Lego What?

Thanks to Kelly, my brain has just been somewhat rearranged. Again.

So, as usual, I share.



More at the Guardian online.

I Love Peter Sagal

Okay, so everyone loves him when he's being funny. But sometimes I love him better when he's being serious.

The fact is, when people talk about “the great inaugural addresses” they’re really talking about three at most, and from those three, three phrases:

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

So basically, people are scanning Obama’s speech to see if there are any Immortal Phrases, which here means simplistic notions expressed in a rhetorical antithesis. Big whup.

Seriously people, if you can't handle a speech made of more than soundbites, you're part of the problem.

Audiophilia

The internet is just too big. There's no other way to account for the fact that I hadn't heard about PodCastle, Escape Pod and Pseudopod yet (except for the facts that my interests are too broad and I'm too involved in generating content myself, but...uh...hey, look over there!).

Short fiction in the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres respectively, these podcasts are perfect for you if, like my friend James, you believe, "Nobody reads anymore."

Actually, there are a bunch of short fiction podcasts out there these days, but I'm starting with these. In particular, PodCastle has a short story I haven't read from Naomi Kritzer (who writes amazing short stories). Then there's Ellen Klages' "In The House Of The Seven Librarians," which I heard the author read when it was a shorter piece. And then...

And then....

Oh, boy. I'm in serious trouble now. See y'all when I come up for air.

Today, I Am Hopeful

There were a couple of things that stood out in my day. The president mentioned--lauded--labor:

...it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.

And there is a new project out there, a blog and a lobby and other things, dedicated to peace. Not the absence of war, but peace.

So, peace activism. Active. Not passive. And not simple.

These are good things.

Whither Allies

I'm back from ScienceOnline09, with an inaccessible laptop hard drive holding all my notes, and I've gotten one mostly full night's sleep in the last four. It would be wiser of me to hold off on blogging contentiously until I'm better rested. In fact, I have a ton of comments I'm dying to respond to. Instead, I'm writing this, and I ask a small amount of indulgence in the reading, because I think it's important enough to write even under less than ideal conditions.

I had a number of very nice chats with people before the sessions they were moderating about the topic of the session. Not surprising. Most of the moderators were a little overprepared and very invested in the topic, as they should be.

One of these discussions was with Zuska in the hotel bar. We were talking about lurkers and who reads her blog, and I made a comment about the risks allies take in opening their mouths and the inevitability of screwing something up. She agreed and said something about the responsibilities of allies when that happens.

Janet is now saying something very similar at Adventures in Ethics and Science.

You can't tell just by looking which purported allies have had a crystalizing experience. When people who say they are allies let you down in the crunch (which happens a lot), it's hard to trust that any ally can be relied upon. Thus, one lesson for allies (beyond the importance of being reliable at crunch-time) is not to be surprised or offended when you're not immediately recognized as an ally. Saying you are doesn't count for nearly as much as showing you are.

Let me say something now: You can't count on me.

Of course, you can't count on your parents to step up when your uncle is being an ass about your college choices. You can't count on your best friend to know what you need to hear about your date. You can't count on your sweetie(s) to know what you want for your birthday. You can't count on you to do what's best for you when you're feeling tired and unmotivated. As comfortable as it would be and as useful as it is sometimes to act as though the opposite were true, you can't count on people, even the people who are supposed to be on your side.

There are a couple of reasons you can't count on me. The first one is implicit in the examples I just gave. I don't know what you need or want at any given moment. The fact that I recognize you as part of a marginalized group tells me that you're marginalized. That's all it tells me, because part of being an ally is recognizing that marginalized and stereotyped groups are just as diverse (if not more so) than the mainstream.

The second reason is one I brought up talking to Zuska. I'm an ally, in part, because I don't deal well with authority. This means that it's easier for me than for some to look at the reasons given for marginalization and say that they don't make sense. However, it also means I take a step back any time someone says allies should behave in a particular way.

On top of that, I'm dealing with my own issues of marginalization. Some are relatively small and many are problems of privilege, but they're still real and part of the reason I understand marginalization. I may not have brought them up because, well, I've been listening. But that doesn't mean that I don't sometimes have to take a step out of your fight to fight my own.

So, no, you can't count on me. What you can do, though, is tell me what you would like me to do in a given situation, know that I'm likely to say an enthusiastic "yes" if I can (as I did a couple times this weekend), and know that I don't make promises lightly. Well, you really can't know those last two, but those are the areas where I want to be called on the carpet if I screw up.

That's a lot of speaking for myself, I know. But in the end, that's all I can do. I'm not your ally because I feel sorry for you and think you need caretaking. I'm your ally because I believe you have things to say I want to hear. I'm your ally because I believe in the intrinsic value of diversity and basic human dignity.

