03/06/28 links, novel progress #9
03/06/21 links, novel progress #8
03/06/14 links, novel progress #7
03/06/07 current events, links, novel progress #6
03/06/28 links, novel progress #9
03/06/21 links, novel progress #8
03/06/14 links, novel progress #7
03/06/07 current events, links, novel progress #6
The postdoc course on IT auditing is over (except I still have to write my thesis) and suddenly I'm having lots of free time.
When I came across this page I knew I'd seen it before and possibly I've blogged it before, but anyway. When I moved away from Utah in 1995, I was startled at how quickly the tattered remnants of my faith, which had seemed whole enough before, finally unraveled completely and fell away. It was my total immersion in Mormon culture and thought that had kept me from believing was my subconscious mind had apparently known and been trying to tell me for years-that Mormonism was no more true than any fantasy novel in the dime racks at the local supermarket. I had let myself suffer pointlessly for years under the belief that I was somehow, because of my doubts, just not as good as my fellow Saints, and not worth a damn in the eyes of God. I know there are other people trapped in this same vicious cycle of doubt and devotion, afraid of their own misgivings, terrified of the censure of their families and community. The mission of this Web site is to reach those very people, and to nudge them gently toward the way out.
William Shunn: Mormon matter
The Annals of Improbable Research - also known as AIR - is a magazine. AIR is all about research that make people LAUGH, then make them THINK. [...] Our goals are: (1) to be funny; and (2) to raise this question - How do you figure out what's important and what's not, and what's real and what's not - in science and everywhere else?
Hot air
The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia is both a real place and a virtual site. The actual museum is located on the campus of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. [...] Objectives of the Jim Crow Museum: collect, exhibit and preserve objects and collections related to racial segregation, civil rights and anti-Black caricatures; promote the scholarly examination of historical and contemporary expressions of racism; serve as a teaching resource for Ferris State University courses which deal, directly or indirectly, with the issues of race and ethnicity; serve as an educational resource for scholars and teachers at the state, national and international levels; promote racial understanding and healing; serve as a resource for civil rights and human rights organizations.
Jim Crow museum of racist memorabilia
The cover art is pretty typical: a tall blond hero boldly faces a crowd of misshapen mutants. Only the swastika emblems on his sleeves are distinctive. The cover says "The Iron Dream" by Norman Spinrad, but the flyleaf declares the book to be "Lord of the Swastika" by Adolf Hitler. A brief biography follows, describing Hitler's emigration to the US in 1919, followed by a career as SF author and illustrator. Before the novel itself, there's
a list of other Hitler SF novels, including "Emperor of the Asteroids", "The Twilight of Terra" and "The Thousand Year Rule". This article discusses both this curious book, and what it tells us about SF and Fantasy in print and on screen.
K5: Lord of the swastika - political backgrounds in SF and fantasy
And another oldie: mathematician Henrik Lenstra and the blank space in the middle of Escher's Print Gallery.
Metafilter discussion
Two new episodes.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (44)
After the war (45)
Lessons learned while writing a novel.
03/06/28 The elements of writing
Bought the new Harry Potter this morning. Thus far, Rowling doesn't disappoint.
Websites, moderated mailing lists and blogs must offer right to reply?
News.com: why Europe still doesn't get the Internet
Blogroots discussion
Metafilter discussion
A football fan who took part in racist chanting at a match has been convicted in a landmark court case. Two High Court judges ruled the 21-year-old fan should have been convicted of a criminal offence when he came before magistrates.
BBC News: fan convicted over racist chant
Guardian: high court rules 'Paki' football chant racist
Metafilter discussion
Huge collection of Arthurian resources (warning: may take somewhat long to download over a modem connection).
Arthurian literature and art
More arthuriana...
