The SFFaudio Blog has a review of
Take a look.
Off to the Stars of the Galaxy by Kaulinsium.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Spooner or Later : Um ... a New Book on Verbal Blunders by Erard
Um ... er .... ah. Having trouble speaking or writing? Do you suffer from lips of the stung? Do you sometimes write there for their? You are not a loan. Life is a process of communication, beset with surprising linguistic obstacles.
Micheal Erard is "a journalist who writes mainly about language at the intersection of technology, policy, law, and science." He has a new book out Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean.
Erard talks about those slips of the tongue that befall most of us at tome sime or another. It is an instructive world of verbal blunders made famous in our own day by US President Bush's "Dubyaspeak", which led to Erard's Um.
But the problem of dubyaspeak is older than President Bush. Former US President Herbert Hoover was, for example, also famed indirectly by a spoonerism, a lexical flip by radio announcer Harry von Zell, who referred to Hoover once as Hoobert Heever (read this account as a general lesson in evidence).
In his review of Erard's book, Dennis Lythgoe at the Desert Morning News writes as follows about "Um" and "Dubyaspeak":
"Erard became interested in the subject of verbal blunders during the 2000 presidential campaign, when George W. Bush’s malapropisms were referred to as “abnormal” in media reports. Erard thought critics were too hard on Bush, because he believes all of us commit verbal blunders.
He is convinced that making mistakes in speech is not a sign of a lack of intelligence. It is often caused by anxieties — people repeat words and restart sentences if they’re nervous. Or they may simply be accidental."
That may in part be confirmed at the blawg Yayarolly goes to law school, where "a 30-something's adventure in law school writes" in "Stick a fork in 1L, I'm done":
"Seriously. I'm tried. That's really the only way to describe what I am feeling right now. Not euphoric, not relieved, just tired. And a little concerned if my speech will ever be the same again... I've been spitting out spoonerisms over the last week like it's going out of style."
For more details about malopropisms , spoonerisms, and similar verbal blunders, see these reviews of Erard's book.
Micheal Erard is "a journalist who writes mainly about language at the intersection of technology, policy, law, and science." He has a new book out Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean.
Erard talks about those slips of the tongue that befall most of us at tome sime or another. It is an instructive world of verbal blunders made famous in our own day by US President Bush's "Dubyaspeak", which led to Erard's Um.
But the problem of dubyaspeak is older than President Bush. Former US President Herbert Hoover was, for example, also famed indirectly by a spoonerism, a lexical flip by radio announcer Harry von Zell, who referred to Hoover once as Hoobert Heever (read this account as a general lesson in evidence).
In his review of Erard's book, Dennis Lythgoe at the Desert Morning News writes as follows about "Um" and "Dubyaspeak":
"Erard became interested in the subject of verbal blunders during the 2000 presidential campaign, when George W. Bush’s malapropisms were referred to as “abnormal” in media reports. Erard thought critics were too hard on Bush, because he believes all of us commit verbal blunders.
He is convinced that making mistakes in speech is not a sign of a lack of intelligence. It is often caused by anxieties — people repeat words and restart sentences if they’re nervous. Or they may simply be accidental."
That may in part be confirmed at the blawg Yayarolly goes to law school, where "a 30-something's adventure in law school writes" in "Stick a fork in 1L, I'm done":
"Seriously. I'm tried. That's really the only way to describe what I am feeling right now. Not euphoric, not relieved, just tired. And a little concerned if my speech will ever be the same again... I've been spitting out spoonerisms over the last week like it's going out of style."
For more details about malopropisms , spoonerisms, and similar verbal blunders, see these reviews of Erard's book.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Finders Seekers : Dichotomy in Innovation
Art and Literature
have something to do with innovation.
Are innovators "seekers"? or "finders" ?
and does it make a difference ?
We refer here to the website Arts of Innovation
and its sister Arts of Innovation blog
which are described as follows:
"The author
Colin Stewart, innovation columnist for the Orange County Register, runs this Web site and the associated Arts of Innovation blog. He can be reached by e-mail at cestewart (at) cox.net.
The researcher
ArtsOfInnovation.com and the Arts of Innovation blog elaborate on research into the careers of experimental and conceptual innovators by University of Chicago economist David Galenson."
