A Sunday link list, of things that made me think of specific people. For my lovely wife, to share with her radical feminist associates, is the story of the most famous pirate of all time. Especially the bits about the pirate laws governing female prisoners. And the end of the story. Also for her yet another story about people who… Read more →
Author: Mr. McLaren
Sic transit gloria mundi
I was a bit too enervated to worry about blogging, or reading blogs, last night, so I woke this morning to find the entire Internet plastered with the news that Madeleine L’Engle had died. (See link list below). I know exactly when I read my first L’Engle book: it was A Wrinkle In Time, in the enrichment program in Grade… Read more →
For the discerning individual
If you are a fan of Tom Waits, or of the fine television program The Wire, you will thank me for this. First, go to the Kronos Quartet page. Over at the left, click on the “Kronos Quartet plays Sigur Ros” graphic. This will popup a window with a Quicktime player in it. It will be playing Flugufrelsarinn by default.… Read more →
Miscellany: Your lab fees at work.
For a long time now I’ve been asking to be cremated and buried or scattered, rather than being embalmed and buried whole. This is primarily because I find the whole embalming thing a bit icky and unnatural, and secondarily because as an engineer I realize that the conventional burial model doesn’t scale with geometrically expanding population. However, I think I’ve… Read more →
Apparently I need to move back to Ontario…
… just to slap argue some sense into some people. Look at this: Creationism raised as Ont. election issue TORONTO — Publicly-funded religious schools would be allowed to teach creationism and other theories, says Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory. Speaking to reporters at the a Jewish day school in Thornhill, Ont., on Wednesday, Mr. Tory defended his plan to bring… Read more →
Today I Find I Have Nothing To Say
Wow
I (heart) Tom Tomorrow
Bringing The Tone Back Down: Shut Up, Little Man!
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 →
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 →
