The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000. You know it's a hot list when The New Joy of Gay Sex only clocks in at #28.

The Forbidden Library Vonnegut repeats, Shakespeare and Stephen King threepeat.

Classic Banned Books and Frequenty Challenged Authors

Banned Books Online

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 1:36 AM  |

O KA LA NOKONOKO Hawaiian
A day spent in nervous anticipation of a coughing spell.

NARACHASTRA PRAYOGA Sanskrit
Men who worship their own sexual organs.

SENZURI Japanese
Male masturbation (literally "a hundred rubs"). "Shiko shiko manzuri" is the female version (literally "ten thousand rubs").

BUZ-BAZ Ancient Persian
A showman who makes a goat and monkey dance together.

GRILAGEM Brazilian Portuguese
The practice of putting a live cricket into a box of newly faked documents, until the insect's excrement makes the paper look convincingly old.

LATAH Indonesian
Uncontrollable habit of saying embarrassing things.

YUYURUNGUL Yindiny, Australia
The noise of a snake sliding through grass.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 5:40 PM  |

Rock-Paper-Scissors-Fire-Gun-Lightning-Devil-Dragon-
Water-Air-Sponge-Wolf-Tree-Human-Snake

Rock-Paper-Scissors-Gun-Dynamite-Nuke-Lightning-Devil-
Dragon-Alien-Water-Bowl-Air-Moon-Sponge-Wolf-Cockroach-
Tree-Man-Woman-Monkey-Snake-Axe-Fire-Sun.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 5:23 PM  |

The best way to view Harris's intolerance is through the lenses provided by Julian Baggini's Atheism: A Very Short Introduction. Baggini's excellent little book is intended not as an attack on religion but to give a positive explanation of a word, atheism, that conjures "dark images of something sinister, evil, and threatening." His point is that atheism need be neither "happy-clappy" nor "pessimistic or depressive." It is rather a kind of growing up, a turning away from "the innocence of supernatural world views" and an acceptance "that we have to make our way in the world."

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 11:48 AM  |

Created to help Superman protect his secret identity, the classic Superman Robot is ready for any task! This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base. Also includes a bonus Beppo the Super-Monkey figure!

# posted by Anonymous @ 10:09 AM  |

Some servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague (and anyone less than like level 50 nearly immediately die). GM's even tried quarantining players in certain areas, but the players kept escaping the quarantine and infecting other players.

# posted by Anonymous @ 10:26 PM  |

Unlike Animal Farm, to which this book will be compared, Saunders isn't taking a recognizable stand against a specific ideology; maybe the post–Cold War era is too fluid and unrecognizable for such conviction. Though progressive political fury informs a good deal of his writing, Saunders's prescription here is more an offshoot of the golden rule than anything grounded in an official talking point.

This is a good thing for the very valuable art of George Saunders. The United States isn't Outer Horner or Inner Horner or Greater Keller. It's all three of them, depending on the context, and it must save itself.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 8:50 PM  |

Junpei was sixteen years old when his father made a surprising pronouncement. True, they were father and son; the same blood flowed through their veins. But they were not so close that they often opened their hearts to each other, and it was extremely rare for Junpei’s father to offer him views of life that might (perhaps) be called philosophical. So that day’s exchange would remain vivid in his memory long after he had forgotten what prompted it.

“Among the women a man meets in his life, there are only three who have real meaning for him. No more, no less,” his father said—or, rather, declared. He spoke coolly but with utter certainty, as he might have in noting that the earth takes a year to revolve around the sun. Junpei listened in silence, partly because his father’s speech was so unexpected; he could think of nothing to say on the spur of the moment.

“You will probably become involved with many women in the future,” his father continued, “but you will be wasting your time if a woman is the wrong one for you. I want you to remember that.”

Later, several questions formed in Junpei’s young mind: Has my father already met his three women? Is my mother one of them? And, if so, what happened with the other two? But he was not able to ask his father these questions. As noted earlier, the two were not on such close terms that they could speak heart to heart...

