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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Chris McKitterick's LiveJournal:
- At the time of the ruling, there were 18,000 same-sex marriages in California.
- This new article of the Cali constitution states that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
- The ruling also suggests that same-sex couples should be afforded all the same legal rights that male-female couples get to enjoy... but they can't call it "marriage."
- The ruling goes to great lengths to point out that Californians can change their constitution about as easily as most people change socks, noting how much more difficult it is to do so than it is to change the US Constitution.
- The ruling states that people in existing same-sex marriages that were legally performed (before Prop 8 was in force) get to stay married.
- That means 18,000 same-sex marriages in California are legal.
- Therefore, 6 invalidates 2.
- Therefore, this ruling says that - even though Prop 8 was legally pushed forward and Section 7.5 of article I of the California Constitution is legal and binding, it is meaningless and contradictory.
| Friday, July 10th, 2009 | |
| 11:48 am | Campbell Conference starts today! Planning on coming to the Campbell Conference? If so, just bring a check; we should have some extra packets for late registrants. The Awards Banquet is full-up, but feel free to come tomorrow starting at 9:00am! Best, Chris |
| Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | |
| 6:23 pm | NEWS: Campbell Award winners announced and Sturgeon Award winners announced Hope to see you at the event! ( Full press release below cut ) Best, Chris |
| 5:05 pm | SF Workshops in session! Just a fly-by post to let y'all know I'm still alive. The CSSF Writers Workshops began yesterday, though we kicked off with a get-together on Sunday evening, and a few folks showed up for early SFnal fun on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. As I have no access to computers at home or at the workshop space, I have to race here to my office to send out a press release about the winners of the Campbell Award and the Sturgeon Award. Will post the winners in a few minutes! PS: I have no time to check any LJs (or Facebook pages, etc.), as the Workshops are intensive-ey fun (morning through midnight, usually). If something's going on in your life I should see, post a link here please! Best, Chris |
| Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | |
| 2:40 pm | Campbell Conference special guests firming up! ...and I don't just mean that they're getting into shape ;-) Right now, we have a nearly final list of guest authors and editors who'll be attending this year's Campbell Conference and Awards Ceremony in Lawrence, Kansas, from July 10-12. That's just two weeks, folks! If you've been having trouble deciding if you can make it this year, just remember that it's only $30 for the full weekend (and only $25 for the Awards Banquet), and you'll get a chance to meet these folks and have them sign your books (which will also be available at the Oread Book Store during the signing): Robin Wayne Bailey Cory Doctorow James Alan Gardner Jude-Marie Green James Gunn Kij Johnson Ian R. MacLeod Chris McKitterick Eric T. Reynolds Lane Robins And this year's Campbell and Sturgeon Award winners - to be announced very soon! So don't miss a great opportunity to hang with these authors and editors - and attending scholars and fans - for the weekend! The Campbell Conference is a special event, something I've been part of since 1992, because of its unusual intimacy: You get to spend one-on-one time with a lot of interesting people and professionals in the field, whereas at most conventions, there are many others vying for time with the special guests. Haven't registered yet? Do it now! Best, Chris |
| Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | |
| 2:36 pm | Newport update: heads & cam First the good news: The cam is installed and the heads are bolted down! Now the bad news: The car won't be done before the middle of July, because I discovered that my beautiful, vintage, "universal" headers won't fit this car. That would have meant the soonest (after the test-fit) I could have gotten the correct headers was about today... and people start arriving for the Workshop on Friday. Too much left to do after that to make it go, and no time. So the car will have to wait to hit the road until later this summer. :-/ Here's what the non-fitting headers look like: ( click for photos and the full story ) Next, I installed the big ol' Thumpr cam! By the way, Comp Cams designed the cutest-ever logo for this camshaft:  ( click for more photos and the rest of the story )Then it was time to start hooking up the exhaust... whoops. And then my Dad came for a short visit. Now it's time to resume reading for the SF Workshop about to start this weekend. So: No more hot-rod Newport updates until mid-July. G'day! Best, Chris |
| Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | |
| 1:03 am | Campbell Conference update! What are you doing on the weekend of July 9-12? Attending the Campbell Conference in Lawrence, KS, I hope! Special-guest update here. Note that Cory Doctorow will be here this year, as will Ian R. MacLeod - who'll be part of the Writer's Workshop for several days! Unfortunately, Fred Pohl is fighting health issues and will likely not make it again this year. Many more special guests are starting to get lined up, so don't miss out! Check the site for more details as we have 'em over the next couple of weeks. Best, Chris |
| Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | |
