The Making Light General Index (2001-December 2006—originally posted at the Wyrdsmiths blog)
A non-comprehensive attempt to make the archives at Making Light an easier resource to access. Not to be mistaken for A Writer’s Index to Making Light wherein you will find a fairly comprehensive topical index of Making Light posts regarding the publishing industry. Nor for James D Macdonald’s Excellent Index of Medical Posts. BTW, though there is some material that’s gone into both of my indices, there is stuff in the Writers Index that is not in the general index and vice-versa, so the completest would be advised to check both.
This is an ongoing project and readers are welcome to suggest additions (ideally set up in the same format as the rest of the index with link info included) and corrections in comments.
Update: I’ve had to close this post to comments due to a big old comment spam attack. Please feel free to leave index comments in the current top post thread with a note that it’s a Making Light Index comment. Sorry for the inconvenience.
At this point I have not put in pointers to particularly useful comments in the threads, though it would be lovely to have them, as the threads are a vital and important source of information and entertainment. As I move forward through time I will continue to update the index, so please stop back from time to time to check and see what has been added. Also, at some point I’d like to add Elctrolite to the mix.
All posts from before May 22nd 2005 are by Teresa except where otherwise mentioned.
The current categories are as follows but are open to suggestions and to change as the project’s needs dictate:
Administrative/In the Beginning
Afghan War
Americana
Astroturf in Politics and on the Internet
Backups Through History
Civil Rights and Liberties
Conventions
Copyright/Patent/Trademark
DIY A Myriad of Odd and Sometimes Useful How-Tos
Fandom
F&SF History and Culture
Food (Not Recipes)
Ghosts of the Great War
Grammar Geeking
Guns
Hamsters
Hoarding
Immigration
Internet Discourse
IOKIYAR (It OK if You’re a Republican)
Iran
Iraq War
John M. Ford Misc
Knitting
Lexicography
Linky Posts
Lord of the Rings
Mary Sue
Medicine/Emergency Response
Mourning
Music
Poetry
Politics
Recipes
Religion
Republican War on Science
Scams
Security Theater
Superheroes
Tragedies, Great and Small
Urbanaphilia
War on Terra
Wingnuttery
Uncategorized (Thus Far, and yes, deliberately out of order)
Administrative/In the Beginning
The first three blocks of the Making Light archives are not individually linked by post. They can be found here, 27 May to 22 July 2001, here, 23 July to 15 August 2001, and here, 10 September to 1 October 2001.
The first appearance of particles. 39 comments Jul, 2003.
The introduction of individually linkable comments and other housekeeping stuff. Posted by Patrick. 51 comments Jan, 2004.
The Nielsen Hayden CafePress site. 203 comments May, 2004.
The merging of the light with the lite. 100 comments May, 2005. More on same. 117 comments May, 2005.
A stripped down version of Making Light. Upside easier for mobile devices. Downside, doesn’t count for advertising. 49 comments May, 2005.
Pointing with comment spam, a note from the managers. 27 comments Jun, 2005.
James D. Macdonald joins the frontpagers at Making Light. 22 comments Jun, 2005.
New linking script added to fight comment spam. 40 comments Mar, 2006.
Ads are neither selected nor endorsed by the keepers of Making Light. 459 comments Dec, 2006.
Afghan War
Forgotten Afghanistan. The war Bush put aside in favor of Iraq. Taliban bombing in Kabul. 48 coments Sep, 2006.
George Bush continues to skip military funerals. 86 comments Sep, 2006.
Americana
On why Teresa had a flag in her window before Septmeber 11th. 1 comments Oct, 2001.
Americana, the US in all its goofy glory. 12 comments Jan, 2003.
Astroturf in Politics and on the Internet
Astroturf blog comments, propaganda up close and personal. 18 comments Aug, 2006. More on blogs astroturf. 37 comments Aug, 2006.
More on astroturf on the net. A whole bunch of links and a lengthy discourse on the subject. 76 comments Sep, 2006.
Astroturf and letters to the editor. Also, those “spontaneously” forwarded rightwing emails. Shorter version, copyeditors are cheap and plentiful. 95 comments Sep, 2006.
“The Royal Society vs. Exxon’s astroturf” On Global Warming, if you hadn’t guessed. 67 comments Sep, 2006.
More astroturfing, this time a PR campaign for a movie and done really badly. The Science of Sleep, BTW. It’s a real train wreck and fascinating to watch in the same way. 63 comments Oct, 2006.
Rumsfeld creates sockpuppet brigade. Reorganization of Pentagon’s public affairs department includes team for responding to blogger. 43 comments Nov, 2006.
Boing Boing links to tech voter’s guide that is essentially a shill for big tech businesses. 47 comments Nov, 2006.
Teresa examines two appalling internet business models of the astroturfish variety. One in which people are paid to post comments and links to blogs to generate the illusion of popularity to draw in more commenters and thus create online communities that will generate content and add dollars. Bleah. And a second in which bloggers and commenters are paid for product endorsements without disclosure, i.e. comments spam and splog. 149 comments Dec, 2006.
Follow up to this astroturf post generates verse on the theme of making money from betraying trust (see astroturfing). 58 comments Dec, 2006.
Backups Through History
Three posts that illustrate the importance of backing up your files and the community spirit of Making Light. “Hardware Failure” Posted by Patrick. 47 comments Nov, 2003. “Distress” 67 commments Nov, 2003. The “New Drives” (and more hardware failure) 72 comments Nov, 2003.
I want my mummy. “A long-lost play by Aeschylus has been partially reconstructed from fragments of the text found on papyri that had been used to stuff a mummy.” 76 comments Nov, 2003.
The discovery of a palimpsest of Archimedes’ treatise the “Stomachion” 58 comments Dec, 2003.
It’s not just mummies, bog psalms. 1,000 year old psalter shows up in Irish Bog. 47 comments Jul, 2006.
Civil Rights and Liberties
Guantanamo
and Godwin’s Law. 87 comments May. 2003.
FBI investigates man for reading. In a coffee shop. Leftist articles. Ooh, scary. 38 comments Jul, 2003.
Anthrax and outgoing mail. From the government: Useless, civil rights infringing security theater. From Teresa: practical advice on what to do if you get an envelope full of white powder. 91 comments Oct, 2003.
Further abuses of the Patriot Act. Secret subpoenas. 34 comments Oct, 2003.
The treasury dept attempts to trump the first amendment by claiming it is illegal to edit works from nations under trade embargo. 98 comments Feb, 2004.
Four gay couples married at WorldCon in Toronto. Hooray! 24 comments. Mar, 2004.
The 10 commandments in the courts and why “split the baby” is often a bad test for the merits of judicial decisions. 83 comments Jun, 2005.
More Guantanamo Bay Awfulness 67 comments Jun, 2005.
“Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges…” 103 comments Aug, 2005.
George Bush, Oathbreaker. The one to uphold the constitution, specifically the search and seizures bits. 138 comments Dec, 2005.
Gore on the false security vs. freedom meme and defending the constitution. 138 comments Jan, 2006.
Obama plays into right wing dominionist trope in speech, screws up big time. Co-incidentally does it as a Jewish family is driven from their home in Southern Delaware. 784 comments Jul, 2006.
Conventions
World Con Organization and volunteers. Dead link to an article on organization. 11 comments Nov, 2002.
Absolutely fantastic advice for both the seasoned and novice con-goer. 326 comments Aug, 2004. With bonus Nielsen Hayden World-Con schedule content from Patrick plus thread discussion of how that sort of thing works. 147 comments Aug, 2004.
SantaCon. A con for Santas, not a fan con in Santa Barbara. 29 comments Dec, 2004.
“How to throw a large room party at a science fiction convention.” Teresa’s manual for same. Indispensable tool for the pro or fan looking to run a room party. 253 comments Aug, 2006.
Copyright/Patent/Trademark
A whimsical take on poor man’s copyright (mailing a copy to yourself and leaving it unopened) and it’s pretty much complete lack of effectiveness beyond the strictures of copyright already provided from the minute you set stuff down on the page. 36 comments Sep, 2005.
Bad patent office, bad! You clean that up. Patent office issues patent for scientifically ridiculous space ship. Plus dumb POD patents action. 69 comments Nov, 2005.
