- The dignity and grace of Nelson Mandela.
My former boss, Gareth Evans, remembers.
- People’s review of the WCA: further evidence
An update on the UK govt’s war on the disabled.
- Why are Upworthy headlines suddenly everywhere?
What’s really going on with Facebook and Twitter.
- NSA surveillance: tech companies demand sweeping changes to US laws
Industry challenges the securocrats.
December Books 4) Patternmaster, by Octavia E. Butler
I’ve enjoyed every other book I’ve read by Octavia Butler, so I’m sorry to say I thoroughly bounced off this one. A future human culture combines psychic slavery with an ongoing struggle against the non-human (or post-human) invaders; I found the conformity of the enslaved, despite their immense supernatural powers, rather implausible, and didn’t really follow what was going on politically. Maybe I just wasn’t concentrating.
Links I found interesting for 08-12-2013
- In 1994 I voted for Mandela over a thousand times
True story from my old friend @TxTbUk.
- Planet Has Been Discovered That Should Not Be There
A world in the wrong place!
December Books 3) Eyeless in Gaza, by Aldous Huxley
(If you’re wondering what happened to December Books 1 and 2, they were unpublished manuscripts that I read for a friend. Both are strongly recommended, but they are not out yet.)
Apart from Brave New World, the only other Huxley novel I had read was Crome Yellow back when I was a student (and I remember very little about it). Eyeless in Gaza combines some fairly brutal commentary about lefties in British politics in the late 1930s, but tells the story in a narrative which is sliced up between decades, several different strands interlacing. There are some particularly grim scenes, involving a dog, an amputation, and a suicide, which are a striking contrast with the theoretical philosophising of the main character. I thought this had some of Huxley’s better women characters as well, with a frank depiction of shifting relationships among a group of friends. Nothing sfnal to see here, but recognisably from the same source as Brave New World.
November Books 11) There Will Be Time, by Poul Anderson
I had read this as a teenager, and was very interested to find out how it stood up on rereading. It remains rather good – the protagonist is a mid-century American kid with the innate gift of time-travel, which he controls rather better than the husband in The Time-Traveller’s Wife. There’s a lot of politics here, as a white supremacist time-traveller tries to set up a racist principality at the end of time; can he be stopped, given that time appears to be immutably set in its tracks?
This was also the book from which I learned about the Fourth Crusade
November Books 10) Long Time Dead, by Sarah Pinborough
I absolutely hated Pinborough’s previous Torchwood novel, and pondered whether to even crack the covers of this one. However, I’m glad I did; this picks up the story of Suzie Costello, five years after her death in the very first episode of Torchwood, getting unexpectedly resurrected in the rubble of the Hub and creating mayhem while setting up some of the scenery for Miracle Day. None of the regular Torchwood characters appear (apart from a very brief look-in from Jack Harkness) but it very nicely ties up a loose end of continuity.
November Books 9) Nothing O’Clock, by Neil Gaiman
This was the last of the monthly Doctor Who ebooks produced this year, sending off the Eleventh Doctor in style with a short story by Neil Gaiman. This brings Amy and the Doctor to what seems at first a normal house with a normal little girl, and then the world starts to change in unexpectedly horrible ways – there are shades of Coraline and of a couple of the Sandman arcs here, but that’s not a bad thing.
This wee series of books is presumably going to be published in hard copy as a single volume in time for the Christmas market. It will be a good buy, though consumers should be warned that the first story, Eoin Colfer’s “A Big Hand For The [First] Doctor”, is by far the weakest.
November Books 8) Reamde, by Neal Stevenson
Another of Stephenson’s contemporary blockbuster technothrillers, over a thousand pages, which returns to his familiar themes of peculiar families, virtual reality games and the economics of moving large amounts of cash around the world. There are scenes set in great detail of the westernmost sector of the US-Canada border, and a vividly realised chunk of the book set in Xiamen, which I must admit was a city I had given no thought to whatsoever before picking up this book, though it sounds well worth a visit provided one can avoid a visit coinciding with Mafia and/or terrorists. There is one whacking huge unbelievable coincidence fairly early on when gur Znsvn naq gur greebevfgf ghea bhg gb or ubyrq hc va nqwnprag ncnegzragf, haxabja gb rvgure, but apart from that it is pacy and enjoyable, with even the extensive detail final shoot-out crafted entertainingly.