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 8:43 PM  |

"If you write a novel alone you sit and you weave a little narrative," Naipaul told editor Rachel Donadio in the New York Times Book Review. "And it's okay, but it's of no account. If you're a romantic writer, you write novels about men and women falling in love, etc, give a little narrative here and there. But again, it's of no account." Hereby we dispose of Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Great Expectations and the majority of novels in the canon. What is of account, he claims, are non-fictional explorations of "the Islamic question", the clash of belief and unbelief, of east and west. Readers of Naipaul's last couple of novels - a fairly exclusive club, I should imagine - probably won't be surprised to learn that he's grown tired of the genre; even Tolstoy came to distrust fiction at the end, but personally I trust Tolstoy the novelist rather than Tolstoy the cranky, sclerotic polemicist. The only reason we listen to Naipaul is because he wrote A House for Mr Biswas and A Bend in the River. If the novel doesn't matter any more then his opinion wouldn't seem to count for more than my doorman's opinion.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 11:23 AM  |

Turn the first few pages -- past a series of ingeniously vicious parodies of old comic books' ads for Grit and Charles Atlas -- and you'll hit a spectacular two-page map of the heavens and the traditional constellations, à la Ware. View it in the dark, and it becomes an entirely different celestial map -- the constellations this time are Ware's characters, printed in glow-in-the-dark ink. That's followed by a brief history of visual art (presented as a series of tiny newspaper-style comic strips), then another grand two-page scheme described as "Our Blueprint of the Universe, as Seen through its Four Physical Types, Principles, and the Opposing Forces of Nature."

It's staggering -- the sort of work that would singlehandedly establish another artist's career -- and Ware's only started showing off.

Barbara Ehrenreich's Bait & Switch (another thumbs down for Babs)

Truth: A Guide, on the battle between Red and Blue America over "the very nature of truth"

The Republican War on Science

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 7:14 PM  |

The Hooters Girl uniform skirt is a choice of a tank top tucked in to the Hooters Girl shorts (NO MIDRIFF IS TO SHOW) and the shirt must meet the Hooters Girl shorts. No portions of the bra is to show. A white or nude-colored bra must be worn. Shirts are not to be cut or altered, faded or have any stains or tears. A long sleeve shirt may be worn when weather conditions dictate and at manager's discretion. All shirts must be sized to fit, NO BAGGINESS.

Only approved Orange Hooters Girl Shorts are to be worn, sized to fit, and SHOULD NOT BE SO TIGHT THAT THE BUTTOCKS SHOW.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 9:20 AM  |

My confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims. - The Dalai Lama

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 9:14 AM  |

"I'll tell you something else about which I've been lately thinking!" he bellowed in a suddenly stentorian voice. "I've been thinking about our beautiful country! Who gave it to us? I've been thinking about how God the Almighty gave us this beautiful sprawling land as a reward for how wonderful we are. We're big, we're energetic, we're generous, which is reflected in all our myths, which are so very populated with large high-energy folks who give away all they have! If we have a National Virtue, it is that we are generous, if we have a National Defect, it is that we are too generous! Is it our fault that these little jerks have such a crappy land? I think not! God Almighty gave them that small crappy land for reasons of His own. It is not my place to start cross-examining God Almighty, asking why He gave them such a small crappy land, my place is to simply enjoy and protect the big bountiful land God Almighty gave us!"

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 12:00 AM  |

BM: In your new book you make a very interesting point about how the Republican right is always trying to post the Ten Commandments in public places, which of course is from the Old Testament, but they never, ever seem to want to post the sayings of Jesus, like the Beautitudes: "Blessed are the meak, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers." They're such Christians, but they never want to put up what Jesus said.

KV: Well, I don't think they've ever paid any attention to him, and if he were to show up now with that kind of talk, I think he would probably be given lethal injection rather than crucifixion. No, I don't think they know anything about Jesus.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 1:05 PM  |

A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics:

11. 10 points for beginning the description of your theory by saying how long you have been working on it.

13. 10 points for offering prize money to anyone who proves and/or finds any flaws in your theory.

14. 10 points for each new term you invent and use without properly defining it.

16. 10 points for arguing that a current well-established theory is "only a theory", as if this were somehow a point against it.

17. 10 points for arguing that while a current well-established theory predicts phenomena correctly, it doesn't explain "why" they occur, or fails to provide a "mechanism".

18. 10 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to Einstein, or claim that special or general relativity are fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).

21. 20 points for suggesting that you deserve a Nobel prize.

23. 20 points for every use of science fiction works or myths as if they were fact.

25. 20 points for naming something after yourself. (E.g., talking about the "The Evans Field Equation" when your name happens to be Evans.)

30. 30 points for suggesting that Einstein, in his later years, was groping his way towards the ideas you now advocate.

32. 30 points for allusions to a delay in your work while you spent time in an asylum, or references to the psychiatrist who tried to talk you out of your theory.

36. 40 points for claiming that when your theory is finally appreciated, present-day science will be seen for the sham it truly is. (30 more points for fantasizing about show trials in which scientists who mocked your theories will be forced to recant.)

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 9:20 AM  |

But there was something Michael Larsen hadn't told anyone.

