Category Archives: Literary

Cthulhugami

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I hate it when BoingBoing is on something before I am. Once! Once in six months! Time for some affirmations.

My self-esteem is intact. I am worthy. I have the respect of the Cthulummunity and the admiration of my peers. Yes, I do.

And I’m not defensive, either.

Bloody hell. Here, several days late, is the brazilliant, step by step photodocumentation of the creation of the immortal Origami Cthulhu!

Sometimes I think the most merciful thing in the world is the inability of human fingers to call into being the greatest of the Great Old Ones. We live in an origami-versions-of-Elder-Gods-free world, and it is not meant that we should fold.

Cthulhu origami

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Giant Squid: your Saturday science vid!

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I am sure that I speak for many when I say I miss those endless Saturday afternoon nature shows that came on between the sports. Take thirteen minutes and climb with me back into the cosy, cowboy-printed sleepingbag of your childhood as we watch The Search for the Giant Squid!

from the YouTube notes:

For centuries, sailors have told tales of sea monsters with massive tentacles. But it was only recently that a giant squid was actually filmed. One man has spent his life tracking the elusive creatures.

When his large, powerful yacht slowed to a virtual stop, Olivier de Kersauson knew he had a problem. “I saw two arms, twice the size of my arm, grabbing the rudder.” A giant squid had got caught in the propeller. “It had a lot of power and started to shake the boat.” It was a sight Dr Steve O’Shea would love to have witnessed. For over 30 years he’s been chasing the rare creatures. But recently, he’s become aware of a disturbing trend. “Squids are incredibly good barometers of environmental health”, he explains. “If I go back 10 years, I had 23 giant squids in one year. Now, because of the intensity of fishing, it’s tailed down to one a year.”

And here is the requisite wistful portrait demonstrating the futility and the beauty of human hopes and dreams, from the New Yorker.

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Star Trek and the Red Jersey of Death: the math

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lolredshirts

At last a twisted genius has applied some higher math skillz to the age-old question of just how deadly is the red Starfleet uniform?

Answer: pretty damn deadly.

Probability of a red-shirt casualty= 53%
14% of fights ended in a fatality (with a 72% chance the fatality wore a red shirt)
Probability of a red-shirt “incident” when Kirk has a “conquest” = 12%

Which leads to some truly fascinating conclusions:

As the data shows, Captain Kirk “making contact” with alien women has an impact on the crew’s survival. The red-shirt death rate is higher when a fight breaks out than when Kirk meets a woman and a fight breaks out. Yet the analysis shows that meeting Kirk meeting women only happens in 30% of the missions.

Conclusion:
We can reliably improve the survivability of the red-shirted crewmen by only exploring peaceful, female-only planets (android and alien females included).

I particularly love the Powerpoint presentation. Surely, surely, those wizened old Admirals would enjoy the slides as well, for getting in those needed snoozes. Yes, the whole intricate and elegant article on the morbid red shirt is really a stalking horse, to distract you from the fact that, like it or not, you’re reading a comparative analysis of bar graphs vs Powerpoint vs pie charts. It’s as if the anonymous Fellini of the flipchart from Ross Perot‘s campaign finally busted a nerdish nut and this is the offspring.

May he live long and, yes, prosper.

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US National Sandwich Month: what’s your dream sandwich?

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Sandwich art

Go on, you know how to use the Comments section!

UPI, in a healthy-eating initiative, has spread the word that August is National Sandwich Month in the US, if not in the land of the Sandwich‘s birth. And indeed, the sandwich is an invention to be celebrated: you’ll note there is no such thing as “National Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Month” or “National Misogyny Month”.

With or without mayonnaise, seafood- or meat-based, buttered or margarined or dry, the sandwich is truly one of the highest achievements of the culinary arts and should be rightly honoured in its course.

As with anything that lays as close to the human heart as the sandwich, we all have our own preferences and prejudices. We all have our unique tastes. And I invite you to contribute yours, twofold, in the comments section.

I’ll go first:

1) Clooney, raincoaster, Rickman.

2) Croissant, avocado, shrimp, mayo, sprouts.

Yeah, bit of a comedown, so to speak. But a girl has to keep her strength up somehow!

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come together, Gospel version

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Power comes from God

So…is this where angel dust comes from? Who is the patron saint of handi-wipes?

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