Insomniac's Corner

Kiwi Eleanor Catton wins Man Booker Prize
Wednesday Oct 16, 2013 38 comments

Kiwi Eleanor Catton wins Man Booker Prize
3:10 PM Wednesday Oct 16, 2013 38 comments

At 28, she becomes the youngest author to ever win the award.

Her novel, The Luminaries, set in 1866 gold-rush Hokitika, with its structure and narrative propelled by 12 men aligned
to 12 signs of the zodiac, the 832-page murder-mystery has divided reviewers, electrifying many, baffling others.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11140469

She is the second New Zealander to win the Booker, with Keri Hulme winning in 1985 for The Bone People.

(Another book, that was interrupted and was packed away in a box. *sigh*)

*tip of the hat to wgbh PBS Better late, than never.

An apparition of so many comets at once is a rare thing, and amateur astronomers are encouraged to wake up early for a tour
of the pre-dawn sky. Dates of special interest include Nov. 15-18 when Comet LINEAR X1 passes by the bright star Arcturus,
Nov 17-18 when Comet ISON has a close encounter with Spica, and Nov. 18-20 when Comet Encke buzzes Mercury.

These stars and planets make excellent naked-eye guideposts for finding the comets. Meanwhile, bright Comet Lovejoy is approaching the Big Dipper;
if you can't see it with your unaided eye, a quick scan with binoculars will reveal it.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

NOVEMBER 11, 2013.

Comet ISON is getting brighter! It’s now inside the orbit of Venus, plummeting fast toward its late November encounter with the sun.

Last week, we began hearing that this comet is now visible to observers with binoculars, if you have a dark-enough sky. Want to see
it this week? Look here for information on how to spot Comet ISON near the bright star Spica in the predawn sky.

In fact, there have been four comets visible to amateur astronomers with telescopes or binoculars in early November 2013. But Comet
C/2012 S1 (ISON) has been the most talked-about of these comets; it’s the most talked-about comet of 2013. When discovered in late 2012,

Comet ISON was said to have the potential to become a striking object visible to the eye alone around the time of its perihelion – or closest point
to the sun – on November 28, 2013. People started saying Comet ISON and comet of the century in the same sentence. Now we know it won’t
be a comet of the century, but it could still be a comet that’s visible to the eye alone, and that would be something!

http://earthsky.org/space/big-sun-diving-comet-ison-might-be-spectacular-in-2013

October 11, 2013

Calvin & Hobbes Documentary: Dear Mr. Watterson New Trailer

Dear Mr. Watterson was successfully funded on Kickstarter by filmmaker Joel Allen Schroeder. The documentary features high profile cartoonists,
famous actors, and fans talking about their love of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip.

Dear Mr. Watterson premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival, and it will premiere in limited theaters and video on demand on November 15, 2013.

http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/10/11/calvin-hobbes-documentary-dear-mr-watterson-new-trailer/

(If the Boston Phoenix had not been killed off, along with WFNX radio station ? I would have been reminded a long time, ago.)

Nov 12, 2013

One day in the fall of 1985, a small boy captured a tiger in a trap (using a tuna fish sandwich as bait, of course). The newspaper-reading
public was immediately enraptured, first in the United States and then around the world, without yet understanding that they were
witnessing the birth of the last great newspaper comic strip in the form’s history. That strip was Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes,”
and it occurred to me while watching Joel Allan Schroeder’s slight but agreeable documentary “Dear Mr. Watterson” that I’ve never
heard anyone explore the question of why these two beloved characters are named after such forbidding figures in the history
of British moral and political philosophy.

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/13/dear_mr_watterson_remembering_the_last_great_newspaper_comic/

Long conversation....
*listening* Gun sales are through the roof! Gun manufacturers and gun dealers rejoice, and hug their bank accounts with joy.

"Helix is an intense thriller about a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control who travel to a high-tech research facility
in the Arctic to investigate a possible disease outbreak, only to find themselves pulled into a terrifying life-and-death struggle that holds
the key to mankind's salvation...or total annihilation."

"Premiering in January 2014-
Helix is the product of some of the biggest names in genre television, starting with Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore." (Battlestar Galactica).

Also Executive Producing are Lynda Obst (Contact) and Steven Maeda (Lost, CSI: Miami, The X-Files).

"We are not just breaking international laws, we are screwing with the laws of nature."

Helix - Season 1 - First Promo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xewzPg7BEgU

The fanboys and fangirls liked 'Thor: The Dark World' If I wait, will they be all sold together in an extra special set ? I have T-shirts, because of that.

Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, a man at the seventh circle of hell, and Nebraska. Charlie Rose, The Week *sigh*

"....the hymn of possibility."

"....Kerry Candaele's majestic sonic travelogue 'Following the Ninth'...."

http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-10...footsteps-of-beethoven-s-final-symphony/full/

When Longfellow proclaimed "music is the universal language of mankind," he may have been referring to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Or at least that's what Kerry Candaele's majestic sonic travelogue Following the Ninth sets out to prove, charting the inextricable relationship between music and the human experience. Her results are as moving as the piece of music that inspired them. You don't have to be a musicologist to know it; whether the thunderous percussion from the fourth movement played in a car commercial or "Ode to Joy" sung during Christmas mass, it remains pervasive. The universality of this aural wonder is on full display here, and its effects inspire genuine awe.

Chinese revolutionaries set up covert speakers in Tiananmen Square to drown out the dictators with it; a grieving German woman tearfully recounts Leonard Bernstein's celebratory conducting of the piece after the crumbling of the Berlin Wall; dissidents under Pinochet claimed it as a lullaby, serenading political prisoners in Chile; each December, Japan inaugurates the new year through huge choral arrangements and performances, using it as an "objective of well-being." Each anecdote builds upon the next to create that rarest of films: a documentary as ineffable and transformative in its reach as it sets out to be.

Tuesday Film Series: Following The Ninth (12.17.2013)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiIZ6ZWjV-Q

At Tiananmen Square in 1989, students played Beethoven's Ninth Symphony over loudspeakers as the army came in to crush them. In Chile, women living under Pinochet's dictatorship sang the Ninth at torture prisons, as men inside took hope when they heard their voices. When the Berlin Wall, symbol of division and oppression, came down in December 1989, Leonard Bernstein performed Beethoven's Ninth as an "Ode To Freedom". And In Japan, each December, the Symphony is performed hundreds of times, often with 10,000 people in the chorus-most recently in concert for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku. Part road trip, part adventure story, FOLLOWING THE NINTH is an inspirational film about Beethoven's Choral Symphony, its majestic power to liberate us, to shield us against suffering, to provide hope and resilience during dark times. Filmed on five continents and in 12 countries, FOLLOWING THE NINTH is the story of four lives that have been transformed and repaired by the music, expressed most vividly in the prophecy of the Ode to Joy: "Alle Menschen werden Brüder"(All Men Will Be Brothers).

"....drums, cannons, and misery."

Billions and billions of years. /end Carl Sagan voice


Mars Lost Most of Its Atmosphere Billions of Years Ago, Scientists Say

Mars is not a nice place to live: The Red Planet is cold and dry, and its thin atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide.

And, according to new data collected by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity and studies of ancient Martian meteorites, the planet's
atmosphere hasn't changed very much in about 4 billion years.

Scientists suspect that, after Mars' violent formation about 4.5 billion years ago, something caused the planet to lose its atmosphere,
which is now only about 1 percent as thick as that of Earth. [Mars Rover Curiosity's 7 Biggest Discoveries (So Far)]

"A lot of the atmosphere of Mars might have been lost pretty rapidly," said Paul Mahaffy, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
and lead author of one of two new studies of the Red Planet's atmosphere published online.

http://www******.com/22013-mars-atmosphere-curiosity-rover-meteorites.html

Chicharrón ? Homemade puffed pork skin, coated with chocolate, sprinkled with herbs, spices and dried fruit. Served with hot coffee. (What kind of coffee ?)

The 4 houses I can see usually have their outdoor lights on all night, but not tonight. I never do because of the auto solar lights. Have I started a trend?

Where my Darn Tough sox came from- The land of Perg!

11.0 F (-11.7 C)
Light Snow Fog/Mist and Breezy
Wind: from the Northwest at 20.7 gusting to 27.6 MPH
(18 gusting to 24 KT)

Someone is raising Merino sheep, and I am grateful. *warm cozy toes*

My fellow Merkins

The word merkin is one of the perpetual bad puns of the Internet. I first came across it in the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett
(a group devoted to the works of the British fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, he of the Discworld fantasies) and it puzzled me.
From context, it seemed to be used as a synonym for inhabitant of the United States of America but it only slowly dawned on me
that those who used it were guying a supposed half-swallowed pronunciation of “American” by some Americans, particularly the late Lyndon Johnson.

Then I looked it up and the full force of the pun hit me. The word actually has a number of senses, all of them sexually-related and, therefore,
highly risible to persons of a certain cast of mind. One of the current standard ones is pubic wig (such wigs are used, apparently, in the theatrical
and film worlds as modesty devices in nude scenes). It can also be a contrivance used by male cross-dressers to imitate the female genitals. Another
sense which is even lower slang and which came into the language last century is, as Eric Partridge delicately puts it in A Dictionary of Historical Slang
“an artificial vagina for lonely men”.

