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December 21st, 2009
juliansinger
 | 05:55 pm - score!
Nevermind on that previous link soup, Karnythia's missing relative's been found.
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juliansinger
| 02:49 pm - link soup.
Educational theory on learning styles not supported by proper scientific testing.
...although numerous studies have purported to show the existence of different kinds of learners (such as "auditory learners" and "visual learners"), those studies have not used the type of randomized research designs that would make their findings credible.
Nearly all of the studies that purport to provide evidence for learning styles fail to satisfy key criteria for scientific validity....
Wonder how schools'll react to /that/...
On the other hand, a study which is apparently correctly done again shows water is wet, or in this specific case, (bad) TV may help perpetuate racial bias.
A relative of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) karnythia's is missing. This's Chicago area. I really doubt anyone in the blogosphere can help, but just in /case/...
Auschwitz's Arbeit Macht Frei sign found.
rivka takes down Garrison Keillor, who recently wrote a "OMG they're ruining Christmas!" column filled with lame Unitarian jokes and general curmudgeonitude. (As I said elsewhere, Unitarians tell /way/ better jokes about ourselves.)
In less depressing news:
A very old post by Neil Gaiman's assistant, 10 things you should never send your favorite author.
Animals running real fast: An occasional series. Whirrrr!
And now, an otter in a trashcan. Or, actually, a boot.
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December 19th, 2009
juliansinger
| 10:21 pm - things found out in pre-Christmas shopping.
I realize that, since it came out in October, this is old news, but there is a sixth book in the _Hitchhiker's Guide_ series. Written by Eoin Colfer (the guy who wrote _Artemis Fowl_.)
I grunt disapprovingly.
In other news, I said "Happy Solstice" to all the people wishing me Happy Holidays, today. I mean, it's the closest for-me-relevant holiday, so why not? (I'd wish people Happy Chanukah, but it's not one of my holidays.) I'll switch to Merry Christmas soon.
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December 18th, 2009
December 16th, 2009
juliansinger
| 06:52 pm - Huh.
Apparently, I can give up to 10 of the folks on my LJ flist $10 worth of paid time. It's sort of byzantine and more complicated than that, but anyone who wants some, click here. ETA: Oh, nevermind, I have to click for you. Which I will do!
This is set up so you can't give /yourself/ paid time, which is all ironic because I was going to decide not to. Hmph.
Also, to be more usefully specific, if you already have a paid account, you can't use this. So basic or ad-supported folks only.
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the_maenad
 | 11:45 pm - Global Warming Blues
(May be sung, just about, to the tune of "Look Over Yonder's Wall" by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Not sure I'd recommend it though.)
Well I woke up this morning, the thermometer was rising,
Kept staring at the figures 'cos they were so hypnotising,
Got a big ozone hole, opening over my head,
I can't help myself from wishing I'd just stayed in my bed.
I got the global warming blues, the global warming blues,
I can't find no way to hide from it, it's always in the news,
And it's too late to escape it, got the global warming blues.
Well, the polar bears are done for, and the penguins they are too,
The ice floes are a-melting and they're all a-falling through,
The waters gonna rise and we're all like to be drowned,
All humanity is done for if a cure for it can't be found.
I got the global warming blues, the global warming blues,
The ground'll turn to slime and we'll all sink into the ooze,
The waters sure look muddy, got the global warming blues.
J G Ballard would have liked it, and Brian Aldiss too,
But Ahrvid Engholm he just wags his finger at you,
He says it's all a myth and we can party on down,
He says that we're not warming up and we ain't got no cause to frown.
He ain't got the global warming blues, the global warming blues,
If you ask him to believe in it, he always will refuse,
He says it's not real science, he won't have those global warming blues.
It's those damn chlorofluorocarbons have got us in this state,
We can try to do without them but it's surely far too late,
The planet's melting down and we're all gonna die.
It's looking mighty likely that the human race'll soon say bye bye.
We got the global warming blues, the global warming blues,
We done made Mama Nature go and blow a great big fuse,
And now she's mighty mad, she got the global warming blues.
(One more time!)
We got the global warming blues, the global warming blues,
We gonna have to all climb onto Noah's Ark in twos
Or else we gonna drown, from the global warming blues.
(Shooby do wah!)
Big Mama Bond
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/marcus/beheadedboy/107.gif) creative
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December 15th, 2009
juliansinger
| 01:01 am - gender is interesting.
This actually gets political eventually. Bear with me while I talk about fandom for awhile, though. Actually, nevermind, I'll cut that, so I can go on as long as I like and not blunt the political part.
