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7/17/09 10:48 am - [info]major_clanger - Paging [info]autopope...

In a comment to my post about the exploding inflatable mattress [info]twinfair noted that:

I misread that headline as "inflatable mistress" and this conjured up a whole different image!

I now have an image of a really bizarre alternative to the CIA's alleged exploding cigar plot to assassinate Castro.

7/16/09 02:56 pm - [info]major_clanger - And you thought the worst risk was it going flat in the night

BBC: A German man has blown up his flat while trying to mend an inflatable mattress, local fire officials say.

I think this chap has just learned the hard way what a fuel-air explosive is.

7/16/09 08:53 am - [info]major_clanger - Happy Birthday!

...to [info]la_marquise_de_!

7/16/09 05:49 am - [info]tamaranth - Three things make a post ...

1. The happiest of happy birthdays to [info]la_marquise_de_!
2. Back from a couple of offline days in Hanmer Springs, where I soaked in sulphur and sweated up a snowy hill. (We did not notice the earthquake.)
3. New Zealand ever so therapeutic: am dreaming vividly and unearthing all kinds of oddities in brain. Must be all the fresh air and funny-tasting* water. Or perhaps the wine.

*WITHOUT NASTY CHEMICALS, says hostess
Tags: ,

7/14/09 11:09 pm - [info]major_clanger - Walls, hills, dungeons and crypts - a fun weekend away!

Various other minor distractions in life have meant that I've taken a little longer than I'd hoped to post pictures from the trip to Hadrian's Wall organised a few weeks ago by [info]swisstone and [info]ladymoonray. Unfortunately, part of one of those distractions meant that I had to miss the day that featured most of the actual Wall, but I did make it both for the walk around Alston and its surrounds and the trip to Hexham.

Pictures )

7/14/09 01:34 pm - [info]ninebelow - From The Vaults

The last poll worked out well so I thought I would try it again:

Poll #1429625
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What should I read next?

View Answers

The Weight Of Numbers by Simon Ings
6 (20.0%)

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
3 (10.0%)

Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand
1 (3.3%)

Drowned Towers by George Turner
3 (10.0%)

The Tough Guide To Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
8 (26.7%)

Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
6 (20.0%)

The Unusual Life Of Tristam Smith by Peter Carey
3 (10.0%)

Doomsday by Connie Willis
4 (13.3%)

Viriconium by M John Harrison
7 (23.3%)

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
6 (20.0%)

Tags: ,

7/13/09 06:52 pm - [info]dougs - Charles N Brown

We'll miss you, Charles N Brown

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2009/07/charles-n-brown-1937-2009.html

7/13/09 02:10 pm - [info]ninebelow - Worldcon Panel Poll

Session ID: 893
Title: Re-reading
Description: There is a school of thought that re-reading is a juvenile habit, something children demand as a way to gain comfort. Yet most fans re-read. All critics do. What is it we gain from re-reading, do some texts bear more re-reading than others? And does this notion of comfort reading have any validity?


Poll #1429104
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Have you ever heard of that school of thought?

View Answers

Yes
6 (13.6%)

No
38 (86.4%)

Does that school of thought have any validity?

View Answers

Yes
7 (16.3%)

No
36 (83.7%)

Do some texts bear more re-reading than others?

View Answers

Yes
43 (97.7%)

No
1 (2.3%)



I couldn't think of a poll question for "Yet most fans re-read. All critics do." but that deserves some examination as well.
Tags: ,

7/13/09 07:27 am - [info]tamaranth - 2009/54: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -- Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -- Jonathan Safran Foer

I thought about all the things that everyone ever says to one another, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond, or days, or months, or 76.5 years if you were just born. Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped. (p.245)

non-spoilery review )

7/13/09 03:12 am - [info]tamaranth - 2009/53: The Angel's Cut -- Elizabeth Knox

The Angel's Cut -- Elizabeth Knox

It was cold and dark under the water. Far away the ships' propellers whined like bees caught behind a curtain. Xas hung beneath the surface and looked up through murky transparency at that surface in reverse -- the gleam of light on the backs of the waves. After a moment he saw the ragged star of Lucifer's form pass above him. The sea turned momentarily smooth in the downblast of the angel's wings. Then Lucifer banked and drove upward ... (p.7)
non-spoilery review )

7/13/09 03:06 am - [info]tamaranth - 2009/52: Tampa Burn -- Randy Wayne White

Tampa Burn -- Randy Wayne White

I sometimes wonder if focussing on marine biology as a life's work isn't a way of justifying, or at least validating, a specific and unsentimental view of existence. From biology's elemental view, human beings ... are not only guided by the tenets of natural selection, we are mandated. In such a world, eliminating enemies or behavorial anomalies isn't a decision to be made. It is a necessary process.
I've participated in that process. I can do it again if required. (p.119)

slightly spoilery review )

7/11/09 07:31 pm - [info]ninebelow - This Year's Reading

#33 Saga by Conor Kostick

Fantasies of agency are common but they are particularly common in SF and in YA SF even more so. This is not necessarily a good thing.

I really enjoyed Epic, Kostick's previous novel, but this fails to repeat the trick. Chiefly this is because although both novels deal with groups of teens overthrowing a malign political authority in this case they only succeed because two of them happen to handily have superhero powers. It is also ineptly structured and less original in its setting: it shows a heavy debt to Scott Westerfield's Pretties series and anticipates Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.

#34 Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

Another, more conventional fantasy of agency: Joe Ledger is the world's greatest cop, soldier and martial artist. When Big Pharma and Al Queda unite to unleash a zombie plague on the world, who ya gonna call? Utter tosh, obviously. Cheers to [info]grahamsleight for keeping me up to date on trashy holiday reads though.

7/11/09 10:56 am - [info]dougs - Beeblebears Picnic

I'm off ZZ9ing today. See some of you there.

http://www.zz9.org/events/zz9_diary.html

7/11/09 09:46 am - [info]dougs - Flintstones censored in United Arab Emirates

A new Middle East crisis erupted last night as Dubai television refused to broadcast 'The Flintstones'.

A spokesman said the people of Dubai do not understand the humour; however, those in Abu Dhabi do.

[source]

7/11/09 01:28 am - [info]dougs - Torchwood thought -- Spoilers for S3E4 and S3E5

A thought about Torchwood...

SPOILERS for Day Four and Day Five )

7/10/09 11:59 pm - [info]major_clanger - Torchwood

Discussion, with spoilers )

7/10/09 09:42 am - [info]dougs - A poll about Torchwood

Not cut because of spoilers, but because of how polls can muck up some friends pages.

A poll about Torchwood, and about different kinds of dramas )

7/9/09 10:34 pm - [info]dougs - Biiig Torchwood spoiler...

Biiig Torchwood spoiler... )

Discuss.

7/9/09 03:51 pm - [info]coalescent

Testing a mobile LJ client...

7/9/09 07:59 am - [info]tamaranth - New Zealand photos!


Day 6: Mosaic
Originally uploaded by tamaranth
Have just spent several days entirely without connection to the interweb. It was lovely. But now we're back from mini-roadtrip and I've posted a few (one or two per day) photos of the trip so far. Highlights (not necessarily documented) include:
- arriving, after a really long journey
- earthquake! (which I slept through)
- snow!
- mountains, Gandalf!
- the roar of waves from 40 kilometres away
- little weirdnesses
- kitties
- Golden Bay, and beach mosaics galore
- good beer, good wine, good food
- excellent and inspirational company
- New Zealand TV (eek)
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