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dsgood
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Below are the 25 most recent journal entries recorded in the "dsgood" journal:[<< Previous 25 entries]
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01:32 pm
[Link] | Friday June 26, 2009 Southwest Senior Center. My email had comments on five-suited cards, including a long and thorough one from Denny Lien.
***Submitted "The Day After I Saved the World" to Andromeda Spaceways.
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Dennis Lien <d-lien@umn.edu>
There was a five-suit card deck marketed for a year or so in 1938. In the US the fifth suit was green and called Eagles; in the UK it was blue and called Royals.
See http://www.stardeck.com/games.php
which quotes the same book I learned this factoid from, decades ago.
I've never seen one.
also http://www.answers.com/topic/suit-cards
and this cached info from a defunct page:
Five Suit Bridge
A form of the game of bridge played with 65 cards. This variation was devised, developed and patented, which is something rare in the world of card games, by Mr. Walter Marseille, who was a psychologist and mathematician living in Vienna. The game was introduced in 1937 and became popular with some enthusiasts. This form of game was also discussed in the publication by Mr. Samuel Fry titled How to Win at Five Suit Bridge, 1938, and co-author Edward Hymes Jr., Publisher: Knight, New York, New York, LC: 38011495. Essentially this form of bridge was governed by the same rules and guidelines as Contract Bridge. However, this game had a fifth suit: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, No Trump, and the fifth suit. The fifth suit had different designations according to the country; in Austria it was known as Blätter. In America the fifth suit was referred to as Eagles, and in England it had the designation of Royals, which was the designation given in the first chapter of the publication by Mr. Samuel Fry and Mr. Edward Hymes Jr., entitled Enter The Royals.
The deal was the same as with Duplicate Contract Bridge, clock-wise in rotation. However, after dealing 16 cards to each player, there was one card remaining called the widow. The last card to be dealt, the widow, was placed face up on the table. The auction began and once trump and the declarer were established, the declarer was permitted to replace one card with the widow card and discard one card, which was also seen by the remaining three players. However this action was not required.
Accordingly book was eight tricks, not six. The act of scoring this form of card game was a different matter and rather evolved over time since there was no established scoring rules. Later, as the scoring became more consistent, it was determined that game required 150 points. The points awarded for each trick was 30 points, no difference being made between Major suit tricks and Minor suit tricks. No Trump contracts each scored 50 points, and the Royals (Eagles or Blätter), also referred to as the Super Major, scored 40 points for each trick. Establishing slam premiums was not an easy matter, but the consensus agreed upon as the game progressed was that a small slam or fifteen tricks bid and made, not vulnerable, received an additional premium of 500 points. Curiously a fifteen trick vulnerable small slam, and a non-vulnerable sixteen grand slam bid and made received an additional premium of 1000 points. A grand slam vulnerable contract bid and made received an additional premium of 2000 points. It is presumed that the undertricks, doubled and/or redoubled were given the same additional premiums as in Duplicate Contract Bridge, but this cannot be established. See also: Joker Bridge and Midget Bridge.
According to a reference by encarta.msn Five Suit Bridge:
1938: Contract Bridge
During the early part of the year, considerable excitement was created in bridge circles by the introduction of Five-suit Bridge, an importation into the United States from Austria, via England. As suggested by the title, this game was based on decks containing five suits instead of the traditional four. The innovation received its greatest impetus in England, when Their Majesties, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, visited a charity bazaar and bought some of the new decks. American newspapers and magazines gave this incident great publicity, probably as human interest material, and the result was an immediate tremendous demand for Five-suit Bridge decks. The new game, however, proved cumbersome and needlessly complicated, and it was not surprising that its life in the United States was less than two months. Thus, Ely Culbertson's early observation. "The average player has not yet thoroughly learned how to play with four suits, let alone with five," proved prophetic.
*****
books include
Title: Five-suit bridge.
Author(s): Culbertson, Ely,; 1891-1955, ; ed.
Publication: [New York, Bridge world magazine,
Year: 1938
Description: 47 p.
Language: English
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: Five-suit bridge.
Other Titles: Bridge world magazine.
Responsibility: Prepared by the Bridge world magazine; Ely Culbertson, editor.
Title: Five-suit bridge,
Author(s): Burnstine, David. Jacoby, Oswald,; 1902-1984, ; joint author. Maier, Merwin D., ; joint author. Schenken, Howard, ; joint author.
