A Confident Woman, Part 1

The young woman walked briskly down the cobblestone lane, the assurance in her stride masking the uncertainty in her face. She stopped in front of an undistinguished door and checked the house number against a sheet of paper in her hand. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

Her parents were disappointed with her insistence on answering the help-wanted advertisement. They ensured she received as good an education as possible for a girl, but they did so under the assumption that she would use her skills to enchant a suitable husband. Though she was not averse to the idea in the abstract, she was less enthralled with the choices available to her. Perhaps, she reflected, she preferred to see what the world - or, if not the world, at least Caledon - what the world had to offer before starting a family.

The door opened slowly, revealing a pale man in a white lab coat. "Yes?" He drew the word out to several syllables.

She touched her reticule for reassurance and said nervously, "I'm here to interview for the position you advertised. You are Dr. Bak, are you not?"

He opened the door wider and bowed slightly. "I am. You're here for the laboratory assistant position? Excellent." He bade her enter the anteroom. "Welcome, my dear."

She walked into the narrow foyer. Panelled doors led off in every direction. An unpleasant burning smell lingered in the air. As Dr. Bak closed the door, she studied her prospective employer. He appeared to be in his late 50s with a shock of white hair. His face bore a slightly maniacal expression.

"Shall we get started?" the scientist asked, a hand gesturing to a door to her right.

"With the interview?"

"With the job. I'm afraid my previous assistant left us quite unexpectedly and I have experiments that cannot wait." He walked through the door as though there was no question about her willingness to follow. She wanted to ask the scientist what the job paid, what the hours were, why the previous assistant left unexpectedly, and so many more questions, but she was afraid. She had found few jobs for women with no experience, and, though this one was a trolley ride and lengthy walk away from her home, she did not want to lose the opportunity, so she meekly nodded and followed the scientist through the door.

The door led to a set of stairs heading down to the cellar. The burning smell became stronger as they descended, mixed with the earthy, mildewy smell of cellars. At the bottom, the stairway opened into a large room configured as a laboratory. To the right were a number of beakers filled with unearthly colored liquids along side a disused distillation column; to the left was an operating table, freshly washed, with a set of workman's clothes on top. A number of electrical leads sat on the table, connected to a large generator that sat in the corner of the room. The generator hummed and occasionally threw out a spark.

"This is my laboratory, naturally. You will be working here with me." He looked at her from head to toe, as though judging her height, then gestured to the clothes on the operating table. "Put those on, please." She looked horrified at the thought. At her hesitation, Dr. Bak said, "Quickly now."

"H-here?"

He let out an exasperated sigh. "There is a small room off to the side. You can change there. And don't be silly, girl; I have no interest in you sexually." She gasped at his choice of words, but nodded acceptance. She picked up the clothes and walked into the closet to change. She removed the bustle, overskirt, and underskirt, and put the trousers over her bloomers. She shed her bolero jacket, placing the workman's shirt over her corset and blouse. The trousers were loose, but stayed over her hips.

Dr. Bak looked up briefly as she returned to the laboratory. "Excellent. Now we may begin. Please lie on the table."

"I thought I was to assist you in your experiments."

"Oh, indeed you are. But we cannot go on like this, with your constant challenges to my authority. When I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed."

"Yes, Dr. Bak," she replied meekly, and made her way to the table. What have I gotten myself into?

The scientist applied a viscous fluid to the electrodes and taped them to various parts of her body. Her eyes widened in fear as he took two sturdy leather straps and placed them across her body, buckling her in tightly. "Science, my dear, is a harsh mistress. She releases her mysteries only reluctantly, after much sacrifice. One tries, fails, and tries again. Eventually her secrets succumb." She tried to scream, but nothing more than a whimper escaped. "Oh yes, that reminds me." He placed a gag in her mouth. "This is not for the benefit of the neighbors, mind you. The walls are well-insulated and no amount of screaming will rouse them. No, it's for my benefit. Screaming disturbs my concentration."

