CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-23 01:19:26 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Writing Shaun:

From a space opera/military SF novel I'm writing (warning:  foul language, because that's how I roll)(I also haven't named one of my characters yet, so you'll see ... here to mark where his name appears.  I'm not sure what I'm going to name that guy yet...)(post a snippet from your WIP below):

“Are you fucking insane?  You know as well I do that coordinating 800,000 ships scattered across six hundred different jump points is a disaster waiting to happen.  Not from those distances.”

Camden narrowed his eyes as if in challenge.  “Don’t lecture me.  I’ve been at this longer than you, Orion.”  He was probably out of order, using the man’s callsign after all these years.  Fifty years and one dead family later.

“Oh-ho-ho.  No, Camden.  You’re getting a fucking lecture, because you need it.  Rememberwhen the Republic used to ru... more »

2013-05-21 22:09:09 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

Religious Shaun:

This makes me giggle.

2013-05-21 15:15:48 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Tearing-up Shaun:

This.

2013-05-20 15:31:53 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Religious Shaun:

When you ask certain (read:  fundamentalist) religious people why they can believe their omniscient/omnibenevolent "god" is moral and just while millions of innocents die every year under his watch, it is amusing to see how they respond.  Frequently, you'll see variations of pseudophilosophy, pseudologic, and attempts to divert the burden of proof to whoever has challenged the dominant paradigm (despite the fact that the burden of proof is always already on the religious, as their fundamental acceptance of a god's existence has never been objectively verified).

I'm not one for joining the New Atheist camp, but Sam Harris has a point when he says that if one accepts that God is omniscient and omnibenevolent, then that must mean He is either incapable of altering the events of his own universe, or He simply doesn't care to do so.  Since mostCh... more »

2013-05-20 11:00:35 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Annoyed Shaun:

I find it rather annoying when people who have made an extraordinary claim demand that I accept the validity of that claim because it is my job to prove it isn't true.  It shows a profound ignorance of how "burden of proof" works and it is intellectually dishonest to the extreme.  If you have no objective evidence to validate your claim, it is on you to provide that evidence before anyone else has to take it seriously.  I don't have to do anything.

2013-05-19 16:16:01 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Political Shaun:

I'd say I was surprised by the thing in this post, but I'm not.  These stories are a reminder of why our 1st Amendment rights are so important.  If these people had free reign, we'd live in a very different country and a very different world.  And it would not be a better one...

2013-05-19 15:11:17 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Podcast and Movie Shaun:

+Paul Weimer and +Jay Garmon joined me for this Shoot the WISB segment to discuss Star Trek Into Darkness.  If you've seen the film and want to know what we thought, go DL the episode and have a listen.  If you haven't, then listen at your own risk (:P).

2013-05-19 14:30:10 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Nature Shaun:

Admit it -- this is really cool!  I wonder if any critters live in there, and what their lives are like...

2013-05-19 14:21:45 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Science Fiction and Fantasy Shaun:

...in which I obviously briefly discuss the winners of the 2012 Nebula Awards.  Do with this information what you will.

2013-05-18 23:51:25 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Science Fiction and Movie Shaun:

Thought you'd all like to know that I saw Star Trek Into Darkness today.  I pretty much hated the first Abrams film, but this one is miles better than the last.  There are still some pacing issues (and a few nostalgic things that I think could have been done better -- on in particular felt more like a dishonest attempt at referencing a famous ST movie scene to please Trekkies), but overall, I quite enjoyed it.  I'd give it probably a solid B+ now that I've had a bit of distance.  If you liked the previous Trek film, you'll probably love this one.  If you like high-octane action SF w/ a side of character development (in other words, not Transformers), then you'll also like this film.  Definitely worth seeing.

2013-05-18 16:16:31 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Music Shaun:

This is both one of the most awful and hilarious things ever to come out of Israel.

2013-05-17 01:44:58 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Political Shaun:

In other words, the Republicans pushing this line of inquiry are liars.  And that's not a matter of opinion.  They deliberately altered quotes from the emails and released them to the public.  Not just altered, but changed the language significantly so that those quotes said something completely different.

Hopefully this is the end of all this Benghazi bullshit.  I get it.  Some Republicans really want this to be the Watergate of our generation, but the reality is that sometimes really awful shit happens and it wasn't really anyone's fault.  That some people died shouldn't be ignored, but let's not turn this into a political battle drawn forth from a steaming pile of bullshit.

