Microblog: A very long article Wikipedia article on the orientation of toilet paper [Jun 7th, 22:52] [R]

Sunday, March 12th, 2023

Brewdog Mallow Laser Quest

Categories: [ Beer/Brewdog ]

Brewdog_Mallow_Laser_Quest

“Marshmallow & pineapple… fruited flavour”

Very sweet, fruity with a bit pinetree. I cannot really recognize the pineapple, though. Contains malted barley, malted wheat and malted oats.

BrewDog Ltd., Ellon, Scotland. 6.0% alcohol

[ Posted on March 12th, 2023 at 11:05 | no comment | ]

Sunday, February 26th, 2023

Hiisi Hölli

Translation: [ Google ]

Categories: [ Beer/Hiisi ]

Hiisi_Holli

Tuoksuu eksotiisilta hedelmiltä, ehkä myös persikasta. Siältää ohramallasta.

Panimoyhtiö Hiisi, Jyväskylä, Suomi. 5.5% alkoholia.

[ Posted on February 26th, 2023 at 11:45 | no comment | ]

Saturday, February 25th, 2023

The Sugarland Express

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sugarland_Express

Wikipedia

Lou Jean help her husband Clovis to escape from prison because their child has been placed in the care of foster parents in Sugarland and she is being stonewalled by the administration. Lou Jean wants to go to Sugarland and get back her son. They first steals the car of an old couple, but when pulled-over by the police, they flee, run into an accident and eventually steal the patrol car and kidnap the young policeman, Slide. They are chased by Slide's boss, Cpt. Tanner, but since they threaten to shoot the policeman, Tanner simply follows them across East Texas, heading a long caravan of police cars soon joined by journalist and civilians. The couple manages to refuel the patrol car and grab food thanks to Tanner's unwillingness to have them shot from a distance. They spend one night hidden in the lot of a used car's seller, and are shot at by trigger-happy, former policemen. The manage to leave, gathering crowds of supporters whenever they drive through a town. As Tanner sees no way out, he agrees to set up a trap by hiding two snipers in the foster parents' house. Slide, who has bonded with the fugitive during the trip, suspects a trap but Lou Jean insists that Clovis goes out of the car and gets their son. Clovis is shot but they manage to escape with the car until they drive into a shallow river. Clovis is dead, Lou Jean is arrested and Slide is unharmed.

[ Posted on February 25th, 2023 at 14:28 | no comment | ]

Cocotella 4

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Ice Cream ]

Nouvelle variante de cocotella pour essayer de me débarasser des cristaux de glace. Celle-ci contient du lait en poudre et du sirop de glucose.

Ingrédients

  • 90 g sucre
  • 37 g lait en poudre
  • 37 g sirop de glucose
  • 5 g glucose
  • 2 œufs (100 g)
  • 415 g lait de coco (400 mL)

Préparation

Mélanger les ingrédients secs. Battre un peu les œufs dans une casserole, ajoute les ingrédients secs et fouetter. Ajouter le sirop de glucose et fouetter encore. Ajouter le lait de coco, mélanger. Faire chauffer en remuant continuellement jusqu'à atteindre 80 °C. Laisse refroidire et reposer 24h au réfrigérateur. Passer à la sorbetière.

Commentaires

On ne sent plus les critaux de glace, mission accomplie.

Les proportions sont calculées avec une estimation erronée de la masse du lait de coco (j'avais estimé 430 g au lieu de 415 g). La version corrigée contient 83 g de sucre, 50 g de lait en poudre et sirop de glucose et 3 g de glucose. Je suis étonné que l'optimiseur change autant les proportions (-9 % de sucre, +35 % lait en poudre et sirop de glucose) avec une différence de seulement 4 % dans la quantité de lait de coco. Il a peut-être trouvé un autre optimum local ?