He moved to the generator and grasped the lever that would tie the electrodes into the circuit. "I am convinced that a suitably-applied voltage, though it will stop the heart, will maintain brain activity indefinitely. My first few tries were unsuccessful - too much voltage, I'm afraid - and nothing was left functioning. I think I've got it right now. I have instruments that will monitor brain activity. Of course, the next step is to devise a way to communicate directly with the brain. Who knows? If all goes well, we will speak again." She thrust her weight to one side and then the other in a wild attempt to free herself, but the straps held her fast. The scientist threw the lever. The electrostatic hum rose louder and the burning smell intensified.

Travelogue: Arkham

Today I'm deviating from the geographical progression of this series, traveling by airship to the north of Caledon, north of Penzance and just to the east of Brigadoon, to the new area of Arkham.

Owned by the Duchesses Sha'uri Cheshire and Solar Angel, Arkham is a forbidding area. For example, the castle is downright intimidating:


Warehouses are nothing unusual, but the fence made me a little nervous.


That nervousness did not recede when I peered inside. More cages…to keep human captives?


The castle clearly dominates the skyline, but the other large structure is the asylum.


Though the asylum appeared to be in ruins and unused, some parts looked as though someone could keep a patient - or a prisoner - from leaving.


After that, I hastened back to the airship for a trip back home to Steam Sky City, where the only thing to fear are mad scientists (and air pirates, and the occasional zombie, but still…). Good thing I kept the propellers turning during my visit!

Review: Timeless, by Gail Carriger (2012)

The last installment in the Parasol Protectorate series, Timeless finds Lady Alexia Maccon and her entourage traveling to Egypt to see an ancient vampire queen.

Several years have passed since the events in Heartless. Prudence, the unexpected "infant inconvenience" of Lord and Lady Maccon, who has the ability to turn supernaturals temporarily human (and Prudence temporarily supernatural), is walking, learning to talk, and alternately enchanting and terrorizing her household, including the stylish vampire Lord Akeldama. French inventor Madame Lefoux is atoning for her part in the events of Heartless by serving as a drone in the London vampire pack, now exiled to the countryside. Alexia's friend Ivy Tunstell, her husband, and their theatrical troupe are premiering a ghastly new play, while Biffy, the dandy drone-turned-werewolf is adjusting to his new role in the werewolf pack as well as selling stylish hats in what was once Madame Lefoux's store.

Alexia receives a summons from Countess Nadasdy, the queen of the vampire pack. The countess says that Queen Matakara, the oldest vampire in the world, would like to see Alexia - and, more to the point, Prudence - in Alexandria, Egypt. Against her husband's better judgement, Alexia decides to go, in part to understand what her father was doing in Egypt before his death years before, and to find the origin of the God-Breaker Plague that robbed the supernaturals of their abilities. As cover, she invites the Tunstells and their acting troupe to go along to perform for the ancient vampire queen. Add a murdered werewolf, an unexpected romance, a new parasol, shenanigans, comeuppances, and an effort to wrap up a series, and one can see how the book  approaches 400 pages.

Even at that length, Timeless feels a bit rushed in the last quarter or so, as though Carriger realized a 600-page book would not bring smiles to her editor. That quibble aside, the book contains Carriger's usual humor (and plenty of tea). We've become old friends with the main characters, so it was good to have one last adventure with them.

I'm looking forward to Carriger's Young Adult series, The Finishing School, set a generation earlier than the Parasol Protectorate novels, as well as her Parasol Protectorate Abroad series, featuring an adult (and no doubt stylish) Prudence. Both series are expected to debut in 2013.

Travelogue: Downs, Windemere, Loch Avie

I was on the verge of continuing the tour of Caledon with a trip to Windemere when I saw something strange on the map: Caledon Downs, right where it used to be. The area disappeared last July, replaced with Ahavah. I wonder what happened?

In any event, not much was in evidence. The Caledon railway had an attractive rail bridge:

The C.A.T. station was named after Ahavah:




("Heaven's Gate"? Uh, let's hope the Duke and Duchess didn't join a cult and commit suicide.) The rest of the Downs was on the rugged side:

Moving east to Windemere, one finds a sparsely-populated residential area, divided by a tall hill (or a small mountain, depending on one's perspective).








