The Lyorn's Den

10:00 pm - Catching up on the internet

I'm catching up on the internet, so, some links:

I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first class and giving them free drinks. --- Bruce Schneier, on his blog, Dec 26th.

When I was home, "The Name of the Rose" was on TV. As things tend to connect, here's (via MakingLight's Particles) someone arguing for the point that the papal delegation made in the movie (and the book) regarding the controversy on the question of poverty. As a cultural Lutheran, I always find it amusing when Evangelicals try to out-Pope the Pope. Any Pope. I wonder what Eco would have to say on it.

Maybe more later if I find interesting stuff.

01:38 pm - A well-established genre

Charles Stross upgrades to Windows 7.

MakingLight regards "the tale[s] of godawful Windows-installation woes" a well-established genre.

02:15 am - New Moon Lolcats

Twilight: New Moon in LOLCats.

07:20 pm - Poe's Law in action

Poe's law says, Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing. (found at Urban Dictionary, discussed in depth at Rational Wiki, lots of examples at TV Tropes.)

This it not new -- more than twenty years ago I heard a satirist mock the very same effect, that one day's parody was next days politics -- but it has been brought to a new high (low?) by the Conservative Bible Project (keep the brain bleach ready if you follow that link, you might need it). If this was parody it would be over the top, still, how can it not be parody? (via slacktivist).

I'll go with the Lolcatbible here: And if pplz photoshpz the Heliez Bibul, the Ceiling Cat takes pplz's cheezburger away, k? Unless there is some severe taking away of cheeseburgers seen, the whole project will make a good data point for scepticism.

06:30 pm - Linking to it might spoil the joke...

The Cold War Reenactment Society (via copperbadge).

02:15 am - Fic rec: Evil Overlord List, TW CoE edition

lannamichaels "Fifteen Things You Should Remember While Part Of A Massive Government Conspiracy."

Current Mood: amused

02:08 am - Strange things

(warning: NSFW blog names and post titles)

Sexual assault prevention tips guaranteed to work (Funny, except that is kind of isn't. Via figleaf.)

Men, Women and Cold Dead Fish - the limits of fMRI.

03:29 pm - Anyone needs to rent a cargo ship?

They are cheap this season: Ghost Fleet. (via makinglight).

I saw something like that, a dozen ships only, though, when I was in Falmouth in April.

01:09 pm - Stupid on the internet

bellatrys has found a truly remarkable singluarity of stupid on the internet which will likely make you grasp for the bleeprin while howling with laughter.

Background is the current US health care debate:

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

bellatrys

Current Mood: indescribable

11:41 pm - Link

Buffy vs. Edward remix.

08:52 pm - Picked up on LJ

(well, Dreamwidth, to be exact, but it overlaps)

Jonathan Tweet (Ars Magica, Sorcerer's Crusade) makes a total ass out of himself on his LJ by a) believing in evo psych gender essentialism, and b) using it to explain why so few women play role playing games.

jhkim

Current Mood: cranky

12:13 am - Quote of the day

... ok, two days ago, whatever:

Darn it, I've fallen into the Bizarro internet again, where a blogger makes an innocent post asking for opionions about abortion, and the comment thread immediately degenerates into an inflammatory argument about pie.
-- Spiders Everywhere on Slacktivist: No Pie Needed

Also, completely unrelated, I have fresh strawberries. And a brand-new pot with kitchen herbs on my balcony.

More unrelated, Christian has his dissertation finished: Rhythmen der Bilder. Congrats!

Current Mood: amused

02:37 am - Playing with Mary Sue tests

http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm.

( Cut for boring )

12:37 pm - I'm still having this dream

xkcd: Students.

I'm in school, I realise a) that I have to write my final exams in the near future, and b) that I haven't been here for years. And I know there's a reason I haven't been in school for years, other than me just having forgotten to attend, but I have no idea what it might be.

Lately the dream usually ends with me thinking, "Final exams, what the heck. I'll just wing it." Which is pretty much what I did in school.

12:31 pm - Links

Highway robbery in Texas.

London, as seen in US comics.

Financial crisis in Iceland, or, It might take six years to learn how to fish, but everyone with a suit can be an investment banker.

In the above article, Neil Gaiman discovers the perfect job (except writer). It it neither fisher nor banker...

Speaking of Neil Gaiman, his first illustration.

Which would neatly lead to Watchmen, but I haven't seen it yet and there's so much debate going on that I would not know where to start. Just from reading the reviews, it seems that the movie is suffering from a failure of craft, as in, it fails to make its themes clear to an audience without meta-knowledge. rm enjoyed it. Most progressives without meta knowledge seem to hate it and say strange things about Alan Moore, whose dislike of Hollywood and/or film as a medium seems justified, as he always gets the short stick from it.

Current Mood: pensive

07:36 pm - It's not yet April 1st, is it?

Dalek found in pond. (via trobadora)

Current Mood: amused

10:15 pm - Good things, linked

"India's Traditional Medicinal Herbs, Yoga Postures Deemed 'Public Property', Cannot Be Patented" (via twistedchick)

Gay marriage in California: Not over yet, court says. (also via twistedchick)

"Lovecraftian School Board Member Wants Madness Added To Curriculum" (via Pharyngula)

Current Mood: okay

06:25 pm - Links

London by night. Pretty, pretty pictures.

Charles Stross: Preventing the New Dark Ages, or, Don't let your software steal your work: [I]f I created a work I damn well own it, and I'll go back to using a manual typewriter if necessary, rather than let a large corporation pry it from my possession and charge me rent for access to it.

And I just found that rummaging through my bookmarks -- did I link it before? No idea. The annotated "American Pie"

Current Mood: listless

01:05 pm - Just a link

Charles Stross on Lovecraft, Dr. Strangelove, horror, humour, the Singularity, and the "Laundry" books: Existential horror: it's not just for breakfast..

04:29 pm - Thinking about energy saving lightbulbs

Now that it's still dark early, I notice how much I run into and out of the kitchen all the time. Every half-hour to an hour, if not more, often for a minute or less. Used to be I turned on the light when I went in, off when I went out. Little wonder I had to replace one or two of the five 40W light bulbs per year.

Now I'm starting to switch to energy saving light bulbs, which, I read, should be left burning at least for 15 minutes. So the lights in the kitchen are now on more-or-less permanently when I'm at home. That means, on a normal workday evening, 1*5 hours instead of 10*1 minute plus 30 minutes for cooking dinner.

I'm not sure if this would actually be saving energy if all five bulbs were energy savers. With only one of them, so far (the others refuse to break down), I'm sure it doesn't.

ETA: Vaguely on-topic (re: saving energy) -- a little alternate history from the Guardian: "No one thought Al Gore would be a loveable president, but, after eight years in the White House, he has gotten truly tiresome". (via MakingLight).

Current Mood: discontent