Writing the Politically-Wrong Other

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Sunday August 08, 2010 · 4:45 PM PDT

2010/08/08 · 16:45

A European said online that Americans blindly followed their President (George W. Bush, at that time.) I disagreed.

A Canadian then explained that I was a typical American who took his opinions from television.

Three of my grandparents were Marxists; the fourth was an anarchist. This is not a typical American heritage. And I don't watch television.

And to the best of my knowledge, I don't know any American who take their opinions from television. Most Americans can easily find TV pundits they already agree with.

dsgood

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Tuesday June 22, 2010 · 12:08 PM PDT

2010/06/22 · 12:08

Last night's GUS (Give Up Smoking) diary concentrated on smoking in science fiction. Prairie D asked for help finding some 1950s sf stories; I've passed on answers in a comment to Prairie D's comment. (I consulted the Usenet group rec.arts.sf.written, and an sf collector who works in a library.)

Which lead me to think more about 1950s sf, and how strange it can be in the wrong places to people of today.

There's lot more smoking than in today's world, to begin with. One writing trick is to use a small action to break up dialog. Some small, everyday thing -- like lighting up a cigarette on a spaceship. Something which obviously will be just as common in the future.

dsgood

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Sunday June 06, 2010 · 9:42 PM PDT

2010/06/06 · 21:42

If the Republican Party has made any gains in the 2010 Congressional elections, conservatives and Republicans will look forward to recapturing the White House. They will be disappointed.

Obama will probably run again, and win again. If he's not able to run, the Democratic candidate will win.

Democrats will make Congressional gains. Politicians and the chattering classes will begin to realize that the United States does not have a permanent conservative majority.

dsgood

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Friday June 04, 2010 · 3:09 PM PDT

2010/06/04 · 15:09

You will, if you're a liberal and you live long enough.

I can easily remember when "homosexuality is a mental illness" was the liberal position. Much more recently (1996), Paul Wellstone (one of the most liberal US Senators) voted for the Defense Of Marriage Act. Fourteen years later, no one would expect a liberal Senator to vote against same sex marriage.

When I was growing up, anti-smoking activists were more likely to be religious conservatives than liberals.

I'm slightly too young to remember when there was nothing inconsistent about a Southern liberal politician being a segregationist.

dsgood

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Saturday May 08, 2010 · 12:47 PM PDT

2010/05/08 · 12:47

I like to find science news before newspapers and other news media cook it to be more palatable to readers. Why? To begin with, the earlier reports are more likely to be accurate; a newspaper story might become inaccurate when "improved" by the reporter, the editor, and the copy editor.

Also, I don't trust general news media to know what's worth reporting. Is "The White House now has a dog" more important than all the stories which don't get on newspaper front pages? More important than everything which doesn't get reported at all?

And, of course, earlier reports are earlier. Sometimes years or decades earlier.

dsgood

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Saturday April 10, 2010 · 1:15 PM PDT

2010/04/10 · 13:15

Prediction from Twitter posts of (among other things) UK elections.

New uses for social networks; if successful, likely to have some impact on political organizing.

"Micro-blogging service Twitter can be used to predict the future box-office takings of blockbuster films, according to researchers at Hewlett Packard (HP).
....
They found the rate at which messages were produced could be used to accurately predict the box office takings before the film opened.

"Further analysis of the content of the messages could predict ongoing success."

dsgood

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Tuesday February 03, 2009 · 8:01 PM PST

2009/02/03 · 20:01

Science news not yet dumbed down by reporters, but not yet confirmed as reflecting reality.

From http://eurekalert.org:

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/...

dsgood

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Friday January 16, 2009 · 2:26 PM PST

2009/01/16 · 14:26

From the Physics Arxiv Blog http://arxivblog.org:

How the credit crisis spread
January 14th, 2009 | by KFC

"The graphic may be dramatic but it shows only how the collapse occurred, not why. That’s much more subtle and is related to the far more complex network of links that exist between the companies involved.

"However, the graph does bear a remarkable resemblance to any number of other network-related catastrophies, such as the spread of disease, forest fires and fashion. That’s almost certainly because all these events can be described terms of the physics of self-organised criticality."

dsgood

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Thursday January 15, 2009 · 5:18 PM PST

2009/01/15 · 17:18

From http://eurekalert.org:

Public Release: 15-Jan-2009
Addiction
Alcohol taxes have clear effect on drinking
A new study published online today finds that the more alcoholic beverages cost, the less likely people are to drink.
http://www.eurekalert.org/...

Public Release: 15-Jan-2009
Lancet
Countries undergoing economic change urged to limit social and health costs for populations
Countries seeking to make massive changes in the way their economies are run, for example by privatizing formerly state-run sectors, must take into account the potential impact of such changes on people's health, experts warn today.
http://www.eurekalert.org/...
"Huge rise in male mortality coincided with move from communism to capitalism"

dsgood

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Wednesday December 17, 2008 · 9:14 PM PST

2008/12/17 · 21:14

From http://eurekalert.org:

Public Release: 17-Dec-2008
'Smart' surveillance system may tag suspicious or lost people
Engineers here are developing a computerized surveillance system that, when completed, will attempt to recognize whether a person on the street is acting suspiciously or appears to be lost. Intelligent video cameras, large video screens and geo-referencing software are among the technologies that will soon be available to law enforcement and security agencies.
National Science Foundation, Air Force Research Laboratory
http://researchnews.osu.edu/...

Public Release: 17-Dec-2008
American Geophysical Union
Study: Did early climate impact divert a new glacial age?
The common wisdom is that the invention of the steam engine and the advent of the coal-fueled industrial age marked the beginning of human influence on global climate.
http://www.eurekalert.org/...

dsgood

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Tuesday November 25, 2008 · 4:57 PM PST

2008/11/25 · 16:57

Caution: These are synopses of scientific press releases whose findings might not hold up. Also, I might have skipped the ones you would consider most important.

From http://eurekalert.org:

Public Release: 25-Nov-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Understanding donor-recipient genetics could decrease early kidney transplant complications
Researchers have found an association between the genetics of donor-recipient matches in kidney transplants and complications during the first week after transplantation. The team has shown that small differences in the building blocks of cell-surface proteins used to match donors and recipients for deceased-donor kidney transplantation was associated with an increased risk for delayed allograft function.
NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/...

dsgood

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Monday November 24, 2008 · 3:26 PM PST

2008/11/24 · 15:26

These are synopses of scientific press releases. They are not yet established as scientific fact, and may turn out to be wrong.

From http://eurekalert.org:

Public Release: 24-Nov-2008
Chinese forest project could reduce number of environmental disasters
A study published in Journal of the American Water Resources Association states that the "Green Great Wall," a forest shelterbelt project in northern China running nearly parallel to the Great Wall, is likely to improve climatic and hydrological conditions in the area when completed.

http://www.eurekalert.org/...

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