a programmable computer. His findings are reported in the latest issue of the journal Perception.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/rpi-ssh072308.php

Public Release: 23-Jul-2008
Nature
Sex and lifespan linked in worms
In findings published in Nature, scientists have discovered that smaller, but more structurally diverse chemicals are a significant part of a living thing's biology. When food is scarce or colonies become crowded, young worms stop developing normally and enter the dauer stage. In this form they can live, without eating or reproducing, for months -- about ten times longer than the worm's normal lifespan. When the dauer finds greener pastures, it finally develops into an adult and resumes its normal aging process.
National Institutes of Health
http://bti.cornell.edu/frankSchroederNature2008.php

Public Release: 23-Jul-2008
FASEB Journal
Licking your wounds: Scientists isolate compound in human saliva that speeds wound healing
A report by scientists from the Netherlands published online in rhe FASEB Journal identifies a compound in human saliva that greatly speeds wound healing. This research may offer hope to people suffering from chronic wounds related to diabetes and other disorders, as well as traumatic injuries and burns. In addition, because the compounds can be mass produced, they have the potential to become as common as antibiotic creams and rubbing alcohol.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/foas-lyw072308.php

Public Release: 23-Jul-2008
Nature
'Nanonet' circuits closer to making flexible electronics reality
Researchers have overcome a major obstacle in producing transistors from networks of carbon nanotubes, a technology that could make it possible to print circuits on plastic sheets for applications including flexible displays and an electronic skin to cover an entire aircraft to monitor crack formation.
National Science Foundation
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/pu-cc072208.php

Tuesday July 22, 2008 Rabbi Mark Sameth contends in a soon-to-be-published article that the four-letter Hebrew name for God - held by Jewish tradition to be unpronounceable since the year 70 - should actually be read in reverse. When the four letters are flipped, he says, the new name makes the sounds of the Hebrew words for "he" and "she."
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807210344
Via LiveJournaller supergee, who got it from zarq.
_____
Surplus food distribution at Macedonia Baptist Church. The information said to line up at 4 PM, and not before. That statement was inoperative; by then the line stretched south down the block, then west halfway down the next block. There wasn't much left by the time I got to the front of the line.

According to newsweb reports Wednesday, people had started lining up around 1 PM.

***Walked over to the Salvation Army store on Nicollet Avenue. Looked at Babel-17, by Samuel R. Delany -- a book I used to love. No longer. I think the prose style was trying too hard.

• 10:36 The Primgraph launches today! See tinyurl.com/663a6b & a launch with a formal ball: Gaiety Theatre in Caledon Penzance, 2-4pm SLT #

I hope my friends in South Texas are staying high and dry right now. It's a little surreal watching the news, because that's what we lived with while on the coast. Hurricane Season is serious business. It always has been, though of course the rest of the country treats it more seriously since 05.

I'm sure I've told y'all about the time we were hunkered down through Hurricane Claudette, right?  It was supposed to hit south of us as a Category One, but it took a quick turn north and came ashore with winds gusting into the Cat 2 range. Took out all our trees, pulled off half my parent's roof and blasted out the windows of their back room (which we'd missed with the plywood).  It took out all our trees, including a three story tall anaqua that had probably been there from Texas Republic days. (When it was lying on its side, the truck was as tall as Mr. RCM--about 6 feet.)  That it didn't fall on the house was a miracle.

We were without power (or water, since the well pump was electric) for 10 days. This was while Mom was on crutches, recovering from the skin graft and reconstruction of her leg.

What's funny (sort of) was that it hit on the one year anniversary of Mom's breaking her leg in the first place. I was sitting on the couch, watching the weather channel, and I said, "It won't hit here. There is no way that God would top off this banner year (which had included 3 leg surgeries, a total of 5 weeks in various hospital stays, and one flooded river) with a hurricane."

That'll show me. If it happened in a book, I wouldn't have believed it.

I guess I tell that story every time there's a hurricane in Texas. But lets just say it was a really vivid memory.  That cliche about the wind sounding like a freight train going by?  Cliche for a reason. It's not just the sound, it's the way it vibrates the house. I spent the time in the closet with the dog, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream, because it was going to melt with the freezer off. I mean, if I died, the calories wouldn't matter. :-)

So, to everyone in South Texas and North Mexico, here's to you. Good luck today, and in the aftermath.

Happy Birthday, oyceter!!

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

Current Mood: cold

Construction holiday. Yay construction holiday! And it's supposed to rain solidly throughout. Boo!

Funny. I've never really been much of a fan of hot weather. I certainly wouldn't have minded the overcast bleakness last year, or any year before. But starting this year, I've suddenly developed a hankering for Sun and Heat, so the advent of extra rain is really not as welcome as it would previously have been.

...of course, it is rather sunny out right now, predictions of rain notwithstanding....

