And spent the lunch hour picking them up, so not much done today.
TREASURE! Five-hundred "new" fairy tales collected by the guy that gave the Brothers Grimm a run for their money. And there's an English translation in the works. I'll be in my bunk. (Grokked from phial, who sometimes comments here)
More on that habits thing I linked to earlier. This one is an interview on Fresh Air about the book The Power of Habit
Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business by Charles Duhigg. I may have to put this on my list to read. His thesis is quite good, and his comments about how sometimes we really don't know why we have certain habits. I've known about cues and rewards for a long time (hey, I used to have more responsibilities for advertising, I'm not especially proud of it, but I always like to do good work). There are several bad habits I would like to break myself of. Wasting time in the evening on the internets is one of them (sorry, I like you all, I like posting and reading about you all, I like bringing you all cool stuff, but I'd much rather be writing fiction and poetry).
H.P. Lovecraft for beginning readers. Horton hears "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"? (Grokked from Jay Lake)
3D printed guitars. Oooo, pretty. Although I'd be interested in hearing how they sound. I know for electric guitars the body isn't supposed to add anything to the sound (Les Paul's first electric guitars were set on 2x4s and nicknamed "the Plank"). But for contrary information I submit the warmer sound and resonance of hollow body guitars (I used to play one). And for final proof, I only need point to Brain May (Dr. May to us). (Pointed to by Dan)
The fiction to reality timeline. I disagree with some of their "when it came into reality" (such as, I've been using voice activated computers since 1993 - a Mac 800AV - now, if they said "natural speech", then they have a point). (Grokked from Jay Lake)
In case you want to write near-future military fiction, it always helps to know the sum of all their fears. The new horizon of electronic warfare has the DoD worried. Remember back in the early 2000's when Donal Rumsfield was "revolutionizing" the Pentagon and put a priority on purchasing "off-the-shelf" technology to reduce costs (of both development and procurement)? Well, when you do that it turns out that many people can buy commercially available technology. Regulations to keep it out of the hands of people who mean to do us harm really don't present that high of a wall.
Alligator Quotient: Swimming in a sea of proto-leather on the claw.
2 comments:
For electric guitars, the body may not add much (if anything at all) to the tone, but the density has everything to do with the sustain. I think it was Les Paul himself who joked that he could hit a note on The Log (a.k.a. The Plank), leave the studio for a couple of hours, and it would still be ringing when he came back.
I hadn't heard that, Eric. I would think a softer wood would ring longer, but I could be wrong. But I've often heard that the body of an electric didn't really matter all that much, it was the type, make, and position of the pickups that made all the difference (and here I'll add, it's also how you play it, ie. both Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix played strats, but they sounded quite different in their respective hands). I never had the money to run tests between bodies (same pickups in the same locations on different bodies), but I do know a Strat sounds different than a Hammer, even though they use similar electronics (and the play used to be very similar).
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