Watch the Nebulas Live!
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Colloquy #1- Interview with William Shakespeare
Doctor Frank C. Baxter interviews the shade of late William Shakespeare, in particular about the knotty problem of who actually wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare. They are joined by Kit Martlowe, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (both of whom claim authorship), Francis Bacon (who does not) and Richard Burbage (there to make the case for the importance of the actor in plays).
The discussion gets rather heated. I was a bit surprised to hear "pederast" tossed around as an insult at one point.
I will admit I found parts of this funny, not least because I once got to watch a Shakespearian expert deal with an ... energetic and determined fan of one of the alternate authors of Shakespeare's plays.
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Doctor Frank C. Baxter interviews the shade of late William Shakespeare, in particular about the knotty problem of who actually wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare. They are joined by Kit Martlowe, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (both of whom claim authorship), Francis Bacon (who does not) and Richard Burbage (there to make the case for the importance of the actor in plays).
The discussion gets rather heated. I was a bit surprised to hear "pederast" tossed around as an insult at one point.
I will admit I found parts of this funny, not least because I once got to watch a Shakespearian expert deal with an ... energetic and determined fan of one of the alternate authors of Shakespeare's plays.
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( Some medieval poetryCollapse )
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Season of Disbelief & Hail and Farewell
Season of Disbelief
An old widow, isolated and alone, becomes the focus of attention of two little girls who refuse to believe the old lady was ever young. When the old lady presents proof of her story, the girls not only refuse to accept the truth, they take her stuff.
I think this was supposed to about accepting who you are but it felt more like being broken on the wheel of social conventions, especially the bit where the old lady is stripped of her given name.
Hail and Farewell
An man with an odd and highly inconvenient medical condition finds a role for himself but he is forced to move from position to position.
I really have to wonder if PJ Plauger ever read this one...
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Season of Disbelief
An old widow, isolated and alone, becomes the focus of attention of two little girls who refuse to believe the old lady was ever young. When the old lady presents proof of her story, the girls not only refuse to accept the truth, they take her stuff.
I think this was supposed to about accepting who you are but it felt more like being broken on the wheel of social conventions, especially the bit where the old lady is stripped of her given name.
Hail and Farewell
An man with an odd and highly inconvenient medical condition finds a role for himself but he is forced to move from position to position.
I really have to wonder if PJ Plauger ever read this one...
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For what must be my fifth assignment to write an assessment and treatment plan for a fictional character, I am now diagnosing and treating one of the heroes of my upcoming novel.
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1108
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1108
It started me thinking about all the REAL women for my daughter to know about and look up too, REAL women who without ever meeting Emma have changed her life for the better. My daughter wasn’t born into royalty, but she was born into a country where she can now vote, become a doctor, a pilot, an astronaut, or even President if she wants and that’s what REALLY matters. I wanted her to know the value of these amazing women who had gone against everything so she can now have everything. We chose 5 women (five amazing and strong women), as it was her 5th birthday but there are thousands of unbelievable women (and girls) who have beat the odds and fought (and still fight) for their equal rights all over the world……..so let’s set aside the Barbie Dolls and the Disney Princesses for just a moment, and let’s show our girls the REAL women they can be.
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Remember these?
You could totally do a pop song about a dysfunctional relationship between author and fan, couldn't you? Something along the lines of Grenade or Every Breath You Take.
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You could totally do a pop song about a dysfunctional relationship between author and fan, couldn't you? Something along the lines of Grenade or Every Breath You Take.
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Disambiguate Madeline Kahn and Bernadette Peters.
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Is it possible to do an SF movie about exploration that doesn't end up as a Scary Monster movie?
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Recent SF novels set in the solar system:
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Back in the 1950s, which of the US states had nothing of interest to communist spies?
Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Utah, and and Wyoming, I think.
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Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Utah, and and Wyoming, I think.
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Storm
This is a highly abridged version of the story, which is the fictional biography of a storm over the twelve days of its existence and the effects it has on the humans unlucky enough to be in front of it. Effects range from the possibility of professional embarrassment to death.
From wikipedia:
Aside from the historical importance, it is a nice picture of how weather forecasting worked before modern technology like satellites became available.
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This is a highly abridged version of the story, which is the fictional biography of a storm over the twelve days of its existence and the effects it has on the humans unlucky enough to be in front of it. Effects range from the possibility of professional embarrassment to death.