“The life expectancies of books. An essay on shelf life, afterlife, immortal prose, and how that interacts with extension of copyright to ludicrous lengths. Immortal books are very very very rare, and not a good model for law. 235 comments Jan, 2006.
Perpetual copyright, a perpetually bad idea. 348 comments Feb, 2006.
Corporate “citizens”, dystopia, and the DC/Marvel attempted rights grab on the term “superhero.” 129 comments Mar, 2006.
DIY A Myriad of Odd and Sometimes Useful How-Tos
Roll your own tampons. That’s all I’m saying. 6 comments May, 2002.
Build your own golem link with FAQ. 19 comments May, 2003.
Teresa gets instructions for making Wizard Crackers among other things via Make magazine. 125 comments Oct, 2005.
Teresa on how to wrap a package. 74 comments Dec, 2006.
Fandom
Fan Fic an overview of authors and numbers for fanfiction.net. 18 comments May, 2002.
Lost Fandom an 1850’s letters column version of a fan BBS, fascinating. 16 comments Aug, 2002.
Saddam was a fantasy art fan. 62 comments Apr, 2003.
A compendium of fiction timelines. 28 comments Apr, 2003.
Making Light wins a Wooden Rocket award. Basically it’s an award for best online fanzine. 23 comments Jul, 2004.
Fanwriting and prowriting, slash and squick and squee. A link to and discursion on a livejournal post on the resonance of slash–“sex, power issues, identity issues, physical or emotional violence, revelation, transformation, transcendence, violent catharsis…”etc. Much useful discussion of writing to be had here. 278 comments Dec, 2004.
Which Science Fiction writer are you? Teresa plays with the quiz. 124 comments May, 2005.
When suspension of disbelief fails. A note on losing your passion for a book. Good stuff for both writer and readers. 240 comments May, 2005.
Glass tubes, gasoline, and attempts to use same as light sabers–Bad Idea. With really funny addendum from John M. Ford in the form of a light saber’s safety manual. 94 comments May, 2005.
Reflection on Comic-Con, fandom and the species homo-fanus: “The Coming Race (74 comments Jul, 2005) and notes from a con’s masquerade dance. 37 comments Jul, 2005.
Pastiches on the death of Dumbledore. Good silly fun. 123 comments Jul, 2005.
Star Wars fanfic writer makes grave copyright error and publishes and attempts to sell unauthorized novel-length Star Wars fic. 211 comments Apr, 2006.
Teresa commenting on the nature and (very long) history of fanfic. Very smart stuff. 893 comments Apr, 2006.
Antrhax Hoaxer Charles Conrad Castagna turns out to have said some really dumb things about F&SF in addition to really dumb things about politics. Gets roasted. 210 comments Nov, 2006.
“Punditslash”. Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. 104 comments Nov, 2006.
F&SF History and Culture
John M. Ford on the non-predictive nature of SF. 113 comments Aug, 2006.
Bad reporting. Patrick takes exception to Salon’s reporting on the Tiptree biography. 64 comments Aug, 2006.
Tiptree bio on the cover of NY Times book review without any slighting comments abouts SF. Sign of the apocalypse? 58 comments Aug, 2006.
List of titles edited by Patrick and Teresa. 32 comments Aug, 2006.
The Common Fantasy Tongue is created. 50 comments Nov, 2006.
Food (Not Recipes)
NYC food. 182 comments Jun, 2005.
Restaurant review La Parada in Brooklyn by Teresa. Sounds lovely. 51 comments Sep, 2006.
Jim recommends a couple of diners in New England. 89 comments Oct, 2006.
Elizabeth Moon’s “Holiday Feasts for Beginners” an extensive and useful how-to. 86 comments Nov, 2006.
On the decline of the modern fruitcake and the proper making of same. 287 comments Dec, 2006.
Ghosts of the Great War
Ghosts of the great war 2002. #1 in an ongoing series. A retrospective in multi-link format. 11 comments Nov 11, 2002.
Ghosts of the great war 2003. #2 in an ongoing series. 68 comments Nov, 2003.
Ghosts of the great war 2004. #3 in an ongoing series. 42 comments Nov 11, 2004.
Ghosts of the great war 2005. #4 in an ongoing series. A retrospective in multi-link format. 107 comments Nov 11, 2005.
Not Ghosts of the Great War 2006. Mourning an old friend instead: “Sorry. I know I usually post about the Great War today. Happens it’s one of those subjects where the realization’s hit me hard that I’m not going to be able to talk to Mike about it any more.” 139 comments Nov, 2006.
Grammar Geeking
East Timor considers Finish as a national language. Too weird not to read. Grammar geeking. 48 comments Sep, 2002.
Link to the English Toolbox now dead, but leads to a page from which you can reach the site. Good set of tools for English. From Teresa’s description “it’s clear and well organized, and it’s been boiled down to just the stuff you need, like the names (with examples) of all the parts of speech…” 13 comments May, 2003.
On the futility of computerized grammar checkers for English. 79 comments Nov, 2004.
“Phonetic near-misses” a long list of things like “passed history not with standing.” 464 comments May, 2006.
Guns
Liberals with Guns. Teresa goes to the firing range. 174 comments Nov, 2002.
The NRA decides that the way to sell woman on gun is to tie them to fashion. Only they don’t do a very good job of it. 88 comments Nov, 2003.
The emasculation of the American male and gun culture. Teresa discovers a website devotedhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif to same. Much discussion and hilarity ensues. 302 comments Nov, 2003.
Hamsters
Arthur the hamster RIP. 71 comments Feb, 2006.
Hamster tubes and the mysteries of their disassembly. 72 comments Mar, 2006.
Hamster dreaming? Life with young Porco Bruno. 43 comments Apr, 2006.
Hoarding
Squalor Survivors on the transcending of mess. 20 comments Nov, 2002.
Animal Hoarding, whys and wherefores. 57 comments Jan, 2003
The death of J. Daniel Scruggs age 12 and hoarding behavior. Very sad. 185 comments Oct, 2003.
More on animal hoarding. Plus administrative bits and more on Death masks. 58 comments Nov, 2004.
Immigration
An anti-catholic anti-immigrant article that reads like it’s straight out of the 1880s. 147 comments May, 2006.
Teresa has words for those who suggest militarization of the border. It’s a bad bad idea. 122 comments May, 2006.
New York City does just fine with immigrants and, guess what, they’ve got lots. The melting pot still works. 349 comments May, 2006.
Internet Discourse
Diagram (Skeleton) of an online argument. A textbook example. 15 comments May, 2003.
Teresa discoursing on online moderation. Lots of very smart stuff for bloggers and others involved in internet discussion. 159 comments Jan, 2005.
A taxonomy of weblogs at weblogs.com. In which we discover that there are an awful lot of weblogs that aren’t. 75 comments Jun, 2005.
Teresa on disemvowling scripts and links to the very first disemvowelment. 64 comments Sep, 2005.
Teresa stumbles upon a how to guide for conservative trolls. She’s not very impressed. 92 comments Apr, 2006.
“Blog” a blank slate post a bit over a year before I independently put up something very similar in my Generic Universal Blog Post. Which just goes to show there’s no such thing as a new idea. 327 comments, Apr 2006.
Teresa points to an excellent example of internet thread control. Perhaps unsurprising from the master of a knitting blog, but very nice nonetheless. 170 comments Nov, 2006.
Youtube as sign language forum for the deaf. Unmediated many to many communication. 115 comments Dec, 2006.
IOKIYAR (It OK if You’re a Republican)
Limbaugh busted again, drug charges, again. 130 comments Jun, 2006. And, for comparison how you get treated if you’re not Limbaugh. Who says you can’t buy Justice…buy, tilt, what’s the dif? 158 comments Jun, 2006.
Iran
Jim finds video game simulations and the potential giant mess to come in Iran. 97 comments Oct, 2005.
Rice Warmongering Iran 148 comments Mar, 2006.
Discussion of Time magazine story on potential war with Iran, complete with numerous administration talking points. Way to go free press. 149 comments Sep, 2006.
Iraq War
On the road to Iraq. WMDs, not so much. 14 comments Jan, 2003.
