aberwyn

Smoked

2008-10-13T19:40:16Z

Last night a wildfire swept across part of Angel Island. The wind drove the smoke south our way. This morning all the cars parked outside on our block had a coating of ash. Needless to say, I'm wheezing. The fire, mercifully, is nearly under control though there are hot spots. Fire crews had to be taken by boat over last night, and fire equipment as well.

For those who don't know, Angel Island lies in the San Francisco Bay, just north and east of Alcatraz. There are several historic sites on it, a WWI fort and the Pacific version of Ellis Island, the Immigration Center, which has been undergoing restoration for the past three years. I hope it doesn't go up.

This weekend had minor annoyances with the damned new Deverry book. I keep looking over bits I've written only to realize that they don't match up well with stuff in earlier volumes. Very frustrating!

Flavia Catt has become a drug addict. We started giving her bits of catnip occasionally. Now she whines for it every night just before bedtime. She eats it, doesn't just sniff or roll in it. She ate so much Saturday night that she took a few steps and flopped over on her side; didn't move for a long time. I kept checking to see if she were breathing, but she did recover, thanks be to Bast. I noticed that last night she was much more temperate about it. I think she may have to go without tonight.

Some good advice from Neil Gaiman

2008-10-11T21:40:05Z

Haven't made a will yet? Are you a writer or artist? Do read this, then:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html

Whose yer terrorist daddy?

2008-10-10T23:30:55Z

I am shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

I owe wyldemusick for a tip-off to the following. I then looked on Google and found plenty!

Apparently the Palin was associated with the Alaska Independence Party and its now-dead founder, Joseph Vogler. He's dead because the FBI shot him when he was trying to buy plastique to blow up US government buildings. . . This party wants Alaska, and its oil resources, to secede from the US. They are now scrambling to deny that Palin ever was a member, but the evidence is there that she supported them heartily.

There's quite a lot about this on the web, if anyone else cares to google for it. There is also the charge that the Party was being backed by Iran, but I've not seen any credible evidence for that. It's bad enough without Iran, frankly.

Spread the word! Has Jon Stewart picked up on this yet? (evil grin)

Memed from klwilliams

2008-10-09T21:06:54Z

You Are 14% Evil

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm.

Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

How Evil Are You?

A question for Branna and any other science people here

2008-10-08T21:53:13Z

How many science projects could be funded with 580 million dollars, the amount the AIG CEO plundered from his corporation?

Doorstep wit

2008-10-08T21:46:08Z

I have this affliction, that if someone insults me, I can always think of a great rejoinder -- hours later, when they're long-gone.

Yesterday we had a bit of unpleasantness on the Deverry listserv. One of the members called us all idiots and announced that he was leaving because there were others places where he could see stupidity. What I should have said was "Oh, you keep a blog?" I thought of this much too late. (The cause of the blow-up was politics; he was a True Believer far-right person.)

Anyway, the one "interesting" insult he tossed whilst leaving was his hope that I wouldn't let my politics ruin my writing, "the way Sheri Tepper has." The arrogance of this is breath-taking. What are novelists supposed to do, keep all ideas out of their work and write fluff so they won't offend anyone? The simple solution is don't read the books that offend you so much, of course; don't ask the author to denature their views!

I don't read Jerry Pournelle, for example. I have enough trouble with my heart as it is. :-) But I'd never suggest he stop writing what he believes in.

There's greed and then there's GREED!!!

2008-10-08T17:22:11Z

Watching bits of the AIG and other financial hearings in Congress is not good for my blood pressure, especially when it's intercut with news like 2 Trillion dollars gone from the retirement accounts of those who actually do the work. Yesterday I learned about credit default swaps and trips to fancy resorts, the latter paid for by you and me, the tax payers who bailed these greedy bastards, to use Jay Leno's phrase, out.

Also, executive compensation for the CEO alone to the tune of 580 million dollars. That's over half a billion.

More and more I think someone in Congress or elsewhere should add up all the bonuses, golden parachutes, and compensations, including perks, of the top 4 officers of these corporations. "A million here, 10 million there -- sooner or later it begins to add up to real money", to paraphrase someone who's name I've forgotten. I suspect that it would come to more than a drop in the bucket -- a couple of cupfuls, perhaps.

The Big Cs of global finance: CEO, CFO, COO, and in some cases, CTO. Cancers, indeed, in the work force.

I wimped out

2008-10-03T02:24:31Z

Well, when Palin confused personal income tax with the taxes on small business, then went on to her definition of patriotism, Howard and I looked at each other in disgust and turned off the debate. I have a limited tolerance for empty-headed nonsense from people who smile and smile while they talk it. I realize that the smile is her beauty-pageant-says reflex, but yuck.

Imagine her talking with Putin . . . and trying to be firm . . .

What you call it

2008-10-02T20:20:36Z

I see that the "bail-out for Wall Street" has become the "rescue of our American financial system." So someone in the Bush administration does have half a brain, after all! Amazing. The negative connotations of "bail out" are manifold, if probably accurate in this case. We'll see how the change influences people, or if it's too late.

