Archive for the ‘Reading’ Category
Interesting neologism
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008“Math is hard”
Thursday, October 16th, 2008But it can be fun. Science is the same way. Here is an archive of e-texts on various subjects. Into the reference blogroll it goes.
You can’t make this stuff up
Thursday, May 15th, 2008Well, I guess you can, because someone did.
My youngest brother likes spy stuff: Bond movies, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, and the like. I just picked up a book for him at a local used book store. It’s The Man From T.O.M.C.A.T #2: The Million Missing Maidens, by Mallory T. Knight, printed in 1967.
The cover blurb reads:
Under orders to deflower every virgin he can find, T.O.M.C.A.T Agent O’Shane comes up against evil beauty Gisela Vultch as he seeks the secret of her strange orgiastic cult.
I’ve only given the first chapter a quick once-over, because of that and the back-cover blurb, a portion of which is:
The Man From T.O.M.C.A.T. could not have devised a more stimulating assignment. Until, hoisted aboard Merdalor’s mystery-ship, O’Shane found himself the only man on a vessel carrying two hundred virgins, five hundred monkeys and a pair of armed Lesbians.
The character names are horrendous: Merdalor is the bad guy of the story, a brilliant biochemist who was an associate of Heinrich Himmler during WWII, and is now head of a cult known as Systemology. Merdalor’s companion “was Hund Scheiskopf, mathematician, physicist, and ardent Nazi.” O’Shane’s boss is Duncan MacSwiver. The Willick sisters, Fanny and Hilly, show up again (they were apparently in the first book).
I tell you, I don’t know whether to give my brother the book or burn it to save his sanity.
It’s too late for me, now.
I need this
Saturday, May 10th, 2008So much, I should probably figure out how to make this post sticky. Or maybe I should just add the link to my blogroll.
In any case, here are Links and Resources for the Chronically Disorganized.
Story time
Saturday, May 10th, 2008The Big Guy points to a time-travel story in Wiki format. That puts me in mind of this fantasy story in blog format.
As a related aside, here’s a short film on a similar subject.
“Pie doesn’t have tentacles!”
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008I had a link to Skippy’s List (in a prior incarnation at a different URL) on my old website. I didn’t find out until just now that he’s got a blog, when I ran across a link to this story.
Arthur C. Clarke, RIP
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Arthur C. Clarke is dead. It’s all over the internet, but I first found out about it via email. Like Billy Beck, I prefer his short stories to his novels. But then, I like short stories, particularly older ones from the field.
He made other contributions besides his fiction. I think I’ll note the occasion by digging out my button with the paraphrase of his Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.”
This is not a spoiler.
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Monstrous
Friday, January 11th, 2008Information on the folk monsters of Japan.
A gallimaufry of links and things
Friday, December 14th, 2007I’ve been busy, and haven’t kept up with posting recently. I have, however, marked a few things of interest:
Via Coyote Blog, we have the World’s Hardest Easy Geometry Problem.
Via Jed, we have some cookies that sound absolutely delicious. I think my daughter will try these, actually.
Via a Yahoo Group to which I belong, we have a delightful a cappella holiday music performance by Straight No Chaser:
If that performance inspires you, perhaps you will wish to make your own motivational poster.
I happen to meet the Programmer’s Dress Code. I do occasionally wear suspenders, though, and the only pair I saw there was in part 2. It wasn’t even worn by a programmer.
A few days ago, Slashdot noted that Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I have most, if not all of them, but I’ll freely admit that I haven’t read all of them, and I kind of lost interest around book 5 or 6. The best comment in the thread is this one:
Hansel and Gretel, outlined in the style of Robert Jordan:
Book 1: Hansel and Gretel live happily with their mother and father. Their mother falls ill and dies. The family mourns her loss. The father starts courting another woman in the village, to the dismay of Hansel and Gretel. At the end of the book, she wins over the hearts and minds of the two children and marries her father. They live happily ever after.
Book 2: Oh, wait, they don’t live happily after all. The stepmother turns out to be hateful and cruel. Ultimately, Hansel and Gretel resolve to run away from home. Gretel expresses fears about the wicked witch who is rumored to live in the Forest, but Hansel insists nothing could be worse than living at home with their stepmother. After much bickering, they depart.
Book 3: Hansel and Gretel cross the boundary between Village and Forest. Gretel reprises her misgivings about the dangers of the forest. Hansel reiterates his arguments in favor of running away. After much bickering, they agree to continue, using bread crumbs to mark their trail. They get lost. Gretel blames Hansel. Hansel stubbornly refuses to admit his mistake.
Book 4: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Wise Owl, who warns them about the Wicked Witch of the Forest.
Book 5: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Cunning Fox, who encourages them to visit the Wise Woman of the Forest.
Book 6: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Cryptic Raven, who warns them about the Wicked Witch of the Forest.
Book 7: Hansel and Gretel wander through the woods, lost and disoriented. Gretel continues to complain about the foolishness of running away from home. Hansel continues to insist it’s the right thing to do. Gretel continues to berate him about the bread crumbs fiasco. Hansel persists in his mule-headed self-righteousness. They meet a Devious Serpent, who encourages them to visit the Wise Woman of the Forest. … and that’s about the point where the Faithful Reader finally realizes that this hack has stretched a simple fairy tale into seven giant novels in which nothing actually happens.
And finally, Don Surber points us to to wacky warnings. Hie thee hence, and find out who won a copy of Remove Child Before Folding, and with what.