Please change my question at #381:Do anyone knowto 'Does anyone know...' (And tell me why don't these things seem half as obvious on preview?)
Lee #383, if you're loving Numb3rs, you might enjoy the vid Math Prof Rock Star
And re #384, I second debcha's rec of Hard Core Logo, but I underline (twice!) her warning. Definitely Bleak! Not to be watched alone while feeling miserable and sad. It's not that sort of weepy.
Do anyone know of a list (however incomplete) of SFF writers who started off as fans? Or, a better set of google-y words to look for such information? I am having no luck at all.
(Hoping that the open thread encompasses such requests.)
I have been let down by the internets! There is a Renaissance song about a old blacksmith trying to repair a lady's pot (okay, not box, but close), but sadly his hammer keeps striking too high, too low, too high, too low. (Thankfully a young blacksmith comes 'round with greater precision, and nails the problem!) Anyone remember the song title?
It's good for me to remember that there are secular nuts out there, too. If you haven't checked out Ezra Klein's takedown of the Obama's Dad was Malcom X fruitbattery, check it out -- and make sure to follow the comments for the other "X's" he could be related to.
I just finished Dreamers of the Day at lunch. (Odd, but eventually very satisfying book.) And its last three (non-spoilery, I swear) sentences are perfect for this thread:
Ernq gb Puvyqera ibgr
Ibgr
Naq arire ohl nalguvat sebz n zna jub'f fryyvat srne.
---
What I mind most about the polarization is that I can no longer hear the words "I'm voting for McCain" without thinking very rude things about the speaker. Even if I force myself to stay quiet, I still have the conversation in my head about how unbelievable stupid and/or cynically evil that person is. I don't like thinking that about people -- at least not on one piece of evidence -- but right now, that one piece is sufficiently damning in my mind. And yet I know I have friends and family planning to vote for him.
Wesley said:
I'm currently in the middle of The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank.
I really liked that one -- and found it went well (i.e., horribly) with Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Her thesis was, that some people on the right plan ahead -- have bills they'd like to pass, etc. -- and when things go horribly wrong (like, say, a housing bubble, or Katrina), that's when they strike. Part of me doesn't want to believe. After all, if they can't plan an evacuation, how can they plan partial coups? But then I remember all of the crap that got thrown into the original Patriot Act -- horrible civil liberty invasions that they just happened to have sitting around, waiting for a chance to throw into an omnibus security bill.
(Most of her book is actually not about the US, it's about rt-wing-"paradises" like Pinochet's Chile, and how the rt wing in this country said things like, "so sad they have soldiers in the streets, but did you see they've privatized social security?" As if it would be possible to brutally attack your own people economically, without putting soldiers in your streets. Ah...I'm not doing it justice.)
I'm a huge fan of The Daily Show, but I was very depressed by his interview with C. Theron last night about her part in the movie "Battle in Seattle" (with comments about civil disturbance in Minn. as well).
Both Stewart and Theron talked about the disturbances as if they had been led by and participated in largely by anarchists. I don't want to hide the anarchists' participation (like the nitwits who want to hide the drag queens at Pride [g]), but acting as if these demonstrations are solely the act of anarchists (or Anarchists) makes them seem like they are done by people outside of the mainstream, unlike 'us', the tv viewer/citizen. I found it very disheartening.
And I know it's a comedy show, but we have so few liberal voices on television...
cofax said:
My head and brain also tell me that this kind of vindictiveness, if proven, is not the sort of behavior I would want someone a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States to exhibit. Presidents should be bigger than that.
I agree, of course, but ...I do have a sneaking admiration for LBJ, who seemingly wallowed in this sort of vindictiveness, and managed to get a lot of cool things done, too.
I am gleeful, because I have been wanting to make new wooden'n'glass cold frames this year before the weather turns, but frightened by the price of plywood, and then someone posted FREE LUMBER! on Craigslist yesterday, and in the dead of night, we drove over and filled (filled!) our trunk with wonderful usable non-nailfilled wood that's going to work fabulously!
So, I haven't started Making yet, but this weekend is going to be full of the noise of sawing and nailing. Yippee!