[ Posted on February 25th, 2023 at 13:55 | 1 comment | ]

Thursday, February 23rd, 2023

Full-Text Search in Database For Mastodon

Categories: [ IT ]

I run my own instance of Mastodon on a server with little memory, i.e. not enough to be able to run ElasticSearch in addition to Mastodon. This means that I cannot do a full-text search on my toots (which would have come handy from time to time).

As an alternative solution, I have implemented a full-text search on database. It is most probably not suitable to use on a large instance, as the implementation uses an SQL query with multiple LIKE conditions ORed together. That's not the most efficient way of querying a database, but for a small enough number of statuses (40k at the moment), it's probably good enough.

This feature is (and will probably forever remain) experimental, but if you want to give it a try, and assuming that you have installed Mastodon from Git like me in /home/mastodon/live and run v4.1.0, here's how to do it.

As user mastodon, run:
$ cd /home/mastodon/live
$ git remote add db_search https://weber.fi.eu.org/software/mastodon
$ git fetch db_search
$ git checkout v4.1.0+db_search.1
$ echo "FULL_TEXT_DB_SEARCH=true" >> .env.production
Then restart the mastodon-web service by running as root:
systemctl restart mastodon-web.service

Reload the mastodon Web UI in your web browser. When you click on the search box, you should now see a message like “Simple text returns posts you have written…” and searching with words you know you have written should display matching toots.

EDIT: I expanded the search to also consider the descriptions of media attachments. The updated version is available as tag v4.1.0+db_search.1.

[ Posted on February 23rd, 2023 at 14:56 | no comment | ]

A Million Ways to Die in the West

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Million_Ways_to_Die_in_the_West

Wikipedia

Albert Stark is a sheep farmer in Arizona in 1882. After his girlfriend Louise broke up with him because he refused to defend himself in a duel, he decides to leave for San Francisco. Lewis, a bandit, arrives in town with Anna, his boss's wife. Lewis quickly gets arrested for having killed the pastor's son in a saloon fight, during which Albert saves Anna from being killed and they become friends. At the fair, Albert impulsively challenges Louise's arrogant new boyfriend Foy to a shooting contest, and during the next week, Anna teaches Albert how to shoot. During a barn dance the night before the fight, Anna drugs Foy with a laxative, leading him to forfeit the fight the next day. The next day, Anna's husband Clinch arrives and, having learned from Lewis that he had seen a man kiss his wife, threatens to kill people unless the man duels him the next day. Clinch takes Anna with him but she escapes and goes to Albert's farm to warn him about Clinch, who arrives soon after. Albert helps Anna to escape before escaping himself to the mountains where he is captured by a tribe of Apaches. As Albert can speak their language, they won't kill him and instead give him a bowl of peyote during a ceremony. The vision makes him realize he loves Anna, despite her lying to him about being married. Meanwhile, Clinch captures Anna, then duels with Albert. The latter grazes Clinch with a bullet dipped in rattlesnake venom and manages to stall him until he dies from the poison. Louise attempts to win back Albert, but he rejects her and enters a relationship with Anna. With the bounty for killing Clinch, Albert buys a lot more sheep.

[ Posted on February 23rd, 2023 at 12:19 | no comment | ]

Saturday, February 18th, 2023

La forêt sombre

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Books ]

