The New Adventures of Queen Victoria: Bunny Hamlet

Hamlet is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and this is an especially humorous interpretation:

http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadventuresofqueenvictoria/2010/07/17

A whole new take on lucky rabbits' feet...

Unfortunate Advertising

I was in a shopping mall last weekend with my sister (shocking, I know -- the mall, not the sister), and spotted this:


"La mer" means "the ocean" in French, but perhaps the French don't know what "lamer" means in English...

Edit: My sister informs me that La Mer is actually a French brand of cosmetics. My mother uses it, apparently.

Stereotyping People by Favorite Author

What your favorite author says about you (no pun intended):

http://laurenleto.wordpress.com/readers-by-author

I don't agree with all of these, but it was pretty funny nonetheless. (Some of them would be pretty terrible if true.)

(Yes, I am one of those people who thinks that jokes about books are hilarious. I work for a publishing house, for goodness' sake -- give me a break!)

Who's your favorite author?

Thanks to Truc for sending me this!

BBC: Education Secretary of Britain is "Open to Atheist-Run Schools"

This is very, very interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10791997

I'm with Prof. Dawkins here; teaching children atheism would be just as counterproductive as teaching them religion. "Free-thinking" schools would indeed be the best choice. Teach the children critical thinking, and then let them decide for themselves which religion (or lack thereof) they choose to believe in. If they choose religion after such an education, then they choose freely, by the dictates of their own consciences and intellects; it would be their choice, made with a rational mind and informed judgment. I, for one, certainly wouldn't begrudge them that -- that would destroy the entire point of free-thinking education.

Oops: "FML" Meme Now Plastered on NYC Subways

Several of New York City's subway lines have been rerouted or decommissioned this year (mostly, I believe, due to budgetary concerns). Of course, this resulted in the changing of the relevant signs and placards in subway stations. Whether by intention or oversight, this particular combination of trains now intersects at 14th Street and 6th Avenue:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20007547-36.html

I think it was Brett who first sent me this article, although quite a few people have subsequently pointed it out.

NYTimes: Unlikely Tutor Giving Military Afghan Advice

This is wonderful. It's extremely promising. For once, someone's getting something right in the Middle East:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/world/asia/18tea.html?ref=books

Greg Mortenson, of Three Cups of Tea fame, is a great person to have onboard with regard to Afghan strategy. He's someone -- and probably one of the only Americans on the ground -- who's not only concerned with America winning the war, but with the ordinary people of the area winning the war. Here is a man who can advocate for them, for these people whose cause few others would step up to champion, who commands enough respect in America to make a difference for these people where they themselves cannot. I'm glad he's there, and I'm glad the military (and especially the military wives who pushed for him) is listening to him.

Incidentally, one of our imprints publishes Three Cups of Tea. I already read it, or I would have snagged a copy.

xkcd: Antiquated Speech Patterns

It bothers me immensely when people think that Shakespeare wrote in Old English. (That was modern English, people!) A good example of Old English is Beowulf, of Middle English is Chaucer.

Anyhow, if several centuries of the evolution of the English language can be jumbled together in the modern consciousness, the scenario below is perfectly plausible, given the passage of another century or two:


http://xkcd.com/771/

I am amused.

I Write Like...

A very interesting program whereby you paste a chunk of text into the window, and the program tells you which writer's prose your text most resembles.

http://iwl.me

I tried this several times with different writing samples, and was told I write like Chuck Palahniuk, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, J.K. Rowling, and Oscar Wilde. Not sure how accurate this is... but it's entertaining nonetheless.

I'm curious to see other people's results... (hint hint)

Source: The New York Times "Paper Cuts" blog:
http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/i-write-like-yeah-right

Edit: I pasted in a few of my sister's e-mails. She's thirteen. It said she writes like James Joyce.

I'm not sure how much I believe this anymore.

