Author Archives: Anton

unexpected aspects of asymmetry

My left arm is very sore today, making me notice how many little things I habitually do with my ‘wrong’ hand. I wonder whether this says something about my brain. They say women’s hemispheres are less specialized; maybe my partial … Continue reading

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

whether ’tis nobler in the mind to doubly miss the point

A little incident in folk grammar, funny to me at least. I wrote a sentence containing . . . which led to reconstructing in my mind . . . because . . . which led to mentally reconstructing . . . seemed wrong: everyone knows you don’t put … Continue reading

Posted in language | 1 Comment

Incandescence

Greg Egan complains about sloppy reviews of his latest novel: About half the reviews of Incandescence made at least one of the following false assertions: The Splinter orbits a neutron star. Rakesh visits the Splinter. The relationship between the novel’s … Continue reading

Posted in prose | 5 Comments

de-skinned

April 9 is CSS Naked Day, a concept amusing enough that I installed the WordPress plugin to comply with it. As I should have expected, it makes this blog rather less readable than it was before I converted from Blogger … Continue reading

Posted in blogdom | Leave a comment

deathist movie

In Renaissance (2006) there’s a Big Sinister Corporation whose advertising tagline is “Health, Beauty, Longevity.” Oo, scary! I don’t think we’re ever told what Avalon sells (vitamins? cosmetics? medical treatment?) but it doesn’t matter. The noirish visual style suffices to … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, luddites | 2 Comments

fun with paranoia

I’m reading Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother, which has been nominated for a Prometheus Award. In another tab I’m reading an autobiographical comic-strip by a boy of the same age as the novel’s narrator; switching between them is sometimes surreal. … Continue reading

Posted in cartoons, prose, security theater | 2 Comments

two small mysteries of the animal world

Around noon the other day, I saw a steady stream of moths flying north along the BART track: not dense enough to call them a flock, let alone a swarm, but enough that I always had a few of them … Continue reading

Posted in California, pets | 3 Comments