Los Links 12/9

I promise you, Los Links will soon move back to Monday where it belongs. Time keeps getting away from me. Things happening, y’know. And then there’s the fact so many people are writing so much interesting stuff, and reading takes time, and argh.

Lots and lots of links this week. Far more than it seemed like it would be. Hopefully you’ll find one or two that interests you. Enjoy!

Occupy Wall Street

Bad Haven: Alan Moore Responds to Frank Millers ‘Occupy’ Rant.

Etsy: OWS Bandana //PRESALE// (Neil Gaiman’s models)

Stupid Evil Bastard: I knew they were destroying #OWS tents, but.

The Guardian: Goldman Sachs whistleblower threatened with the sack.

My Occupy LA Arrest: My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan (UPDATE: 12/9/11).

 

AGU Meeting

Quest: AGU: Twenty Thousand Geeks by the Sea.

Andrew Alden: AGU Day Two: Vesta Unveiled.

Highly Allochthnonous: Monday at AGU, Tuesday at AGU, and Wednesday at AGU.

Magma Cum Laude:  AGU 2011: Days 0 & 1.

 

Skepticism and Mental Illness

Feminist Whore: Sad Things.

WWJTD: SSRIs, Skepticism, Suicide and Suicidality, How to Find an Atheist Counselor/Therapist and When Normal Activities are Terrifying.

Scientific American: Epigenetics Offers New Clues to Mental Illness.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Missing the Point on Mental Illness.

 

Burzynski Clinic

The Quackometer: The Observer Responds – Complicity in Misinformation.

Skeptical Humanities: Letter to the FDA about Dr. Burzynski.

Popehat: Junk Science And Marketeers and Legal Threats, Oh My! and Tell Me About The Rabbit, Marc Stephens.

 

Science

Clastic Detritus: Friday Field Photo #161: Lava Flow in Hawai’i and Seafloor Sunday #90: Fifty Years of Ocean Scientific Drilling.

Nature News: Yeti crab grows its own food and Out-of-body experience: Master of illusion.

Wired UK: Transparent crab shell holds the secret to bendable screens.

Respectful Insolence: A “homeopathic physician” in Arizona versus science.

Tetrapod Zoology: The Wealden Bible: English Wealden Fossils, 2011.

Laelaps: How Tylosaurus Lost Its Fringe, and Other Squamate Stories and Teeth, From the Outside In.

Cosmic Log: ‘Arsenic life’ debate still percolates.

Improbable Research: A slip of the pen (followed by 25 years of writer’s blockage).

Georneys: For Scale.

Andrew Alden: Five Myths of Plate Tectonics and Losing Geodiversity.

Rapid Uplift: Geological Monuments Of Hyderabad Disappearing.

Bad Astronomy: The gorgeous birth pangs of young stars.

USGS Newsroom: San Andreas Fault Mysteries Begin to Unravel.

volcan01010: Why people are scared of Katla.

Eruptions: Unravelling a Volcano Using Crystals Under a Microscope and The Right (and Wrong) Way to Die When You Fall Into Lava.

Mountain Beltway: Friday folds (and boudinage): Superior Craton day 3, stop 1 and Currents in the Devonian deep.

The Last Word on Nothing: Abstruse Goose: Stop the Massacre, Guest Post: Auditing Astronomy Class and Guest Post: Two Malarias.

Terra Sigillata: Gooood morning, Santiiiiago!

Geotripper: Spending a Day in the Earth’s Mantle: Exploring Del Puerto Canyon in California’s Coast Ranges and Revisiting the Other California: The Story of the Pine Creek Mine From Someone Who Was There.

Uncovered Earth: The Magic Planet.

Tuff Guy: A is for Aniakchak (an A to Z of volcanoes).

Speakeasy Science: Periodic craziness.

Skepchick: My experience with German Measles.

Denison Geoblog: Rising Waters at Lake Atitlan.

EvoEcoLab: Evolution’s Tempo, Movement I: Adagio and Evolution’s Tempo, Movement II: Allegro.

The Back Forty: How a Flat Expanse of Boring Gravel is Vital to You and the Desert.

The Thurners: Graduate School Barbie (TM).

The Contemplative Mammoth: How to argue with a scientist: A guide.

Maitri’s VatulBlog: A Trip To Kilauea or The Volcanic Smog Gets In Your Eyes.

Dinosaur Tracking: Disney’s Age of Dinosaurs.

Observations: Are Psychopaths “Brain Damaged”?

The Dynamic Earth: Evaporite Casts in Sandstone.