Must make preparations for Halifax visit tomorrow! Clothes are already packed. Should bring a sketchbook and colouring pencils. I had originally thought of making this something like the old Sketching School outings, and bring a full set of watercolours, charcoal, conte crayon and so on ... but maybe not. Weather underground is *also* predicting rain, solidly throughout the weekend. Someone ought to start building an ark.

Actually, maybe I will bring some watercolours. My old watercolour set is all dried up from years of disuse, but I could invest in another set. And this time, make better use of it.

Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of respect for other religions, and that includes Wicca. It's just that...people do really silly things sometimes, and this is a case in point:

Woman Accidentally Stabs Own Foot During Wiccan Ceremony

Which just goes to show that Good Luck Ceremonies should not include pointy objects of any kind. I don't think the Universe could resist the irony inherent in such a situation.

I feel bad that I find this vaguely amusing, but I figure the woman involved will probably look back on it and laugh one day, so it can't be that bad. And she apparently didn't suffer any lasting damage, so that's okay--it'd be different if she ended up being crippled for the rest of her life, of course.

Equally demonstrative, I believe, is the fact that it took place in my home state--further evidence that people in Indiana have no common sense whatsoever.

Where do you get a three-foot-long sword these days, anyway?

Incidentally, I haven't been on-line lately because I've been sick. Apparently it wasn't a migraine--it's a sinus infection. I'm feeling better, but I'm still trying to get over it.

Current Mood: amused

Meine Balkontomaten haben reichlich angesetzt und beginnen jetzt reif zu werden. Ich habe heute zwei Tomaten gepflückt, die sich leicht vom Strauch lösen ließen. Und entdeckte außerdem, dass bereits mindestens eine abgefallen ist und unten auf der Straße liegt. Anscheinend hat einer der heftigen Regenschauer gestern die Tomate "gepflückt". Da ein Großteil der Früchte über die Balkonbrüstung hängt, muss ich wohl ab jetzt regelmäßig auf Erntereife kontrollieren, damit kein unschuldiger Fußgänger unter Beschuss gerät.

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

Current Mood: cheerful

From http://eurekalert.org:

Public Release: 21-Jul-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Microbes beneath sea floor genetically distinct
Tiny microbes beneath the sea floor, distinct from life on the Earth's surface, may account for one-tenth of the Earth's living biomass, according to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, but many of these minute creatures are living on a geologic timescale.
National Science Foundation, NASA Astrobiology, US Department of Energy, Pennsylvania Department of Health
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/ps-mbs072108.php

Public Release: 21-Jul-2008
Journal of Virology
New evidence of battle between humans and ancient virus
Human ancestors fought back against an ancient retrovirus with a defense mechanism that our bodies still use today. Evidence of this battle has been preserved in our DNA for millions of years.
National Institutes of Health
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/ru-neo072108.php

Public Release: 21-Jul-2008
Tongue drive technology
Researchers have developed an experimental tongue-based system that may allow individuals with debilitating disabilities to control wheelchairs, computers and other devices with relative ease and no sophistication.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111936&org=NSF&from=news

Public Release: 21-Jul-2008
Biological Psychiatry
Promising results in deep brain stimulation for patients with treatment-resistant depression
New data from a study of patients with treatment-resistant depression who underwent deep brain stimulation in the subcallosal cingulate region of the brain shows that this intervention is generally safe and provides significant improvement in patients as early as one month after treatment. The patients also experienced continued and sustained improvement over time.
Woodruff Fund, Stanley Medical Research Institute, Dana Foundation
http://whsc.emory.edu/press_releases2.cfm?announcement_id_seq=15044

Public Release: 21-Jul-2008
PLoS Medicine
New research links International Monetary Fund loans with higher death rates from tuberculosis
International Monetary Fund loans were associated with a 16.6 percent rise in death rates from tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern European countries between 1992 and 2002, finds a study in this week's PLoS Medicine. The study also found that IMF loans were linked with a 13.9 percent increase in the number of new cases of TB per year and a 13.2 percent increase per year in the total number of people with the disease.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/plos-nrl071608.php

From http://eurekalert.org:

The first page has this: Public Release: 31-Dec-1969

Contact:

Showing releases 1-25 out of 353 releases.