NYTimes: Studies Show Jews’ Genetic Similarity

This is quite interesting. Unlike many of the other major religions in the world, Judaism is not a growing religion in that it does not actively seek new converts (a marked difference from, say, Christianity); most of today's Jewish population is descended from Jewish ancestors. They are a very good case of a genetically insular, migrant population, and therefore, rather like Drosophila, very conducive to study.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/science/10jews.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Hope is the thing with feathers (by Emily Dickinson)

This is one of Dickinson's most famous poems, and rightly so:

Hope is the thing with feathers
by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

"Hope" is the thing with feathers —
That perches in the soul —
And sings the tune without the words —
And never stops — at all —

And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard —
And sore must be the storm —
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm —

I've heard it in the chillest land —
And on the strangest Sea —
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of Me.

I especially like this poem for its refreshing take on the human phenomenon of hope. It is not an entreaty to have hope, or a declaration of one's own hopes, but rather an observation and artistic portrayal of the emotion in the abstract.

She has a very distinctive style (lots of em-dashes, capitalization of nouns in the middle of sentences, strict meter); you know a Dickinson poem when you see one. It is, though, not surprising that she developed such a unique poetic voice, considering she was a recluse (and a rather odd duck, in general) throughout her life. In fact, most of her poetry was published posthumously, because she never really sought publication for herself.

The Besieging Army is Larger Than Expected

I found this on Happy Chair a while back:


I can only imagine what the opposing army must have thought...

NYTimes: Lacrosse, and Iroquois National Identity

I was following this story last week, and am seriously disappointed with the state of tribal affairs in America and in the international arena. This is a travesty, a stain upon the consciences of America and Britain:

The original story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/us/13lacrosse.html?_r=1&hp

The less-than-satisfactory result:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/sports/17lacrosse.html?scp=2&sq=&st=nyt

What is especially ironic is that the sport of lacrosse was actually invented by the Iroquois, who are now being barred from traveling to the international championships. It's appalling.

The Problem with World-Hopping Fantasy Novels

I've always wondered about this, actually, in the back of my mind:


http://xkcd.com/693

(Click on the image; it's a little small to read.)

Neil Gaiman's story "The Problem of Susan" addressed this in the Narnia-verse (Lewis himself touches upon the problem in the later books), but few of the subsequent Narnia-inspired world-hopping fantasy novels really deal with the problem of post-return adjustment, especially since the protagonists often spend years of their lives in these otherworlds, only to come back the same age as when they left. One would think that there would be some period of time immediately afterwards where the protagonists couldn't help acting oddly, out of habit, and were shipped off to a psychiatrist or something. (That would make an interesting story, come to think of it.)

This is a problem often found in the work of inexperienced fantasy writers; I see this sort of thing every day in the slush pile (which is, for the uninitiated, the flood of unsolicited submissions we get in the submissions inbox). Advice/food for thought for aspiring fantasy writers, from someone who reads (and judges) your submissions:

(a) What the deuce would a magical world need from some kid (it's invariably a teenager) from Earth that a native couldn't do better (and don't give me any of that "prophecy" drivel)?

(b) Why would you ever leave your admittedly ordinary life on Earth on the request of some elf-guy who randomly appears in your bedroom? How do you know they won't just bash you over the head and eat you? I've been told I'm entirely too trusting, but even I know better than to trust strangers who break into my house.

(c) What makes you think that someone didn't just slip something into your drink? If someone tells me I'm the savior of the world and makes some pretty sparkling lights, I'd assume I ate something funny, not that I needed to travel to another dimension and face the legions of the Dark Lord, or something equally preposterous.

I'd caveat that all of this can be done well. But generally, most of the people who think they can do it well really, really can't (and the ones who can and know they can are generally pretty modest about such things).

Today

is the 85th anniversary of the Scopes Trial. This is one of the most famous trials in American history, pitting legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow against populist crusader William Jennings Bryan in a battle over academic freedom and separation of church and state. (To anyone who read Inherit the Wind -- which is, by the way, a wonderful book -- this may sound very familiar. It should.) Darrow's defeat was a tragedy.

Of course, without his defeat, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would never have been founded, and the world would have been the poorer for it.

Two Sides of a Coin

Praise and flattery are two very similar, and yet wholly different, creatures:

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.

