airlock
It's an airlock!
yes, I am pathetic.
This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/294314.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
[ Home | Articles | Account | People | Projects | FAQ ] airlock
It's an airlock!
yes, I am pathetic.
This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/294314.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Homer's ghost in Hitchin
Here is something wonderful. The poet George Chapman (1559-1634) was born, like me, in Hitchin. He is best remembered for his translation of Homer (as in Keats's sonnet "On first looking into Chapman's Homer"); he claimed that he made the translation because Homer's ghost appeared to him on Hitchin Hill and asked him to. This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/294116.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
"little girl lost"
ITN has made a documentary where they put two children in a crowded shopping centre and told them to pretend to be lost. One person helped them; six hundred did not. I gather that part of the reason people didn't stop was that they were worried someone would mistake them for a child molester.
You remember that in the Good Samaritan story, the priest and the Levite passed the injured man by because they were worried society would stigmatise them as ritually unclean if they touched a corpse. And here, people ignore lost children because they're worried society will stigmatise them as dangerous perverts if they talk to stranger children.
(FWIW, I decided a long time ago that I would *always* question unaccompanied children despite any risk of misinterpretation by others.)
This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/293476.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
a rare political song from me
marnanel @ 2014-03-14T18:56:00
Why are there so many songs about graveyards
And what's on the Other Side?
Graveyards are places
With many an entrance
From smallpox to suicide
Some people say that we rest there forever;
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Some day we'll find it
The graveyard connection
The vampires, the zombies, and me
This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/292816.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Ballade of Geniune Concern
BALLADE OF GENUINE CONCERN
by Hilaire Belloc
A child at Brighton has been left to drown:
A railway train has jumped the line at Crewe:
I haven't got the change for half-a-crown:
I can't imagine what on earth to do...
Three bisons have stampeded from the zoo.
A German fleet has anchored in the Clyde.
By God the wretched country's up the flue!
The ice is breaking up on every side.
What! Further news? Rhodesian stocks are down?
England, my England, can the news be true!
Cannot the Duke be got to come to town?
Or will not Mr Hooper pull us through?
And now the bank is stopping payment too,
The chief cashier has cut his throat and died,
And Scotland Yard has failed to find a clue:
The ice is breaking up on every side.
A raging mob inflamed by Charley Brown
Is tearing up the rails at Waterloo;
They've hanged the Chancellor in wig and gown,
The Speaker and the Chief Inspector too!
Police! Police! Is this the road to Kew?
I can't keep up: my garter's come untied:
I shall be murdered by the savage crew.
The ice is breaking up on every side.
Prince of the Empire, Prince of Timbuctoo,
Prince eight feet round and nearly four feet wide,
Do try to run a little faster, do.
The ice is breaking up on every side.
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Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold
Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold.countleaves
So I made this thing. It's collaborative Zork over twitter. It's very silly. It crashes a lot at the moment. Tell your friends.
http://twitter.com/countleaves
This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/291792.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
spirit of the stairs
When I leave and I'm walking away
Gonna think of the things I should say
When we've parted and nobody cares
Gonna meet with the Spirit of the Stairs
This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/291545.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
irc extension
Thought from last night: If IRC had a protocol extension meaning "if the client disconnects without warning, do nothing for n seconds, and if a later connection authenticates as the same client within that time, pick up the session seamlessly", it would make using IRC from mobile devices much easier and obviate much of the need for running bouncers. I may look at the source of dancer and see whether that would be possible. What do you think?
This entry was originally posted at http://marnanel.dreamwidth.org/291304.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.
Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.
If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!