Publication: New York, Simon and Schuster,
Year: 1938
Description: 96 p. 28 cm.
Language: English
Standard No: LCCN: 38-12213
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: Five-suit bridge.
Title: How to win at five suit bridge /
Author(s): Fry, Samuel, 1909- Hymes, Edward, ; joint author.
Publication: New York : Knight,
Year: 1938
Description: 68 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.
Language: English
Standard No: LCCN: 38-11495
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: Five-suit bridge. Note(s): "Five suit bridge scoring" on p. [3] of cover.
Class Descriptors: Dewey: 795.41
Other Titles: Five suit bridge.
Responsibility: by Samuel Fry, jr., and Edward Hymes, jr. Illustrated with diagrams.
Denny
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12:04 pm
[Link] | Monday June 22, 2009 Today I became certain that Iran will have a new government not far in the future. The current regime isn't competent to hold power. Its efforts to keep the lid on news about the opposition have succeeded only in becoming more bad news.
***To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
Downloaded the July 1930 issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science (now Analog.) I was amused by letters asking editor Harry Bates to reprint The Good Old Stuff. (Bates is best known for writing "Farewell to the Master;" the story dumbed down to make the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still.")
I was interested to see a Murray Leinster story I'd never heard of: Part I of _Murder Madness_. The style wasn't what I expected from Leinster, but was like that of the other stories. My suspicion: Bates was a heavy-handed editor. (Caution: I did not finish reading any of the stories; my conclusions are not based on careful research.)
***Steeple People thrift store was having its annual Dandelion Sale. Clothes were two-for-one; everything else half price.
I got a very few things, including _Claim Your Inner Grown-up_ by Ashley Davis Prend.
Wednesday June 24, 2009 To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
The lunch for seniors often has entertainment and/or education. This being the monthly Birthdays celebration, there was edutainment: Armenian folkdancers.
***The news showed up on my LiveJournal friends list before it was on Google News. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford hadn't been walking the Appalachian Trail; he'd been in Argentina to see a female Close Friend. (Breaking it off, he says.) Meanwhile, he'd been neglecting state business.
I for one would not trust Sanford to handle my affairs.
Why this wasn't on Google News yet: Google collects what newspapers,tv, radio, etc. consider important, as shown by the amount of print space and air time it's given. And the story hadn't yet built up enough bulk to reach Google's front page.
I see three problems with this way of deciding what counts. First, newspapers play up stories which the editors don't think are important, but do think readers will be highly interested in. For example, the President acquiring a dog is always first page news.
Second, much of what news editors think is important turns out not to be. Not always because they're ignorant; often the relevant experts are at least as wrong.
Third, stories which they don't consider important turn out to be.
***To the Wedge Coop.
Then across Lyndale Ave to Steeple People thrift store, which has a half-price sale through the 27th. I bought the first two volumes of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy. From the magazine free box, I got two recent issues of The Nation. And from the miscellaneous free box, Lonely Planet's guide to South America (2004 edition.)
***To the Aldi supermarket on Lake Street for eggs. Then to Target, and then home.
***I used to read The Nation frequently; but these days I prefer political blogs to magazines of opinion. Reading these two issues, I found myself most interested in the
"liberal liaisons" ads. In the June 15th issue: "FETISHES AND FANTASIES fulfilled. Hot erotic talk with creative, sensuous woman." Two more such ads. Other kinds: "GREEN SINGLES. Free photo ads for progressive singles in the environmental, vegetarian and animal rights communities." Two nonprofessional ads from men, one of whom is "Locked in but not locked out."
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Thursday June 25, 2009 Used the computer lab at Southwest Senior Center.
***Stopped in at Steeple People thrift store.
***To Walker Library. The New York Times had a front page article on successful African orphanages. "Success" meaning that babies whose mothers died in childbirth are kept alive and healthy through the most vulnerable few years.
The July Scientific American had an article on the origin of differences between the two hemispheres of the brain. It's been Scientific Fact that the differences exist only in humans; the researchers say they go back to the very beginning of the vertebrate lineage.
***Inc. magazine has an article on a family business which includes a prodigal brother. The one who founded the business (a bakery) took his errant brother back a couple of times before the brother finally stopped using meth and started to properly run his life. The prodigal brother then originated the line of bread which made the bakery really successful.
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting, and then home.