( The fandom part. )
The thing is, gender is, as has been noted several million times before, by people far more articulate than I, a fluid thing, and is hard to pin down at the best of times. We in the US have a vaguely urgent need to try and define it and compartmentalize it, force it into a binary representation it often doesn't fit. Amy/Andrew's various manipulations aside, his story is full of the fact that gender just isn't that easy to narrow down, for some folks.
Also, of course, to move from gender fluidity to sexism, this society is still kinda fucked up about the genders we /do/ assign to people.
This now segues into the political part, wherein LJ is planning to remove the "unspecified" option from people's profile pages. Or rather, that is to say, you'll have to choose between male or female at account creation. I'm not sure if they're removing the unspecified option for veteran LJers. I presume this is because LJ has suddenly discovered the need to be More Interesting to advertisers, and therefore wants to be able to give better demographic numbers when asked. (Considering the legions of people lying about their ages in their profiles, I wonder what the point is, but I am demonstrably not LJ.)
I have the luxury of not minding that much; I'm of female gender (if slightly outside the general norms) and I'm perfectly willing to say I'm female. But a) I seem, for quite some time, to have missed a lot of the sexist targeting of women that goes on on the internet (and I know it), b) the world is far more complex than just "male" or "female", and c) I've always liked the fact that one /could/ decline to specify, and no one would mind.
(This has come to light via the programmers' changelog, the effects of which tend to go live on Thursdays.)
If one would like to specify that one's gender is... unspecified... before one has to choose a gender, the edit profile page will let you do that. I discover, in so doing, that I apparently was already defined as unspecified, so there goes my pontificating about how I'm perfectly OK with saying I'm female. I think I wanted to mess with LJ's marketing before, perhaps.
In any case, if you also want to tell LJ your opinion about this, one option is to give 'em feedback. There's also email for Anjelika someone or other, head of US operations. anjelika@livejournalinc.com.
Synecdochic (aka Denise, founder of Dreamwidth, yes, for a certain portion of LJ veterans, /that/ Denise) has a useful letter she's sent about it, with useful links, in case one wants a template to write off of.
( personal footnote tangenting off of the fandom stuff )
ETA: Angelika's response to Synecdochic. (I didn't email her, I just used the feedback form.)
( A letter from Angelika Petrochenko. )
My takeaway here is that that's fine, quality backpeddling, and that this would be a good opportunity, if one wished, to advocate for an 'other' option, in one's feedback, if one still wished to send feedback. Given that response, it may or may not seem necessary, depending on your reactions. (It would seem reasonable to still do so, were it me.)
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December 12th, 2009
December 11th, 2009
juliansinger
| 03:43 pm - things not to have happen
So I finally bought _Blindsight_ awhile back.
Haven't read it yet.
Anyway, its author, Peter Watts (a Canadian), got stopped at the American border and beaten up. (Well, rather, abused by authorities.) Watts was released on bail and sent back across the border...in his shirtsleeves in winter, since his car and luggage were impounded. (Plus he spent the night in a badly heated cell.)
This was apparently while /leaving/ the US, which, come to think of it, baffles me more. Is one generally searched before leaving? I thought that was usually for coming into the country. (No, really, I don't know. It's an actual question.)
He's apparently got a good lawyer, but of course good lawyers cost. So. There's a PayPal address in the Boing Boing link, if you want to help his defense fund. Or you can buy some of his books for people for various special occasions. (Rapidly upcoming ones, even.) He's a good author, and worth the money.
Emma Bull on the issue. Also Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Eeexactly. (The thing that most alarms me is when /I/ have reactions like that. "Well, if he'd just behaved in X Right Way..." What?)
Now, some folks will say these writers are only this het up about the problem because Watts is someone they know and like, so the issue is personal to them. (Jo Walton talks about that.)
...So?
Activism isn't any less important if it's a) personal or b) you're new to a cause.
Edited to add: If you're as irritated and ashamed as I am of how, for example, the longest undefended border in the world Isn't anymore, please do write your Senator or your Congressman. Or the White House.
Much of this sort of thing is security theater, nothing more, nothing less. The TSA had a recent 'security breach' that made that extremely clear, in their case, for anyone who didn't already know. So not only is it extremely ineffective, it serves mostly as a conduit for racist and xenophobic harassment, and is doing no one whatsoever any good.
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December 10th, 2009
elrhiarhodanlog
 | 12:36 am - (chandini) A different kind of scene at Edgewood
12/8/09 - just a little later in the afternoon
Archivist's note: this scene comes immediately after the preceding one. I just broke them into two logs because there was a significantly different group of people, as well as a new venue.
( Ahrouns. Whatcha gonna do? )
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December 9th, 2009
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