I hope that's enough. It may not be, in which case, you have every right to decide I'm not your ally. That would sadden me, but I understand that trying to change your mind would waste energy we could both put to use better elsewhere, just as trying to change me would be.

We don't achieve diversity by insisting that we all be alike.

***

As an aside that's nothing of the sort, I also want to respond to DrugMonkey's comments to Janet's post. If you follow this blog or DrugMonkey, you'll know that there was a big to do last month involving a commenter on DrugMonkey who I and some other DrugMonkey regulars felt was a trollish poster child.

Now, I had two purposes in mind in pointing out the trolling. One, I've developed an interest (perhaps even an unhealthy fascination) with that kind of thing, and two, I wanted to give people a place away from the fray to react to the manipulation. I thought both worked.

Then I saw this comment from DM:

Some, see Stephanie Z's post, consider you to be nothing more than an unrelenting disruptive troll. and suggest that I should ban your ass.

I was concerned briefly that DM really thought I was suggesting the troll should be banned, but I didn't say anything. For one thing, he was delivering an excellent lesson. I didn't want to interupt. And there are always more chances to talk about trolls and how they should be handled.

[sigh] Always.

But when it keeps coming up, I get more concerned.

Fascinating. And by this may we conclude that those who may have the privilege of ignoring said clueless idiots' obnoxiousness in case they are redeemable are themselves proving to be bad allies? Is it letting down in the crunch to fail to come to the same conclusions as those with said finite time and energy?

For the record, DM, no.

As I said above, I think it's silly to expect or even want monolithic behavior from people supporting diversity. Yes, there are times when a massed voice is helpful, but aside from that, well, it's a lot like my take on science communication. The people we need to reach, in the mainstream or in other marginalized groups, are not monolithic. We need as many ways to reach them as there are people to be reached.

In addition to places for people to sit and rest outside the line of fire, we need both carrots and sticks, and it's really hard for the same person to provide both at the same time. So as far as I'm concerned, as long as you can handle all the mixed metaphors, I'm happy to apply the pressure and allow you to show someone which way they need to move to get out from under it.

That's what allies are for.

Flamer Bingo

Home again. Must crash for a bit before trying to get conference notes off my laptop hard drive. [sigh]

Since y'all like the writing about trolls, maybe this can entertain you until I'm functional again. Teresa at Making Light started a thread about the verbal cues that tell you when someone isn't looking for real conversation. The comments are packed with trollish goodness (badness?). Note, it's called bingo because one is not enough to indicate ill intent.

A few of my favorites:

"I expected a group of [insert type of group here] folks to be [enlightened|loving|accepting|welcoming|more evolved]. But you people are a bunch of [unenlightened|hateful|rejecting|cliquish|troglodyte] [insert plural noun for male or female animal or genitalia here]."

God, you all are a bunch of sheep/lemmings/silent Germans in the 30's/brainless followers.

"You're typing with one hand, aren't you?"

"I already told the moderator about you. They're going to ban you now."

(Particularly amusing if it's on my own site and the troll doesn't realize they just told the site owner she's going to get banned.)

If it's so important for [minority group] to have the freedom to live their weird and perverted lifestyle, why don't I have the freedom to live my normal, regular life and think badly of the weirdoes if I want to?

Reasonable people can disagree on [issues that affect an oppressed group the speaker is not a part of]

*bites his tongue*

[meta] Because if you don't actually express your objection, but only make reference to your noble self-control in not expressing it, no one can actually refute whatever it is you're feeling smug about. [/meta]

[Posts rambling screed full of half-truths, non-sequiturs and pure mis-information]

[Gets a dozen responses picking apart the misinformation point-by-point]

"Those were some very interesting replies, but unfortunately, I have a life/job/hobby/ingrown toenail, so it'll be a while before I can respond to all of you."

Don't bother replying to this [abusive commentary], I'm not going to read anything more you write.

"Well, if somehow, somebody found that offensive, I'm sorry."

what [group of which i am not a part] need to do to [choose 1: improve their credibility... win an election... get my sympathy... deserve public services for which they already pay taxes... purge their ranks of extremists... behave/appear in a manner more resembling myself... i could go on] is...

Many, many more where those came from.

Atheists Talk--Dan Barker

Dan Barker is the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), based in Madison, Wisconsin. (FFRF has 14,000 members.) He recently authored "Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists." It is an update of his previous work "Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist." Dan has participated in more than 50 atheist-theist debates and is known for his "Friendly Neighborhood Atheism."

Produced by Minnesota Atheists. Directed by Mike Haubrich and August Berkshire. Hosted by Mike Haubrich. Interview by Grant Steves.

"Atheists Talk" radio program 9 a.m. to 10 a.m, Sunday, January 18. KTNF AM 950 or stream live on-line at am950ktnf.com/listen. Studio call-in number: 952-946-6205 or e-mail questions to radio@mnatheists.org.

