1. Werkloosheid VS op hoogste peil sinds Tweede Wereldoorlog  De Tijd
2. Meer dan 20 miljoen Amerikaanse jobs verloren in april, werkloosheid schiet omhoog naar hoogste niveau in ruim 80 jaar  Het Laatste Nieuws
3. 'Cijfers uit de Grote Depressie'  De Standaard
4. Werkloosheid VS op hoogste niveau sinds Grote Depressie van jaren dertig  NU.nl
5. Werkloosheid VS naar hoogste niveau sinds de Grote Depressie  RTL Z
6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

1. Moeten we Brussels Airlines redden of niet?  De Tijd
2. Hoog spel rond Brussels Airlines  De Standaard
3. Akkoord tussen Swiss en Lufthansa: blauwdruk voor Brussels Airlines?  Trends
4. Lufthansa groep vanaf juni met 160 vliegtuigen de lucht in  Up in the Sky
5. Lufthansa Group verdubbelt in juni het aantal vliegtuigen in dienst  Luchtvaartnieuws.nl
6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

Motorrijder uit Zottegem overleden na zwaar ongeval in Zwalm, bestuurster auto zwaargewond  Het NieuwsbladHele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

LIVE. De Wever over eventuele tweede piek: “Normale quarantaine is er een van zieken, niet van gezonde mensen”  Het Laatste Nieuws

Experts, economen en politici: iedereen is nu al bezig met een tweede coronagolf. “Zolang er geen vaccin is, zal het nieuwe normaal blijven bestaan”  Het Nieuwsblad

Flushed with the feeling of success that comes from having cleaned my office to such a degree that the rugs are now visible, I thought today that I would take on the problem of excess books. Surely there are some I don't actually need. So I chose a shelf at near-random (it was one of those actually accessible without moving the boxes of books stacked before it to another location), and started going through both rows (the shelves are double-stacked, of course) to see what they contained.

Only to discover that the shelf was stocked with books placed there at seeming random. Mr. Evelyn's diary lies cheek-to-jowl with Gertrude Stein's Picasso. Jeff Danziger's Teed Tales abuts, appropriately enough, a history of Vermont. There is a collection of stories by T. Corgahesson Boyle, Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, a novel by Sean Stewart, and a collection of essays by Ursula K. Le Guin. These last two, by the way, are misfiled since I have a science fiction section arranged almost alphabetically by author and a designated place for stacks of SF criticism and related essays. Which is where Gwyneth Jones' Joanna Russ should be as well.

Here's T. H. White's wonderful collection of mythical animals from medieval bestiaries, The Book of Beasts. The Return of Fursey! Mosses from an Old Manse. Flann O'Brien's The Best of Myles reappears from hiding; after I've obsessively reread it a few times,  I'll have to hide it somewhere else among my books, if I'm ever to read anything else. Oh, but there's also John McPhee's The Pine Barrens, which some of us persist in thinking his best book. Though it has competition. And here is a battered but charming old hardcover of Charles Fort's The Book of the Damned. I have a biography of Fort around here somewhere, though I doubt I'll find it today. Some few of these I haven't read--Fishing from Earliest Times is one example, though I'm sure I'll get to it soon. But I've read every story in The Corrector of Destinies, Melville Davidson Post's extremely odd collection of detective fiction (sort of), and I'll have to blog about it here someday.

There are thirty shelves of books on one wall of my office and my first attack upon the one provided me with nothing to cull,  And I've put aside a short stack of books to read or reacquaint myself with. Not have I done much to organize it--but wait! Here, just one shelf below is Damon Knight's Charles Fort. Up it goes, alongside The Book of the Damned, so nobody could say the last hour was wasted. Though it came close.

Nor was I able to impose a theme upon the shelf, other than Books I Am Delighted to Possess. But maybe that's enough.

In any case, it will have to do.


Above: For technical reasons, I'm having difficulty uploading a picture of the wall of books in my office. So here's a pic of part of the wall of books in my bedroom. 

Very few people in the science fiction community ever came face to face with Alice Sheldon, who wrote SF under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr, much less met her tarantulas. One of those very few was Gardner Dozois. When he sold his papers to UC Riverside (the proceeds went to keeping his wife, Susan Casper, alive for several years longer than would otherwise have happened), bookman Henry Wessells became aware of the correspondence between Sheldon and Dozois.

