Phoenix Living

Remember that frozen lake they found in Antarctica? We could learn a ton of cool things about our Earth as long as we are careful in examining it

Scientists work on better ways to identify circulating cancer tumor cells in the bloodstream – this is DEFINITELY an area I’d like us to see money spent on

Both good and bad for the environment, but interesting regardless in its uses — foamed roads

Since it’s been a while since I’ve linked to BLDGBLOG, here’s a double feeding — plus the title is a great pun

This experiment we are already doing to our baby, thanks to an excellent and educational conversation with txanne and John Singer a few years ago: Hearing Bilingual

Just in case you needed to know, how much effort a suit of armor adds to treadmill walking, I suppose for those knights who don’t have time to change between jousting and the gym…

Dragon Mom — one woman’s thoughts about parenting terminally ill children.  Not easy reading, but probably worth it.

An article to remind us that “habitable exoplanet” doesn’t have to mean easily habitable or even habitable by humans

possible theory on how planets get their water…and maybe how Earth got ours

crowdsourcing?  no, crimesourcing

and a really important article on how words that we all think we understand the meaning of might not be used the same ways, especially when scientists are attempting to communicate on an issue to “the public”

The more things stay the same…the worse they get.  If we keep backdoor funding these conflicts overseas, how do you expect wars with them to end?  More on how the US funds Iran

Advice for how to write SF for young adult readers

While Medicaid is doing surprisingly right by me, for which I am thankful (and thankful to Mom for helping out with all her help in keeping track of what needs doing there), in other areas they’re not so great, like how many people who qualify for Medicaid-funded abortions actually get them…

Love the title on this one: Why Women Aren’t Crazy — The Good Men Project

and for contrast, sexism is still widely rampant on the internet (and elsewhere)

Why to write — or not write — short fiction

another interesting perspective on the writing process — how to do what you do

really fascinating analysis on writing fantasy, complete with links to other good related articles scattered throughout

and how to write smart — Cath Shaffer with some very good advice on who should be feeling smart when the story is done

Some of the most balanced advice I’ve seen on how to write, circulate, revise, and trunk stories you’re trying to sell.  What are your own rules?/

Another writer weighs in on the the lightning-fast changes happening in the publishing industry, how no one knows the true answer of where we’ll be in that area even as little as a decade from now, and how everyone is experimenting with what should be free, what should be paid for, and what should cost how much in the creative realm of words.  what are your thoughts? what experiments are happening now that you know of or follow? leave a comment with a link here, I’d love to check it out.

For local writing action relevant to the issue-of-the-month, Check out an article written by a local survivor on hereditary/genetic breast cancer.

Do your STI screening — here are what some of the abbreviations mean according to the author:  GSS stands for General Social Survey. The GSS is a huge sociological survey of the US that well-loved by both professional and armchair researchers because its data set is available to the public and they have some basic data analysis tools built right into their site. http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the only other missing abbreviation expansion is ACOG. ACOG is the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. It is the professional organisation for OB-Gyn providers, as well as the organization that issues guidance on things like timing of pap smears and management of common OB-Gyn conditions.
http://www.acog.org/

Drugs are bad. Drugs are good.  Bad drugs are good.  Good drugs are bad. Wait. Bad drugs made in a lab are good.  No wait, designer drugs are bad.  Hey wait, this “bad drug” can do a good thing in a lab.  But…but…uh….

Girls who are boys who want boys to be girls…I really love the fact that doctors can give delayed puberty medication to kids who are trying to figure out what gender they want to be when they grow up, one of those rare compassionate medical science manifestations.

More on habitable exoplanets — which at this rate we’ll probably never get to explore, except in our fiction…

…or perhaps in bodies better able to survive the trip than our own.  Made in our own images? downloadable minds? multiple minds inhabiting one manufactured body? All topics guaranteed to cause endless debate and argument…

I love haptic tech, and this one could even be useful to blind people, though it didn’t start out with that in mind.

Speaking of conflict, I love honesty from the ultra-rich, it always tends to cause an uproar

Why fixing the primaries is harder than it looks

Two good headlines:  We Need a New System and Terrorism Can’t Be Taken Out and Shot

And yet more realistic predictions about the death of the American dream at least the one of American dominance

necropants, anyone? some interesting Iclandic folklore

Scientists need to read more science fiction if they’re just now thinking of growing their own food to travel to other planets…

…and gamers beat the scientists at their own game by solving an AIDS research problem, gaming style.

I would totally get injected with tumor-killing nanospiders if necessary.

More science fiction fun, a Tattooine-style planet discovered with two suns

Do you want to be a planet hunter?  Some of them are already finding planets…

Live tiny cypher-makers are cool, but how do you transport the bacteria discreetly?

