books (for me) to read

RT @duke_sam: Interesting top 20 Sci-Fi books of the decade list: http://is.gd/5n72y

My picks from that list:

• Acacia: The War with the Mein 
• Glasshouse 
• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
• Look to Windward
• The Mount (maybe)
• Perdido Street Station
• Rainbows End
• Stories of Your Life And Others

Minutiae from the Tubes

Daniel LaRusso, anyone?

I must partake before my death.

Alfred is my prediction with regards to the Kellen of the future. (Sorry to ostracize so many of you, but it's just so true.)

Whoever lives near this place ought to leave, ASAP – pretty, yes, but creepy.

Philip Zimbardo wanders a bit outside of his stomping grounds in the presence of the Mighty Colbert Hammer of Truthiness. (Watch at least from 3'45" to the end).

From Bobby Long and Lawson Pines

I just watched A Love Song for Bobby Long. It was (sternly) recommended to me by Parker's father, and it was quite good. The front half certainly coasted on volition's momentum, but by the end the film had become quite a nice story to know.

Travolta plays the cracking, empty shell of a literary professor, retired and retreated to New Orleans. He and his trapped protégé toss quotes back and forth throughout the film; I'm sharing here the recitations that struck me as deftly placed dialogue.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot, LITTLE GIDDING

That though I loved them for their faults
As much as for their good,
My friends were enemies on stilts
With their heads in a cunning cloud.

Dylan Thomas, TO OTHERS THAN YOU

One dies only once, and then for such a long time!

Molière, Le Dépit amoureux

I fail my words

I feel a bit like an ass when I link a word to its definition as I do in some of my posts. When I do so, it is my way of saying, "Hey! Did you know this word? I didn't." Just had to get that out there.

I mentioned Benjamin Barber's book Consumed in one of those lifestyle posts. He's smart. He used big words. Here's the ones that were new to me. While I "had a feeling" for some of them, there was never much confidence.

1. Something exhibiting exigency is something urgent.
2. A depredation is a raid.
3. Succor is synonymous with relief.
4. A crass person has less than honorable intentions.
5. To redress is to make right.
6. By dint of means the same as because of.
7. A paean is an expression (a song, it seems) of triumph.
8. Someone with fealty has some serious loyalty.
9. To limn is to describe.
10. Mendacity is untruthfulness.
11. Something coterminus has the same boundaries as the primary subject.
12. A coeval is a contemporary, and anything coeval is also contemporaneous.
13. Seditious words support rebellion.
14. Establishing hegemony attains a strong position of control.
15. Something facile is too simple, too easy. [An ironic definition considering this post, eh?]
16. Something fustian is presented as if it's really important, like inspirational and grand words.
17. Imprimatur is one's approval, the "go ahead."
18. Something fecund is fertile or prolific, especially with regard to intellectual matters.
19. A polemic is an ardent refutal of an opinion or principle (or the author of such a counter argument).
20. The commonweal is the public well-being. Weal can also occur by itself just as would well-being.

I'm glad there was a round number of these words. I Googled for these definitions, so they are gleaned from Merriam Webster, the free dictionary, and others. Merriam Webster was pretty awesome.

Top 3 Cruise Theories

Tom Cruise became a supporter of Scientology in 1990, according to the 'pedia. Here's my top 3 favorite theories for why.

Tom Cruise has not slept since 1990.

This would explain a lot, I think. Crazy things happen when you don't get sleep. There was one time I was up almost all night programming a web server. When my alarm clock beeped after the hour or so of sleep I got, I incorporated it into my dream and tried to reprogram it so it would stop beeping. I missed class.

Tom Cruise lost a bet with his wife Mimi Rogers that the 49ers wouldn't win their 4th Super Bowl.

I wish I could say I saw that Super Bowl. It's not that I can say for sure that I didn't see that Super Bowl, it's just that I was 7 years old and can't remember. It was the Denver Bronco's third fruitless trip to the Super Bowl in four years, and Elway just never did it for me. But this is about Tom, not me. I'm sure plenty of people have joined a church because they lost a football bet to their wife.

Tom Cruise is on an infiltration mission.

This is my favorite theory simply because I've always loved the Cruiseman. These last few years have made it pretty hard for me to keep my chin up, so a hopeful theory is a good theory (aside that's bad science). I hear that Cruise is the second most powerful Scientologist in the Church. I don't know what power level that means he's at, but I'm thinking that once he's the most powerful Scientologist, we'll see his true purpose when Michael Clarke Duncan in a stock car and Anthony Edwards in an F-14 collide with Tom Cruise dropping from an HVAC vent in a beautiful fireball that quiets the Church forever. Best of all, this theory has some evidence: the background music in the interview with Cruise shown at the Scientology Academy Awards.

[Update – 26 January 2008 – I just watched Top Gun on AMC today. 1986. Great flick, but everyone was (unrealistically?) unsympathetic when Goose died. They called Maverick a quitter because he was sad his best friend died. Geeez.]

Crumbs

Homicidal mayhem, and no one cares.

A stunning photo.

Great commercial. "Earhole" is certainly under-appreciated.


Ben Affleck is charming? Who new?

One quarter! I knew nothing of this.

I just found a shared post! This one isn't the perfect archetype, but it was fun to realize what I was reading.

A close second for photos. (Hat tip to Garrin.)

Both found at Overcoming Bias: Dunbar's number, we wei.

Maybe that is why it tastes different. "For instance, soft drink makers like Coca-Cola use sugar internationally but use high-fructose corn syrup in their U.S. products."