Topics

Evening all.  Do any of you fine, fine people know of anywhere that sells foreign-language textbooks?  Specifically, I'm trying to find Lithuanian or Russian science textbooks aimed at a secondary school / GCSE level.

Amazon, Waterstones and Blackwells all have an admirable range of books about foreign languages but apparently not many in them, and a quick look on Google just seems to turn up a number of sites which are either quite dodgy-looking or completely defunct.

I know this is a slightly odd request, but given the board's collective experience of both academia and trawling the internet I figure there's a good chance that someone will be able to help.  He says, confidently.

Cheers.

BBC4 is showing a documentary about the theory of parallel dimensions tonight at nine.  It's presented by Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett, because as it turns out it was actually his father who first came up with the theory in 1957.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7113098.stm" target="_blank">Should be good...

...Or possibly pimpery, or even pimposity; the Oxford English Dictionary offers shockingly little clarification on the matter.

Anyway.  My dinky little webcomic submitted for your approval, o great and glorious Hivemind.  There's not much in the way of nail-biting action and adventure, but if you have a thing for people sitting on sofas and drinking tea this could be the comic for you.

Fame and fortune shall surely follow, for obviously that is the fate of all who put something on these interwebs.

Link: http://www.twigletzone.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Twiglet Zone

From the BBC news website;

'British forces have denied rumours that they released a plague of ferocious badgers into the Iraqi city of Basra.

Word spread among the populace that UK troops had introduced strange man-eating, bear-like beasts into the area to sow panic.

UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area."'

 

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm" target="_blank">Man-Eating Badgers (of DOOM!)

Marine biologists in the South Pacific have discovered what appears to be the freaky mutant lovechild of a lobster and a gibbon.  

In an awe-inspiring display of understatement, one scientist is quoted as saying the beast has some "surprising characteristics".

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4785482.stm" target="_blank">Freakish, Yet Fuzzy

So I was stuck on a broken-down bus this morning and thinking, as you do in such situations, what nifty new methods could the galaxy's greatest employ to promote itself to the unthrilled masses?

Podcasting could be a good'un, I reckon.  An interview with a droid, a rundown of forthcoming thrills from Tharg and a plug for any forthcoming events, all wrapped up in a monthly programme.  I can't guess how much hassle this would be to set up, but if people are being interviewed for the Meg anyway it could be as easy as just switching on an extra recorder.  

Or how about doing something similar, but with video?  Now, I freely admit that I have no idea how difficult it would be to have a computer-animated Tharg plugging upcoming thrills and previewing artwork, but since Rebellion have already done Dredd and Rogue they might be able to customise chunks of existing code rather than doing everything from scratch.  This strikes me as the sort of thing Rebellion could excel at (we are talking about a sci-fi comic backed by a games developer, after all) plus I don't think anyone else is doing anything like it yet.  Of course, there's probably a very good reason for that, but there you go.

So, yeah.  Anyone know what it'd take to arrange something like this, or have any more prog-plugging ideas?  

The latest incarnation of Doctor Who demonstrated pretty clearly that a well-written sci-fi serial can be hugely successful.  

That being the case, wouldn't it be a good time for the Rebellion droids to sidle up to the Beeb and whisper "Psst... wanna bit of iconic sci-fi, guv?"

Here's hoping this is the next comic to get the bigscreen Hollywood treatment...  

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4385674.stm" target="_blank">Super Secret Origin Story

[Truth]

Evolution?  Piffle!  Behold the Truth!

Link: http://www.venganza.org/" target="_blank">Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

The chap behind the X-Prize has just launched the Rocket Racing League, in which pilots race, er, rockets.  The first prototype should be in the air this weekend, apparently.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4307538.stm" target="_blank">Rockets!

I just hope the next stage of the programme involves cybernetic flying monkeys to scout out Mars.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7933" target="_blank">Space penguins, I tells ya!

Ecologists and conservationists have proposed introducing big African animals--everything from lions to elephants--to Northen America.

It's supposed to be for conservation and so on, but I can see it being turned into a health policy thing.  Prides of lions chasing down anyone too obese to get away... now that would be an incentive to lose weight and stop smoking.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7862" target="_blank">Flee, fatty, flee!

I really hope this isn't a hoax...

Link: http://www.walken2008.com/index.html" target="_blank">The Next President?

Bah.  I admit defeat.  How do you post proper links here?

This is just aces.  Found a list of California's felonies and the associated bail amounts.

For example: '11418(b)1: USE OF WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION AGAINST A PERSON'  Bail $1 million.  It's the 'against a person' bit that I love, there's just the implication that someone could piss someone else off so much they'd use a WMD specifically against them.  

I think my favourites are '203: MAYHEM, bail $30,000' and '205: MAYHEM, AGGRAVATED, bail $1 million'.  I really, really want to know exactly what the difference is, other than the fact it'll cost you $970,000.  

http://www.saccourt.com/criminal/bailsch/felonybail/penalCode.asp

Control people by zapping their ears.  Fantastic!

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7829

Direct your ocular units to

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

Absolute genius.

(Apologies for cut'n'paste linky, my web-fu isn't so much weak as comotose, having been beaten about the head by rampaging Luddites armed with stout sticks)

The shuttle crew have to remove a couple of protruding gap-fillers because the turbulence they cause could raise the temperature on the heatshield tiles by a few hundred degrees or more, pushing it past what the shield can safely withstand.  

Fair enough, no worries there.  But... if they remove the gap filler, won't they be left with a hole in the heatshield?  I mean, I'm sure they could fill the gap without any hassle, but I've not heard any mention of this in any of the news coverage.  What am I missing here?

This may be a daft question and it must have been asked many, many times before, but...

How do you make the leap from reading comics to actually writing/illustrating them?  What is this 'small press' of which people speak?  I know sweet zark all about the comics industry so any wisdom you can impart will be gratefully received, regardless of how blindingly obvious it may seem to those in the know.

Ta.

Stumbled across these and I felt the need to spread the madness.

Exhibit A: Astrologer sues NASA for knackering her horoscope by crashing a probe into a comet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4649423.stm


And if that ain't enough, here's a whole page of oddness.  Gets weirder the further down you read... the chicken-powered nuclear landmine's a good'un.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_bizarro.html