Assorted stuffs
May. 13th, 2008 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Book Foo!
Finished: Otherland, Vol 3: Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams
Started: The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
No detailed thoughts since it's part of a series and one part left to go. Still enjoying it though.
Started and Finished: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (available online, and read that way)
Thoughts behind the cut, not especially spoilery, though. It is a bit YA oriented, but I enjoy YAish work so that's not a problem for me, and I'm kind of a fan of the 'teen rebelling against the evil system' genre, which this is. Of course, one of the problems with the YA tone is that some of the antagonists are a bit cartoonish either in their being nefariously overreacting or kowtowing to authority (and some parodies of specific people/talking points is a bit too on the nose). Of course, considering how many people really seem to react in those ways, maybe it's not so much the case that they're caricatures as that they're showing what really happens in a believable way and it suffering because fiction, unlike reality, is supposed to make sense. Aspects of the ending also felt a bit simplistic. Still, it was enjoyable enough on the whole to keep me reading, even online.
At times it did feel a bit like I was reading BoingBoing, with some of the main character's explanations of cool tech or philosophy on certain issues feeling much like some of the author's posts. But since I like BoingBoing that's not a terrible detraction, just a bit distracting.
Finished: Ventus, by Karl Schroeder (available free online, but I read it in book form)
Started: 13 Great Stories of Science-Fiction (short story collection, mostly stories from the 50s)
Ventus thoughts behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Short version: Quite liked it, will have to check out more by the author.
Ventus is sort of an odd book, since it's _almost_ a cross between a fantasy and a SF, with one sort of masquerading as the other, but done very well, perhaps because it's not deliberately out to fool anybody. The way it works is you can sort of read it as though the characters would think of it through most of the book, all the while knowing the truth of what's behind it and, for the most part, understand it.
Another plus is that virtually all the characters, even the ones who were supposedly the villains (except for some minor ones here and there and a big ultimate evil), were sympathetic. I didn't feel annoyed at switching perspectives to a different part of the story because I wanted to follow everybody. So, yeah, I'm going to look for more of his work.
What else? TVwise, Lost was good this week, BSG better than the last few, and Doctor's Daughter had some good moments but overall didn't satisfy. Don't really feel a need to go into it any more than that, though.
Haven't done one for quite a while, so let's do another Wiki Random Battle!
The Rules:
Go to Wikipedia, select Random Article twice, and pit the results against each other:
Round 1: The Cocoi Heron vs Sir Winston Churchill Public School
Results::
Fight to the Death result:
Well, let's see, we've got an Ontario middle school vs a bird. Do we say they're fighting the species as a whole? Or a particular bird? Well, a particular bird, the school wins, of course, since a group of middle schoolers, if forced, could kill a single bird. So let's go for the more interesting fight to the death. The school vs. the entire species. Could one schoolful of students (let's say one year's classes), kill the entire species, before they are killed in return.
I don't know. Tough one. Given enough time, middle schoolers would grow up and either through determined effort or just plain uncaring human environmental devastation, would probably be able to wipe out the birds, even if the birds were somehow fighting back. The grown-up middleschoolers could just lob bombs at them from far away. Only biological warfare (bird flu?) on the side of the heron would give them a chance, and that's a) not all that likely, and b) probably a scorched earth scenario, since they'll be dead too. If you keep the middleschoolers young indefinately, or at least give them only the abilities middle schoolers would have, then they still have the advantage, but probably less so, and, were enough herons in the area, they might be able to kill the kids. However, the distance between the two groups in general has to favour the kids, since they can plan better for long distance assaults.
Even if you give the herons the advantage that they can win either by killing the kids or destroying the school, it doesn't look good for the Cocoi Heron (I imagine they could make the school plenty unpleasant, but probably not destroy it). I think the kids win out on this one.
Friendly Fight result:
For this one, I think you assume the school, let loose in one of the natural habitats, and whether they could catch a heron within a reasonable time limit. I think they could probably do it given _enough_ time, but a lot would be up to luck, and, remembering some of my field trips, that isn't always an abundance of either.
