LiveJournal is educational

Thanks to a question by polyfrog, leading to a Wikipedia article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/declarations_of_war_in_the_united_states>, I now know when the peace treaty ending World War II was signed. It's officially the "Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany," and may be the last significant thing the German Democratic Republic ever did. The treaty was signed in Moscow in September 1990, a few weeks before the reunification of Germany.

I also found myself wondering why, after a few dozen members of Congress voted against war with Germany in early 1914, only Jeanette Rankin voted against war with Austria-Hungary a few months later. Also why she voted against war with Japan in 1941, but not against war with Germany three days later. The Wikipedia article doesn't list who voted how, so I'm guessing she abstained rather than voting in favor. (Rankin served exactly two terms in Congress; one beginning in 1917, the other beginning in 1941.)

No, this has little to do with anything, except for my general desire to know about everything. I'm already working on it, hence the digression about Rep. Rankin, not mentioned in any of what I read tonight.

LiveJournal is educational

Thanks to a question by polyfrog, leading to a Wikipedia article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/declarations_of_war_in_the_united_states>, I now know when the peace treaty ending World War II was signed. It's officially the "Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany," and may be the last significant thing the German Democratic Republic ever did. The treaty was signed in Moscow in September 1990, a few weeks before the reunification of Germany.

I also found myself wondering why, after a few dozen members of Congress voted against war with Germany in early 1914, only Jeanette Rankin voted against war with Austria-Hungary a few months later. Also why she voted against war with Japan in 1941, but not against war with Germany three days later. The Wikipedia article doesn't list who voted how, so I'm guessing she abstained rather than voting in favor. (Rankin served exactly two terms in Congress; one beginning in 1917, the other beginning in 1941.)

No, this has little to do with anything, except for my general desire to know about everything. I'm already working on it, hence the digression about Rep. Rankin, not mentioned in any of what I read tonight.

Another gym post

This is the first gym post in a week because I didn't go to the gym on Tuesday.

The locker room I normally use is still closed for renovations. On a whim, I stepped on the scale on the way to the shower after exercising (wearing only shorts and sports bra). 183 pounds. I don't think I've lost ten pounds without noticing; I wonder what my shoes weigh. Five percent of body weight isn't a large enough "unexplained weight loss" to mention to a doctor, is it?

( the workout itself, also in numbers )

Another gym post

This is the first gym post in a week because I didn't go to the gym on Tuesday.

The locker room I normally use is still closed for renovations. On a whim, I stepped on the scale on the way to the shower after exercising (wearing only shorts and sports bra). 183 pounds. I don't think I've lost ten pounds without noticing; I wonder what my shoes weigh. Five percent of body weight isn't a large enough "unexplained weight loss" to mention to a doctor, is it?

( the workout itself, also in numbers )

Chestnuts!

There's a stand of young American chestnuts on a ridge in Georgia.

"There's something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight," said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. "It's either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance."

Experts say it could be that the chestnuts have less competition from other trees along the dry, rocky ridge. The fungus that causes the blight thrives in a moist environment.

The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old, and is believed to be the southernmost American chestnut discovered so far that is capable of flowering and producing nuts.

The American Chestnut Foundation hopes to breed these trees into its existing project of crossing the very few known surviving American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts to produce blight resistance, and then back-crossing to get as close to a pure American chestnut as possible.

Chestnuts!

There's a stand of young American chestnuts on a ridge in Georgia.

"There's something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight," said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. "It's either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance."

Experts say it could be that the chestnuts have less competition from other trees along the dry, rocky ridge. The fungus that causes the blight thrives in a moist environment.

The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old, and is believed to be the southernmost American chestnut discovered so far that is capable of flowering and producing nuts.

The American Chestnut Foundation hopes to breed these trees into its existing project of crossing the very few known surviving American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts to produce blight resistance, and then back-crossing to get as close to a pure American chestnut as possible.

Tiptree Award

There's some kerfuffle about the latest Tiptree long list. This led me to try hunting down the long list for my own year.

I have emailed the contact address for the Tiptree Award Website, asking what it will take to get this information put on the Website. It didn't work last time, but I am undaunted. (I cc'd wild_irises, again, but I assume she's got more urgent things on her plate, this close to Wiscon.)