Shock and Awe-ful and likely civilian casualties. 51 comments Jan, 2003.
Mass protest against the Iraq war a photo archive. 30 comments Feb, 2003.
Paryers for Bush, or, “It’s all about him.” 26 comments Mar, 2003.
On the senseless and wholly avoidable destruction of history and cultural treasures. The destruction of the National Museum of Iraq 258 comments Apr, 2003. False Dichotomies proposed to justify same. 46 comments Apr, 2003. The burning of old libraries. 83 comments Apr, 2003. And, “Why it’s a bad idea to burn old libraries” May Rumsfeld go down in history as the worst defense secretary in American History and a man who served it’s most abysmal president. 101 comments Apr, 2003. And a happy follow up in which it is revealed that some portion of the collection was saved from the library. 22 commments May, 2003. Bagdhad Museum update I it could have been much worse. 27 comments Jun, 2003. Bagdhad Museum update II it’s worse. 21 comments Jun, 2003.
Highway blogging in protest of the war. 86 comments Sep, 2003.
Commander codpiece (Bush) lands on an aircraft carrier. 89 comments Oct, 2003.
Abu Ghraib breaks along with a lot of decent American hearts. 241 comments Apr, 2004. With follow up on the specifics of the sexual humiliation techniques. 73 comments May, 2004.
Abu Ghraib and lost honor link and quotes from a ex-military blogger. 121 comments May, 2004.
“Extraordinary rendition” Once again my government brings shame on the American people. 80 comments Sep, 2004.
False witness, Abu Ghraib, Rumsfeld, and Bush. 0 comments Jun, 2005.
Americans aren’t exempt from being compared to the worst regimes, not when they borrow techniques from same. Patrick 78 comments Jun, 2005. And Teresa. 33 comments Jun, 2005.
“Gitmo Sutra. Verse. 151 comments Jun, 2005.
On the relationship problems of active duty soldiers, especially in wartime. 58 comments Jul, 2005.
Jim on winning hearts and minds in Iraq and the beatings used to do it. 157 comments Sep, 2005.
Jim posts a long and detailed description of the Sepoy Mutiny and compares it to possible events in Iraq. Quite chilling actually. 78 comments Sep, 2005.
Peter Pace (chair joint chiefs) tells Rumsfeld he’s wrong live on national TV, in re: a soldier’s responsibility to halt abuse of prisoners. 128 comments Nov, 2005.
The anniversary of Mai Lai and lessons for Iraq. 44 comments Mar, 2006.
The bio-warfare trailers debunked. The ones used as a justification for our invasion of Iraq. Teresa concludes there are only three reasons to continue supporting Bush: 1. You’re stupid. 2. You know there’s no excuse, but you’re too dishonest and unpatriotic to say so. 3. You’re bound by solemn oath to make a public show of supporting him (i.e., you’re in the military, and your job requires it). 104 comments Apr, 2006.
A whole bunch of (retired) generals call for the removal of Rumsfeld. 153 comments Apr, 2006.
Center for war-related brain injury funding cut. 32 comments Aug, 2006.
Rumsfeld accuses detractors of being confused. Jim notes that we’re not confused. We are opposed to the security threat posed to America by Rumsfeld, his boss, and their cronies. 124 comments Aug, 2006.
Valerie Plame very much not a desk jockey. The first revelation and discussion on same. 175 comments Sep, 2006.
Link to Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial on the combined incompetence and deception of the Bushies in re: no WMDs in Iraq and cooked intelligence. 56 comments Sep, 2006.
George Bush continues to skip military funerals. 86 comments Sep, 2006.
Iraq, a national military pretty much in name only. The Iraqi “military” to which we are returning significant control of the country. 67 comments Sep, 2006.
Rumsfeld and incompetence. Who could have guessed that we’d need a post war plan? Pretty much everybody in the world not directly involved in the planning of the Iraq war. Oh, and a few of those folks too, though they ended up being fired for pointing out that it might be a good idea. 103 comments Sep, 2006.
Jim posting on military ethics and their impact on individual soldier action in the face of unlawful orders in re: the ongoing disaster that is the Bush administration’s version of war. “You are not required to obey an unlawful order. You are required to disobey an unlawful order.” and so on. 321 comments Oct, 2006.
Rick Santorum talks Tolkien…do I really need to say more about the stupidity that follows? Plus some other link salad odds and ends from Patrick. 118 comments Oct, 2006.
Exposure of 1999 study about the massive troop numbers needed to stabilize Iraq. Does anybody still believe that Bushco shouldn’t have known better? 28 comments Nov, 2006.
Military recruiters lying to potential recruitstelling them Iraq war is over. 70 comments Nov, 2006.
The enormous mess that is Iraq. A whole lot of evidence that the war is pretty much already lost even if it drags out another 5 years, and the next stage is fixing blame. 183 comments Nov, 2006.
Name that war. Something other than Iraq II. 157 comments Nov, 2006.
Having already erased the election results from his “brain” Bush reverts to normal…worst president ever. Already setting up his choice to ignore the results of the Iraq commission. 86 comments Nov, 2006.
“January 2007: United States Conquered by Canada; Pockets of Resistance Quickly Suppressed” “December 20, 2006:
“Currently there are no active or reserve Army combat units outside of Iraq and Afghanistan that are rated as ‘combat ready.’”
At least we’ll finally get health insurance.” I have nothing to add. 166 comments Dec, 2006.
On the Hanging of Saddam Hussein. 134 comments Dec, 2006. More 19 comments Dec, 2006.
John M. Ford Misc
John M. Ford whimsy A monument to Wodehouse in London. 46 comments Jan, 2004.
Shakespeare by Damon Runyon by John M. Ford 25 comments Apr, 2004.
Glass tubes, gasoline, and attempts to use same as light sabers–Bad Idea. With really funny addendum from John M. Ford in the form of a light saber’s safety manual. 94 comments May, 2005.
John M. Ford Billie Holliday/Judith Miller/Vallerie Plame song lyrics…My old Plame. 26 comments Oct, 2005.
John M. Ford passes from among us. I’ve been delaying rereading Sept 2006 in part because I didn’t want to revisit this one. Ave. 458 comments Sep, 2006.
In memory of Mike Ford, Teresa reminds us all “Sign your organ donor card” Excellent advice. 148 comments Sep, 2006.
“Mike Ford: Occasional Works (Pt. One)” posted by Jim. 21 comments Sep, 2006.
“Mike Ford: Occasional Works (Pt. Two)” posted by Jim. 14 comments Sep, 2006.
“Mike Ford: Occasional Works (Pt. Three)” posted by Jim. 4 comments Sep, 2006.
Mike Ford: Occasional Works (Pt. Four)” posted by Jim. 20 comments Oct, 2006.
Mike Ford: Occasional Works (Pt. Five)” posted by Jim. 21 comments Nov, 2006.
Mike Ford: Occasional Works (Pt. Six)” posted by Jim. 10 comments Nov, 2006.
Knitting
NY Times article on the joy of stitch. Link’s dead, but the discussion lives on. 75 comments Dec, 2003.
“Geek Knitting. DNA patterned scarves, etc. 63 comments Jan, 2004.
Teresa points to an excellent example of internet thread control. Perhaps unsurprising from the master of a knitting blog, but very nice nonetheless. 170 comments Nov, 2006.
Lexicography
Odd rose names and a great rose gardener’s resource. 0 comments Feb, 2002.
Colors descriptions by an individual blinded late both as a reference for himself and for those who had never seen color. 0 comments Apr, 2002.
Teresa on Geoffrey Chaucer’s blog. Historical language games and other japery. 38 commments Dec, 2006.
Linky Posts
Links to 10,000,000 things. 25 comments Jul, 2002.
Internet meme links. 6 comments Jul, 2002.
Why nerds are unpopular. Sociologically interesting thesis. 52 comments Mar, 2003.
A round up of April Fools stories involving F&SF and a zillion other places, much of it hysterically funny. 60 comments Apr, 2005.
April Fools links. 37 comments Apr, 2006.
Lord of the Rings
Rejected Lord of the Rings plot twists. 0 comments Oct, 2001.