The OED says that its first use in English, in the sixteenth century, was as a term for the female genitals, but then its sense transferred to the pubic hair
and from there to artificial pubic hair and then much later to an artificial vagina. Such is the shifting and inconsistent nature of vocabulary, at least when
the word concerns intimate matters not often spoken of in public nor written down.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/merkin.htm

tfke: Snow on the Golden Gate Bridge http://twitpic.com/z8gxu.

http://blog.sfgate.com/missbigelow/2010/01/22/a-little-bird-told-me-twitter-tidbits-2/

22/Jan/10

https://twitter.com/tfke/status/8083492435

"Imagine this. You are a widow of noble Haarlem stock who’s been running her deceased husband’s ship-building enterprise successfully for some
years. You have numerous sisters and daughters, some quite young, and you lead a simple, hardworking life. You don’t care for ostentation, but
the freedom to practice your faith is paramount to a decent life. Your city is beautiful and peaceful, and your ancestors fought hard for it to remain
so, against all sorts of armies that invaded Haarlem with monotonous regularity.

Then the Spanish arrive, and all around you people are galvanizing; countries are fighting and falling; cities turn on each other, enemies are made
overnight, and the face of Europe is changing rapidly. Closer to home there is hardly a soul in power who takes the threat of invasion seriously.
Your beloved ruler, William of Orange, is subjugated and your closest towns are falling rapidly to Spain.

But you are more intelligent than most. You have never been pushed around, lied to, or fobbed off simply because you are a woman. You are hard
on the heels of your debtors by making numerous appearances at the Cityhouse to collect writs. You don’t care that people snarl at you in the street
and call you That Unnatural Widow Hasselaer. You have the law on your side, and the law will not abide cheats and swindlers.

You’re tough, principled and strong, and with the King of Spain almost at your city gates, you are furious. You are boiling with rage that this foreign
army is marching up your country and vanquishing town after town by stealth and trickery. Their methods of subjugation are violent, and you are in
no doubt as to what they will do you and your daughters and sisters when they arrive. And arrive they shall."

An Army of Judiths
by C.J. Underwood

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16280702-an-army-of-judiths

http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/en/co...it-of-kenau-simonsdr-hasselaer-1526-1588-410/

http://girodet.blogspot.com/2012/11/battle-scene-with-kenau-simonsdochter.html

{gsgs comment- The mystery of symbols. Not always what it appears to be, on the surface....}

Purple pavement
Crookfingers knocking on windows without souls
Bodies are swinging from rooftops and poles
Howling through hollows
Restless nights and one night cheap hotels
Oh, I'm only drifting to always come back

And I search for something
Oh, whatever I don't really care
Driving with their lights off they can be anywhere
Rolling down their windows
Open card with open mouths
Golden teeth and golden cars

You call me your eyes, you call me your mouth, you call me your ears
Still you follow my trail
I'll do it all, I'll do whatever you say, God has left me anyway

Love I laid in payment
Stars with stains and heaven and afterglow
Beneath the ashes of echoes buried alive
They are howling through hollows
Once we share their temple of our arms
Now our heads are hung up on walls

We are ruins within ruins
On every corner a gladiator is begging for another century
When no one cut your tongue to know nothing and to know it all
To be both the animal and god

You call me your eyes, you call me your mouth, you call me your ears
Still you follow our trail
We'll do it all, we'll do whatever you say, God has left us anyway
You call me your eyes, you call me your mouth, you call me your ears
Still you follow our trail
We'll do it all, we'll do whatever you say, God has left us anyway

There are echoes in the garden is anybody listening
There are echoes lost in the garden is anybody listening
They whisper:
The ones who are only living is the ones who are only dying

Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel (official video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgAMh7s-q_k

http://www.ghostofaflea.com/

Evolutionarily speaking, the solenodon is one of the oldest mammals on Earth; its present form not much different from what T-Rex
would have blithely ignored 76 million years ago. Still while T-Rex vanished, somehow this little mammal—this venomous, long-snouted
wonder—managed to hang on through the asteroid that took down the dinosaurs, the break-up of North America, the drift of Caribbean
islands, the arrival of the first people known as Taino, the invasion of Columbus, and the subsequent transformation of the island.

No wonder, this little animal has been dubbed 'the last survivor.'

