I'm reading as fast as I can...

[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]

Below are the 25 most recent friends journal entries:

May 14th, 2008
05:10 am boingboing_net [Link]	London supermarket secretly photographs alcohol/cigarette buyers, wants national database http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/290072893/london-supermarket-s.html Budgens, a London supermarket chain, secretly records biometric facial photos of people who buy cigarettes and alcohol and compares it to a database of known underage buyers, and they're hoping to link their database with other grocery chains around the country. This means that just bringing a bottle up to the till means that your likeness and details will be added to a nationwide database, recording your movements and purchasing habits. They'll probably be forced to drop the "secrecy" bit in the end, but that will not bring an end to the practice. Instead, they'll just put a sign up next to the till saying, "By buying alcohol here, you agree that we can violate your privacy and share your information with anyone we feel like." After all, that's what they do with the CCTV signs in London already. If successful, it could be rolled out across the country to create a database of youngsters who try to buy alcohol. The system alerts a cashier if it 'recognises' someone who has previously been unable to prove they are 18. It is believed to be the first time a British retailer has used the technology in this way. The software takes measurements between key points on the face to make a template of a person's features that is stored as a "token". Customers' images are monitored and relayed to a control centre to be compared with under-18s already on record. Future options include other retailers linking the scheme to their shops to create a giant database. Link (Thanks, Frank!) (Leave a comment)
06:39 am pseydtonne [Link]	You told your great tale... I would like to blame lightcastle for introducing me to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I'm now twelve episodes into the first season and doomed. I like it. I'm fascinated. It's my pace. It's about a high school boy following a high school girl and her manic-depressive pranks. Oh, but she may also be Master of Reality and not know it. Think X-Files meets anime: he doesn't believe a lick of it until he has to. The story isn't linear and that helps tell it a lot better. I'm doomed. By the way, I switch to the new hours on Sunday. This Friday I'm getting up early to drive to Brooklyn. I'll be picking up my aunt, who is visiting from Iowa, and then driving her to my parents' house in Utica. My mom is giving her and her husband a car. For some strange reason, I got so hung up on tidying my car for the road trip that I vacuumed it -- hardcore, detailed vacuuming. I even picked up window wipes and sponged down the dashboard. My car still needs to be washed, but the inside is cleaner than it's been in years. Hey, it gives me something to do while I wait for the traffic to abate after work. I have another post coming but it's not finished. -off to watch episode ~~five~~ thirteen, Ps/d Current Mood: mischievous Current Music: BT - The coda of "Shame" on loop (Leave a comment)
10:21 am new_scientist [Link]	Living bandage heals damaged organs http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=15f72e3c1c29fe268e76324b19cd8679 http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19826555.100-living-bandage-heals-damaged-organs.html?feedId=online-news_rss20 A layer of healthy cells wrapped around organs could lead to powerful new treatments for diseased body parts (Leave a comment)
10:40 am surliminal [Link]	More fan takedown dramas.. Further to the below entry, the press are looking for more examples of forced take down of fan fiction, products etc. they're excited by the Dr Who knitting wars!! Anyone got any fun examples or good websites to point to? NOT the JK Rowling court case - i know about that one already :) This is a chance for all you slash types to take a stand!! EDIT: UK examples preferred please. Current Mood: sleepy (Leave a comment)
05:33 am matociquala [Link]	i walk where the bottles break and the blacktop still comes back for more I've been awake since four AM, because the house across the street is burning down. Actually, at this point, I have to say, the house across the street was burning down, as the good offices of the West Hartford Fire Department have arrested this development in progress. (This is, yes, what I pay my taxes for.) And it doesn't appear, from the vantage of my front windows, that anyone was injured. However, it was pretty darn spectacular for a bit there, with flames through the third story and firefighters scrambling around chainsawing holes in the roof of a hundred-year-old three-family. This is the house with the extremely annoying and loud deterrent system, which tends to announce BURGLARY! BURGLARY! BURGLARY! in stentorian