unintentional-irony.blogspot.com
Unintentional Irony: February 2008
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Friday, February 29, 2008. Freight train, each car looks the same, all the same. And no one knows the gypsy's name. No one hears his lonely sigh,. There are no blankets where he lies. In all his deepest dreams the gypsy flies. Warren Hall was also about 200 yards away from the Student Union, where I was to spend most of my time that year. Going into my junior year, I was still nominally the editor of Perspective. In any case, I was also managing editor of the Rensselaer Engineer. Early in the semester wa...
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Unintentional Irony: November 2007
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Friday, November 30, 2007. So I just got back from Loscon, and boy, are my arms tired. Seriously, we drove, and that always tires my arms. That would be pentaerythritol tetranitrate, official IUPAC name: 1,3-Dinitrato-2,2-bis (nitratomethyl) propane. It's the principle ingredient in detcord, detonating cord that's used as a superfast fuse for triggering simultaneous explosions. They concocted a fictional name for the same organization and called it the "Department of Domestic Security." Smallville. Had t...
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Unintentional Irony: January 2008
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Thursday, January 31, 2008. While it’s a popular strip, it’s also lame, or maybe it’s popular because it’s lame. Nevertheless, I remember one strip from many years ago that reached some sort of (possibly accidental) transcendence. The guys are all ragging on Zero, as usual, including Sarge. Suddenly, Zero bursts out, “Hey Sarge! Are you fat, or what? There follows a momentary stunned silence, and Zero cracks up. “Ha! 8221; he says. “I turned the tables on you there, boy! 8221; Or words to that effect.
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Unintentional Irony: June 2008
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Monday, June 30, 2008. The View from 30,000 Feet. People don't even look like ants from six miles up. The land becomes a mass of geometric patterns; cities become crystalline growths. You can't even see individuals at all; a single person no longer matters. The only other faces you see are those who are in the plane with you. Your inner circle looms larger than entire counties. It's no wonder that cronyism becomes the watchword from high above. Who else matters except the nearby few? American Exceptional...
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Unintentional Irony: May 2008
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Saturday, May 31, 2008. Production vs. Redistribution. But I'm going to keep to economics here, so I'm going to use a simple model. I'm not even going to put the math onto it, but rest assured, there's some math lurking just below the surface. Let's consider an island, a chunk of attractive real estate that sits off the coast of some mainland somewhere, maybe even in the middle of a large river, or, best of all, in the mouth of a large river or some other natural harbor. And let's be clear about this, th...
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Unintentional Irony: Oracles
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Tuesday, July 1, 2008. We'll take today's text from a story in the Fifth Galaxy Reader, "Perfect Answer," by L. J. Stecher, Jr., originally published in 1958. I liked it quite a lot when I was young; re-reading it makes its flaws very obvious, but the flaws also illuminate. So, first error in presentation. You don't build things by just being told how to make them. To build a translator (or automobile, or even a stone house) you need pre-existing infrastructure like semiconductor fabs, or foundri...Next,...
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Unintentional Irony: Woman and Snake: Amano
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Friday, July 4, 2008. Woman and Snake: Amano. This one was sent to me by a friend. Amano is a Japanese artist that I don't know nearly enough about, because he's really good. In addition to the .jp site, there's a .com site for those who insist on English. Here are two other sites where you can see work by Amano. Http:/ coco.raceme.org/videogames/amano/. Http:/ www.elevenland.com/amano/amano.php3. The first is his work on the Final Fantasy video game the second his more general work. Dieu tri vo sinh.
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Unintentional Irony: Giving Up the Ship
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Tuesday, July 8, 2008. Giving Up the Ship. My 40 Year High School Reunion apparently produced much in the way of fellowship and reminiscence, to the extent that one incorrigible troublemaker volunteered to compile a set of "High School Memories," noting that the class after ours has done so, but it was lame. This, of course, sends me back to the memory bin, trying to locate some non-lame memories, but I find the pickings pretty slender. Your Mr R sounds like quite a twit. July 8, 2008 at 8:54 PM. Februar...
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Unintentional Irony: Does Science Fiction (Still) Matter?
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Monday, July 7, 2008. Does Science Fiction (Still) Matter? Where Jack Bauer does his duty and tortures the information about the ticking time bomb from unwilling subjects. It's relatively easy to find current SF that covers the same territory. But in " Why Science Fiction Matters. In fact, it was reality that nixed the deal. Space if far bigger and more hostile (and less economically valuable) than most people imagined. So where does that leave science fiction? Black dog barking said. It appears that ele...
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Unintentional Irony: July 2008
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008. This space may be a bit fallow for a while. I'm off on an extended trip, first to see my wife's family, then mine, then to the World Science Fiction Convention, which is being held early this year, in Denver, immediately prior to the Democratic National Convention. So, in honor of that last bit, I'm going to rep0st something I put up on my Newsgroup a couple of years ago, following the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention:. Originally posted Sept. 5, 2006]. Not this last conventi...
