Author Archives: Anton

any old papers please

Today’s assignment was in a building where I hadn’t worked before, so I didn’t know about the fascist gatekeeper. Luckily my Costco card has a picture of me. I oughta make a laminated card with my picture and a name … Continue reading

Posted in security theater | Leave a comment

flies on fire

It’s a fair bet that my readers include at least one Mutant Enemy fanatic. Got a couple of canon questions for ya. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, anyone seen smoking is either evil, under a spell or doomed. (There’s one … Continue reading

Posted in cinema | 1 Comment

refractin’ back atcha

A few of my Povray scenes include objects with negative indices of refraction; I’ve said of this one that three-quarters of it cannot exist in the real world. Now I read in The Economist that, because a negative-refractive slab could … Continue reading

Posted in sciences | Leave a comment

Plutinos, Twotinos, Cubewanos

John Baez gives (among other things) a handy summary of transneptunian objects.

Posted in astronomy | Leave a comment

how do you tell racism from diversity?

I’m watching a collection of Tom and Jerry cartoons, made by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, who were later known for the much cruder animation of The Flintstones. I’m puzzled by the opening disclaimer in which Whoopi Goldberg explains that … Continue reading

Posted in cartoons, cinema | 1 Comment

possibly not one of my brightest ideas ever

If my new printer’s resolution is 1200 dots/inch, then a sheet of gringo-standard letter paper with half-inch margins can take an image of 9000 by 12000 pixels. As a test, therefore, I rendered one of my most complex Povray images … Continue reading

Posted in me!me!me!, neep-neep | Leave a comment

a catalog of what ain’t

Whatever it is (or isn’t), someone has made a list of it. Here’s one that interests me a bit: once upon a time I started a (mental) list of persons ineligible who have portrayed a President of the United States, … Continue reading

Posted in arts | Leave a comment