tones every time a cat crosses the yard. Which is why I missed the first five minutes of fun, because I thought it was just the usual late-night loudness. But then I heard the sirens--we're just around the corner from the fire department--and realized I should probably get up and put my pants on and close the windows. And comfort the cat, who does not like chainsaws. And now I am trying to decide whether it would be more productive to go for a walk, go back to bed, or try to get some work done, since it appears the apocalypse has been averted for the time being. I think coffee, a hot shower, and work are winning, because while I am still sleepy I'm not actually all that tired, and the sun is coming up, and I think it would annoy the nice firefighters less if I didn't traipse through where they are trying to work today. Also, there's that toe I'm supposed to be going easy on. And the cat says her feet are cold, and can I please sit down so she can put them on me? As a reminder, if anybody in the Midwest wants to come see me, I will be at WisCon the weekend after this one coming up, and I will be the Guest of Honor at Duckon (Chicago) and Fourth Street Fantasy (Minneapolis) in the middle weeks of June. I am moved to mention this because Fourth Street has just moved their pre-reg deadline back to May 31. truepenny will be my date for both cons, so you can rely on the full magnificence of the Mole And Bear Show in all its questionable glory. Fourth Street is looking suspiciously as though it will be an unofficial Shadow Unit convention, as the whole crew except stillsostrange will be there, and WisCon will have me, truepenny, and stillsostrange. (But no coffeeem or shetterly.) Someday we will all be in the same place at the same time, and there may be a singularity. Current Mood: awake Current Music: the rumbleof diesel engines, the mutter of radios Tags: conventioneering, no shit there i was, quinnehtukqut (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:55 am azurelunatic [Link]	Posted using TxtLJ Domain transfers often good for situational comedy. Also: 'domainer'! (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
11:53 pm azurelunatic [Link]	Daily randomness of Miss Lunatic 08:43 Failed at not-sleeping. Breakfast, and then Serious Nap. Am about 8 hours shifted off my schedule. # 08:49 DF4: OMG Murphy + Walmart + Cold Iron applied most rapidly & effectively! <3 # 16:47 Just did something very scary on facebook. She meant a lot to me. # 16:57 @coffeechica Cackling over here re: cheese fry status. :D # 16:58 The only cure for finishing a book is starting another book. This applies to both writing and reading. Reading right now, alas. # 17:49 @mamajoan Check your direct messages! :) I don't do the last name thing online generally, and don't link this ID to the last name. # 18:20 Thing that has made me laugh hardest all day so far: tinyurl.com/66ddt5 # 20:29 Booked flight out, emailed to aunt. # 21:01 The way I go through books when I have the time to read as much as I want, the challenge is not going through more than 50 books/month. # 21:05 @eng1ne after lunch, by chance? # Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter (Leave a comment)
10:40 pm meyerlemon [Link]	It's POSSIBLE that I watched Made of Honor and it's also possible that although I find Patrick Dempsey sort of gross in a really particular way, um, man! IT HIT A BUTTON. Namely: so his best friend is this girl Hannah. And she's really pretty in this kind of old-fashionedly-feminine way. And every Sunday they hang out and eat lunch and go to weird little stores. And on all other days, the guy is a manwhore. But then Hannah goes to Scotland on business! And he tries to mold his many slutty lays into her. He makes them go to weird stores with them. He takes them to dim sum. And he's constantly DISGRUNTLED and UNFULFILLED that they aren't getting things RIGHT. And then he starts calling Hannah, all FORLORN. !!!! Um, I liked that sequence. SIGH. I also kind of liked ( Read more... ) The rest of it was pretty ridiculous. ( Read more... ) And. There is a part about... Highland Games. In COSTUMES. That horrified me. shudder Basically the whole part in Scotland was... appalling. I would just like to put forth on behalf of AMERICANS EVERYWHERE that we do not all think that your country is a medieval theme park. Thank you. OH ALSO. I really disliked how a lot of the movie was Wedding Porn. Even though I think that Ethan Hawke is a tool, I once read something where he was talking about his feeling that romantic comedies were terrible for people, terrible for women, and that's sort of how I felt about this movie. You know? I mean, I'm not really a Wedding Porn person anyway - I find weddings as a thing pretty ridiculous, but this was just... creepy. Ladies! Get a hobby or run for political office or something. Let's not make your entire life about, OH JOY, your ONE DAY TO BE A PRINCESS. IN SCOTLAND. Especially not in Scotland. What did they ever do to us? NOTHING BUT GIVE US THE GLORIOUS BAGPIPES. Tags: movies (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