On reflection I have reclassified Reamde as non-sf rather than sf. There is nothing in it that requires counterfactual technology – possibly some aspects of the MMORPG are more advanced than anything in reality, but I found it all believable enough.
November Books 7) Dark Progeny, by Steve Emmerson
Emmerson wrote another Eighth Doctor book which I read earlier this year, Casualties of War
November Books 6) Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
(Advance warning – lots of catchup bookblogging today.)
I was reminded of Paterson’s utter classic Bridge to Terabithia by Mari Ness’s (spoilery) write-up a few weeks ago, and just before my to-read list reached this novel, which also won the Newbery Medal (in 1981, three years after Terabithia.
I didn’t quite know what to expect. I was braced for another Terabithia, a closely observed portrait of childhood friendship disrupted by a gut-wrenching plot development near the end. In fact it’s very different – Jacob Have I Loved is a story of sibling rivalry, or rather of how the narrator is completely overshadowed by her twin sister. Where the relative normality of the families in Terabithia were a reassuring anchor for the narrative, here the awfulness of Louise’s family surroundings, which start bad and keep getting worse, actually makes one almost wish for a Terabithia-style climax. The actual happy ending felt a bit rushed and tacked-on, part of a different story.
But it’s still beautifully observed. In the BBC radio series Clare in the Community, there’s a hilarious moment in episode 3.2 where Clare’s mother is bewildered by Clare’s resentment of her sister: “We always were careful to treat them both the same – the plain one and the pretty one!” Jacob Have I Loved isn’t a comedy; it’s a great portrayal of a despairing teenager, isolated in her own family, which itself is on an isolated island in the Chesapeake Bay, and how she finally gets away.
Links I found interesting for 06-12-2013
- Nora: Emerald of Bengal
A short film about my aunt.
Links I found interesting for 05-12-2013
- Booker, Hemming and the “forced caesarian” case: a masterclass in Flat Earth news | Head of Legal
The facts of the matter.
- Travesty
Unarmed man, shot by police, charged with assault for bullet wounds to bystanders. Seriously.
- Why John Kerry Wants You to Drink Moldovan Wine
A man of good taste.
- “Black Pete” and the Legacy of Racism in the Netherlands
The tarnished heritage of the Golden Age.
- Review: The Day of The Doctor
@Matthew_Kilburn writes.
Links I found interesting for 02-12-2013
- The Cookie(-Less) Monster
Tips on online privacy from @AriaCahill.
- Tom Baker, Lalla Ward and John Leeson Return for New Audio Stories!
Hooray! Based on two excellent novels! #doctorwho
- Croatia: MEPs regret Church-led referendum on marriage
Am even less convinced that citizens’ initiative is a good idea.
November Books
Gosh, I'm behind. Also a lot of travel by car this month meant I didn't read as much.
The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I, by Stephen Alford
Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction, by Michael White
Reading the Oxford English Dictionary: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, by Ammon Shea
Fiction (non-sf) 2 (YTD 39)
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
SF (non-Who) 1 (YTD 57)
There Will be Time, by Poul Anderson
Doctor Who etc 6 (YTD 68)
Nightdreamers, by Tom Arden
SLEEPY, by Kate Orman
Dark Progeny, by Steve Emmerson
Nothing O'Clock, by Neil Gaiman
Torchwood: Long Time Dead, by Sarah Pinborough
~3,400 pages (YTD ~60,200)
3/11 (YTD 66/235) by women (Paterson, Orman, Pinborough)
0/11 (YTD 10/235) by PoC
Reread: There Will Be Time – 1 (YTD 24)
Acquired 2011 or before: 7 (YTD 93) – Reading the Oxford English Dictionary, There Will be Time, SLEEPY, Jacob Have I Loved, Isaac Asimov, Nightdreamers
Acquired 2012: 1 (YTD 29) – Reamde
Acquired 2013: 3 (YTD 113) – The Watchers, Long Time Dead, Nothing O'Clock
Reading now:
About Time: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who, 2005-2006; Series 1 & 2, by Tat Wood
Eyeless in Gaza, by Aldous Huxley
The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
Patternmaster, by Octavia E. Butler
Coming next, perhaps:
Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Looking for Jake and Other Stories, by China Mieville
The Truth Commissioner, by David Park
The Devils / The Possessed, by Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky
Saints of the Shadow Bible, by Ian Rankin
Le Chat du Rabbin Tome 1, by Joann Sfar
Letters from Father Christmas, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Secret River, by Kate Grenville
Do Elephants Ever Forget?, by Guy Campbell
Anglicizing the Government of Ireland, by Jon G. Crawford
Essays on Time-based Linguistic Analysis, by Charles-James N. Bailey
The Road to Middle-Earth, by Tom Shippey
Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, by Damien Broderick and Paul Di Filippo
Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
334, by Thomas M Disch
Crowe's Requiem, by Mike McCormack
The Assassin's Quest, by Robin Hobb
Buddenbrooks, by Thomas Mann
Dawn, by Octavia E. Butler
[Doctor Who] Dancing the Code, by Paul Leonard
[Doctor Who] Death and Diplomacy, by Dave Stone
[Doctor Who] City of the Dead, by Lloyd Rose
Links I found interesting for 01-12-2013
- 5 benefit changes the government don’t want you to know about
More news from the UK’s war on the disabled.