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01:34 pm
[Link] | Saturday June 20, 2009 A small, odd parade on Cedar Ave. as the #23 bus reached Cedar and 35th St. There were adults and children wearing tall, elaborate headdresses. Other parts of their costumes ranged from minimal additions to ordinary clothing to elaborate masks and other decorations.
(The #23 bus usually runs on 38th St.; but there's road repair on 38th between Cedar and Bloomington Avenues. "Minnesota has two seasons: winter and road repair.")
Picked up Fare For All food at Pillsbury House.
***On to the wedding of Carolyn Brust and Tom Koefoed (sp?), in Bloomington. Depending on which signs you believe, the site was either Moir Park or the Moir Picnic Area of Central Park.
The trip began easily enough. The #5E bus runs frequently, and reaches the Mall of America fairly quickly.
But then...the #539B runs once an hour on Saturdays. I needed to get off at Old Shakopee Road and Thomas Ave. The bus ran on Old Shakopee Road, moved on to another street, returned to Old Shakopee Road, moved on to another street, etc.
Then came the walk. Moir Park was at 104th St and Morgan Ave. Morgan and Thomas were in alphabetical order, but with streets not part of that pattern interpolated.
The guests were from several different subcultures, including sf fandom. But a couple of the fans hadn't been around in fandom for some time.
There were more smokers than I'd seen at any gathering in a while. And there were a lot of dogs.
Before the ceremony proper, there were Irish love songs. The singer looked very likely to be of Irish ancestry.
The ceremony was conducted by the bride's father, Steve Brust.
Wedding guests were given small bubble blowers and commemorative frisbies.
And food; much food.
Reen Brust (mother of the bride) arranged a ride home for me with Dave (?).
I was happy to attend, and I'm happy for the newlyweds.
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01:56 pm
[Link] | Thursday June 18, 2009 A card deck with five suits would require different solitaire games. I'd been thinking one out, and it needed one more detail. Red cards go on black cards, black on red. Green cards would go on?
Even-numbered green cards on red, I decided. Odd-numbered green cards on black. Red on even-numbered green cards, black on odd-numbered green cards.
I haven't decided what the green suit would be called. I'm tempted to say "lawyers," in honor of the Green Card Lawyers (the first people to massively spam Usenet.)
***To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
***Missed the ACA meeting. I was a bit sick, and there were weather reports which included possible tornados. (Not in Minneapolis, but I wasn't tracking well enough to realize that.)
Friday June 19, 2009 To Southwest Computer Center, to use the computer lab.
And saw on the BBC news page that Portugal had decriminalized recreational drugs in 2001. I wonder why I hadn't heard about this earlier. Similar legal changes in the Netherlands get mentioned frequently; Switzerland less often, but more than rarely.
***Up through Sunday, the Wedge Coop had a City-County Credit Union ATM. Monday through Wednesday, it was ATM-less while a Spire Credit Union ATM was installed.
Today, it still needed a bit of work. A sign explained that the new ATM would tell Spire members and members of credit unions in a cooperative agreement that they were being charged a fee for withdrawals. However, they would not be charged. (The sign also said that City-County was no longer party to the agreement.)
The new ATM is smaller; and aside from that glitch, seems to work a little better.
***To DreamHaven Books for Joel Arnold's reading.
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12:12 pm
[Link] | Monday June 15, 2009 Two pieces of mail. One from a funeral home, the other from the Skyway Senior Center.
***To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
I asked whether anyone had designed aircraft to be piloted by cats on the Project Wombat mailing list, Dreamwidth, LiveJournal, and InsaneJournal.
Why? A story I'm writing:
"Teach Your Cat to Fly!" the sign said. In smaller print: "Not yet available in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas."
....
Inside there was what he expected in an experiment shop. Books and magazines, some on paper or plastic. Kits for designing your own birdhouse, computer operating system, or language. Meditation candles. Herbal teas, guaranteed kosher and halal. Ads for classes on setting up an underseas nation, choosing the species for your next reincarnation, playing guitar, making authentic haggis.
***To the Wedge Coop, to get my Go-To Card (transit fare card) topped up.
That name is a better coinage than Boston's Charlie Card. I don't know if it's better than London's Oyster Card, because I have no idea what "Oyster Card" is supposed to call to mind.
Across the street to Steeple People thrift store. From the free box, I got two foam rollers. I have no idea what they're intended for, but they're now hand exercisers.
Tuesday June 16, 2009 To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
Among the spam: "The best manure for your pork stalk."