| 10:59 pm | Newport update: prepping the block Hi folks! Typing this up now because it's 100°F outside with the heat index (that is, counting humidity), and my next step requires torquing-down 34 bolts 3 times in increments of 40 pound-feet, then 55 lb-ft, then 70 lb-ft while leaned over a fender. I expect to stand inside the engine compartment for a lot of the time, because it's nearly impossible to get a solid angle on the wrench in some cases. Good times. So writing up this post allows me to cool off after the first stage of torquing. So progress, eh? Today I made a bunch! But first, yesterday's work: First I finished painting the block's nooks and crannies that I'd missed on previous days. ( click for photos and the full story ) While the final coat of paint was drying, I crawled under the car to begin replacing the old sheetmetal transmission pan. ( transmission-work story ) Thankfully, I had installed a vent fan and a small air-conditioning unit in my garage a few years ago; if only it could also cut the humidity. Okay, next up was pulling the protective paper off the block, cleaning off the surfaces again, and cleaning out the head-bolt threads. If the block's threads aren't tidy, the head bolts won't torque down properly, possibly leading to head-gasket failure. That would be bad. ( a little tutorial on prepping a block for head installation ) Viola! After a few hours of this, the block was ready to take the heads! But first: Clean the surfaces first with dust-free rags (as you can imagine, lots of sludgy oil, rusty coolant, and grime oozed out of the holes as I drove the tool into them), then with more clean rags and alcohol, and they're really ready! Except by now, I'd been working for 10 or so hours and was ready for a Pabst Blue Ribbon and the aforementioned Hancock. So yesterday culminated in finally prepping the engine for reassembly! Things should go quickly after that, right? Well, I only have a few more parts to install... here's a long-shot of the parts table, showing most of it: ( parts to install! ) So yesterday was the last day of going backward; that is, removing, cleaning, and so forth. Today I made a bunch more progress - and started actual assembly! - though it required three trips to the auto-parts stores, including one trip to fetch a torque wrench. I have no idea where mine went, but handily one can rent such specialized tools from the parts stores these days. Hooray! Tomorrow I'll post about today's progress.... Best, Chris |
| 1:33 am | Hancock Have you seen Will Smith's recent movie, Hancock? Also starring Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman. Just finished watching it and the special features, and I have to say it was fantastic! I have no idea why it didn't do well in the theater or why I haven't been able to talk any of my friends into watching it with me. It made me laugh out loud long enough that I had to rewind, cry and smile and think and feel in so many ways. A fantastic movie, can't recommend it enough - though I suspect you need to care about superheroes and humans and superhumans enough to understand the themes. Go see (rather, rent or buy) Hancock! One of these days, when I have the car up and running perhaps, I'll make another progress post on the Newport. Worked on it all day and will do the same tomorrow. Suffice to say that I've been documenting the build and will have a few tutorials on my website for others who are rebuilding their Mopar big-blocks. Tomorrow, I install the heads. Getting exciting! Chris |
| Monday, June 15th, 2009 | |
| 12:31 am | Newport update It's getting more awesome all the time! Pics to come, but in the mean-time, a short update: Due to trying-to-keep-the-job craziness, finals, and all that, I didn't make nearly the progress I'd hoped to during the spring semester, so I'm making up for that with daily wrenching lately. But I've been giving it occasional attention and continuing to collect parts at amazing sale prices. For example, I picked up a pair of stainless-steel, titanium-tipped mufflers; normal price: $90/each. My price: $19/each with free shipping. A pair of stainless-steel radiator hoses in red powdercoat; normal price: $80/each. My price: $5/each. And so forth. Patience and slow parts-collecting earns awesome deals for the frugal. Speaking of frugal: Yesterday, I did a little calculating and figured that I'll have built my hot-rod Newport for what it would cost to pay the taxes on the car I've always lusted after (1968 Dodge Charger). This includes the original purchase price of the car itself, piles of high-performance parts, a complete new dual exhaust system (with stainless-steel X-pipe), sexy wheels & tires, even a fuel injection system. For the price of tax to buy a restorable Charger that needs several grand more in repairs, bodywork, and paint. And would have less go-power than my Newport will have. That's crazy! Just because the Charger looks sexier? Hmph. I'll be able to transport seven in comfort at super-legal speeds rather than just five or six. So I count that as a win. So, progress: Today Mike and I removed the exhaust; pulled the old transmission pan to replace it with a new, deep, finned aluminum pan with drain plug for easy fluid changes (the deep and finned = greater cooling to handle the increased engine power); replaced the oil pump with a high-volume unit; finished masking off the engine compartment; and nearly finished painting the block and associated bits Street Hemi Orange (used on 1966-1971 426 Hemi engines and most 383 and 440 HP engines, thus justifying my choice; mostly it's the color I associate with high-performance Mopar engines, and... well, it looks great with the copper of the body, and makes it go faster, too, I hear). We had an adventure carrying out the drip-pan that ended up catching most of the tranny fluid that spilled out over the oil bucket. Who designed transmission pans that way? You