Mark A. Rayner's Blog: Mark A. Rayner's Goodreads Blog, page 46

The five second rule

It was the best game of zenball ever, and the crowd was wild with excitement: the whisper of butterfly wings was deafening. The Rotrovra Koan Kangaroos had just scored their first all-in kensho, and the Targenville Half-Lotus Lions replied with … Continue reading →

9 old words for the modern age

vocabulation The use or choice of words. This post is a meditation on vocabulation, particularly, old words that we may want to revivify for our current age of the Internet and excess. octothorpe The # symbol. I learned this one … Continue reading →

Breaking bad news…

Is anyone else mildly freaked out by how many news stories they learn of first on Twitter? Or is it just us Twits? Alltop is breaking funny. Noise to Signal Cartoon

Midwest Book Review: The Fridgularity is “highly recommended”

Woo, great review news — the Midwest Book Review, which is one of the few well-respected review outfits used by librarians and archivists that still reviews independent and small press books — has given The Fridgularity a glowing review: “The … Continue reading →

Sad Spaceman regrets the broken promises …

Yes, he’s back. More in the Sad Spaceman Tumblr here. Alltop never went anywhere.

The Lost PowerPoint Slides (Ides of March Edition)

Julius Caesar Presents: Won’t Be King (slide 5) Don’t put that diadem around my shoulders Only King in Rome is Jupiter But you can call me King outside Italy What, you got a problem with that? Spurinna the Soothsayer presents … Continue reading →

René Magritte: Merchant Banker Masters His Mental Powers at Walton-on-the-Naze

While an art historian will tell you this 1964 painting is called “The Son of Man”, and is meant to be a meditation on what is hidden in the visible world, they are of course, hiding the dreadful truth. Since … Continue reading →

Ask General Kang: I really don’t understand quantum mechanics — is there any hope for my marriage? Also I’m pretty sure my wife is cheating on me with a vampire.

I think your marriage is safe, as long as you can do two things. First of all, you HAVE to wrap your head around Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Here’s the easy way to understand it: basically, the simultaneous determination of both … Continue reading →

The perils of evolution

Cradle of Humankind – Flora, a photo by Martin_Heigan on Flickr. One day you wake up and watch the sun rise, ripe and scarlet over the savanna, and you know it can never hold you back. The next, you’re unable … Continue reading →

René Magritte: Meditations on the Nether Beast From Dimension X

Many have taken this iconic painting by the Belgian surrealist to be a commentary on the treacherous nature of the image — it makes you believe one thing, while hiding the reality of the image beneath. The caption, “Ceci n’est … Continue reading →