five simple ways to Just Keep Writing (1)
share
digg
by
wil@wilwheaton.net (Wil Wheaton) (234)
on
WWdN: In Exile (249)
9 hours, 4 minutes
ago
permalink
I'm reluctant to pass myself off as some kind of authority on writing, because I still have a lot to learn, but from time to time I'm asked a question that I can answer with some degree of confidence. That happened earlier today, and (as you'll see at the end of this post) I thought it may be worth sharing here. On Aug 28, 2008, at 12:52 PM, [redacted] wrote: When you're writing something that's ...
The Mighty Book of Boosh: a sneak preview (2)
share
digg
by
Gavin (51)
on
CR Blog (137)
12 hours, 22 minutes
ago
permalink
While it’s common knowledge amongst Mighty Boosh fans that the surreal TV show’s spaced out Shaman, Naboo, is played by Noel Fielding’s brother, Michael, it’s less well known that the man inside Boosh character Bollo’s gorilla suit is actually a graphic designer and photographer. Bollo’s design skills (his real name is Dave Brown) are showcased in the the forthcoming Mighty Book Of Boosh, published by Canongate on 18 September. Brown, has art directed and designed ...
Dating advice from assholes: "Stop treating women well" (1)
share
digg
by
Ann (88)
on
Feministing (326)
14 hours, 13 minutes
ago
permalink
Today the Washington Post covers a new book with the earth-shattering thesis that, if women want to "keep a man" they should start scrubbing floors in lingerie, learning to cook steaks to order, and giving blowjobs in between. Is that cover condescending or what? And that's not even getting into the content of the book... Moore's slim treatise purports to explain how women should go about sex, relationships and marriage -- according to men. Here ...
WordsDay: Political Books in a Soundbite Election (1)
share
digg
by
Chris Mackowski (2)
on
Scholars and Rogues (6)
16 hours, 6 minutes
ago
permalink
With the presidential election season in full swing, bookstores have transformed into veritable Libraries of Congress, featuring titles by and about politicians on the national stage. Add to that the flood of books on policy issues like health care, national security, environment, and the role of government and, indeed, it takes a village to sort through it. What’s of particular note, though, is an irony often overlooked in the midst of the mass media hubbub: ...
Aharon Appelfeld at Rimini (1)
share
digg
by
clairity (38)
on
Clairity Daily (20)
16 hours, 56 minutes
ago
permalink
[A few months ago, I posted a quote from Traces from an interview with the Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld. I was very fortunate to hear him speak at Rimini yesterday and transcribe my notes below in first person. The title of the talk was "Bellezza e positività della vita" or "Beauty and Positivity of Life". He gave a very poetic and deliberate delivery, so I reproduce it as closely as possible.]I refer ...
In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas Friedman Calls for a Green Energy Revolution (9)
share
digg
by
Garrett M. Graff (10)
on
Wired Top Stories (5134)
20 hours, 41 minutes
ago
permalink
Thomas Friedman is about to dive into the green-tech fray. In his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, the multi-Pulitzer-winning journalist says everyone needs to accept that oil will never be cheap again and that wasteful, polluting technologies cannot be tolerated. The last big innovation in energy production, he observes, was nuclear power half a century ago; since then the field has stagnated. "Do you know any industry in this country whose last major breakthrough ...
Review Addendum: Using Amazon Kindle on Vacation [Kindle Review] (3)
share
digg
by
Brian Lam (296)
on
Gizmodo (16270)
1 day, 3 hours
ago
permalink
Although Wilson tested the Kindle in bed, on the toilet, I had the chance to use it on vacation and found myself reading a great deal more than I usually do. Unlike regular books, which cause me to fall asleep pretty readily after less than 50 pages, I'd finish about 300 pages in a stretch, with no eyestrain in dark rooms or in the sun. I suppose it felt a lot more like reading on ...
Tracking fine spy fiction: the haul so far (1)
share
digg
by
Bryan Alexander (74)
on
Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Education (54)
1 day, 4 hours
ago
permalink
Fine spy fiction: in response to this blog post (bleg) for recommended reading, Infocult readers have responded generously and thoughtfully. That comments thread is a fine example of Web 2.0 collaborative information-mongering, not to mention personal kindness.Also generous were responders from the Brainstorms community. These fine folks came up with a keen set of recommendations, which I've blended into the following.I've also included the few I've actually read:The Reading List so farShauna Singh Baldwin, The ...
In Recent Scifi, Intelligent Design Is Truth [Intelligent Design] (23)
share
digg
by
Annalee Newitz (985)
on
io9 (3741)
1 day, 6 hours
ago
permalink
A new crop of science fiction novels focus on what it would mean if Intelligent Design turned out to be the truth. Jay Lake's Escapement is a perfect example, as is Walter Jon Williams' Implied Spaces — both are novels about people in clockwork worlds designed by some kind of higher power associated with spiritual realms. Other recent tales, such as Charles Stross' Saturn's Children and Iain M. Banks' Matter, flirt with the idea of ...
Little People in the City (1)
share
digg
by
wemadethis (12)
on
We Made This (12)
1 day, 7 hours
ago
permalink
That master of the miniature moment, Slinkachu, has got a new show opening at Cosh in Soho, to celebrate the launch of his new book, Little People in the City. The private view is tomorrow evening, and you can sign up for it over on the Cosh website. And on Sunday at noon, there's a treasure hunt, where you have to hunt down one of Slinkachu's original installations to win a signed limited edition print. ...