From wikipedia:
Storm is a novel written by George Rippey Stewart and published in 1941. The book became a best-seller and helped lead to the naming of tropical cyclones worldwide,[...] .
Aside from the historical importance, it is a nice picture of how weather forecasting worked before modern technology like satellites became available.
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New World Part 1
New World Part 2
In part one, a dissatisfied young Bernard Marx, a member of the elite, comes under fire because he does not like the world of rigid castes, promiscuous sex, drugs and stultifying conformity in which he lives. It happens that he works in Hatcheries and Conditioning where lectures about how the world came to be one of rigid castes, promiscuous sex, drugs and stultifying conformity, which is jolly convenient for Mr. Huxley. By pure chance, Marx discovers his boss has a biological son named John, families being unheard of and unacceptable in this day. It is easy enough to convince John to come back to civilization with Marx and in so doing expose his boss to disgrace.
Except, of course, that doesn't fix Marx's real problems with the society he lives in and it exposes John to a world for which he is badly adapted.
Excellent sound quality on this. The story is a bit thin (but then, it's an anti-utopia and utopias generally a bit thin) and I have to admit while I don't see the world in 632 A.F. as a wonderful place to live, in the context of what was considered acceptable practice when Huxley wrote this I cannot buy into the lip-smacking disapproval of Marx's world the way Huxley wants us to. Oh, probably should have mentioned Huxley has a speaking role in this.
Fans of Cannon and other fine shows may be interested to know William Conrad is in this.
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New World Part 2
In part one, a dissatisfied young Bernard Marx, a member of the elite, comes under fire because he does not like the world of rigid castes, promiscuous sex, drugs and stultifying conformity in which he lives. It happens that he works in Hatcheries and Conditioning where lectures about how the world came to be one of rigid castes, promiscuous sex, drugs and stultifying conformity, which is jolly convenient for Mr. Huxley. By pure chance, Marx discovers his boss has a biological son named John, families being unheard of and unacceptable in this day. It is easy enough to convince John to come back to civilization with Marx and in so doing expose his boss to disgrace.
Except, of course, that doesn't fix Marx's real problems with the society he lives in and it exposes John to a world for which he is badly adapted.
Excellent sound quality on this. The story is a bit thin (but then, it's an anti-utopia and utopias generally a bit thin) and I have to admit while I don't see the world in 632 A.F. as a wonderful place to live, in the context of what was considered acceptable practice when Huxley wrote this I cannot buy into the lip-smacking disapproval of Marx's world the way Huxley wants us to. Oh, probably should have mentioned Huxley has a speaking role in this.
Fans of Cannon and other fine shows may be interested to know William Conrad is in this.
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s political career has had some colourful moments prior to the allegation that he is the man seen in a cellphone video appearing to smoke crack cocaine.
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Sean Bean or Indira Varma?
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I may not say anything about the book itself but I am permitted to say the manner in which it was described to me was "Books designed to make James cry."
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If it had been up to him, I am sure he'd have lasted until his owners came back but in the end the progressive damage to his liver was just too much and he died sometime after noon.
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I finally figured out what this series reminds me of: P. C. Hodgell's Godstalk series. Hodgell has more black comedy and flamboyant worldbuilding, and Hale concentrates much more on weaving a highly intricate story. But both series seem to have evolved from the same roots: bypassing Tolkien's high fantasy tradition in favor of the swords and sorcery of Fritz Lieber, Jack Vance, C. L. Moore, even Robert E. Howard.
It's interesting that while the overall plots and details of the two series have very few points of similarity - the kinship is more one of tone and atmosphere - both have heroes who are avatars of the destructive aspect of a God.
Beyond that, all I can say without spoilers is that this series just gets better and better as it goes along. Book five was particularly packed with holy shit! moments.
Marie, if you're reading this, you would appreciate that the only characters who do stupid things based on sexual desire are reckless, desperate teenagers. The adults generally manage to sensibly resist doing stupid things out of sexual desire, despite extreme temptation. (Homosexuality is banned in large parts of this world.)
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The Holy Road (The Rifter)
Broken Fortress (The Rifter)
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1107
It's interesting that while the overall plots and details of the two series have very few points of similarity - the kinship is more one of tone and atmosphere - both have heroes who are avatars of the destructive aspect of a God.
Beyond that, all I can say without spoilers is that this series just gets better and better as it goes along. Book five was particularly packed with holy shit! moments.
