Links, since LJ doesn't seem to be down after all
Carl Zimmer did a nice overview piece on slime molds in yesterday's Science Times-Can Answers to Evolution Be Found in Slime?-which made me go back and reread Auburn's wonderfully creepy SGA sci fi fic The Taste of Apples:"Right now, it's acting like a symbiont, but it's not, it's an opportunist. When the colonies in your bodies are mature," Carson said in a rush, "we think it will digest the host material-"
"You mean us," Rodney interrupted flatly.
"-to provide itself with raw material to produce its fruiting body. That will be the phase that generates the worst danger of contagion, since it's the spores that spread the organism."
While we're on the topic of NYT articles and fandom, yesterday Natalie Angier did an interesting piece on pathological altruism that recalls some of Wilson's behavior, especially the giving of self to the point of harm for the sake of helping others because of a driving sense of hollowness; although I'd bet he doesn't pursue the sort of extremely aggressive treatment described in the lede against patients' wishes, that being more House's style (on the journey to a diagnosis, at least, not to cure what's already known).
Also, squid sex.
Also, for people interested in the RL U.S. homosocial continuum, an article called Allowing Teenage Boys to Love Their Friends, which touches on the angst young straight men can experience when they feel they can't be close to their male friends anymore and may not recognize what's going on or why.
.
Earlier, I had a heart-sinking moment when I read that David Hallberg is leaving the American Ballet Theatre for the Bolshoi. Not that my visits to NY in the last couple of years have included enough time to go to ABT performances, but it's always been in the back of my mind that I could see it (& him) again if I wanted. But! Further reading revealed that he is going part-time with both companies. Whew.
"You mean us," Rodney interrupted flatly.
"-to provide itself with raw material to produce its fruiting body. That will be the phase that generates the worst danger of contagion, since it's the spores that spread the organism."
While we're on the topic of NYT articles and fandom, yesterday Natalie Angier did an interesting piece on pathological altruism that recalls some of Wilson's behavior, especially the giving of self to the point of harm for the sake of helping others because of a driving sense of hollowness; although I'd bet he doesn't pursue the sort of extremely aggressive treatment described in the lede against patients' wishes, that being more House's style (on the journey to a diagnosis, at least, not to cure what's already known).
Also, squid sex.
Also, for people interested in the RL U.S. homosocial continuum, an article called Allowing Teenage Boys to Love Their Friends, which touches on the angst young straight men can experience when they feel they can't be close to their male friends anymore and may not recognize what's going on or why.
.
Earlier, I had a heart-sinking moment when I read that David Hallberg is leaving the American Ballet Theatre for the Bolshoi. Not that my visits to NY in the last couple of years have included enough time to go to ABT performances, but it's always been in the back of my mind that I could see it (& him) again if I wanted. But! Further reading revealed that he is going part-time with both companies. Whew.