Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Year: 2006

  • Timewasters…

    …in the nicest possible sense. A reminder of two little computer games that I enjoyed losing some hours with. Both charming in their own idiosyncratic way. 
     
    First up: Samorost 2. As I wrote at the time, it has a feel of animation by a Jan Svankmajer or Roland Topor about it.
     
    Second: Grow Cube.
     
    Enjoy.

  • Hormones

    Sometimes, I just love the Dutch. Who else could pack so much into an education film, designed to be shown in a Science Museum. Ladies, gentlemen, and small furry animals, may I present to you: Hormones. I remember it well, it just didn’t seem quite so funny at the time.

  • Pup Puzzle – Part Two

  • Hitchens’ Hackery

    I’ve filed this under "entertainment" as I don’t have a category called "tripe" at the moment. "This" being an article by Peter Hitchens on the so-called "Evolution versus Intelligent Design debate" The article turns out to be pretty much a load of old codswallop published in something that can only loosely be called a newspaper. The fact that Hitchens manages to mistake Intelligent Design for "an interesting intellectual development" in his opening sentence when it is nothing of the sort made me want to projectile vomit from the outset.
     
    Luckily, Jason Rosenhouse manages to overcome my feelings of disgust and deconstructs Hitchens’ folderol more level-headedly than I am able to do.

  • Up To A Point, Queen Beatrix

    I didn’t hear it myself, but apparently Queen Beatrix’s Christmas message this year underlined the importance of free speech. But then she went and blew it by adding that of course no one has the right to insult anyone else. Er, then it isn’t really "free speech" is it, Beatrix? Silly woman.

  • Sometimes…

    …I wonder why can’t we just lighten up a little? There’s a rather depressing firestorm broken out in a small corner of the Blogosphere over transgender. In particular whether transgendered people support the patriarchy or not. A good, but rather worthy, discussion of the minutiae can be found here.
     
    Basically, from my point of view, either we treat transgender people as people or we don’t. And depressingly, there are a number of people, who call themselves feminists, who don’t. Pot, kettle, black, sistas.
     
    But, by way of lightening up, as a result of exploring the various discussion threads, I came across this totally politically incorrect, but oh so brilliant video from the Scissor Sisters: Filthy Gorgeous.
     
    Thank god for art, and outrageous camp. Amen.

  • Fireworks

    Here in the Netherlands, New Year is celebrated by letting off millions of euros worth of fireworks. And every year, there’s someone hurt or killed. This year, by way of a change from the usual hard-hitting public safety campaign, there’s a series of humorous videos purporting to show the owner of a Chinese fireworks factory showing how to let off his products.

  • The White Blanket

    I’ve only just caught up with this telling of the story behind Breugel’s Hunters in the Snow. It’s fascinating. Go and read it… 

  • What Sex Is Your Brain?

    …Take the BBC’s handy-dandy quiz to find out.
     
    I came out as an average male brain, but I got a full score on the spatial reasoning test, which ties in with the engineering background…
     
    (hat tip to PZ Myers)

  • Planetocopia

    An interesting series of alternate earths – many taking our own earth as the starting point and altering one or more variables, for example, the planetary tilt…
     
    (hat tip to Nicholas Whyte)

  • Images of Wonder

    Phil, the Bad Astronomer, has his choice of the ten best Astronomy images of 2006. They are stunning, I agree, and his number one – the magisterial picture of Saturn, with a distant earth just peeping through the rings – is simply awe-inspiring.

  • Little Faces

    Liz Henry, over at the ED SF Project, pens an appreciation of the short story "Little Faces" by Vonda McIntyre. I’ve only read one other work by McIntyre, Dreamsnake, which I enjoyed very much. Liz Henry’s description of Little Faces is intriguing, and a good example of describing the "what if…" factor of Science Fiction. A sample:
    "Little Faces" is about a society of women symbiotic with their living spaceships. It answers the age-old question, "How do you write an exciting romantic crime story set in a genderfucked anarchic utopia?"
     