Some answers on cat-piloted aircraft. (A summary will follow in a few days.)
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01:18 pm
[Link] | Has anyone designed aircraft to be piloted by cats?
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01:54 pm
[Link] | Future-Building Questions: Human-inhabited Earth
For these questions, assumptions are:
1) At least a few million humans still living on Earth.
2) The focus is on your own country, the area you know best.
1. Has the Grand Unified Theory of Everything been formulated, and generally accepted by physical scientists?
2. Has the One True Economic Theory been formulated, and generally accepted by
a. economists?
b. other social scientists?
c. elected officials?
3. Is it possible to predict the future accurately enough that anyone properly applying the methods will consistently make money betting on elections and investing in stocks?
4. Is there more than one way to predict with that degree of accuracy?
5. What technology not now expected will be available and usable?
6. What technology now expected will
a. not be developed?
b. be developed, but not used or rarely used? (Historical examples include: Air cars completely taking over from ground-only cars. Videophones making voice-only phones completely obsolete. Air cars have been marketed at least since the 1950's; AT&T's PicturePhone became available in the 1960's.)
7. What technology will be used in unintended and unexpected ways?
For the next three questions, I have problems reading fiction which assumes the answers are "Just the same as today."
8. What will conservatives in your country believe and/or advocate?
9. What will liberals/progressives in your country believe and/or advocate?
10. What will radicals in your country (left, right, or self-labeled centrist/moderate) believe and/or advocate?
11. If a majority of your country's population now lives on farms, how much will this have changed by the time of your future setting? (In the US, only a small minority of the RURAL population now lives on working farms.)
12. What percentage of working animals have human-level intelligence? What percentage of pets?
13. How many people live off Earth?
14. What countries which are major powers in our time will have lost power; possibly enough to take them out of the "major" class? Have any gained power?
15. What countries have become major powers?
16. What countries have
a. broken up?
b. been absorbed by multinational polities more powerful than the national governments which created them?
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02:03 pm
[Link] | Jo Walton wrote a very good piece on time travellers in Montreal:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/papersky/150837.html#cutid1. The ones she talks about are helpful or at least harmless.
But if the past can be changed, some time travellers would be making deliberate alterations. And not all of these would be useful or harmless.
Example: Hitler first existed in the mind of a crackpot, then in his writings in which he claimed that the history everyone knew was a pack of conspiratorial lies.
In the untouched course of history, European politics could never have become insane enough for a Hitler (or even a Mussolini) to achieve power. But the pseudo-historian acquired followers. And after his death, time travel was discovered. It was possible to go back in time, and see that history hadn't followed nearly the course his followers knew it must have followed. Obviously (to them), The Conspiracy must have altered the past as a way of continuing the cover-up.
The pseudo-historian's followers realized what must be done. They went back through time, changing events to what they believed was the original state. In the process, they destroyed the history which led to them. (Don't mourn for them; thanks to chrono-inertia, they continued to live.)
This has happened "before". Taig of Silver Mountain believed, against all evidence, that Earth had once had a moon. His followers went back to a time before the origin of life; and they "restored" Earth's moon as Taig had described it. Result: when life evolved on Earth, it was very different from the life they were descended from.
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01:14 pm
[Link] | There are three ways to write historical fiction about the future.
Fiction set in the past often reflects the time in which it's written. George R. Stewart's 1950s novel The Years of the City is about the rise and fall of a Greek colony in southern Italy. It's well researched, so far as I can judge; I didn't find any anachronisms. But there's a chapter about McCarthyism in Ancient Greece. And other matters are given emphases different from those a writer of our time would give them.
For historical fiction set in our past, but giving a glimpse of the future, all that's needed is to create an implied author who has the preconceptions and biases of your fictional future. And, of course, to convey this information to the reader.
Historical fiction set in our time, giving a glimpse of the future, probably requires less research. Again, you need an implied author who's writing in the future you've constructed.
If you find these methods too easy, try setting your historical fiction in the future. The implied author would be someone in the farther future.
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02:54 pm
[Link] | Is it possible to write about the present?
Suppose you write a novel set in the present or the very near future. When you begin, you'll actually be writing about the very near past. (If you're observant, that is. If you're not observant, you may not notice that 1970s rock has gone out of style; the political party which seemed to have a permanent majority a few years ago has lost power; etc.) Many changes will be too small to notice; but do check the news at least daily to make sure major buildings you mention are still standing.