[links added]
Galenson is the author of
Old Masters and Young Geniuses:
Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity
which has been reviewed by Malcolm Gladwell as follows in Age Before Beauty:
"There’s a really wonderful book that’s come out by a guy named David Galenson, who’s an economist at the University of Chicago... There’s something very interesting and important to be learned about the way our minds work by entertaining the notion that there are two very different styles of creativity, the Picasso and the Cézanne."
Definitely worth a read and we have blogrolled them at Literary Pundit and LawPundit.
See also Inside Innovation
have something to do with innovation.
Are innovators "seekers"? or "finders" ?
and does it make a difference ?
We refer here to the website Arts of Innovation
and its sister Arts of Innovation blog
which are described as follows:
"The author
Colin Stewart, innovation columnist for the Orange County Register, runs this Web site and the associated Arts of Innovation blog. He can be reached by e-mail at cestewart (at) cox.net.
The researcher
ArtsOfInnovation.com and the Arts of Innovation blog elaborate on research into the careers of experimental and conceptual innovators by University of Chicago economist David Galenson."
[links added]
Galenson is the author of
Old Masters and Young Geniuses:
Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity
which has been reviewed by Malcolm Gladwell as follows in Age Before Beauty:
"There’s a really wonderful book that’s come out by a guy named David Galenson, who’s an economist at the University of Chicago... There’s something very interesting and important to be learned about the way our minds work by entertaining the notion that there are two very different styles of creativity, the Picasso and the Cézanne."
Definitely worth a read and we have blogrolled them at Literary Pundit and LawPundit.
See also Inside Innovation
Monday, June 18, 2007
Vanity Fair and the Images in Mirrors
In Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray writes:*
"The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face." (p.8)
By the same token, society for its part rewards most highly those who mirror its own image:
"Vanity Fair -- Vanity Fair! Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to read -- who had the habits and the cunning of a boor : whose aim in life was pettifogging : who never had a taste, or emotion, or enjoyment, but what was sordid and foul : and yet he had rank, and honours, and power, somehow : and was a dignitary of the land, and a pillar of the state. He was high sheriff, and rode in a golden coach. Great ministers and statesmen courted him ; and in Vanity Fair he had a higher place than the most brilliant genius or spotless virtue." (p. 77, links added by LawPundit)
Not those who are "better" or "worse" are loved, but those who are mirrored faces of the beholder.
This mirror also determines how we view the rest of humanity and the groups within it.
Just a thought.
*From William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Penguin Popular Classics, 1994, first published in 1877
"The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face." (p.8)
By the same token, society for its part rewards most highly those who mirror its own image:
"Vanity Fair -- Vanity Fair! Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to read -- who had the habits and the cunning of a boor : whose aim in life was pettifogging : who never had a taste, or emotion, or enjoyment, but what was sordid and foul : and yet he had rank, and honours, and power, somehow : and was a dignitary of the land, and a pillar of the state. He was high sheriff, and rode in a golden coach. Great ministers and statesmen courted him ; and in Vanity Fair he had a higher place than the most brilliant genius or spotless virtue." (p. 77, links added by LawPundit)
Not those who are "better" or "worse" are loved, but those who are mirrored faces of the beholder.
This mirror also determines how we view the rest of humanity and the groups within it.
Just a thought.
*From William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Penguin Popular Classics, 1994, first published in 1877
Monday, January 22, 2007
Short Book Review of Wordgloss
The following is our book review of Jim O'Donnell's book, Wordgloss : A Cultural Lexicon , which we have reviewed at Amazon.co.uk:
"Was this the wish of the Demiurge? Boston to Washington DC is a conurbation! Cui bono?! Do we live in a lexical dystopia awaiting a thaumaturgic gloss revival? Who today knows that "pleonasms are tautologous and should be avoided"? Errata need not be repetitive - a verisimilitude!
Do you need this book? Do you know the words?
Author Jim O'Donnell (book Foreword by John Banville) writes in his preface that "the extraordinary expansion of modern knowledge and its fission into micro-specialties" has created "a niagara of words and concepts flowing from a wide range of disciplines that we have never explored."
The everyday result is that our increasingly sophisticated modern world of communications is confronted by the Hydra-headed cultural stumbling block of a classics-based "verbal universe" manifesting an erstwhile lexical heritage to which most readers no longer have any personal or educational connection.
