Archive for 2014
August 10, 2014
EILEEN GOUDGE: Self-Publish or Perish: Why I Made the Leap from Traditional Publishing to Indie.
Recently I found myself at a crossroads when my author friend, Josie Brown, suggested I go indie. She’d made the leap from traditional publishing a few years prior and was reaping the rewards. She’s also a savvy businesswoman with a background in marketing and advertising. I wasn’t sure I was up to the task. I’m a writer. That’s what I do—I write. I flunked math in school. I was one of those grumpy authors who had to be dragged into doing social media (which I’ve since come to embrace). She persuaded me by posing a question: “What’s the alternative?”
I realized the only alternative was to keep doing what I’d been doing that wasn’t working. I was like Charlie Brown with the football, hoping I’d get lucky and that, just once, the football wouldn’t be snatched from beneath me when I went to kick it. I’m at heart an optimist. But I’m not stupid. So I took heed of Josie’s advice and gathered up the courage to embark on a different path.
And something wonderful happened along the way.
It often does, when you take charge of your fate.
EBOLA: Patrick Sawyer’s final hours in Lagos. Apparently, he knew he had Ebola before he got on the plane to Nigeria. Related item here. The reports of Sawyer’s behavior at the hospital are troubling.
SCANDAL UPDATE: Sharyl Attkisson: Six Serious Questions Regarding Elusive Federal Documents. “When it comes to accountability questions, one owes the benefit of the doubt to the U.S. government, whoever may be in charge. Managing the massive federal bureaucracy isn’t easy. Responding to the demands from the public, the press and Congress for public information can be time consuming. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief in the multiple instances in which the Obama administration is obstructing the release of, or losing, documents in major investigations.”
COMMUNISM IN A NUTSHELL, OVER AND OVER AGAIN: “Their aim was to create an agrarian communist utopia, but they were turning the Southeast Asian nation into a slave state.” But then, perhaps “communist utopia” and “slave state” are synonyms. They certainly seem to be in practice. Which is why I don’t give communists credit for good intentions.
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FOR A CERTAIN CLASS OF PEOPLE — MANY OF WHOM ARE WHITE, WORK AT GAWKER, AND AVOID SKETCHY NEIGHBORHOODS WITH CARE — EVERYTHING IS RACIST: Smartphone app to help you avoid dangerous areas is obviously racist or something.
The App is called Sketch Factor.
THE ATLANTIC: Ted Cruz For President: Conservatives are literally praying that the Texas senator will be the 2016 nominee. The rest of the Republican Party isn’t so sure. I dunno, I think libertarians are okay with him, too, though most would prefer Rand Paul. But Cruz lacks some of Paul’s baggage.
I hope somebody gives both of them a copy of Kurt Schlichter’s book.
SO IF YOU RESPOND TO A CHARGE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT, AND YOU SAY IT’S NOT TRUE, THAT’S “RETALIATION?” You know, if you were a conservative trying to destroy higher education via its own prejudices, you could hardly do a better job than the gender activists are doing already.
JUSTICE: ‘Shaken baby’ doubters give cases another look.
The New England Innocence Project is looking at “several” Bay State cases where a person was convicted of murder following a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, saying the science behind that conclusion is not sound — the same argument now being made by lawyers for an Irish nanny accused of killing a baby in her care.
“The reason is that the scientific underpinnings of shaken baby syndrome have been called into question,” said Denise McWilliams, executive director of the project. “There’s a good amount of evidence that shaken baby syndrome might, at best, be questionable and it might, at worst, be totally bogus.”
McWilliams would not discuss which cases the Innocence Project was looking at, but said there is a growing chorus of experts nationwide casting doubt on the diagnosis. At issue is whether the injuries normally associated with shaken baby syndrome — brain bleeding, retinal hemorrhaging and brain swelling — can be inflicted without leaving a mark on the child, or harming the child’s neck, which is what is alleged in some cases, she said.
Yeah, these are looking pretty iffy.