By the time your novel is finished and published, the world will have changed again and again. Remember novels about the Soviet invasion of America? Some of them reached bookstores after the fall of the Soviet Union.
There was probably at least one Sensitive Novel in progress about two Canadian men in love who emigrate to a country where they can get married, when Canadian judges ruined the whole plot.
Suppose your novel is set well in the future, but is about Today's Important Issues.
You don't know what those are. You know what issues are considered important, yes. But I can predict that future historians will say we ignored the most important problems.
Historians how far in the future? Five years, maybe.
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02:11 pm
[Link] |
On Beginnings
Written as an exercise several years ago, lightly revised:
This beginning establishes the protagonist:
John wakes up, makes himself breakfast, drives to work. His workday is described in full, insomnia-curing detail.
Toward the end of the workday, he gets news which starts him on the road to realizing his society isn't utopian.
This beginning establishes the protagonist AND promises readers that a story is coming:
Yesterday's wife snored. John hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep before the alarm bit him in the leg. He thought briefly of filing a complaint; decided it wasn't quite worth the risk of spending two or three days in jail for libeling the Department of Marriage.
He went to make breakfast, and found there were no eggs. Instead, there was sardine-flavored tofu. The breakfast newsletter explained that the egg shortage was due to lesbianism and sedition among the chickens.
Driving to work was harder than it should have been; there were more bodies than usual in the street.
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02:12 pm
[Link] | Someday, there will be historical fantasy set in our time. Here are some thoughts on what its cliches might be:
The Gruff Guide to Electrical Age North America
Transportation: In the countryside, all travel is by steam-powered trains or gasoline-powered flying cars.
Most urban travel is in ground cars driven by wise old men. (Often these "cabbies" turn out to be beautiful young women in disguise.)
The adventurous might take underground subway trains powered by fission reactors. Your fellow passengers may include land pirates and "goths" (more properly called shoggoths). Be prepared to defend yourself, your possessions, and your sanity.
Food: In the countryside, be certain to bring a tin-opener (aka "churchkey"), and sufficient tins of stew. In much of North America you will be able to hunt rabbits, llamas, and wallabies and add them to the stew.
In cities, you will eat in diners or in ristorantes. In a diner, the waitron will heat a tin of stew and open it for you. In a ristorante, you will eat more varied fare such as fish served complete with heads, meatloaf made from tofu plants, and German tacos.
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02:50 pm
[Link] | Jan's Chow Mein (Minneapolis; near Uncle Hugo's sf bookstore) now advertises "Tasty African food served here."
A few blocks away, on Lake Street, is the New York Latin Restaurant. Which would probably deserve its name if the menu was mostly Puerto Rican and Dominican, with a bit of Cuban. But I suspect it's mostly Mexican.
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02:30 pm
[Link] |
Access problems again
My computer access may be erratic for a while yet.
On the upside, I'm getting more writing done.
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05:06 pm
[Link] |
Hail, Thane of Mordor!
Tuesday April 7, 2009 Computers remind me of the farm machinery I grew up with. Except the farm machinery was older than me; some of it may have been older than my father. Some of it had originally been horse-drawn, and had been adapted for use with a tractor. The computers I've been dealing with are considerably newer, but similarly afflicted with senile quirks.
This was my second day with an Internet connection again. I downloaded freeware I considered essential, set up most of it.
***Shopping. One LRT stop away, at Lake Street.
First to Savers thrift store.
Then to Aldi, usually the cheapest local supermarket. Observed, not for the first time: People don't seem to think of using two hands to empty their shopping carts.
Current Location: Minneapolis, Alta Iowa
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01:15 pm
[Link] | My primary computer isn't working. My backup computer isn't connecting to the Net. I'll be offline for perhaps up to ten months. Use of public computers will be erratic.
If you need to reach me quickly, call 612 298 0042
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04:54 pm
[Link] | Details of how police in the Irish Republic finally caught up with the country's most reckless driver have emerged, the Irish Times reports.
He had been wanted from counties Cork to Cavan after racking up scores of speeding tickets and parking fines.
However, each time the serial offender was stopped he managed to evade justice by giving a different address.
But then his cover was blown.
It was discovered that the man every member of the Irish police's rank and file had been looking for - a Mr Prawo Jazdy - wasn't exactly the sort of prized villain whose apprehension leads to an officer winning an award.
In fact he wasn't even human.
