In our first peek at celebrity, Slate's Torie Bosch quotes our own Sarah's post about the giant glyphs.
Building on Sarah's post about signposts to bad SF and mine about Google Map play, here's a Google Maps satellite image of the giant signpost to bad SF. Terraserver has a closer view. Best I can guess, maybe that's a landing strip for aliens to the southwest of the marker.
Even better than just making maps available, Google made them easy to mix with other information, and lots of folks are doing just that.
Perhaps more mysterious than huge glyphs marking the underground repository of nuclear-war-proof rantings of a third rate science fiction writer is that anyone thought that whining to the television station would stop the story. Also, why the effort to keep giant space-visible markings a secret?
Update: more glyph stuff is available here.
Oh, sure, their human rights record is dismal, but it's not till he finds out they're mean to puppies and kitties that McCartney boycotts China.
You can still visit tourist attractions in glorious 3-D, without the inconvenience of travel.
If you haven't read The Young Visiters, please do so. The movie that was made of it isn't bad, either.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops publishes movie reviews, rating films on this scale:
So we're watching The Daily Show, and the guest is This American Life regular John Hodgeman, plugging his book, The Areas of My Expertise. I said "I really want to read that book." My darling says, "Of course you do, he's on This American Life. You like books by anyone on This American Life." I sputtered and protested, but he's right. So if Marti Noxon writes a book, I'll read that, too. She's the first story on the Getting and Spending episode of This American Life.
And from this anecdote, you can guess what sort of things I like.
Upon being asked "why are Mexican wrestlers masked?" I was thrilled to find a quite detailed entry in Wikipedia (yay Wikipedia) on lucha libre.
If my lips can't feel nothin'
Please know I still love you.
If my lips can't feel nothin'
Please know I still love you.
I just met The Man
at Dixie's BBQ.
There are a whole lot of tower cranes near my workplace lately, including one that had a climbing frame. I never got to see the climbing frame in operation, so I had to poke around on the web and at my local library to get an explanation. One of the first hits I got was a story of a horrible crane accident involving a malfunctioning climbing frame operated by an unqualified crew. I'm glad nothing similar happened to the 500-foot crane I used to walk past twice a week.
Joss stopped by Whedonesque a while back to talk about a Buffy/Angel comic (that will be part of the Buffyverse canon) and other stuff that may be of interest.
Check me out! I'm inspiring art! A booktalk I gave was the inspiration for a Sunday strip of Unshelved! I highly recommend the book, and Junior High students are verrrrry interested in the most dangerous toy, that put 6,000 people into the emergency room before they finally banned it.
Answer in invisi-text (highlight to see): "Jarts. Adults in the 60s honestly didn't care if you got a spike through the head."
UFOs in the sky over Richland, WA, in 1947, though one article points out the frequency of all sorts of stuff zinging through the air on the high winds.
The Improved Man, written in 1890, has some interesting ideas and turns of phrase. And, yes, the brain is the real cathedral, but I enjoy envisoning a grey squishy Chartres.
Far from Xanadu, Peters (Y)
Very well written, but I wanted to never stop slapping the heroine. Also is a love letter to rural living, which is not really my bag, baby. Two stars for hot lesbian plumbing action.
Mormonism for Dummies, Riess
Written by two believers, one with degrees in religion, this covers a huge amount of ground, including some topics that have previously seemed taboo to discuss, and gives lots of detail. Some touchy subjects are soft-pedaled, but only slightly, overall very impressive! I learned a lot. Four stars.
Looking for Alaska, Green (Y)
Another book that I'm reading for a mock award, so again it's very well written, but didn't really grab me at all. It was just some stuff happening to some people. Two stars for using your words well.
47, Mosley (Y)
Yet another mock award nominee, but one that I was going to read anyway. Not as amazing as other books by Mosley that I have read, but bonus points for premise: young slave meets alien, becomes potential savior of the universe. Very secret-origins-of. Three stars.
Black Juice, Lanagan (Y)
I'm really racking up the mock award nominees this month: this one was a "meh." Excellent description, use of language, and premises (it's short stories) but no payoff. Meh. Two stars, but a reluctant two.
Invisible Allies: Microbes That Shape Our Lives, Farrell (Y)
A review book for me, this is a follow-up to Invisible Enemies. I love this sort of non-fiction: conversational, full of pertinent detail, and not dumbed down. Major chapters cover cheese, bread, chocolate, intestines, and sewage. Three stars!
Top excuses to not have to go to sleep right now:
I'm thirsty.
What happens after we die?
Will you sit with me? You never sit with me.
I'm too hot.
I'm too cold.
I miss (whoever is not here at the moment).
I'm not tired (while rubbing eyes)