Speaking of brains, or at least of half a one, the vice-presidental debate tonight should be interesting. We'll see if Mrs. Palin has more to say on the matters presented than she did on the periodicals she reads regularly and other such "unfair" questions. :-)

Memed from galeni

2008-10-01T00:07:54Z

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"Third, humanitas provided a description of Roman culture which also operated to define it and bind it together."

(This sentence is part of a list, obviously.) From BECOMING ROMAN: The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul, by Greg Woolf.

Sour banknotes

2008-09-30T21:48:32Z

Why I say 'no' to the Wall Street bailout: how many reasons can I come up with?

1)Bush has lied so much that he's hard to believe now when he talks about a "crisis", esp. since this morning he downgraded this "immediate crisis" to "urgent situation."
2)When it came to mortgages and health care, we were all told that we had to take personal responsibility and not whine for a government hand-out. So, now the rich are whining and begging for a government hand-out.
3)The jerks brought this on themselves when the Republican-controlled Congress, back in the '90s, repealed all the safe-guard regulations that were put in place back in the '30s, after a similiar gang of Republican thieves ran the economy into the 1929 blow-up.
4)Many of the bankers our tax monies would bail out live in foreign countries. Let their government worry about them.
5)The Stock Market rebounded this morning after yesterday's losses. Just how bad is this supposed to be, again?
6)I am tired of hearing people like me referred to as "everyday folks", the "little people," and "Mom and Pop." We happen to be citizens of this country, even if we're not rolling in dubious wealth, with equal rights. How about a little dignity if you're expecting us to clean up your mess?
7)We've heard for years that the US consumers owe too much money on their credit cards and should spend less. So one of the Bad Things is: we may get less credit and thus have to spend less.
8)Printing money to cover bad debts means Inflation with a capital I. We'll all lose more, I suspect, to inflation that we will to letting Capitalist Nature take its course on the jerks who made the bad decisions and quasi-legal policies.
9)Last but not least, all those executive golden parachutes and huge salaries given to the officers of the failing banks. What about they give those back -first-, and then we'll see how much is left over for us to cover?

Have I missed any?

Happy New Year!

2008-09-30T06:06:15Z

Rosh haShanah that is. We are entering the season of New Years, from now till March, basically: Celtic at October 31, the usual at Jan 1, Chinese in February, Persian and ancient Greek and Roman in March.

May we all prosper at all of them!

Tentative Pub Dates

2008-09-26T19:57:36Z

It looks like THE SILVER MAGE will be published in November of '09. October at the earliest. Which is fine with me as I have a hell of a lot left to write, and November means Christmas sales. The mass market of THE SHADOW ISLE will be out in the USA in May of '09, but I don't know yet about the UK date.

Writing a long series like this is a little like walking across a continent, one you don't know very well. If I started in the swamps of Virginia then I've finally crossed the Cascades and am heading for the Oregon coast. :-)

aberwyn @ 2008-09-23T15:07:00

2008-09-23T22:09:51Z

According to the lead review in the Times Literary Supplement for Sept. 19, (a selection of books about the spread of Pentacostalism), Sarah Palin is not the generalized Fundamentalist Christian she portrays herself as. She and the First Dude were members of the Assemblies of God for years, only switching allegiance to a less whacko church when she began to have a political career.

The Assemblies of God believe in speaking in tongues and other "apolostic gifts" as described in Acts. I don't think they pick up serpents, though.

Anyway, I know of this group because my mother belonged to it in her later years. They are very sincerely nuts, believing in all kinds of weird things, and have no Christian love or tolerance toward non-members, either.

The wider public should know of this. Write your local newspaper and ask why this isn't common knowledge

Sauce for the goose

2008-09-19T04:20:05Z

What's this about an investigation into Palin's husband? The Repubs are screaming bloody murder about it. I hope that everyone here remembers -- or read about in history class -- how the Repubs absolutely trashed Geraldine Ferraro by investigating her husband and making all kinds of allegations about him that may or may not have been true.

But now they're the Holy Ones . . . and above all that. Yeah. Sure.

Morrigan Press anthology

2008-09-17T06:42:55Z

I mentioned some while back that I'd sold a story to an anthology, THE PHANTOM QUEEN AWAKES, from Morrigan Press (in Sweden, though publishing in English.) It turns out that they're online here on LJ -- morrigan_books

No cover art for this anthology yet, but then, I don't think it's filled yet, either. There's a submission page if anyone here is interested.

Following the money

2008-09-16T03:36:17Z

A suggestion:

http://www.MAPlight.org is a journalism site devoted to showing how donated money influences US senators and representatives. The MAP is "money and politics". It's verrrry interesting to see how the big donations determine what passes or even gets out of committee.

Wall Street crash?

2008-09-15T22:46:06Z

I have been saying for some years now that too many fleas will kill a dog.

Bloated executive salaries and commissions for brokers etc: the fleas, biting away by globalizing, fraud, and legal fraud.

Unfortunately, the rest of us rather liked that dog, the American economy, that was.

Hallelujah, Brother O'Sullivan!