"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division.
"Having noticed this, I decided to check and see how many times officers have made this mistake.
"It is quite embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."
The officer added that the "mistake" needed to be rectified immediately and asked that a memo be circulated throughout the force.
In a bid to avoid similar mistakes being made in future relevant guidelines were also amended.
And if nothing else is learnt from this driving-related debacle, Irish police officers should now know at least two words of Polish.
As for the seemingly elusive Mr Prawo Jazdy, he has presumably become a cult hero among Ireland's largest immigrant population.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/northern_ireland/7899171.stm
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06:48 pm
[Link] | Sunday February 15, 2009 "It may sound just like any other business school class, but the students are surrounded by the high fences and razor wire of the Cleveland Correctional Facility, just north of Houston."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/business/7839957.stm
Drug dealers are being taught to become legitimate businessmen.
Say this kind of educational program turns out to be really good at turning prisoners into legitimate businesspeople. The percentage who go back to prison drops considerably. And similar programs for incarcerated juveniles keep many of them from becoming adult criminals.
Many people who want to reduce crime will hate it. The ex-criminals will be seen as unfair competition.
Just as Jewish college students were seen in the past, and Asian-Americans in the present.
***Mild sore throat, mild aches. I skipped MinnSpec (Twin Cities sf writers Meetup).
I did go out shopping, much later. I had to -- I was almost out of teabags.
Learned that Cub has two brands of teabags cheaper than Aldi's. One, shelved with other teas, is distributed by the company that owns Cub. The really cheap one is on the $2 or less shelves (which not long ago were the $1 or less shelves.)
Current Location: Minneapolis, Alta Iowa
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07:55 pm
[Link] | Friday February 13, 2009 "Britain's Roman Catholic Church is advising lovelorn singles to direct their February 14 requests for love to St Raphael, rather than St Valentine.
"Over the years St Valentine has come incorrectly to be associated with finding love, the Church says.
"He is the patron saint for those who have already found their soulmate.
"St Raphael is the patron saint for happy encounters and it is to him those fearing the Valentine's post should properly direct their prayers.
...
"St Raphael, according to legend, helped Tobias enter into marriage with Sarah, who had seen seven previous bridegrooms perish on the eve of their weddings."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/7888539.stm
***Picked up meds at HealthPartners Riverside.
On my way back, shopped at Target. Sign: an advertised candy wasn't available; caught up in the peanut recall. Near the pharmacy department, another sign: an energy bar had also been caught up in the recall.
***Marx and Cthulu on Money: The Pilot http://fengi.livejournal.com/902974.html
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05:55 pm
[Link] | Tuesday February 10, 2009 "Yep says I, don't you remember the story about the princess kissing the frog to turn him into a prince? Well, every year, the Valentine's Frog goes out into the world looking for a little girl to kiss him and turn him into a prince too, and he leaves chocolates and flowers and things like that to bribe them into thinking he is a prince."
http://amykb.livejournal.com/224027.html
***Shopping run to the Aldi on Lake near Minnehaha and to Savers thrift store.
Current Location: Minneapolis, Alta Iowa
Current Music: Froggy Went Courting
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01:53 pm
[Link] | Sunday February 8, 2009 Dream: Drug dealers travelling into the past for their supplies.
It occurred to me that this didn't look like the real past. Answer: It's a real past, but not _our_ real past.
Later, when I was half-awake, I thought of a twist: In the primitive time they travel to, humanity has only a toehold in space.
"They are not going into the past. This place called 'America' is in our future."
In the 1950s, that might have made a salable story.
And do you critique your dreams? While still asleep? Or am I the only one?
***Shopped at the Rainbow supermarket on Lake near Hiawatha. Noticed more signs of bad management than I used to. (For example, stock not being on shelves.)
***I've been reading "Where will bloggers get their news if newspapers go out of business?" articles. Snarky answer: Bloggers can read industry and government press releases as well as reporters can.
I need to do a more serious writeup. Among other things, explain why the Star Tribune is only my third source of text on Twin Cities news, and I don't usually bother with the Pioneer Press.
Current Location: Minneapolis, Baja Manitoba
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08:13 pm
[Link] | Saturday January 31, 2009 Much warmer today -- it got above 40F.
***Found myself thinking about 1,000 books to read after you die. (And, later, 1,000 places to see after you die.) Which is evidence that my mind is working normally again.
