2008 — 18 June: Wednesday

I'd meant to put up another picture or two from yesterday's little ramble, but I got more than somewhat distracted later in the evening by watching a nice little movie called Next based loosely (by the writer who worked on Total Recall and Minority Report) on yet another Philip K Dick story: "The Golden Man." So, before I finally turn in for the night, a couple of flowery subjects. In the first one, you can see the little ladies are covered in the stuff that reddens my eyes and makes me sneeze more than occasionally:

What's that buzzing sound?

I presume this chap's one of those little hover-flies that likes to pretend it's got some nasty armoury:

Who's a pretty fake wasp, then?

I'm constantly amazed and delighted at the nature of the miniature world:

There's enough here for the both of us...

G'night.

Lovely jubbly... dept.

A whole web page of depressing UK economic key indicators just shrieking for Professor Tufte's insightful commentary. What a way to start the day, heh? And it's not even raining — which would, of course, lessen the sneezes and red eyes. Definitely time (09:09) for a cuppa.

Still, as long as nurses are to be rated on being 'smiley' and the results published on an official website... (I couldn't make this up, you know. I lack the imagination.) But this kitchen satnav looks fun.

Leibowitz

Tonight's BBC4 programme at 21:00 prompts me to recall the only other Leibowitz1 currently in my memory — the "Blessed Leibowitz" venerated (1,200 years down the line) by the characters in Walter M Miller's wonderful novel A Canticle for Leibowitz. One of the "must-haves" for any classic SF collection. Contrast and compare the frankly rather poor 1970 cover artwork of my copy (attributed merely to "Solution") and the original American 1st edition dust jacket...

1st edition dust jacket by George Sottung

And my tiny researches on this Interweb thing reveal just how far2 the Internet Speculative Fiction Database has progressed since I last called in.

Ondes Martenot

Not a common instrument, but instantly recognisable, and audible right now (10:35) on BBC Radio 3 in the shape of André Jolivet's 1947 concerto for the strange thing.

Noon? Already? Impossible!

Time is truly mysterious. Explain to me again how Grace Jones can possibly be 60!

Now it's nearly tea-time!

How does this job sound? It's basically devising benchmarks for quantum computing systems. The advertiser (Dr. Geordie Rose) describes it as "A very cool job for someone with a discrete math background":

Algorithms Researcher job ad

Why does Isaac Asimov's 1957 short story "Profession" spring to mind, I wonder? Not for the first time (!) researching this tiny trivia took me to some interesting places, including this one.

Getting tired!

My little Linux laptop is back in the (reduced) bosom of my family (ie, me!). A hacked Xbox is now over in Winchester undergoing some 720p upscaling SD DVD video assessment. Hatches are battened down against either or both pollen and what looks like a gathering storm. Big Bro now has a copy (to keep him warm in Chile!) of the Navy helicopter that flew over us on the walk on Tuesday, but has yet to comment on my Photoshopping prowess.

It's 22:41 and I'm now going to cheer myself up with some form of Pride & Prejudice — I've yet to decide which medium (print, audio, or video) and/or version. I forgot to buy blasted tomatoes on my earlier supplies foray. And Brian the plumber has done what he can in an ongoing attempt to deal with the Chinese water torture that is dripping from the boiler's drain point. I may yet end up fixing a short piece of hose to it, and tightening a hose clip around the far end. If it works, don't knock it. "Heath Robinson" isn't my middle name for nothing... besides, Christa would approve. (You should see her solution to the problem of stuff ending up at the sides of our cooker!)

  

Footnotes

1  I'd long thought that was also the spelling of photographer Annie's surname, but it's "Leibovitz". I live and learn.
2  Modesty forbids I should ever reveal the full extent of my own, puny, card-index-based version but at least I had the wit to stop further work on it back in about 1976. The cards got recycled into shopping lists etc for many many years after that.