2008-09-15T04:49:30Z

The 49ers won today, against a good team, in a tight game -- in overtime, in fact. It's been a long time since one of their games has lifted rather than depressed my mood. :-)

Other than that, it was a pretty good day around here. Solved a plot problem in the Massive Project. Went for a walk, patted the cat, the usual stuff.

I am currently reading Mallory and Mair's book on the Tarim basin mummies. Quite good so far. Will post more once I've finished it.

Odd thoughts

2008-09-13T20:48:53Z

Hurricane Ike has certainly caused plenty of damage and is apparently going to cause more, according to the Weather Channel, as it spawns tornadoes and flooding as far north as Chicago or even Cleveland. Seeing all that news video of ghastly damage on the Texas coast was sickening, really, making me wonder why anyone would choose to stay and face the hurricane rather than evacuating. Apparently over 150,000 people in Houston did stay, and are now in frantic need of help which will be hard to deliver.

Anyway, my odd mind also made me wonder something about the Jurassic in N. America. The planet as a whole, and thus its oceans, was warmer and ice-free back in that vast past. Shallow seas covered a lot of what is now the American midwest. Hurricanes spawn in warm water, of course. Were there monster storms during the Jurassic? Now and then dinosaur diggers discover "graveyards," where a lot of dino skeletons are piled up together. Some disaster must have killed a lot of them at once, they theorize. I wonder if anyone's thought of hurricanes and flooding?

I also wonder if that shallow sea is forming again over the Midwest as the polar ice melts. Floods and more floods, year after year . . . how long before the Mississippi just stays wide, oozing out into the lowlands of Lousiana and Missouri?

A game

2008-09-11T03:00:39Z

California recently passed a law limiting cell phone use by those driving a vehicle -- you have to have a hands-free headset now, basically. The news tonight had a soundbite or two about how many drivers are ignoring the law, as one might expect. H. and I were wondering if the headsets were really enough to prevent wandering attention and the accidents that follow on from talking on the phone while driving.

What if, for instance, the driver gets this call: (female voice)Hi, Mom? I'm at Planned Parenthood and I've got, um, well, news.

Or this one (male voice): Say, honey, it's me. Do you happen to remember our lawyer's phone number?

Do any of you have candidates for instant car-in-the-ditch opening lines?

Still morose

2008-09-10T06:00:16Z

Partly over politics, California version as well as national. Even more over this stupid novel which I am supposed to be writing. Grump all round.

Some better news

2008-09-08T05:19:14Z

Serena wins!

The Palin trap

2008-09-08T05:17:15Z

It occurs to me that we've all fallen for Black Adder's cunning plan. Whoops, I mean the Republican Central Committee's cunning plan . . . We're all talking about Palin instead of McCain's weaknesses, which are considerable and the real issue.

McCain is 72, yes, and he has had skin cancer, but there's no reason to assume he's going to die in office. If he's elected, he and the whackos that have taken over the Republican party will do enough damage without even any need for Palin to take over.

Yet what's getting all the attention now? His back-up.

Either/or controversies and the Indo-Europeans

2008-09-07T21:47:57Z

The latest issue of the Journal of Indo-European Studies has an article by David Anthony, he whose book "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language," or some such list for a title, is the current orthodox rehash of the "origin of the Indo-Europeans" controversy. I've not read the book, but the article, much shorter, restated his position upon such matters, sparing me the need to read the overly familiar material in the book. The style of argument here is what's interesting beyond the ostensible subject matter.

The problem for those here that don't know, is simple: languages that fall into the IE family are extremely widespread over Eurasia. Originally there must have been one language in a small area. Where? How did it get widespread? For a long time the orthodox view has been that Proto-Indo-European, PIE as it's usually abbreviated, got its start somewhere in the steppes, perhaps near the Caucasus mountains. The orthodox further believe that it was spread from there into Europe by chariot-driving horsebreeding nomads, either by conquest (old orthodoxy)or simple migration (new orthodoxy) after Europe had been settled by non-PIE speakers who were Neolithic farmers.

For a long time scholars believed that these farmers were Goddess worshippers and thus weak and peaceful, whilst the horse-driving invaders worships Gods and thus were strong and warlike. If this isn't a case of wishful thinking on all sides, I don't know what is. But anyway . . .

The heretics believe that IE languages were brought to Europe with the farmers. Colin Renfrew first laid out the reasons for believing this. I use religious terms because this argument is being carried out with all the fervor of religious sects.

No one seems to have consider the third, non-either/or possibility: that both groups spoke IE languages. There is evidence that both did. Anthony assidiously ignores the evidence against the orthodox theory in his article, never mentioning Jasonoff's work on the Hittite verb-system, though he does take a swing or two at Renfrew. It's standard thinking about prehistory to note that nomadic societies depend upon farming communities and are a later development in the Neolithic. So why couldn't IE speakers have gone west early on, like 6000 BC in Anatolia, and spread farming through Europe, whilst a later nomadic society of IE speakers then followed in the 2000's?

I've never seen this idea broached in the literature, and I've read a fair bit of the literature. (Yes, I might be crazy for doing so, but we all knew that already.)

This kind of either/or polarized thinking is very common in politics, religion, and daily life. It's somewhat disheartening to see it so common in academia and science, too.