Ken MacLeod's Blog, page 38

The sweetest picture of chromosomes you ever did see

Literally - it's made from sweets. (Via.)

Social Sessions turn to crime

The second of the Social Sessions, at Edinburgh Central Library on 18 November, about genes and crime in reality and fiction, is now open for registration.

Snark of the week

From the Times Higher Ed.:

There are also persistent rumours that a film company is looking into a big production of Atlas Shrugged for a television series, and this could bring in new Objectivist converts, such as those who do not read.

A nice comment on last week's social Session

I've added two clarifications in square brackets and stuck in HTML links.

Scotland on Sunday Review, 18.10.09, p. 10

'The Browser' - Stuart Kelly

'C P Snow famously derided the "two cultures" mind-set that separates arts and sciences as two distinct and discreet spheres of activity, and though much has been done to dissolve this distinction, the chasm still remains. one of the most innovative attepts to bridge the divide has been the Writer in Residence scheme for the Edinburgh Genomics Forum, c...

The Mail on Sunday can still surprise

The Daily Mail and its weekend stablemate the Mail on Sunday have, let us say, a generally conservative stance. It's not the sort of paper in which you'd expect to find this:

When people ask me what it was like growing up behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary in the Seventies and Eighties, most expect to hear tales of secret police, bread queues and other nasty manifestations of life in a one-party state.

They are invariably disappointed when I explain that the reality was quite different, and...

'[T]here are novels set in this universe?'

My recent short story, A Tulip for Lucretius, is the subject of this month's discussion at Torque Control's Short Story Club.

Retorts fizz in sociology discussion

The first of our Social Sessions (below) went well. More people signed up than we could accomodate, though in the event every seat was taken and (as far as I know) no one had to be turned away at the door. The Forum's admin staff and the University's service staff had worked hard to turn the main meeting room in the offices into an informal discussion venue, with low lighting, seats and small tables arranged in curving rows and drinks and nibbles strategically placed.

The crowd was more or les...

'I am Spart!', say a touching number of Tory bloggers

Leftwing blogger and author Dave Osler is facing a libel case over a blog comment. The implications for political blogging in the UK are considerable. Bloggers from left and right, including (I'm pleased to see) some of the more, ah, vehement stalwarts of the British right-libertarian/Tory blogosphere, are rallying round. 'Speaking on behalf of the political blogosphere, may I say that while you're clearly a terminally deluded lefty imbecile, you're our terminally deluded lefty imbecile,' say...

Personal ad

Young Master Early has a used car for sale. Good condition, careful owner, etc.

'I'm not sure "bimbo" is the best translation'

The Conservapedia crew are busy rewriting retranslating the Bible to cleanse it of liberal bias. (Via.) Their talk page for the Gospel According to Mark is a record of stupidity and blundering that some day they are going to wish had never been there. They've had particular trouble updating the name of the Third Person of the Trinity ('ghost is misconstrued as spectre or phantasm, rather than spirit (interestingly, they're the same word in German, geist, from which I imagine we get the wordi...