Teresa on Jackson’s Fellowship + lots of LOTR links. O comments Dec, 2001.
Lord of the Rings silliness. Pages and pages and pages. Glorious stuff. 141 comments Dec, 2002.
Peter Jackson LOTR marathon a report and discussion. 291 comments Dec, 2003.
“Namarie Sue” if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan you should already be giggling. (also in “Mary Sue”) 334 comments Dec, 2003.
More Tolkien pastiches. 223 comments Jun, 2004.
The Tolkien sarcasm page does your homework for you…free term papers and anyone who uses them deserves what they get. 170 comments Apr, 2005.
Rick Santorum talks Tolkien…do I really need to say more about the stupidity that follows? Plus some other link salad odds and ends from Patrick. 118 comments Oct, 2006.
Mary Sue
A Mary Sue generator. Oy. 9 comments Mar, 2003.
Mary Sue meet Romeo. Customized classics. Public domain works with your name and other personalizations inserted in place of current characters. Appalled. Really. 40 comments May, 2003.
“Namarie Sue” if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan you should already be giggling. 334 comments Dec, 2003.
Medicine/Emergency Response
Index of Medical Posts by Jim Macdonald. He’s covered this far better than I’m going to be able to, though I’ll continue my own posts in the category. 61 comments 2005-present.
Pill identification. Drugs.com with a dead link to the pill identification wizard-it still exists and looks dead useful, but you have to go in from the front page. 1 comment Feb, 2002.
The first of Jim McDonald’s emergency preparedness and medicine posts (put up by Teresa). Emergency kits. 110 comments Nov, 2004.
Teresa’s tips for the apocalypse. Contact your people, beware of rumors, hang in there, and other bits of good advice-with much more in comments. 141 comments Jul, 2005.
“Emergency preparedness redux” Links to earlier post on same, primarily indexed for comment thread. 43 comments Aug, 2005.
John M. Ford on the emotional symptoms of stress, a little call for a timeout in the midst of the emotional firestorm of Hurricane Katrina. 50 comments Sep, 2005.
Teresa on walking away from disaster–evacuation on foot, the good, the bad, etc. 37 comments Sep, 2005.
Emergencies and the Incident Command System–a look at emergency response. Inspired in part by how things should have worked for Katrina. 104 comments Sep, 2005.
Jim Macdonald discusses Triage in great detail. 108 comments Sep, 2005.
Jim on heart attacks. 63 comments Sep, 2005.
Jim on Hypothermia. 417 comments Dec, 2005.
Jim on Diabetes. 128 comments Nov, 2005.
Ralph @%#$#%@$ Nader for non-political reasons this time. Got one of the better Narcolepsy medicines killed. 644 comments Jan, 2006.
Jim on Flu pre-packs–see also go bags, etc. 85 comments Jan, 2005.
Jim on Ralph Nader and Public Citizen playing unwanted nanny once again and trying to kill of one of the more effective pain killers. 92 comments Feb, 2006.
Jim Macdonald on Heat Stress. 2000 comments Jul, 2006.
Jim Macdonald on consciousness levels and emergency medicine. 100 comments Aug, 2006.
In memory of Mike Ford, Teresa reminds us all “Sign your organ donor card” Excellent advice. 148 comments Sep, 2006.
Jim on fire…. No, not that way. Burns. Stop, Drop, and Roll. 127 comments Nov, 2006.
Mourning
Damon Knight. O comments Apr, 2002.
Tim Maroney 10 comments Jul, 2003.
Robert Sheckley. 43 comment Dec, 2005.
David Stemple. 32 comments Mar, 2006.
Jim Baen. 69 comments Jun, 2006. And an earlier thread when Jim Baen went into the hospital. 101 comments Jun, 2006.
John M. Ford. I’ve been delaying rereading Sept 2006 in part because I didn’t want to revisit this one. Ave. 458 comments Sep, 2006.
“Feast of All Spooks” in which offerings are left for David Stemple and Mike Ford, among others. 99 comments Oct 31, 2006.
Music
Bloodhag literary SF speedmetal. 7 comments Jul, 2002.
John M. Ford onadvertising jingles. 20 comments Mar, 2003.
Which holiday songs would you remove from the playlist? 207 comments Dec, 2004.
A very different Christmas carol…a drunk’s song, in Latin. 62 comments Dec, 2005.
John M. Ford lyrics for songs about buildings and food. Flatiron building/Lullaby of Broadway. 19 comments Nov, 2005.
English Football Rouser, Vindaloo (ironic), or song to be song while drunk with a crowd. 176 comments Jul, 2006.
Total Eclipse of the Heart. The Norwegian reimagining video by Hurra Torpedo. Musical strangeness compounded over several post. 54 comment Aug, 2006. Teresa gives a horror author take on the original video. 84 comments Aug, 2006. More Total Eclipse. 26 comments Aug, 2006.
40th anniversary of the Beatles Revolver. Patrick on musical historical significance. 50 comments Aug, 2006.
365 days of strange MP3s with commentary. To strange to describe in anything less than the detail they lavish themselves. Go look. 18 comments Sep, 2006.
Patrick waxes rhapsodic on a new Beatles mashup with links to it and some older ones. 37 comments Dec, 2006.
Poetry
Brooklyn Haiku. 37 comments Aug, 2002.
John M. Ford 110 Stories. 28 comments Aug, 2002.
Which Poetry Form Are You? 65 comments Feb, 2003.
“Eve Tushnet, Garcia Lorca, and a retired librarian” 30 comments Mar, 2003.
Dangling Engineer, John M. Ford grammar geekery and some poetry derived thereof. Only makes sense in context. 31 comments Jun, 2003.
Jim Macdonald’s Syr Agricoli. 34 comments May, 2004.
A Kit Marlowe/Big Sleep pastiche. V funny. 369 comments Dec, 2004.
Anglo Saxon poetry tidbits. 127 comments Mar, 2005.
Follow up to a post on Thomas Friedman’s effect on other writers, in which the truth of the theory is demonstrated in good poetry. 25 comments Apr, 2005.
“Gitmo Sutra. Verse. 151 comments Jun, 2005.
John M Ford’s “Billy the Shake goes to the Demo Derby” from the infernokrusher thread. 19 comments Jun, 2005.
Another infernokrusher poem, this one by Robert Frost. 32 comments Jun, 2005.
Teresa asks about Dives and Lazarus “My question concerns Dives and Lazarus, a traditional ballad, which rhymes (or almost rhymes) the second and fourth line of every stanza—except when it doesn’t. Here are its last four stanzas, two of which don’t even pretend to rhyme…Anyone know what’s going on there—alternate versions, regional pronunciations, famous typos?” 169 comments Sep, 2005.
Constructing meaning entirely with monosyllabic words. Cool. 112 comments Dec, 2005.
A Limerick definition of poetry as part of a post on Patric heading for Dublin. 65 comments Mar, 2006.
“Quatrains on American history” Teresa finds another site playing clever poetry games. 79 comments Jun, 2006.
I iz on ur busses making u listn poetry. Minneapolis/St. Paul Transit does a project in which poets read their work aloud to a captive audience of bus rider. What a bad idea. 226 comments Jun, 2006.
Follow up to this astroturf post generates verse on the theme of making money from betraying trust (see astroturfing). 58 comments Dec, 2006.
Politics
The ever-astonishing ignorance of President Bush, Pele, Soccer, People of Color edition. 25 comments June, 2002.
A Republican’s Questions for Bush on Iraq. 7 comments Oct, 2002.
Politics, an Exhortation. Organize, organize, organize. 42 comments Nov, 2002.
Bush and the bluster of a bad manager. 35 comments Mar, 2003.
American International Traveler Apology Shirt link. I own one. 20 comments Jun, 2003.
Gay marriage. A discussion of same. “Another one of those pointless flustering non-issues.” 89 comments Aug, 2003.
Why wingnuts think Libruls Hate America. 175 comments Dec, 2003.
The MoveOn Bush in 30 Seconds adds reviewed. 26 comments Jan, 2004.
Peta, no one does it* better. *for a value of “it” = “shooting itself in the foot.” 303 comments Jan, 2004.