04:13 am sharpbrains [Link]	Neuroscience and Health blogs http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/05/13/neuroscience-and-health-blogs/ This week's editions of two excellent blog carnivals. Enjoy! - Encephalon #45 - Life Is Good, Brains Are Better - Grand Rounds 4:34 at the Health Business Blog Blog Carnivals, brains, encephalon, Grand Rounds, healt, Health blogs, Neuroscience blogs (Leave a comment)
07:08 am brisingamen [Link]	Take my unconscious, please ... I mentioned to X a while ago that after an election campaign, particularly an on-the-day operation, I dream about campaigning. He looked horrified, but it's true. Even after Sittingbourne, I dreamed about knocking up. After Bromley, I dreamed about campaigning for a solid week. At the last General Election, I regularly dreamed, before and after, about endlessly delivering my own ward, and I had something similar at the last council elections. Last night, I experienced a whole new wrinkle to this. I'm not going to Crewe (out of the country), and I doubt I'll make Henley (out of the country/President's Dinner). And yet, last night I dreamed about Dibley Central, and even populated it with the right people (most of whom I know by sight, even if they don't know me), and dreamed about going campaigning. I. Am. Appalled. (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:44 am ellen_datlow [Link]	Mind Meld: Young Adult SF/F Books That Adults Will Like, Too A Mind Meld in which various folk recommend Young Adult SF/F Books That Adults Will Like, Too --and reading my fellow commentators recommendations made me realize how many I missed. Give a shout out for your own favorites. (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
05:14 am sharpbrains [Link]	Can Intelligence Be Trained? Martin Buschkuehl shows how http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/05/13/can-intelligence-be-trained-martin-buschkuehl-shows-how/ Today I had a great conversation with Martin Buschkuehl, one of the University of Michigan’s Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab researchers involved in the cognitive training study that has received much media attention (New York Times, Wired, Science News...) since late April, when the study was published at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Reference: Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving Fluid Intelligence With Training on Working Memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(19), 6829-6833 (You can read it here, with subscription). Before you keep reading, let me clarify a couple of terms: - "Working Memory" is the ability to hold several units of information in our minds and manipulate them in real time. For example, imagine I ask you to remember, and then say backwards, the 7 digits of my phone number. - "Fluid intelligence" can be described as the ability to deal with new challenges and new problems, those that we encounter for the first time. Dr. Buschkuehl, nice to talk to you. Can you first provide us with some context on your research? My collaborator Susanne Jaeggi and I started our training work four years ago in the Lab of Prof. Walter Perrig at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Now we are both Post Docs in Prof. John Joindes’ Lab at the University of Michigan. We developed a complex computerized task and have tried it in a number of studies. We reported our results in two unpublished dissertations, but this is the first time it has been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Could you please explain the training involved in this particular study? We recruited 70 students aged around 26 years and set half of them on a challenging computer-based cognitive training regimen, based on the so-called "n-back task." This is a very complex working memory task that involves the simultaneous presentation of visual and auditory stimuli. The experimental group watched a series of screens on their computers, where a blue square appeared in various positions on a black background. Each screen appeared for half a second, with a 2.5 second gap before the next one appeared. While this happened, the trainees also heard a series of letters that were read out at the same rate. At first, students had to say if either the screen or the letter matched those that popped up two cycles ago. The number of cycles increased or decreased depending on how well the students performed the task. The students sat through about twenty-five minutes of training per day for either 8, 12, 17 or 19 days, and were tested on their fluid intelligence before and after the regimen using the Bochumer-Matrizen Test (this is a problem-solving task based on the same principle as the very well known Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. However, it is more difficult and