http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/news/20080111p2g00m0dm005000c.html

I wrote previously about his book Area 7, and while I've been unable to find his first novel Ice Station in English (seriously, I found in Japanese here, and in German and Italian online), I gotta say that Scarecrow tops it. Absurdities found within include ( Read more... )

http://forums.koalawallop.net/viewtopic.php?t=1719

P. J. O'Rourke has such a way with words ( Read more... )

I remember reading someone on the internet who said that they were surprised that there hadn't been any more terrorist attacks, and that if they were running Al Qaeda, that they would've gotten together about 20 Malvo-style roadway sniper teams to wreak, you know, terror upon the US, instead of the nothing that they've done. I guess Al Qaeda might ( Read more... )

Oh, one other interesting thing from the book, a gay evangelical Christian claiming that even the Old Testament didn't condemn homosexuality. For example, there's the passage ( Read more... )

Reading the not all that great book, "A Year Living Biblically", about a guy who decides to spend said time living said way, I came across one interesting part, about blasphemy, and how a lot of words that are really minor now used to be considered really strong. For example, about 300 years ago "gosh" and "golly" used to considered curse words, as ( Read more... )

"The German Empire retaliated on behalf of its ally by spreading a rumour that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany had converted to Islam"

One general theme I've come across in reading about Japanese society is that it's set up to insulate people from the possibility of failure, if only they try hard enough. Just now, it occurred to me that from a certain perspective, you could view a general trend of Japanese history of a national tendency towards failure, which would explain a ( Read more... )

One being that last week I made a doctor's appointment, but apparently misdialed the number, as when I went to the doctor's office they had no record of my calling. Apparently whoever I did call simply humored me and went along with the crazy foreigner and his desire to see a doctor, neglecting to tell me that I had dialed the wrong number. Only ( Read more... )