How many words for snow does one author need?

[matgb]

First up, scalzi is off on a book tour of the US west coast, and has popped in to Google, so they recorded his hour long talk and posted it to YouTube. Scalzi on eBooks, blogging, journalling, comment moderation and how to tape bacon to a cat. Once you get past that accent, very cool. It turns out, via the next item on my feed, that authors talking to Google employees is a regular thing, here, for example, is Neil Gaiman being typically cool. He talks a fair bit about Neverwhere, the adaptation process and what it's like to be Neil Gaiman, not bad. Yes, I have watched both today, yes, that is two hours spent listening to authors talk, and no, don't want that time back. FWIW, Scalzi's Old Man's War is currently vying with scott_lynch's Lies of Locke Lamorra in my 'best book read thus far in 2007' mental slot.

Next up, and of no direct interest to me but probably of interest to a fair number of my friends list, one_track_girl reviews her 5 favourite sex toys. I really like that society has got tot he point where we can, just about, talk about such things openly without dying of embarrassment.

On the subject of sex toys, via qi_news we get the news that:

prehistoric man engaged in a wide range of sexual practices, including group sex, transvestism, bondage and even the use of sex toys, and was used as a way of building up cultural ties between primitive societies.

More on that story of perfectly natural debauchery at The Times. All this monogamous lovey-dovey crap, it's not natural I tell you, it's against nature damnit!

Last up, for now, a few from languagelog, firstly, a campaign to stop asterisking swear words online. Potty-mouthed me is, sort of, 100% behind this story, except that I know from experience modding the Temple and blogging in a few places that completely uncensored swearing causes issues for some people browsing from work or in certain oversees countries. timworstall once had a regular reader and commenter unable to get to his site because Tim had titled a post 'Fuck' and that meant the url was blocked by the Saudi censors. Hmm, what do people think? It's mostly USians that have these issues I think, but are there any Brits that have overly restrictive language-based filters at work?

Then they have another in the snowcone series on silly linguistic myths, this time on the number of words in Arabic for camel. While it's possibly true that there are that many words that recognisably mean camel, saying so in such a manner is about as daft as asserting that English has way ofer well over 100 words for dog. It's true, but it adds little to the debate. Besides, an area very much reliant on camels for basic agricultural use has a breeders show and this is global news? Um, someone better tell the Devon County Show. Just another article in their ongoing series about daft things like "Eskimoes have 400 words for snow". While it might be often said, it is of course completely untrue (although some of the ones on that list are a little interesting, I'd love to know what they do with ertla).

ETA: Oops, nearly forgot. ZX Spectrum far more important than the PS3 will ever be. Help me, I agree with an MSN article! (via raksaksa)

Comments

[innerbrat]

My kingdom for an icon of Fred in Wilma's white dress.

[matgb]

Completely beyond my graphics skills :-( Would be cool though.

Did you get my question Friday night about oldharrysgame? LJ comment notification is apparently slightly borked again, it might have got missed.

[innerbrat]

Yes, I did, but my brain is so et I haven't even written a post about how et my brain is.

YES PLEASE when where?

[matgb]

Venue is The Drill Hall, just down from Goodge St tube, I officially finish work in Westminster at 6pm, but need to be there before 6.30pm, so I'll likelt skive earlier. nadriel and davegodfrey are due to be going along, so even if I'm late there won't be a problem, and I think we have too many tickets (again), especially now that Jennie can't make it :-(

Bring liquid to drink, a can of coke costs £1.20 at the bar, and even a pint is nearly £3; it gets really hot and you have to be there early, doors open 7.15pm.

I'll let you know any changes and/or meet up plans as and when I get them, co-ordinating too many people from all over the place...

My brain is back on track, almost, was dead all last week, but that shouldn't surprise me really.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

Will this do?

[matgb]

Brilliant, I love it. All I need to do now is figure out a keyword for it that fits my scheme.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

I'm going with Flintstones Porn. Cos, y'know, I like porn.

[innerbrat]

The kingdom is in the post.

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

Further compounding my desire need for a Rock Chick.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

IAWTC.

[matgb]

Now why doesn't that surprise me? How're you getting on with her book BTW? Haven't got around to asking before.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Ooooh is that her?

I'm liking it! It's quite dense, though, so I have to be in a concentratey mood to read it, or I have to go back and reread bits.

I love the way it evokes a world.

[matgb]

Um, which her and book are you thinking of? One Track Girl is Abby Lee, I leant you her book, it's the edited from sex blog one.

But evoking a world is more the sort fo thing Steph Swainston would be doing, the book I gave you last time you were down. They're both good books though, I'm about to finish reading Steph's sequel, unfortunately the publish date for book 3 has just been bumped...

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

LOL ah well, I thought you were talking about polfairie, whose comment I was replying to, not the person in the actual entry. To be fair I should have clicked on user info before just replying to comment... I haven't started the Abby Lee book yet.

[matgb]

Oh, ah, no, poifairie used to dance at Synthetic Culture, not yet an award wining author methinks.

Plus, Steph is my age (almost to the day it seems) and comes from Bradford...

Abby Lee book just needs to be opened up at random to be really enjoyed I think, but it might work well read in order, I found it harder as I'd back read a lot of it on the blog.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Might be a good bathroom book then, for when I've finished the Princess Bride.

:D

Oh, ah, no, poifairie used to dance at Synthetic Culture, not yet an award wining author methinks.

Plus, Steph is my age (almost to the day it seems) and comes from Bradford...

None of which is apparent from an icon and a username ;)

I really must remember to click things.

[matgb]

Like I said, of no direct use to me, but a nice review of them anyway, and I'm guessing they'd be fun to mess around with regardless.

Incidentally, meant to say when you uploaded it, really like that icon, although I do seem to be developing more of a thing for fishnet style things across the board at the moment anyway.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

There's a couple of bits that might be of direct use to you... O:-)

I do seem to be developing more of a thing for fishnet style things across the board at the moment anyway.

And O:-) again...

[poifaerie.livejournal.com]

Ty :) It's useful to live with a photographer!!

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

FWIW, Scalzi's Old Man's War is currently vying with scott_lynch's Lies of Locke Lamorra in my 'best book read thus far in 2007' mental slot.

*Buys it immediately*

[matgb]

Worth pointing out that they're not really similar in any way, just bloody good books. Old Man's War is mil SF, possibly the only book that deserves comparisons with Starship Troopers, whereas Locke Lamorra is more Swainston style alt-fantasy. No idea which one you've read of the top of my head, assume the latter but you never know.

But if it's the Scalzi you're thinking of getting, wait till you read about the BrainPal, so very cool.

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

Lies of Locke Lamora is probably my top book of 2007, so anything that might be as good (albeit very different) is BLOODY good. And so will be bought :)

Loved Lies so very much...

[jackthomas.livejournal.com]

In a similar vein, we Brits have over 400 words for being 'very very drunk'. ;)