scifi

Posted on Sunday, 2005 July 10 by Anton

The last book I finished was Charlie Stross’s The Family Trade. Spoilers: Continue reading →

Posted in prose | 3 Comments

language peeve of the day

Posted on Thursday, 2005 July 07 by Anton

A set comprises its members; a set consists of its members; a set is composed of its members — but a set is not comprised of anything.

“Thank you for observing all safety precautions.”

Posted in language | Leave a comment

protecting the public

Posted on Wednesday, 2005 July 06 by Anton

Argh! No traffic tickets for twenty years, and now two in 16 months – both from BART police. Two more months and I could have cleared both by the curious device of “traffic school”.

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

nothing to hide

Posted on Monday, 2005 July 04 by Anton

“Lady Liberty” says it well:

So rest peacefully in your assumption that none of the invasive new laws or procedures applies to you because you don’t have anything to hide. You’ll be just fine as long as the police never make a mistake. You won’t be a target of an investigation as long as you don’t want to do anything to generate suspicion, like drive, work, open a bank account, or rent an apartment. . . .

From the Boston Globe last week:

The top US military commander in the Middle East warned yesterday that troops are questioning whether the American public supports the Iraq war and implored political leaders to engage in a frank discussion about how to keep the country behind a mission that the armed forces believe is ”a war worth fighting.”

Does this strike anyone else as putting the cart before the horse?

Posted in security theater | Leave a comment

æsthetics

Posted on Saturday, 2005 July 02 by Anton

Ah, phooey: I’ve carelessly deleted my preferred “theme”. May as well leave it for now while I go learn how to write one properly.

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

para-grammatogenesis

Posted on Monday, 2005 June 27 by Anton

Some people amuse themselves at inventing languages and scripts; that sport’s most famous player was of course Tolkien. And some avidly study whatever notes Tolkien left concerning his Elvish language family.

Tolkien invented at least three scripts: Sarati, an alphasyllabary; cirth, a full alphabet; and tengwar, used both as an alphasyllabary (in the Ring Verse) and as a full alphabet (on the West Gate of Moria). But in human history such scripts have been invented less often than syllabaries, in which no two of the symbols for ti ta ki ka are similar. (The alphabets listed are more numerous, but most of them are descended from the same Semitic ancestor and most of the alphasyllabaries from Brahmî.) So I wonder whether the T-linguists would be offended if one were to design a syllabary for Elvish.
Continue reading →

Posted in fandom, language | 3 Comments

Kelo v. New London

Posted on Friday, 2005 June 24 by Anton

State control of the economy, maintaining the forms but not the substance of private property — isn’t that a definition of fascism?

I’ve been puzzled, by the way, at the argument that the Fifth Amendment allows takings only for ‘public use’. Seems to me the plain language of it restricts only such takings, leaving takings for private use wide open.

Posted in constitution | 2 Comments