Back in his home state of Ohio, he didn't have just one television, he had several. Each television was hooked up to a private networking farm of VCRs in his living room. In November of 1983, he recorded every episode of Press Your Luck over the course of several weeks. He studied these videotapes, slowed them down, and froze the images to examine randomized tile sequences frame by frame. If you haven't already guessed, Michael Larsen discovered that the Big Board on Press Your Luck was not a randomized display, but an iterative, sequential pattern which gave itself away once you knew what to look for.

Actually there were six patterns, each of which consisted of eighteen elements apiece -- and Michael Larsen had memorized them all. As long as his concentration and hand-eye coordination held out, Larsen would enjoy full control of the Big Board, and nothing would be left to chance.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 7:09 PM  |

...the University of Southampton team has designed a prototype [prosthetic hand] that uses six sets of motors and gears so each of the five fingers can move independently.
...
The new hand - called the Southampton Remedi-Hand - can be connected to muscles in the arm via a small processing unit and is controlled by small contractions of the muscles which move the wrist.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 8:56 AM  |

THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN BOOKS, YOU KNOW, BUT NOT MUCH MORE: THE BEST OF THE ROCK NOVELS

If You Want Me to Stay, Michael Parker (2005).
Look for a full review of this wonderful new novel next month. A brilliant work of Southern fiction, the characters in If You Want Me to Stay are obsessed with soul music — Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Archie Bell, the Stax/Volt and Muscle Shoals sounds. Funny at times and wrenchingly sad at others, this is one of the most perfectly realized novels I've read in recent years. Very highly recommended.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 10:50 AM  |

'Video Killed the Radio Star'

'Ain't Nothing but a G Thing'

'Burning Down the House'

and many others.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 10:46 AM  |

RK: Good evening, Mr. Saunders. According to my sources, you have a new book out, a novella called The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil. Word on the street, and behind the Shop-n-Save, and on the porch, and in many of Beijing’s top-drawer massage parlors, is that it’s a political fable. Any truth to that?

GS: I’m not really sure what to call it. It started out as a kids’ book, but then suddenly became about genocide. So much for the marketing tie-ins! But I’m glad they’re talking about it in the massage parlors. It just goes to show you that phone marketing really does work.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 2:31 PM  |

Our sleuth makes a mistake analogous to the one that marred Nickel and Dimed. In that earlier experiment, she entered life as a low-income worker, yet without many support systems. She had no church, no family, and no reliance on friends for financial or even moral aid. It is no wonder she found life so tough and capitalism so demoralizing. She lived an ordinary "lower class" life, yet with upper-middle-class, modern, academic morals and methods.

This time she cuts herself off from networks and personal contacts. She does recruit some friends to lie for her and back up her vita, should anyone call and ask about her past. But there is not a single voice to spread the word about her. Nor can she fall back on accumulated experience and contacts, for that would reveal her identity. So, she stalks the job world as a paper ghost. Alan, I wonder what would you—as a rational employer—make of a 60ish-year-old woman who appears out of nowhere and has no pre-existing contacts, offers, or networks? And what job is more a matter of personal contacts than public relations?

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 1:34 PM  |

Time Turner: This allows a wizard to be in two places at once. In the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and Hermione use this to frustrate the plans of the Ministry of Magic, while retaining a cast-iron alibi.

Interestingly, Hermione's possession of the Time Turner had previously been authorized by the Ministry of Magic - presumably by a separate department. Clearly the wizarding world has failed to embrace Joined-Up-Government.

Quidditch:: The opportunities for cheating at Quidditch seem endless. For example, there are several instances in the book where key artefacts (brooms, bludgers) are jinxed by watching stakeholders.

(In contrast, some of the cheating that goes on around the Triwizard Tournament seems touchingly naive.)

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 11:19 AM  |

At a press conference this afternoon, President George H. W. Bush singled out the Walton Family for their generosity to Katrina relief efforts:

I don’t think anyone would mind if I singled out the chairman and CEO of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, who is right here. He told us that they gave the Bush-Clinton fund a total of $23 million…$15 million from the company and then $8 million more from the Walton family, the marvelous philanthropists that they are.

Let’s put that in perspective. The Walton family’s net worth is $90 billion. So $8 million dollars represents .009 percent of their total.

The average family’s net worth is $86,100. If an average family contributed at the same rate as the Waltons, they’d donate $7.74.

There are thousands of families all around country that are being far more generous to Katrina victims than the Waltons. Few of them will be personally thanked by a former President.

# posted by Jaimee Hills @ 10:02 PM  |