Archive for January, 2008

Jan 31 2008

Moving blogs and .htaccess

When I first set my blog up, years ago, I installed it to a subdirectory called “/blog” with the vague intention that the canonical “http://heliologue.com” URI could be a landing page pointing to whatever else I wanted to put on my server. Eventually, I learned that I could get to…

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Jan 30 2008

Thomas Paine’s ‘The Rights of Man’

Christopher Hitchens • Thomas Paine's 'The Rights of Man' Thomas Paine’s ‘The Rights of Man’: A Biography by Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Year: 2007
Pages: 160
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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№8

I continue my torrid literary affair with Christopher Hitchens with his latest short biography. He’s previously done a slim tome about Thomas Jefferson; now, he turns to famed…

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Jan 29 2008

The Big Con

Jonathan Chait • The Big Con The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics by Jonathan Chait
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Year: 2007
Pages: 304
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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№7

Economics books are notoriously difficult reading. It seems like even economists often don’t understand the economy. I thoroughly enjoyed Tim…

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Jan 27 2008

Dave Barry’s History of the Millenium (So Far)

Dave Barry • Dave Barry's History of the Millenium (So Far) Dave Barry’s History of the Millenium (So Far) by Dave Barry
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Year: 2007
Pages: 224
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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№6

I’ve noticed that Dave Barry has been waning in recent years. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe that’s why he decided in 2005 that it was time to…

One response so far

Jan 25 2008

Friday Random Ten CXLII

The “Midwestern Weather” edition.

Friday Random Ten

  1. Neurosis - [Given to the Rising #10] Origin
  2. The Dillinger Escape Plan - [Miss Machine #10] Unretrofied
  3. Second Coming - [Second Coming #01] Confessional
  4. Leaves - [The Angela Test #06] Good Enough
  5. Jeff Buckley - [Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk CD2 #05] Murder Suicide Meteor Slave
  6. Isis - [Oceanic Remixes CD1…

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Jan 23 2008

The First Word

Christine Kenneally • The First Word The First Word by Christine Kenneally
Publisher: Viking Adult
Year: 2007
Pages: 368
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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№5

Although I’ve never pursued the subject seriously, I’ve always been a casual fan of linguistics; coming as I do from a background of reading and writing, I’ve developed a love, if nothing else,…

One response so far

Jan 21 2008

The Daily Show and Philosophy

Jason Holt • The Daily Show and Philosophy The Daily Show and Philosophy ed. Jason Holt
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Year: 2007
Pages: 280
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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№4

I think it’s fair to say that The Daily Show has fairly well entered the cultural zeitgeist. For some reason, ever since John Stewart took over the reigns in 1999, it’s continued…

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Jan 19 2008

Common compression and corpuses

Every so often, I dink around with benchmarking common lossless compressors. One of the best sites for it is, I think, Werner Bergman’s Maximum Compression, which is a rather comprehensive running benchmark of just about every lossless compression benchmark under the sun. Really, there’s a lot. What you have to…

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Jan 18 2008

The Amber Spyglass

Phillip Pullman • The Amber Spyglass The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman
Publisher: Knopf
Year: 2007 (reprint)
Pages: 560
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What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№3

It may interest you to read the my review of the preceeding book in this series, The Subtle Knife

And so ends the (in)famous trilogy by Phillip Pullman. I admit to being rather drawn…

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