Nea Culpa

Forgive me fandom, for I am about to sin. John Barrowman is a sexy, sexy man and a sparkling performer... and he can't read audiobooks worth a damn.

I'm trying to get into Another Life, a job already made difficult by the sucktastic writing - all staccato subject-verb-predicate sentences that are only a step or two above Dick and Jane in complexity - and John just isn't helping. He's not trying to do voices, he's only occassionaly modulating his tone... it's a not-very-good book read not-very well.

That my most recent audio comparisons are David doing the Who tie ins (he always goes to town on the voices: Stone Rose is another wimp plot but it's worth it just to hear what that man does with his vocal cords), the Big Finish full audios, and Stephen Fry making a feast out of Harry Potter does not help.

Sorry, John, just not your strong suit. I give up.

Writing is like...

Aside from the whole "writing is like prostitution" joke that I've been telling rather a lot lately, you know what writing has always been like for me?

Running a maze. You go tootling along for a while, smack into a wall, realize that you have to back up, hit another wall, back up more, take a whole different approach, and another one after that and hope that this one will get you where you're going.

Hopefully posting this won't jinx me, because I think I've finally flailed and whined my way onto the right path...

(Biggest irony? Next to *none* of the research I've done is going to make it in, because the exposition would drag the plot. ETA: in response to comments - I hope some research shines through, but it turns out I've been researching the wrong things...)

It was the best of news, it was the worst of news

A bigger example of the disjoint between science and politics has never been shown so starkly in a single url: this Times Online article.

The headline: "Diabetics cured by stem-cell treatment"

The text of the article: Out of 15 young patients with Type 1 diabetes treated with their own stem cells, 13 have been able to go 3 years without needing additional insulin treatment.

HUZZAH, right?

Until you read the comments. Comments actually discussing the article and the hope it provides are massively outnumbered by the people who are either confusing it with embryonic stem cell research and thus denouncing it; recognizing that it's adult stem cell research and thus taking the platform to denounce embryonic stem cell research; claim the article is twisted to make people not know the differences between types of stem cell research; don't give a damn what kind of stem cell research is as long as they can call stem cell research evil; call the article Bush bashing and hasten to either denounce that or explain how he has been the best President on this type of research ever.

It's a science article with almost completely political/rhetorical commentary.