@ScientificAmerican: Scientific American Defends Marie Curie—and Women Scientists—in 1911.

Boing Boing: Potentially habitable exoplanet: The fine print.

Physics Buzz Blog: In the Quantum World, Diamonds Can Communicate With Each Other.

Compound Eye: Scientist Spots Missing Link in his Basement, but is too Sleepy to Catch it.

Glacial Till: Meteorite Monday: Space Rocks, an encore edition.

Poikiloblastic: So an igneous petrologist walks into Indiana…

Failure: The Berkeley Pit.

The Scicurious Brain: One chemical makes you crawl, another makes you swim, if you are C. elegans.

Cocktail Party Physics: Anatomy of a Stradivarius and Open Lab 2012: Kill Your Darlings.

History of Geology: A Dirty War We Can´t Win.

JPL News and Features: NASA’s Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge.

Scientific American: Egg Timer: Separate Biological Clocks Govern Female Fertility and Life Span.

Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists: How Universal Is The Mind?

Dr. Jen Gunter: When the doctor has PTSD.

New Scientist: Chimp markets reveal evolution of friendship.

Wooster Geologists: A Tale of Two Museums: Part 2 — The Creation Museum.

Geology.com: East Africa’s Great Rift Valley: A Complex Rift System.

The Primate Diaries: The WEIRD Evolution of Human Psychology.

Short Sharp Science: Megaquake warning for the high Himalayas.

Not Exactly Rocket Science: How acquiring The Knowledge changes the brains of London cab drivers.

Popular Mechanics: What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447.

Tree Lobsters: The History of the World (According to the History Channel).

The Fluffington Post: New Theory Suggests Cats Are Liquid.

Lousy Canuck: News Flash: pole reversals won’t happen suddenly; won’t end world.

Olelog: World’s Highest Active Volcano.

 

Writing

The Atlantic: Why I Am Proudly, Strongly, and Happily in Favor of Adverbs.

SplatF: 10 steps to better blogging.

Chip’s Blog: Where does the marketing money go?

Adventures in Space: The Question Is…Are You Tough Enough?

Book Riot: When Used Books Attack: Banana Edition.

Comic Book Resource: Bill Willingham on “Fables” vs “Once Upon A Time”.

A Brain Scientist’s Take on Writing: Tips On Responding to Public Criticism (Inspired by Steve Jobs).

Plot to Punctuation: Swimming to find your characters.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Why Your Novel is a Tall, 6-Pump Vanilla, Breve Latte Grande, Extra Hot, Heavy Whipping Cream, Extra Dry Cappuccino (Or It Should Be) by Elle Lothlorien and Eisler & Konrath Vs. Hachette.

Digital Book World: Leaked: Hachette Document Explains Why Publishers Are Relevant.

Nieman Storyboard: “Why’s this so good?” No. 23: William Langewiesche’s voice of experience.

Patricia C. Wrede: Too many, too much and Learning About Ebooks.

Nathan Bransford: How to Network Without Networking.

 

Dystel & Goderich Literary Management: Why not an older novelist?

The Passive Voice: The Self-Published Author as the Self-Employed Author.

The New York Times: Selling Books by Their Gilded Covers.

Ask Nicola: Bookselling: We are showroom dummies.

Brooklyn Arden: Behind the Book: Three Things Writers Can Learn from Liar’s Moon, Part I.

Writer Beware Blogs: The Fine Print of Amazon’s New KDP Select Program.

Paid Content: The E-book Investigations: Are Publishers And Apple Breaking The Law?

Sean Farrell: “Pathetic email.”

The Oatmeal: Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling.

Women’s Issues

Blag Hag: Being a woman on twitter.

Is Rape Funny?

BBC: ‘Honour’ attack numbers revealed by UK police forces.

Marayam Namazie: There’s no honour in ‘honour killings’.

Jim C. Hines: Sexual Harassment: Bystander Intervention and Supporting Victims of Sexual Harassment.

Doctor Nerdlove: Nerds and Male Privilege.

Boundary Vision: Mourning science on December 6 (Repost).

RH Reality Check: Concerned Women for America’s Condescending Treatment of Our Female Troops.

Shakesville: Impossibly Beautiful.

The Staggers: On misogyny and female columnists.

Jezebel: Pro-Virginity, Anti-Feminist Folks Make The Purity Myth Trailer Terrifying.

Dr. Petra Boynton: A tragic case of medical misconduct.

Doing Good Science: How do we make room for pink microscopes? (More thoughts on gendered science kits.)