ISBN: 9782330125110

© Amazon.fr

Face à l'invasion prochaine de la Terre par les Trisolariens, les Nations Unies lancent le programme Colmateur en sélectionnant quatre personnes chargées de concevoir en secret et mettre en œuvre un plan pour contrer l'attaque. La difficulté réside dans le fait que les Trisolariens peuvent épier toutes les conversations, les Colmateurs doivent donc mettre leur plan en œuvre sans qu'il soit possible d'en deviner la teneur. Les trois premiers plans sont éventés par des agents de l'Organisation Terre-Trisolaris, seul celui du Dr. Luo Ji résiste. Ce dernier semble ne pas travailler du tout et plutôt prendre du bon temps grâce aux ressources immenses mises à sa disposition. Au bout de 20 ans, il envoie une sous forme de message radio amplifié par le soleil une «  malédiction  » vers une étoile, et l'ONU décide de le mettre en hibernation pour 200 ans en guise de punition. À son réveil, le monde a bien changé, ayant traversé une crise de désespoir puis a atteint un point où l'humanité est convaincue de triompher des Trisolariens. Une immense flotte spatiale a été construite et s'est finalement constituée en état indépendant. L'observation de la flotte trisolarienne a révélé qu'un petit objet arrive en éclaireur. Ce dernier se révèle être indestructible et détruit la majeure partie de la flotte (quelques vaisseaux parviennent à s'échapper vers une étoile proche dans l'espoir de préserver un échantillon de l'humanité), et les terriens sombrent dans la terreur et la panique. La sonde ne détruit cependant pas la Terre et se contente d'empêcher la Terre d'utiliser le soleil comme amplificateur pour envoyer des messages vers le cosmos. Tous se tournent alors vers Luo Ji, lui attribuant tous les pouvoirs et vertus, mais déchantent rapidement lorsque ce dernier sombre dans l'alcoolisme et que son nouveau plan semble dérisoire. Luo Ji révèle sa théorie selon la quelle de nombreuses civilisations habitent le cosmos, mais restent silencieuses de peur d'être attaquées, à moins de pouvoir attaquer les premières. Sa «  malédiction  » consistait à rendre une étoile inhabitée soudainement visible, ce qui a pour effet de motiver au moins une civilisation à préventivement détruire cette étoile et ainsi démontrer la théorie. La sonde des Trisolariens empêche les Terriens de menacer ainsi leur planète. Rejeté de tous, Luo Ji annonce alors aux espions trisolariens que son plan apparemment dérisoire consiste à utiliser des bombes thermonucléaires en orbite autour du soleil non pas pour créer un nuage de poussière destiné à pouvoir observer l'approche de leur flotte, mais de transmettre par un autre moyen la position de leur planète aux civilisations hostiles du cosmos ; la non-exécution du plan est contrôlée par le fait que Luo Ji continue à vivre. Les Trisolariens acceptent alors de dévier leur flotte et de coopérer avec les humains plutôt que de les exterminer.

[ Posted on February 18th, 2023 at 16:16 | 1 comment | ]

Monday, February 13th, 2023

Noisette

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Ice Cream ]

Ingrédients

Préparation

Delayer le beurre de noisette en versant peu à peu la préparation encore chaude et en remuant soigneusement à chaque étape. Laisser reposer au réfrigérateur pendant 12 à 24 h. Passer à la sorbetière.

[ Posted on February 13th, 2023 at 15:08 | no comment | ]

Proportions

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Ice Cream ]

Voilà les proportions que j'utilise pour la base de ma crème glacée. Le but est d'utiliser un œuf entier, donc quelle que soit la quantité de préparation, le nombre d'œufs reste un nombre entier.

Pour 500 g

  • 42 g sucre
  • 9 g glucose
  • 42 g lait en poudre
  • 42 g sirop de glucose
  • 2 œufs (100 g)
  • 265 g lait entier

Pour 600 g

  • 51 g sucre
  • 10 g glucose
  • 51 g lait en poudre
  • 51 g sirop de glucose
  • 2 œufs (100 g)
  • 337 g lait entier

Pour 700 g

  • 59 g sucre
  • 10 g glucose
  • 59 g lait en poudre
  • 59 g sirop de glucose
  • 2 œufs (100 g)
  • 413 g lait entier

Préparation

Mélanger les ingrédients secs et les ajouter aux œufs légèrement battus. Fouetter, ajouter le sirop de glucose et mélanger. Ajouter le lait et mélanger, puis chauffer tout en remuant continuellement jusqu'à ce que la température atteigne 80 °C.