Program notes here.

Unshared Social Cues

I was chatting with, oh, let's call him an old friend of mine the other day. The subject of Asperger's came up, and he suggested he might have an undiagnosed case. I laughed at him. I told him he was far too adept at picking up social cues for this to be the case.

He said, "With you, I'm perceptive. With everyone else, not so much."

Aaah, got it. "You grew up in geek culture. Were your parents science fiction fans?"

"Science fiction, no. Geek culture, definitely."

I pointed him to this piece on the differences between geek/fannish communication behavior and "mundane" behavior.

We also speak in larger word groupings between breaths. This does not necessarily mean that we speak faster; we just pause for a shorter time between words -- except where there is punctuation. She pointed out that when Teresa Nielsen Hayden said she came from Mesa, Arizona, Teresa actually pronounced the comma by putting a slightly longer pause there, while most mundanes would simply run the words together. Mundanes slur a lot of consonents that we pronounce individually. We use punctuation in our spoken utterances. Sometimes we even footnote.

What we say in those large word groupings is also different. We tend to use complete sentences, and complex sentence structure. When we pause, or say "uh", it tends to be towards the beginning of a statement, as we formulate the complete thought. The "idea" or "information" portion of a statement is paramount; emotional reassurance, the little social noises (mm-hmm) are reduced or omitted. We get to the heart of what we want to say -- if someone asks us how to do something we tell them, not leading up to it gently with "have you tried doing it this way?"

This leads us to body language. Our body language is also different from mundanes. We tend to not use eye contact nearly as often; when we do, it often signifies that it's the other person's turn to speak now. This is opposite of everyone else. In mundania, it's *breaking* eye contact that signals turn-taking, not *making* eye contact. She demonstrated this on DDB; breaking eye contact and turning slightly away, and he felt insulted. On the other hand, his sudden staring at her eyes made her feel like a professor had just said "justify yourself NOW". Mutual "rudeness"; mixed signals.

Oh, yeah, he recognized himself.

There's just one bit from the report that I have to quibble with.

She didn't get much into why this is all the case (I think she was surprised at the laughter when she suggested diffidently that we might be a bit under socialized. No, really?? ), and turned away questions about possible pathology.

It doesn't require any kind of pathology or even under-socialization to produce this kind of behavior pattern. Sure, fandom is very accepting of social disorders like Asperger's and its ranks were once stocked with people who had it.

However, fandom has become its own culture, isolated to a certain extent from the pressures to conform to "normal" society. The label, "mundane," for people outside of fandom indicates just how isolated it is comfortable being. We're into a second generation of people who are being raised almost entirely within fandom. Kids are being socialized to this behavior, just as my friend was. This is their normal.

So, given that my friend and others like him are perfectly well socialized to a standard that mundane society says is pathological, what does this mean for diagnosis (lay or formal) of things like Asperger's?

That Kind of Weather

This is the kind of weather:

• Where you walk outside, breathe in and immediately cough, because your lungs are smarter than you are.
• Where your eyelashes freeze together, or to your scarf if they're that long.
• Where you instantly detect the smallest shift in wind direction.
• Where you get brain freeze--from the outside.
• Where your cheeks get chafed by the frost on the inside of your scarf.
• Where your nose doesn't even run until you get back inside.

For me, this is the kind of weather where I want to get on a plane and go some place warmer for just a few days. Today, right about now, in fact (I hope), that's what I'm doing.

I'm headed off to North Carolina for ScienceOnline09 and to experience the region's idea of cold. I hear it will be below freezing at night. I'm positively bouncing with the excitement of meeting everyone, but I'm trying to do it very carefully.

I wouldn't want to slip on the ice and have to stay home.

Why Vaccinate? Pertussis

Apropos of the sudden influx of self-righteous antivax parents suddenly popping up at Greg's, it's time for another of these posts.

Our local paper noted earlier this year that we were possibly in for a peak year of pertussis, or whooping cough cases in the state. Pertussis is one of those lovely diseases where herd immunity counts for a lot.

Pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial infection that causes intense and persistent coughing in older children and adults. In infants it can be fatal.

Babies routinely get vaccinated for it at 2, 4 and 6 months, but they are not fully protected until after their third shot. Young children get another dose before entering school.

But the vaccine wears off, and older children can become infected. For most of them the illness can result in weeks of coughing, and they can infect vulnerable infants. Last year in Minnesota 11 infants were hospitalized for pertussis.

Since 2005 doctors and health officials have recommended a new vaccine for adolescents and adults, largely to protect infants. But nationally only about a third of adolescents and teenagers have received it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only a third of the most common vectors for the disease are vaccinated. But hey, keep your infants away from teenagers and they should be fine, right? Of course, you won't have a babysitter for six months.

