Not-politics – Page 1248

Cracked.com eviscerates five feel-good myths about saving the world.

It’s quite fun to read: they start with organic foods and end with carbon offsets, with quite a bit of profane sneering along the way.

These guys really did blossom in an Internet environment, huh?

And now, a quick naval change of pace.

Age of Sail has a bit up about a British captain that took on six frigates with one converted Indiaman in 1796… and drove them to port.

You know. Just in case you were feeling like you had a hard day, or something.

Moe Lane

PS: Actually, you can’t go too far wrong with Errol Flynn. Captain Blood
wasn’t completely unlike the book; The Sea Hawk is, but when it’s 1940 and you’re trying to save England you don’t quibble about the plot.

“He’s wearing Hooker Boots!”

Today, Constant Reader Slartibartfast justified my creating Moe Lane.com. It allows me to destroy SAN all over the world with this:

Constant Reader Matt gets the assist in this for his Zardoz
obsession, which caused this in the first place.

Looking for someone to read? (Roger Zelazny)

(Today’s author: Roger Zelazny)

Don’t get me wrong: I loved the Amber series. Very good alternate-universe stuff, in a conceptual sense. Never really got into the paradoxes (paradoxi?) inherent in the premise of One True Reality and a Multitude of Shadows, but then, neither did H Beam Piper’s Paratime series, so who are we to judge? Well worth reading, in other words.

But it’s Lord of Light that triggered this entry. The book is one of the first ones that I can think of that mixed science fiction with Indian themes (that’s Asian Indian, not Native American), and in a fashion that showed an understanding of the source material. A very short synopsis: the main character is in opposition to a society where Hinduism has been co-opted to reinforce the somewhat restrictive rule of its ‘gods.’ This being a science fiction story, that includes a technological form of reincarnation; this also being New Wave, it meant a certain amount of other psionic* abilities. This being written by Roger Zelazny, it’s excellent stuff; the hero foments his rebellion against this co-opted Hinduism by creating Buddhism… with results that would later prove bemusing. All in all, it’s one of those books that you wish had a sequel, but you’re sort of glad doesn’t; it probably wouldn’t have been as good anyway.

Plus, the CIA used a script based on this book to smuggle some embassy people out of Iran during the hostage crisis – no, really – so there’s some good karma there.

Yes, I just did that.

Moe Lane

*That’s a science fiction term meaning ‘magic.’

Mike Nelson is my new guru.

(Via Feddie) This is the single most awesome attempt to prove a point ever.

RiffTrax boss Michael J. Nelson is about to prove forever the health benefits of cured pork products. Or, he should be preparing his will.

The former Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer and performer has pledged to eat only bacon throughout February.

It is so awesome, in fact, that I will forgive him replacing Joel on MST3K. I do not often renounce kanly; Mike Nelson should be flattered.

The Other McCain vs. Instapundit.

Starts off as a mention of Larry Summers’ mucking up Harvard’s financial position; ends up with one talking about the other’s knowledge of show-tunes. So the other forgets the one’s first name, so guess what that means? Continue reading The Other McCain vs. Instapundit.

I cannot take this worst-movie list of Ed Morrissey’s seriously.

It completely lacks Batman & Robin.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Hot Air readers: for the record, while I agree with Ed’s “no sequel” rule in principle, in practice B&R is simply too transcedently bad to withstand any attempts to remove it from consideration. Constant Reader Matt in comments also suggests Dracula – Dead and Loving It and Zardoz… Continue reading I cannot take this worst-movie list of Ed Morrissey’s seriously.

Books of the week changes.

First off, thanks to Constant Reader Matt we have our replacement for Momfidence! (which is a good resource for the new, harried parent) as the featured sidebar book: How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion. I haven’t read it, but I’ve known Matt for going on decades now, and I trust him.

Also, there’s Politics and the Occult: The Left, the Right, and the Radically Unseen. Which I also have not read yet, but if it’s good enough for Ken Hite, it’s good enough for me.

Danger Pudding. For the cook who has something to prove.

Via Plumcake of Manolo for the Big Girl. And the name means it. You do this recipe wrong, the pudding explodes.

This is not an exaggeration. The. Pudding. Explodes. There are, like, physics involved, and stuff. There will be metal bits flying around the kitchen, at reasonably high velocity. There will be a large amount of boiling, sticky, sugary liquid right behind it. The only way to avoid that is to monitor the pudding for several hours, in order to make sure that it doesn’t explode. So there’s a bit of a challenge to one’s fortitude, there.

Of course people say that Danger Pudding is delicious. Would you risk third-degree burns and facial scarring for something that was disgusting?

Moe Lane

PS: DANGER PUDDING!
…OK, I’ll stop now.

Reminder: March 15th is International Eat a Tasty Animal for PETA Day.

Mark your calendars, and start haunting the meat aisle.

EATAPETA is a traditional holiday started by Meryl Yourish, and much beloved by those who get annoyed by the group (quite bipartisan, by the way: I’ve seen vegans go off on PETA). The Anchoress recommends that you go with seafood for this year’s festivities, what with the entire “sea kitten” thing: Musing Minds is taking recipes. But that might be because of the Lent thing.

As always, remember: if you happen to be someone who does not eat meat – and there are a variety of valid reasons why people personally choose not to do so – but you despise PETA anyway, just throw BBQ sauce on whatever it is that you’re eating in order to symbolically reject the group.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.