Wordgloss is not a quintessential corrective panacea for this problem, but O'Donnell writes that "Wordgloss is full of the words and concepts you always meant to look up. It tells you where they came from and how they acquired the meaning or meanings they now have."
The book is written "associatively", which is "pedagogically" more effective than the "linear" scientific style of dictionaries.
Definitely a fun and educating vade-mecum read.
Fons et origo!"
"Was this the wish of the Demiurge? Boston to Washington DC is a conurbation! Cui bono?! Do we live in a lexical dystopia awaiting a thaumaturgic gloss revival? Who today knows that "pleonasms are tautologous and should be avoided"? Errata need not be repetitive - a verisimilitude!
Do you need this book? Do you know the words?
Author Jim O'Donnell (book Foreword by John Banville) writes in his preface that "the extraordinary expansion of modern knowledge and its fission into micro-specialties" has created "a niagara of words and concepts flowing from a wide range of disciplines that we have never explored."
The everyday result is that our increasingly sophisticated modern world of communications is confronted by the Hydra-headed cultural stumbling block of a classics-based "verbal universe" manifesting an erstwhile lexical heritage to which most readers no longer have any personal or educational connection.
Wordgloss is not a quintessential corrective panacea for this problem, but O'Donnell writes that "Wordgloss is full of the words and concepts you always meant to look up. It tells you where they came from and how they acquired the meaning or meanings they now have."
The book is written "associatively", which is "pedagogically" more effective than the "linear" scientific style of dictionaries.
Definitely a fun and educating vade-mecum read.
Fons et origo!"
Cosmology and Religion at Science a Go Go
Science a Go Go (http://www.scienceagogo.com/) has a zippy website from down under devoted to "the latest science news, research tidbits and science discussion".
What caught my attention were their science book reviews. See:
Science a Go Go Book Reviews 2005
Science a Go Go Book Reviews 2006
for a good overview of what is going on in science,
through the medium of books.
Online book reviews, still fairly rare outside of e.g. Amazon,
or involving the payment of online fees for viewing, as at Antiquity magazine,
will surely play an increasingly greater role in science and literature,
and we were gratified to see Science a Go Go review our book Stars Stones and Scholars
on the same page as their review of Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
by legal expert and Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward J. Larson (2006).
Tim Radford in an interview with Larson in the Guardian titled A Life in Writing: A Voyage to the Origin of Species, writes:
"Larson won the Pulitzer Prize for his Summer for the Gods, a book on the Scopes trial, in which American anti-evolutionists challenged science in the 1920s. He followed with Trial and Error, once again about the creation-evolution controversy. Right now, he is contemplating one book on the coming of telegraphy, another on Antarctica. Evolution's Workshop grew out of a preoccupation with the history of ideas, rather than of kings and presidents. In the course of looking at the progress of the great Darwinian idea, it seemed to him that the Galapagos were the Clapham Junction of biology: all sorts of people passed through.
"I believed that ideas in general are the most powerful thing in the world. An idea was more powerful than an army. In the western world it seemed to me that science was the criterion for truth," [Larson] says. "Darwin wrote his Origin of Species in 1859. At that time Queen Victoria was on the throne in England and James Buchanan was president of the United States. Now who has a greater impact on us today? How we think, how we live, who we are?" "
We agree.
What caught my attention were their science book reviews. See:
Science a Go Go Book Reviews 2005
Science a Go Go Book Reviews 2006
for a good overview of what is going on in science,
through the medium of books.
Online book reviews, still fairly rare outside of e.g. Amazon,
or involving the payment of online fees for viewing, as at Antiquity magazine,
will surely play an increasingly greater role in science and literature,
and we were gratified to see Science a Go Go review our book Stars Stones and Scholars
on the same page as their review of Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
by legal expert and Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward J. Larson (2006).
Tim Radford in an interview with Larson in the Guardian titled A Life in Writing: A Voyage to the Origin of Species, writes:
"Larson won the Pulitzer Prize for his Summer for the Gods, a book on the Scopes trial, in which American anti-evolutionists challenged science in the 1920s. He followed with Trial and Error, once again about the creation-evolution controversy. Right now, he is contemplating one book on the coming of telegraphy, another on Antarctica. Evolution's Workshop grew out of a preoccupation with the history of ideas, rather than of kings and presidents. In the course of looking at the progress of the great Darwinian idea, it seemed to him that the Galapagos were the Clapham Junction of biology: all sorts of people passed through.