Luckily most parents do vaccinate their infants as soon as possible, but when they don't, what are they potentially letting their children in for?

The baby was 9 months old, his birth weight was 8 lbs 5 ounces. At six months he weighed just shy of 20 pounds. Today he weighed 15 pounds - he was a skeleton and he was dying.

Mom had brought him in after treatment by his naturopath had failed. Constant coughing had made it impossible for him to take in adequate nutrition and starvation, coupled with a raging bacterial pneumonia were conspiring to shortly end his very short life.

We worked feverishly. Intubation, IV boluses, major antibiotics, vasopressors. All futile.

The end of the story is at ERNursey, but do you really have to read it? Just get those kids stuck.

A Bigger Gamble Than Ever

Oh, this is not good.

State-sponsored gambling, which faced long odds in past legislative sessions, might not be viewed so negatively this time around as legislators look everywhere for a few dollars to help solve the state's massive budget problems.

A cross section of state legislators are expected to introduce a wide spectrum of gaming bills in coming weeks.

I get the appeal. I really do. Voluntary revenue for the state, in a world where "tax" has become an epithet meaning "sodomy," is about as sexy as it gets, especially when the word makes our governor blink slowly and say, "But I made a promise."

The problem is that gambling isn't free--and all the calculations of how long it would take to pay off start-up costs and bring in revenue are more than a year old. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but what a year it's been. You've heard about Atlantic City.

"Over the last two years, about $600 million in gross gaming revenue has disappeared from Atlantic City," said Joseph Weinert, senior vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group.

Also gone during that period: 3,330 casino jobs.

Atlantic City has tried to blame the decline on growth in other gambling and, of all things, a smoking ban. But that doesn't explain Las Vegas.

Recently, the Nevada Gaming Control Board released “win,” or revenue, figures for the month of October. The results showed a significant decline in state-wide revenue from gambling, which slid 22.33% in October when compared to the same month last year. Las Vegas Strip revenue was down 25% year over year.

Clark County, Nevada reported a gambling win of $757 million, falling from just over $1 billion in October of 2007. The change represented a drop of 24.34%, among the largest declines in the state. Casinos on the famed Las Vegas Strip reported $475 million in revenue in October, down from $639 million year over year. That percent decrease amounted to 25.77%. North Las Vegas saw its revenue tumble by the largest reported percentage. October gambling revenue there dropped from $28 million in 2007 to just $18 million in 2008, a slide of 34.53%.

Nor does a casino have to be a plane flight away to be in trouble.

The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority announced Sunday that effective Feb. 1 it will cut pay for all employees, with salary rollbacks of 10 percent for vice presidents and above, 7.5 percent for middle managers and 4 percent for all line and hourly employees.

In addition, it will eliminate annual raises and merit-based salary increases and is scrapping its matching contribution to employee 401(k) plans.

...

The announcement comes a month after the casino's parent company reported a double-digit percentage decline in net earnings, primarily due to a drop in gambling revenue. For the year ending Sept. 30, Mohegan Sun reported $1.36 billion in net revenue, down about $68 million from the previous year.

Only state lotteries are seeing any increase in revenue, and not even all of them. New Jersey isn't getting any of it.

Officials say their sales slipped by 4 percent between July and the end of November compared with the same period in 2007.

The sales slump runs counter to what other states are seeing. Scientific Games, which makes scratch-off tickets, says revenue is up for scratch-off and daily games in 25 of the 42 states with lotteries.

Neither is New Hampshire.

Lottery sales were down 11 percent in 2008 over the previous year, according to Rick Wisler, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery.

Whatever may have been the case in the past, gambling is not recession-proof, not this recession. And with all the other demands for funding, now is not the time to be gambling state money on the chance of future revenue.

Science and Fiction--Recommended Reads

This is my last summary of responses to the questions Peggy and I posed in November. Today's question was posed to both science bloggers and science fiction writers.

Are there any specific science or science fiction blogs you would recommend to interested readers or writers?

The short answer is "yes." Here's the long answer:

