Author: Rory

Fans of self-referential humour will appreciate this instructional video on how to write a fugue, based on Britney Spears’ Oops, I Did It Again. It reminds me a bit of Gödel, Escher, Bach.

By the way, is thit question self-referential given that “thit” isn’t a word?

A note to anyone writing about Richard Dawkins: the moment you choose to use the word shrill, I am no longer reading, because it’s clear that you haven’t done your reading. Please try not to base your reviews on a second hand filtering of his work through the prejudiced brain of a fellow credulista or on what you expect him to have written.

Thanks.

Via Back Off, Man; I’m a Scientist comes the news that Stephen Fry will be following in the large footsteps of Douglas Adams in making a 20 years on follow-up to Last Chance to See.

I also find it interesting that Fry and Richard Dawkins are apparently in at least occasional contact on the subject of rationalism. Face it, folks: we have all the best people on our side.

December 8 this year is Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day. The idea is to dress and act like a time traveler but never to actually tell anyone that you are one.

Some ideas:

• Walk up to random people and say “WHAT YEAR IS THIS?” and when they tell you, get quiet and then say “Then there’s still time!” and run off.
• Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell “NOOOOOOOOO”
• Stare at newspaper headlines and look astonished.
• Take some trinket with you, hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say “In thirty years dial this number. You’ll know what to do after that.” Then slip away.

I think this may be something that I’ll have to take part in.

Thanks to everyone who helped out by linking to the picture of Heather McNeil. I won the bet, saving myself from what I’m told was going to be a dreadful forfeit. No-one has yet told me what the forfeit was, but the word waxing was mentioned in passing.

The real reason Soundwave wasn’t in Transformers:

You could, if you felt the urge to, divide all of the books I’ve ever read into those that at some point describe a behavioural experiment conducted on pigeons, and those that don’t. In terms of my enjoyment, the books in the former category almost universally rate higher than those in the latter category. Stumbling on Happiness bears this hypothesis out.

It appears that Hughes and Hughes in the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre has a strange definition of the word new that I wasn’t previously aware of.

This “new fiction” section contains a selection of works including Oliver Twist, Gulliver’s Travels and Crime and Punishment. I can’t wait to see what exciting works are produced next by today’s wonderfully inventive authors.

Worryingly, it also seems that the person on the front of one of the other, unidentified books is playing the circle game.

“Why are you here soldier!?”
“Because I’m bored!”

Minesweeper: The Movie

I’m not even going to try to describe this comedy podcast. If you trust me enough to spend 10 minutes or so listening then do that. It’s funny. Really.