March 12, 2007

Just a geek

rmiles7721March 12, 20076Blogging, Entertainment

I don’t guess this is really a meme in the sense, but I ran across this list over at Elisson’s who got it from Modulator, who in turn picked it up at Pharyngula. It’s “The Most Significant Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years.”

I don’t know exactly how significant some of them are, but there are some really good reads in the list. Books I’ve read are bold, return favorites are red, and one’s I have never heard of are struck out.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
 2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
 5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
 9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
 10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
 18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
 19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
 20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
 26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone*, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Personally I would have had Alan Dean Foster among the list. Timescape was OK, but certainly shouldn’t be in this list. The Sillmarillion was boring as hell the first time I read it (I was about 13), but I am very interested in history, and it made more sense as an adult. I find it hard to believe that I have never heard of eleven of them. If I saw the covers I would probably recognize them, and probably have at least two or three upstairs with the rest of he books.


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Origins of Daylight Savings Time

rmiles7721March 12, 20079Uncategorized

Here’s the history of DST according to Wiki:

Saving daylight was first mentioned in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin in a humorous letter urging Parisians to save money by getting up earlier to use morning sunlight, thereby burning fewer candles in the evening. Franklin did not mention daylight saving time-he did not propose that clock time be changed. His letter was in the spirit of his earlier proverb “Early to bed and early to rise / Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

In 1905 builder and outdoorsman William Willett invented DST in one of his pre-breakfast horseback rides, where he was dismayed by how many Londoners slept through the best part of a summer day. An avid golfer, Willett also disliked cutting short his round at dusk. Two years later he published a comprehensive proposal for DST, which attracted many eminent supporters, including Balfour, Churchill, Lloyd George, and MacDonald. Edward VII also favored DST and had already been using it at Sandringham. However, Prime Minister Asquith opposed the proposal and after many hearings it was narrowly defeated in a Parliament committee vote in 1909. Willett’s allies introduced new DST bills every year from 1911 through 1914, to no avail.

World War I changed the political equation. DST was first enacted by a national government by Germany starting April 30, 1916. The United Kingdom soon followed suit, first observing it on May 21, 1916. On June 17, 1917, Newfoundland became the first North American jurisdiction to adopt DST with the Daylight Saving Act of 1917. On March 19, 1918, the U.S. Congress established DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The wartime measure, however, proved unpopular among farmers, and Congress repealed it in 1919. Woodrow Wilson, another avid golfer, vetoed the repeal twice but his second veto was overridden. The history of time in the United States since then has seen several enactments or adjustments of DST, and one repeal, with similar politics involved.

Did you get that part about it being unpopular among farmers? That’s because farmers are smart. DST was enacted by POLITICIANS, no matter how many times they tell you it was for farmers. If farmers need more daylight, they get out of bed earlier. Real damn simple, but we have to complicate things the same way they are being complicated now by making Daylight Savings Time actually last LONGER than Standard Time. Which means that it is the NEW standard. Why not just leave it alone at the end of October, then you won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa don’t follow DST. They are the smart ones. Hell, in Arizona, you could probably do without the sun for a couple of extra hours anyway.

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