have to undo a whole lotta bolts to remove the pan each time you want to change the fluid, and because there's no removable plug, the fluid goes everywhere. Idiots. Anyway, we're carrying this 3-foot by 4-foot sheetmetal pan out of the garage, and it's full of at least two quarts of red oil. Two can't fit through the door carrying it; heck, one can't. So we kind of mooged this way and that, trying to arrange it so we could hold the ends even though we were holding it by the sides. A natural property of bit sheetmetal pans - especially those filled to the brim with red oil - is that they go boing while you're trying to carry them, spilling oil all over those carrying it, the floor, the bricks outside the garage door, and even the doorframe and walls. We were all "Hahahaha!" especially me, who was less doused in the stuff. Luckily, I had a rug near the door that soaked up most of the oil. Also our pants did a fine job of this. Now I'm BEAT. Tomorrow, more of same! But with less spillage. Chris |
| Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | |
| 11:39 pm | Testing my new Dreamwidth account Testing... testing... This is cross-posting from my new Dreamwidth account and on my LiveJournal account. Now I'm testing editing this to see if it also edits at LJ. Also: Please let me know if you have a Dreamwidth account so we can friend one another, or whatever they call it there. Good evening! Chris |
| 1:34 pm | GM: looking up or moving out? Michael Moore on what to do with GM now that we own it. He has some good points; for example: What best to do with all those idling car factories and unemployed workers? Make sure the people have jobs by building the alt-energy equipment America needs.  Click the image to see the story. Mind you, I love personal vehicles and think Moore is stretching it a bit leaning toward all mass-transport, but he puts his finger on the problem with modern industry: In an effort to increase short-term profits, manufacturers are moving all their jobs offshore, thereby sinking their company in the long-term. If our country doesn't have good jobs for all kinds of people, soon our country will be where jobs are outsourced because of low wages. And Americans will be too poor to afford the products we manufacture. What do you think? Will the Obama administration use this opportunity to transform GM into a jobs-and-eco-equipment manufacturer, or will they let GM continue to bumble along as a car manufacturer that continues to outsource jobs to save money until it's no longer really an American manufacturer? Chris |
| Friday, May 29th, 2009 | |
| 11:47 am | Astro-Image of the Day: Even Small Stars Grow Huge Planets Scientists have discovered a new planet beyond the Solar System. One of the neatest things about it is that it's a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a Type M (dwarf) star that is only 1/12 the mass of our Sun: Barely massive enough to do atomic fusion and shine like, y'know, a star:  Click the image to see the story. Here's a dramatic comparison of the planet (VB10b) to its parent star, VB10:  Click the image to see the story. Note that they're nearly the same diameter! Holy shrunken suns, Batman! Compare them to the Sun-Mercury images below in the illustration. They used a technique called astrometry, which measures the motion of a star across the sky as an unseen object - in this case, a planet - tugs the star back and forth, making it wobble. A pair of Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomers has spent 12 years taking intermittent observations of 30 stars using astrometry instrument attached to a telescope at Palomar Observatory. Recently, the team identified a new planet around one of the stars. "This method is optimal for finding solar-system configurations like ours that might harbor other Earths," said team member Steven Pravdo of JPL. "We found a Jupiter-like planet at around the same relative place as our Jupiter, only around a much smaller star. It's possible this star also has inner rocky planets. And since more than seven out of 10 stars are small like this one, this could mean planets are more common than we thought." VB10 and its planet live 20 light-years away in the constellation Aquila. Close enough to visit with a fast enough car. Cool beans! Chris |
| Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | |
| 3:21 pm | Awesome lightning story For other weather-porn lovers, I share this image from WIRED magazine. A typical spring day in Kansas:  Click the image to see the story. You really need to click the image to see it full size with info about each type of lightning. Best, Chris |
| 2:05 pm | My take on the Prop 8 decision. I've been looking over the California Supreme Court's ruling on Proposition 8 (took me a while - it's over 125 pages long), approved by the majority of Cali voters last year, which added Section 7.5 to Article I of the California Constitution. Okay, like many people, when I first heard about the decision, I was pissed off and started re-thinking the notion of California being a progressive state. But looking into the results a bit more got me thinking. Notes: And that's a good thing for human rights. Now if only they could get as up-to-date as Iowa ;-) Chris |
| 12:01 pm | ConQuesT 2009 Rocked the House! Just getting back to normal life after a grand ConQuesT SF convention in Kansas City. Some highlights: ( click for report with photos ) If you live within driving distance of the KC area, you really ought to check out ConQuesT. PS: If you posted photos and con reports, link to 'em in a comment, please! Best, Chris |
| Thursday, May 21st, 2009 | |
| 8:19 am | Astro-Image of the Day: What is it? Poll #1403385 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All What do you see in this image?