therefore especially suited for academic samples). What were the results? Participants in the experimental group did significantly better on the fluid intelligence test (which was not directly trained) than participants in the control group. Those in the control group hadn’t gone through any training. The control group did improve slightly, but real “trainees” outperformed them (see Figure Xa). Furthermore, we found that the improvement was dose-dependent: the more they trained, the larger the gain on fluid intelligence. Images: PNAS. We just published a market report to cover the growing brain fitness software market. A common question we get is, “How are computerized programs like the one you used fundamentally different from, say, simply doing many crossword puzzles?” First, thank you for sending the report along. Fascinating to see what is starting to happen in this field. In terms of why our program worked, I could say that the program has some inherent properties that are at least in this combination unique to our training approach. Our program is: - Fully adaptive in real-time: The person using the program is truly pushed to his or her peak level all the time, thereby "stretching" the targeted ability. - Complex: We present a very complex task, mixing different forms of stimuli (auditory, visual) under time pressure. - Designed for Transferability: The tasks can be designed in a way that do not allow for the development of task-specific "strategies" to beat the game. One needs to truly expand capacity, and this helps ensure the transfer of to non-trained tasks. This is very different from enhancing task-specific capacities, such as memorizing lists of 100 numbers, which have been shown not to necessarily transfer to related domains. Can you give an example of the lack of transferability of other training methods? In Ericsson’s classic paper (Ericsson, K. A., & Delaney, P. F. (1998). Working memory and expert performance. In R. H. Logie & K. J. Gilhooly (Eds.), Working Memory and Thinking (pp. 93-114). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum), people who could memorize 100 numbers, using a variety of mnemotecnic techniques, could not get even close to 100 letters. Remembering numbers didn’t translate into remembering other things, so it wasn’t a general memory capacity that had been improved. What are the particular aspects of the University of Michigan study that surprised you the most? First, the clear transfer into fluid intelligence, that many researchers and psychologists take as fixed. Second, I was surprised to see that the more training the better the outcome. The improvements did not seem to peak early. Third, that all trained groups improved, no matter their respective starting points. In fact, students with lowest fluid intelligence seemed to improve the most. But that was not the main focus of our study, so we can not say much more about it. How did participants describe the experience, and their benefits? Many liked the training. They saw the challenge, and tried hard to push themselves through the training to see how far they could go. We did not analyze how the fluid intelligence gains transferred into real life. But from an anecdotal point of view, many participants have shared stories of how they perceive a major benefit. Now they can follow lectures more easily, understand math better etc… There is a degree of artificial controversy these days in the media and the scientific community on the respective benefits of physical or mental exercise. Your thoughts? We obviously need both. Physical exercise keeps the body in a good shape but especially in older people also leads to cognitive benefits. Mental exercise, like the one we used, can enhance important abilities and is most likely the most efficient way to improve a specific cognitive process but also generalizes to a broader range of skills, as we showed. Research will need to help clarify who needs what type of exercise more. Some people may get enough mental exercise through very complex jobs and what they need is physical exercise. For others, it may be the opposite. What are your plans now? First, to conduct follow-up research to analyze the neural basis of the improvement via neuroimaging studies and try to measure benefits in real life. But our main hope is to be able to investigate and develop applications for people who need it most: children with development problems, stroke/ TBI rehab, and older adults. Also, let me note that there is a cross-platform application available (Note: Here), that allows to train with the dual n-back task and several other training tasks that we developed for other studies. Although the application is available in English, the Manual and the BrainTwister Website are not at the moment. We are about to release an English version, but unfortunately I cannot give you a release date right now. If the training program is used for research (i.e. a training study), it