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MonthSeptember 2008

The Query Project

September 13, 2008 /

In a follow-up to the Plot Synopsis Project, author Joshua Palmatier has put together the Query Project, in which a group of authors post and discuss actual query letters that got them an agent or an editor.

“Hey, all! A while ago, when I ran the Plot Synopsis Project, it was suggested that I also do a Query Project. I didn’t have the time then to organize it, but I’ve put something together now. What you’ll find here (from me) is an old post that I’ve reposted with some changes, mainly dealing with the actual paragraph pitch that I included. In the first posting of this, I made a pitch up on the fly, and it sucked. This time, I put in the pitch I actually used in the queries I sent out to agents and editors regarding that particular book. I’ve also tweaked some sentences and whatnot since the original post.

So, here’s my advice on how to write a query and what it should include. At the end of the post, there are links to a bunch of other authors who’ve agreed to post one of their own queries (one that netted them an agent or editor) along with comments about queries in general. Some of the authors participating never used queries, and they’ll explain how they got published without them, or why they didn’t need them. But most of us used queries to catch someone’s attention. As always, this is just our experiences and our advice, which may or may not be the best advice out there. Use your own judgment after considering what we’ve all had to say. And good luck with your own agent/editor hunt!”

(via Joshua Palmatier’s blog)

(Thanks Smoking Pigeon!)

World’s Largest-ever Study Of Near-Death Experiences

September 11, 2008 /

“The University of Southampton is launching the world’s largest-ever study of near-death experiences this week. The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study is to be launched by the Human Consciousness Project of the University of Southampton – an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death.

The study is led by Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field of consciousness during clinical death, together with Dr Peter Fenwick and Professors Stephen Holgate and Robert Peveler of the University of Southampton. Following a successful 18-month pilot phase at selected hospitals in the UK, the study is now being expanded to include other centres within the UK, mainland Europe and North America. “Contrary to popular perception,” Dr Parnia explains, “death is not a specific moment. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning – a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.”

(via Science Daily)

WM3 Denied New Trial Despite DNA Evidence That Could Clear Them

September 11, 2008 /

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“A judge on Wednesday rejected claims that DNA evidence clears three men convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in 1993 and denied their requests for a new trial. Lawyers for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley – known to supporters as the ‘West Memphis Three’ – had argued that new DNA tests would prove their clients’ innocence.

Both Baldwin and Misskelley claimed their lawyers failed to adequately represent them during trial. Their lawyers said DNA evidence provided by Echols’ defense team showed that the men did not kill Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. ‘The court finds that (Echols’s) DNA-testing results are inconclusive because they do not raise a reasonable probability that he did not commit the offenses; that is, they are inconclusive as to his claim of actual innocence,’ Circuit Court Judge David wrote in a 10-page order denying the men’s requests for a new trial.”

(via Precious Metal)

(Related: “Updates on The West Memphis 3 Case”)

Dramatic Surge in Support for Whistleblower Rights

September 11, 2008 /

“Today, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) announced that seventy new organizations from across the United States have joined a June petition calling on Congress to enact sweeping new whistleblower rights for government employees. The groups are calling on Congress to finish the job before adjourning for the upcoming elections. Both chambers have approved legislation to revive the discredited Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA), but efforts to reconcile the different versions have stalled.

Tom Devine, Legal Director of GAP, which helps coordinate whistleblower rights advocacy for the 182 groups now supporting the legislation, explained, ‘Groups demanding reform have increased by over 60% in a week of outreach since Labor Day. Our goal is credible free speech rights enforceable through jury trials for all employees paid by the taxpayers. Government employees need the same free speech rights that Congress has passed three times since 2006 for corporate workers in various sectors. This should not be controversial.’

Until Congress acts, the current law will remain a trap that rubber stamps almost any retaliation government whistleblowers challenge. The administrative board where employees receive a ‘day in court’ only has conceded illegal retaliation against government whistleblowers in two cases during the entire seven and a half years of the Bush administration (the board has found against whistleblowers 55 times). Ironically, this has made a so-called good government law the best reason for those witnessing fraud, waste or abuse to remain silent observers, instead of blowing the whistle.”

(via GAP)

Large Hadron Collider “Actually Worked”

September 11, 2008 /

The world’s largest atom smasher’s first experiment went off today without a hitch, paving the way toward the recreation of post-big bang conditions.

The Large Hadron Collider fired a beam of protons inside a circular, 17-mile (27-kilometer) long tunnel underneath villages and cow pastures at the French-Swiss border.

Inside the control room, physicists and engineers cautiously shot the beam down part of the tunnel, stopping it before it went all the way around.

“Oh, we made it through!” one person cried as the beam made it through a further section of the tunnel.

