Author Archives: Anton

and then there’s the Rule of Five

Just found again, by chance, something that crossed my mind the other day. The author of The Bible Code responded thus in 1997 to the obvious criticism that you can find anything if you massage random data enough: “When my … Continue reading

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hwæt!

Hrodulf the Red-Nosed Reindeer: An Original Old English Poem Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor– Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas! Glitenode and gladode godlice nosgrisele. . . . . This came to me by mail some weeks ago, with the funny letters mangled beyond my … Continue reading

Posted in language, music+verse | Leave a comment

1892

John J. Miller alerts us at The Corner that John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born eleventy-one years ago today. Which reminds me of yet another of my oddball notions. I don’t like the word eleventy-first (or even twenty-first), because the … Continue reading

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orcses is peoples too, preciouss

Better late than never– Garrett Moritz responds (June 19) to Elvish propaganda: Elves want to save the world because it is a world that benefits them, and they’ve constructed a useful typology of good and evil which serves their ends. … Continue reading

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women’s mysteries

Every issue of Cosmo seems to have an article about “what he secretly yearns for you to do to him in bed but won’t tell you”. I wonder how many such Secret Sex Tips there are – in other words, … Continue reading

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through red red red glasses

Here’s a chuckle: Maoist movie reviews. Disney and Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” has as good side and a bad side. The good side is that it portrays the successful collective struggle of the apparently weak oppressed and exploited (in this … Continue reading

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twelve good algorithms and true

“Jury Service” is an amusing transhuman story by Charlie Stross and Cory Doctorow.

Posted in futures, prose | Leave a comment