Deciding Whether to Read a Book: Some Wildly Reductive Heuristics (15)
share
digg
by
Merlin Mann (1917)
on
43 Folders (1781)
1 day, 10 hours
ago
permalink
People send me lots of books, so I have to decide rather quickly whether one should be added to the ambitious pile of stuff I already really want to finish reading. On the off chance that you care or find it useful in developing your own filtering, here’s my insanely reductive, mean-busy-guy way to make a 90-second decision on whether to read a new non-fiction book from an author I’m not familiar with. It does ...
Exclusive: Neal Stephenson Does Some Hardcore Phenomenology Geeking [Neal Stephenson] (12)
share
digg
by
Annalee Newitz (985)
on
io9 (3741)
1 day, 10 hours
ago
permalink
We've got an exclusive clip of Neal Stephenson doing what he does best: Seriously geeking out about obscure early-twentieth century metaphysics. Specifically, he admits that he has a little fetish for Edmund Husserl, a theorist who coined the term "phenomenology" in his effort to reconcile the hard truths of scientific knowledge with the ambiguities of human consciousness. Stephenson's interest in Husserl comes out of his obsession with Kurt Gödel, who loved Husserl (and is also ...
-
Denubis said:
mmmm. Tasty philosophy!
Cocktail Party Physics: the great pop-sci book project (6)
share
digg
by
Jennifer Ouellette (26)
on
Cocktail Party Physics (22)
1 day, 10 hours
ago
permalink
I recently received an email from a grandmother asking for book recommendations for her gifted granddaughter, who shows considerable talent in math and physics. That request, plus the recent book meme floating about teh Internetz listing some of the great books in Western literature got me thinking about compiling a similar meme thing for popular science books. The emphasis here is on "popular": books that are engaging and accessible to a truly general reader, ideally ...
-
Tometheus said:
Sadly I've only read ~15 of them. (Not sure on a couple in which I've read several of the author's works, but can't remember which book is which.) .. of course, there are some that I haven't read the popular work because I've studied the textbook. (i.e. Kip Thorn) Oooh.. just another two that I had read. (strange syntax for E=mc and I forgot all about the Physics of Star Trek book that I read for that honors class on the science of science fiction) Even though the book is a little outdated now, I enjoyed Alice in Quantumland, but I would have put Scrooge's Cryptic Carol on there instead by the same author. Hmm.. just noticed that he also wrote a book I used in grad school as a textbook for Lie Algebras. OK, I've rambled enough.
What if Alejandro Jodorowsky directed Dune? (1)
share
digg
by
Joanne McNeil (22)
on
Tomorrow Museum (22)
1 day, 12 hours
ago
permalink
Alejandro Jodorowsky originally wanted to direct Dune. “[Salvador] Dalí agrees with much enthusiasm the idea to play the Emperor of the galaxy. He wants to film in Cadaquès and to use as throne a toilet made up of two intersected dolphins. The tails will form the feet and the two open mouths will be used one to receive the “wee”, the other to receive the “excrement”. Dalí thinks that it is of terrible bad taste ...
The comic book [is] the marijuana of the nursery, the bane of the bassinet, the horror of the home, the curse of the kids and a threat to the future. (1)
share
digg
by
stan (14)
on
Seattle Metblogs (60)
1 day, 14 hours
ago
permalink
-John Mason Brown The most exciting literary event of the weekend[*] is at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Friday, August 29th. Fantagraphics is hosting an artist’s reception and book signing for Daniel Clowes, the author-artist of Ghost World. Mr. Clowes will be signing Ghost World: The Special Edition 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM. The special edition not only includes the original Ghost World, one of the most critically acclaimed comics (or “graphic novel” if ...
Ten temples in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1)
share
digg
by
noreply@blogger.com (Alan Knox) (8)
on
The Assembling of the Church (14)
1 day, 15 hours
ago
permalink
In his essay "The Ten Temples in the Dead Sea Scrolls" (in John Day. Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel: Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar. New York: T&T Clark, 2005), George J. Brooke describes ten different temples found within the documents of Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls).The residents of the Qumran community studied the OT writings and found ten temples. Some of these are temples with which we are familiar such as Solomon's ...
Marc Davis, Al Bertino and Bill Martin in front of Marc's (1)
share
digg
by
Didier Ghez (6)
on
Disney History (6)
1 day, 17 hours
ago
permalink
Marc Davis, Al Bertino and Bill Martin in front of Marc's concepts for what would become Country Bear Jamboree. I received three books from Disney Editions on Monday: Walt Disney's Legends of Imagineering and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Parks, Walt Disney World: Then, Now, and Forever, and Disney's Dogs (not yet officially released). Two out of those three are great, one is underwhelming (to say the least). I will review all three here ...
Arcade Mania in Print (1)
share
digg
by
Jean Snow (109)
on
JEANSNOW.NET (26)
1 day, 22 hours
ago
permalink
Look what got delivered to me this morning: beautiful print copies of Arcade Mania! I can’t even start to describe the thrill of finally getting to hold this thing in my hands, and it looks absolutely terrific, even better than what I was hoping. To update you on a few things, the official site for the book should launch next week, and we’ll also reveal details on when the book launch/party will happen. The book ...