- Crackdown in Kiev
“a cowardly and treacherous act by a government that behaved like an occupying force in its own capital.”
- Tough messages for the SDLP via @sluggerotoole
BBC report, interesting discussion in comments.
- 2006 interview with my aunt, Nora Shariff, who died on Friday.
Links I found interesting for 30-11-2013
- How the FIFA rankings work
Thanks to redfiona99!
Links I found interesting for 29-11-2013
- Westerosi Recipes
Yum (possibly).
- The End of Hypocrisy
American Foreign Policy in the Age of Leaks
- BBC: Giant prehistoric toilet unearthed
Links to three more BBC stories about poo.
Wednesday reading (on Thursday)
Lots of driving = less reading than sometimes.
Current
The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
Eyeless in Gaza, by Aldous Huxley
About Time: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who, 2005-2006; Series 1 & 2, by Tat Wood
Last books finished
Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
There Will be Time, by Poul Anderson
[Doctor Who] Dark Progeny, by Steve Emmerson
[Doctor Who] Nothing O'Clock, by Neil Gaiman
[Torchwood] Long Time Dead, by Sarah Pinborough
Next books
Patternmaster, by Octavia Butler
Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
[Doctor Who] Dancing the Code, by Paul Leonard
Books acquired in last week
Exiled to Nowhere: Burma's Rohingya, by Greg Constantine
Who's There: The Life and Career of William Hartnell, by Jessica Carney
The Complete Plays, by Christopher Marlowe
The Rapture of the Nerds, by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross
Missile Gap, by Charles Stross
With the Light: v. 7: Raising an Autistic Child, by Keiko Tobe [still looking for volume 6, folks]
The Derk Isle (Adventurs o Tintin), by Hergé
Doctor Who: The Doctor – His Lives and Times, by James Goss
Links I found interesting for 27-11-2013
- Stop Digital Arms Trade
EU technology used to crush dissent.
- The Perils of Backseat Negotiating, by Christopher R. Hill
A sane take on the Iran talks.
- Lee Harvey Oswald Was My Friend
A personal reminiscence.
- Judith Kerr and the story behind The Tiger Who Came To Tea
She was also married to Nigel “Quatermass” Kneale.
- Sleepless in Warsaw: how a climate deal was done
Insider account.
Links I found interesting for 26-11-2013
- L. Michel: des amendements menaçant la vie privée déposés à son insu
This doesn’t really make Michel look much better…
- EU and Ukraine: What went wrong?
@apsyrtus asks, Who lost Ukraine?
- 7 Little Known Facts About Ghostbusters
For once, some “little known facts” which are largely new and even interesting!
- The 35 Greatest Easter Eggs From The “Doctor Who” 50th Anniversary
One of buzzfeed’s better lists.
- Warsaw climate pact: EU, USA, Pacific Islands & China reaction
Now for the tricky part…
Links I found interesting for 25-11-2013
- Drowning Kiribati
A gripping report from the front line where climate change is winning.
- Can you pick the language in which the given sentence is written?
I got 10/11.
- ‘The Worst of the Worst’ – by @JamesTraub1
Obama’s policy (or lack thereof) on Western Sahara and Morocco.