***Bought at Steeple People thrift store:
Daniel Nagrin, How to Dance Forever. Most modern dancers are out of the game at forty. Nagrin was dancing at least into his late sixties.
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Cycles of American History. Including the conservative-liberal political cycle. The conservative Republicans who thought the Bush Presidency had made them a permanent political majority were wrong. The liberal Democrats now talking about being a permanent majority are also in for unpleasant surprises.
Went to the Wedge Co-op. On my way back, stopped in at DreamHaven Books.
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Sunday February 1, 2009 Dreamed about a medical problem: When a woman is pregnant with twins, she provides milk to both wombs. If she later becomes pregnant with a single child, the pattern has already been established. Milk is provided to both wombs, and half of it is wasted.
***"China, US shout to be heard in dialogue of the deaf"
My subconscious commented "With sign language interpretation for the blind."
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Monday February 2, 2009 For the first time, I made French toast using soy milk. Turned out reasonably well. The soy milk was vanilla-flavored; I would have liked a stronger vanilla flavor.
***Self-quoting from a thread on rec.arts.sf.composition:
Secrets could also be about things not done rather than done.
"I've never really killed anyone."
Or
"When I became a priest, I didn't believe in the Scavenger Gods."
"So? Everybody knows the Temple only certifies priests who don't believe."
"Yes, but now I DO believe."
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Tuesday February 3, 2009 At Savers thrift store, found a good winter jacket. Bought it to replace the sorta-okay one I'd been wearing.
Momentary thought: Nothing wrong with the old one which couldn't be fixed. The torn pocket could be repaired with duct tape.
I put on the new jacket before leaving the store. And realized there was indeep something unrepairable wrong with the old jacket. It was too tight across the chest and shoulders. (It hadn't been when I'd bought it.)
On to Aldi supermarket. Then to Target, mostly for canned computer-dusting gas.
Current Location: Minneapolis, South Niflheim
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09:29 pm
[Link] | From http://eurekalert.org:
Public Release: 3-Feb-2009
Geology
February 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights
GEOLOGY includes three papers about Mars: continuation of the "jelly sandwich" versus "crème brûlée" debate; support for the Snowball Earth hypothesis; what nine-million-year-old tooth enamel says about vegetation in an ancient sub-Himalayan ecosystem; anthropogenic lead in the Tyrrhenian Sea; evidence for a prehistoric South Pacific tsunami; a multicentennial megadrought in medieval Europe; and a newly discovered fossil turtle in the Canadian Arctic. GSA Today's science article proposes a new method for classifying Quaternary glacial deposits.
http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/09-02.htm
Public Release: 3-Feb-2009
Cancer
One-fifth of women who should receive radiation after a mastectomy are not getting this potentially lifesaving treatment, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
NIH/National Cancer Institute
http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1035
Public Release: 3-Feb-2009
Cardiff University researchers who are part of a British-German team searching the depths of space to study gravitational waves, may have stumbled on one of the most important discoveries in physics according to an American physicist. Craig Hogan, a physicist at Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics in Illinois is convinced that he has found proof in the data of the gravitational wave detector GEO600 of a holographic universe.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/cu-crc020309.php
Public Release: 3-Feb-2009
American Naturalist
Why don't more animals change their sex?
Most animals, like humans, have separate sexes -- they are born, live out their lives and reproduce as one sex or the other. However, some animals live as one sex in part of their lifetime and then switch to the other sex, a phenomenon called sequential hermaphroditism. What remains a puzzle, according to Yale scientists, is why the phenomenon is so rare, since their analysis shows the biological "costs" of changing sexes rarely outweigh the advantages.
Yale University, National Science Foundation
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/yu-wdm020309.php
Public Release: 3-Feb-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Living longer thanks to the 'longevity gene'
A variation in the gene FOXO3A has a positive effect on the life expectancy of humans, and is found much more often in people living to 100 and beyond -- moreover, this appears to be true worldwide. A research group in the Faculty of Medicine at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel has now confirmed this assumption by comparing DNA samples taken from 388 German centenarians with those from 731 younger people.
National Genome Research Network
http://www.uni-kiel.de/aktuell/pm/2009/2009-012-langlebigkeit-e.shtm
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01:02 pm
[Link] | Happy Birthday, will_couvillier!!
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07:08 pm
[Link] | Latest version of the alt.recovery.clutter FAQ is now up at
http://dsgood.wordpress.com/clutterinfo-2/
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