“U.S. Secretary of Education calls NEA a “terrorist organization”” Yes, the National Education Association. 52 comments Feb, 2004.
A Pieces of Pro-Bush Propaganda dissected. False historical claims about Bush and the war on “terror” under the title: “Bush stacks up well.” 123 comments Feb, 2004.
Ken McLeod quote on the roots of morality in ideology. Kind of depressing really. 53 comments Feb, 2004.
Richard Clarke and the Republican smear machine. 131 comments Mar, 2004.
Ralph Nader and clarifying the “things have to get worse before they can get better” meme. Personally I liked the provisional title of the original post “Fck ff nd D, Rlph”, but maybe that’s just me. 60 comments Mar, 2004.
Can the president really ignore the law? A few questions regarding the conduct of the Bush administration. 151 comments Jun, 2004. Also, rigged voting machines? And a few questions more. 68 comments Jun, 2004.
USA Today pulls Anne Coulter from coverage of the Democratic convention. Smart decision. Post includes a sample from the editorial on why they did it and shows some of their editorial queries to the alleged writer. 95 comments Jul, 2004.
The Bush administration as Cthulu Mythos. 50 comments Sep, 2004.
The intersection of Publishing and Politics streets. On George Bush, the culture of motivation, and doubt. Observations rooted in seeing a lot of writer responses to rejection. 222 comments Oct, 2004.
Bush Jokes, both in the post and the thread. 147 comments Oct, 2004.
Election 2004 and grieving. It was a very dark week. 219 comments Nov, 2004. With Adam Felber concession speech bonus for a bit of leavening. 171 comments Nov, 2004.
Stupider than dirt. Gerald Allen, an Alabama Republican demonstrates stupidity above and beyond the call in the matter of homosexuality and literature. 134 comments Dec, 2004.
“Common Good” and their flowchart of what it takes to suspend a disruptive student in the NYC school system…or not. Teresa disassembles the chart in detail. 204 comments Dec, 2004.
“We never knew” A site dedicated to deflating the claims of pre-Hitler ignorance on the part of the German people. Plus applying those principles to the reaction of people to the September 11th attacks.
The Red Lake school shooing, Terry Schiavo, Republican action figure and how they reflect on the species. 234 comments Mar, 2005.
Terry Schiavo. 193 comments Apr, 2005.
Thomas Friedman, a bad writer and thinker who inspires good ones to rebut him. 69 comments Apr, 2005. Follow up in which the truth of the theory is demonstrated in good poetry. 25 comments Apr, 2005.
The Senate gang of 14 judges deal. The Democrats allow a couple of extremist judges to be confirmed and get some not-so magic beans in return. 178 comments May, 2005. Plus Teresa talks about the truly awful effects of
restricting abortion rights and contraception frontpaged by Patrick with comments turned off and redirected to earlier thread.
Patrick points to Friedman getting one right. On the destruction of America’s international reputation under Bush. 160 comments Jun, 2005.
Astroturf political organizations. 261 comments Jun, 2005.
Urban myths about irresponsible lawsuits, and how they drive unnecessary “tort reform” 25 comments Aug, 2005.
Teresa on dumb beyond words…Michelle Malkin demonstrates the “mind” that made her famous in re: the crescent (dread symbol of Islam…on noes) design of the flight 93 memorial. 93 comments Sep, 2005. Followup post here, in which the stupid is more thoroughly trashed. 482 comments Jan, 2005.
The nine Senators who voted against the anti-torture amendment as ringwraiths. Fitting analogy. 106 comments Oct, 2005.
Tom Delay’s long expected indictment. 130 comments Sep, 2005.
Tom Delay and the Marianas Islands. Sure, why not add slavery to torture and aggressive war in the things Republicans support? 192 comments Dec, 2005.
And, in the same vein as the entry above this one “A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions” “Kidnapping, then torture, then domestic wiretapping, and now slavery? I’m agog. What’s next, cannibalism?” 90 comments Dec, 2005.
Cheney, VP for torture at America inc. 58 comments Nov, 2005.
The “Dirty Hippies” were right about war with Iraq. Yuh-huh. 293 comments Nov, 2005.
Canadian territorial waters in light of a melting arctic. Made fabulous by the quote Patric notes as part of the post: As Jim Henley once observed in a post I can’t seem to track down, you know those people all over the world who get pissed off at overbearing, grabby Americans? Like all those Iraqis with rifles and IEDs? Those people are often conservatives, the local variety, devoted to home and turf. Only American “conservatives” are airheaded enough to think that “conservative” automatically means “in favor of the continuing power, glory, and wealth of the United States.” 110 comments Jan, 2006.
When and how did one the chief functions of a democratic government–responding to the will of the people–become “pandering?” Great observation. 51 comments Jan, 2005
Using members of the military as political props–immoral and illegal a Presidential twofer. 115 comments Mar, 2006.
Bush claims to have never linked September 11th with Iraq. Argh. 69 comments Mar, 2006.
“Jane Smiley’s “Notes for Converts”” For Johnny-come-latelies to the world of opposing Bush and his policies. Bush doesn’t care about you, your opinion, or the truth or falsity of words that come out of his mouth. 150 comments Mar, 2006.
No, not winning at least one house of congress for the Democrats is not a good idea as “some Democrats” are claimed to be arguing. 150 comments May, 2006.
Political reporting in America, a pinion on the right wing? The Right Wing Noise Machine. 118 comments May, 2006.
Common Cause outs bunch of “unaffiliated” think tanks and astroturf “grassroots” organizations. Industrialized lying. 39 comments Aug, 2006.
Ralph Nader’s stock portfolio and what it says about his commitment to consumer protection. Just when I thought my respect for Ralph couldn’t drop any further… 73 comments Aug, 2006.
Macho conservative “hunters”. Hunting farmed animals=slaughter not hunting. Just another aspect of the whole chickenhawk mentality. 162 comments Aug, 2006.
Bush disaster response = photo ops and exploitation. New Orleans, September 11th, etc. 85 comments Aug, 2006.
The Senate and the very real differences between Democrats and Republican. Graphical charts showing votes. 40 comments Aug, 2006.
Bush aiming at Social Securityagain. Another attempt at gutting one America’s best working programs. 42 comments Sep, 2006.
Faux News misidentifies a Republican congressional wrongdoer as a Democrat…again. What a surprise. You’d almost think they do it on purpose. Mark Foley of the page scandal. 84 comments Oct, 2006.
A Democrat who has drunk too deeply of teh stupid. Fred Head of Texas declares his Republican opponent a pornographer for writing…a romance novel. He is apparently unfamiliar with the best selling genre in American fiction and also with such things as running heads in books, possibly he is unfamiliar with reading. It’s hard to tell anything because the teh stupid burns. 135 comments Oct, 2006.
Jim posts on a dumb Bush ad in which the RNC reminds voters of the very scary Bin Laden…and by implication that Bush still hasn’t caught him at this late date. Whole lot of stupid going on there. 80 comments Oct, 2006.
“Vote Today”notable for Jim’s excellent summary of what it means to vote Republican in the current circumstances: A vote for a Republican, any Republican, is a vote for torture. A vote for a Republican, any Republican, is a vote for corruption. etc. 309 comments Nov, 2006.
A well earned round of applause for Ned Lamont. 33 comments Nov, 2006.
“Voting your conscience” In its entirety because it’s a thing of beauty: From Scraps DeSelby, in the “vote today” comment thread:
If voting with your conscience means anything, it means voting with consideration toward other people, not just yourself. Your conscience isn’t the part of you that doesn’t compromise. That’s your pride. Your conscience is the part of you that wonders whether what you’re doing is making the world a better place.
If half the people who say they voted their conscience voted their decency and judgment first, their consciences wouldn’t have anything to worry about. 25 comments Nov, 2006.
Ding Dong the Sec Def is gone. Which old Sec Def? Donald Rumsfeld. 56 comments Nov, 2006.
Patrick unloads on Jim Wallis for a weaselly attack on secularists. 140 comments Nov, 2006.
Accused Antrhax Hoaxer Charles Conrad Castagna turns out to have said some really dumb things about F&SF in addition to really dumb things about politics. Gets roasted. 210 comments Nov, 2006.