Science and Technology
Astrobiology Magazine Science news relevant to the possibility of life on other worlds.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Bad Astronomy Phil Plait on astronomy and general skepticism.
BBC News One of the few large media outlets that still has broad science coverage.
Biology in Science Fiction Peggy Kolm finds the science in science fiction and vice versa.
Blogging on Pseudo-Science Database Aggregating skeptical posts on junk science.
Carnival of Mathematics Blog carnival: mathematics, including math in pop culture.
Carnival of Space Blog carnival: space and astronomy.
Centauri Dreams Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities.
Cocktail Party Physics A group blog lead by by Jennifer Ouellette that looks at interesting science and pop culture.
Cognitive Daily Fascinating peer-reviewed developments in cognition.
Cosmic Variance A group blog of physicists and astrophysicists talking about whatever interests them.
Deep Sea News All things wet and wild. At least those found underwater.
denialism blog Stamping out anti-science.
Dinosaur Tracking Brian Switek finds dinosaurs everywhere.
Discover Blogs Discover's blog swarm.
DrugMonkey A primer in the politics of funding and publishing in biology.
Encephalon Blog carnival: neuroscience and psychology.
Four Stone Hearth Blog carnival: anthropology and archaeology.
Geoblogosphere Feed A combined feed of geobloggers.
The Great Beyond The Nature news feed (many blogs also listed individually).
The Giant's Shoulders Blog carnival: history of science and classic science papers.
Greg Laden's Blog Archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, politics. Oh, and robots.
Highly Allochthonous Chris Rowan is a geologist specialising in the dark arts of paleomagnetism.
Knight Science Journalism Tracker A review of science news stories as they make the MSM rounds.
Laelaps Brian Switek blogs about evolution. With cool pictures.
Mendel's Garden Blog carnival: genetics.
Mind Hacks Neuroscience, psychology, and the workings of the brain.
More Grumbine Science Robert Grumbine looks at climate science and whatever other science strikes his fancy.
NASA's Image of the Day
Nature News The latest science news from the journal Nature.
Neuroanthropology Encouraging exchanges among anthropology, philosophy, social theory, and the brain sciences.
New Scientist The magazine's online home.
Pharyngula Read PZ Myers. Everybody's doin' it.
Real Climate Climate science from climate scientists.
Research And Media Network Bringing people together to improve communication of research findings.
Research Blogging Aggregating posts on peer-reviewed research.
SciDev News, views and information about science, technology and the developing world.
ScienceNOW The latest science news from AAAS & the journal Science.
SciTalk UK organization that hooks up writers with scientists.
Science Not Fiction The science of futurist technologies—and cool TV shows, books, movies, toys, and video games.
Seed Magazine Science and culture.
Seed ScienceBlogs The sciborg (many blogs also listed individually).
Sentient Developments George Dvorsky's blogs about transhumanist perspectives on science, philosophy, ethics and the future of intelligent life.
Slashdot The great repository of all things geeky.
Space.com Putting all your space news in one place.
Tangled Bank Blog carnival: science and medicine.
Technovelgy Database of technology in science fiction, and news about science and technology related to SF.
Tetrapod Zoology Darren Naish talks about dinosaurs and whatever other creatures fascinate him today.
Thus Spake Zuska Suzanne Franks highlights the position of women in the sciences and engineering.
Uncertain Principles Chad Orzel, physicist and SF fan.
Universe Today Space news and home of the Carnival of Space.
Wired Magazine Not your grandfather's tech news, unless you're my niece.
why I hate theropods Nick Gardner finds the paleobiology news that others miss.
Worldchanging Collecting news and resources on environmental sustainability.
xkcd If you don't know why, you haven't read it yet.

Science Fiction
AboutSF.com A science fiction resource center.
The Alien Next Door Musings of Nina Munteanu, SF writer and ecologist.
Ambling Along the Aqueduct SF from a feminist point of view.
Angel Station Walter Jon Williams, author, game designer, kenpo maven, scuba fiend, and fantasy Iron Chef.
Beyond the Beyond SF writer Bruce Sterling blogs at Wired.
Charlie's Diary Writer Charlie Stross on, well, everything.
Cyberpunk Review Robots and cyborgs in news and entertainment.
Eat Our Brains A different brain (and writer) for every day of the week.
Ecstatic Days Writer and editor Jeff VanderMeer.
Feminist SF--The Blog! Books, movies, comics, games, reason, & ranting.
Feminist SF Blog Carnival
Futurismic A group blog about near-future science fiction and fact.
GalacticMu SF with an extra dose of snark.
Hero Complex The LA Times genre blog, with an emphasis on TV and movie news.
Hindi Science Fiction In Hindi.
io9 Attack of the 50-foot blog.
Lablit Dedicated to the portrayal and perceptions of real laboratory culture in fiction, the media and across popular culture.
Lakeshore Prolific writer Jay Lake blogs slightly less prolifically.
Mike Brotherton SF writer and astronomer.
No Moods, Ads or Cutesy Fucking Icons (Reloaded). Peter Watts keeps the focus on science and fiction.
People of Colour SF Carnival
Post-Weird Thoughts News, reviews and interviews.
Schlock Mercenary The comic.
Science and Entertainment Exchange Providing entertainment industry professionals with access to top scientists and engineers.
SFNovelists A collective of professional speculative fiction writers write about writing.
Sf Signal News, reviews and the Mind Meld (including several relevant to this discussion).
SF Writer Writer Robert J. Sawyer.
Tobias Buckell Online
tor.com The publisher provides a place to geek about all things fantasy and science fiction.
The Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide It's not pretty, and hasn't been updated recently, but it's still an excellent way to find SF with specific themes.
Whatever Writer John Scalzi talks about science fiction, politics, geekery and, well, you know.

