Kevin Gold has got two very thought-provoking articles on the jeopardy match-up between human jeopardy champions and IBM’s AI “Watson”, up on Tor’s website. Check them out here and here.
This Washington Post article discusses the story of a Tolkien scholar whose strategy of producing podcasts about Tolkien’s novels for public consumption seems to have won him some success in academia, not to mention a large online following. The hub of his online activities is a website called The Tolkien Professor, which includes the aforementioned
While we’re talking about innovative solutions to space constraints… This Hong Kong architect has packed twenty four rooms into his tiny but very versatile apartment, through the magic of movable walls and fold-out facilities. Apparently, this is environmentally friendly in addition to being awesomely futuristic.
Apparently my father’s friend has a website that contains a large assortment of interesting abstract boardgames (including descriptions and links to the rules) and java applets that allow you to play them online against a computer or another player. I didn’t recognize most of them, but gipf and its fellows were there and seemed pretty
I’ve always been pretty skeptical of conventional greeting/thank you/etc. cards, in general. But I ran across a guy selling some really excellent cards of various sorts at a farmer’s market a couple of weeks ago, and couldn’t help but buy a few. If you can imagine a Romanophile Edward Gorey and some of his friends
I was just perusing that occasionally invaluable Internet Anagram Server known as “I, rearrangement servant” when I followed a link that I’d never noticed before and stumbled upon The Anagram Times, a blog composed of anagrams of headlines from major newspapers. So, for example: Metro bridge collapses in Delhi = This rails problem needed logic
…for The Graveyard Book. The Washington Post has more details. It’s always nice to see excellent genre authors gain acclaim in the mainstream literary world.
I’m starting a collaborative blog at http://craftsblog.wordpress.com, so that HRSFANS with an interest in arts and crafts can write about the various projects they’re working on, detailing their travails and displaying their triumphs for the benefit of friends who live far away. So far, we’ve got posts on origami, cabling, two-sided embroidery, crocheted potholders, and
Apparently the freshmen of Caltech’s Blacker Hovse have constructed a 1500 sq. feet Catan board, upon which they played a truly epic game during finals. The pictures are pretty impressive.
I’m not generally inclined to encourage people to buy stuff, but since By The Sword is having a holiday sale this week, I thought this might be an appropriate moment to mention that it’s a really fun site for those of us whose aesthetics are grounded in another century. It mostly sells anachronistic clothes and