John McCain, tyrant in waiting” Scary stuff if you didn’t much like Bush’s impulses toward turning the USA into a monarchy. Scarier still looking back at in 2008 with McCain well on his way to the Republican nomination. 44 comments Nov, 2006.
Teresa posts a quote from Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, on the pregnancy of Dick Cheney’s openly lesbian daughter Mary which makes some kind of point about being gay and unmarried motherhood, and who knows what else. In which Republicans once more beg the question How do you satirize those who have already passed over into farce? 140 comments Dec, 2006.
In which Patrick quotes a saddened Margaret Thatcher on the death of mass murderer Augusto Pinochet. What can you say? 75 comments Dec, 2006.
Political bumper stickers or Bush’s America in 10 words or less. Priceless. 113 comments Dec, 2006.
On Bush ignoring the Iraq study group report and assumptions about rational behavior that don’t work as a model for Bush behavior. Big meaty post on the politics of Bush. 133 comments Dec, 2006.
Recipes
Tomato recipe goodness. 14 comments June, 2002.
Cold recipes for hot weather. 39 comments, July 2002.
Cold Cucumber Potato Soup. 4 comments Jul, 2002/
Lemon Pepper Hot Sauce. 16 comments Sep 2002.
Scallops with other good things. 23 comments Oct, 2002.
Medieval Recipes. 23 comments Oct, 2002.
Blueberry Recipes. 4 comments Dec, 2002.
Bacon and Egg Soup. 16 comments Jan, 2003.
Monkfish with saffron and roe. 8 comments Mar, 2003.
Liqeurs. 32 comments Jun, 2003.
La cuisine de Nouvelle Zion. Intermountain West Mormon cooking. 63 comments Jun, 2003.
Mixed drinks. 42 comments Jul, 2003.
Bacon and Egg soup again. New and improved plus added bonus soups. 41 comments Jan, 2004.
Sharp sauce. 182 comments Apr, 2004.
Peppered nectarine salad. 63 comments Aug, 2004.
Chatham County Artillery Punch. 50 comments Dec, 2004.
Sole in a panicky green sauce. A http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifrecipe with a digression in why not to eat squid when dining with squidlike aliens. V silly. 82 comments Apr, 2005.
A pasta salad with peaches and all sorts of other goodies. 21 comments Jul, 2005.
The nanny blogger who was fired for blogging, and interesting discussion about the inequalities of class. 250 comments Jul, 2005
Avocado & pummelo salad + High-octane limeade concentrate and links to recipes past. 71 comments Jul, 2005.
Habaneros and spicy oil made therefrom. 208 comments Sep, 2005.
Stuffed Squash Deseret. 80 comments Dec, 2005.
Cooking turkeys, math geek style “For a turkey of greater than ten pounds, the roasting time should be equal to 1.65 times the natural log of the weight of the bird in pounds, cooked at 325 F.” 206 comments Nov, 2005.
Lenticular formation. Lentils dish. 55 comments May, 2006.
Steamed Clams 79 comments Jul, 2006.
Jim Macdonald’s Pasta with sausage. 64 comments Aug, 2006.
Not exactly a recipe, more of a blueprint. Elizabeth Moon’s “Holiday Feasts for Beginners” an extensive and useful how-to. 86 comments Nov, 2006.
Religion
Wanted: a patron saint for the internet. 46 comments Feb, 2003.
The bible according to cheeses. Very odd. 7 comments Mar, 2003.
“Terry Eagleton, on fundamentalism and other subjects” 15 comments Mar, 2003.
The Chain Letter of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians and other oddities. 30 comments Mar, 2003.
On the credibility of saints, Teresa crafts a rating system. 112 comments Apr, 2003.
Reformed Egyptian, revised version. An alternate Book of Mormon. I can’t begin to explain this in a succinct way, so go look if you want to know more. 73 comments Jul, 2003.
A whole bunch of stuff on contemporary religious art and icons. Includes link to iconized Tolkien. 19 comments Jul, 2003.
Links to the Slacktivist on Left Behind. Via Elctrolite. Great stuff. 2 comments Oct, 2003.
A system for rating the apocryphality of New Testament apocrypha. 29 comments Oct, 2003.
John M. Ford song about Mormon Liturgical Garments. 59 comments Nov, 2003.
Creationists exploiting dinosaurs. 56 comments Dec, 2003.
On forced polygamy. From Teresa’a original post: “Colorado City (formerly Short Creek) Arizona: The town’s children are fleeing. It started less than a week and a half ago, when two girls named Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm ran away for fear of being forced into polygamous “marriages”.”
Teresa on “Thing I Believe” in the religious sense. 266 comments apr, 2004.
Otherkin and Jesus, a site spreading the gospel to those they were born the wrong species. Really. Dead link. 166 comments Nov, 2004.
John M. Ford on the usage of “Fundamentalist” to describe holy book literalists. He feels it’s a misnomer. 160 comments Nov, 2004.
“Cult vs. church: a proposed rule of thumb”. Religion and humor, two great tastes that taste great together…or something like that. 433 comments Mar, 2005.
Cardinal Ratzinger becomes pope. 335 comments Apr, 2005.
John M. Ford’s first post as a frontpager: “The object of the game is to create the Table of Contents for the Graphic Bible” and his take thereon. 63 comments Aug, 2005.
“Pat Robertson preaches gross heresy (again)” calling down destruction on those who disagree with him. Dover PA. 167 comments Nov, 2005.
St. Patrick’s Day and St. Patrick in history. 43 comments Mar, 2006.
Pope says not very smart things about Islam and pretty much every other non-Catholic religion. Patrick finds a couple of smart responses. 80 comments Sep, 2006.
Patrick unloads on Jim Wallis for a weaselly attack on secularists. 140 comments Nov, 2006.
A bunch of versions of a section of Luke starting with Anglo Saxon and moving forward in time. 115 comments Dec, 2006.
Republican War on Science
Heat deaths and the Republican Us vs. Them mentality. California heatwave is a killer and things are only going to get worse as this old globe keeps warming. 136 comments Jul, 2006.
Scams
Con games, seven types, all else is elaboration. 41 comments Oct, 2002.
Vanity TV. Scams are an amazing thing. 33 comments Nov, 2002.
The Quest: “to write a poem so awful that that perennial scam, the International Library of Poetry contest, will turn it down.” The result “Wocky Jivvy, Wergle Flomp” or it’s just not possible to be too bad for these people to take your money. 28 comments Jun, 2003.
When you’ve been scammed by a phony publisher…what can you do about taking back your publishing rights or some facsimile thereof…It might go a little like this, or so says Teresa’s anonymous correspondent. Built out of a PublishAmerica flap. 64 comments Jun, 2003.
A new variety of vanity press publishing scam. Simple version: expensive books and low production costs = writer buying copies of their own work for a big markup. There’s a lot more to it. Worth a look. 286 comments Jul, 2003.
A literary scammer busted by the Mounties. “Prose and Cons”. Links to several useful sites for authors looking to not get conned. 64 comments Nov, 2003.
Manucript on ebay. First time author meet AuthorHouse. Scammers who prey on the dreams of writers make me want to throw things. 372 comments Sep, 2004.
Linguistic markers for publishing scams. A thorough dissection of advertising language and how to spot a scam publisher. 290 comments Sep, 2004. Round two, more linguistic markers. 79 comments Sep, 2004.
Grants scam phone call. 70 comments Nov, 2004.
Profitable Publishing, or not. Vanity press smackdown. 141 comments Dec, 2004.
Spotting phishing scams, a discussion and quiz. 64 comments Dec, 2004.
On parasitic weblogs and sites. 51 comments Jun, 2005.
Martha Ivery goes to jail and the world is slightly better place. Who is Martha Ivery? One of the worst lit agency scammers in recent history. 25
The Screenplay Agency and fee charging scams, an analysis. 94 comments Feb, 2006.
“The perfect uselessness of Warren Whitlock” A truly dizzying mix of literary and general scammer and purveyor of bad advice for authors is taken apart in detail. 261 comments Mar, 2006.