Marie, if you're reading this, you would appreciate that the only characters who do stupid things based on sexual desire are reckless, desperate teenagers. The adults generally manage to sensibly resist doing stupid things out of sexual desire, despite extreme temptation. (Homosexuality is banned in large parts of this world.)
( Read more...Collapse )
The Holy Road (The Rifter)
Broken Fortress (The Rifter)
Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1107
Two publications—the New York-based site Gawker, and the Toronto Star—report that they have seen a video that allegedly shows Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Both say they were approached with the video by a man who was seeking a six-figure sum in exchange for the footage; both report that they did not pay money to obtain the video, but were able to meet with the tipster and view the video on a cellphone.
As soon as the news broke a great many people started saying a great many things—about how this shouldn’t be surprising given the Ford’s known history, about how his mayoralty is clearly finished, about how they were excited to see him fall. The jokes about addiction came in a torrent, some wry and many gleeful.
Most of those things are both wrong and wrong-headed.
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India’s declining fertility rate, now only slightly higher than that of the United States, is part of a global trend of lower population growth. Yet the media and many educated Americans have entirely missed this major development, instead sticking to erroneous perceptions about inexorable global population growth that continue to fuel panicked rhetoric about everything from environmental degradation and immigration to food and resource scarcity.
In a recent exercise, most of my students believed that India’s total fertility rate (TFR) was twice that of the United States. Many of my colleagues believed the same. In actuality, it is only 2.5, barely above the estimated U.S. rate of 2.1 in 2011, and essentially the replacement level.
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Various journalists are claiming they have seen a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack.
This led to the most darling legal threat ever from a lawyer named Dennis Morris — who has represented Ford for some time — to Gawker:
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A fascinating map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries
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A cellphone video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine is being shopped around Toronto by a group of Somali men involved in the drug trade.
Two Toronto Star reporters have viewed the video three times. It appears to show Ford in a room, sitting in a chair, wearing a white shirt, top buttons open, inhaling from what appears to be a glass crack pipe. Ford is incoherent, trading jibes with an off-camera speaker who goads the clearly impaired mayor by raising topics including Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and the Don Bosco high school football team Ford coaches.
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( Elementary, 1.23-1.24Collapse )
( Scandal, 2.22, White Hat's Back OnCollapse )
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Profile
puritybrown- This journal is dead.
Page Summary
- james_nicoll : Watch the Nebulas Live! [+0]
- james_nicoll : CBS Radio Workshop: Colloquy #1- Interview with William Shakespeare [+0]
- siriaeve : 1663 / DW, 7.14; Nikita, 3.22 [+0]
- james_nicoll : CBS Radio Workshop: Season of Disbelief & Hail and Farewell (based on short stories by Ray Bradbury) [+0]
- rachelmanija : I have reached maximum stream-crossing [+8]
- james_nicoll : Discovered by accident [+4]
- james_nicoll : A sudden epiphany [+16]
- james_nicoll : Dear subconscious [+3]
- james_nicoll : Bah [+15]
- james_nicoll : From a recent discussion elsewhere [+12]
- james_nicoll : An answer to a question I never thought to ask [+23]
- james_nicoll : CBS Radio Workshop: Storm (Based on a novel by George Stewart) [+2]
- james_nicoll : Brave New World Part 1 & Part 2 (Based on a novel by Aldous Huxley) [+23]
- james_nicoll : Rob Ford: 42 remarkable moments from Toronto mayor’s career [+4]
- james_nicoll : And what does Taiwan think of recent events in Toronto? [+1]
- james_nicoll : Who has worse odds of their character surviving? [+10]
- james_nicoll : Today I got an arc as a gift [+12]
- james_nicoll : Bean (1995 - 2013) [+40]
- rachelmanija : The Rifter, by Ginn Hale (Vol. 5 and 6: The Holy Road, Broken Fortress) [+36]
- james_nicoll : Hamutal Dotan's What We Do and Do Not Know about Rob Ford and Drug Use [+16]
- james_nicoll : As pointed out in email [+40]
- james_nicoll : The lastest Ford thing as seen from Popehat [+6]
- james_nicoll : One part 'interesting if true' and one part 'take title with grain of salt' [+39]
- james_nicoll : Always something new with Mr. Ford [+12]
- siriaeve : 1662 / Elementary, 1.23-24; Scandal, 2.22 [+0]
