* There is something seriously wrong with Liz Hurley. A psychiatric consultation is strongly recommended, and if she doesn’t go voluntarily, a kidnapping intervention by her friends would not result in any conviction in any court of law.
* Neil Armstrong writes an email talking about his trip to the moon. He wants NASA to go back there. The only thing standing in our way are politicians.
* There was a charming story in Slate recently about a 100 year old guide called “How to Write Fiction”. Slate says “…much of Cody's advice remains startlingly recognizable: It's Writer's Digest with a handlebar mustache.”
The article notes that there was a lot of advice around at the time directed to women in particular. I liked this section:
The London women's magazine Atalanta launched a regular "School of Fiction" column, and its advice from 1893 on pitching remains as useful and unheeded as ever: Keep your pitch short, nail down a tangible story first, and for god's sake read the magazine before you submit to it. Ladies were then invited to try such spry writing exercises as an imagined 500-word dialogue "on the Equality of the Sexes, between Miss Minerva Lexicon, M.A., an apostle of Progress, and Miss Lavinia Straightlace, of the Old-Fashioned School."
* From the Christian Science Monitor, a story of, um, dedication to art (or at least controversy:
Swedish cartoon artist Lars Vilks, who became the target of an alleged international murder plot for his 2007 cartoons of Mohammed as a dog, again angered Muslims Tuesday by showing an Iranian film that depicts the Prophet entering a gay bar.
When Mr. Vilks showed a scene from the film at Uppsala University in Sweden, a protester charged the dais and hit him, breaking his glasses. Police were forced to detain or pepper-spray some unruly members of the crowd as other protesters yelled "Allahu Akbar" – "God is great."
For Mr. Vilks, who has booby-trapped his own house and says he sleeps with an ax beside his bed, the right to unfettered speech – regardless of whether it offends Muslims – is a point of principle.
I am kind of curious as to what Mohammed does in the gay bar in an Iranian film.
Regarding Armstrong's comment, I can't see politicians standing in the way of more "space exploration." Politicians are always looking for ratholes to dump our money in. I've paraphrased the Star Trek introduction in this way:
ReplyDeleteSpace: The Ultimate Rathole
These are the exploits of the space agency NASA. It's mission: To boldly splurge where no bureaucracy has splurged before.
Rick