"I believed that ideas in general are the most powerful thing in the world. An idea was more powerful than an army. In the western world it seemed to me that science was the criterion for truth," [Larson] says. "Darwin wrote his Origin of Species in 1859. At that time Queen Victoria was on the throne in England and James Buchanan was president of the United States. Now who has a greater impact on us today? How we think, how we live, who we are?" "
We agree.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Books Most Searched For in 2006
Gee, a lot of surprises in this list at AbeBooks.com of the most searched for books in the year 2006:
AbeBooks: The Most Searched For Books in 2006
AbeBooks: The Most Searched For Books in 2006
Friday, January 12, 2007
ISBN Numbers have 13 Characters Starting January 1, 2007
Are You Ready for ISBN-13?
and the fact that:
"Beginning January 1, 2007, all books will be published with ISBN-13s."
Click this link to go the ISBN-13 Online Converter.
Not everyone needs this, but every reader of books should know about it, and most authors and readers out there probably are not yet aware of what is going on, so we alert to it here.
The reason for this posting is that a monumental change which affects the entire world of books on our planet started January 1, 2007 (actually, the sunrise period began in 2005). It is a change in ISBN numbers. ISBN numbers are the unique numbers given to books by publishers and used to order books wherever you order them as a user. The reason for this change was that ISBN was running out of numbers.
Take a look at the following numbers for our book Stars, Stones and Scholars where the ISBN-10 numbers (the ISBN-10's) have been converted by our publisher to ISBN-13 numbers (the ISBN-13's). These will be called ISBN-10s and ISBN-13s.
Stars Stones Scholars (softcover)
# ISBN-10: 1412013445
# ISBN-13: 978-1412013444
Stars Stones Scholars (hardcover)
# ISBN-10: 1412201357
# ISBN-13: 978-1412201353
ISBN-10 Numbers
Prior to January 1, 2007, ISBN numbers had 10 characters.
Those are the ISBN-10 numbers.
ISBN-13 Numbers
Beginning on January 1, 2007, ISBN numbers are 13 characters.
Those are the ISBN-13 numbers.
"Beginning January 1, 2007, all books will be published with ISBN-13s."
Important Links
Below are important links from ISBN for authors, retailers, publishers and everyone interested in books and the book trade:
"Are You Ready for ISBN-13?
Pubnet EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) 13-Digit Conversion News
BISG Resources on ISBN-13
ISBN-13 Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
Guidelines for the Implementation of 13-Digit ISBNs (PDF)
A BISAC Briefing on How to Manage the Transition (PDF)
The readability score for this posting:
Gunning-Fog Index: 20
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 41
and the fact that:
"Beginning January 1, 2007, all books will be published with ISBN-13s."
Click this link to go the ISBN-13 Online Converter.
Not everyone needs this, but every reader of books should know about it, and most authors and readers out there probably are not yet aware of what is going on, so we alert to it here.
The reason for this posting is that a monumental change which affects the entire world of books on our planet started January 1, 2007 (actually, the sunrise period began in 2005). It is a change in ISBN numbers. ISBN numbers are the unique numbers given to books by publishers and used to order books wherever you order them as a user. The reason for this change was that ISBN was running out of numbers.
Take a look at the following numbers for our book Stars, Stones and Scholars where the ISBN-10 numbers (the ISBN-10's) have been converted by our publisher to ISBN-13 numbers (the ISBN-13's). These will be called ISBN-10s and ISBN-13s.
Stars Stones Scholars (softcover)
# ISBN-10: 1412013445
# ISBN-13: 978-1412013444
Stars Stones Scholars (hardcover)
# ISBN-10: 1412201357
# ISBN-13: 978-1412201353
ISBN-10 Numbers
Prior to January 1, 2007, ISBN numbers had 10 characters.
Those are the ISBN-10 numbers.
ISBN-13 Numbers
Beginning on January 1, 2007, ISBN numbers are 13 characters.
Those are the ISBN-13 numbers.
"Beginning January 1, 2007, all books will be published with ISBN-13s."
Important Links
Below are important links from ISBN for authors, retailers, publishers and everyone interested in books and the book trade:
"Are You Ready for ISBN-13?