is provided free of charge. Martin, many thanks for sharing your time and insights with us. Please keep us informed of new developments. My pleasure. We will. ---------------------------- Reference: Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving Fluid Intelligence With Training on Working Memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(19), 6829-6833 (You can read it here, with subscription). For related interviews on working memory training, see Memory training and attention deficits: interview with Notre Dame's Bradley Gibson Working Memory Training: Interview with Dr. Torkel Klingberg Working Memory Training from a pediatrician perspective And, if you want to try the task yourself before the official website mentioned above is ready (and we'll keep you updated), you can do so Here. BrainTwister, cognitive benefits, Computerized cognitive training, fluid intelligence, John Joindes, Martin Buschkuehl, mental exercise, n back task, Physical Exercise, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, psychologists, Susanne Jaeggi, Working memory (Leave a comment)
06:06 am malburns [Link]	Tweets for Today 06:33 SL Edu-Journal Post Tweets for Today: 06:34 SL Edu-Journal Post Tweets for Today: 06:.. tinyurl.com/3spnur # 13:35 Starting to scope some teaching and Buzz redux twurl.nl/21pc6q # 13:36 Ambling in Ambling: Boats, power, cars and speakers twurl.nl/1j6k4q # 13:37 Sunday Times covers BDO Second Life launch twurl.nl/ep62x8 # 13:38 Vigilant Bunnies: Second Life's Playboy Staffers Investigate Knock-Offs twurl.nl/cscijz # 13:39 Second Life News for May 13, 2008 twurl.nl/kt2jx4 # 13:40 Virtual Cuba versus Real World Cuba twurl.nl/ygt1gp # 13:42 Second Life web resources for May 1st 2008 through May 12th 2008 twurl.nl/cjhmus # 13:43 Random Comments from the Front twurl.nl/7rz5ys # 13:49 Random musings about things griddish twurl.nl/ispx07 # 14:08 Sometimes this Feels like Magic twurl.nl/u5l8xy # 14:09 EduCation@EduNation V twurl.nl/s5qg77 # 14:09 Transhumanism: Road to utopia or Narcissism 3.0? twurl.nl/vs8civ # 14:10 Pharmacy Patient Case Studies in Second Life twurl.nl/t3h6fd # 14:11 Music Fest to Stream in Real-Time twurl.nl/n4dyax # 14:13 Legal threats for Second Life? Global law needed twurl.nl/3z23ug # 14:16 SLCN Tonight Live - ART MUSIC FANTASTICA! twurl.nl/yyb8kr # 14:29 Second Life to be switched off, asset system repairs twurl.nl/nd8z76 # 14:43 SLCN.tv to Broadcast a Panel on Financial Policy Changes in Second Life twurl.nl/izh5zz # 14:51 $econd £ife trademarks and copyrights twurl.nl/ju0rgm # 14:53 Simuality launches Burma cyclone donation drive in Second Life twurl.nl/n70mkf # 16:04 Interview - Skribe Forti twurl.nl/mt2qnd # 16:06 HAVE I GOT A SIM FOR YOU! twurl.nl/wcaz5t # 16:10 Creating Home With Ryker Beck twurl.nl/i3sq00 # 16:15 Welcome to SLA's Second Life initiative! twurl.nl/fa0djs # 16:16 World of Conferencecraft? Probably not twurl.nl/348cq2 # 16:19 Avatars and Virtual-World Education twurl.nl/bt21x4 # 16:22 Resources for Second Life and Virtual Worlds twurl.nl/l3pq6b # 16:33 Tree of Second Life and Begger of the Week twurl.nl/5upz2k # 16:49 Games For Health: Why You Should Care About Virtual Worlds twurl.nl/63uufs # 17:08 In My Annex > Eselle's Mental Hospital: Riving reporter Sphie yates came across this str.. tinyurl.com/3gvmbl # 17:13 Opening Bavarian State Library in Second Life Today! twurl.nl/4se1sp # 17:36 In My Annex > Eselle's Mental Hospital: Riving reporter Sphie yates came across this str.. tinyurl.com/3gvmbl # 23:43 PSA: Best Shopping District Competition! twurl.nl/yykyez # 23:46 Drama at Bear Infohub twurl.nl/72xusw # 23:47 Playboy Investigates Possible Trademark Infringement in Second Life twurl.nl/lvm0qi # 00:04 NCsoft and Vivox Partner for Voice Integration twurl.nl/jjpkgt # 00:05 Homeland Security Building Virtual Classroom for a Virtual World twurl.nl/uh5lvt # 00:11 Metaversum Hires Online Marketing and Product Management Heads for Twinity twurl.nl/kmjyf0 # 00:14 Linden Lab drops the application for the TM of the term “Grid” and renames SLGOGP to OGP twurl.nl/l8se4n # 00:57 Scientific Research and Medicine in Second Life twurl.nl/f6qzxs # 01:05 Creating Your World twurl.nl/adgare # 01:08 KABBALAH: A SECOND LIFE? twurl.nl/b7uras # 01:11 Advertising & Metrics twurl.nl/so25tr # 01:23 Health Care Providers Could Use a Second Life twurl.nl/5iuwzi # 01:41 Regulatory Virtual Worlds Backlash on the Horizon? twurl.nl/gmr1wf # 02:01 Theatron 3 - Educational undertakings in Second Life twurl.nl/avievm # 02:26 The Decline of Society in Second Life twurl.nl/amfxb4 # 02:34 Second Spice - Hosoi Ichiba tinyurl.com/5d7bs8 # My recent twitters powered by LoudTwitter (Leave a comment)
09:42 pm wiscon [holyoutlaw] [Link]	There's still time! If you want to get a sticker made of your LJ icon, that is. Reply to the earlier post, and I'll add you to the mix. We'll close up shop on the 15th, so you have two more days. Two-ish. Not 48 hours. So hurry!