~ Samuel Johnson

I do not often think of it this way, but it is quite true. It reminds me distinctly of the two traditions in which I am steeped. Americans believe in forthright truth and are wary of flattery, believing that the prettiest words are the most deceptive. The Chinese, on the other hand, have elevated flattery to a high art, placing their faith in the social lubricant of fine speech and disdaining those without such silvered tongues as uncultured and uncouth. Similarly, the Western world operates on a system of transaction, of payment of dues (catalogued, countersigned, and otherwise assured), whereas the Chinese believe in a system of favors, where it is more desirable to grant a favor than to suffer one given, where one's public honor trumps one's true ability when pressed to choose.

Veritas aut honor. Truly a difficult choice.

NYTimes: Robot Teachers

This is pretty awesome:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/science/11robots.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fscience%2Findex.jsonp

Robot teachers! Who would have thought? Some of the marvels of technology, in this day and age, make me feel as though I'm living in a science fiction novel.

A Humorous License Plate

I spotted this a few weeks ago on my way home:


I thought it was clever.

BBC: Chimps in Uganda are Socially Aware

An interesting look at how human language and communication might have evolved:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8803000/8803403.stm

The game of the pant grunts, in particular, seems very like some of the high school politicking that I've seen. Would it be a stretch to say that adolescents are rather like chimpanzees (or, perhaps more palatably, vice versa)?

Phiala's String Page

For all the computer scientists of my acquaintance, this has nothing to do with the sort of strings you guys know. This is a great page on medieval fiber arts:

http://www.stringpage.com

I've done a bit of tablet weaving, and quite a bit of braiding, and have ambitions to try some of the other types of weaving, &c. on the page. I also knit, but that's almost out of period, having originated in its recognizable form around the Renaissance, I believe.

NYTimes: 18th-Century Ship Found at World Trade Center Site

I never thought I'd see an archaeological dig right in my hometown. This is awesome, and will interest, in particular, fans of maritime history:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/18th-century-ship-found-at-trade-center-site/?hpw

I can't believe there was a ship beneath Manhattan, waiting to be discovered. A ship! An entire ship! (Though I suppose, in truth, greater things have been lost amidst the sands of time -- see "Ozymandias".) I can't wait to see it, if we'll ever get to. Sometimes (more often than not) they seal these things off, if the potential exposure damage is too great.

BBC: Choir to Sing the 'Code of Life'

This is a pretty awesome project; they're turning people's gene sequences into a song!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10581179.stm

I'd love to be part of that choir. (Hey, pick me! I can sing!)

Interestingly enough, if you listen to the clip in the article, it sounds a bit like medieval church music.

Excited Puppy Plays with Baby

A (rather pointlessly) cute home video, courtesy of the denizens of YouTube:



I got this off of a blog I read. It's too smile-inducing not to share.

NYTimes: Jousting, the Newest (or Oldest) Extreme Sport

Jousting was the extreme sport of the Middle Ages. There weren't really many of today's popular sports (such as most of the ones involving balls of some sort) -- the more popular athletic pursuits included the hunting- and war-based ones, such as horse-racing, fencing, archery, and hawking; racquet-based ones, like tennis; and other horse-based pursuits, like polo. Entire towns gathered to watch jousts, much as in previous eras, entire towns turned out to watch gladiatorial shows. Successful jousters could go on to win riches (horses, armor, gold), fame (much like today's sports celebrities), and royal recognition for their prowess.

I have seen a few jousts, and they are always fun (if nerve-wracking) to watch. Here is a journalistic take on the sport:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/magazine/11Jousting-t.html?hpw

I am glad to see today's men (and women) take up the lance. It is a dangerous sport, to be sure, but a noble one, quite literally.

I'd also love to try jousting sometime. I'm on the small side, to be sure; most women are, but I'd be one of the smaller women to make the attempt, as usually only tall/heavy enough women would take up the lance, perhaps out of a certain self-preservation instinct that I don't seem to have. Good idea/bad idea/thoughts?

