Seven random things
Mar. 16th, 2012 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zwolComment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
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vvvexation:
- chemicals:
- Years after I abandoned a career in chemistry, it dawned on me that what I had really enjoyed was the lab work. Now I can't help wondering if I coulda made a go of it on the synthesis side instead of the theory side.
- biscuits:
- Are yummy, but should be referred to as 'scones' or 'cookies' to avoid confusion.
- sheep:
- I have spent almost no time around them and would like to know if they're actually as foolish as they are reputed to be.
- the Singularity:
- In its original form, it was predicated on laughably optimistic notions of progress in AI research. Human-equivalent robots need at least 50 more years of R&D, and disembodied intelligence may never be achieved. That said, it is a useful corrective for people who assume the future will be just like the present day, especially those who, by the present day, actually mean Pleasantville.
- bacon:
- Has never really appealed to me.
- trombones:
- One time, someone in the Cornell University Marching Band hit me in the face with their trombone. ... Fuck, was that fifteen years ago already?
- Dune:
- I read it in ninth grade, more or less back-to-back with The Dispossessed, instead of paying attention in Spanish 1 (still the worst instructor I have ever had). Years later I reread The Dispossessed and was blown away by just how much of it had gone right past me. If I reread Dune, either the same thing will happen, or the Suck Fairy will have visited and I won't get past page ten. I kinda don't want to collapse the wave function. (For the record, the Suck Fairy had already gotten to the sequels when I picked them up for the first time. I did manage to make it through volume two before I gave up; I doubt I'd do the same today.)
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seven seven seven
Date: 2012-03-17 03:35 am (UTC)Re lab work: I was invited to take a senior-level optics lab w/o having to take the corresponding lecture. Most fun ever. ("Frickin' LASERS!")
Re biscuits: Hm, I don't know that either "scones" or "cookies" covers the classic (southern USA?) biscuit. Closer to scones, surely, but ... no.
Re Dune: I recommend taking the plunge and re-reading it. The fact that Herbert admitted it was an allegory for the Middle East petroleum business is priceless (CHOAM is OPEC, but more so). (Although I'll admit that I made it through the first three without much problem, the 4th after struggling through the first 100 pages, and then threw the fifth against the wall and haven't looked back...)
I honestly doubt there seven things that I can interestingly comment upon.
Re: seven seven seven
Date: 2012-03-17 03:59 am (UTC)1. If I can't find a "post reply" button, should I assume that a topic is closed due to age?
2. Regarding "stalker" songs, "Gonna Get Close To You" by Queensryche seems essential (esp considering you already have a QR song or two on there).
3. Regarding your Cato / Brutus "ethics of firewalling" scenarios:
a. USA law makes a distinction between "parody" and "satire"; one (wherein the work is altered to comment upon the original topic) is more protected than the other (which simply re-uses aspects of the original for an unrelated end). This came up in the Jib-Jab "This Land Is My Land" animation from ... yow, 2004? (Sadly, I can never remenber which is which.)
b. "Truth is an absolute defense against libel / slander" is a country-specific thing; USA honors it, but (SFAIK), the UK doesn't. That is, you can still be convicted of libel in the UK even if your description of the subject was completely accurate. (There was also a lot of noise about super-injunctions over the last 2-3 years.)
Re: seven seven seven
Date: 2012-03-17 05:32 am (UTC)2. I coulda sworn I _had_ heard all the QR there is, but I don't know that one. Which album is it on?
3a. I recall reading a decision from the 90s-ish that basically abolished that distinction? Possibly only in one circuit. It had something to do with comic books IIRC.
3b. Specifically England, as I understand it, and everyone I know who lives in the UK thinks that rule's nuts and an embarrassment and possibly in contradiction to EC treaties...
Re: seven seven seven
Date: 2012-03-17 05:37 pm (UTC)It's on one of the earlier ones... wow, I've lost most of those neurons, apparently. Rage for Order. The song itself is a cover. Nice snippit in the second paragraph here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I remember it mostly for the spectacular bridge. The sample here cuts out right before the bridge, sadly:
http://www.amazon.com/Rage-Order-
I actually went through the trouble of finding the original, and it's good in its own way, but I have a strong preference for liking the first version I hear of something, so the QR version is still far superior.
Thanks for the info on the other points.
Re: seven seven seven
Date: 2012-03-17 05:30 am (UTC)It was pretty obvious to me when I read it the first time that CHOAM was a stand-in for OPEC, tbh. Also I had some pretty serious problems with the worldbuilding even at that point...
Re: seven seven seven
Date: 2012-03-17 05:45 pm (UTC)It's "Les Invisibles" off Imaginos. Later than their classic work, but possibly my favorite. (But maybe that's just from growing up around a "classic rock" station that played the hell out of the early BOC stuff...)
I think I was relatively young when I first read them (early teens?) and I'll freely admit that I was politically naive. (Benchmark: not "getting" Bloom County until my later teens...)
I haven't bothered with the Brian Herbert books.
If you are looking for recommendations, I tend to trot out more fantasy than sci-fi anymore: Elizabeth Moon (although she's done some sci-fi as well, it's her PaksWorld that I love); and Guy Gavriel Kay (of whom my only complaint is that he started out as a very lyrical writer and has become a stupendously lyrical writer, but his actual topics have become less fantasy and more alternate-history, which interests me less...)
Since my LJ has been totally empty lately...
Date: 2012-03-21 02:58 am (UTC)Re: Since my LJ has been totally empty lately...
Date: 2012-03-21 02:59 am (UTC)Re: Since my LJ has been totally empty lately...
Date: 2012-03-21 03:34 am (UTC)Re: Since my LJ has been totally empty lately...
Date: 2012-03-21 03:33 am (UTC)