12:36 am james_nicoll [Link]	Not Even Wrong Seen on Amazon Caliphate (Miles Vorkosigan Adventures) (Hardcover) by Tom Kratman (Author) Seen via the Bujold mailing list (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:00 am librivox_new [Link]	Bible (YLT) 23: Isaiah by Young's Literal Translation http://librivox.org/bible-ylt-23-isaiah/ Young's Literal Translation is a translation of the Bible into English, published in 1862. The translation was made by Robert Young, compiler of Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible and Concise Critical Comments on the New Testament. Young produced a "Revised Version" of the translation in 1887. After he died on October 14, 1888, the publisher in 1898 released a new Revised Edition. (Summary from Wikipedia) (Leave a comment)
12:14 am chr0me_kitten [Link]	What I Twittered today 00:43 @deepforestowl not the computer, but the copy about the computer. the bit about it being "light enough for a woman to carry" # 09:56 First in person kindle sighting on the bus. They look better in person than they do online. # 11:02 Books to look up: in search of the black fantastic & the post-colonial and the global # 12:59 @cheshster yeah. they're much nicer than I'd thought they would be. They seem to refresh the text faster than the Sony Reader, too. # LoudTwitter. Because my attention span is only 140 characters long. (Leave a comment)
09:12 pm azurelunatic [Link]	Last spare time for another week... http://www.muddymountainpottery.com/raku-ray-guns.html -- OMG. I am a potter's daughter, and I approve of these sculptures. Me: "There's a plate on your bed." hcolleen: "Yeah." Me: "You know, if there were an earthquake on your bed, you'd be seeing plate tectonics." Me: runs very very fast All responding IRC denizens seem to think this was a prudent maneuver. Displayed name change From: "Azz (shot right through with a bolt of blue)" To: "Azz (bolt of blue) - finest-kind molasses lackey" Yes, this is an inside joke. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:59 pm officialgaiman [Link]	what you can't help doing http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/what-you-cant-help-doing.html Sorry about the font-mess of yesterday's post. I did it using Safari on a PC, and the result was hellish. Obviously these are not two things that work well together when playing with Blogger. And each attempt to clean it up on my part made it worse. (Thanks to the Web Goblin for fixing it.) I did a second draft of the Waterstones "What's Your Story?" story (only a few words I wanted to change, but it meant handwriting the whole thing out again), and FedExed it off today. My thanks to the Eagle Award voters -- I was thrilled that Absolute Sandman volume 2 won an Eagle Award for Best Reprint. (Last year it was Absolute Sandman volume 1. Next year the vote will probably be split between Absolute Sandman volumes 3 and 4, and something else entirely will win.) (I was looking to see if there were covers for Absolute Sandmans 3 and 4 up yet at Amazon, and noticed that volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all on sale for $62.37 [and that they are going to weigh a grand total of 29 lb altogether] and the last two have 5% preorders discounts up as well. Which I mention mostly for those people who write to me and grumble about the Absolutes being $100 books.) Not sure if the cover for Absolute 4 is a mock-up or the real thing. I suspect it's not the final, mostly because I'm pretty sure that face is from Sandman #1, and for Absolute 4 we'll be taking a cover portrait from somewhere in the last 20 issues. ... Regarding the Julie Schwartz Memorial Talk at MIT on the 23rd of May: To reiterate from the other day -- over at http://cms.mit.edu/juliusschwartz/tickets.html we learn that Tickets to the event are $8.00 and will be available at the door, pending availability. There won't be any available on the door, because they have almost all sold out. The website has a list of places selling the tickets -- yesterday there were about 60 tickets still out there. So this is a sort of a last call -- you can try phoning the places at the website to see if they still have tickets... ... An ebay auction with a story... I've been rereading some old Batman comics recently, although I don't think I'd want these. But the story that comes with them is wonderful... I'm worried and upset about the earthquake in China. From Nancy Kress's blog I learned that at least some of the friends we made in Chengdu last summer are okay -- and so are the pandas. ... Rice pudding re-prompt! Once