When Anyone Can Be a "Published" Author (article)

My boss sent this to me a while ago. It's a very knowledgeable, well-thought out take on the phenomenon of self-publishing by an industry insider. For those of you unfamiliar with the practice, self-publishing is basically paying to get your manuscript printed in the form of a bound book, which is very different from being published through a legitimate publishing house. A house like ours takes care of everything from editing to cover art to distribution -- but is much more selective. The books we publish have to turn a profit for the company, which means that they have to be of a certain quality. Self-publishing... not so much.

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/06/22/slush?source=newsletter

I read slush (unsolicited submissions) as part of my job. Most of it is quite bad, some of it laughably so. There are actually precious few works of even halfway acceptable quality in the slush pile. The ones that reach us through more "respectable" means (i.e. literary agents) are much better, but even then, not all agents are created equal. There are many "agents" out there who do not know the trade well (usually fancying a law degree or a love of literature sufficient for the job), or who have less honorable intentions -- people scamming hapless writers for money. A good agent, methinks, is a godsend.

There you go -- a peek into what may otherwise seem like an opaque, exclusive industry.

Al Jazeera: Nations Back UN Biodiversity Panel

This is last month's news (I'm a little behind in terms of posting), but still noteworthy:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/201061413183923975.html

It's a step forward on endangered species protections. I don't think it'll be the harbinger of biological justice that some people tout it as, of course, but I don't think it'll be quite the disappointment that, say, the League of Nations was. It's more of a symbolic victory in that the international community is finally recognizing the need for global protections and legislation, rather than the regional efforts that have been occurring thus far.

Let's see where it takes us. Fingers crossed.

Paul the Psychic Octopus Predicts Spain over the Netherlands to Win the World Cup

Update: Paul is vindicated! No calamari after all.

I don't normally follow sports -- even the World Cup -- but this is pretty cool. Paul the Octopus has predicted the correct winner of seven out of seven World Cup matches thus far, and is apparently something of a celebrity in Europe. Here he is foretelling the result of tomorrow's game:



The Dutch are probably shaking in their cleats!

(My father told me about this one. He also suggested eating Paul if the Dutch end up winning. Go figure.)

NYTimes: Russia's "Illegals"

This could be fuel for more than a few thriller novels -- or James Bond films (my father has a slight obsession with them):

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/world/europe/30sleepers.html?hpw

Deep-cover spies seem rather anachronistic in this day and age -- a relic of the Cold War, perhaps -- but I can see why the idea is appealing. It's like the way small girls love having "secrets" in the schoolyard, secrets they can deny their classmates and giggle about amongst themselves, or how small boys are attracted to the idea of having a pistol hidden in the lining of an expensive suit. It's the same impulse that explains, methinks, my love of Sherlock Holmes and Dumas's musketeers.

Raising Chickens in the Big City

This is a great idea, and looks like a lot of fun!

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/156915

We do have a backyard, but I imagine my mother would be seriously displeased if we erected a chicken coop in the backyard. Not to mention that there are a ton of cats in my neighborhood, so the chickens might be in mortal danger. My sister and I came up with the ingenious idea of building a coop made of glass, with a slanted roof, such that should a cat attempt to get into the chicken coop, it would just slide right off. (If we managed to catch it on video, I could imagine it going viral on YouTube -- cats sliding off roofs!)

Subway Compass (the most brilliantly simple idea ever)

I've been noticing these past weeks that a certain spray-painted symbol has been showing up on sidewalks by the entrances of subway stations. It occurs in various colours (mostly red, light blue, and yellow), and looks like this:


(The dark mass at the bottom of the image is the hem of the dress I was wearing.)

I grew curiouser and curiouser, especially since I did not think it was mere chance that the symbol bore a remarkable resemblance to a compass rose, and even pointed in the right directions. (The "I.M. Pi" was also intriguing for its sheer cleverness.) I looked it up, naturally, and found this:

http://nyctheblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/steciled-compass-project-expands-to.html

It's absolutely brilliant. It's an ingenious solution to the inevitable momentary disorientation that comes with ascending from underground; it takes a few minutes and/or a few wrong turns to situate oneself on the Manhattan grid (and let's not even go into the snarl of lanes below Wall Street). I actually used to carry a small compass in my pocket/bag, just to save myself the confused wandering. This is a boon to all New York, and a long time in coming.