Teresa singles out Barbara Bauer as the “Dumbest of the Twenty Worst” agents when BB starts throwing around legal threats. Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware posted WB’s list of the 20 Worst (literary) Agents, one of whom (BB)decided to stop into various venues on the web, which has the side effect of drawing all kinds of google juice to her place on said list. 124 comments Apr, 2006. The action continues when BB mistakes Making Light for an official Tor website and threatens legal action against Tor’s parent company. 75 comments Apr, 2006.
“Tina Adams wants to sell you something”…bad advice on writing romance. A selling the sekrit formula for success scheme. As usual with these things Tina hasn’t ever actually had any of the success she claims to sell. 133 comments Apr, 2006.
Author House guilty of publishing libelous material. This is what comes of not actually reading your vanity press material before publishing. 22 comments Aug, 2006.
Airleaf Publishing. The latest incarnation of Bookman Marketing a scam publisher that preys on author hopes. 263 comments Nov, 2006.
Teresa posts on new YADS* website which is an online forum ostensibly designed to bring new writers to the attention of editors, but really a content generation machine that uses aspiring writers as fuel. Amateur writer will critique other writers–which is actually a great way to get started and publishing professionals won’t get anywhere near it. *For more info see writer beware on manuscript display sites. 123 comments Dec, 2006.
Security Theater
Security theater, hooray! The winner of the stupid security measures awards. 2 comments.
The feasibility of the planned attack on the Brooklyn bridge. 61 comments Jun, 2003.
Airport baggage screening security theater. Much trumpeting of new methods, little training of employees. 27 comments, Oct, 2003.
The FBI warns people to be on the lookout for individuals bearing almanacs. No, really. 98 comments Dec, 2003.
Random searches on the New York subways, more security theater. 47 comments Jul, 2005.
Patrick links to George R.R. Martin onTSA as Security Theater. 245 comments Aug, 2006.
Schwarzenegger does security theater to the tune of 300 National Guard troops cooling their heels at a number of airports due to vague threats. 50 comments Aug, 2006.
Why banning liquids doesn’t do much beyond security theater when the folks who want to make bombs are willing to die. People are containers for liquids. 50 comments Aug, 2006.
The “exploding shampoo plot” and the liquids ban. Feasibility? Not so much. 56 comments Aug, 2006. What the media missed while hyperventilating over same. 31 comments Aug, 2006. “The exploding shampoo plot”–source of the name. 52 comments Aug, 2006. Careful disposal of banned liquids…not so much. John M. Ford on “TSA Gumbo Surprise.” 68 comments Aug, 2006.
Superheroes
Dating Superheroes. Okay, so I’m a geek too. Worth a read. 27 comments Aug, 2002.
Angle Grinder Man. Masked protector of parking violators in the city of London. No. Really. Plus other real life superheroes. 62 comments Oct, 2003.
Super-heroines and their “Styrofoam tits”. I’ll admit it would explain a lot. 363 comments May, 2006.
Tragedies, Great and Small
On America’s repeated “loss of innocence moments. 0 comments Oct, 2001.
Teresa on the Anniversary of September 11th. 32 comments Sep, 2002.
The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. 34 comments Feb, 2003.
Losing a beloved car. 59 comments Apr, 2003.
Mourning Pictures. No, I didn’t know what they were until I read the post either. Oh, and, a formalized means of mourning in paint. Just go read it. You know you want to. 62 comments Mar, 2004.
Hurricane Katrina, a bunch of posts with a bunch of comments Aug, 2005. Handing over the reins of government to people who have an ideological bias against government working and huge incentive therefore to make sure that it doesn’t is insane. This disaster and the Bush response make me too mad to be coherent, but it’s something that should go in the index. So, a non-comprehensive Making Light Katrina sequence: One,
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
seven.
It continues in September: Eight,
nine,
ten,
eleve (right wingers and survivalism)
twelve,
thirteen, (Barbara Bush…argh!)
fourteen
fiteen,
sixteen, (may Michael Brown ultimately get what her deserves for leaving Americans to die in NO)
seventeen, (Blackwater in NO)
eighteen,
nineteen, (blocked bridges and the people who blocked them)
twenty, (the @*&%#% Blame Game meme)
twenty-one, (using force to prevent trapped citizens of NO to flee into the suburbs)
twenty-two, (the press actually doing its job in Bush’s America-miraculous)
teenty-three, (Michael @$#&@$ Brown rehired at FEMA).
Urbanaphilia
The Moscow Undercity, stories of urban spelunking. 12 comments June, 2002.
On the workings of the city of New York. A veritable plethora of urbanphilia and links to same. 42 comments Aug, 2003.
Subway outlaws a site on the history of NY graffiti. 43 comments Sep, 2003.
War on Terra
“War on Terror, War on Drugs, same diff” That quote from the first post in the thread pretty much sums up the bad idea of using the Patriot Act to regulate Sudafed. 111 comments Mar, 2006.
Pentagon refuse to explicitly limit humiliating and degrading treatment. Torture? Oh my, yes. 292 comments Jun, 2006.
New York has zero national monuments or icons, likely to be targeted by terrorists. Really. That’s the official count from Bush & Co for purposes of grants to the states. 123 comments Jun, 2006. And this is how DHS came to that conclusion. 62 comments Jun, 2006. And continuing the fun It’s NYC’s fault that they lost anti-terrorist funds. 30 comments Jun, 2006.
Social Control and Propaganda. 136 comments Jun, 2006.
What is the real threat level from terrorism? Maybe, not so much. 65 comments Aug, 2006.
When we change our way of life and allow our leader to spread fear we’re doing what the terrorist want us to do. What does that make Fox News and the Republican fear machine? 62 comments Aug, 2006.
American torture (how I hate having to write those words) approved techniques and the destruction of the victims. 206 comments Sep, 2006.
Bush comes very close (syntactically) to threatening to stop torturing people if congress refuses to legalize torture. Sounds like a win to me. Also a note on the likely usefulness of intelligence gathered from folks who’ve been imprisoned for the past four years. 103 comments Sep, 2006.
Torture and rendition as official American policy. Weep for my country. 183 comments Sep, 2006.
“In case I disappear” On the possibility of being “legally” disappeared by the American government. 142 comments Sep, 2006.
“The terrorists who don’t count” You know, the ones who bomb planned parenthood clinics and other things that the American right disapproves of. 148 comments Oct, 2006.
Terror is a tactic, you can’t declare war on it. Guy Fawkes Day and the gunpowder plot. 50 comments Nov 5th, 2006.
Patrick Verbatim: Go directly to hell. Do not pass Go. Do not pick up $200. In a just world, Richard Cohen would go to his grave with these words as his epitaph.
We are a good country, attempting to do a good thing. In a post-Sept. 11 world, I thought the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic. 94 comments Nov, 2006.
Jim on new passport restrictions and the reasons for same: “‘Make it tough for the enemy to get in and you can’t get out.’ That’s George Bush’s motive for wanting to build a Berlin Wall around America.” 115 comments Dec, 2006.
And in that same vein, Teresa on Coast Guard gunships on the Great Lakes. 104 comments Dec, 2006.
More Rumsfeld. Trying to quash an anti-torture lawsuit against him. 147 comments Dec, 2006.
Wingnuttery
Al Jazeera attacked by the clue free (British spelling edition). I’m speechless. 31 comments Dec, 2005.
The annual war on Christmas fuss Oh noes, they’re taking away our Christmas stamps edition. One minor detail, they aren’t. 88 comments Dec, 2005.
Claiming the right not to be educated. It’s not censorship, but it’s an ugly page drawn from the same book. Arizona Senate votes to allow students not to read things they might find offensive. Heaven forfend someone might get their mind expanded. 311 comments Feb, 2006.
Jim dismantles a wingnut email meme in detail. This wingnut defends desecration of the Koran because of the War on Terra. 133 comments Mar, 2006.
Uncategorized (Thus Far)
Long John Silver’s offers free shrimp for everyone if an ocean is discovered on Mars. 64 comments Jan, 2004. With follow up. It was and they did. 36 comments May, 2004.
Stupid things said in the wake of September 11th. 0 comments Oct, 2001.
Cake Art, live links. 0 comments Dec, 2001.