Science Art
The Art Department Blog of Tor Art Director Irene Gallo.
bioephemera A miscellany of incredibly cool stuff.
BLDGBLOG Finding a remarkable amount of science in architecture.
The Filter Art, video and other media "to help you, help others 'get' science."
The Flying Trilobite Glendon Mellow's art in awe of science.
Gurney Journey An art blog by the writer and illustrator of Dinotopia.
Paleo-Future Futurist predictions from the past.
Pruned Landscape architecture and urban planning.
Raptor's Nest Paleobiologist Manabu Sakamoto sketches his subjects.
seedbyte Garden design, garden organizations and individuals who stand out in the garden community.
Warren Ellis A steady stream of art, science and weirdness.
When Pigs Fly Returns Zachary Miller on dinosaurs, art and dragons.

As always, links to all the responses and the summaries to all the questions can be found at the conference wiki. And a huge thank you to everyone who participated.

Technical Difficulties

Usually, when a radio show fails to go on the air due to technical difficulties, those difficulties happen in the studio--sometimes on the phone line.

This morning, they happened on the freeway.

Anyone looking for the podcast of today's interview with Todd Allen Gates is going to have to wait, probably two weeks, although we're still finalizing the arrangements. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that he's willing to return to the show. Anyone less committed to rationality would be considering us cursed by now, since his first time on Atheists Talk was marred by a button in the studio with an indicator light that came on even when the button wasn't fully pressed.

Today's story is a little different. It started out perfectly. I'd just hit Send on an email when the doorbell rang. I had my show notes and hot drink sitting ready and grabbed them as I headed out the door. The streets were a little slushy from last night's snow but not slippery. We got on the freeway and headed for the studio.

We were on an overpass the first time it happened. I didn't even feel it, but Mike said, "Whoa," and the car slowed down. "Maybe the roads are a little icy."

Everything seemed okay after that, and once we were off the overpass, Mike slowly went back up to speed. We were good for another mile or so.

I felt it the second time the car jerked, and the third and.... I could see the wheel twisting in Mike's hands. We pulled over to the side of the road.

"I think it's the tires." Mike opened the door.

"I'll call Ben." I got out my cell phone. "Hi. We're on 35, and the car is doing bad things. Can you get us to the studio?"

"Sure."

Mike stuck his head back in. "The wheel well is packed with ice and snow. I'm going to see if I can clear it."

Ben and I speculated about the various problems it could be if not ice--while Mike was out of earshot, of course. Then Mike got back in the car, started it up, and drove cautiously on the shoulder for a bit. No problem. I let Ben go.

We lasted a few miles the second time. Then the car jerked hard to the right again. Its timing was excellent, as we were going around a curve under an overpass with concrete barriers a couple feet to our right.

Needless to say, we slowed way down again, but there was still far to go until we were out of the construction zone and to someplace with a shoulder again. We didn't hit a barrier. We didn't get hit by a car doing the speed limit. The only thing that took damage was our nerves.

By now, between the stop and the slow periods, we'd already hit the time when we should have been at the station. We had buffer time, yes, but not enough to make it there going 20. Not enough time for any of the backup transportation or hosting plans to work either, not once Mike was willing to take his hands off the wheel long enough to pull out his phone, where people's numbers were.

So we called the Todd, who was wonderful about it (and possibly more rational that we were by then), and called the engineer at the studio, who reran an already recorded show for us. Then we concentrated on figuring out where we could get Mike's car looked at on a Sunday morning.

Final results for the morning? We had disappointed listeners, Mike has a sheared axle boot, and I have a bunch of numbers to add to my cell phone. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

Atheists Talk--Todd Allen Gates

It has been said that an atheist is a person who disbelieves in one more god than everyone else does. Our guest this Sunday, Todd Allen Gates, explored that idea in his book, Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer.

The author's description from Amazon:

Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer is a Socratic dialogue between a skeptic and a Christian apologist. The skeptic does not address atheism, but accepts the premises--for argument's sake--that there IS a Creator of sorts, that this said-Creator has made some sort of communication effort with mankind, and that the fundamentalists are correct in their assessment that "one religion is from God, the rest are man-made." The two characters then discuss non-Christian religions, and reach agreements on specific reasons why such faiths fall into the "made-by-man" category: (a) they're pieced together from pre-existing religions, (b) their holy laws are often based on irrational prejudices and erroneous conclusions about cause and effect, and (c) their stories contain inaccurate and earth-bound descriptions of the universe. The discussion then turns to examining the Christian religion in the same light as the non-Christian. Their conversation remains a respectful exchange of ideas, but is no longer harmonious.