On the other hand, the Afterparty…
The BBC3 Doctor Who Afterparty included some of the worst television I have seen for a long time. (I don't watch much television of course.) Someone on Twitter commented that:
#doctorwho was fantastic. The BBC3 'afterparty' on the other hand could have benefited from at least one production meeting beforehand…
— Andrew Lewin (@draml) November 23, 2013
The awful interview with One Direction (whoever the heck they are) was the lowest point – a technically disastrous chat with C-list musicians who hadn't actually seen the episode – but almost every segment with co-presenter Rick Edwards (a Pembroke NatSci, I note) was simply unwatchable. The Tom Baker interview, which came early, seemed a little bizarre at the time, but in retrospect he had simply worked out rather rapidly something that took the rest of us a bit longer; he has never suffered fools gladly.
Some of the other pre-filmed sequences were actually OK – I cheered to see both Jackie Lane and Freema Agyeman, adjacent to each other, and the montages of past episodes were rather tastefully assembled – but we kept coming back to the studio where the awful Edwards was pushing Katie Manning aside with his bum. Samira Ahmed summed it all up:
BBC3 #doctorwho "afterparty". Still hiding behind the sofa in horror.
— Samira Ahmed (@SamiraAhmedUK) November 23, 2013
But my friend Ian got one of his tweets read out on air, so there is some justice.
The Doctor Who anniversary weekend
Well, what a couple of days.
When it was announced that Day of the Doctor would be shown in cinemas as well as on TV last night, I felt a brief stab of disappointment that there would be none in Belgium (our local big cinema does do these simulcasts sometimes; I guess they may simply not have shown enough interest). But then I looked at the map of cinema showings and realised that the German venues included Cologne, which is less than two hours' drive from our house. (And failing Cologne, there were other options in Bonn, Düsseldorf, and the Ruhr.) Clickety click; tickets booked, as soon as we had found a solution for little U's weekend.
So we set off before lunch yesterday, to have time for some tourism before the show. My plans did not completely work out here, in that the weather along the border was pretty misty so I abandoned my idea of eating at the Drielandenpunt and we just pressed on to the Cologne suburb of Hürth, where we grabbed a Chinese meal beside the Park-and-Ride and then rode on in to the city centre.
Actually we should have come either a bit earlier or a bit later. By the time we'd looked at the most obvious tourist sights (the Cathedral and the Basilica of St Ursula) the museums were closing and we still had quite some time to kill. I was also feeling the aftereffects of not enough sleep during the week, notably (and entirely my own fault) staying up late talking to
(By the way – wasn't An Adventure in Space and Time really fantastic? One of those bits of Whoviana that you could safely show to a non-fan and expect them to get the appeal of the show. Sure, it's a shame that David Whitaker got merged with other characters, and that we did not see Hartnell actually acting at the height of his powers, but the story was at least as much about what the show did to Hartnell than what he did to it. I watched it at
The cinema is part of the massive Hürth Park shopping complex, and we found food without difficulty at their in-house restaurant. They were showing Day of the Doctor in three different screens, and ours, which was the emptiest when I booked it, was full on the night, so I guess that all three sold out. Sitting beside me were three young women speaking Russian to each other, who gasped with appropriate appreciation in all the right fannish places
We cinemagoers also got a lecture from Dan Starkey as Strax about cinema etiquette, showing unfortunates who had been arrested by the Sontarans for using their mobile phones or for trying to record the event, but also rejoicing in the eating of popcorn; followed by Matt Smith and David Tennant demonstrating the 3D while bantering with each other. (It's perhaps a little regrettable that the 3D glasses were not returnable, at least not where we are; I can't imagine that we'll ever use them again.)
And then on with the main feature. Well, I liked it a lot.
I was actually glad that Billie Piper didn't play Rose again (and delighted with the way the script covered that); she actually does well when she gets decent material to work with. Jenna Coleman is a delight. I liked the UNIT subplot (Yay, Jemma Redgrave and Ingrid Oliver!) more than the Elizabethan subplot, but enjoyed both (Joanna Page excellent, if improbable, and softening one of the stupider lines from The End of Time). I remembered the Zygons fondly, and indeed rewatched Terror of the Zygons last weekend to refresh myself; the negotiating the deal moment was perhaps a bit contrived in plot terms, but theoretically sound from the diplomatic perspective. And the shedding of the Time War baggage, both in terms of plot and in terms of liberating the Doctor from what we now know was more than just survivor's guilt, and possible reintroduction of the Time Lords and Gallifrey is excellent for the future of the show's storylines.
