Yesterday, Jim posted some genderswaps of classic SF works, which were massively and obviously sexist. Today, he gives us a couple of scenes from one of his own books, and from another current work – and they’re still noticeably sexist, though the intensity has been dialled down considerably.
Originally shared by Jim Hines
Follow-up to yesterday’s blog post. Now with two genderswapped scenes from my own work, and one from a current Hugo nominee.
Medieval banquets. Not just sucking pig with an apple in its mouth.
Via Ilyanna Kreske.
Originally shared by Karen Price
“This manuscript is not just a description of meals enjoyed, it is an instructional text: a series of recipes, 196 in total, put together in a parchment scroll by King Richard’s cooks so that other cooks could learn their trade. Some of the recipes are for everyday use (‘common meats for the household as they should be made, craftily and wholesomely’) and some are for feasts. All are fascinating for the glimpses they give us of the incredible range of ingredients available to medieval cooks in wealthy households, the customs surrounding eating and the links drawn between food and other important contemporary disciplines – the introduction says that the work was given ‘the approval and consent of the masters of medicine and of philosophy’ who served at Richard’s court.”
http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2016/06/medieval-masterchef-by-catherine-hokin.html
http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2016/06/medieval-masterchef-by-catherine-hokin.html
I watched the original set a couple of years ago and found them extremely valuable. Sanderson is a smart guy who knows writing, and has an engaging lecturing style.
Originally shared by Brandon Sanderson
2016 Sanderson Lectures
All,
Several years back, grad student Scott Ashton asked me if he could record my BYU lectures and post them for an online curriculum as part of a project he was doing. I said yes, and it was never supposed to be “a thing,” not really. It was a student doing a project, and using my lectures as a way to explore online education.
Well, since that time, those lectures (which are collected at Scott’s site, which he called Write About Dragons) have been viewed tens of thousands of times, and become one of the big hallmarks of my web presence, at least as far as writing education goes. I’ve been blown away by the reception to them. At the same time, I’ve been keenly aware that the recording was subpar. This isn’t Scott’s fault—he actually did an excellent job, considering his background. But the lectures are at times difficult to hear, and the filming was handled on a single amateur camera.
For years, I’ve been wanting to do something better. And this year I had my chance. My good friend Earl is a semiprofessional filmmaker, and was looking for a new project. I pitched a better-recorded set of lectures, filmed this year in my class, and he jumped at the idea.
I’m extremely pleased with how these turned out. I think the lectures have evolved over time in ways you’ll find useful, and the filming is top-notch. (No promises about the jokes though.) We’ll be releasing these at a pace of around one a week, and it is my hope for them to replace the previous series as the “canonical” version of my writing lectures online.
So, it is with great pleasure that I give you the 2016 Sanderson Lectures, with thanks to Earl Cahill and his assistants for their camera work and editing. (Earl’s company, Camera Panda, gets a shout-out as well.)
I hope you find them useful!
Brandon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ZDBOc2tX8
Butler is amazing. As I’ve remarked before, saying that she wrote about race is like saying that Jane Austen wrote about gender roles.
Originally shared by Cheryl Martin
Today Octavia E. Butler would have been sixty-nine years old. The world lost an extraordinary voice far too soon, but—lucky for all us readers!—she left us with so many amazing books! So we’re celebrating Ms. Butler’s birthday today (June 22nd) by putting the ebook editions of six of her best works on sale in the U.S. for just $3.99 each:
Parable of the Sower: http://amzn.to/28LD1ST
Parable of the Talents: http://amzn.to/28OdvPU
Bloodchild: http://amzn.to/28SDUKX
Wild Seed: http://amzn.to/28SEc4w
Mind of My Mind: http://amzn.to/28NkFn6
Lilith’s Brood—a 3-book bundle: http://amzn.to/28LKqnn
And Seed to Harvest—a 4-book bundle—is just $7.99!
The examples are from older books, but the point is still valid.
Originally shared by Jim Hines
Nothing makes you look more foolish than misplacing a modifier.
Originally shared by Karen Conlin
Yes, it’s from the Chicago Manual of Style, but misplaced modifiers (danglers) aren’t style.
They’re grammar.
Here you go.
http://cmosshoptalk.com/2016/06/16/sections-5-112-13-in-the-spotlight/
This is further along than I expected – and it’s not vat meat. It’s a cleverly engineered burger made using plant materials that reproduce the textures, smells and tastes of meat.
Originally shared by David Brin
This veggie-burger looks, tastes and smells like beef — except it’s made entirely from plants. It sizzles on the grill and even browns and oozes fat when it cooks. This is of more than minor interest. If hundreds of millions can be weaned to much-lower meat use, it could save so much land and especially water, and provide so much nutrition that the balance may tip in our favor.
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A couple of good insights from this article about one of my favourite authors. Watch how he creates a believable character, off the cuff, in just a few sentences.
I was also struck by the “Hemingway device,” in which you remove something from the overt story but let its presence still influence what remains.
I think I’ll be getting the biography.
UBI is something I’m watching with interest as automation threatens jobs. I’m glad someone is doing some experiments to figure out exactly how it should work.
Via Samuel Smith. Biological and computer convergence is a trend to watch, definitely.
Originally shared by Corina Marinescu
Researchers create organic nanowire synaptic transistors that emulate the working principles of biological synapses
A team of researchers with the Pohang University of Science and Technology in Korea has created organic nanowire synaptic transistors that emulate the working principles of biological synapses. As they describe in their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the artificial synapses they have created use much smaller amounts of power than other devices developed thus far and rival that of their biological counterparts.
Scientists are taking multiple paths towards building next generation computers—some are fixated on finding a material to replace silicon, others are working towards building a quantum machine, while still others are busy trying to build something much more like the human mind. A hybrid system of sorts that has organic artificial parts meant to mimic those found in the brain. In this new effort, the team in Korea has reached a new milestone in creating an artificial synapse—one that has very nearly the same power requirements as those inside our skulls.
Up till now, artificial synapses have consumed far more power than human synapses, which researchers have calculated is on the order of 10 femtojoules each time a single one fires. The new synapse created by the team requires just 1.23 femtojoules per event—far lower than anything achieved thus far, and on par with their natural rival. Though it might seem the artificial creations are using less power, they do not perform the same functions just yet, so natural biology is still ahead. Plus there is the issue of transferring information from one neuron to another. The “wires” used by the human body are still much thinner than the metal kind still being used by scientists—still, researchers are gaining.
Source and further reading:
http://techxplore.com/news/2016-06-nanowire-synaptic-transistors-emulate-principles.html
Paper:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/6/e1501326
Image: Schematic of biological neuronal network and an ONW ST that emulates a biological synapse.
Credit: Science Advances (2016)
#nanotechnology #artificialEPSC #research