- An overview for publishers with the critical do's and don't and the recommended implementation timeline. Why is this transition taking place and how does it impact your copyright page, your book covers and your bar codes? Find out now.
Pubnet EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) 13-Digit Conversion News
- If you receive EDI orders via Pubnet, be sure to learn more about changes needed to support EDI transactions.
BISG Resources on ISBN-13
- The Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) ISBN-13 Task Force maintains this site as a source of authoritative information and recommended implementation guidelines for ISBN-13.
ISBN-13 Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
- Brochure from Bowker, the US ISBN Agency
Guidelines for the Implementation of 13-Digit ISBNs (PDF)
- Information from the International ISBN Agency.
A BISAC Briefing on How to Manage the Transition (PDF)
- Information from BISG on operations planning.
The readability score for this posting:
Gunning-Fog Index: 20
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 41
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Father Christmas, Inklings, Goblins and Orcs
Dear Readers,
Father Christmas!
What a wonderful holiday season, especially for J.R.R. Tolkien fans:
"It was the biggest bang in the world, and the most monstrous firework there ever has been. It turned the North Pole BLACK and shook all the stars out of place... The tap turning on the Aurora Borealis fireworks is still in the cellar of my old house. The North Polar Bear knew he must never, never touch it... Anyway he was nosing around the ruins this morning soon after breakfast (he hides things to eat there) and turned on all the Northern Lights for two years in one go."
Yes, the Sun really took a shot at us in December of 2006. It lit up the sky like the celebrations of fireworks that will be taking place on New Year's Eve.
We wish everyone a Happy New Year 2007.
In honor of the occasion, we have designed a "Secret Doodle" which contains several secrets.
1) What is the message of the "Secret Doodle"?
You should be able to ascertain this without too much difficulty as we have made it easy for you to get an Inkling. Be HAPPY. Did we not just post on Happiness? But you might have to take a NEW look. In a pinch this YEAR, you might even engage in a Gobelin count (at least in French).
2) Where do the symbols of the "Secret Doodle" come from?
Is this the writing of a prehistoric "rock art" culture of the type we discuss at some of our other websites? You may want to ask your local mainstream archaeologist or resident expert decipherer for clues to clues, which is their profession. Perhaps these symbols were used by the small, Lilliputian - previously nameless - hobbits (modernly baptized Homo floresiensis) that mainstream science recently claimed to have discovered in Indonesia? Alas, a pipedream species in an academic area of study where fantasy, fiction and myth unwillingly meet the hard hand of evidence. A story for J.K. Rowling?
Another way to find out why the Secret Doodle "rocks" is to consult your local linguist about rocs and orcs and arks, or as written about Noah's Ark and rocs in 1604 by Michael Drayton - who in his youth worked as a Page boy for which you have to have a Brain (well, nearly so) :
You might just try some Google search words for local color or Yahoo some other clues you have already been given to arrive at the doubled rainbow at the end of a pot of gold. What are words to the hues of nature?
Is there really any perceptible difference between a Yahoo and an Orc? and it is not far from Google to Goggle to Gobble to Goblin, now is it? But that is just a play on the alphabet.
We repeat, Happy New Year.
2007. Make this world a better place, if you can.
P.S. We will post the solution in the New Year to our LexiLine Newsletter.
Father Christmas!
What a wonderful holiday season, especially for J.R.R. Tolkien fans:
"It was the biggest bang in the world, and the most monstrous firework there ever has been. It turned the North Pole BLACK and shook all the stars out of place... The tap turning on the Aurora Borealis fireworks is still in the cellar of my old house. The North Polar Bear knew he must never, never touch it... Anyway he was nosing around the ruins this morning soon after breakfast (he hides things to eat there) and turned on all the Northern Lights for two years in one go."
Yes, the Sun really took a shot at us in December of 2006. It lit up the sky like the celebrations of fireworks that will be taking place on New Year's Eve.
We wish everyone a Happy New Year 2007.
In honor of the occasion, we have designed a "Secret Doodle" which contains several secrets.
1) What is the message of the "Secret Doodle"?
You should be able to ascertain this without too much difficulty as we have made it easy for you to get an Inkling. Be HAPPY. Did we not just post on Happiness? But you might have to take a NEW look. In a pinch this YEAR, you might even engage in a Gobelin count (at least in French).
2) Where do the symbols of the "Secret Doodle" come from?