View Answers POV photograph of a window-pane as seen by a person on LSD. Bug on the lens. Sunspots are back! Modern art. The Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Telescope as they transit across the Sun.  If you need a hint, click the image to see the full story. Give up? ( click for a hint! ) |
| Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 | |
| 3:55 pm | ConQuest schedule Hi folks - If you're going to be at ConQuest this weekend, you can find me at these events. Stop by and say hello! Friday 7:00PM: Opening Ceremonies 8:30PM: Authors and Artist Reception (or is it really at 8:30AM on Saturday?) Saturday 11:00AM: Writers Workshop. This is a one-on-one; if you want to do this with me next year, let me know at least a month in advance so we can schedule it! 3:00PM: Writers Workshop (as above) Night: Party! Be sure to stop by the Hadley Rille Books room party; I'll be there at least part of the time. Sunday Noon: Reading! I'll be reading from the first chapter of my upcoming novel. 1:00PM: AboutSF with Nate Williams 2:00PM: Charity Benefit Auction (for AboutSF) 4:00PM: Closing Ceremonies 5:00PM: Dead Dog? Hope to see you there! Chris |
| Friday, May 8th, 2009 | |
| 2:44 am | The Singularity Is Near (like, just two lines below...) What is the Singularity, you ask? This is a great interpretation: Also: There's lots to learn about the human species at 2am on Stop Day Eve (school's out!). We were approached by: 1) a herd of drunks chanting together, 2) a staggering girl who had difficulty expressing that she wanted a light, 3) a young fella wearing a mandolin and a banjo who played Leonard Cohen and Beatles and Dylan for a solid 30 minutes accompanied by harmonica, and 4) a thousand young'uns dressed in their finest, slightly askew, and inappropriate shoes. Humid outside. The Moon is about full. Only five days until the big presentation re: keeping my job. The finger is almost fully healed, so I've been able to do my pull-ups and push-ups without much pain, though typing is still achey. Got to meet a fellow author from Ruins Extraterrestrial, along with our edior. Hope you're doing well. Live long and transhuminate. Chris |
| Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | |
| 8:51 am | Astro-Image of the Day: ancient gamma-ray burst NASA's Swift satellite has discovered the most distant - thus, oldest - gamma-ray burst ever. The star that exploded to create the burst died when the universe was a baby, just 630 million years old (it's about 12 billion years old now). That's before our galaxy even existed in any recognizable way, long before our Sun was born. So not only did this massive explosion take place far before most of the universe had even found its final form, but the star that exploded had already lived out its full life. Imagine how huge it must have been to have died so young! Here's an image of gamma-ray burst GRB 090423:  Click the image to see the story. On April 23, Swift detected a 10-second-long gamma-ray burst of modest brightness. It quickly pivoted to bring its ultraviolet/optical and X-ray telescopes to observe the burst location. Swift saw a fading X-ray afterglow but none in visible light. Here's an awesome artist's representation video. (Hey, anyone know why I can't the video to show? I'm trying to use the embed tag for an .mpg. What should I be using? Oh, and LJ is great: It deletes everything in your post starting from the embed tag. Yay.) "It's an incredible find," Chincarini said. "What makes it even better is that a telescope named for Galileo made this measurement during the year in which we celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first astronomical use of the telescope." And: "We're seeing the demise of a star - and probably the birth of a black hole - in one of the universe's earliest stellar generations." Best, Chris |
| 8:33 am | "The Future Isn't What it Used to Be" Come see my co-teacher Phil Baringer's upcoming talk: Monday, May 4, 4:00 pm Room 2074 Malott Hall University of Kansas (Coffee & Cookies before at 3:30 pm in Room# 1089 Malott Hall) Speaker: Dr. Phil Baringer (University of Kansas) Title: "The Future Isn't What it Used to Be" Abstract: We take a look at science-fictional views of the future and how they have changed over the past century or so. We'll look at classic themes of space colonization, robots and cloning, take a glance at the cyberpunk movement of the 80's, and explore current ideas involving a near-future technological singularity and the obsolescence of humanity. Warnings will also be issued to would-be predictors of the future. Best, Chris |
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