Now, Henry has created a chapbook, She Saved Us from World War Three, containing the two most significant letters from that correspondence. The first is from Sheldon, telling Gardner that the secret of her identity was about to go public and that she was not a man but a woman. The second is her relieved response to Gardner's assurance that they were still friends.

Which understates how Gardner felt about Sheldon/Tiptree. He was in awe of her as a writer and remained so after the murder-suicide that ended her life.

To go with the letters and give them some context, I interviewed Gardner about his friendship with Alice Sheldon and this introduction now forms the bulk of the chapbook.

Today is the publication date for She Saved Us from World War Three and it is currently available for sale. It costs $20, which is not cheap for twenty pages of prose but is cheap for a beautifully made limited edition chapbook with fold-out facsimiles of the letters themselves.

Those of you who need it know who you are. Me, I already have my copy. I'm going to dig up the oversized paperclip which Sheldon gave to Gardner  as a souvenir of their meeting and Gardner gave to me because souvenirs meant nothing to him and keep the two of them together. This is a very meaningful publication for me.

You can find ordering information here.


Above: The chapbook's cover. Photo by John DeChancie and used with his permission. John is a Mensch. I esteem him highly.

Yet again, something astonishing has arrived in my mailbox. This time, it's a chapbook titled Paris ett poem, containing a Swedish translation (surely the first) of Hoope Mirrlees' modernist masterpiece, Paris, a Poem. Mirrlees, you'll recall, is best known in genre circles for her fantasy novel Lud-in-the-Mist, in academic circles for being on the fringes of Bloomsbury, and in poetic circles for this poem.

Ylva Gislén translated the poem, wrote an introduction, provided explanatory notes, and created two collages for inclusion in the chapbook. All of it, clearly, a labor of love.

Quite a lovely  book. Published by Ellerströms.


And Speaking of Good Things . . .

The Temporary Culture chapbook assembled by Henry Wessells, "She Saved Us from World War Three," was reviewed by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post. Here's what he said:

Besides being one of the stars of “The Booksellers,” Henry Wessells is also the proprietor of the micro-publisher, Temporary Culture. His latest booklet, “She Saved Us From World War Three,” brings together an interview, essay and two letters highlighting the friendship between Gardner Dozois, the longtime editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and Alice Sheldon, the former Washington intelligence agent whose intense, sometimes feminist sci-fi — no one ever forgets “The Women Men Don’t See” — was written using the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. In one letter Sheldon explains that she has pretty much stopped writing because “the stories were getting to hurt too much.”

Which is pretty good coverage for a micro-press.

Mayoral foibles, Google's urban charm offensive, finalists for George Brown's new wood building, and how many avocado toasts will you need to give up?

1 Please don’t poke the mayor – Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson found himself criticized in light of calling George Bemi’s award-winning Ottawa Library a “Stalin-ist bunker”. Watson’s rebuke wasn’t so elegant, but the following debate explored how contemporary ideas of wellness and accessibility requires real investment in restoration and renovation. Here in Toronto, Mayor John […]

The post Another Glass Box: The Stalinist “Bunker” Edition appeared first on Torontoist.

Why all the secrecy?

If you follow the news in Toronto or if you’re interested in technology, you’ve probably heard of Sidewalk Toronto by now. It’s a joint project of Sidewalk Labs, a sister company of Google, and Waterfront Toronto. This is the tech giant’s first foray into urban development and infrastructure, with Toronto hosting the pilot project. In […]

The post Civic Tech: We tried to get a copy of the Sidewalk Toronto agreement appeared first on Torontoist.

In 2008, a few friends in Vancouver recognized that a voice was missing from reporting in our country. National news was increasingly international in nature. Provincial was disappearing. And, local seemed out of touch with its audience. So, they started writing the kind of content they wanted to read. Hyperlocal stories aimed at helping people […]

The post Torontoist has been acquired by Daily Hive appeared first on Torontoist.

Mixed feelings around hockey about holding NHL draft early

 I gave myself a challenge tonight of seeing how quick I could paint some ACW soldiers to a standard I’d be happy to game with. I started off with a black under coat and added single colours to block out the uniform. I forced myself to just use one coat colour ( Foundry Union uniform B), I found later this can be dry-brushed with earth brown and this acts as a highlight. The soldiers are rough and ready campaign guys, so mud and dust was added to them.

Also, I love the fact that the varnish is as hard as nails and will protect them from knocks and scrapes. My last lot, because of the number of them, I just matte varnished without any gloss or floor varnish underneath. This didn’t sit well with me and I’m a lot happier knowing this lot have been dipped.