In Greek, solenodon means "grooved tooth." It was given this name because it has grooves in its teeth through which it injects venom,
much like a snake: the only mammal in the world that can do this. But that isn't even the most amazing thing about a creature that many
people might dismiss as a big rat. No, it's this: the solenodon diverged from all other mammals 76 million years ago. That means, while dino-
saurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops roamed North America, the solenodon had already created its own evolutionary niche, and
then survived cataclysm, invasion, and destruction to still roam the forests of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (where I am) and Cuba
today, relatively unchanged. It's not even a rodent, but instead belongs to an order of mammals (Soricomorpha) that includes shrews and
moles, but remains distinct enough to make-up its own mammal family: Solenodontidae.

Aside from its venom, the solenodon also sports at the end of its nose a ball-and-socket joint bone (dubbed the 'os proboscis') that's wholly
unique in the animal kingdom. This bone allows the solenodon's long, slender snout to move deftly as it pokes the ground searching for insects,
arachnids, and grubs. Interestingly, this bone is not found in the Cuban solenodon, but only the Hispaniolan.

It's also been suggested the solenodons use their odd clicking and whistling sounds as echolocation to catch their prey in the dark.

http://news.mongabay.com/2013/1014-hance-solenodon.html

Whatever became of the Ikea monkey ?

12/09/2013

On Dec. 10, 2012 Darwin was captured wandering an Ikea parking lot.

"We still remember how perfect you were when we first met you, perfect in your diaper and little, bell-shaped shearling coat
as you inexplicably waddled through the sliding doors of that big, scary Toronto Ikea."

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/12/happy-anniversary-ikea-monkey/

http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/?skip=10

“He’ll throw temper tantrums when somebody turns their back on him, because he’s used to being the centre of attention,”
he said. “(Learning to be a monkey) is going to be an ongoing process for his entire life.”

gotsnowgotslush said:

Whatever became of the Ikea monkey ?

12/09/2013

On Dec. 10, 2012 Darwin was captured wandering an Ikea parking lot.

"We still remember how perfect you were when we first met you, perfect in your diaper and little, bell-shaped shearling coat
as you inexplicably waddled through the sliding doors of that big, scary Toronto Ikea."

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/12/happy-anniversary-ikea-monkey/

http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/?skip=10

“He’ll throw temper tantrums when somebody turns their back on him, because he’s used to being the centre of attention,”
he said. “(Learning to be a monkey) is going to be an ongoing process for his entire life.”

Click to expand...

He was taken to a primate sanctuary. His former owner tried (unsuccessfully) to have him returned to her through the courts. To my knowledge, he's still at the primate home.

The embarrassment of riches offered by the music world in 2013 made whittling down these lists an enjoyably difficult task.
It also means that there is very little overlap of opinion among our six contributors, with only country singer-songwriter
Brandy Clark and bleak rockers the National appearing on more than one list.
"Twelve Stories"

Nekko Case/ Valerie June/ The National/ Alela Diane /Lorde

Drake/ Savages/ Phosphorescent/ Mavis Staples/ Vampire Weekend

Lori McKenna/ Kacey Musgraves/ Nine Inch Nails

Booker T/ Harry Connick Junior/ Dave Hause/ Kim Richey

The Mavericks/ David Bowie

Cecile McLorin Salvant/ Fred Hersh and Julian Lage/ Gilad Edelman

John Luther Adams/ Jamie Baum/ John Medeski/ Craig Taborn "Chants"

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - Brooklyn Babylon/ Patricia Barber

Roswell Rudd "Trombone for Lovers"

Gregory Porter "Liquid Spirit"

M.I.A./ Laura Mvula/ Emeline Michel/Vieux Farka Toure "Mon Pays"

Rokia Traore "Beautiful Africa"/ Jose James "No Beginning No End"

Ana Moura "Desfado"/ A Tribe Called Red

Bill Frissel "Big Sur"

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/mus...obe-critics/xyJJjMwuZxlRlIbqoPtSFJ/story.html

The Queen shall not have her new hats. *New Jersey raspberry* Let her wear the hats that she has.

The story of a writer, and her stalker-

http://www.npr.org/2014/02/23/281167415/fed-up-with-harassment-author-reveals-her-cyberstalker

Washing fresh spinach under running water won't get rid of E. coli. To kill the bacteria, you must cook the spinach at 160 F for 15 seconds, according to the FDA. If you choose to cook fresh spinach, take care to avoid contaminating other foods and kitchen surfaces. Wash your hands, utensils and kitchen surfaces with hot, soapy water before and after handling the spinach.

I want a fresh raw spinach salad, with fresh raw mushrooms. I am guessing that those days are long gone. *sigh*