John Crowley's Blog, page 49

Neatest analogy of the week (so far)

 
And just in my own reading.  This form the NY Times about how Beta amyloid in the brain, which builds up hard plaque around neurons, and was long suspected as a cause of Alzheimer's, might actually be an immune reaction, and the A-beta (s it's called) an infection fighter, which leaves the plaque as a consequence of fighting actual infection or the possibility of it. 

In the past, Dr. Relkin said, scientists assumed “that the pathology was the plaque.” Now, he likens removing plaque to...

Tails of Wonder

Ellen Datlow's anthology "Tails of Wonder and Imagination" is a collection of stories about guess which beloved pet/graveyard haunter/mystic night eyes/witchy imp/fuzzy friend. So that those readers who might not want to read about any c-ts abused, murdered, tortured or otherwise come to harm can avoid affront to their feelings, a helpful site has rated the stories in the anthology. Five Cats to none (though no story gets none). Get the full list at  ellen_datlow  .  My own story got 3 Cats ...

More queries

I am puzzled by the formulations using "you need to" rather than what would have once been usual -- "you must" or "you have to" or a simple imperative. As in "You need to step away from the car, sir." This is not exactly accurate, is it? Do I actually need to? If it's short for "You need to step away form the car in order to avoid being Tasered" -- I guess that makes sense. But what need of mine is actually being pointed out to me?

And when did this start? When did it become universal? A...

And another,

 

from today's Health news:

Anyone with existing medical conditions or who takes medications should discuss whether to drink with their doctor.

Best time to drink with your doctor is AFTER he prescribes those meds and makes those diagnoses. He gets a little free-handed after.

Bill Gates's Revenge

From the NY Times, my source of oddities and digressions, about the Chinese hackers who broke into Google and stole stuff:


Executives at Google have said little about the intrusions and would not comment for this article. But the company has contacted computer security specialists to confirm what has been reported by other targeted companies: access to the companies’ servers was gained by exploiting a previously unknown flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser.

Those flaws can be good,...

Vericon

I suppose that since I have officially accepted the gig, I can tell you all that I will be the Guest of Honor at Vericon, Harvard's F/SF con. It's held March 19-21. I don't know what-all is happening there, or who-all will be there, but I bet there's a website that will at least suggest some answers. Anyway I will be there, doing a reading, signing books, bloviating, and making merry. Hope you can come.

Perverse, yes

In a review in the TLS of a book called "Perverse romanticism: Aesthetics and sexuality in Britain, 1750-1832" by Richard C. Sha, the reviewer (Shirley Dent) makes this comment: "Sha produces a masterful account of science in the period, including Lazarello Spallanzani's experiments with frogs in taffeta shorts..."

Does anyone have any further information on these experiments? Firstly, as to whether it was the frogs or Spallanzani who was wearing the taffeta shorts? (The sentence could be ...

NY Times again

 

Here's a bit out of a NY Times report on how conservatives are using the recent snowstorms to cast doubt on global warming:

Earlier this week, Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators made light of the fact that the announcement of the creation of a new federal climate service on Monday had to be conducted by conference call, rather than news conference, because the federal government was shuttered by the storm.

See anything wrong there?

In the empire of the phobias

The new DSM marches on, considering new conditions (though not the ones WE thought up, defensible as they are).  Here's one being thought about:

slatest.slate.com/id/2244516/

I'd say that compulsive composting, including such symptoms as grieving every time a piece of perfectly good rotten rutabaga or some such goes into the garbage can and not into the special organic-waste container through an honest error , or when people are forced by someone else's unbalanced world-view to carry organic wa...

DIY Therapy

The American Psychiatric Association is currently in the process of reevising their current diagnostic manual, nicknamed DSM-IV, to create a new issue, DSM-V.  Among the things that they will incorporate are suggestions from professionals and other users of the manual anent corrections, qualifications, etc., and also new diagnoses or subsets of diagnoses that they might want to include (after thought and research, of course).  I am not a reader of the manual nor a health professional, but I b...