“Bad Pets” A link to a list of the “I will not” sort, or: Pets made to write lines. 52 comments Dec, 2003.
On the Confederacy’s relationship with indigenous peoples. Big post. 23 comments Oct, 2003.
Beer in the Bathtub. Con parties. Take special note at comment 11 on supplies and the throwing of Tor parties. 20 comments Aug, 2003.
“Bits of Gossip by Rebecca Harding Davis”. A writers ongoing chronicle of her culture and times-The American South 1831 to 1910. The link is half dead-but following it will get you there. 16 comments Jul, 2003.
Flint Knapping in modern times. Also, no technology is ever wholly abandonded. Odd and cool. 39 comments Jan, 2003.
Mapping fetishes–a graphic representation. 21 comments Sep, 2002.
The most beautiful experiment in physics–links to a survey. 9 comments Sep, 2002.
How codes are usually broken. 0 comments, Jan, 2002.
“Pygmy mammoths!” 106 comments Feb, 2004
Extreme Citrus and Marmalade Geeking. 60 comments Jan, 2004.
Teresa takes a critic to task in great detail. No, not a literary critic, just someone who didn’t like something she blogged about and wrote her a stupid and nasty note. This provides an object lesson in why it is always better to think very carefully before you hit send on a piece of nastiness. 159 comments Mar, 2004.
A telling commentary on the meme that a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Which words? 48 comments Apr, 2004.
The Enron tapes and callous disregard for human life. 87 comments Jun, 2004.
The great color conspiracy. A nice look at how the Color Marketing Group drives color fashions. 199 comments Jul, 2004.
“Salwar kameez” Buying traditional Indian and Pakastani tailored clothes via eBay. 719 comments Nov, 2004. Follow up with Teresa interviewed by South Asia World TV. 53 comments Apr, 2005.
“Death masks”. 35 comments Nov, 2004. (More here)
Rice pudding, house-elves, and Scandinavian Christmas tradition. 88 comments Dec, 2004.
Wrong dosages and narcolepsy. 172 comments Feb, 2005. With meds and neurology update here .97 comments Apr, 2005.
Drive-by mothering, the worst sort of unasked for advice on how to handle one’s children. 260 comments Feb, 2005.
“A seedweight of strong old speech” history of the English language geeking. 50 comments Apr, 2005.
Book burning in the Indian state of Manipur including some ancient and irreplaceable texts. Argh!!! 55 comments Apr, 2005.
Noah vs. the Dinosaurs. Too weird for words. 36 comments Jun, 2005.
Chess, a whole bunch of variations. (Jim’s first front page post) 80 comments Jun, 2005.
A different kind of slush. The giant popsicle meltdown of 2005. 76 comments Jun, 2005.
Some notes on the PR industry as a driver of news and culture. Interesting from both a general cultural perspective and from the point of view of a writer interested in publicizing their own work. 77 comments Jun, 2005.
Roses. More on same in the context of Teresa’s garden. 93 comments Jun, 2005.
Teresa pulls apart a didactic Sunday school piece from the 19th century, “Archie’s Fourth of July” Then Jim joins in with a side story. Funny stuff. 128 comments Jun, 2005.
Patrick notes that the present is now officially stranger than science fiction and the future will be stranger yet. Resource farming in online communities as full time job. 85 comments Jul, 2005.
16 things Teresa learned in the garden this year. Plant stuff. 118 comments Jul, 2005.
Strange questions at Snopes and speculation thereof. Specifically on the possibility of being able to both insert and remove a standard light bulb from one’s mouth. 163 comments Jul, 2005.
Rob Schneider, gets a tremendously well deserved smackdown on Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo from roger Ebert. That’s gotta hurt. 101 comments Aug, 2005.
Right wingers writing dirty books, an informed commentary by a genuine editor. 190 comments Oct, 2005.
“Quentin Tarantino’s Republic Dogs” the script. Pretty much what you’re imagining, yes. 35 comments Oct, 2005.
Jim on model railroad miniatures with links to some wonderous miniature slums. 54 comments Oct, 2005.
Movie trailers and trailer remixing. 37 comments Sep, 2005.
Jim on time as derived from the world around us. Sundials, etc. 67 comments Sep, 2005.
“The Defence of Duffer’s Drift” Patrick links to an online copy of same. Excellent introduction to the basics of combat and tactics for writers. 15 comments Nov, 2005.
Four things meme, as in four jobs you’ve held, four places you’ve vacationed, etc. 137 comments Dec, 2005.
Superballs, 250,000 of them bouncing down a hill in San Francisco. Gorgeous. 50 comments Dec, 2005.
Teresa meets The Da Vinci Code, is not impressed. Bad bad cryptography. 293 comments Dec, 2005.
Patrick: remember Pearly Harbor. Timeline of the day. 151 comments Dec, 2005.
Jim on St. Nicholas Eve. 95 comments Dec, 2005.
A rant on the lack of genuine quantization in women’s clothes, particularly the difficulty this creates in buying mail order. 226 comments Dec, 2005.
Teresa smells a funny smell…her recently deceased neighbor, as it turns out. 135 comments Nov, 2005. Her recently deceased, murdered neighbor, actually. 510 comments Nov, 2005.
Life in a museum exhibit, where would you want to be displayed. 43 comments Nov, 2005.
“Darwin fish found” Transitional fossil week. 223 comments Apr, 2006.
Teresa smells a funny smell…her recently deceased neighbor, as it turns out. 135 comments Nov, 2005. Her recently deceased, murdered neighbor, actually. 510 comments Nov, 2005. Another update: “The guy who (reportedly) shot my next-door neighbor” 40 comments May, 2006. And another, the very next day: “I’m a little more dubious than I was yesterday” 81 comments May, 2006.
No, glass doesn’t slowly flow downward. 161 comments May, 2006.
Dangerous science experiments. 72 comments May, 2006.
Patrick on Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth” 71 comments May, 2006.
A huge thread about a Livejournal decision to ban breast-feeding icons. 586 comments May, 2006.
Monthly budgets of the rich and clueless, an example. 348 comments Jul, 2006.
The traditional pin-tumbler lock cracked. A master solution to the problem of picking the standard lock. 67 comments Aug, 2006.
Much silliness from Scalzi, Westerfeld, etc. in Pluto planet? controversy. 198 comments Aug, 2006.
Ode to a typewriter. Teresa waxes nostalgic on the IBM Selectric and the passing of the typewriter. 111 comments Aig, 2006.
Teresa talks about 1491, a survey of pre-Columbian America. 206 comments Aug, 2006.
Amazon allows comments on reviews, or, as Patrick puts it “The End of Author Productivity In Our Lifetime” What a really bad idea. 103 comments Sep, 2006.
Teresa links to a collection of incidences of people being stupid about the history of the Middle East. 146 comments Oct, 2006.
““Doctor Who” Explains Modern Media Consolidation To You”. Satellite Five episode. Woot. 115 comments Nov, 2006.
Teresa on “Why I Blog” This is a huge juicy post that talks about the way the media has sided with the power elite against the people, and how that affects everything that happens in the country and also a whole bunch of related and important things. 217 comments Dec, 2006.
Patrick is baffled by a post from Attytood re: the social responsibility of the inventor of a new thing toward those who are harmed by the old thing it replaces. Is joke? Is not joke? 78 comments Dec, 2006.
The lost and feared destroyed Bactrian Gold resurfaces. Hooray for a treasure found. 51 comments Dec, 2006.
The top ten underreported stories of 2006. Teresa condenses them from the original and I’m just going to do the titles. Interesting stuff and well worth a read.
10. Hackable Passports
9. What’s Worse Than Bird Flu? The Cure
8. Petro Powers Drop the Dollar
7. The Gender Gap Gets Smaller
6. Iran and Israel Hold Secret Talks
5. United States Funds the Taliban
4. Russia Fuels Latin American Arms Race
3. Bush’s Post-Katrina Power Grab
2. China Runs up African Debt
1. White House Looks the Other Way while India Helps Iran Build the Bomb
73 comments Dec, 2006.
Advertising as art and entertainment with examples. 123 comments Dec, 2006.
Teresa’s favorites from the BBC’s hundred favorite factoids of 2006. 32 comments Dec, 2006.