| "Ray of Light", by Brad Torgersen |
[May. 24th, 2012|02:01 pm] |
A couple of extracts from this Hugo-nominated novelette for your enjoyment. At one point our narrator writes of:...risking my life and the old sub to chase a wild hair through the vast, dark ocean. This would be a jarring enough metaphor if "hare" had been spelt correctly, as a waterlogged animal would not get very far once submerged in the vast dark ocean. With the incorrect spelling of "hair", the entire sentence is nonsensical.
Later on, when we first encounter the ray of light of the title of the story, it appears thus:...there was a gloaming light in the very far distance. Only, gloaming wasn't the right word. Indeed it wasn't; "gloaming" is not an adjective, but a noun which means "twilight", often more specifically "dusk". The narrator / the author may have meant "dim" or "gleaming".
This one will not be at the top of my ballot paper. |
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| i just know that i'm harder to console |
[May. 23rd, 2012|09:01 pm] |
I'm working on "The Deeps of the Sky" tonight, and generating a regular festival of Words Word Don't Know:
luminesced, tropopause, sheeny, thicks, unnavigable, dartlike,
Meanwhile, I had a little argument with myself on twitter as to whether I should use some modestly bogus science to create a cool special effect. I went with it. ;-) Now I'm stopping because I have to figure out how the protagonist intervenes to stop the Bad Thing from happening, or how he mops up afterward...
Oh, I might have just done so. Woot! |
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| Worrying statistic: hare vc hair |
[May. 23rd, 2012|11:18 pm] |
I am alarmed to discover that Google has 51 hits for the phrase "chase a wild hair [sic]" but only 39 for "chase a wild hare", which, it should go without saying, is very obviously the correct spelling. Life is very strange.
Edited to add: Per ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92) tortoise in comments I tried again and got 403 hits for "hair" and 59 for "hare". Which is a little more reassuring. |
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| Continuum 2012 Temporary Website. |
[May. 23rd, 2012|02:00 pm] |
The server that hosted the Continuum 2012 website was hit by malware 7th May 2012, causing the website to be shut down.
The content has been backed up but those backup files have now infected too.
We are not sure when the website will be back up and running but we have created these temporary pages as a place-holder.
We will be adding more content soon to keep you informed.
More news will follow after Eternal Con.
Please email darransims@googlemail.com if you have any enquiries. |
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| LIVEJOURNAL RELEASE 92: NEW SITE UPDATES AND MORE |
[May. 23rd, 2012|12:47 am] |
May 23, 2012 - The official LiveJournal Release 92 has been deployed. Here’s what you’ll find in this latest site update:
NEW
- Particularly long comment threads now collapse with the alert “...and [#] more comments.” Just click on that alert to see the rest of the comments. Here’s what this looks like:
- Notification emails now hide any content that was already placed inside an lj-cut instead of displaying the entire entry.
- Social Capital is now displayed for all communities on the profile page.
- You can now embed the Spotify player into your journal or community style.
- Personal userheads are now available for purchase. A personal userhead is of your own design and is unique to you, unavailable to anyone else. Purchase as many personal userheads as you like; each costs 5,000 LJ FunBux™, and is good for five years. Learn more.
BUGS, FIXED
- Scheduled entries should no longer return errors or double-post.
- Domain mapping should no longer force redirection to the LiveJournal login page.
- The format=light URL modifier works on entry pages again.
- Comment notification emails will send even if the entry has a poll.
- The "Music" section on the edit entries page will let you delete the entire text field.
- The help link next to “Do not add to friends pages and RSS” on the update page now links to the correct FAQ.
- The list of journals and communities added by default for new users has changed to
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/newsinfo.gif?v=92) news and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92) lj_releases for non-Cyrillic users.
- Missing navigation items in the Classic journal style have re-appeared.
- Notifications about expiring add-ons will now have correct subject lines.
- The bold/italic/strikethrough buttons in the site default commenting scheme should no longer cause cursor positioning problems in Chrome.
- The Calendar feature will now update properly when you edit an entry and change its date.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: HELP WITH A VGIFT!
Join us in standing up for reproductive health and education. Through the end of the month, you can send a specially designed Planned Parenthood vgift to your LiveJournal friends to help support this cause. (And if you need someone to send it to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/user_ontd.gif?v=92) frank is always happy to receive gifts!). There are three variations for you to choose from ($1, $5 and $10), but they’d all look good on your profile. Thank you for your support! Learn more.
- The LiveJournal Team |
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| Get Roswell's DNA in your house! |
[May. 22nd, 2012|09:20 pm] |
Originally posted by kylecassidy at Get Roswell's DNA in your house!Here's your chance to have some of Roswell's DNA in your house (without me mailing you a hairball). Meet Cat Murdock, the kitten without fear, who was rescued by yagathai during a terrible thunderstorm. Cat Murdock comes from the same feral cat colony as Roswell and although Roswell's been spayed, her sires were ... prolific ... which is bad for the mouse population of West Philadelphia but good for you if you're looking for a well dressed companion who will wake you up nearly every morning for the next decade. She's spayed, FIV/FLV negative & gets along well with other cats.
Clickenzee to Embiggen!!!Cat Murdoch is friendly & fearless and currently in Philadelphia. She'll love you and climb everything in your house. We'll probably do the adoption through City Kitties though they don't know it yet, so people who are interested can email or post in the comments.
Add me: [LiveJournal] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Google+] [Tumblr]
[Roller Derby Portraits] |
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geeky
mellow