2013-05-16 16:03:31 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Another post from +Josh Vogt over on +SF Signal 

2013-05-16 15:57:58 (18 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Comics and Political Shaun:

A re-post from the other day -- my take on the "Michael B. Jordan can't be the Human Torch 'cause he's black" fiasco.

There's also an interesting discussion in the comments about what constitutes a valid complaint about a source change that might be worth contributing to (if you care about such things, of course).

2013-05-16 14:36:40 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2013-05-16 14:28:09 (15 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Thinking Shaun:

The one thing I do like about the new layout is that it doesn't overload Chrome by constantly updating the page.  I had the problem where Google+ would get stuck on one spot in the stream, so all the new stuff would pile on top.  I would constantly have to refresh the page to use anything because there would be so many posts/images/etc loaded.  With the "new" button, I don't get that problem anymore.

I still don't like this double column thing, though...

2013-05-16 13:24:09 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Annoying Shaun x2:

This pisses me off.  She takes the brave step of publicly discussing her mastectomy (and breast cancer) and Twitter shits all over her.

It's disgusting...

2013-05-16 12:54:11 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Annoyed Shaun:

What in Sam hell is this new Google+ layout?

2013-05-15 20:33:19 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Political Shaun:

OK, so apparently Michele Bachmann thinks that the IRS is somehow going to put a little checkmark on the paperwork for healthcare that determines whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, and that the IRS will then use that information to kill Republicans.  No, I'm not kidding.  She thinks this is entirely plausible.

I don't even know what universe this person lives in.  It's not my universe.  It's not most of America's universe.  I'm not even sure it's the same universe where microbial life came into existence and evolved into humans over millions and millions of years.  She must exist in a magic Michele Bachmann land, where batshittery grows on trees like candy in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, and where the seas are raging tides of saliva laced with acid, from which the mighty Bachmannian people drink until they go mad withparan... more »

2013-05-15 02:37:15 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 1 +1s)

Political Shaun:

This is what injustice looks like.  Spread the word.

2013-05-15 02:14:38 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

The moment at which my skeptical glasses went on over this story occurred when someone on +PBS NewsHour explained the rules for qualifying for 501(c)(4) status.  One of those rules requires that your organization cannot engage primarily in political activity (50% or more), such as working with politicians, etc. etc. etc.  While the IRS bungled how they approached the various Tea Party groups requesting 501(c)(4) status (and someone probably should lose their job, if not a bunch of people), that doesn't mean that the flagging of "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in applications was wrong.  I think it would be very difficult to prove that a group calling itself "Tea Party X" or "Liberal Z" does not engage in political activity, and the Catch-22 here is that part of knowing whether that's true is knowing where said group receives its money(an... more »

2013-05-14 19:15:07 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Political Shaun:

sigh

2013-05-14 02:34:11 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Writing Shaun:

From a WIP:

"Their limbs were everywhere.  Reaching around her arms, between her legs, over her chest, and there was even a finger jammed precariously at the tip of her nostril.  How she had ended up in the midst of so many dead bodies would never be a mystery for her.  She knew exactly what she had done, and she would burn in a basket of dead superheroes for it."

Share random stuff from yours in the comments.

2013-05-14 01:32:08 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Comics and Movie Shaun:

...in which I talk about the imagined controversy over Michael B. Jordan's possibly casting as the Human Torch in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie.

2013-05-14 01:18:12 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Political Shaun:

How the frick did I miss this?  Despite all the awful garbage happening in the country right now, the state-after-state legalization of marriage equality has really made me feel good inside.

I see stuff like this and it gives me hope that the future might be a better place after all.  Just a little glimmer.  And that keeps going in this world of craziness.

2013-05-13 22:23:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

Ignore the link bait in the quote.  They put that there to deliberately grab your attention.  Brady doesn't actually threaten Bill Maher.  In fact, what he says is quite eloquent, with a side of humor (minus one rather sexist comment that Brady might have meant as a joke, but which sort of undermines his argument).

Ultimately, it comes to this:  there is no singular "black experience."  There is no such thing as a "proper black person."  There are only black people.  They may have similar shared experiences and so on, but there are Wayne Brady's and Michael Jordan's and Will Smith's and gangsters and drug addicts and preachers and businessmen and hardware store guys and restaurateurs and pilots and so on and so forth.  So when Bill Maher uses a stereotype even for the use of a joke, his words have a real impact.  Thatdoesn'... more »

2013-05-13 01:35:25 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Political Shaun:

Have fun with this, everyone.  I'm going to bed...

