Who am I to stand in the way of evolution?

A little spider was on the wall in my bathroom and, having no glass handy, I decided I should smush it. I’m not always so cruel, but I was in a hurry. Tissue in hand, I reached up to get him and at the last moment he sprang out of the way. Curses! He ran down the wall, so I tried again, but this time he zipped onto the tissue and immediately shot off on a thread, nearly landing on me. I tried to get him close to the wall to take another shot, but he pulled back up his thread and I couldn’t get the angle.

It was at this moment that I thought, wait, what the hell? This guy is amazing. He’s a better dodger than any little house spider I’ve ever seen. He’s probably going to grow up big and strong and propagate those awesome genes. He’s advancing the species! How can I stand in the way of that?!

So I carried him on his string all the way over to the window and let him go on his way. Good luck, buddy.

Top 40 worst drawings by Rob Liefeld
This is hilarious. I have a couple of these comics or have read them, and I definitely recognize Liefeld’s art and the ridiculous things his does in it.

There is in every village a torch – the teacher: and an extinguisher – the clergyman.

Victor Hugo

I just tested out the Bald Bull thing in Punch-Out described by the designer and hidden for 22 years. There it is! The flash! I’ve always been punching him on his third jump, but this is a more unambiguous cue.

Wada
This is a great opportunity, so I have something I’d like to say. In Punch-Out!!, the game gives you a lot of hints about effective timing of punches. There is a big boxer called Bald Bull in the NES version as well and a light flashes to the right in the audience when he charges. If you punch when it flashes you will land a body blow.
Tanabe
What? Really?
Wada
No one has known about that for about 22 years…
Everyone
(laughter)
Wada
I was wondering when I would have a chance to tell people that.
Iwata
You’ve been holding that information for 22 years since the release. (laughs)

In a recent interview of the creators of Punch-Out for the NES. Unbelievably, even Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata didn’t know about this little quirk. I’m totally going to check this out.

To be fair, most of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird.

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

The Troy of history was a dirty little town in Asia Minor, full of quarrelsome and small people living in mean and dark and inconvenient houses. But the Troy of poetry is a city of topless walls, of splendid men and women doing splendid deeds of strength and tenderness, a shining city that has actually built better cities over the face of the earth. The geographic Troy is not the real one. The Troy of literature is the real one. That is what literature means.

From “General aspects of literature” in this monolithic single-volume library I just got.

Vocabulary: Lean Horse Edition

From the last hundred pages or so of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman:

obtruncate: to deprive of a limb (makes sense).
indissoluble: perpetual or incapable of being dissolved or destroyed. I love double negatives within words.
oedematous: of or pertaining to the edema (obviously). Edema: interstitial cellular fluid.
sententious: given to pithy or moralizing sayings.
ratiocination: the process of logical reasoning.
aposiopetic: (aposiopesis) breaking off a sentence in the middle, as if unable to proceed
parallelogramical: parallelogram-shaped (clearly; I just liked the word).
radix: the base of a numerical system, or the root of a plant (interesting).
jactitation: a boast that causes harm to another, also extreme restlessness in bed?
delectation: enjoyment (knew it).
saturnine: sluggish, melancholy, or bitter in temperament.
farthingal: hoops used to expand women’s skirts at the time of the book.
palfry: (palfrey) a woman’s saddle, smaller and softer.
placket-hole: the hole that goes into a pocket (!).
concupiscence: sexual lust, or more generally, passion.
windlass: a sort of crank-based lifting machine (no idea).
geniture: birth.
costive: constipated, slow to act, or stingy (very versatile word!).
impuissance: (impuissant) weak, feeble.
captious: of a disposition to point out faults, or ensnaring and perplexing when referring to argument.
farrago: a mixture or medley.
pannier: a basket or bag (i.e. breadbasket), or again hoops to expand skirts.
basilicon: an ointment made of wax, pitch, resin, and oil or lard.
ecliptic, trine, and sextil: all terms to do with astrological positions.
argute: shrewd or subtle (I assume it has roots in the hundred-eyed god Argus).

Every thing in this world is big with jest,–and has wit in it, and instruction too,–if we can but find it out.

Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

I’m so controversial!