[ Posted on February 13th, 2023 at 15:03 | 4 comments | ]

Chocolat 4

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Ice Cream ]

Une variante de la précédente glace au chocolat produisant 700 g de préparation au lieu des 500 g habituels et contenant proportionnellement moins d'œuf.

Ingrédients

  • 115 g sucre
  • 34 g lait en poudre
  • 40 g cacao (Barry Extra Brut)
  • 1 œuf
  • 1/4 c. à café extrait de vanille
  • 382 g lait entier
  • 80 g chocolat noir (72% de cacao)

Préparation

Dans un bol, mélanger le sucre, le lait en poudre et le cacao. Dans une casserole, mettre l'œuf et le foutter un peu avant d'ajouter le mélange de sucre, 50 g de lait et de fouetter. Ajouter l'extrait de vanille puis le reste du lait, foutter pour mélanger, puis chauffer tout en remuant continuellement. Arrêter lorsque la température atteint 80 °C. Faire fondre le chocolat (2 minutes et demi au micro-ondes) puis le délayer avec la préparation. Laisser refroidir 24h au réfrigérateur. Passer à la sorbetière.

Commentaires

Il y a toujours un petit goût que je n'aime pas, je suppose dû au chocolat. La consistance me plait beaucoup, mais je ne sais pas ce qui a changé pour arriver à ce résultat. Un peu plus de sucre, peut-être ?

Pour référence :

  • Lipides : 8,0 % (dont saturés : 4,5 %)
  • Glucides : 26,8 % (dont sucres : 25,5 %)
  • Protéines : 6,7 %
  • Sel : 0,17 %

[ Posted on February 13th, 2023 at 14:47 | no comment | ]

Sunday, February 12th, 2023

Austin Powers in Goldmember

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Powers_in_Goldmember

Wikipedia

In 2002, Dr. Evil plans to partner with supervillain Goldmember in 1975 to develop a power unit for his tractor beam that would pull an asteroid into the Earth. He is however arrested by by Austin Powers and sent to prison. Austin however learns that his estranged father Nigel has been kidnapped and asks Evil for help, who reveals that Goldmember is behind the abduction. Austin travels to 1975 and is reunited with his former lover, FBI agent Foxxy Cleopatra. They find Nigel, but Goldmember takes him to 2002. Evil escapes from prison, and sets up a new submarine lair in Tokyo. Austin and Foxxy where they confront Fat Bastard, now a sumo wrestler, who reveals that businessman Mr. Roboto is building a device for Goldmemeber and Evil. The two agents infiltrate the factory, but Goldmember escapes with the control unit for the tractor beam. Around Evil, Scott replaces Mini-Me in his father's heart, so Mini-Me defects and joins Austin. Austin, Foxxy and Mini-Me infiltrate the submarine, but Austin is captured. Foxxy prevents Evil from activating the tractor beam and frees Austin. As the latter prepares to kill Evil, Nigel appears and reveals that they Evil and Austin are brothers, unknowingly separated when they were babies when their mother was assassinated. Goldmember then activates the tractor beam, but Austin and Evil work together to turn it into a ray that destroys the meteor. This story is then shown to have been adapted into a film called Austinpussy. Scott has become a supervillain and declares he will get revenge.

[ Posted on February 12th, 2023 at 12:29 | no comment | ]

Hiisi Hippa (2022)

Translation: [ Google ]

Categories: [ Beer/Hiisi ]

Hiisi_Hippa_2022

“kahvinen, pähkinäinen… pehmeän paahteinen”

Makea, pähkinäinen ja paahteinen. Sisältää ohramallasta ja kaura.

Panimoyhtiö Hiisi, Jyväskylä, Suomi. 5.5% alkoholia.