    The women’s biology, sex, and gender is complicated. Males of the species, the "companions," are not quite sentient, and are attached to the female’s bellies somehow; they are a bit like children, mates, pets, or extra limbs. They’re like remora dildos with the emotional personalities of fire lizards. They’re also a bit like hard drives that contain part of the memory and experiences of the other women who created them. Out of modesty, on formal occasions they are kept covered, though a thoughtful woman would use a lacy veil so that her companions can see out.
    It sounds irresistable…  

  • Pup Puzzle

    Here’s a probability puzzle for you to get the brain cells working again. Or, as in my case, to bash your head repeatedly against the wall trying to work it out.

  • Just Ring Apeldoorn…

    "Acupuncture" is the latest in a long string of excellent TV Ads for a Dutch Insurance Company, whose slogan is Even Apeldoorn Bellen (Just Ring Apeldoorn). It won the award for best Dutch commercial for 2006. It’s guaranteed to raise a smile and bring on a feeling of schadenfreude.
     
    Also, check out the "Schoonmaaksters" (Cleaning Ladies) commercial link on the same page…

  • The Nun’s Story

    You know me – atheist to a fault; not having any truck with any religion and other such superstitious nonsense. Well, today, I sat down and watched Fred Zinnemann’s The Nun’s Story, starring Audrey Hepburn on TV.
     
    I must say that the film both impressed and appalled me. I can see that the film would probably appeal to the religious amongst us. The bedrock of the nuns’ "obedience, poverty and chastity" was well conveyed. I could see the attraction of the ritual, of the discipline. The process of becoming a nun (at least at that time portrayed in the film) was clearly a well-designed psychological journey, evolved and honed over centuries for maximum effectiveness. And the desired-for result in a person who lives for others, and lives without the vanities of the world is an ideal worth striving for. But I would try for that without the, to me, totally irrational belief in a god. 
     
    The power of the film was that it was finely balanced. It seemed to me the crux of the story is the question put to Sister Luke by the Mother Superior: Is she to be a nun or a nurse? And for Gabrielle van der Mal the answer is ultimately to drop the prentence of being Sister Luke, and to regain true meaning in her life by being a nurse. It’s the right choice for her.
     
    A good film, I’m glad I finally caught up with it. 

  • Watching The Skies in 2007

    Here’s an excellent guide to stargazing and skywatching for 2007. It’s available in hardcopy, but also as a free downloadable PDF.
     
    (hat tip to Phil, the Bad Astronomer)

  • Slob Evolution

    You remember Evolution, the clever Ad by Dove about our perceptions of beauty? Well, now here’s a brilliant parody: Slob Evolution…
     
    (hat tip to Houtlust)

  • Zudeo and the Beeb

    The BBC plans to use the Internet to distribute much of its current and archive material.  At the moment, if you live in the UK, it is possible to watch clips, and sometimes complete episodes of current TV shows via the Internet. Those of us who are outside the UK are usually prevented from accessing the material by Internet filtering.
     
    However, apparently Azureus, the makers of a BitTorrent software client, and the Beeb have inked an agreement that may open the way to use BitTorrent for worldwide distribution of BBC material. Worth keeping an eye on, I think. 

  • Merry Christmas…

    …Or Yuletide, or Solstice, or Mithras, or whatever turns you on. Martin and I have had a year of changes; ones that have brought us to a point that we both feel positive about. I mean, when you see views like this from our garden, what is there not to be thankful for?
     
    061219-1629-38 
     
    061219-1557-44 
     

  • Pure Coincidence

    I see that minutes after it was announced that Gazprom has taken over control from Shell as operator of the Sakhalin project, Putin pops up to announce that the environmental issues that were being used to threaten Shell have mysteriously vanished. Funny, that. Pure coincidence, I’m sure.