you get home to proper milk, of course. "Your general guidelines for a batch of rice pudding please, Mr. Gaiman!"Thank you!! ^_^b I'm working on it, honest. Decided to figure out the proportions I'd used by a) finding a very similar recipe on the web and starting from there and then b) fiddling with it. Two night's ago's rice pudding (the web recipe) was much too salty and wrong. I fiddled with the proportions and last night's was a lot better but now too sweet. Tonight's rice pudding would have been perfect I have no doubt but I forgot to buy more milk, so I didn't actually make one. Dear Neil, The press down here in Brazil have enthusiastically announced you'll be here for the Paraty International Book Fair, first week in July. But since you're also scheduled to lecture at Clarion, I'd like to ask if this is true. Or maybe you have a doppelganger. Or maybe the organizers here had a dream. Or maybe you're taking a weekend of from Clarion down here in Rio (if so, it'll be winter here, and rainy, not the best time to come...) Best regards,Eric That sounds right, yes. (I teach Clarion the 3rd week in July.) Hello hello hello, To quote one of your other fans, “I have a question for you about writing”. I find that my own writing will echo the style of which ever author I am currently reading. Any idea how I might get around constantly mimicking others? You write more. I don't think there's anything wrong with copying other people's styles -- it's a skill you'll need, after all. Many actors begin as mimics. You don't worry about it, and keep writing, and after a while you'll have written enough that you can't help sounding like yourself, whether you want to or not. Style is what you get wrong, that makes what you do sound like you. Style is what you can't help doing. Style is what you're left with. (I just googled "style is what you can't help doing" because it sounded half-familiar, and I wondered who said it originally, and discovered that it may actually have been me, as I found myself looking at an extract from a speech I gave to an audience of comics artists and writers in 1997 at ProCon in Oakland: We are creators. When we begin, separately or together, there’s a blank piece of paper. When we are done, we are giving people dreams and magic and journeys into minds and lives that they have never lived. And we must not forget that. I don’t want to sound like an inspirational speaker here. "Be you." "Be the best you that you can be." But this is really important. It’s something that we mostly lose track of when we starts, because when we start in comics we’re kids, and we have no idea who we are or what our voices are, as artists or as writers. Young artists want to be Rob Leifeld, or Bernie Wrightson, or Frank Miller, just as young writers want to be Alan Moore, or Chris Claremont or, well, Frank Miller. You’ve seen their portfolios. You’ve read the scripts. We all swipe when we start. We trace, we copy, we emulate. But the most important thing is to get to the place where you’re telling your own stories, painting your own pictures, doing the stuff that one-one else could have done, but you. Dave McKean, when he was much younger, as a recent art-school graduate, took his portfolio to New York, and showed it to the head of an advertising agency. The guy looked at one of Dave’s paintings—"That’s a really good Bob Peake," he said. "But why would you I want to hire you? If I have something I want done like that, I phone Bob Peake." You may be able to draw kind of like Rob Leifeld, but the day may come, may have already come, when no-one wants a bargain basement Rob Leifeld clone any more. Learn to draw like you. And as a writer, or as a storyteller, try to tell the stories that only you can tell. Try to tell the stories that you cannot help but tell, the stories you would be telling yourself if you had no audience to listen. The ones that reveal a little too much about you to the world. It’s the point I think of writing as walking naked down the street: it has nothing to do with style, or with genre, it has to do with honesty. Honesty to yourself and to whatever you’re doing. Don’t worry about trying to develop a style. Style is what you can’t help doing. If you write enough, you draw enough, you’ll have a style, whether you want it or not. Don’t worry about whether you’re "commercial". Tell your own stories, draw your own pictures. Let other people follow you. If you believe in it, do it. If there’s a comic or a project you’ve always wanted to do, go out there and give it a try. If you fail, you’ll have given it a shot. If you succeed, then you succeeded with what you wanted to do. And it's still true. (That speech is, along with another speech about tulips and comics, and an essay on how to do successful signings, available in Gods And Tulips, illustrated by Chester Brown, price $3 from the CBLDF commercial website.)