It’s a universal fantasy, isn’t it?—that the animals learn to speak, and at last we learn what they’re thinking, our cats and dogs and horses: a new era in cross-species understanding. But nothing ever works out quite as we imagine. When the Change happened, it affected all the mammals we have shaped to meet our own needs. They all could talk a little, and they all could frame their thoughts well enough to talk. Cattle, horses, goats, llamas; rats, too. Pigs. Minks. And dogs and cats. And we found that, really, we prefer our slaves mute.

I seem to read online more, lately. Here’s short speculative story that takes a great premise and follows from it, based on the author’s ideas of human nature. Now this one is right up my alley, around science fiction and myth, and with a dash of my favorite mythical topic at that, the trickster idea (i own the anthology this is from).

It is also a story that really made me sad - because i totally bought into where she went. I fear people would be like that… It really made me pause.

It is a delightful story available for free - Enjoy! http://www.kijjohnson.com/evolution.html

This is another one that will challenge and sometimes make your brain hurt.

Over the last several decades, new research has changed science’s picture of how we succeed or fail to seek the truth.  The heuristics and biases program, in cognitive psychology, has exposed dozens of major flaws in human reasoning.  Microeconomics, through the power of statistics, has shown that many facets of society don’t work the way we thought.
Overcoming Bias aims to bring the implications home.

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This is an absolute treat, I read the teasers and the first episode and enjoyed it a lot. I would not have heard about it except I read the blogs of several authors I enjoy, and some of the authors involved happen to be on my list - they then pointed me to the others and they have all been talking about this.

It’s also the product of a childhood imagination pastime being reinvented by the author the child has become.

So I thought I’d check it out. Could have been self indulgence, but so far it’s good

What is it? A donation supported episodic fiction - let me quote:

The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts humanity’s nightmares. But there are nightmares humanity doesn’t dream are real.
The Behavioral Analysis Unit sends those cases down the hall.
Welcome to Shadow Unit.

Nice teaser, eh?

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http://theroadtothehorizon.blogspot.com/

This is the site of someone who left his engineering job to join the UNHCR. The stories on the site give you a different perspective on life and issues - geopolitics, the dignity of people, what people can do - but also lots of anecdotes and funny/dramatic stories.

some posts to give you an idea if you’ll like this or not

introduction: how it started
deserted island story
deportation from the us
current topic food crisis

I think this site also drove it home to me what people can do in all sorts of places, and indirectly he sparked this UNESCO idea nagging me in the back of my mind, which is that as a scientist, technology expert, small business leader and feminist, and someone who is always harping about the wonder of people and cultures of all kind… I really ought to put my skills to use for an organisation like this. How to get about it is another matter…

Anyway, enough about me, go check that site :D

As readers of this place probably know by now, originality is something I rate very highly. As a result I am often looking at independent games for new ideas, new twists, people worth supporting.

Here are a few good places

game tunnel - reviews and industry watch for indie games http://gametunnel.com/

out of eight - highly personal reviews with an eye for indie games http://jaguarusf.blogspot.com/

gamersinfo.net - reviews which cover casual and indie game, by “normal” people http://www.gamersinfo.net/index.php?cat/cid:8

mad monkey - announcements, mostly http://www.madmonkey.net/page.cgi/index

There are a few more I’ll add later, mostly blogs of people from Warren Spector to Raph Koster, plus a few more news sites and some academic/research/thinking about games. And some boardgame sites, because it is gaming too.

I dont know why it interests me so much for something I chose not to make my career in, but it does

I won’t list the purely technical or business websites I read for work

Read for thought and inspiration

* Edge http://www.edge.org/ - science and thinking, often away from the mainstream

* The Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/ - Myth and folklore is one of my fields of interest and this site covers all forms of art and research around the topic.

* overcoming bias http://www.overcomingbias.com/ - about the many forms of bias in psychology, science, business, debate, research etc etc etc.

* the road to the horizon http://theroadtothehorizon.blogspot.com/ - the journal of an aid worker

* Schneier on Security http://www.schneier.com/blog/

* donation coder http://www.donationcoder.com/ - around donationware, shareware, freeware - a nice community of developers and users who like to try, use, review and create software. Friendly community with a system of microdonations for contributors of software or review or anything else.

A few community sites I actually hang around and use - although some I only found recently so not sure how long I will use them (updated March 25)

LibraryThing.com - i tried shelfari and although it looks pretty it just didn’t click - i started adding a few books but it made it slower than practical, and it didn’t really seem to be aimed at the book lover. I had been hearing about librarything via some blogs i read, so i figured I’d try that to compare. Before I knew it i had 500 books listed, by just adding a few books from 5 authors then and adding all the ones I own which popped up in the related items. I even have ordered the little barcode scanner to add the boxes of books reliably. http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=iphigenie

LT is accessible via mobiles and has saved me from buying duplicates a few times already

Via LT I found the following websites:
What’s that book? http://www.whatsthatbook.com/ - a cool little “help me identify this book” forum

book swapping http://bookmooch.com/. I have sent over 100 books now via bookmooch already, and requested almost as many.

One thing I must say though is that I have signed up on a lot of those slick looking social websites and barely used their functions - usually the site is too superficial, too complicated, or the content and community is not compelling enough to make me participate. Just didn’t suit me. Still, these are good sites which might suit someone with a different personality:

zoho - used for… 2-3 times - http://zoho.com - awesome online applications but i just don’t seem to end up using them. Just like a dozen online pims, planners etc. before them. The zoho notebook app looks awesone though, will try it once it’s available.

Hiveminder - used for… 1 month or so? - http://hiveminder.com - a nice todo manager with a few clever ideas, similar in this to stikkit and sandy. But alas no such site has managed to be useful enough for me to stick with it over paper or desktop solutions. I dont know why.

blink list - used for… 1 month or so? - http://www.blinklist.com/ - one of those bookmarking sites but for some reason I actually used that - imported my old bookmarks and added some new ones. (not as nice as a “snapshot” system but none of those seem to work with opera although I have some hopes for plumb, which is in development). http://www.blinklist.com/zenaide/

wordie - used for… 1 month or so? - i’m at http://wordie.org/people/azzurre - word collecting. Pointless but fun and poetic. Havent gone back in ages, might just go back now and then for the poetic aspect

stikkit.com - used for over a month - sticky notes with a difference: a smart engine that analyses the content of the notes and automatically generates todo items, events, contact details etc. Brilliant. Also works via email and even instant messenging thanks to imified. Just read the following blog entry to get an idea http://www.43folders.com/2007/02/07/stikkit-introduction/ I almost used it for a while, then it fell on the wayside

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