I'm not taking it personally: several other years' long lists are also omitted.

I have the information for my own year, because I archive my email. But people who weren't on the jury should be able to find it: our purpose is to call people's attention to works that deserve it.

Tiptree Award

There's some kerfuffle about the latest Tiptree long list. This led me to try hunting down the long list for my own year.

I have emailed the contact address for the Tiptree Award Website, asking what it will take to get this information put on the Website. It didn't work last time, but I am undaunted. (I cc'd wild_irises, again, but I assume she's got more urgent things on her plate, this close to Wiscon.)

I'm not taking it personally: several other years' long lists are also omitted.

I have the information for my own year, because I archive my email. But people who weren't on the jury should be able to find it: our purpose is to call people's attention to works that deserve it.

Tiptree Award 2003 longlist

The kerfuffle I mentioned in my previous post was sparked by a fanfic being long-listed for the award this year. One of the odder assertions was that putting a "bad" work (whatever that means--I haven't read it, so have no opinion on its quality) somehow will make people take the award less seriously, or respect it less. And I'm wondering how many of the following works people who are worrying about that have read, and whether they read any of them because they were long-listed:

• The Salt Roads, Nalo Hopkinson


• The Braided World


• "The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet"


• The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein


• "Walking Contradiction"


• "Under the Lunchbox Tree"


• "Bernardo's House"


• "Poor Man's Wife"


• Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton


• Fitcher's Brides, Gregory Frost


• The Kanshou


• Wraiths of Will and Pleasure, Storm Constantine


• All Over Creation, Ruth L. Ozeki


• "The Wild Girls," Pat Murphy, Witpunk


• "Well-Moistened With Cheap Wine[...]" Ed Park, Trampoline


• Heredity, Jenny Davidson


• "Path of the Transgressor," Tom Purdom, Asimov's June 2003

Those are in no particular order, and half the author names are omitted because I'm tired, don't feel like digging out the ones that weren't in the email I was looking at and that I don't remember offhand, and don't want to postpone this post. A lot of my Tiptree reading material is not in easy view of my keyboard.

Note that this is a separate question from whether the story in question should have been long-listed: from what matt_ruff has posted, his jury's criteria/definition of the long-list differed from my year's. This is not a flaw in the award process: by policy, the Motherboard doesn't tell the jury how to do its job, except to the extent that they provide a deadline.

P.S. Yes, papersky, I'll do that panel.

Tiptree Award 2003 longlist

The kerfuffle I mentioned in my previous post was sparked by a fanfic being long-listed for the award this year. One of the odder assertions was that putting a "bad" work (whatever that means--I haven't read it, so have no opinion on its quality) somehow will make people take the award less seriously, or respect it less. And I'm wondering how many of the following works people who are worrying about that have read, and whether they read any of them because they were long-listed:

• The Salt Roads, Nalo Hopkinson


• The Braided World


• "The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet"


• The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein


• "Walking Contradiction"


• "Under the Lunchbox Tree"


• "Bernardo's House"


• "Poor Man's Wife"


• Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton


• Fitcher's Brides, Gregory Frost


• The Kanshou


• Wraiths of Will and Pleasure, Storm Constantine


• All Over Creation, Ruth L. Ozeki


• "The Wild Girls," Pat Murphy, Witpunk


• "Well-Moistened With Cheap Wine[...]" Ed Park, Trampoline


• Heredity, Jenny Davidson


• "Path of the Transgressor," Tom Purdom, Asimov's June 2003

Those are in no particular order, and half the author names are omitted because I'm tired, don't feel like digging out the ones that weren't in the email I was looking at and that I don't remember offhand, and don't want to postpone this post. A lot of my Tiptree reading material is not in easy view of my keyboard.

Note that this is a separate question from whether the story in question should have been long-listed: from what matt_ruff has posted, his jury's criteria/definition of the long-list differed from my year's. This is not a flaw in the award process: by policy, the Motherboard doesn't tell the jury how to do its job, except to the extent that they provide a deadline.

P.S. Yes, papersky, I'll do that panel.