I'd say even best case scenario, it'd be 50-50 chance between a catch, and a disappointing exercise in futility for the kids who don't even manage to see a Cocoi Heron (or have brief moments of excitement followed by frustration when they learn that yes, they caught a heron, but it wasn't the Cocoi Heron) until they finally give up. If you restrict the time frame appropriately to one school day, I'd say the Heron has much better odds.
Round 2: Gaston Leroux, Canadian politician vs Richard Beesly, British Rower
Results::
Fight to the Death result:
Well, I only know what Wikipedia tells me, and that is that Gaston Leroux is a politician (Bloc Quebecois) who has a background in consulting and comedy performance, and Beesly is/was an athlete (but we pick them from their most notable timeframe in the event a present-day battle is unacheivable). I think in a straight up fight to the death, I'm betting Leroux would not have been in as good a shape, so Beesly with strong Rowing arms would be able to get the drop on him and choke him to death or something.
Friendly Fight result:
I think Beesly would win here too, although Leroux being a politician, would perhaps cheat or at the very least rules-lawyer whatever the competition was. I'd say the odds are 70-30 in Beesley's favour.
Round 3: Baeocystin, a psychadelic mushroom component vs ProgressSoft, a software development company
Fight to the Death result:
Hmmm... not much information here, but I'd have to assume that the Baeocystin be introduced at some sort of lethal level to the employees of the software company, while the company doesn't really have the means to destroy all psychadelic mushrooms (and likely other psychadelic plants which might contain similar compounds). If the War on Drugs can't be won as it is, the software company isn't likely to do much to help.
Friendly Fight result:
Hey, when software developers ingest psychadelic mushrooms, everybody wins.
...
Except the mushrooms, I suppose, who are eaten. But since the mushroom isn't the combatant here, just one of the compounds in it, that's not important.
Lifewise, well, nothing else really new. When is anything? My life unchanges. Yes, my life is so static that it forces 'unchange' to somehow be a real verb.
Edit: Oh, and it's around that time of year for Networks to announce their schedules. A few networks have already announced their slates, and this site I've found has given me a good roundup of them in the past.
Finished: Otherland, Vol 3: Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams
Started: The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
No detailed thoughts since it's part of a series and one part left to go. Still enjoying it though.
Started and Finished: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (available online, and read that way)
Thoughts behind the cut, not especially spoilery, though. It is a bit YA oriented, but I enjoy YAish work so that's not a problem for me, and I'm kind of a fan of the 'teen rebelling against the evil system' genre, which this is. Of course, one of the problems with the YA tone is that some of the antagonists are a bit cartoonish either in their being nefariously overreacting or kowtowing to authority (and some parodies of specific people/talking points is a bit too on the nose). Of course, considering how many people really seem to react in those ways, maybe it's not so much the case that they're caricatures as that they're showing what really happens in a believable way and it suffering because fiction, unlike reality, is supposed to make sense. Aspects of the ending also felt a bit simplistic. Still, it was enjoyable enough on the whole to keep me reading, even online.
At times it did feel a bit like I was reading BoingBoing, with some of the main character's explanations of cool tech or philosophy on certain issues feeling much like some of the author's posts. But since I like BoingBoing that's not a terrible detraction, just a bit distracting.
Finished: Ventus, by Karl Schroeder (available free online, but I read it in book form)
Started: 13 Great Stories of Science-Fiction (short story collection, mostly stories from the 50s)
Ventus thoughts behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Short version: Quite liked it, will have to check out more by the author.
Ventus is sort of an odd book, since it's _almost_ a cross between a fantasy and a SF, with one sort of masquerading as the other, but done very well, perhaps because it's not deliberately out to fool anybody. The way it works is you can sort of read it as though the characters would think of it through most of the book, all the while knowing the truth of what's behind it and, for the most part, understand it.
Another plus is that virtually all the characters, even the ones who were supposedly the villains (except for some minor ones here and there and a big ultimate evil), were sympathetic. I didn't feel annoyed at switching perspectives to a different part of the story because I wanted to follow everybody. So, yeah, I'm going to look for more of his work.