The book's two themes:

(1) "If you understand why you reject all the other religions, you'll understand why I reject yours."

(2) A marveling at humans' handiwork in the creation of the world's religions: the stunning range of creativity, cruelty, compassion, ingenuity, and absurdity. Included are scriptural passages from Bahaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism; as well as mythology and folklore from the Aztecs, the Babylonians, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Kenya, the Native Americans, Nigeria, the Pygmies, the Sumerians, the Vikings, and more.

Programming Note: Todd was our guest in November (show #045), and we have invited him back.

Produced by Minnesota Atheists. Directed by Mike Haubrich. Hosted by Stephanie Zvan.

• Book: Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer by Todd Allen Gates


• Wikipedia: Todd Allen Gates


• YouTube: Todd Allen Gates: "Details of Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (Part 1 of 5)


• YouTube: Todd Allen Gates: "Using the Socratic Method with Christian proselytizers" (Part 1 of 7)


• YouTube: Response in support of above video


• Todd Allen Gates video: "Satan's pre-Christian virgin birth stories"


• Todd Allen Gates post at Clashing Culture: "Obama's Christianity; Why It Might Be Sincere, Why it Might Not, and Why it Might Not Matter."

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Science and Fiction--Writers Respond #3

Here we continue on in our look at the relationship between science and science fiction (see my posts here and here and Peggy's here and here). Today's question for science fiction writers:

How important is it to you that the science be right? What kind of resources do you use for accuracy?

As always, the full list of respondents is on the ScienceOnline09 conference wiki, and all the answers are worth reading in their entirety.

There was a very wide range of opinion among writers about the importance of accuracy in the science. Some felt it was paramount.

The science has to be right. Science our best determination of how the universe works, and has certainly outlined many ways in which it doesn’t work. Getting it wrong is the same as getting anything fundamental wrong in a story, like misplacing New York City in Iowa, or having Brazilians speaking Spanish rather than Portuguese. If it’s wrong, you are too ignorant of the world to write about it correctly.
--Mike Brotherton

Science must not only be right it should be rightly put forth also .Otherwise there are chances that it may transgress the limits of sensibility/rationality and may plunge into the realms of pseudo science.
--Arvind Mishra @ Science Fiction in India

For my own science fiction work, paralyzingly so.
--Kelly McCullough @ Wyrdsmiths

It’s vital that the science be right, and I research it exhaustively, all the more so as I’m not a professional scientist. Sometimes you get to the point where you just have to speculate, of course, but the question is how far you can inch your way forward before you have to take that leap. . . .
--David J. Williams @ The Mirrored Heavens

For others, it wasn't quite as much a priority.

I wouldn't knowingly leave an error in the books, and I do check whatever I can. For example, I had a scene where a robot is trapped in a vacuum at a distance from its spaceship, and uses a gas cylinder to push himself back to safety. I just wasn't sure how to research that one. Then, a couple of weeks ago I saw an old Jon Pertwee episode of Doctor Who where he pulled the exact same stunt, so now I can point to that and say 'hey, they thought it would work too ...'

Not that I'm going to claim Doctor Who as my one and only resource ...
--Simon Haynes @ Spacejock News

I've been reading every magazine I can get my hands on for general idea conglomeration, because far-future large-scale SF sort of makes science debatable. How can you predict tens of thousands of years in the future? Just fling everything together and go crazy. :D

This flippant attitude is probably part of the reason I haven't been able to create a decent SF story yet.
--JesterJoker @ Sa Souvraya Niende Misain Ye

Most writers, though, thought accuracy was important but second in priority to the needs of the story.

To me getting the science right is not that important, but a reasonable check should be done by any author wanting to right a science fiction story. But once again the story needs to dictate what and how things happen; for instance, if a character needs to travel to the asteroid belt in a certain amount of time, I’ll calculate if it’s possible to travel in the allotted time by a legitimate propulsion system, just to give credence to the story. But I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about the propulsion system, speeds, and artificial gravity or relativistic affects, unless they are important to the story.
--Robert Evans @ SciFiWriter

There is some poetic license, but for the most part, the closer to accurate science you get the more reliable your extrapolations will appear to the reader. If you’re sloppy about your science, then you might be sloppy in your observations about people and your story may suffer as a result.
--Nina Munteanu @ The Alien Next Door

Getting the science right is important. But no more important than getting the characters, the personalities, the personal stories and the details of plot right.
--David Brin

To me getting the science right is not that important, but a reasonable check should be done by any author wanting to right a science fiction story. But once again the story needs to dictate what and how things happen...

