After that last post, I feel like I need something to bring the tone back down into my gutter. So, I’ve dug into the archives and pulled out something that you can listen to that will fully counteract any benefits you might have received from watching some of the TED presentations: Shut Up Little Man. I’m not sure how to… Read more →
Month: August 2007
Expose yourself to hours of great ideas
So, do you know TED? Not some dude named Ted; it stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. Let me quote them on what it’s about: TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the… Read more →
Gay Politicians
Let’s play a short game of “…meanwhile in Canada”, to pick up my mood. The latest round of Republican scandals in the United States seem to be pretty gay-focused. (To see a wrap-up of the full list of recent Republican scandals see TPM. For the video wrap-up, see today’s TPMTV.) I am referring, of course, to the recent scandals involving… Read more →
Professor Membrane Strikes Again
And it’s time once again for our tour of interesting and weird science bits. This time out we start with the most science fictional story I’ve seen in a long time: methane ice worms! From the story: A team of university scientists using a mini research submarine on a NOAA-funded research cruise has discovered, photographed, and sampled what appears to… Read more →
I think I’d rather be outside the tent pissing in…
This just makes me laugh. I think that means a good portion of my friends are banned, some of them several times. In fact, I can think of at least one of my friends who is banned four times by that sign. Because of the somewhat scattershot way my brain works, this makes me think of my long-time favourite passage… Read more →
Secret Histories
Sometimes knowing the secret behind-the-scenes story makes things much cooler. Sometimes the story just destroys something. Take, for instance the works of Leonard Cohen. I remember how finding out that Chelsea Hotel was about Janis Joplin made it even better–and it was already a song I quite liked. On the other hand, take what used to be my favourite Leonard… Read more →
Thursday Night Bookish Links
Some bookish links: Have you read Vernor Vinge‘s True Names? If you haven’t then “for shame”. According to the Wikipedia entry “It was one of the earliest stories to present a fully fleshed-out concept of cyberspace, which would later be central to stories in the cyberpunk genre. Because of this, it is often referenced as a seminal work of the… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: Stross On Religion
Here’s the rub: reincarnation is a load of rubbish. There’s a slight problem of there being a striking lack of supporting evidence for it. Yeah, that’s my favourite bit of Stross’ recent essay about how the media, and society in general, seems to abdicate responsibility for critical analysis in the face of religion. Here’s another bit: The knee-jerk instinct to… Read more →
My Inner Academic Nerd Is Gleeful
I am working my ass off. And, as with the entirety of my professional career, the stuff I’m working my ass off at is only very tangentially related to what I studied in school, and not related at all to what I specialized in. Just in case you didn’t know, the focus of my last couple of years of university… Read more →
I May Have To Write A Children’s Book
I’m just going to take the snippets of story that Sarah throws out pretty much all the time and stitch them together into a narrative. “A monster ate my imagination.” “I don’t have any energy because a dragon ripped up my electricity and threw it into the stinky garbage pile. If I had my saw and my hammer we could… Read more →
Like A Flash
Somehow three years have gone by in a flash. Sarah Kathleen McLaren is three years old today, and what a day it was. Someday I’ll find some free time and update her photo blog, so that far away family and friends can see some of the festivities, but right now I am totally and completely exhausted. And old. She’s pretty… Read more →
A Weekend Miscellany
(You may not think it’s the weekend, but since I have Friday and Monday off, and my late night meeting with Australians is done, I am now into my weekend.) OK, let’s talk unexpected interpretations in cover tunes. Sarah Nixey covers Human League‘s Black Hit Of Space [via jwz]. Petra Haden covers Journey‘s Don’t Stop Believin’ [via Scalzi]. Ophelia Blitz… Read more →
This is for Mike Drake
But, of course, the rest of you are welcome to be amused by it. You can go buy Gorilla, the first Bonzo Dog album, right now. This track is from that, although it’s also on about six other “best of” collections. (This post inspired in part by Gwenda pointing to this list of noir quotes.) Read more →
Gospel Of The Knife
Another thing that happened while I was underwater at work was the release of Will Shetterly‘s new book The Gospel Of The Knife. It looks like this: (I hope that the cover catches some of the many Dan Brown readers, exposing them to some good writing and also making Will a ton of money.) The book is a sequel to… Read more →
Get Your War On Annoying Public Intellectuals
You know who David Rees is. You might not recognize the name right away, but you will surely know about Get Your War On, which is Rees’ brilliant strip of savage clipart acid political comedy. What you might not know is that Rees is also an excellent comic essayist. Want proof? My wife sent me a link today to Rees’… Read more →
