Random Thoughts XIII - Radioenergopithecocracy

[Arakhor]

I'm just a person who owns a lot of books.

 

[tjs282]

I've read (and own) about half the titles on that list -- but only the 'lighter' half. Does that make me semi-intellectual?

 

[Arakhor]

Player of Games was written by Iain M Banks, not "Ian Banks".

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I crossed out the ones I have read; probably I haven't read Siddharta (read other novels by Hesse).

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Nobody's literary education is complete without Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Dune. I'll give you a pass for Brave New World; it's depressing.

Considering all these math posts you've been doing, you need to understand the reason why 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

 

[Kyriakos]

I am an executive in the Wasp Factory.

x-post: I have read only the first chapter of Dune

 

[Gori the Grey]

I crossed out the ones I have read; probably I haven't read Siddharta (read other novels by Hesse).

And you call yourself an intellectual. Pfff.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Nobody's literary education is complete without Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Dune. I'll give you a pass for Brave New World; it's depressing.

Considering all these math posts you've been doing, you need to understand the reason why 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

I tried Dune and it gave me a headache.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I tried Dune and it gave me a headache.

God Emperor of Dune is a headache. Dune itself is... a complex novel that isn't everyone's cup of tea. You did try, and that's a valid basis on which to say you didn't like it.

It's the people who have never read something and insist they don't like it who annoy me. That goes for the anti-nuDune people as well, btw. I can honestly give numerous reasons why those books are crap, since I've read most of them (haven't read Mentats, Navigators, or the Caladan books, but based on the preview on their Amazon pages, they're just as awful as the rest).

KJA/BH actually did manage to create one good character in their nuDune books. Of course they killed him off in a needlessly gruesome way while keeping the ridiculous characters alive.

 

[warpus]

Surely "making a beeline for it" should mean running in circles like a maniac instead of directly at your destination

Instead of making a beeline for it maybe running straight at something should henceforth be known as making a mooseline for it.

Yep, I googled which animals are good at walking in a straight line, and moose seem to be top contenders, along with foxes and coyotes. And sober humans.

I don't see bees on any of these lists

 

[Kyriakos]

There's crabs too. Though they walk straight, just on a right angle ^^

 

[Gori the Grey]

On their way back their hive they are understood to move less circuitously. They roam as much as three miles from it.

 

[Kyriakos]

A few days ago, I saw a bumblebee:

They are not at all common here, mind. This one was almost dead, but still flew to the other side of a main avenue and landed near an elderly woman, starting to crawl on her leg. So I notified her of the possible danger- not the bumblebee
Tbh afterwards I thought that the bee would likely die soon anyway, so allowing for her to bite (maybe people can be allergic to that) wouldn't serve any purpose.

Then again, trying to research how this subtype of bee acts, I came across the following image of a related type:

which actually had once bitten me, when I was 10! And that was really a nasty bite... so in retrospect I might have indeed saved that old woman

 

[Gori the Grey]

Sting.

 

[Kyriakos]

Sting.

Actually, I think it used its mandibles (but I could be wrong)

 

[Gori the Grey]

The threat from bumblebees is a sting. I'm allergic to bumblebee stings.

 

[Kyriakos]

Maybe that other - blue - thing also bites
Though it was my fault, since at the time I was in the middle of trying to kill it ^^ (ah, being 10)
The pain from its attack was so severe that I decided to leave insects alone ever since, so it played a role.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Don't know about the blue winged critter. It may bite for all I know.

 

[tjs282]

Player of Games was written by Iain M Banks, not "Ian Banks".

Misspellings of "Iain" aside, did you know that the 'with/without M' format was initially an accident of editing, but he liked it so much that he kept the duality going for all the rest of his books, on the grounds that it's pretty nearly obligatory for SF+F authors to have middle initials...?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Misspellings of "Iain" aside, did you know that the 'with/without M' format was initially an accident of editing, but he liked it so much that he kept the duality going for all the rest of his books, on the grounds that it's pretty nearly obligatory for SF+F authors to have middle initials...?

There are plenty who don't. Isaac Asimov never needed one.

Then again, some use their full names. It makes for a handy 3-letter abbreviation. On a Star Trek forum, for instance, any conversation about tie-in authors means I can just use 'ADF', rather than constantly writing out 'Alan Dean Foster'.

 

[Gori the Grey]

it's pretty nearly obligatory for SF+F authors to have middle initials

Sometimes two. Lookin' at you Ronald Reuel. Whose first name is itself scarcely more than an additional middle initial.