(Mostly) Old News Links

[lyorn]

I've been lazy, so most of this is old news.




LONDON BOMBINGS

Everyone already has the news, so I'll just link to some commentary in The Guardian and some remarks collected on the internet.



RESOURCES

A Mythology Encyclopedia.



SCIENCE

Frozen Dogs, or, "The really interesting question is, do their eyes glow red and do they hunger for fresh brains when they return from the dead?"



FUN & WEIRDNESS

Nigerian Scam Poetry Deathmatch.

Superheroes' Politics (the discussion is the interesting part.)

trollprincess says that "This looks like the recruitment test for Darth Vader's office assistant". She has a point. For additional fun, read the comments, or active_apathys answers to the questionnaire.

Linked again, by popular request: Unitarian Jihad. Complete with Name Generator and LiveJournal Community.



TESTS

Which Firefly Character Are You?
Too few questions for too many characters, IMO, but if you've got nothing better to do...

So, what do you belive in?

Somewhat different, Which Social Class Do You Belong To. I'm doubtful of this, though, because my results do not seem to match reality too closely, but then, the scale tries to measure US-American reality.

Motorcycle Personality Test. Nice.



QUOTES

On the London Bombings:
"Al Qaeda say: 'Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.' Bitch, please. Osama, you live in a fucking cave. You're like an evil Batman or something. No wonder you have a thing for blowing up commuters, because you will never commute because you live in a cave. You see transport, and you are filled with rage, because you? Live in a cave. You could try forming a political wing to... oh, wait, you can't because YOU LIVE IN A CAVE. Twat.
The BBC paused news coverage to show *Eastenders*. That'd be the nationwide fear, terror and panic, then."
(via tyrell, also in metaquotes)



READING

No fanfic recs this time, because I'm up to my ears in reading and re-reading other stuff.

To start with, I'm re-reading all of A.J.Halls LoPiverse (and if you like Harry Potter Fanfic and Golden Age Detective Novels, you should read it ASAP).

Also, George Orwell's Road to Wigam Pier which is interesting in a multitude of ways.

I finally got around to reading J. Michael Straczynski's "Rising Stars". And then re-read it, and re-read it again and ran through a rainstorm to the comic shop to order it, although the drawing style, especially in the last third of the story is very "Image", the female characters never get to live up to their potential. But it's a great story. I find myself contrasting it with Alan Moore's "Watchmen", which is also about the morality of super-heroism, the need to change the world, and the way the "world as we know it" might react to the sudden emergence of superheroes. However, while "Watchmen" is deeper, it is also a lot darker, while "Rising Stars" has a solid underlying optimism. When you get to the last book, you should have your disbelief firmly suspended, but it's not that hard, really, because the writing and plotting is just brilliant.

And I'm not yet reading Steven Brust's "Dzur", but someone else is, and she's smug about it. Grrrr!