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Currently reading Sadanand Dhume's "My Friend the Fanatic", and while it hasn't, as yet (and I am only in the fourth chapter), given any great insight into the character of radical Islam (or radicalism in general), it has been entertaining. Consider for example the following passage describing the first visit by the Fanatic Friend to the author's ( Read more... ) -
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There is something about Jack Vance.
Consider this passage from "The Face" (which I have modified slightly)Addels: You should have been a theatrist rather than an assassin, or whatever you consider yourself. Must we loiter here forever? The kindest dungeons are at Maudley; far worse are the Frogtown Holes ( Read more... ) -
Thinking about...
I have not been reading much online lately, and it was only a few hours ago that I learnt that Martin Gardner has died at the age of 95 ( Read more... ) -
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Humans are rare in having prominent female breasts. I think it was in the "Naked Ape" that I first read Desmond Morris suggestion that breasts mimicked the buttocks as humans walked straight and changed the way they copulate. According to his framework, breasts were primarily sexual signaling devices. Of course, Desmond Morris has been accused of ( Read more... ) -
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From the first chapter of Diego Gambetta's "Codes of the Underworld":The probability of making identification mistakes is 'frequency dependent': the higher the proportion of criminals in the search environment, the lower the risk of approaching the wrong people. Where corruption is known to be widespread, for instance, corrupting others or ( Read more... ) -
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I have faced my share of virus/spyware attacks, and while it is perhaps just a sign that I am senescent, I have never been as vexed as I have been by an attack of 'XP Antispyware 2010'. I share the machine that I current use with others and hence this attack sprung up upon me ( Read more... ) -
Learning about climate change
From The Economist:
The science of climate change: The clouds of unknowing: a very good quick and dirty introduction to the mechanics of climate change.
Climate science: Spin, science and climate change
From The University of Chicago:
PHSC 13400: Global Warming: "course for non-science majors focuses on a single problem: assessing the risk of ( Read more... ) -
Vague background story, Links, More links, Vague end piece
Most of my blog-reading happens on Google Reader, but I don't follow the Google Reader Blog. So, I didn't find out about the ReaderAdvantage™ till someone shared this Google Reader Blog post on the public reaction to ReaderAdvantage™. Some 13% of the people who joined in have read above 300,000 posts on Google Reader, with the topper clocking more ( Read more... ) -
The best app ever
Someone has come up with this brilliant app Harmony. Essentially it is a "[s]imple drawing tool with a set of special brushes", but once you start playing with it, there just is no going back. It almost trumps the Fire-sand game in zone-outness potential.
There is a facebook group, which has some examples of drawings made using the tool ( Read more... )