Past Windemere is the duchy of Loch Avie, which has recently changed hands. The new duchess, Angel, must still be in the process of landscaping the area.


So many changes in such a short time!

The Wrong Target

John Gruber picked up on this press release from Amazon. Gruber focused on this tidbit:

“I’m excited to announce that we now have more than 130,000 new, in-copyright books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store – you won’t find them anywhere else. They include many of our top bestsellers – in fact, 16 of our top 100 bestselling titles are exclusive to our store,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

I agree with Gruber's take on this:

So 16 percent of bestselling titles are exclusive to the Kindle Store — and the Department of Justice is investigating Apple’s iBookstore. Got it.

 This is not to condone the alleged coordination among the publishers, if such a thing actually occurred. (At the same time, it seems to me a powerful argument to say that Apple offered an agency model to the publishing industry, and agreeing to an agency model required a certain amount of coordination among the publishers. Thus, even if the allegation is correct, it's not necessarily an antitrust violation, as much as the Antitrust Division would have you believe it.) But one has to wonder about the consumer benefit of attacking an attempt to solve a problem - Amazon's control of the e-book market and an increasing chunk of the physical book market - that, in the long run, likely has undesirable effects on consumers.

Forest for the trees, Antitrust Division.

Civil War Discussion - Oops

A big slap to the forehead: I realized I missed this month's Civil War discussion, with Sir JJ and Dame Kghia. It never got on my calendar, and my infrequent in-world appearances meant I didn't see the reminder until after the fact.

Apologies to the hosts. I'll try to get next month's meeting on the calendar!

Review: The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen

This little book, available as a Kindle e-book, can be summarized by its subtitle: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.

Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, is known for his economics blog, Marginal Revolution, and writings in popular magazines and newspapers. He makes several related points in this brief book.

First, societies - in particular, American society in its fastest-growing phase - create substantial economic growth through substantial increases in productivity. They do this by picking off the "low-hanging fruit" of productivity. In the case of the U.S., a vast, relatively unpopulated continent allowed for rapid expansion of population and production. Technological advances of the 19th century also expanded productivity rapidly. In the 20th century, an increasing fraction of the population graduated from high school, and now a substantial fraction graduates from college. These educational achievements allowed American society to transform from a largely agricultural/industrial society to a higher-payout ideas society.

Second, we've largely tapped out the easy ways to increase productivity. We can put more people through college, but we're increasingly tapping those who can benefit only marginally from the additional education. We continue to make improvements in farming efficiency, but so few people still farm that such increases in efficiency don't free up substantial numbers of people to do other things with their lives. Indeed, with all the examples of low-hanging fruit, Cowen makes the point that further advances are more costly than those that came before.

Third, the implication of the first two points is that we should expect lower productivity growth - and hence lower income growth - going forward than what we have become accustomed to. The 3% annual growth rate that was once considered "normal" has become a 1% growth rate.

Fourth, our financial problems are largely a result of failure to recognize the previous point. We're spending as though we're still in the 1950s, even though growth rates have been low for several decades and likely will remain so.

Cowen ends on a positive note, however, suggesting that technological breakthroughs - perhaps the development of the Internet, perhaps ones not yet widely known or yet developed - will ultimately usher in a new age of low-hanging fruit that we can use to become more productive and, therefore, better off.

The book is largely apolitical, focusing on why we've been stuck in a low-growth economy and not on the political decisions that have been made along the way. When he does mention politics, both major parties are in for their share of criticism.

I'm perhaps not as optimistic as Cowen about the likelihood that we can grow our way out of our economic doldrums through new technological breakthroughs. I suspect we need to become accustomed difficult times continuing. That's not to say that subsequent generations will be worse off than earlier ones; merely that we should not become used to rapid growth in national income. In that kind of world, disputes about how to share the wealth are likely to continue.