 

Religion and Atheism

Geek Gestalt: ‘Brick’ breaker: Lego bible too racy for Sam’s Club.

The Friendly Atheist: The Problems with Biblical Parenting and Discipline and If They Can Quote Bible Verses, So Can We.

The Digital Cuttlefish: Ellwood City–No Atheists Allowed and Much Ado About “Nothing”.

Comics Alliance: Ask Chris #81: Scooby-Doo and Secular Humanism.

Blag Hag: Car hits atheist; car breaks.

The Telegraph: Islam, Charles Darwin and the denial of science.

Why Evolution is True: Religion reduces science literacy in America.

Greta Christina’s Blog: What Does It Mean That God Is Good?

 

Politics

Forbes: The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah!

Contrary Brin: Atlas Shrugged: The Hidden Context of the Book and Film.

Emptywheel: Florida Containment Dome Crackers: How Saving $15 Million Ended Up Costing $2.5 Billion.

The Political Carnival: Kids Eating Rat Poison is an “Acceptable Risk” for ALEC.

***Dave Does the Blog: Human Rights Are Human Rights and Literal paternalism.

The Atlantic: Ceding Liberty to Terror: Senate Votes Against Due-Process Rights.

Blog of Rights: FBI: If We Told You, You Might Sue.

Mike the Mad Biologist: More Creationist Economics: When the Foolishness of Austerity Collides With the Balance of Accounts and Why Gingrich Scares Me in the General Election: Bullshit As a Load-Bearing Structure.

National Journal: Heads in the Sand.

Almost Diamonds: How an Authoritarian Protects the Vulnerable and Middle Class Is Not a Virtue.

Paul Krugman: Send in the Clueless.

Slog: Fox News Attacks the Muppets.

Wil Wheaton dot Tumblr: Mah Guvnor!

The Daily Beast: Obama’s Restrictions on Morning-After Pill Are Politically Driven.

WWJTD: The Last Gasps of a Desperate Man.

Hullabaloo: Postpartisan depression: The Democrats join the War On Women.

Slobber and Spittle: What Killed Cain’s Campaign.

 

Society and Culture

Jina Moore: Right on, David Newhouse. Or, “How to report on Penn State”.

Skepchick: You May Want to Save Your Pocket Change Next Time You See a Jingle Dude.

The Globe and Mail: Remarkable school gives girls from the bottom of India’s caste system new hope.

Roger Ebert’s Blog: Outta da way of this steampunk wheelchair!

Geek Girl: Why @PayPal is wrong regarding @Regretsy, according to their own policies.

JAYFK: Double-dipping earns high school principal an ‘F’.

Decrepit Old Fool: “But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judges?”

The Guardian: What to expect from the anti-gay marriage brigade.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: TSA Has Lost Its Collective Mind.

Almost Diamonds: Why Should I Pay for Your Health Insurance.

The Atlantic: Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?

Butterflies and Wheels: Another turn of the screw.

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Los Links 12/9
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3 thoughts on “Los Links 12/9

  1. F
    1

    Oh crap. Now I have to make time to read most of these.

    Gah! I’ve only read the two Geotrippers and a Blag Hag out of all that, as far as I see. And I really need to finish this paperwork. Why do you post such damnably interesting links? Why?

  2. 2

    Adverbs. Adverbs! Freaking ADVERBS. I rail against the “no adverbs, no way, no how” advice every time I hear it. If adverbs are so anathema, why do they exist as a part of speech? Like any other tool they should be used with care, but I reject the idea that they’re writing’s greatest sin.

    The golden rule to only ever use “say” for dialogue chafes, too. When writing, all we have are words. We don’t have actual, audible tone of voice. Consider memorable movie moments in which a scene’s only dialogue is a single word (I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I know they exist). The actor gets to rasp that word out, or trill it, or speak it in a monotone with only the tiniest of tremors to belie emotion. We writers can only describe how the character’s voice sound using the best words at our disposal, and “say” ain’t always that word.

  3. 3

    I liked the plethora of writing links. It took a while to read through them. I disagree with the adverb article. If you’re writing dialogue, use adverbs. We talk with adverbs, and it makes dialogue seem natural. But, for the love of god, don’t use adverbs in the descriptive part of your writing. It hurts. I still can’t figure out what ‘rising ponderously’ means. GRR Martin uses that phrase all the time, and whenever he does, it’s like nails on a chalkboard in my brain. What I loved from the writing links was the one about the grande latte and the art of e-book publishing. There were some great insights in that piece for me.

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