Category Archives: humanities

three days at Worldcon

Thursday: met not one but two bloggers who had been kind enough to link to me, Charlie Stross and Anita Rowland; as well as Sarah Lawrence without the famous burqa. Chatted with Karen Anderson about this and that. John Hertz, … Continue reading

Posted in fandom, me!me!me! | 1 Comment

absolute or relative?

It’s a good bet that the twenty or thirty of you who read this are brighter than average. (At least it’s always safe to say that, eh?) Suppose that a magic pill makes everyone 3±1 times smarter. What would it … Continue reading

Posted in futures, psychology | Leave a comment

back to the drawing board

Buddhists say that happiness comes through detachment from desire. Don’t believe it.

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all about alphabets

Omniglot – a guide to writing systems. I have seen nothing like this on the Web. It even shows some scripts missing from my various books on the field.

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everyone knows they’re all alike anyway

Last fall, as war was brewing, some of us libertoonians expressed distaste for bombing Afghanistan, on the grounds that bombing puts the same risk on people who have done nothing to support the Taliban as on its backers and goons. … Continue reading

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size did matter

. . to Marie-Antoinette. Hm. Of course The Saga of Burnt Njal was kicked off by a similar incompatibility.

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same but not same

Some say rebuild the towers exactly as they were. Some say leave their footprints bare. Seems to me you can have both: rotate the plan by a quarter-turn.

Posted in arts, history | Leave a comment