Ramblings & ephemera
From Russell Nelson’s comment to Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram of 15 November 2003: > A New York detective was once asked whether pickpockets in > Manhattan dressed in suits and ties to facilitate their crimes > subsequent escape. He responded by saying that in twenty years > he had never arrested even one pickpocket in a […]
Posted on September 8th, 2011 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, security | Comments Off on What seems obvious in security often is not
From Robert E. Lauder’s interview with Woody Allen, “Whatever Works” (Commonweal: 15 April 2010): Well, you know, you want some kind of relief from the agony and terror of human existence. Human existence is a brutal experience to me…it’s a brutal, meaningless experience—an agonizing, meaningless experience with some oases, delight, some charm and peace, but […]
Posted on August 13th, 2010 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, language & literature, religion | Comments Off on Woody Allen’s atheism
Image by rsgranne via Flickr Image by rsgranne via Flickr Image by rsgranne via Flickr From Dave Alan’s “Interview with Alex Christopher” (Leading Edge Research Group: 1 June 1996): Legend: DA [Dave Alan, Host] AC: [Alex Christopher] C: [Caller] … (Note: according to former British Intelligence agent Dr. John Coleman, the London-based Wicca Mason lodges […]
Posted on December 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, history, language & literature, politics, religion, science | Comments Off on A one-way ticket to crazyville
From Anna Gosline’s “Death special: How does it feel to die?” (New Scientist: 13 October 2007): Death comes in many guises, but one way or another it is usually a lack of oxygen to the brain that delivers the coup de grâce. Whether as a result of a heart attack, drowning or suffocation, for example, […]
Posted on December 8th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, science, weird | 1 Comment »
From Timothy Noah’s “Bush’s Fart-Joke Legacy” (Slate: 2 October 2006): Legend has it that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, once farted in the presence of Queen Elizabeth I, whereupon he went into exile for seven years. On his return, the queen reputedly greeted, “My lord, we had quite forgot the fart.”
Posted on November 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature, politics | Comments Off on Somehow I don’t think she had
From Claudia Roth Pierpont’s “Tough Guy: The mystery of Dashiell Hammett” (The New Yorker [11 February 2002]: 70): There is one section of “The Maltese Falcon” that could not be filmed, and for many readers it is the most important story Hammett ever told. A dreamlike interruption in events, it is a parable that Spade […]
Posted on October 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, language & literature, security | Comments Off on The escape of Mr. Flitcraft
From Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville (384): When [Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard‘s men] stole out of the intrenchments [at Corinth] after nightfall, they left dummy guns in the embrasures and dummy cannoneers to serve them, fashioned by stuffing ragged uniforms with straw. A single band moved up and down the […]
Posted on April 23rd, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, security | Comments Off on Beauregard fools Halleck & escapes
From Greg Goebel’s “Februrary 1862: Unconditional And Immediate Surrender” (interpolation from Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville [187]): On the afternoon of 5 February, during a conference between Grant, Foote, and the two division commanders, the captain of a gunboat sent a message to Grant that he had actually pulled a torpedo […]
Posted on April 16th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history | Comments Off on Ulysses Grant & the torpedo
From “Happiness: The Chinese zombie ships of West Africa“: We’re in the big African Queen inflatable, cruising alongside an anchored trawler. It’s more rust than metal – the ship is rotting away. The foredeck is covered in broken machinery. The fish deck is littered with frayed cables, and the mast lies horizontally, hanging over the […]
Posted on April 2nd, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, weird, writing ideas | Comments Off on Zombie ships adrift off the shore of Africa
From The Age: Scientists running a pioneering experiment with “living robots” which think for themselves said they were amazed to find one escaping from the centre where it “lives”. The small unit, called Gaak, was one of 12 taking part in a “survival of the fittest” test at the Magna science centre in Rotherham, South […]
Posted on November 29th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: cool stuff, science, technology | Comments Off on Robot on the run