A quick WorldCon update

I’m having a wonderful time at Renovation. Two of my panels were on the first day, and it turned out I was on the first panel for the full convention, Welcome to Reno, where I offered some suggestions, and jotted down a few notes for myself. Then, as part of the TeachingSF program, we discussed ways to incorporate SF into the academic curriculum. I finished the day with a concert and a play. I had to miss much of Thursday for one reason or another, but did get to go on the morning walk, to Juliette Wade’s Kaffeeklatsch where she talked about her experiences in Japan and how they influenced the stories she’s writing, and had fun talking to Jed Hartman, who is a high school friend of my husband.

I will be in room A16 today at 2pm for the Anticipatory Anthropology panel where we will be looking at how anthropology can reveal the paths human development may follow. I hope you will stop by if you’re at WorldCon.

Now on to the links:

Fun

A collection of optical illusions with a clear description of how they work and sometimes why:
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/most-amazing-optical-illusions-1921/

Grammar

Affect and effect plague users of the written word. Here’s a quick post defining, and offering some memory devices for, the proper uses of each:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx

Life

Body language is something I’ve taught classes on, so always catches my eye. This article looks at when mirroring the other person can work for, and against, you:
http://www.livescience.com/15332-mirroring-behavior-downside.html/

Science

Dolphins may have regenerative abilities previously unknown in the mammalian world:
http://io9.com/5822773/

Writing

An important reminder of the pitfalls of a publishing career, but not in the way you might expect, which is why I’m putting it here, not under publishing:
http://rhondastapleton.blogspot.com/2011/07/writing-for-writings-sake-how-i-missed.html