Jared Diamond on The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race (something like that deserves to be in All Caps, right?)
[ link via Kottke ]
Category: Resources
Categories
The Conspiracy Archive
The Conspiracy Archive has oodles of conspiracy articles, from Barry Chamish’s “Reports from Fascist Israel” to stuff on the Shaver Mysteries. Need to read this for a bit next time I bring out my loonier NPCs.
Online Etymology Dictionary:
This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they’re explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.
The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot (via Warren Ellis) is a formula for writing a 6000-word pulp story, by the creator of Doc Savage. An interesting mix of good advice:
First line, or as near thereto as possible, introduce the hero and swat him with a fistful of trouble. Hint at a mystery, a menace or a problem to be solved–something the hero has to cope with.
With silly:
The writer learns they have palm trees in Egypt. He looks in the book, finds the Egyptian for palm trees, and uses that. This kids editors and readers into thinking he knows something about Egypt.
And good advice that launched a multitude of clichés:
DON’T TELL ABOUT IT! Show how the thing looked. This is one of the secrets of writing; never tell the reader–show him. (He trembles, roving eyes, slackened jaw, and such.) MAKE THE READER SEE HIM.
(roving eyes
are a favorite of Thog’s Masterclass).
The Long Emergency predicts that a continuing, permanent energy crisis is close at hand, with cheap oil becoming a thing of the past, and America’s economy and infrastructure collapsing, more or less, along with the rest of the world.
Somehow, when I was younger, these apocalyptic scenarios seemed less bumming.