Ozymandias (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Today is the 188th anniversary of the death of the great English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In his memory, I'm posting one of his most famous poems, "Ozymandias". (It is, of course, in many ways ironic that I should choose this particular poem on his death-day.)

Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818)

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ozymandias was another name (as transliterated through the Greek by the early historian Diodorus) for Ramesses II, called "the Great", a pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of Egypt. He is often associated with the Exodus, though whether he was actually the inspiration for the Biblical character is still in dispute. Regardless, he was the longest-reigning pharaoh of his dynasty, outliving most of his family, and one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs, maintaining peace and stability for most of his reign. The majority of his subjects, at the time of his death, had been born during his reign, and could not fathom the thought of a different man on the throne -- there was wild speculation that the world would end.

Shelley was one of the many artists who did not become famous or well-loved until after his death. He was more famous in his day for his radical and liberal politics (of course, supplemented by some reputation as a "minor lyricist"); his admirers were then were mainly other Victorian poets (most notably the pre-Raphaelites) and the politically like-minded. Now, however, his reputation is quite different -- he is widely recognized as a great poet (and of course, for marrying the Frankenstein lady).

NYTimes: 26 Hour Flight by Solar-Powered Plane

I've seen unmanned solar-powered aircraft, and manned solar-powered cars, but this -- a solar-powered plane piloted by someone in its cockpit -- is huge, almost as huge as Kitty Hawk just over a hundred years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/world/europe/09plane.html?_r=1&hp

The Wright brothers would have been greatly pleased to see this, methinks. How like their Model A this craft appears!

BBC: Meerkat Culture

Yes, you read that correctly. Meerkat groups have been shown to transmit behaviours and non-genetic memes. They have, in essence, been forming cultural groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10529154.stm

It's a striking discovery. (And they're so cute!)

NYTimes: Bell Telephone's Brief Flirtation with Humanistic Education

At Stanford, all freshmen are required to fulfill a three-quarter course requirement called "Introduction to Humanities" (colloquially known as IHUM), or the equivalent thereof. I loved every minute of it -- mine was Ancient Empires, a survey of the major civilizations of the ancient world, taught in part by the brilliant and brilliantly funny Ian Morris, of the archaeology faculty. There were, however, a number of not-so-fortunate techies (students of a maths/sciences persuasion) who did not enjoy their IHUMs nearly as much. This is a story for them, a tale of the IHUM idea, fifty-six years ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/opinion/16davis.html

I think the world at large could do with a little more humanistic education. There's time to learn a trade -- afterwards.

Mario, the Violin Cover

A followup to the Mario on the Walls video:



I had a friend from nerd camp who would play things like the Star Wars theme on the flute. I played the flute as well, and we once attempted to duet something while I was sitting on his shoulders (it didn't turn out quite as well as we'd hoped). This is possibly even more awesome. He's in a tailcoat!

NYTimes: The Strangest Ice Cream Flavors

There's this ice cream parlor in San Francisco that sells flavors of ice cream called "Jesus Juice" and "Government Cheese". More descriptive flavors include "Peanut Butter Curry" and "Chocolate Smoked Sea Salt".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/magazine/04icecream-t.html?_r=1&hpw

As I like to say, I'll try anything once. Anyone up for an excursion into San Francisco once I get back to school?

They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

I'm a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings, but even if you're not, as long as you've seen the films, you'll find this very funny:



It's been around the internets for a while, so a lot of you have probably seen it. Still, it's worth revisiting. I watched it for probably the thousandth time tonight!

NYTimes: Hitler's Art Collection

Hitler: dictator, mass murderer, sociopath, art collector.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/arts/design/19abroad.html?hpw

The story goes: if he hadn't been rejected from art school, the Holocaust might not have happened. His racial politics were in part fueled by his distorted perception of art history. The Jews, in particular, did not have much of a tradition of visual art, given their religious proscription of graven images.

Ironic, perhaps?