Bad Sex In Fiction Awards

The finalists are in. Few literary hounds are surprised by this entry:

The Pulitzer prize-winning [Philip] Roth makes the line-up for The Humbling, in which the ageing actor Simon converts Pegeen, a lesbian, to heterosexuality. The Literary Review singled out a scene in which Simon and Pegeen pick up a girl from a bar and convince her to take part in a threesome. Simon looks on as Pegeen uses her green dildo to great effect.

"This was not soft porn. This was no longer two unclothed women caressing and kissing on a bed. There was something primitive about it now, this woman-on-woman violence, as though in the room filled with shadows, Pegeen were a magical composite of shaman, acrobat, and animal. It was as if she were wearing a mask on her genitals, a weird totem mask, that made her into what she was not and was not supposed to be."

Hitch reviewed Roth's Exit Ghost a few years back and similarly gagged.

A Special Kind Of Liar

Bella DePaulo gets it too:

From my post as an outside observer, it seems to me that Sarah Palin doesn’t care much about the truth. In that way, she is a very special liar. Instead, Palin seems to love the effect her disingenuous pronouncements have on her audiences and so she just runs with them. Her fans adore her claims about “death panels” and about Obama supposedly “palling around with terrorists” and all the rest. Look at how they roar with approval and fervor when she tosses that red, bloody moose meat to them – how can the mere (non) truth-value of what she is saying ever compete with that? Plus, the fact that her taunts drive her detractors over the edge – well, that just adds to the fun!

Sarah Palin seems to relish the reaction she gets to her claims and complaints. Among her core fan base, the theme that the mean media and the full-of-themselves campaign staffers were unfair to noble, authentic, small-town Sarah seems to be a winner. Whether it is really true is almost irrelevant.

I do love the irony of Palin flaunting her authenticity with lies.

Brain Chips

Researchers are trying to create microchips that function like neurons:

“Energy efficiency isn’t just a matter of elegance. It fundamentally limits what we can do with computers,” [Kwabena Boahen, a Stanford scientist] says. Despite the amazing progress in electronics technology—today’s transistors are 1/100,000 the size that they were a half century ago, and computer chips are 10 million times faster—we still have not made meaningful progress on the energy front. And if we do not, we can forget about truly intelligent humanlike machines and all the other dreams of radically more powerful computers…Most modern supercomputers are the size of a refrigerator and devour $100,000 to $1 million of electricity per year. Boahen’s Neurogrid will fit in a briefcase, run on the equivalent of a few D batteries, and yet, if all goes well, come close to keeping up with these Goliaths.

What To Do About The Deficit

Inside-The-Tube

The Economist looks at the politics and economics of reducing the deficit:

Historically, politicians are most likely to tackle deficits when prodded by markets. Denmark in 1982, Ireland in 1987 and Canada in 1995 all embarked on ambitious programmes after spiralling debts had driven up interest rates. In the same way, American deficit-reduction deals in 1985, 1990 and 1993 were nudged along by nervous markets. Such concerns are notably absent now. “Until the bond-market vigilantes form a posse again, it’s just too easy to ignore this issue,” says Alan Blinder, a Princeton University professor and former adviser to Bill Clinton.

(Photo by Clark Little. More incredible images here.)

The View From Your Recession

A reader writes:

I'm a college grad who has been unemployed for several months now.  I'm scraping by living and doing volunteer work at a hostel while searching for work, and living off a bare-bones unemployment check (which pays for food, that's about it) that is about to expire.  In applying to several entry-level positions in recent months in fields that are strong (social media and video game production), in the area that they are strongest (i.e., the Bay Area), I've noticed a disturbing trend:  In places I applied to, rather than being rejected outright or just not hearing from them, I'm getting responses saying that the job is "on hold," or that the position was "closed" without any hires.  They often note that I was certainly qualified for the position, they just can't afford to hire anyone right now.

I think the question has to be asked now, concerning unemployment:  If our economy is in "recovery," then what is preventing companies from actually hiring people?  I hate saying this, but this is feeling like another "Mission Accomplished" to people, especially me.

This Blogging Life

Andy Towle and Rex Wockner capture the minute-by-minute insistence of running any kind of blog:

Rex: How many hours a day do you work?

Andy: Generally from like 6:15 in the morning till 7, 8, 9 at night.

Rex: Is your boyfriend OK with that?

Andy: Not really. He’d like me to work probably about six hours less than that but, you know, it pays the rent and it’s what I need to do to sort of keep the site going, so, you know, he understands.

Rex: How do we keep up with the flow of information? You and I have similar kinds of jobs. I feel overwhelmed regularly. Do you?

Andy: I feel overwhelmed right now because I’m not reading and I’m doing this interview instead, but, you know, it’s how I regularly feel if I’m out or whatever.

It’s like there is always a constant barrage of news and things happening, so the struggle to keep on top of it is a constant challenge and I think anybody who’s in news these days understands the same thing — that it’s just, you know, like a 24-hour thing and to stay on top of it, you just have to constantly keep reading.

Rex: I left to get on the subway in Queens four hours ago and we went to dinner three hours ago, so I’ve been offline four hours and you’ve been offline three hours. That’s a long time for us, isn’t it?

I haven’t had more than a few hours off – barring vacations – in ten years.