This sort of redesigning of education (in this case homework) excites me.  Now if only the system would actually DO it…

Interesting article about polyamory to think about. I’ve certainly been a proponent of the notion that in a “simple” triad, you have each person’s relationship with themselves that MUST be counted along with the dyad pairings and triad dynamic to start to get a true scope of the number of relationships you’re dealing with.  It’s hard enough over the course of a lifetime for people to get more than a murky understanding of the inside of their own heads, much less find compatible neuroses with just one other person for any length of time in a healthy fashion. Attempt to add in a third person and you’re doing that all over again multiple times; is it any wonder most people think poly folk are crazy or that most poly relationships fail in spectacular fashion?  Everyone involved has to start from a level of maturity most people don’t achieve to have a chance in hades of surviving the ride…and here’s yet another article backing up these sorts of thoughts to read and ponder.

Broken ideas and repairing them has certainly been on my mind a lot lately, and I’m not the only one.

Why am I not surprised at who this woman’s biggest critics are?

Pronouns galore! How do you use them?

One of the many reasons I’m so very glad to be on Medicaid…

Scientist squabbles amuse me at times; this one is over a measly 200 million year age difference in the moon…

neo-nematodes?  and a 21st amino acid (artificially constructed).   Those wacky scientists keep at it…

…while this information shows that climate change is alive and well and happening as we live, whether you call it global warming or something less political. The animals at least know what’s up…

Regardless of how the publishing industry(ies) will end up changing, people still crave Story, and that’s not in danger of demise anytime soon…

…but I’m not really sure I agree with this premise.  I don’t own any of the kindle/nook/e-reader formats so I don’t know how easy they are to navigate but I expect this “codex” argument is fixable if it exists.

pigeons, pellets, and writers — I like what he has to say about controlling what you can and de-emphasizing the rest in motivational goads

On the local front, an informal support group that I enjoyed meeting recently:  Pink Ribbon Cowgirls

Not sure when the last time I linked to Jay Lake’s journal was, but it’s been very helpful to follow his during my own battles with cancer, even though his sounds like a drastically different experience than mine has been. That’s probably worth its own post, now that I think about it — how unique to each patient the cancer experience is.  What he has to say on this one is pretty rough…but not untrue.  And quite similar to another thriver of the disease…

And this is why I’m only taking a short break from my PT…

We might actually be able to start vaccinating for viruses one of these days…

Hover cars or planes? A little late for the Amazing Future once promised…

and one for my law school friend in Georgetown…

Mom, I suspect you’ll love these.  Use them as ceramic inspiration!  Kobi Levi Footwear Design

Redefining biology all over the place, we learned more about the emergence of birds from a previous weekend link, and now mammals get a closer look at when they first arrived on the scene.

Anyone want to check the math on this? Who owns America?

I’ve been saying for years that good science and art are a blend. Check this link out.

Real-life hidden da Vinci secrets? look behind this wall and find out…

and what about life on Mars?

When you watch too many cop shows…bad things can happen to normal people

In the interest of practicing getting back into the writing groove while trying to heal up, I’m trying to work a post or two ahead on some things, including these weekend links posts.  So some you may have seen as old news, or missed, or just have the privilege of seeing again!  As always, these are as up for discussion as anything else in this website (meaning all of it unless specifically labeled otherwise).

In other news, I’ll be glad when I finally get used to this new keyboard, I keep doing horrible things like losing chunks of written comments or losing open windows that I CAN’T blame on falling asleep over the keyboard.

writer geekiness about irony punctuation (the wikipedia version of one I think I’ve posted in a previous weekend link)

5 minute flash fiction contest; a quick way to get those creative juices flowing, have some fun, and get others looking at your work (they were “on tour” on a different blog last week so I presume will be back to this normal web location, but worth doing your homework ahead of time if you want to participate)

An article about MFA programs.  I’ve seen many people get burnt out on writing in taking such programs, so I’m interested in my readers’ take on both the article and the idea in general.

Facts about the Bible — truth about it from a writing and editing point of view

A planet made of diamond?  Wonder what else is out there…

beautiful mastectomy tattoo — only one of many ways to transform trauma

another way to show scars as the badges and beauty of living

Tarantulas have double heartbeats?

Nature’s loudest mating call?

More on sentient non-human Earth creatures

Local coolness I wish I wish I wish I was healthy enough to do: indoor trampoline park

medical coolness:  synthetic tracheas and tailoring cancer treatment to specific genetic mutations (guess why I like this one, go on, guess, hehe)

keep your head clean: propaganda techniques Faux News uses

TEENS AND SEX — more openness needed, linked thanks to a timely conversation with a friend going through this very issue with what I believe to be an awesomely healthy attitude

An article on why young Americans no longer push back against the system; many good points

had a back-log built up, didn’t want to spend the links all at once, ya know.

From the always-intriguing BLDGBLOG, you’ll never fail to get my attention with a mention of secret rooms…

When I’m a more “established writer” by their qualifications, I totally want to attend this…

I might have linked to this before, but tattoos that track glucose are worth linking to again due to both coolness factor and health usefulness…

Long and involved but still worth reading about why the right to privacy is more than having nothing to hide…

It may not be the “god particle” but CERN might be getting closer to the Higgs boson particle…