Phoenix Living

A couple of these were found in an old draft from a month ago, but I added new ones as well…

A neat perspective on how often most people are attempting to solve the wrong problem

A new physics particle? or just a data blip?

Will any habitable exoplanets be found close enough? Centauri Dreams ponders this question…

Gay vigilantes fight back — what do you think?

Adventures in personal health insurance — one person’s experiences

Shady Characters — the secret life of punctuation ; interesting blog for writerly/editorly types about obscure punctuation marks and their history

Sadly, the Japan nuclear meltdown was worse than they were saying…

Collection of Bin Laden links:

He Won — how Bin Laden changed the face of America for the worse

Obama and the End of Al-Qaeda — How Obama could actually come out of this looking awesome…if only…
Muslim nations sound off on Bin Laden — so over him, already
Top 10 Myths about Bin Laden’s death — wow these spring up fast

Swarms of microbots, whee!

Spaaaaace Squiiiiids!

The world is ending again, on May 21st. This time with billboard announcements!

Why Nerds are Unpopular

Ridiculous fandom expression — royals tattooed on teeth

On Writing the Other, from Lauren Beukes

Tiny spacecraft — why hasn’t this been explored more as a concept? How cool…

I may or may not make it to World Horror Convention here in Austin today, but here’s the link in case you want to check it out!

Only a couple this week… but hey, I wrote a thingy this week! rough first draft, but still. willpower for the win.

Tobias Buckell is smart about book piracy.

I’ve been reading this series and enjoying it: Key Conditions for Suspense, part 14, plot and story cycle

A rather scientific look at current facets of the publishing industry.

Interesting Supreme Court decision on the same-sex marriage argument.

Cyborg brains!

Amanda Hocking’s own words on her recent rise to e-fame — nicely balanced

Interesting feminism interview

New tech helps reduce pain for certain cancer treatments

And one on analyzing aspects of polyamory — long but reasonably sane-sounding

Abstract art? No, a map of the history of science fiction

Haven’t been on the internet as much to collect these, so here’s the last couple of weeks’ worth of what I did find…

A more scientific article on a topic we’ve touched on in a previous Weekend Link, Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

A rather funny bit of odd news, Homeowner Forecloses on Wells Fargo

Hummingbird spy drones!

Cool one on Designing the Internet For Space

A great list of references about interstellar flight

Hackers with letters of marque?

light link load this week!

An astronomer and writer’s blog, full of many interesting links! Mike Brotherton

Silly science fun: Orbital Mechanics for Werewolves

Hubby is selling his old car! See craigslist ad here. (Mileage = 154739, price neg.)

Linked several places, why the space race is in stasis over at Slate.com.

I’ve had some similar understandings over the past couple of years given health and other crises, but this is a nice article for writers on how to keep writing when life falls apart.

More updates on all the new exoplanets we’re finding…

Awesome blog discussing the intersection of law and comic books over at Law and the Multiverse.

Interesting author response to critics of a controversial book about applying scientific process to moral questions…

A transgendered person’s perspective on the gender inequalities in scientific fields. I like this kind of activism…

A neat link about progress on creating “invisibility cloaks” outside of science fiction and fantasy.

From a wiki-ramble (I started with shrunken heads and ended up here), a creepy, we-haven’t-learned-from-history quote from the Wikipedia entry on Hermann Goering, Hitler’s second-in-command:

Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. …voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

So if any of you writers missed the link last week to The Business Rusch series, don’t forget to read that — and then read this one, all the way through: Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing, by Dean Wesley Smith. Seriously, even if — or especially if — you get angry about or disagree with some of what’s written within, read all the chapters. And then think about them. Some very good points about writing-as-business and some hard truths about agents and the industry.

And in the realm of the world being stranger than fiction, check out this link about pornography for pandas.

And if you haven’t already done so, check out Andrea O’Sullivan’s new website complete with shopping cart at Natural Obsessions Fiber! Amazing and vivid fiber art for your spinning and knitting needs.

Fun article reminiscent of Fortean Times, about the possibility that our moon is an artificial satellite. They didn’t convince me, but the arguments were intriguing…

Seen a couple of places, thunderstorms on earth produce antimatter

OKCupid argues that the mathematics of beauty suggest you should be yourself, warts and all.

Forget the Galapagos turtle, or sequoia tree, bacteria are the longest lived organic life form we’ve discovered to date — try 34000 years on for size…

And for the writers, two things you should be reading, both by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:
The Business Rusch
The Freelancer’s Survival Guide