Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 67

From Twitter 09-29-2010

08:07:39: RT @robinmckinley: Yes but HATE it branded as 'rape novel' RT @GuardianBooks: Authors & readers rally 2 defend rape novel frm school b ...
08:35:04: RT @NASA: Hispanic Heritage Month special with astronaut Jose Hernandez, son of migrant farm workers now on NASA TV and nasa.gov
08:46:20: RT @NASA: [News] NASA Invites Public To Discuss "What Matters Next" At TEDxNASA: Nasa Invites Public To Discuss "What Matter... http://b ...
13:57:45: RT @NASA: RT @whitehouseostp OSTP on the Lookout for Student Volunteers http://go.usa.gov/xFJ
14:11:16: Trellis/arbor on the "bridge" really taking shape now. My design for crossbar ends actually looks good.
15:27:44: Off to choir now, after I make a peanut-butter sandwich for supper.
22:10:32: Choir practice--good, strenuous, moments of unearthly beauty, others of directorial annoyance.

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From Twitter 09-28-2010

08:23:58: Sharron Angle, GOP candidate, mocks autism and health benefits for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqxCCLr3Fa4. Suggests it's not real.
08:30:10: Angle is happy to explain she would not have voted for Katrina relief, either: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJgEuF7UPeA&NR=1
08:33:59: And Angle thinks there are "domestic enemies" in Congress. McCarthyism reborn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93AEbP438lU&NR=1
08:47:20: Shooting incident this morning at University of Texas main campus. Classes canceled. #UTshooting
08:57:48: RT @budkennedy: Irony: Conceal-carry advocate John Lott to speak at UT tonight on "More Guns, Less Crime" #utshooting http://t.co/1TJXME ...
09:22:32: UT situation still ongoing: 2nd shooter believed holed up in Calhoun bldg, reports of APC on campus, etc.
09:26:55: RT @kayzee13: Evacuations are getting started and students are being asked to go north of campus. #ut #utgunman #utshooting
10:46:21: RT @UTComm: All clear has sounded on #UT campus - crime scenes are still closed. #UTshooting
10:49:08: RT @NASA: JWST has completed testing at temperatures below -411 degrees Fahrenheit, or 27 Kelvin. Chilly! http://cot.ag/bWNm5u
10:49:52: R- is making progress on the arbor (trellis?) structure over the plank bridge between gardens.
13:36:37: RT @NASA: What's up with Earth's changing ice sheets? Check out this new interactive feature: Global Ice Viewer. http://go.usa.gov/xsV

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University of Texas Shooting Incident

Just after 8 am this morning, a gunman started popping off AK47 rounds on the UT campus.   An hour later, he was dead (self-inflicted gunshot wound) , the campus was in lockdown, and law enforcement officers were looking for a possible second shooter.  By noon, the all-clear had been sounded; students had been evacuated from locked-down buildings,  and it was clear that there'd been no second shooter.   (The blog link is to the Austin American-Statesman, and the blog updates as new data come in.)   No one else was shot.   There were no incident-related injuries.

This is not the first shooting incident at the University of Texas--the famous, or infamous, one being the Tower shootings in 1966.   But UT has learned--not just from that, but from other school/university incidents.   In August, local law enforcement held a joint training exercise for the university and city police and other agencies that might get involved...the second of the summer.   As a result of the thought and training, at least four (maybe five--I lost track) agencies arrived fast, acted fast, and with communication and command that the Austin police chief called "seamless cooperation," penned the shooter into the 6th floor of the Perry-Castaneda Library where he shot himself.


UT is my second university--it's where I got my second degree, and I can't say that I was at all impressed by its emergency planning in the early '70s.   But they've made intelligent changes, using technology as it develops.  Their alerts to students include loudspeakers, sirens, text messaging and email, for instance.  Most students interviewed said they'd received at least some critical information (sirens only tell you something is wrong, not what.)   Whoever (individual or committee) designed their emergency response system obviously did something--more than one something--right.   It still squicks me to see heavily armed men in black herding students, but at least it was being done calmly, without screaming and adding to the stress (compare Columbine.)  Shuttle buses had been corraled to take evacuated students to apartment complexes, etc. away from campus. 