So I'm starting at the second page:

Public Release: 22-Jul-2008
PLoS ONE
Study suggests past climate changes may have promoted the formation of new species in the Amazon
Today, the Amazon basin is home to the richest diversity of life on earth, yet the reasons why this came to be are not well understood. A team of American and Brazilian researchers studied three species of leafcutter ants from Central and South America to determine how geography and climate affect the formation of new species. Their results will be published July 23 in the journal PLoS ONE.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/plos-ssp072208.php

Public Release: 22-Jul-2008
British Medical Journal
Drug abuse accounts for a third of the deaths behind Scotland's higher mortality rate
Drug abuse accounts for a third of the deaths behind Scotland's higher mortality rate, according to a study published on bmj.com today.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/bmj-daa072208.php

Public Release: 22-Jul-2008
International Primatological Society 2008 Congress
New population of highly threatened greater bamboo lemur found in Madagascar
Researchers in Madagascar have confirmed the existence of a population of greater bamboo lemurs more than 400 km from the only other place where the critically endangered species is known to live, raising hopes for its survival.
MITSINJO, Henry Doorly Zoo, Conservation International, Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/ci-npo072108.php

Public Release: 22-Jul-2008
European Heart Journal
Heart disease is linked to worse mental processes that, in turn, predict the onset of dementia
Coronary heart disease is associated with a worse performance in mental processes such as reasoning, vocabulary and verbal fluency, according to a study of 5,837 middle-aged Whitehall civil servants published in the European Heart Journal. The study also found that the longer ago the heart disease had been diagnosed, the worse was the person's cognitive performance and this effect was particularly marked in men.
British Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/esoc-hdi072108.php

Public Release: 21-Jul-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Ultrasonic frogs can tune their ears to different frequencies
Researchers have discovered that a frog that lives near noisy springs in central China can tune its ears to different sound frequencies, much like the tuner on a radio can shift from one frequency to another.
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/08/0721frogears.html

Monday July 21, 2008 Thanks to http://txtriffidranch.livejournal.com/124121.html
Farm Fountain is a system for growing edible and ornamental fish and plants in a constructed, indoor ecosystem. Based on the concept of aquaponics, this hanging garden fountain uses a simple pond pump, along with gravity to flow the nutrients from fish waste through the plant roots. The plants and bacteria in the system serve to cleanse and purify the water for the fish.
http://www.farmfountain.com/
_________
To HealthPartners Riverside, where I picked up meds.

On the way back, bought a couple of things at Aldi.

****On Freecycle, someone asked for paternity clothes. It was a mistake for "maternity" -- but it was nicely science-fictional.

This is still one of the most beautiful works of art I have ever seen.

Current Mood: enthralled

Very busy day at work after being away for Friday/Monday.

Not only did I have me own work to catch up on (which I've spectactularly failed to do with any sort of prowess), I'm 'minding' the Upper GI list as well whilst my colleague is sunning herself in some random Spanish location somewhere.

Had to keep going 'Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower' in my head all day.

Plottage for Renewal is already underway, yay!

On a random note, I feel kinda justified in feeling a bit put out tonight; I'm not going to be as spontaneous for a few weeks which is fine and something I've said in various ways to a fair few people, but I feel like there's an expectation for me to still come running even when "at the last minute" had passed by some time previously.

( Colour test. )

Current Mood: pissed off

Just a quick note: This post contains spoilers for the first and second seasons of Army Wives.

( All About Army Wives )

( Why I'm In Love With This Show )

( Comms & Fics on LJ )

( The Main Characters )

( The Femslash Potential )

( Picspam of DOOM! )

Happy Birthday, vixyish!!

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

Current Mood: determined

My Life: I went to the grocery store this evening and bought myself a bottle of the Pantene Classic Clean shampoo, which, it turns out, is the variety I normally use. The version I don't like is their Always Smooth variety. So I washed my hair with the Classic stuff when I got home, and my hair finally feels good now! *is relieved*

I have jury duty this Friday. Joy. This means that all the other folks in the jury pool will have the unmitigated pleasure of enduring my body stench after I walk from the train stop to the Jury Assembly Room. Bleah. I love the warm temperatures, but I don't like needing a shower after only two or three minutes of being out in the heat.

TV: I'm watching the Bones episode tonight that features the Gormogon Master's Master. He's a scary old guy with steel teeth named Arthur Graves. Paul is not pleased. I don't know whether they had planned on Zach being the new apprentice by the time this episode was shot, but there's a lot of hinting at what type of person the new apprentice will have to be.

This episode is one of my favorites because it has Russ' girlfriend's daughter in it--the one with cystic fibrosis. And besides, Zach gets to say "King of the lab!" in it. (g)

Current Mood: pleased

As I mentioned a while back, I taught a class through my friend Candace's write workshop recently.   The query/pitch class wrapped up on Friday, but one of the folks wrote me with a question. It's a good question, and one I could really relate to. And I'm probably not the only one, so I thought I'd post my answer to her here.

The Question:
I read your Prom Dates from Hell and loved it. You did such a wonderful job with your first chapter --introducing the character, setting, issues, that I thought I'd ask you for any tips you have on writing the first chapter. I'm in First Chapter Hell. I've written ELEVEN versions and am contemplating a twelfth. Can you tell it's driving me nuts?

If you can send me some advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Since she started out with such a nice complement, how could I not offer whatever meager help I could.

I just re-posted Harbor, Heightmeyer/Sheppard/Weir, and written for the lostcityfound third anniversary fic battle.