New Word: coaster nazi

coaster nazi: noun. a person who insists upon placing a coaster under your drink, no matter what. A coaster nazi will surreptitiously slip a small disk beneath someone's cup, glass, mug, stein, chalice, grail or beaker, unless the opportunity presents itself to "out" the offender in the loudest way possible and thereby introduce a parable in which the damage inflicted by excessive moisture upon a wooden surface leads to an environmental catastrophe that renders the Earth inhospitable to life.

Coaster nazis can usually be identified by a disproportionately high number of coasters relative to the number of horizontal surfaces in their homes that are large enough to support a drinking vessel of any type. Other signs include a tendency to secrete coasters (or in extreme cases, napkins) on their persons, or limited kleptomania, exhibited only in bars, and focused totally on those small cardboard coasters with beer brand logos on them.

Sidereal

Conversation with Siderealette

In which my two year old daughter is proven to be more intelligent than every living Republican......

Siderealette: Daddy, big cars bad de Earf.


Sidereal

Someone Who Just Doesn't Get It

From an interview on time.com, with a British political journalist named Dennis Sewell, who has written a book on the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution on politics:

All things considered, do you believe Darwin was a great luminary in the path of human progress?
What has the theory of evolution done for the practical benefit of humanity? It's helped our understanding of ourselves, yet compared to, say, the discovery of penicillin or the invention of the World Wide Web, I wonder why Darwin occupies this position at the pinnacle of esteem. I can only imagine he has been put there by a vast public relations exercise.

This is what happens when supposedly educated people don't receive enough education in science. While it is certainly one motivation of science to produce inventions (e.g. ones that allow uninformed journalists spout off on topics on which they don't know very much and can't be bothered to actually reseach), the first and foremost goal of science is to explain things. Darwin "occupies this position at the pinnacle of esteem" because he provided an explanation that, in turn, provides a framework for understanding how nearly every biological thing you see around you got the way it is. On top of being a very profound explanation of the nature living organisms, Darwin's theory helps us understand important, practical things like the emergence of strains of diseases that resist antibiotics, and drives our understanding of the applications of things like genetics in the natural world.

In my mind, what this guy is saying is the equivalent of saying: "What's the big deal with Newton, it's not like he invented the Ipod or anything."

Sidereal

Books I Read in July: Wherein I Partially Catch-up with My Blog After An Eventful Summer

In July we have seven books, though five of them are in two separate series compilations put out by the Science Fiction Book Club. These kinds of volumes are the best thing the SFBC does, and I've pretty much reduced my purchases from them to these sorts of compilations. This is mostly because single volume books from them are more expensive than mass market paperbacks, and they take up too much space. So, if you are listening SFBC people, more multi-volume compilations, please!

The Audran Sequence -- George Alec Effinger: 7/7/09 - 7/18/09

This is a SFBC compilation of three excellent novels originally published in the mid 80s - early 90s: When Gravity Fails; A Fire in the Sun; and The Exile Kiss. I read them when they first came out, and jumped at the chance to own them in a nicer format. They're sort of Arabic-cyberpunk-hardboiled crime-soap opera novels.

Virga 1.2 -- Karl Schroeder: 7/19/09 - 7/26/09

Another SFBC compilation, this time of two novels: Sun of Suns; and Queen of Candesce. The world is a gigantic gasbag where people sail around on currents generated by hot air. Sort of like Congress... Awesome adventure tales filled with cool SFnal ideas.

The Vondish Ambassador -- Lawrence Watt-Evans: 7/26/09 - 7/26/09

A naive ambassador from an obscure land comes to the court of the ruler of the world's most important city with a secret mission. Coming off the boat, he hires the first dude he sees as his assistant. The world's most incompetent spies try to stop him. Hijinks ensue.

Star Dragon -- Mike Brotherton: 7/30/09 - 8/3/09

Oh, hey, we just found the only known life forms outside of our solar system living on the surface of a nearby star! Let's send a crew of psychopaths on a nuclear armed spacecraft to go see if these unique beings are worth exploiting commerically. Oh yeah, the trip takes years (sorry, no FTL here!) and the only forms of recreation for the crew are boning each other and extreme cosmetic body modifications. Ugh, stay away from this book.

So, seven books, 5 as SFBC multi-volume compilations, and two on the Kindle (the last two onthe list, in case you weren't keeping track). A good month for reading books in alternatee formats.

Sidereal

New Word: facon

Facon: noun. a substance assuming bacon-like qualities (e.g. coloration, shape, texture) without capturing any of the true essence of bacon.

Examples:

and

Sidereal

WWJB (Who Would Jesus Bill?)

For all my fellow citizens (notice how I didn't refer to you as my fellow taxpayers?) who are of right leaning political persuasions and who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, I have the following questions:

When Jesus healed the sick, did he check first for proof of insurance? To whom did He send His bill?

Sidereal

New Word: fixel

Fixel: noun. a fixture element. The fix for a problem the requires the least possible amount of work. Sometimes fixels do not actually solve the problem, but give the appearance of having solved the problem, at least for long enough time that the responsible party can flee the scene.

Many common fixels involve the liberal application of duct tape, or wood putty, or baby wipes, or all three simultaneously. IT personnel often use the word "workaround" as a synonym for fixel.

Sidereal