If the gunman's first shots had in fact killed or injured people, that would certainly have increased the chaos and adrenalin level of all concerned...but until law enforcement was sure that there weren't more shooters, it still wasn't a simple or easy thing to handle. 

I'm sure that in the aftermath, there will be mistakes to point out...but not many in the response effort.  I've watched a fair number of these things now--this was clearly a far more controlled, planned response with people who knew what they were supposed to be doing and went at it without hysteria.   And any university that doesn't yet have a similar plan in place...about time to talked to UTexas and found out how to do it.

From Twitter 09-27-2010

08:28:29: Yesterday's entomology mystery: very large, dark-winged fly on the window screen (outside), gone b-4 could take picture. Green eyes.
10:37:36: RT @patinagle: RT @bookviewcafe: Book View Café celebrates Banned Books Week! http://bookviewcafe.com
10:37:52: RT @robinmckinley: *Wow.* RT @thebookslut: Shel Silverstein "encourages children 2 break dishes so won't have 2 dry them." Banned Book ...
10:43:10: Just because it has (name your cooties) is no reason other people shouldn't read it. #bannedbooksweek
17:39:44: A week old, but lovely images from Christmas Mountains Oasis blog: http://cmoasis.blogspot.com/2010/09/few-migrants.html
17:44:17: Another good nature blog is Blue Jay Barrens. http://bluejaybarrens.blogspot.com/ I can't get to these every week, but they're on my list.
21:24:24: RT @kaysea14: "...the rich themselves support letting the Bush tax cuts expire for those families earning over $250,000." http://t.co/jx ...

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Banned Book Week

I don't remember much pressure to ban books when I was a kid--I know some books were banned (books for adults, not kids, and nearly always on the basis of lurid sex, as far as I know) and some parents didn't want their kids to read books I read, but nothing like the book-banning-craze that started in the late '70s (at least that's when I first noticed it) and has continued ever since.  Since my mother won a round with the town librarian and got me an unrestricted card when I was about...

From Twitter 09-26-2010

10:14:49: RT @BreakingNews: When aliens land: UN to name Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman as first contact http://bit.ly/a9VyyM
10:14:56: As sun angle lowers, can see shadow of squirrel galloping along the roof in the yard.
10:21:10: The sound of fluids trickling through bone from one sinus to another belongs only in a haunted house. Crickle-crackle-crackle-gloop.
14:21:23: Second front arrived--cool enough to open the doors & windows for 1st time in months. Which means, time to clean...

From Twitter 09-25-2010

07:44:26: RT @glogothetis: Psst. Reporters. Do a case law search for "Koch Industries". You're welcome.
07:46:29: Days on which I don't write lead to nights in which the unwritten story keeps me awake. (Bleary-eyed writer faces the day...)
09:16:00: Shampoo, check. Next shower, then dress, then to city with soup. Should not be sitting here, that's for sure....
14:51:52: Taking soup to friends, grocery shopping, visiting with other friends for hour--time flies.
14:55:30: Tx Sen. Ogden created...

Texas Elephant Antics (not funny)

Steve Ogden (R) is, unfortunately, my senator in the state legislature...and the author of legislation which made it possible to divert federal hurricane funds to the restoration of the Texas governor's mansion (wiped out by an arsonist during (in my opinion unnecessary) restoration ordered by Governor Rick Perry (R).

The Austin American-Statesman had the article on the front page, and a sidebar inside (not found in the online version, at least not coupled with the article) at span

From Twitter 09-24-2010

11:19:38: RT @JSCarroll: ‎"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home." Twyla
Tharp
11:21:29: External hard drives talking busily to each other, moving files. Also daily scan running. Soup in process in the kitchen. Awaiting front.
16:36:50: R- making real progress on the arbor-trellis thingie. Book progress today nil, however. So far. Sun's still up; there's hope.
17:51:46: New post up on http://www.paksworld.com/blog/ A side-story long out of print now up on website (link at...

Writer's Block: Last call

What would you do if you only had one month left to live?

Submitted By rocamah

View 1225 Answers

Finish the book in progress.  Hug the people I love.  Rejoice in the beauty of everyday.  Eat more chocolate.   (all but "eat more chocolate" are on the to-do list anyway.)