[ Posted on February 12th, 2023 at 12:04 | no comment | ]

Wednesday, February 8th, 2023

Chocolats 38

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Chocolats ]

Kultasuklaa, Madagascar, 67% : légèrement amer, pas très caratéristique

Erithaj, Cho Lách mono-plantation, Ben Tre, Vietnam, 70% : sec, un peu fleuri, sucre candi, un peu acide, grillé

Erithaj, Chú Lâm, Ben Tre, Vietnam, 70% : un peu fleuri (violette ?), cacaoté, un peu amer

[ Posted on February 8th, 2023 at 20:36 | no comment | ]

Sunday, February 5th, 2023

The Abyss

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyss

Wikipedia

When a US submarine sinks near the Cayman Trough after an encounter with an unidentified entity, the nearby underwater drilling platform Deep Core is sent to attempt a rescue, accompanied with a SEAL team. They do not find any survivor, but one of the civilians sees a non-terrestrial entity. Believing it to be a Soviet submarine, the SEALs take the platform's largest submarine for secretly recovering one of the submarine's nuclear warhead, preventing the platform's crew from disconnecting its tether to their surface base, the Explore, before the coming storm rips it off. The tether's reel is ripped off the Explorer and drags Deep Core to the edge of the trench, partially flooding the platform and killing several people. While waiting, the crew sees another manifestation of the NTI as a pseudopod that also takes a look at the nuclear warhead. This prompts the SEAL's leader, suffering from paranoia due to high-pressure nervous syndrome, to use one of the platform's ROV to deliver the warhead to the NTI inhabiting the trench. A battle and an underwater chase ensues in which the SEAL is killed. The chief of the platform, Bud, then decides to use a diving suit equipped with a liquid-breathing apparatus brought by the SEALs to dive into the trench and disarm the warhead. He has do dive deeper than planned and has not oxygen left for the return trip. Waiting to die, he is rescued by the NTI who show him television images of humans killing each other in wars, as well as gigantic tsunami, created by the NTI, threatening all the coasts of the world. They however stop the waves as Bud has shown, by risking his life to save the NTIs, that they are also capable of compassion. The NTI's underwater mothership, carrying Bud, then rises to the surface, lifting Deep Core and saving the crew's lives (magically removing the need for decompression).

[ Posted on February 5th, 2023 at 15:50 | no comment | ]

Big Drop Poolside

Categories: [ Beer/Big Drop ]

Big_Drop_Poolside

“tropical flavour… Pineapple, citrus, pine and stone fruit aromas… flavours of pine, herbs and… mango”

Tropical fruits and quite bitter. My favourite alcohol-free beer up to now. Contains barley and wheat.

Big Drop Brewing Co. Ltd, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. 0.5% alcohol.

[ Posted on February 5th, 2023 at 11:26 | no comment | ]

Sunday, January 29th, 2023

Cocotella 3

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Ice Cream ]

J'ai essayé de remplacer les 25 g de glucose de la recette précédente par 25 g de sirop de glucose. On remarque toujours des cristaux de glace.

[ Posted on January 29th, 2023 at 20:49 | 1 comment | ]

Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me

Categories: [ TV/Cinema ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Powers:_The_Spy_Who_Shagged_Me

Wikipedia

After having escaped, Dr. Evil comes back and goes back in time to 1969 to steal his mojo, which Austin suddenly notices in his present 1999. MOD sends Austin back to 1969 where he meets CIA agent Felicity Shagwell. Together they interrogate an assassin hired by Dr. Evil who reveals the existence of the super-villain volcano lair. They then identify Evil's agent who stole Austin's mojo, Fat Bastard. Felicity is tasked by MOD to implant a tracking device in Fat Bastard by any means necessary, but that device only lead them to a public toilet where they can take a stool sample revealing the presence of a plant that exists only on a single volcano island. Austin and Felicity arrive on the island and are made prisoner. Evil leaves for the moon where he has built a giant laser that he uses to extort money from the US government under threat of destroying Washington. Austin and Felicity then fly to the Moon on an Apollo rocket where Austin fights Mini-Me, Evil's miniature clone, and throws him into space. Austen then has to chose between saving Felicity or the world. She tells Austin to save the world, but is killed. Evil suggests that Austin could use the time machine to go back in time 10 minutes and save Felicity, but as there are now two Austins, they manage to save both Felicity and the world. Evil initiates the base's self-destruct and destroys Austin's mojo, but Felicity points out that all the things he succeeded in doing prove that he had never actually lost it. They travel back to 1999, where Fat Bastard reappears and fails to kill Austin. Dr. Evil's rocket recovers Mini-Me.