One hour after starting up, on the first attempt to send the beam circling all the way around the tunnel, it completed the trip successfully-bringing raucous applause.

“First of all, I didn’t believe it,” said Verena Kain, a European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) engineer.

“I had to see it a second time, and I thought, Oh, wow, it actually worked!”

“Things can go wrong at any time, but luckily this morning everything went smoothly,” said Lyn Evans of CERN, who oversaw the building of the accelerator.

Full Story: National Geographic

Preview of EEG music interface Machine-Man-Drum and Phillip K Nixon will use at Esozone

September 11, 2008 /

Elements of the Machine-Man-Drum and Phillip K Nixon Egregiorian factions have merged to bring about an uncompromising auditory assault. These agent/operators will build and present “YOU ARE GOD, GUARD YOUR MIND” – an interactive ritual based on building a synthetic Godhead out of the participatory audience by firing off arrays of lightwave & audio sigils in a stream of auto-gnosis generation via remote interfacing with the biological specimens on hand during this ritual/projection of PKN hyperstition & MMD Temple constructs into 11th dimensional reality structures and programs. They’ll be combining cutting edge technomantic tools like EEG sensory, Radionic Tonality, MIDI utilizing Local Area Networks, and more traditional memes such as Cutups, Noise, and Circuit Bending — Be Aware: this archetypal form sampling will emit reality reshaping radiation fields.

Ikipr (of Machine-Man-Drum) writes:

EEG Driven audio assaults the Godhead/Participant, tempering and strengthening his fortitude and divinity. This is achieved through the feedback loop interaction of the user and the expansive multilayered software backbone. Sorry if I look uninteresting/uninterested in this video, I am busy making minor tweaks to it’s mixing for performance. Due to the somewhat random nature of the software algorithms and the use of EEG as a control interface, the song pretty much does what it wants off of your brainwave data.

Aleph 9

Philip K Nixon

Religious body piercing in India

September 10, 2008 /

Large Hadron Collider comes online, world fails to end

September 10, 2008 /

The fact that I’m sitting here writing this and you’re sitting there reading it means that fears regarding the Large Hadron Colider (LHC) and the end of the world were a bit overblown. At 10:33 AM CET this morning, the first proton beam successfully completed a circuit of the entire LHC.

The LHC is the latest example of ‘Big Science,’ a multinational collaboration involving thousands of scientists from over 60 different nations. The largest particle accelerator ever built, scientists hope that data gathered from the LHC will nail down the existence of the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that is theorized to be responsible the existence of mass.

Full Story: Ars Technica

If you’re still worried, you can keep tabs on the LHC with the Large Hadron Collider webcams at CERN.

Or, if that’s too much trouble, just keep checking hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com

(Thanks to Bill Whitcomb for that last one)

Banned Books and the Election

September 8, 2008 /

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There’s a bogus list of books that Palin wanted banned making the rounds on the internet these past few days. In reality the books listed were taken from a site listing books that were once banned in the United States. And while the list is clearly disinformation at its finest, it at least brings attention to the fact that Palin attempted to fire a librarian after inquiring into banning some books from the library. According to Anne Kilkenny who has known Palin since ’92:

‘While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.’

This poses a threat to the liberty of writers, book lovers, publishers, and libraries everywhere in the country. This means that it’s extremely important to put additional emphasis on this year’s ‘Banned Books Week-Celebrating the Freedom to Read’ (Sept. 27-Oct. 4). Spread the word…

How Verbal Self-Defense Works

September 8, 2008 /

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“Lots of people think verbal self-defense means fighting back. Their image of verbal self-defense is a collection of killer smart cracks plus strategies for using language to wipe the floor with their opponents. It’s not an accurate image. In this edition of How Stuff Works, I’d like to show you a different way to relate to other people, especially when you disagree. Let’s talk about it a minute.

Why Verbal Self-Defense is a Skill We Need:

It has undoubtedly happened to you. There you are, in the middle of a fierce argument with someone, and suddenly you realize that you not only don’t particularly care about the subject of the argument but you can’t understand how you got into the altercation in the first place! This isn’t trivial. Hostile language is dangerous to your health and well-being; it’s toxic stuff. People who are frequently exposed to hostile language get sick more often, are injured more often, take longer to recover from illness and injury, and suffer more complications during recovery. As an obvious result, they tend to die sooner than those not so exposed. What’s more, hostile language is just as dangerous to the person dishing it out (and to innocent bystanders who can’t leave the scene) as it is to the person on the receiving end.

Obviously it’s to your advantage to stay out of arguments in both your personal and your professional life, unless something truly important — something about which you care profoundly — is at stake. Even then, most of us are aware that it’s possible to have intense discussions that don’t turn into altercations. How is it, then, that intelligent people keep finding themselves involved in arguments almost by accident?”

(via How Stuff Works)

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