RanaldClouston

kenthompson, 2 months ago to books

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.
Quite improbably, you are rescued from Earth minutes before its destruction, only to find the galaxy poorly mismanaged and under the influence of intradimensional rodents, and everyone looking for meaning where there is none, which rather gets in the way of having a good time.
4 of 5 library cats 🐁 🐁 🐁 🐁.

#bookstodon @bookstodon #books #reading #humor #mice #SciFi #humor #towels #life #dontpanic #encyclopedias

RanaldClouston, 5 months ago to random

This is a cracker of an article from @henryfarrell : "The OpenAI saga is a fight between God and Money; between a quite peculiar quasi-religious movement, and a quite ordinary desire to make cold hard cash" https://crookedtimber.org/2023/11/21/what-openai-shares-with-scientology/

RanaldClouston, 6 months ago to ComputerScience

I've been on Mastodon for a year, so it's time for a new pinned #introduction post with an updated dog pic! I'm a lecturer in #computerScience at Australian National University #ANU in #Canberra , #Ngunnawal / #Ngambri country. I research #typeTheory , #logic , #proofTheory and a little #categoryTheory , and teach an intro to programming class in #Haskell . Sometimes I post about work; when I'm busy at work I'm more likely to post about #books , my #labradoodle , and other pleasant distractions

RanaldClouston, 7 months ago to bookstodon

#FinishedReading this (pop science) biography of #Erdős . I laughed out loud several times, as Erdős was both a unique individual and almost the archetypal obsessed / absent-minded mathematician. My favourite story was when surgery on one of his eyes was delayed because he was adamant he wanted to read a mathematics journal with his other eye during the operation. The mathematical content is very accessible but fortunately not completely absent. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

RanaldClouston, 11 months ago to random

#FinishedReading Probably not news to those who follow modern #comics closer than I do, but I've recently discovered #TomKing. He has an unusual biography for a comics writer as an ex-CIA agent, and all three works of his I've read (Mr Miracle, Omega Men, #Supergirl) focus on the impact of grim forever wars on participants and civilians; important in a culture that seemed to start forgetting Iraq / Afghanistan before those wars even ended. Great humour & #BilquisEvely art too! #Bookstodon

RanaldClouston, 3 months ago to Netflix

Just finished watching #Katla and I thought it was beautiful and incredible, and easily the best thing I've seen from #Netflix , even though I don't see many people talking about it (and don't recall much talk about it when it came out in 2021). And because it's a one-off limited series Netflix can't cancel it!

RanaldClouston, 1 month ago to scifi

#FinishedReading my favourite #AnnLeckie yet! Just so beautifully handled in its themes, its characters, and its wild and weird alien biology and culture, and with a streak of dark humour and even (sort of) romance to go with it. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #SciFi

RanaldClouston, 4 months ago to bookstodon

Tfw your relative can't decide which of two @ann_leckie books to get, so gets you both 😊 #Bookstodon @bookstodon

RanaldClouston, 8 months ago to Canberra

Tuggeranong looking pretty today in the sun #Canberra

RanaldClouston, 7 months ago to scifi

#FinishedReading one of my absolute favourites as a child when I first got old enough to raid my parents' bookshelves, so a huge nostalgia hit for me in this. This is a classic 70s first contact #SciFi story and fortunately stands up great to re-reading as an adult, apart from the almost total lack of female characters, which I notice these days but I guess didn't concern me as a preteen boy. Still, inventive, surprising, and lots of fun. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #LarryNiven #JerryPournelle

RanaldClouston, 1 month ago to Canberra

Helen Clark is visiting #ANU #Canberra https://www.anu.edu.au/events/in-conversation-with-rt-hon-helen-clark

RanaldClouston, 10 months ago to random

Too cold... a perfect sentiment for midwinter #Canbrrr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL8P9eVLIQs #JukeboxFridayNight #MidwinterTunes #RootsManuva

RanaldClouston, 1 month ago to random

Now that Threads are starting to federate, are there any interesting logicians / type theorists / category theorists / PL theorists etc there I should be following?

RanaldClouston, 4 months ago to Autism

#FinishedReading comedian #FernBrady 's autobiography. Don't be fooled by her day job and the silly Frankie Boyle blurb on the cover; although there's a lot of wit, this is a traumatic story about being an undiagnosed autistic girl and woman in a society that is often hostile to both autism and women. Not a light read but eye opening for an allistic dad of (thankfully, diagnosed) autistic kids, and definitely recommended. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Autism

RanaldClouston, 2 months ago to bookstodon

#FinishedReading my first foray into 18th century literature, although I doubt much of the rest of it reads like this, with its twisted structure, absurd digressions, and typographical jokes. Some of it is incredibly quotable, fresh, and fun; other parts border on incomprehensible as the centuries render the jokes obscure. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #TristramShandy #LaurenceSterne

A page from Tristram Shandy, in which the author describes the progress of the story in various chapters diagrammatically, with meandering looping lines

RanaldClouston, 2 months ago to scifi

#FinishedReading this collection of stories 1998 - 2009 by Australian #SciFi author @gregeganSF . Along with Crystal Nights, which I've read before in a different anthology, my favourite stories were three set in his vast utopian Amalgam universe. Egan combines an extremely high level of interest and knowledge of mathematics and physics with an ability to find beauty, drama, and emotion in worlds that have moved beyond war, scarcity, and aging. #Bookstodon @bookstodon

RanaldClouston, 3 months ago to bookstodon

Tfw when you find parts 2, 3, and 4 of a 4-part series at a second hand book sale, but not part 1 (and then buy them anyway) #LifelineBookfair #KatherineKerr #Bookstodon @bookstodon

RanaldClouston, 1 month ago to bookstodon

I read and enjoyed #ChrisFlynn 's novel Mammoth, which is narrated by a wisecracking Mastodon skeleton. This short story collection is more of the same, with each story having animal or object narrators. Given that most of them also adopt the same quip-heavy voice, the effect is quite repetitive. The only story I liked was Shot Down in Flames, which mixes up the narration much more. The final story is also a bit different, but I found it unreadable. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #FinishedReading

RanaldClouston, 2 months ago to bookstodon

#FinishedReading #MichaelKing 's biography of Te Puea Herangi, indefatigable organiser of the Māori King movement in the first half of the 20th century. Her forceful charisma, flaws and all, pops off the page in the hands of NZ's most iconic historian. The scale of change in her lifetime for Waikato Māori and NZ is fascinating, as are the insights into other prominent figures like Apirana Ngata and Gordon Coates. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #NZHistory

Title page of Te Puea, signed by the author to my grandparents in 1977

RanaldClouston, 2 months ago to bookstodon

#FinishedReading This book was pretty much the funniest thing ever when I first read it as an adolescent, and it's been fun to see my 11 year old son discover it. Re-reading it now is a rather different experience as the surprise of the jokes has mostly gone, but even that is testament to how effective #DouglasAdams was at inserting his gags into my long term memory. A comfort read for sure #Bookstodon @bookstodon

RanaldClouston, 2 months ago to scifi

#FinishedReading this slim volume of early 50s #SciFi by #AEVanVogt . The goofy title and stories of visiting inhabitable Mars and Venus makes this look like super old fashioned stuff, but that, like much else in this book, is an illusion. This is pure Cold War paranoia, with disorienting temporal and character shifts, mind control drugs, sinister conspiracies etc, and in general this feels like a bridge to the high points of Philip K Dick. #Bookstodon @bookstodon