As a guy who gave up “pay” software many years ago in lieu of Open Source, I find this Vista mess amusing. For others who rely on Microsoft, the whole mess is just pathetic. The New York Times offers a very good overview of the fiasco.

The Vista Fiasco was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

The New World Entropy – a conference on Michael Moorcock
Liverpool John Moores University, UK – 5-6 July 2008

This conference hopes to explore the rich and varied writings of Michael Moorcock’s fictions whilst providing a rounded picture of the writerly environments Moorcock has developed in by contextualising his work alongside his many other social involvements and his interactions with other writers. As such this conference is focused upon developing a critical appreciation of Moorcock’s best known and most loved writings in combination with an appreciation of his historical development as a writer. To this end we welcome papers which tread across the boundaries of genre which Moorcock himself trod and also welcome papers which relate Moorcock to the circles of friends and associates whose writings and work connect to his own. We hope that this will provide a lively and multiplicitous series of discursive responses to Moorcock’s remarkable body of works.

Abstracts of 200-300 words should be submitted electronically by 31st March 2008 (new extended deadline) to (mark.williams _at_uea.ac.uk) and (Martyn.Colebrook_at_ english.hull.ac.uk). All correspondence should have the phrase MOORCOCK CONFERENCE in the subject line.

Topics for discussion include but are not limited to: The Multiverse, Pluralism, Metropolitan life, Moorcock’s relationship with Modernism, Music and fiction, Jerry Cornelius, Order and Entropy, Moorcock’s support of lesser known writers, The Holy Grail, Elric of Melniboné, Anti-Racism, Moorcock as Victorian Novelist, New Worlds, Feminism, Moorcock the editor, Anarchism, Myth-making, “Fiction” and “Autobiography”, Psychogeography/ The London of the Mind, Moorcock’s trans-Atlantic, Political Activism, The avant-garde, Early Moorcock versus Late Moorcock, Friends on the Fringes, The ‘Between the Wars’ Quartet, Counter culture/ Counter literatures, Liberty and Freedom of Speech, Moorcock as Mentor, Moorcock as Student, The Reforgotten Writers, Character and Caricature in Moorcock.

Non-presenting delegates will be welcome.

Conference Fees: £20: Student/Unwaged; £30: Delegate.

WOW! What a potentially fascinating conference. I cannot think of a more deserving writer. Wonder how I can scrape together the pennies for the flight?
(Thanks to Chris Nakashima-Brown.)

The New World Entropy was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Watching Coronation Street ]
As of 4:00 am – we have had 49 cm, so I suspect we have topped the 50 cm mark by now. That’s half a yard.

Husband Unit has Bronchitis, so he can’t shovel. Luckily I have great friends. Two are coming over this afternoon to snowblow out the driveway. When they do that, I can go get groceries.

I’ll keep you upto date.

EDIT: The measurement is now 52 cm. Total for the winter 410.7 cm. 34 cm away from the 1971 record. And we have more coming.

Toronto the wimpy only got 30 cm, yet they are whining all ready. Our mayor, on the other hand, has just asked us to be patient. They plan to have the snow gone by Tuesday and have opened up the city parking garages for free so people can get their cars off the streets.

[  Mood: Cool ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
Tanya Huff is one of the best sci-fi/fantasy authors in Canada today. Her books are smart, witty and don’t always follow a conventional path.

Blood Price is the first of her Blood series. I have read it before, but have picked it up again because I have been following the Lifetime series based on it. It sees Vicky Nelson as a private investigator in Toronto. She used to be a homicide cop, until she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. This progressive eye disease means Vicki would have been stuck behind a desk pushing paperwork. Not one to sit behind a desk, she quit to become a PI. Now she spends her days sitting behind a desk find missing heirs and doing skip traces.

In Blood Price, Vicky witnesses a murder one night. The body is exsanguinated, but there is no blood. As similar murders mount, Vicky is hired by one of the victims’ girlfriend to find the murderer.

Into her investigation walks Henry Fitzwalter. He is a romance novelist who also happens to be a 450 vampire and the illegitimate son of Henry the VIII. Henry wants to find out who is committing the murders too. His motivation has more to do with the fact that if he doesn’t, he might be run out of town by the modern equivalent of peasants with torches.

The novel moves at a quick pace, with sexual tension and lots of supernatural goodness. Vicky is a no-nonsense heroine who is kicking butt and taking names. I recommend you pick this one up.

[  Mood: Shocked ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
So remember when I mentioned a record breaking snow fall?

Well it ain’t over yet. Environment Canada is tracking a system coming up from the Gulf of Mexico that will give us a minimum of 20 cm and upto 50 cm starting tonight.

For those of you that are counting, that’s about half a meter to a meter of snow in a week. For you Imperial users, that’s a foot and a half to half a yard. So far this winter we have had 357 cm – that’s about 12 feet of snow.

The largest snow fall in Ottawa history was in 1970-1971. I was actually gestating in my mommy’s tummy in Winnipeg that winter. Husband Unit was around, but he was very little and doesn’t really remember. We got 444.1 cm of snow that year. That my friends is over 14 and a half feet of snow. Take that Yao Ming!

