Author Archives: Anton

about that sex thing

I recently read the uncut Stranger in a Strange Land (having read the shorter version long long ago, probably before puberty). It contains the phrase “she’s as female as a cat in heat,” which also appears in the same author’s … Continue reading

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faith-based voting

Fred Pohl two years ago: None of the four leading Republican presidential candidates is acceptable, because none has a plan to deal with global warming. Obama “is the only remaining hope we have”; he has no plan either, “but his … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Leave a comment

oddly tempting

I hadn’t noticed before that my webhost offers MediaWiki. Some of the things I write here are not news, really, but things that sorta belong in my permanent exhibition but are too wordy for that page. I’ll think about that.

Posted in me!me!me! | Leave a comment

naming is hard

I often have trouble giving meaningful concise names to variables in the programs I write, perhaps because, until I reach for the keyboard, my thinking is largely nonverbal. I suspect that it would be less of a problem for someone … Continue reading

Posted in curve-fitting, neep-neep | 4 Comments

the British succession

A change to the law of royal succession has been enacted by some of the 16 Commonwealth Realms, to become effective when all of them have done so. Its most conspicuous feature is removing the preference for male heirs, but … Continue reading

Posted in heraldry | Leave a comment

relax

This curve-fitting thingy is one of several projects on which I’ve made progress in rare fits over several years. It ran into two big snags. I haven’t found how to determine which gridpoints are within the pen-width of a blending … Continue reading

Posted in curve-fitting | 2 Comments

love or nothing

In Watch on the Rhine (1943; screenplay by Dashiell Hammett from a play by Lillian Hellman) the penniless Count remarks, Blecher, we do not like each other. The Nazi to whom he hopes to sell information replies, But that will … Continue reading

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