The Great Stagnation is a quick read, short and non-technical, and continues the worthwhile trend of making economics more accessible to people with non-technical backgrounds.

Google Drive and Your Data

Google Drive has some interesting terms of service. I like Dan Benjamin's comment on the ZDNet article
about the TOS.

While Dropbox and Microsoft's SkyDrive seem pretty clear that they don't have the right to do anything with your stuff that they host, our friends at Google say

“Your Content in our Services: When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. 

 Hmm. As Dan comments:

Somewhere, somebody is surprised by this.

 I dunno, guys. What's so hard about coming up with a simple, understandable TOS that doesn't seem really creepy?

Sanity Falls

I'm not usually a fan of hunts, but this one, from MadPea Productions, caught my attention. Part hunt, part game, Sanity Falls places the hunter in the middle of a narrative. (See the two-minute trailer here.)

You play the part of Alexander Blackwell, a psychologist on vacation with his wife, Livea. The Blackwells decide to recharge their mental batteries with a trip to the town of Sanity Falls. (Why on God's earth would anyone want to spend a vacation here? No accounting for tastes, I suppose.) Alexander finds himself alone and relates:

“I’m waking up with metallic taste of blood tainting my mouth. I look at my clothes and see blood everywhere, but I don’t feel any pain or see any wounds. It probably isn’t my blood. I try to think but realize that I have no memory of the last 24 hours. The last thing I remember is coming to Sanity Falls with my wife. I feel dizzy, someone must have drugged me.

Groggy and confused, I stagger onto my feet and call out for Livea. When silence answers me back, I become aware of my surroundings. I am on the edge of a bridge overlooking the Sanity River. In the puddle of blood beside me lays a phone. It starts ringing..”

Livea has been kidnapped and held for ransom. Alexander must raise a million dollars to get his wife back - which he does, somewhat confusingly, by calling the number of each of the 50 "Missing Person" posters scattered through the town. The number leads to a SLURL which contains a prize, as well as part of the ransom.

The game requires purchasing a HUD for L100. This keeps track of the posters found, the SLURLs, provides hints for locating the prizes, and tracks the progress of the ransom.

The bridge to town

Welcome to the Sanity Inn

Cold beer, anyone?

I found about 45 of the 50 telephone numbers in fairly short order. Descriptions of the game say there are dream sequences that explain more of the story, though I have yet to activate any. As usual, I'm hopeless at finding the prizes, even with hints, so I haven't made much progress there. (Also, I got sidetracked with another project.) We're promised a resolution of the story, presumably once all the prizes are found and Livea is ransomed.

The game is a good use of the free-form nature of Second Life, the sort of thing that I wish was more common.

Aether Salon - Furries

For the April meeting of the Aether Salon, Mr. Blackberry Harvey held forth on a subject close to his fur: furries.

Mr. Blackberry Harvey

Mr. Harvey noted that anthropomorphized animals have had a centuries-long tradition in literature, from the Bible (the snake in the Garden of Eden) to folk characters in 17th and 18th century literature, to cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny.

The talk was lavishly illustrated.

Furries are a natural fit in the Steamlands, he argued, as the sense of created identity and ongoing narrative is strong, while certain…unusual aspects of humanity are tolerated here better than other, more doctrinaire RP areas. He noted that, while acceptance of furries in New Babbage has waxed and waned, residents are generally accepting of those with different appearances.

The audience was a little smaller than usual, with fewer Salon regulars and more furries, as one might expect. One gentleman broke with the usual Salon decorum by suggesting that one reason rabbits, such as Mr. Harvey, were popular characters was that they were quite tasty. Though I can hardly disagree with the statement, it seemed terribly crass for someone to discuss, even indirectly, eating the speaker.

I stood in the back, hoping exhaustion would not overcome me before the end.

Miss Tabby, Miss Tali Rosca, Miss Erica Fairywren, and Miss Zanya

Miss Solace Fairlady and Miss Darlingmonster Ember. Mr. Vic Mornington escaped the picture at the last minute by crashing.

Miss Ceejay Writer