[ Posted on January 29th, 2023 at 15:22 | no comment | ]

Tuesday, January 24th, 2023

Exhalation

Categories: [ Books ]

ISBN: 9781529014495

© Amazon.fr

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

In an Arabian Nights universe, an Alchemist has built a gate that allows a person to visit his past or future and come back. The narrator re-tells stories he heard from the alchemist about failed attempts to change one's future. He then continues with his own story where he tries to save his wife in the past, but he arrives too late.

Exhalation

An intelligent mechanical man powered by pressured air analyses his own brain to discover how memory works. It learns that there it is stored as air pressure differentials, and therefore gets reset when the pressure drops and the man dies. Unexpected slowness in mechanical clocks also indicates that the (closed) world's air pressure is increasing all the time and will eventually be balanced with the pressure of the source of pressured air, causing the death of all inhabitants.

What's Expected of Us

A gadget that can predict when you are going to press its unique button cause a third of the population to realize free will does not exist and fall into deep depression.

The Lifecycle of Software Objects

A company makes digients, virtual pets that can grow and evolve like animals, but with speech. Their care takes commitment, and many are just suspended, but a small group still treat them like living beings and see them grow. When the virtual universe for which they were developed is shut down, they search for a company willing to fund the porting of the digients' code to another virtual universe. They eventually accept the offer of an adult entertainment company who proposes to develop sexuality in the digients.

Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny

In Victorian times, Dacey develops a device meant to raise infants. When one explodes, Dacey's company goes bankrupt. His son Lionel adopts an infant in 1932 and raises him with such a device for the first two years, but the child, Edmund, was later diagnosed as feeble-minded and suffering of social dwarfism, attributed to the use of the device. But when put back in presence of the device, he started to grow and reach a normal size.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling

A journalist is set to write an article criticizing devices that can record a person's life continuously and allow to consult the recording instantly, partly replacing human memory. He discovers that memories of his daughter being a terrible teenager were wrong and that he had in fact been a bad father to her.

The Great Silence

Parrots in Arecibo talk about their culture and mythology, hoping humans will learn to understand them before they get extinct.

Omphalos

In a universe where Earth has really been created only a few millennia earlier, an archaeologist discovers that the daughter of an astronomer has stolen fossils showing evidence of the Creation and put them to sale at a very low price. When asked for her motives, she explained that her father as peer reviewed an article showing that there is another Earth-like planet in the sky, that is not moving relatively to the Ether, indicating that this Earth is only an experiment and that the other one is really God's Earth. She wanted people to be able to experience themselves the evidence of the Creation before learning that God probably cares only for the other Earth.

Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom

The Prism is a device that uses a quantum phenomenon to create two branches of reality and exchange information (text, audio, video) between the two branches. People use Prisms to know how their lives could have been, and some become addicts. Nat's boss asks her to convince Lyle, the member of a support group for such addicts to sell his Prism so that she can resell it to a celebrity whose husband died in this universe, but who died in the parallel reality of Lyle's Prism. Nat also learns that Dana, the therapist who organises the meetings, had drifted apart from her best friend who had became a petty criminal, and that she blames herself for that. As Nat's boss is murdered, Nat is remorseful and uses the money to buy evidence from several parallel realities that Dana's friend would have become a criminal whatever choice Dana would have made.

