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The 10000 year old clock that inspired Neal Stephenson’s Anathem

Anathem and the long now

Neal Stephenson’s new novel, ANATHEM, germinated in 01999 when Danny Hillis asked him and several other contributors to sketch out their ideas of what the Millennium Clock might look like. Stephenson tossed off a quick sketch and promptly forgot about it. Five years later however, when he was between projects, the idea came back to him, and he began to explore the possibility of building a novel around it. ANATHEM is the result, and will be released on September 9th, 02008.

I’m a huge fan of Neal Stephenson and just cannot wait for Anathem.

via

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Comics Uncategorized

Adrian Veidt’s Gordian Knot

Continuing in my reading of my well-thumbed copy of the graphic novel (trade paperback collection of the 12 issue comic book miniseries) of Watchmen.

There exists in the Watchmen universe a company of locksmiths called the Gordian Knot Lock Co. which may or may not be owned by Adrian Veidt, Ozymandias. Veidt owns pretty much all the companies depicted in the book so it is a safe assumption yet given Veidt’s fascination for Alexander the Great its name would seem like an ironic joke.

The basic plot of Watchmen is Adrian Veidt’s solution to his Gordian Knot, the intractable problem of the world’s slide into nuclear warfare. The horrifying result of the world’s smartest man thinking laterally, conceiving of an unconventional solution and making the bold stroke to prevent war.

In contrast to Alexander, whose cutting of the knot was widely proclaimed so as to give legitimacy to his conquest and reign, Veidt’s actions must remain hidden and unknown by the world at large.

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Comics Uncategorized

Fearful Symmetry

The trailer for Watchmen inspired me to reread my well-thumbed copy of the graphic novel or to be more precise to assuage the fanboys in the audience the trade paperback collection of the 12 issue comic book miniseries.

I have read it many times though it has been years since I last did, but it still manages to surprise me and I spot details that I hadn’t before. One example is the sheer amount of symmetry in Chapter 5 Fearful Symmetry. There are obvious examples of symmetry such as all the panels whose content is pretty symmetrical (windows or faces centered in the panel) or the panels which feature reflections. But Fearful Symmetry also contains far more subtle examples such as numbers and letters used for background elements deliberately chosen to be symmetrical or panels which are similar to earlier panels the protagonist of The Black Freighter comic gnawing on a gull and Dan in the Gunga Diner eating a chicken leg.

This latter example of symmetry then led me to notice a symmetrical element that had escaped me all these years. The entire chapter Fearful Symmetry is symmetrical (or as near as it can be) page 15 mirrors 14, 16 mirrors 13, 17 mirrors 12 and so on.

Also of course the entire book of Watchmen outside of chapter 5 features symmetry both in the visual elements and metaphorically.

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Comics Uncategorized

Why Batman Could Exist

With The Dark Knight opening at cinemas in the US tomorrow and here in the UK exactly a week from now there has been a glut of Batman related stuff on the internet but Scientific American’s analysis of the feasibility of really becoming someone like Batman is probably the best. This and this come pretty close though. [via]

See also E. Paul Zehr’s book Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero, upon which the Scientific American’s piece was based.

And this review of the IMAX version of The Dark Knight makes me sad that we no longer have an IMAX cinema in the region.

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Security Uncategorized

The Guardian Series: What liberty means to me

Rachel North: We are each other’s best security

But as any parent knows, it is not always possible to keep those you love safe, and a person who is always safe is a person who never knows freedom and who has no life.

…For no government can keep us safe, even if they watch over us and film us and check our emails and internet use and hold our most intimate data and fill hundreds of prison cells with people who are merely suspected of, but not charged with, any crime.

Rachel has great insight of this issue I think.

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Surveillance Uncategorized

Estimate of 8.6 million CCTV cameras in UK by 2018

According to SecurityPark.net the number of CCTV cameras in the UK is expected to double by 2018.

Mirasys polled 150 delegates during IFSEC who came from different vertical sectors including banking, government, public sector and retail. Delegates estimated that the number of CCTV cameras in the UK would more than double by 2018.

The poll of security professionals estimated that an average of 8.6 million CCTV cameras will be in place by 2018, compared with the current figure of 4.2 million cameras. This figure includes deployments at people’s homes as well.

This is quite an astonishing number, it seems that everyone wants more surveillance to protect their property and ensure their security even though the actual efficacy is in doubt.

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Comics Uncategorized

Pounds of gold in the sea

A line in Action Comics #244 from 1958 about there being 84 pounds of pure gold in every cubic mile of water got me thinking and with a quick back of an envelope calculation I worked out there had to be at least 100 Trillion US dollars worth of gold in the Earth’s oceans.

The volume of water in the Earth’s oceans according to Wikipedia is 310 million cu mi

The current price of gold is 943 US dollars troy ounce

There are 14.58 troy ounces in a pound.

161 962 513 200 000 dollars

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Comics Uncategorized

Batman R.I.P.

Reread Grant Morrison’s run on Batman and have come up with many crazy ideas as to the identity of Black Glove.

Alfred. Classic of pulp crime novels ‘The butler did it’. Perhaps under orders from Bruce Wayne. What would happen if Batman won his war on crime? Would he know? Would he walk away? Or would he construct for himself a nemesis of such great intellect and knowledge that he gives Batman a new focus so that he can continue.

Speculation abounds online since #677 that it is Thomas Wayne and that he really did fake his death. Good reason for Bruce to quit if his primary motivation was taken away from him. That he can never avenge his parent’s deaths as his father never died and was responsible for his mother’s death.

Another theory occurred to me when I considered that perhaps Detective Comics and Batman although ostensibly separate titles telling different stories might actually be telling the same story. And the Batman RIP story does crossover into the other Bat-titles anyway. The villain Hush returns in Detective soon and I wondered what if Thomas Elliot had be named after his father and was actually the illegitimate offspring of Thomas Wayne. He would be Thomas Wayne II which is the true identity of Owlman the evil counterpart to Batman in Morrison’s Earth-Two graphic novel.

In fact the more I read it the more weird and fucked up this whole run of issues seems.

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Uncategorized

Still sucking at Photoshop

Donnie has risen.

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Surveillance Uncategorized

Councils warned after overzealous use of surveillance

BBC News: Councils warned over spying laws

Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the Local Government Association, has warned councils that the powers granted to them under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act should not be used for “trivial offences” such as dog fouling.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was designed to regulate the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation for the purpose of detecting crime, and was pushed through parliament under the banner of combating acts of terrorism and organised crime.