Is this the writing of a prehistoric "rock art" culture of the type we discuss at some of our other websites? You may want to ask your local mainstream archaeologist or resident expert decipherer for clues to clues, which is their profession. Perhaps these symbols were used by the small, Lilliputian - previously nameless - hobbits (modernly baptized Homo floresiensis) that mainstream science recently claimed to have discovered in Indonesia? Alas, a pipedream species in an academic area of study where fantasy, fiction and myth unwillingly meet the hard hand of evidence. A story for J.K. Rowling?
Another way to find out why the Secret Doodle "rocks" is to consult your local linguist about rocs and orcs and arks, or as written about Noah's Ark and rocs in 1604 by Michael Drayton - who in his youth worked as a Page boy for which you have to have a Brain (well, nearly so) :
- All feathered things yet ever knowne to men,
- From the huge Rucke, unto the little Wren;
- From Forrest, Fields, from Rivers and from Pons,
- All that have webs, or cloven-footed ones;
- To the Grand Arke, together friendly came,
- Whose severall species were too long to name
- Which may be why we've waited 'til this day
Floresiensis as a species to portray!
You might just try some Google search words for local color or Yahoo some other clues you have already been given to arrive at the doubled rainbow at the end of a pot of gold. What are words to the hues of nature?
Is there really any perceptible difference between a Yahoo and an Orc? and it is not far from Google to Goggle to Gobble to Goblin, now is it? But that is just a play on the alphabet.
We repeat, Happy New Year.
2007. Make this world a better place, if you can.
P.S. We will post the solution in the New Year to our LexiLine Newsletter.
Friday, March 31, 2006
The Native Land - John Baker, Donna Moore Added to our Rolls
I have been neglecting this blog a bit recently, which I really should not be doing.
A reader recently brought my attention to John Baker's Blog and to Donna's Bookshelf. John Baker is a writer of fiction and Donna Moore has quite a readable interview with him at her BooksBaker page.
You can read sample material from one of Baker's novels here, where I selected the following citation:
"Now, of course, I know that we are not born in our native land and as long as we hang on to that quaint concept we remain in the mists of childhood. The process of maturing is the slow realization that we are born in the world, that we belong as much to the stars in the heavens as we do to the herbs and grasses that populate the limited space we are taught to call home.
Where we belong is not a place that gives rise to emotions like affection. On the contrary our birthplace is a vast and complicated structure that defies definition. It is an infinitude of contradictions, visible and invisible, tactile and intangible, neither friend nor foe. Finally it’s a prison and our task is to loosen its hold on us so that we can enjoy a few brief moments of freedom."
A reader recently brought my attention to John Baker's Blog and to Donna's Bookshelf. John Baker is a writer of fiction and Donna Moore has quite a readable interview with him at her BooksBaker page.
You can read sample material from one of Baker's novels here, where I selected the following citation:
"Now, of course, I know that we are not born in our native land and as long as we hang on to that quaint concept we remain in the mists of childhood. The process of maturing is the slow realization that we are born in the world, that we belong as much to the stars in the heavens as we do to the herbs and grasses that populate the limited space we are taught to call home.
Where we belong is not a place that gives rise to emotions like affection. On the contrary our birthplace is a vast and complicated structure that defies definition. It is an infinitude of contradictions, visible and invisible, tactile and intangible, neither friend nor foe. Finally it’s a prison and our task is to loosen its hold on us so that we can enjoy a few brief moments of freedom."
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Tenebris on Blooks
Tenebris posts on blooks, books "based on material and/or ideas first published in a blog". It's a whole new field. Take a look at that posting.
There is also a more recent posting at Tenebris with an announcement of the Lulu Blooker Prize, with judging to be chaired by Cory Doctorow, and more of interest....
There is also a more recent posting at Tenebris with an announcement of the Lulu Blooker Prize, with judging to be chaired by Cory Doctorow, and more of interest....
Monday, August 15, 2005
Easter Island Script
In his book, Rongorongo: The Easter Island Script, Steven Roger Fischer refers to me as being a Lithuanian, whereas, of course, as is clear from my name to anyone having even rudimentary language knowledge, my name is of Latvian origin. Besides I am an American. You can't say an American is an Irishman just because he carries an Irish name, nor can you call someone a Lithuanian based on your hunch that that is where his name came from.