That winter had people tossing their kids on the roofs and taking snapshots for posterity. They were also using their roofs as the beginning of a killer toboggan run.

This winter is not as bad cause we have had a couple of warm snaps to melt away some of the snow, but the banks outside my house are taller than Husband Unit who is 6’3".

And think of this man. I am pregnant. I can not shovel. So he has been doing this all alone. Wednesday saw him out there before dinner and after dinner, trying to get the way clear. Thursday he was out again at 7:30 am after the plow dumped a windrow at the end of the driveway. (A windrow is that mound of snow the plows leaves. We Canadians have a name for it.)

So this Saturday, as you sleep in, think of Husband unit, shoveling. He really is the best man ever.

(Tomorrow I will rant about my School Board’s inability to clear snow, thereby endangering the lives of students and teachers.)

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
So I was going to blog about the record snowfall yesterday, but this morning something way more interesting popped up on the morning news.

Specifically about the meeting Obama’s people allegedly had with Canadian officials about NAFTA.

Now this has been getting lots of news media attention on both sides of the border and apparently cost Obama Ohio. Clinton’s people have been spreading this far and wide.

Well, apparently Hilliary’s people also contacted the Canadian government to take her statements "with a grain of salt".

Yet Hilliary was so quick to attack Barak on this issue and use it as leverage to win Ohio.

Plus ca change.

My American friends – please feel free to pass that link on to your local media. And I wish I could vote, cause you guys have a way more interesting race going on right now than we have had in years.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Eating my 30 g of carb snack before bed ]
The third book of the Temeraire series finds our celestial dragon and his captain Laurence winging their way to Turkey to pick up some dragon eggs for the British government. On the way there , they encounter feral dragons. On the way home they get embroiled in the French/Prussian conflict. And there is a whole bunch more stuff that goes wrong.

Not as good as the first two, this book is still one of the most interesting dragon fantasies out there. Well written, meticulously researched, this ain’t your father’s alternate history.

Go get this.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
So let me clarify my issues with this article cause clearly when I wrote the first entry, I was seething.

1. The methodology.
Nowhere in these stories does it state that the researchers factored in/out factors like drug/alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, witness to violence, etc. as other causes for the risky sexual behaviour, coercion or masochistic sex. So how do we know that the behaviours that are sited as a result of spanking don’t come from another source? Note: I am not advocating for spanking your children. I am annoyed with what may be bad science if those factors haven’t been accounted for.

2. The moral judgment the researchers applied to sexual practice.
Let’s be blunt. What happens between two consenting adults in their bedroom is no one’s business. It is clear from the comments made by the researchers that they feel that "spanking" during sex is deviant behaviour. Clearly they have applied their moral values to what is supposed to be an unbiased study. Is there a conservative agenda behind it, I wonder?

Think I am over reacting? Remember that homosexuality used to be considered "deviant" behaviour, was blamed on parents’ actions (or lack of actions) and was a psychiatric disorder. Remember that there were cases of white women being institutionalized by their families for marrying outside their race at late as the 1960s. Their behaviour was considered deviant by scientists who used science to justify their own racist attitudes. To me, this study shows more about the puritanical leanings of the researchers than it does about spanking.

3. The media not asking the hard questions.
Once again, the media has jumped on a story about sex and violence without asking any hard questions. Our modern media has turned into a joke. They simply print up press releases, rather than actually do some leg work, investigate and ask hard questions. My background is not in science, yet as you can see above, I asked some pretty tough questions. Why can’t the media do this? Two reasons: 1) Because sex sells and 2) Because this story fits their publishers’ political agenda/spin. It disgusts me.

[  Mood: Neutral ]
[  Currently: Watching Days of Our Lives ]
According to this article, because I was spanked as a child, I may be at a higher risk of being a sexual deviant.

Huh?

I have some problems with this article. I can guarantee I have never co-orced anyone into sex. In addition, some of the articles on this list spanking as masochistic sex.

Huh?

So a pat on the butt for old times sake makes someone a freak? Did this study account for other factors such as verbal and mental abuse? How about having parents who practiced co-oercive behaviours? Drug and alcohol abuse?

No indication that they did any more than just ask about spanking, and the media is jumping all over this. How about probing a little deeper? Oh wait, we are the media, we don’t do that.

A far more important part of the articles is that children who aren’t spanked are generally better behaved than those who do. That would be a reason not to spank.

Let’s be clear, I don’t plan to spank my child. I plan to discipline my child and be consistent. Husband Unit and I are actually looking forward to the teenager telling us they hate us cause I say no. Remember, I am the woman who assigned a kid to a week in the kindergarten room helping them get ready for the bus because he tied the shoelaces of two classmates together.

But I don’t think a swat on the bum condemns anyone to a life of pain and suffering. Cause let’s be honest, what happens in the bedroom between consenting adults is not deviancy. Labeling it that reveals far more about the researchers’ (and media’s) puritanical leanings than the effect spanking has on children. It also passes judgment on those who choose to be in loving relationships and engage in sexual practices that are not the traditional missionary position.

No, this study shows me that the North American media is still using sex to sell papers. So much so that they are willing to not ask the tough questions.