What else? TVwise, Lost was good this week, BSG better than the last few, and Doctor's Daughter had some good moments but overall didn't satisfy. Don't really feel a need to go into it any more than that, though.
Haven't done one for quite a while, so let's do another Wiki Random Battle!
The Rules:
Go to Wikipedia, select Random Article twice, and pit the results against each other:
Round 1: The Cocoi Heron vs Sir Winston Churchill Public School
Results::
Fight to the Death result:
Well, let's see, we've got an Ontario middle school vs a bird. Do we say they're fighting the species as a whole? Or a particular bird? Well, a particular bird, the school wins, of course, since a group of middle schoolers, if forced, could kill a single bird. So let's go for the more interesting fight to the death. The school vs. the entire species. Could one schoolful of students (let's say one year's classes), kill the entire species, before they are killed in return.
I don't know. Tough one. Given enough time, middle schoolers would grow up and either through determined effort or just plain uncaring human environmental devastation, would probably be able to wipe out the birds, even if the birds were somehow fighting back. The grown-up middleschoolers could just lob bombs at them from far away. Only biological warfare (bird flu?) on the side of the heron would give them a chance, and that's a) not all that likely, and b) probably a scorched earth scenario, since they'll be dead too. If you keep the middleschoolers young indefinately, or at least give them only the abilities middle schoolers would have, then they still have the advantage, but probably less so, and, were enough herons in the area, they might be able to kill the kids. However, the distance between the two groups in general has to favour the kids, since they can plan better for long distance assaults.
Even if you give the herons the advantage that they can win either by killing the kids or destroying the school, it doesn't look good for the Cocoi Heron (I imagine they could make the school plenty unpleasant, but probably not destroy it). I think the kids win out on this one.
Friendly Fight result:
For this one, I think you assume the school, let loose in one of the natural habitats, and whether they could catch a heron within a reasonable time limit. I think they could probably do it given _enough_ time, but a lot would be up to luck, and, remembering some of my field trips, that isn't always an abundance of either.
I'd say even best case scenario, it'd be 50-50 chance between a catch, and a disappointing exercise in futility for the kids who don't even manage to see a Cocoi Heron (or have brief moments of excitement followed by frustration when they learn that yes, they caught a heron, but it wasn't the Cocoi Heron) until they finally give up. If you restrict the time frame appropriately to one school day, I'd say the Heron has much better odds.
Round 2: Gaston Leroux, Canadian politician vs Richard Beesly, British Rower
Results::
Fight to the Death result:
Well, I only know what Wikipedia tells me, and that is that Gaston Leroux is a politician (Bloc Quebecois) who has a background in consulting and comedy performance, and Beesly is/was an athlete (but we pick them from their most notable timeframe in the event a present-day battle is unacheivable). I think in a straight up fight to the death, I'm betting Leroux would not have been in as good a shape, so Beesly with strong Rowing arms would be able to get the drop on him and choke him to death or something.
Friendly Fight result:
I think Beesly would win here too, although Leroux being a politician, would perhaps cheat or at the very least rules-lawyer whatever the competition was. I'd say the odds are 70-30 in Beesley's favour.
Round 3: Baeocystin, a psychadelic mushroom component vs ProgressSoft, a software development company
Fight to the Death result:
Hmmm... not much information here, but I'd have to assume that the Baeocystin be introduced at some sort of lethal level to the employees of the software company, while the company doesn't really have the means to destroy all psychadelic mushrooms (and likely other psychadelic plants which might contain similar compounds). If the War on Drugs can't be won as it is, the software company isn't likely to do much to help.
Friendly Fight result:
Hey, when software developers ingest psychadelic mushrooms, everybody wins.
...
Except the mushrooms, I suppose, who are eaten. But since the mushroom isn't the combatant here, just one of the compounds in it, that's not important.
Lifewise, well, nothing else really new. When is anything? My life unchanges. Yes, my life is so static that it forces 'unchange' to somehow be a real verb.
Edit: Oh, and it's around that time of year for Networks to announce their schedules. A few networks have already announced their slates, and this site I've found has given me a good roundup of them in the past.