This terrible and - as can be seen from the above example - inaccurate and poorly researched book, published by the Oxford University Press, which is no longer the publishing house it used to be, contributes next to nothing to the understanding of Easter Island script.
Fischer in fact has as good as no clue about the Easter Island Script.
In my book "An Astrological zodiac in the Script of Easter Island", I clearly show that Honolulu Tablet No. B.3622 is a type of zodiac of the stars.
Moreover, I am supported by
Michael H. Dietrich
in Asian and African Studies Vol. 8 [1998] 118-150)
who has written as follows:
"All signs are symbols of stars and planets, quaters, winds, the moon, the guiding stars etc. The new endeavour to analyse the rongorongo signs is based on the accessible astronomical knowledge of Micronesia and Polynesia. The body of rongorongo signs consists of tropical descriptions of single stars, planets, zodiacal signs and other constellations. What has been registered are particular nights and, on the smaller tablets, general data on astronomical itineraries. The all in all 12 000 rongorongo signs convey exclusively instructions for sidereal navigation within the Pacific."
For a more detailed treatment of this topic, see QuillPundit.
.
This terrible and - as can be seen from the above example - inaccurate and poorly researched book, published by the Oxford University Press, which is no longer the publishing house it used to be, contributes next to nothing to the understanding of Easter Island script.
Fischer in fact has as good as no clue about the Easter Island Script.
In my book "An Astrological zodiac in the Script of Easter Island", I clearly show that Honolulu Tablet No. B.3622 is a type of zodiac of the stars.
Moreover, I am supported by
Michael H. Dietrich
in Asian and African Studies Vol. 8 [1998] 118-150)
who has written as follows:
"All signs are symbols of stars and planets, quaters, winds, the moon, the guiding stars etc. The new endeavour to analyse the rongorongo signs is based on the accessible astronomical knowledge of Micronesia and Polynesia. The body of rongorongo signs consists of tropical descriptions of single stars, planets, zodiacal signs and other constellations. What has been registered are particular nights and, on the smaller tablets, general data on astronomical itineraries. The all in all 12 000 rongorongo signs convey exclusively instructions for sidereal navigation within the Pacific."
For a more detailed treatment of this topic, see QuillPundit.
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Saturday, August 06, 2005
J.K.Rowling Official Site - Harry Potter and more
Take a look at the official J.K.Rowling Official Site - Harry Potter and more. It is absolutely stunning and I am going to go back to it when I have more time.
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Friday, July 08, 2005
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White, a superb novel by Wilkie Collins, Penguin Popular Classics, first published in 1868, p. 228, contains the following observation:
"Women can resist a man's love, a man's fame, a man's personal appearance, and a man's money, but they cannot resist a man's tongue when he knows how to talk to them."
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"Women can resist a man's love, a man's fame, a man's personal appearance, and a man's money, but they cannot resist a man's tongue when he knows how to talk to them."
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Saturday, February 26, 2005
Chainfire
Pretension of Competency has moved to its own domain and continues to turn out excellent postings on various subjects. This is what is written about Terry Goodkind's Chainfire:
...This is, I believe, the penultimate book in this series as the book ends on the very edge of what is referred to throughout the story as “the final battle.” For those of you unfamiliar with the book and it’s author, it is the ninth in the series that is considered to be one of the three primary current unfinished fantasy series’, along with Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin’s [A Song of Fire and Ice]. This particular series has a very Ayn Randian feel to it in it’s very open discussions of human morality and political issues, which is understandable since Goodkind claims Rand as one of his biggest influences. Unlike The Wheel of Time, which I also am a big fan of (I have not had the chance to pick up Martin’s series), Goodkind has maintained the focus of his later books and produces a fantastic story in Chainfire....
...This is, I believe, the penultimate book in this series as the book ends on the very edge of what is referred to throughout the story as “the final battle.” For those of you unfamiliar with the book and it’s author, it is the ninth in the series that is considered to be one of the three primary current unfinished fantasy series’, along with Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin’s [A Song of Fire and Ice]. This particular series has a very Ayn Randian feel to it in it’s very open discussions of human morality and political issues, which is understandable since Goodkind claims Rand as one of his biggest influences. Unlike The Wheel of Time, which I also am a big fan of (I have not had the chance to pick up Martin’s series), Goodkind has maintained the focus of his later books and produces a fantastic story in Chainfire....
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