[ Posted on January 24th, 2023 at 20:23 | no comment | ]

Friday, January 13th, 2023

Chocolat 3

Translation: [ Google | Babelfish ]

Categories: [ Cooking/Ice Cream ]

Une autre variante de la précédente glace au chocolat qui n'était pas si bonne que ça. Celle-ci contient moins de chocolat et davantage de cacao en poudre, ainsi que trop de lait, parce que j'ai versé trop vite.

Ingrédients

  • 75 g sucre
  • 29 g cacao (Barry Extra Brut)
  • 1 œuf
  • 300 g lait entier (au lieu de 273 g prévus)
  • 74 g chocolat noir (72% de cacao)

Préparation

Dans un bol, mélanger le sucre, le lait en poudre et le cacao. Dans une casserole, l'œufs et le foutter un peu avant d'ajouter le mélange de sucre et de foutter. Ajouter le lait, foutter pour mélanger, puis chauffer tout en remuant continuellement. Arrêter lorsque la température atteint 80 °C. Faire fondre le chocolat (2 minutes et demi au micro-ondes) puis le délayer avec la crème. Laisser refroidir 24h au réfrigérateur. Passer à la sorbetière.

Commentaires

Cette version est plus chocolatée que la précédente. On verra ce que ça donne après un temps de conservation plus long au congélateur.

[ Posted on January 13th, 2023 at 16:55 | no comment | ]

Saturday, January 7th, 2023

Stories of Your Life and Others

Categories: [ Books ]

ISBN: 9781529039436

© Amazon.fr

Tower of Babylon

A tower has been built over many centuries in Babylon, reaching the sky. When miners reach the top and start opening the sky, most are drown in a flood, but one manages to climb up and emerges on the ground, outside the city.

Understand

Leon's brain is repaired after an accident, giving him to know the world accurately and predict people's reactions, starting to control the world in the shadows. He's eventually contacted by another person with the same ability who beats him at his own game.

Division by Zero

A mathematician manages to correctly prove that one equals two and goes into depression as mathematics don't make sense anymore.

Story of Your Life

Louse, a linguist, starts to learn the language of extra-terrestrials who just landed on Earth. The spoken language has no relation to the written form, which requires to know in advance what will be written. This gives Louise the ability to see the future, including the death at 25 of her yet-unborn daughter, but that is not preventing her from having a baby.

Seventy-two Letters

In a world where words animate statues (Golem-style), Stratton tries to find words allowing to build dextrous machines that could replace humans in complex labour, but is opposed by the workers who build the statues. He meets researchers who have discovered that men will become sterile after a few generations and is asked to work with them on a word that, once printed onto a women's ovum, would make it evolve into a human. As this would lead to eugenics and the control of the population by a few people, he instead has the idea of hiding inside the word the commands for the evolved ovum to create ova where the word is already printed.

The Evolution of Human Science

A scientific article describing human science after meta-humans have appeared and develop science without communicating with humans anymore, the latter focusing on understanding what the formers have discovered.

Hell is the Absence of God

In a world where angels regularly appear on Earth, perform miracle cures but also kill people in the process, Neil's wife Sarah is one such victim. Neil is struggling because he wants to start believing in God so that he would rejoin her in Paradise, but doing so for selfish reasons would ensure he won't succeed. Neil eventually becomes a believer when touched by an angelic apparition's fire (which is a sure way to start believing unconditionally), dies from his wounds and still goes to Hell (which is just like regular life for non-believers).

Liking What You See: A Documentary

As marketing has been abusing the humans' weakness to trust beautiful people, a neural switch has been discovered that can reversibly cause calliagnosia and become unable to distinguish beauty from ugliness in people. A university is considering making calli a requirement, but the debate is biased by the lobby of cosmetics manufacturers who uses minute visual enhancements to make its spokesperson more convincing, leading the rejection of the pro-calli proposal, and displacing the original problem with marketing.

[ Posted on January 7th, 2023 at 17:23 | no comment | ]