2013-05-11 17:21:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Movie Shaun:

...in which I finally get to my review of Iron Man 3.  I think there's a lot of stuff I could have talked about here, but I figure this mini-essay is more than enough.

Short version:  go see it if you haven't already.

2013-05-11 01:37:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Comic Book and Nostalgia Shaun:

I still have my copy of Captain Canuck #11 from 1980 (no, I wasn't alive when it came out...).  And while the comics have been hit or miss since (the 2004 Captain Canuck is bloody awful), the idea that we might get a Captain Canuck TV show is freaking amazing.

Please help make this happen!  Spread the word!

2013-05-11 00:56:03 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Nostalgia Shaun:

I just learned that an obscure comic book I read as a kid was turned into an RPG!  Pen and paper!  I'm going to see if I can convince people to play it at Worldcon this year.  This is totally awesome!

2013-05-10 23:14:58 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Comic Book Shaun:

...in which I tell everyone what I got at the comic shop yesterday!

2013-05-10 22:02:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Research Shaun:

...in which I ask for some recommendations on a touchy topic.

2013-05-10 17:12:58 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Political and School Shaun:

Actually, I think you're asking the wrong question, +Elizabeth Warren.  While I do think lowering the student loan rate will help make college more affordable, I think there is something implicitly wrong with a university system that is so prohibitively expensive that the supposed "great American minds" we send there must go into massive debt just to get an education.  A nation which values higher education would make university-level education free to qualified individuals.  Instead, we've turned universities into corporations, students into customers, and teachers into McDonald's-like employees.  

On top of that, many universities are in a strangle hold with the contradictory interests of athletics.  Don't get me wrong.  I like a good football game.  I like seeing the women's soccer team at my university lay thesmackd... more »

2013-05-10 17:02:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Political Shaun:

Are any of us surprised that something like this happened at the IRS?  I mostly shrugged when I read this, because it's about what I expect.  Not for political reasons, mind you, but because I'm like most people:  I hate the IRS.

That said, there is something particularly douchey about targeting groups because they list "tea party" and related terms in their requests for tax exempt status.  While I have no love for the Tea Party or any of its related groups (obviously), this news reflects quite poorly in particular on the IRS, but more specifically for the government in general.  I'm glad they apologized, but there really needs to be a mechanism in place to ferret this kind of behavior out...

2013-05-09 20:40:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Political Shaun:

"Cordero and Tejeda said they aren't jealous of the attention Ramsey has received."

Bullshit.  If you weren't jealous of the attention Ramsey has thus far received, you wouldn't have said a fucking thing.

That said, there is no reasonable evidence to suggest that either of these other people were the ones who did the freeing.  At least, not yet.  So far, it's just a claim, and the only one who can 100% clear this up is Berry herself.

However, since it was Ramsey who called 911 and the police and Berry have yet to contradict Ramsey's story, you'll excuse me if I take everything this guy says with a grain of salt.  Until better evidence than this man's I'm-not-jealous-but-I-deserve-the-credit remarks arises, I'll continue to accept that Ramsey did the saving.

On a related note, there'sthi... more »

2013-05-09 04:33:41 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Political Shaun:

And so I have once again found perfect evidence for why people who think in black and white are, if you'll pardon my bluntness, narrow-minded and intellectually stunted.

In the days following Charles Ramsey's now-famous explanation of his heroic deed in rescuing those young girls, some media folks reported his checkered past of domestic abuse, etc.  What this tells us is that heroes are not Superman.  They aren't perfect beings who do not make mistakes.  Sometimes, our heroes have done terrible things too (maybe not so terrible as other folks, but still).

It also reminds us that there is no such thing as black and white morality.  It is just as appropriate to applaud Ramsey's efforts as it is to condemn his past exploits (at the time -- I'm not sure if any of us know enough about Ramsey to continue to condemn him, as people do change,etc... more »

2013-05-08 16:22:02 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Comics Shaun:

This.  Go and leave a comment with your suggestions, or I will cry.

2013-05-08 14:34:50 (14 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

You've got to be fucking kidding me. http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836#.UYm1VSvErcS

2013-05-08 04:40:38 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

Read it.  If your soul doesn't die a little halfway through, then I don't know what is wrong with you...

2013-05-08 02:30:08 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

So let's get this straight.  A guy lies about where he is, sneaks off to another country while in office, misuses government funds to do so, and spends that time playing hide the sausage with his mistress.