 As with the ECW lot, the flesh is the only paint I allowed myself to use two colours on. It made such a difference it was a ‘no brainer’. Skin tone under Army Painter needs two colours I think, as sometimes without, it can loose something and the men appear a little lifeless.


 Well after the quick blocking in and weathering I gave them a brush with the Army Painter strong tone. The results were very pleasing, a lot better than the photos do justice really.

For the American Civil War you need a lot of men unless of course you are using skirmishing rules. This I think has to be the route for me now with all of of my big projects, the results are quick and still pleasing. It’s also nice to force yourself into new ways of working which helps keep the hobby fresh and rewarding. I think that is a good word to use for the Dip, rewarding. Seeing those bags of figures in draws get a lick of paint on them and become units and thus, usable.

 We’ll have to see how they turn out when they’re matte varnished
This lot must have taken me an hour maybe a bit less. The brown tone works well on these guys but should be even better on the soft greys and browns of the Confederate army.

Creepiness In this Pocket-Sized episode #1005, Marc Abrahams shows an unfamiliar research study to Jean Berko Gleason. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue. The research mentioned in this episode is featured in the special Psychology issue (vol. 26, #1) of the Annals of Improbable Research magazine. Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get access to each podcast episode before it is made public. 1. […]

The 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for biology was awarded to Anders Barheim and Hogne Sandvik of the University of Bergen, Norway, for their tasty and tasteful report, “Effect of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches.” Recently, Bradley Allff, writing in Atlas Obscura, looked at the role medical leeches sometimes play in medicine in the USA. […]

Vi Hart, adept at mathematics, music, and explaining things, made this video that explains the point (and the lack of point, too) of 12-tone music:

Harrisburg University proudly announces, in a press release: HU facial recognition software predicts criminality A group of Harrisburg University professors and a Ph.D. student have developed automated computer facial recognition software capable of predicting whether someone is likely going to be a criminal. With 80 percent accuracy and with no racial bias, the software can […]

Hot Sauce Aggression In this Pocket-Sized episode #1006, Marc Abrahams shows an unfamiliar research study to Dany Adams. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue. The research mentioned in this episode is featured in the special Ig: the Triumph of Miss Sweetie Poo issue (Vol. 7, #1) of the Annals of Improbable Research Magazine. Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get […]

Bereitschaftspotential In this Pocket-Sized episode #1007, Marc Abrahams shows an unfamiliar research study to Jean Berko Gleason. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue. The research mentioned in this episode is featured in the special Psychology issue (vol. 26, #1) of the Annals of Improbable Research magazine. Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get access to each podcast episode before it is made public. 1. […]

Ewan Spence, "Apple Leak Reveals Radical New MacBook Pro", Forbes 5/4/2020: Apple may finally be getting round to updating the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Intel's tenth generation processors. The good news is that the MacOS powered laptop going to get a bucketload of extra power.[…] This laptop is loaded to bear in terms of memory […]

Hi guys,  I don’t know what happened to all of my recent messages, I am guessing that the Clouds were at their nasty work again – stealing!  So I am going to write more and you write me back ok? Well I just got back from one of my favorite little planets, planet Earth.  I […]

Dear Idea Seeker or Ally of the Idea Seekers, I have great news!  Greedy Cloud has been chased away and Spec and Tra discovered some new spring time house and garden items that he was hiding from everyone. Check them out in my house and garden, or go see Spec, Tra and Skeeter’s houses. Here […]

Guy 1: Cleaning gutters with a leaf blower. Guy 2: Holding him up with JUMPER CABLES.

Near Paris, there is no need to see if there is another car behind you...

I think they spent all their money on the fancy toilet paper. ~NSHA

Note: Written and illustrated months before, well, everything happened.

I've seen a few tribute videos to this classic western (One of the best as far as I'm concerned) done to Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive. For this one I did a twist

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; it's an XML based content format for distributing things like news, headlines, content, etc. These are popular because instead of relying on them to bookmark your site and return later, their RSS reader keeps your site fresh by showing them your latest posts as a simple headline. So every time that you add content such as a blog post or article they get to see the update, plus a direct link to that post.

Having a privacy policy for your website or blog is a way to declare to your viewers and subscribers on what happens with any information that’s collected on them, why it’s being collected, and how that information is being stored. This is a vital component to your site if your site is for business, or if you have a website that uses affiliate type advertising in order to earn revenue such as Amazon or Google Adsense. In fact not having a privacy policy will get your affiliate account banned on most sites, so apart from that and covering your back to protect yourself from legal action are good enough reasons to have privacy policy.

