Psion, which owns the trademark word Netbook suddenly finds it has lost control of its "intellectual property". Or something. Now, if they actually produced a product with that name...

Somebody give them a box of kleenex.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One more bit of proof that there's a blog out there covering every subject. Even furniture stores.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:00 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A new building design that "balances" nature and civilization. Acrosanti, anybody?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:45 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'll never look at a tomato...or a cucumber...the same way again!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:13 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Take a look at this enlarged picture of a stepwell (really big version here). How Escheresque!!!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My wife just called to tell me that NewDog (Mark 4.0) pulled a leather-bound copy of The History of the Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides) off the shelf and proceeded to chow down on the leather cover. It was not in its usual place, I was referring to it as I read Donald Kagan's The Peloponnesian War (his one-volume "popular" treatment of his four-volume opus).

"...the first page of Thucydides is, in my opinion, the commencement of real history. All preceding narrations are so intermixed with fable, that philosophers ought to abandon them, to the embellishments of poets and orators." (David Hume)

With this, she has joined a very exclusive club. OldDog (Mark 2.0, readers may recall that OldDog, Mark 3.0 passed away last may) chewed up a omnibus edition of The Lord of the Rings when she was roughly the same age.

I know I can get another copy, heck, I can get it for free from Project Gutenberg. But I had this one for about twenty-five years. Ah, NewDog, you're trying my patience!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Alexander Dumas, pere (The Three Muskateers, The Man in the Iron Mask) has a new novel out!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Fine art taco photography. Critical reaction! Me, I think the guy is a genius.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hmmm...

Fondness for small cups of intense coffee. CHECK.

Uses an iPod. CHECK.

Jots in a Moleskine. CHECK.

Do I pass the coolness test?

Nah.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Star Wars was around a lot longer than we thought. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:23 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Marinate some ribs, slap them on the grill, sit back with a gin and tonic...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've read Homer's The Odyssey several times, including once in Latin (high school). One thing that has fascinated me about The Odyssey...as well as The Iliad...is how much "truth" there is to the epic. Amazing to find an occasional bit that has survived the passage of time, countless re-translations and re-interpretations and the like.

And then there's the fanciful side. For example, here's a depiction of the "cosmos" of The Odyssey...as a snowglobe.

Addendum: The scholarly paper (Adobe Acrobat).

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:18 AM | Comments (1) | 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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Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman: A Walking Tour of the Shambles (Little Walks for Sightseers #16) (American Fantasy, 2002, ISBN 0-9610352-6-9; cover art by Gahan Wilson, interior art by Randy Broecker and Earl Geier).

This is a very small book...not sure I'd rate it a book, other than the fact that it is between too covers.

It is also an utterly hilarious book. From the listing of "other books" (all fictional titles) to the amazing sites you'll see in an obscure part of Chicago, to suggestions of what to eat at a restaurant you'll come across on your walking tour...funny stuff. Did you know about the buried Chinese cemetery? How about the tunnels under Lake Michigan? And what about that odd statue with the ruby eye that gets stolen and returns on a regular basis.

Try to find a copy and save your pennies to buy it. Bonus for me, my copy is signed by Wolfe, Gaiman and Wilson (and I'll let you guess which signature I value the most).

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A while back I came across a list of movies, books and other entertainment items on the International Space Station. I forwarded that list to Baen Books, as I noticed that a good chunk of the titles involved were from that publisher.

Somewhat jokingly I suggested that, in the spirit of their programs to give free books to members of the military and free books to disabled readers, they ought to give free books to the crew of the ISS.

Gee...maybe I should have suggested they give me a book contract. Because it appears they listened to me!

(I can't complain. They get free books, and I got a free Baen Books apron and a bunch of bookmarks and a sheet of autographed bookplates!)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:47 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The State of the Art; Iain M. Banks (Night Shade Books; 2004; ISBN 1-892389-38-X; cover art by Les Edwards).

With the release of the latest novel in the Culture sequence, I figured it was time to start re-reading the earlier books (scattered so far across the years that I can't remember most of the plots!), read the ones I've left tottering on Mount Toberead, and then tackle Matter, the newest addition. For a series that has been running as long as it has there are few short works in the sequence. In fact, as far as I know, this is the only collection that Banks has.

Made up of: Road of Skulls; A Gift from the Culture; Odd Attachment; Descendant; Cleaning Up; Piece; The State of the Art; Scratch; A Few Notes on the Culture.

Counts as one entry in the 2008 Year in Shorts.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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There's an old joke (attributed in one instance I've come across to Timothy Krauss) that goes...

A physicist, an engineer, and a psychologist are called in as consultants to a dairy farm whose production has been below par. Each is given time to inspect the details of the operation before making a report.

The first to be called is the engineer, who states: “The size of the stalls for the cattle should be decreased. Efficiency could be improved if the cows were more closely packed, with a net allotment of 275 cubic feet per cow. Also, the diameter of the milking tubes should be increased by 4 percent to allow for a greater average flow rate during the milking periods”.

The next to report is the psychologist, who proposes: “The inside of the barn should be painted green. This is a more mellow color than brown and should help induce greater milk flow. Also, more trees should be planted in the fields to add diversity to the scenery for the cattle during grazing, to reduce boredom”.

Finally, the physicist is called upon. He asks for a blackboard and then draws a circle. He begins: “Assume the cow is a sphere....”.

From the latest issue (online) of Symmetry comes a little more physics humor (yes, physics humor). For example, we can learn about Les Horribles Cernettes at the Hardronic Music Festival, Drug Sniffing Dogs at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and more! Who knew that physicists had a sense of humor?

Well, some at least. In the same issue, Jennifer Ouellette (who blogs at Cocktail Party Physics) talks about how some in the community complain about Big Bang Theory. I've only seen a few episodes, but why complain? How many people before the show was aired even knew what a physicist was? Welcome to the enlightenment of the great unwashed masses!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Links between St. Elsewhere and a large chunk of television. Some people have too much free time on their hands!

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The Last Centurion; John Ringo (Baen Books, August 200 .

Kumbaya.

I just finished reading this, in eARC (electronic Advanced Reading Copy) form from Baen's Webscription service.

Ringo has been steadily maturing as a writer. He has taken some chances, with Ghost and the other volumes of the Paladin of Shadows series, for example. I think the one thing that has kept him from a wider audience is the "science fiction stigma" and the generally (ahem) right-leaning orientation of the books.

No more. With The Last Centurion, he has moved firmly into the technothriller genre. That should attract more readers, as Ghost and its sequels did.

Kumbaya.

And...well...he pretty much manages to say something to anger just about everybody in the course of this book. Sure, the brunt falls on the Left, but keep reading. Everybody suffers at some point or another.

And maybe that is the point. As there is some stuff in here that ought to make you angry...and then make you think.

I'll give it another read when the final version is released.

Kumbaya.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It. Has. Arrived.

WE ARE EVERYWHERE. You know sf has conquered the world when a net pundit announces that 'Barack Obama is the Democratic Party's Kwisatz Haderach.' (SnarkyBastards.com) [LP]

Wot? Still no mention of the SF fandom marriage of the century? Wot?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 03:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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