(And for those of you after instant webby gratification, the whole Procon speech is up at the Magian Line archives at http://www.woxberg.net/gaiman/magian/3-2.html. But the CBLDF Neil Gaiman store one has a pretty Mike Kaluta cover of me being dead on it. And it's cheap...) (12 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:51 pm james_nicoll [Link]	Seen on rasfw The only thing lamer than spamming rasfw with a badly written ad for a Publish America published SF novel is spamming rasfw with a badly written ad for a Publish America published SF novel and then misspelling part of the url you are trying to get them to follow. (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:48 pm noire [Link]	A reminder that there will be a combination WHITE FLAMES (by Cecilia Tan) and SUCCUBUS IN THE CITY (by Nina Harper, aka me) book party and reading this coming Friday at pandemonium_bks! (Which is to say, Pandemonium Books, address below.) Friday, May 16th 7pm -9pm Pandemonium 4 Pleasant St., Central Square, Cambridge Books will be sold, autographed and read from. There may possibly be cake. There will definitely be books. (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:42 pm meyerlemon [Link]	1) This makes me laugh: more cat pictures 2) Not ONE, not TWO, but THREE women on my flist I consider to be extremely sensible are suddenly talking a lot about that horrible TWILIGHT series. WHAT HAPPENED? Is there... some news? What's going on, zeitgeist? 3) I am so tired! Today was my last day with the wacky people. I am exhaustededededed. Also I felt sad leaving the person I was working for, which was weird. Ugh! Sigh. 4) I was reading deadlinehollywooddaily.com and there was suddenly a post with like 90 comments, and at first I was all "...?" but then I realized that the post was about Moonlight getting canceled, and maybe getting picked up on another network (namely the CW, the NETWORK OF TOTAL CRAP THAT INEXPLICABLY HAS DIEHARD FANS^tm) and the comments were full of ladies gushing. Apparently someone had lit up the batsignal. It made me feel really annoyed! Why is that? What is it about my personality that finds it PERSONALLY OFFENSIVE when people get gushy in that particular way I consider retarded? Why do I care if people genuinely think that Moonlight is better than The Wire? Gah. You know who would frown on this aspect of my personality? The Dalai Lama. YOU KNOW HE WOULD. 5) I AM SO EXCITED TO BE HOME. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:21 am boingboing_net [Link]	Rotary iPhone dial http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/13/rotary-iphone-dial.html iDial adds an old timey rotary phone dial interface to your "jailbroken" iPhone. Link (via Michael Leddy's Orange Crate Art) (Leave a comment)
02:56 am boingboing_net [Link]	Einstein: Religion is "childish," "primitive" http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/13/einstein-religion-is.html A newly published letter reveals that Albert Einstein viewed religion and religious works as "childish," and "primitive works." In the letter, dated January 3 1954, he wrote: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. "No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this..." "For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people." Link (Thanks, Modeling Promotions Girl!) (Leave a comment)
02:53 am boingboing_net [Link]	NNDB mapper lets conspiracy theorists connect the dots between powerful people http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/13/nndb-mapper-lets-con.html Gweeds sez, The NNDB Mapper is a visual tool for tracking the connections of more than 32,000 famous people- linking them together through family relations, corporate boards, tv shows, political alliances and shadowy conspiracy groups. Creating a map with the NNDB Mapper tells a story about the world through connecting the lives of billionaire executives, scientists and inventors, politicians and activists, writers and musicians, and even Hollywood stars. These stories are shared by saving the maps for others to explore- from San Francisco's political landscape, to Hollywood sex charts, to who rocks more: Ozzy vs Slayer? Link (Thanks, Gweeds!) (Leave a comment)

[<< Previous 25 entries]

BlindBookworm.org