The Camelot project at the university of Rochester
Vortigern Studies has the internet's most comprehensive treatment of Britain's history from the end of the Roman era to Arthurian times. Edited by Robert M. Vermaat, this unique website focuses primarily on the person of Vortigern and the enigmatic earthwork called Wansdyke. It features narrative histories, original source documents and important texts, extensive bibliographies, reading lists, informative articles by guest writers, maps, polls and more.
Vortigern studies
Aliens attack the building of the Dutch Institution for Metereology (see the pictures in the bottom-right corner). Might explain something about the weather here.
KNMI webcam
Two new episodes.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (42)
After the war (43)
Not a lot going on. I'm a bit tired - of everything, really. After next week the postdoc course is over, so maybe I should take a vacation then.
...a freely available resource for adherents of the Northern spiritual faith of Hindrvitni and for all those who live by the pre-Christian spiritual faiths of Northern Europe. [...] Perhaps the largest collection of freely available texts dealing with the lore, culture and history of Northern Europe on the net today.
Northvegr
Metafilter discussion
A body is found in the frozen North Dakota woods. The cops say the dead Japanese woman was looking for the $1m she saw buried in the film Fargo. But the story didn't end there.
Guardian: Death in the snow
Metafilter discussion
This remarkable monstrosity has six backs and no front. James Howard Kunstler critiques architectural eyesores.
Eyesore of the month
Metafilter discussion
Excellent series of articles about writing a novel.
Suite101: The writing process
In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead.
Search engine watch: Death of a meta tag
The first episode of part 2.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (41)
This week's biggest news stories over here all had something to do with crime and punishment:
12 men who had been accused of plotting terrorist attacks and recruiting for the Jihad have been acquitted. The charges had been based on information from the secret service that wasn't revealed incourt and that the defence didn't have access to. The proscecution is going to appeal. After the verdict there has been quite some discussion about dealing effectively with terrorist threats versus due process.
CNN: 12 acquitted of terrorist charges
Former Phillips director Roel Pieper and his wife were stabbed by a disturbed individual who shouted things like "You and your fucking money" during the attack. The same man had been trespassing on the Pieper property earlier this week, but alledgedly the police had taken no action because the no trespassing signs on the property didn't meet the legal requirements.
Expatica: ex-Phillips director, wife stabbed
Expatica: police 'innocent' in Pieper stabbing
Expatica: Pieper considers suing the police
Lately in the Netherlands there has been strong criticism of high salaries and exit bonuses for company executives. Antony Burgmans, chairman of the Dutch arm of Unilever, connected the attack on Pieper and his wife to the 'demonisation' of highly paid executives. ('Demonisation', of course, is the new term added to our vocabulary after the murder on Pim Fortuyn.)
Guardian: stabbing stokes fat cat pay row
Fons Spooren, former director of the PSV soccer club, has been charged with having contacts with underage male prostitutes. In a highly debated move, the proscecution announced this week that Spooren was HIV positive. The proscecution reasoned that there may be people out there, underage or otherwise, with whom Spooren has had unprotected sex, and that the health interests of these people are more important in this case than Spooren's right to privacy.
Expatica: ex-PSV director denies sex abuse
More Dutch politics and current events:
Dutch politics in 2003
President George W. Bush has got a very serious problem. Before asking Congress for a Joint Resolution authorizing the use of American military forces in Iraq, he made a number of unequivocal statements about the reason the United States needed to pursue the most radical actions any nation can undertake - acts of war against another nation. Now it is clear that many of his statements appear to be false.
Findlaw: missing weapons of mass destruction - is lying about the reason for war an impeachable offense?
And, on a much lighter note:
Metafilter: fountain pens
Metafilter: Moleskines
The encyclopedia of Arda
Ian McKellen's LOTR diary
Over the past week I've added one episode to the first draft of my novel.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (40)
On this page Transitional HTML 4.01 and CSS 1 are used. If you're seeing this text you either have CSS switched off in your browser, or you're using a browser that can't handle CSS. If you're using an older browser version, you might want to consider upgrading.