Not to mention the fan service:
A terrific way of including the former Doctors (who did Harnell's voice, by the way?)
Just one look from his eyes, but already we know it will be different.
I was spoilered for this, which is probably just as well as I don't think I could have remained dignified otherwise.
In the global scheme of things, this was one of Moffat's better Event episodes and probably the best anniversary special. (I know that Moffat has declared that there is only one previous anniversary special, The Five DoctorsThe Three Doctors, Silver Nemesis, Dimensions in Time and Zagreus, plus perhaps one or two others.) He has always been good at witty banter, and at identity confusion; he hasn't always been as good at fitting these things to the frame of a wider show, but he did it this time, and I'm a happy fan.
And then we came home, picking up little U en route, and watched The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, written and directed by Peter Davison, produced by his daughter Georgia Tennant, in which the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors all try to get into the 50th anniversary special, with hilarious consequences and many brief appearances from special guest stars (the scene with Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Ian McKellen is particularly funny). This link doesn't work on my iOs devices but does OK with Windows; the whole thing is 30 minutes and great fun.
I have to admit that in this household, levels of fannish squee were raised to well beyond the expected maximum when F and I realised that some of the footage had been taken at the Slough event that we had attended in August. We had thought at the time that the cameras were taking footage for the announcement the following day of Matt Smith's successor, but we were wrong. And then,
Coming slightly more into view, with F beside me:
And the scene closes with a clear shot of F (who has noticeably grown taller in the 3 months since this was shot):
So that was an utterly unexpected bonus to a fantastic weekend. And we have Christmas to look forward to!
Links I found interesting for 24-11-2013
Links I found interesting for 23-11-2013
- Scottish independence: Dr Who claim dismissed
One less thing to worry about!
- Doctor Who’s Jewish roots
I knew most, but not all, of these.
- Ireland and Doctor Who (Éire agus an Dochtúir Cé)
Reposting my definitive list.
- Can the Doctor cook?
Sometimes.
- Politicians in Doctor Who
I want to know the truth about Stephen Lloyd MP!
- Shakespeare in Doctor Who: A work in progress
Still working on this.
- What happened to the Doctor Who companions?
Needs updating, alas.
Links I found interesting for 22-11-2013
- Security Innovation Releases NTRU Public Key Cryptography to Open-Source Community to help fend off looming “Cryptopocalypse”
My brother moving things.
- Oswald and the Curtain Rods
This is pretty conclusive for me.
Links I found interesting for 21-11-2013
- Russian Officer: We Would Intervene In Karabakh Against Azerbaijan
The frozen conflict heating up another notch.
- 1912 eighth grade exam: Could you make it to high school in 1912?
I got 86%. One round was particularly good for me.
- The Straight Dope: What did Alice B. Toklas have to do with Alice B. Toklas brownies?
This is funnier than I expected.
- Drilling Platform Video Camera Reveals a Horrifying Mega-Squid
More Kroll than Cthulhu!
- 10 Surprising Facts About How Our Brains Work
Nothing sensational, but interesting to note.
- Inside America’s Plan To Kill Online Privacy Everywhere
@columlynch publishes the key document.
- Kony “in surrender talks” – BBC
Hooray!
Wednesday reading
Current
Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
[Doctor Who] Dark Progeny, by Steve Emmerson
About Time: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who, 2005-2006; Series 1 & 2, by Tat Wood
Last books finished
Reading the Oxford English Dictionary: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, by Ammon Shea
Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction, by Michael White
[Doctor Who] Sleepy, by Kate Orman
Next books
There Will be Time, by Poul Anderson
Patternmaster, by Octavia Butler
Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
Eyeless in Gaza, by Aldous Huxley
Books acquired in last week
None!
A serious question for friends in Edinburgh watching “An Adventure in Space And Time” tomorrow
Please can I come over and watch it with you, and then crash on spare bed or sofa before disappearing at an ungodly hour on Friday morning to catch my plane back to Brussels?
Links I found interesting for 20-11-2013
- Delegate Detective
Jac Rayner (@GirlFromBlupo) tries to work out which galactic delegate is which!!!
- Walled world
- let’s play a game
“I will have to ask you to provide essentially all the raw materials, plus shielding to protect the structure until it’s ready to go.”