The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Narayana:

I went to Bletchley Park a couple of years ago, and the guide, an older man, gave a very sympathetic and regretful account of Turing's treatment after the war. I did not expect him to mention it on the 'war computer' tour, but he did.

The others in the group - the usual assortment of geeks, families and tourists - were very respectful of the story.

We might not be all the way there yet, but we live at a time when ordinary people - including older people, families, geeks and prime ministers - can look at prior injustices and see that our own parents and grandparents were wrong. It does give you hope for the future.

I first heard the Che Stadium joke in All You Need is Cash (1978), the heartworming story of that Liverpool beat combo, The Rutles, affectionately known as the Pre-fab Four. Hard upon the heels of the joke came a second zinger, befitting the Python/SNL writers of the show.

"On their second visit to the States in early 1965 they played the world's first outdoor rock and roll concert at Che Stadium, named after the Cuban Guerilla leader, Che Stadium."

It's still funny.

I didn't know the name of Darwin's ship when I first read Voyage of the Space Beagle, but I found the title's image neither cute nor scampering. I lived in the countryside and I'd seen fox hunts set off with beagles. I thought of the dogs as dedicated hunters.

I'm very sorry to hear this. My best wishes for your full recovery, Teresa.

Two that occur every single time transatlantic posters are involved:

"We kicked your asses twice – in 1781 AND 1812."
"We saved your sorry asses in WWII."

'We'? If there's a poster on the internet who *did* fight at Cowpens, I'd love to meet him. I really would.

A great resource for real-life flames is Fandom_Wank. You don’t need to read all the wanks because they tend to highlight the best lines in the flamewar and also supply historical context of when that piece of rhetoric was last used. http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/

#91 Henry Troup: "And the About page is LOL funny "rapidly becoming one of the largest and most reliable online educational resources of its kind." Then there's four lines on "Canada", a one-liner on France, another on "Middle Ages", another on "money". It's like "The Encyclopedia of Adrian Mole, aged 13 1/2"."

Me - ObSFAuthor: Philip K Dick wrote a book about that. It's "Confessions of a Crap Artist" (1959). Dick found an encyclopedia from the Dark Ages, the shortest ever written at 35 pages, by an Isidore of Seville. According to Dick this gave him "the idea of creating the most idiotic protagonist, ignorant and without common sense . . . a modern day Isidore of Seville, California and have him write [an encyclopedia] for our time like that of Isidore of Seville, Spain."
It seems real life just caught up with Dick.

Got it as soon as I saw the second line. Not from the words, the meter. When I actually read the words, I had a another think - but the overall shape and size convinced me. I wonder if all famous poetry is like that. If I read Ozymandias in Finnish, would it be instantly recognizable?

Tom #28 - I'm not surprised to hear Google employees were in on it, but the concept is certainly giving the "map is not the territory" part of my brain a work out. (Goes to have a lie down.)

The bit with the logo is the only part of that area Google has photographed at that "zoom". If I try to zoom in on the areas around it, they are blurred or missing at that resolution. So what happens, does someone phone Google and say, "I've got a cool geeky thing for your map, find the high res photos quick so I can be famous," or is it just an accident this area got zoom treatment? (Cynic? Moi?)

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