And South Carolina's 1st District re-elected him.

Pretty much tells you everything you need to know about that particular district.  When the people there start bitching about government spending, I will kindly point them to the representative they put in office and say "please notice the lack of fucks I give."

2013-05-08 02:18:47 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Geek Shaun:

This is so much awesome.

2013-05-08 02:13:58 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Blogger Shaun:

Are there any Blogger experts out there?  I've noticed that there is this new feature that lets you integrate Google+ w/ blogger so that your comment sections will have direct comments and G+ comments.  The problem is that I can't seem to figure out how to make it so both the G+ and direct comments are threaded (w/ reply buttons).  Only the G+ comments have that.

Has anyone else had this problem or know what is going on?  I've included a sample webpage in case you wanted to see what I'm talking about.

I'd like to have both comment types to have the reply function.  If I can't manage that, then at least I'd like to figure out how to get the reply function for regular comments.  So far, that doesn't exist.

2013-05-07 21:48:51 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Book Shaun:

Tor just sent me a copy of this book, which drops on the 14th.  The minimalist cover and the blurb by Jo Walton have me intrigued, to say the least.  It's also a very different novel from the kinds of things that usually get sent to me -- minimalist on its genre elements and more a story of trauma than anything else (at least, that's my impression).

Should be interesting.

Have you gotten any new books today?

2013-05-07 21:20:23 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

I'm told through the HRC network that Delaware just passed marriage equality (the governor just has to sign it, which he said he would).  I can't confirm this elsewhere (none of the other news networks are on top of it just yet).

So, yay!  11 states!

2013-05-07 21:00:39 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Political Shaun:

Umm...what? I don't even know what to do with this information. It's like peering into an alternate universe where language stops having meaning and we're all forced to wander around aimlessly spitting on one another in an attempt to communicate through spit-oriented Morse code...

WTFery of the day, I guess.

2013-05-07 17:19:36 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

To all the Republicans out there (I know a few of you follow me):

If your party is truly the part of liberty, yadda yadda, it is incumbent upon you to speak out when your representatives actively attempt to restrict or suppress the vote for the young and for minorities.  The reason you keep losing these demographics isn't because those people are lazy, stupid, or whatever.  You're losing them because your party's message is antithetical to the message of the nation.

You cannot say you are the party of freedom while in the same breath try to kick eligible voters off the lists, force women to receive medical procedures they don't need (many of which are invasive), demand that immigrants GTFO, laugh in the face of the parents whose children have died because of gun violence, spit on LGBT people, and on and on and on.  I get that a goodpo... more »

2013-05-07 15:38:38 (13 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Technology Shaun:

Does anyone own a tablet (or, more specifically, the ASUS Transformer)?  I'm curious about individual experiences with various tablets as I am considering getting one for reading comics.  The ASUS Transformer has my interest because it seems pretty good, apparently has access to a lot of apps through Android, and allows you to connect it to a keyboard.  But maybe there are other options out there.

So tell me about your experiences.  If you read comics on a tablet, even better.

2013-05-07 15:36:37 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

"“I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about abstinence,” Smart told the panel. “And she said, ‘Imagine you’re a stick of gum. When you engage in sex, that’s like getting chewed. And if you do that lots of times, you’re going to become an old piece of gum, and who is going to want you after that?’ Well, that’s terrible. No one should ever say that. But for me, I thought, ‘I’m that chewed-up piece of gum.’ Nobody re-chews a piece of gum. You throw it away. And that’s how easy it is to feel you no longer have worth. Your life no longer has value.”"

Of all the things you could say to a young girl, why the fuck would you tell her this?  Abstinence education...I can't wait to have daughters and sons.  They'll get an education they damn well deserve...

2013-05-07 15:26:26 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Political Shaun:

I'd take the new President of the NRA seriously if he had been saying the exact same things about tyranny and yadda yadda when George W. Bush was president.  But, of course, he didn't seem to have much problem with the Patriot Act, which took more rights from him than any single thing Barack Obama has done.

But, of course, when you search for that very thing, he's suspiciously quiet on all the other instances when the government, from his worldview, stepped over the line.

This isn't about "tyranny" any more than it's about cupcakes.  Dare I say what it's really about?

2013-05-07 14:01:33 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Questionable Shaun:

Random thing:  do any of you know if any serial killers wrote fiction (novels or short stories -- maybe poetry)?  I've been watching The Following, which has a huge narrativity component, and I'm curious...