So, MIJI (Meaconing, Intrusion, Jamming, and Interference) is supposed to be used against electronic signals (navigation, comms, etc.), but now I'm trying to figure out plausible miji scenarios against the crypto examples you've all come up with.
Paula at 158
I love the entire piece, but it starts especially strong:
I wonder what the books were
That Palin wanted banned,
I wonder where the money went
Congress poured in her hand...
I've been trying existing tunes trying to find the perfect fit, but I may have to come up with something specifically for it.
Leah @ 153
I especially loved the last two lines of yours:
And a wiser voice brings consolation
Singing somethin' 'bout a better nation
It reminded me of that wonderful line about "work like you're in the early days of a better nation" (that I'm probably misquoting). Very cool.
(and Lee, now I'm sitting here at my desk humming, and it's your fault. OTOH, as earworms go, it could be a lot worse.)
Bruce @25
re Seattle during the Pandemic Flu -- I don't suppose you remember your sources? My partner is fascinated by the Great Flu, and lives in Seattle...and there's always another birthday/anniversay/gosh-you're-wonderful gift giving occasion coming up.
To quote a great thinker:
"I deeply resent the way this administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist."
In Seattle, the "anarchists" (sneer quotes definitely) who came out of nowhere were never identified, so we never knew whether we were crazy, or setup. I hate that.
Here's another depressing article from the Minn. Independent. Part of me wonders if it is just more of the same, yet another way of making the government less legitimate.
sherman alexi, writing for a seattle altweekly recently, on the word motherfucker:
23. "Motherfucker" is, of course, the purest distillation of mama insults. Since single mothers are sadly common and sweetly revered in black culture, mama jokes are ironically hilarious. However, I've always wondered why the term "fatherfucker" is so rarely used as an insult. I think it's far more original, powerful, and disturbing than "motherfucker." I assume that "motherfucker" is an insult borne of misogyny, so wouldn't "fatherfucker" be a more egalitarian, homoerotic, and therefore more disturbing obscenity? Wouldn't we all be challenging the patriarchy if we adopted its use?
24. Kobe Bryant is one mean and gifted fatherfucker. Does that work for you?
I walked into an unknown bar on Pike st, heard this being read aloud (loudly), and knew I'd found a keeper.
Not at all healthy, but ooh, so good -- Zucchini Fritters:
The recipe calls for 2 eggs, 1/2 c flour, and 3-ish cups of coarsely grated zucchini, fried in a couple of Tablespoons of oil. We randomly add garlic, pepper, red peppers, herbs, you name it -- and then serve them with chutney or salsa and aioli.
Delish!
Despite much reading about the film industry, and talking to more than one film director, I still don't understand it at all. For example, in an hour or two, musing about a movie most of us had seen years before, this crowd (admittedly not a representative audience, but still...) was able to come up with three easy-to-make fixes that would have been cheap to do, and made the movie solidly better.
They have test audiences; they have industry audiences (beta readers?) -- why do so many movies have such glaring plot holes?
I had the pleasure of actually being at a slashy, if not technically slash, con this weekend (Vividcon -- a con for makers and fans of fannish songvids), and spent sometime in the consuite leading a sing-a-long of these. Sadly, the list was only up to 149 at the time, so we missed werelemur's wonderful updating of the chorus:
Singin' ass to your partner
balls against the wall!
If ye cannae get slashed on Livejournal
ye cannae get slashed at all!
A wonderful singing time was had by all -- thanks so much for all the silliness!
"What I’d really like to know is why the civilized world hasn’t stopped us."
Watching the Russian vs. Georgia grudge match, it seems clear that no one will be stopping Russia, whether they think Russia is in the wrong or not.
Honestly, if Nazi Germany and Japan had restricted themselves to smaller enemies, who knows how long they could have continued to wreck havoc before they were stopped. (Hmm. There are so many published WWII alternate histories, that one may already be published somewhere!)
ff.1 Books with Chapter titles, and quotes at the beginning of each chapter
ff.1.a Books with Chapter titles, and quotes at the beginning of each chapter, where the quotes are more clever than any other writing in the book.
ff.1.b Books with Chapter titles, and quotes at the beginning of each chapter, where the quotes are more clever than any other writing in the book, even though the quotes are made up by the author, too.
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|---|---|
| 2009 | 1 |
| 2008 | 40 |
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