Making Light Indices Sep-Dec 2006

Making Light Indices Update Sep-Dec 2006.

These updates have not yet been added to the main indices, but should go up in the next week or two. In the meantime, here they are:

Writers Index:

F&SF As A Genre

The Common Fantasy Tongue is created. 50 comments Nov, 2006.

Literary Scams

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.

Publishing Industry

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.

In response to the WSJ Teresa talks about the non-bestsellers part of the book biz. In which she coins the term okaysellers and dispenses much wisdom on publishing. If you are a writer you should read this. 129 comments Oct, 2006. You should also read the follow up post which continues the discussion. 64 comments Oct, 2006.

"“Doctor Who” Explains Modern Media Consolidation To You". Satellite Five episode. Woot. 115 comments Nov, 2006.

Writing Craft

Teresa highlights "Keith Snyder on Novels in Progress" an absolutely priceless post on how to write and revise a novel. Must read. 87 comments Dec, 2006.



General Index

Administrative/In the Beginning

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.

Astroturf in Politics and on the Internet

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.

DIY A Myriad of Odd and Sometimes Useful How-Tos

Teresa on how to wrap a package. 74 comments Dec, 2006.

Fandom

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

The Common Fantasy Tongue is created. 50 comments Nov, 2006.

Food (Not Recipes)

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

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.

Internet Discourse

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.

Iran

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 (Afghanistan-now its own category) War

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 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

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

Teresa on Geoffrey Chaucer's blog. Historical language games and other japery. 38 commments Dec, 2006.

Lord of the Rings

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.

Medicine/Emergency Response

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

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

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

Follow up to this astroturf post generates verse on the theme of making money from betraying trust (see astroturfing). 58 comments Dec, 2006.

Politics

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

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

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.

Scams

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.

War on Terra

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.

Uncategorized (Thus Far, and yes, deliberately out of order)

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.