Ansible 252 is up!

There was even a role-playing game that utilized strangely shaped polyhedral dice, minute but over priced models, and rulebooks the size of bibles. This was aimed at pale young men who mumbled self-consciously, washed infrequently, and never got picked for the stone-skimming team—and it was, frankly, a disappointment. (David Bilsborough, A Fire in the North, 200

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When Beowulf collides with Dr. Seuss.

Hark and ware, oh Warrior!
Weird of Sven now hear you.
How good Lars he harried,
pestered him with questions.

Late at meadhall light burned;
Lars did strive to largen
belly with a bowl of
boiled fish his mission.

And some chunks of chicken,
cheese and bread and peasoup,
finally pounds of pancakes
paired with lingon berries.

Smallish snack he snuck while
woozy wife lay snoozing.
When inside there wandered
forth a fellow northman.

Lars did greet him greatly
for he knew the gruesome
tales of host who hasten
travellers forth from doorstep.

Lars did ask his name then.
"I am Sven," he mentioned.
"Sven I am," he stated.
"Do you like lutefisk and yams?"

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hmmm...why hasn't there been more coverage of this part of NASA's Phoenix mission?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A house with a two-story outhouse? How is such a thing possible?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...in London, in that part of it known as Whitehall where the art of government was once practiced and is now imitated; where lies flourish and are admired as if they were prize blooms at the Chelsea Flower Show; and where infirmity of purpose is practiced with a belligerence that might almost make you think great men had come again...

(J.K. Mayo, The Interloper)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No matter how you work it, "ground chicken" and "Italian chicken sausage" just doesn't cook up as well as the real thing for a good pot of tomato sauce.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have been informed by Mr. David Drake that I will be appearing in the next Lt. Leary novel, commanding a cruiser.

If I die, I hope I do so gloriously, in accordance with the finest traditions of the RCN!!!!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 03:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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While trying to weed the vegetable garden, I found another nest of yellow jackets.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Just when you thought you knew somebody...it looks like Regulus is a binary star! Time to start rewriting a lot of science fiction stories!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Was it the excessive amount of stimulants (Red Bull) or the excessive amount of depressants (alcohol) that allowed this person to enter into the running for the Darwin Awards?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Our solar system on a t-shirt, using fonts of relative sizes. Neat!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It is difficult to get to work when both roads you can use are blocked off!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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David Drake; Lt. Leary, Commanding (Baen Books; 2000; ISBN 0-671-57875-8; cover by Stephen Hickman).

(Read the entire book online, or download it, for free!)

Lt. Leary, Commanding is the second volume in Drake's RCN Series. (For an account of how I came to read the first volume, see this previous post, for a note by David Drake on the series, see this link.) Leary is involved in repairing and refitting the ship the ship he (ahem) acquired in With the Lightnings when he is called on to take command and participate in a mission to a neighboring planet. The mission is muddied by political intrigue, both on his planet, on an intermediate planet (where a side adventure resembles the events of the short precursor story, A Grand Tour, which appeared in the Honor Harrington-related collection More Than Honor), and on the planet his mission originally was aiming for. Toss in a cranky fleet commander, a gang of pirates, and a small private war and top it all off with a nice fleet action and you have some of the finest writing that Patrick O'Brian never did.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You've heard of LGM's, Little Green Men? How about BGM? What the heck is this thing?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There's a secret vault in Lego-land where every set ever produced resides!

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You whippersnappers might appreciate this. Rich Love talks about the changes in technology from the 1970's to 2008.

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The A.V. Club at The Onion has put together a list of books for the summer. Titles include M. John Harrison's Nova Swing (on Mount Toberead), Gene Wolfe's WizardKnight duo (also on Mount Toberead) and Jay Lake's Mainspring (need I repeat myself?). So many books, so little time, so many ex...need I repeat myself?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Domes leaked, always. The angles between the facets could never be sealed successfully. If you gave up and tried to shingle the whole damn thing—dangerous process, ugly result—the nearly horizontal shingles on top still took in water. The inside was basically one big room, impossible to subdivide, with too much space wasted up high. The shape made it a whispering gallery that broadcast private sounds to everyone."

(Stewart Brand, as quoted in Dymaxion Man: The Visions of Buckminster Fuller.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This non-novel was brought to you by John Brunner using Spicers Plus Fabric Bond and Commercial Bank papers interleaved with Serillo carbons in a Smith Corona 250 electric typewriter fitted with a Kodak black-record ribbon.

(John Brunner, Stand On Zanzibar, Chapter: Context [28])

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