What those that are in the science and research fields need to take away from science fiction is the sense of imagination. Science fiction is not meant to be an easy to read text book for physics. It is to tell a story and initiate imagination.
--Robert Evans @ SciFiWriter

More important than it should be; my formal training has left me scarred with the usual need to cover my ass against nitpickers and professional rivals. That said, though, I think too strict an adherence to the known scientific state-of-the-art is a straitjacket that constrains the imagination. There's a reason they call it science fiction; to keep all your stories within the realm of today's established science is to suggest that there are no more breakthroughs to be made, that we pretty much know everything already. That's a profoundly antiscientific attitude.
--Peter Watts

...I do think it's important to be pretty faithful to science. I don't think you have to be a zealot about it, though. We have to remember how quickly science can change in this world. Not too long ago everyone was telling us that the whole panspermia thing was a load of crap. Now a lot of folks aren't so sure. Same with the exoplanet thing. Science changes, so there's nothing wrong with taking a few liberties here or there as long as they try to keep with the general truth of things. When it comes to the basics, though, I think one should stick with what is accurate. Physics should still work in one's science fiction story.
Shaun Duke @ The World in the Satin Bag

This is a question that I'd answer very differently on a case-by-case basis. In the end I owe my loyalty to the story -- but I've got a whole mess of scrapped fiction where an inability to make the science work with the fiction led me to abandon a piece.

...

But in the end, my feeling is the more accurate the better. Given two stories of comparable literary value I will strongly prefer one over the other if it has accurate scientific content.
--Sean Craven @ Renaissance Oaf

Most of the writers use a variety of resources for scientific information, online and personal. The greatest differences seemed to be among opinions of Wikipedia, which proves that writers do have something in common with the rest of the world.

I can access pretty much any scientific journal I want, thanks to some connections in the University community. Also I get telepathic messages from my cats.
--Peter Watts

I use a wide variety of resources ranging from a personal library to the internet -- and no matter what I do I'll always feel guilty for not having done more research. What's really thrilling is that scientists are frequently very generous with their time and advice -- and you can track them down on the internet. When I was working on a film script set in the Jurassic I received a great deal of advice from working paleontologists -- and it was great to see them argue with one another over such issues as whether cabeza de sauropod was a good taco filling.
--Sean Craven

When I need to check accuracy I tap the rather large academic network of scientists that I've developed through my wife and my own work in science education as well as various online resources and an extensive personal science library.
--Kelly McCullough

For me, when I write about science-rich topics, I have it easy. Easier than most, anyway. I have degrees in physics, electrical engineering, and a PhD in astronomy. I have a lot of basic knowledge and assimilate new findings quickly. I can read the scientific journals on the latest findings if I have too. Still, basic resources are usually more valuable and useful as a writer. I’ve compiled some resources that I use: the Hard SF Writer’s Bookshelf and Online Astronomy Resources for Writers, for instance. When I need to learn some science for a story outside my expertise, I will usually start with online resources like wikipedia, which continues to improve in breadth and quality. If I need to know things more in depth, I usually identify a popular science book that covers the topic and read it. I have a lot of contacts with other science fiction writers, and networking can put me in contact with someone who can answer my questions (I wind up helping other writers when it comes to astronomy).
--Mike Brotherton

My number one resource is the web in order to check the accuracy of my work. If I can’t prove what I want, and my assumption is turning in to being a science fantasy then I leave it at that.
--Robert Evans

I use a lot of resources: anything from Google and Wikipedia to text books and scientific journals in the local library. I frequently read the popular science magazines to keep abreast of what’s new (e.g., Scientific American, Discover, etc.). I’ve gotten several short story ideas from an article in one of these.
--Nina Munteanu

As for resources, I find that Google is enormously helpful for finding accurate information. But you have to be careful. Wikipedia is a great way to be misinformed. I know this first hand as a student. Wiki is often wrong and the problem with Wiki is that other sites now cite it as if it were a legit source. It's not. The best places to find out things, such as different aspects of science, are university websites or actual science websites. They're easy to find and there are hundreds of them, if not thousands. Another thing to do is to ask people who would know (mainly for things that are a bit complicated and very specific).
--Shaun Duke

David Brin, however, uses my favorite method.

I find that it is easy to get expert opinions from top scientists, for the cost of some pizza and beer.

For my own work, I agree with those who believe that whatever a writer can get right should be right. However, because much of what I write is social science fiction and because if we could predict where science will take us, we wouldn't need to do the science, I'm willing to take some leaps. I do try, though, to either give an idea of how unlikely we consider something to be (alien races that can communicate effectively with humans) or to avoid giving any explanation that would make things seem plausible in the universe as we know it (interstellar travel).

For resources, I've used all of those listed by the other writers: internet, reference books, journals, pop sci magazines, my own science education, bribing scientists to wax enthusiastic about the details. That last one really is one of the perks of writing SF.

We're coming up on the end of our summaries, just in time for the conference. Peggy has one more set of answers from the scientists. Then, coming Sunday, I'll have a guide to the science and science fiction blogs recommended by our respondents.