August 9, 2014
GOOD: Court Rejects Deal on Hiring in Silicon Valley.
There is “ample evidence” that Silicon Valley was engaged in “an overarching conspiracy” against its own employees, a federal judge said on Friday, and it should either pay dearly or have its secrets exposed at trial.
Judge Lucy H. Koh of the United States District Court in San Jose rejected as insufficient a proposed $324 million settlement in a class-action antitrust case that accused leading tech companies of agreeing not to poach one another’s engineers.
In addition, her decision immediately resuscitated a public relations nightmare for Google, Apple and other top tech companies while vindicating a range of observers — including one of the plaintiffs in the suit — who said Silicon Valley was escaping justice.
As has been discussed here before, they’re also abusing H1-B visas.
THEY SURE MAKE A LOT OF CONVENIENT “MISTAKES,” DON’T THEY? The Department of Veterans Affairs has apologized for what it called an “inadvertent” mistake that underreported the number of deaths linked to delays in cancer treatment at VA medical facilities.
WHERE COMPETENCE IS INSUFFICIENT, FEAR MUST SUFFICE: Fear of ‘Another Benghazi’ Drove White House to Airstrikes in Iraq. I disagree, however, that Obama has had a “longstanding reluctance to use military force.” He was quick to use it in Libya, and he was eager to use it in Syria until Putin outsmarted him. He is, perhaps, reluctant to use military force when it’s obviously in America’s interest, but that’s a different thing.
ALDO NOVA, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Professor Claims Anti-Semitism Doesn’t Exist In The Middle East.
IF YOU WANT TO TRAVEL BY GULFSTREAM, THIS ISN’T THE WAY TO DO IT: Inside the Flying Quarantine Ward Used to Transport Ebola Patients.
DAVID HARSANYI: The ‘Libertarian Moment’ Has Definitely Not Arrived.
I’M NOT SURE THIS IS A “BOMBSHELL,” BUT I DON’T LIKE IT: CDC Says Ebola Spread to America is ‘Inevitable.’ But Patrick Sawyer was heading to America when he got sick, so if he had been infected a bit later, or incubated a bit longer, it might have already arrived. That said, conditions for spread are much less favorable here than they are in fetid West African cities with poor sanitation and unfortunate burial customs.
OR WIFE, I SUPPOSE: 5 Reasons You Should Have Sex With Your Husband Every Night.
DYING: New paper on Ebola–no primate-to-primate transmission seen. “By the same lead author that published the pig Ebola transmission paper comes a new publication examining airborne transmission among primates. In these, Ebola did *not* spread between non-human primates (NHPs) via air.” Well, good.
ASHE SCHOW: These senators still have not answered questions about their campus sexual assault bill.
To date, I have only heard from two offices: Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. I have sent multiple e-mails to the offices for the remaining co-sponsors and have not received answers.
No one has responded for Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Dean Heller of Nevada, Claire McCaskill of Missouri or Mark Warner of Virginia.
Additionally, Glenn Kaplan, a spokesman for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., did contact me and offered to walk me through the bill, but wouldn’t simply answer the questions that Rubio and Grassley’s spokespeople answered.
If this bill is such a great opportunity to address the issue of sexual assault on college campuses, why aren’t these senators jumping at the chance to talk about it?
Perhaps they’re having second thoughts.
SPYING: Leaked docs show spyware used to snoop on US computers.
Software created by the controversial UK-based Gamma Group International was used to spy on computers that appear to be located in the United States, the UK, Germany, Russia, Iran, and Bahrain, according to a leaked trove of documents analyzed by ProPublica.
It’s not clear whether the surveillance was conducted by governments or private entities. Customer e-mail addresses in the collection appeared to belong to a German surveillance company, an independent consultant in Dubai, the Bosnian and Hungarian Intelligence services, a Dutch law enforcement officer, and the Qatari government.
The leaked files—which were posted online by hackers—are the latest in a series of revelations about how state actors including repressive regimes have used Gamma’s software to spy on dissidents, journalists, and activist groups.
Hmm.