Grunts: A Fantasy With Attitude By Mary Gentle Imagine a world where JRR Tolkein wrote a fantasy novelization of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. The result might read something like Mary Gentle’s phenomenal fantasy novel, Grunts. Gentle takes the fantasy standards of the constant struggle between good and evil, and turns it on its head…
November, 2000
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About two months ago my 3-year-old daughter finally grasped what death is. That conceptual shift was precipitated by the death of my father-in-law’s dog (the dog was very old). After visiting grandpa’s house and realizing the dog she loved to terrorize was no longer there, we simply explained that grandpa’s dog had gotten sick and…
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A weblog I’ve been visiting a lot lately is Adam Curry’s site. To be honest, I always thought he was incredibly annoying on MTV, but his ideas about the future of the Internet and computing are almost identical with mine — his essay on a Last Yard-style server is exactly what I’ve been slowly moving…
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The Standard recently had an article about software and online services that let people create their own radio stations over the Internet — in this case software like IceCast and services like Shoutcast and Live365.Com that stream MP3. Shoutcast didn’t do much for me, but I was impressed by Live365.Com (though I have to wonder…
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Forgot to mention the BBC also has a report on a Spanish scientist using advanced mirroring technology to potentially give people perfect vision. There have been a number of other innovations recently in vision improvement, including a report a few months ago about a new diagnostic system that is able to detect problems within the…
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The other day I was having a conversation with a fellow computer geek about the amazing pace of change in computer power, and he agreed but added somewhat dejectedly, “I wish medical science could keep up.” I hold the opposite view — in many ways, medical science is accelerating far faster than computers (and in…
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I found this at MSNBC, but stories there typically disappear after a week, so I’m reposting it here. If you are the author or know who the author is please email me at brian@carnell.com That said, this is the best piece of humor I’ve seen yet about the Florida mess. The Palm Beach Pokey You…
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Feed has a look at whether it will ever be feasible to mine the moon and other space objects for resources, The Really, Really, Big Dig, which takes some nice pot shots at the boondoggle called the International Space Station.
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Attorney Dennis Newman is currently leading the Gore team responsible for handling legal challenges to votes in Florida. Among the efforts Newman is spearheading is a lawsuit aimed at forcing some counties to consider so-called “dimpled” ballots — where there is a slight indentation on the ballot — as actual votes. The Palm Beach Post…
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This Thanksgiving, Adbusters is once again touting its Buy Nothing Day. Instead, why don’t we all get together and have a Protest Nothing Day. Okay, I’m stealing the idea from PCU which hilariously chronicles life on today’s campuses and ends with students gathering with signs and chanting “We’re not gonna protest,” but it’s still a…