News and Stuff

Lesbian Sex Manual Inspires Lawsuit. This has been going around the blogosphere today, and I just have to jump in. A father is suing the city of Bentonville, Arkansas, because his sons, ages 14 and 16, stumbled upon Ms. Newman's book at the city library and were "traumatized." He wants $10,000 recompense for the damage done to each kid, he wants the book removed and the library director fired.

"This matter has caused many sleepless nights in our house," the father said. Hmm. 14 and 16 year old boys find a lesbian sex manual? I bet there have been "sleepless nights" in that house.

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Experiment Rules Out Reality. Bell's inequality is violant in three dimensions, thus ruling out an entire collection of "hidden variable" models of the universe. The commonplace understanding of quantum mechanics, that a path is only established after observation and that reality doesn't exist except when we're watching, stands up to experimental verification again. Get out your woo!

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The Digested Read attacks Tolkein. But it's just Christopher, so it's okay. Their take on The Children of Hurin:

Prologue: For more than 30 years I have been wondering what to do with my father's unfinished ramblings. But then the Lord of the Rings movies did very well, so I decided to cash in.

And:

"Forsooth," he swore. "Henceforth shall I remain a derivative Wagnerian hero and wander mindlessly through the realms of Middle-Earth on a quasi-symbolic quest and, Children of the Eldar, resolve only to talk in sentences of unspeakable leadenness, punctuated by manifold parentheses."