When you submit a website to search engines, most search engines automatically crawl websites looking for links and popularity of the sites they crawl to determine how they list on search engine results, one site that doesn’t is DMOZ. Also known as the Open Directory Project or ODP, this directory is entirely monitored by people (volunteer editors), this means that you have to submit your site and wait for somebody to physically look at your site. This process can take weeks, months, or even in a few cases years, so why bother with this site at all?

If you’re new to creating websites you’ve probably heard of Google’s sandbox even though Google denies that it exists. What this means is that a site will site for an unknown length of time waiting to get indexed. Traditionally this can take weeks or even months. Frankly who the hell wants to wait up to 6 months to get indexed by Google, that’s far too long.

If you have an Adsense account you’ve probably heard some of the horror stories about people having their Adsense account banned, their earnings held by Google, and being basically left out in the cold with no revenue coming into their site. And while it can happen without warning (Google is notorious for making policy changes and not notifying anyone or always offering a clear explanation) most of the time it’s the fault of the owner of the site. This is either because they didn’t take the time to terms of service and had their Adsense account banned. Or they got caught trying to cheat the system and as a result have a banned Adsense account.

One of the ways to get people to notice your site is to comment on other blogs and websites. The benefits of leaving good comments are that you not only get to add your two cents about a topic, you can also gain valuable links pointing to your site. Sounds easy right, and for the most part it is, but when selecting blogs or websites to comment on you need to consider some things. First try to find sites related to your niche, while you can comment on any site you want you stand a better chance of getting traffic from that site if it’s a related site. You also want these sites if possible to be on the number one page of Google for keywords you’re trying to rank for

One of the biggest challenges when starting a new blog or website is deciding what the topic of your site is going to be about. You also want to take into consideration what people are looking for online. If you’re stuck on an idea for your site here are the 10 most popular topics that are searched for online besides porn of course and the rough percentage of traffic each one gets.

Nobody likes a slow internet browser; frankly it’s a royal pain in the ass. We have better things to do then sitting around waiting for a page to load only to stair at a blank page. When it comes to slow internet browsers Internet Explorer has a history of being slow and clunky even with the best connection possible. Even their latest update Internet Explorer 9 is still much slower then browsers like Google Chrome or Firefox............

Having a slow internet connection is a pain in the ass. I hate waiting for pages that seem to take forever to load, videos that constantly buffer, and browsers that fail because it takes too long to open a web page. It’s frustrating and I have better things to do just like you, then sitting around losing my mind because my internet speed is slower then the second coming of Christ. So I put together a list of 10 things you can do to speed up your internet...............

Looks like the powers that be at Google are launching yet another free web tool you can use to help boost your sites performance. Google page speed is Google’s latest free tool, it’s purpose……well simply put it helps make your web pages load faster.........

So your website loads slower then old people Fu%@ing. Nobody likes a slow website, not the search bots, and especially not people who will leave rather then wait for a page that takes forever to load, let’s be honest our attention span is getting shorter all the time. On top of that Google’s recent Panda update looks at a sites load time to determine where it’s going to site in search results, either way you look at it your website loading time is a big deal............ So how do you speed up your website loading time? Here’s a list of 10 tips for optimizing your website to load faster.........

I like making videos on Youtube, its fun. And while I’m far from being a pro I learn new tricks with each new video. One of the things I’ve learned from trial and error is what songs work and what doesn’t. Sure it doesn’t really matter if your videos are only for a hobby or just to show something off. However if your looking to get your name out there, get your videos popular, and not have people leave after 10 seconds then understanding what songs work and don’t is important.........

1. Children in US and UK dying from syndrome linked to COVID-19  World Socialist Web Site
2. Rare illness linked to coronavirus kills New York five-year-old  9News
3. Coronavirus US: Andrew Cuomo’s sad announcemet about chld infections  NEWS.com.au
4. Some children with COVID-19 showing symptoms similar to Kawasaki Disease  NEWS10 ABC
5. New fears around 'entirely different chapter' of coronavirus after boy dies from rare illness  Yahoo News Australia
6. View Full coverage on Google News

1. Astronomers find closest black hole to Earth yet to be discovered  9News
2. New black hole discovered - and it's the closest to Earth ever found, say scientists  Mirror Online
3. View Full coverage on Google News