March 2012
62 posts
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Watchfaketv:
Sheer awesome?
theatlanticvideo:
Terrifying Flying Robot Quadrotors Perform the ‘James Bond’ Theme
Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, Daniel Mellinger, Alex Kushleyev and Vijay Kumar, demonstrate the agility of their autonomous quadrotors by programming them to plunk out the James Bond theme music on a room...
February 2012
51 posts
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The Book of Evidence - John Banville
The Book of Evidence by John Banville My rating: 2 of 5 stars Hm. Definitely wasn’t what I expected. Bit boring, actually. But there are a couple of prime moments where the book kicks you in the face in the most hilarious way possible with how unreliable the narrator is. So, not completely irredeemable. View all my reviews
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The Bleeding of the Stone - Ibrahim Kuni
The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim Kuni My rating: 3 of 5 stars A decent read. Very good metaphor for animal extinction caused by man’s reckless slaughter. Some good descriptive passages, but otherwise nothing of special note here. View all my reviews
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Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a children’s book written for the adult mind. All of the horrors and torments of the regular youth, the fighting parents, the schoolyard bullies, the secrets, the shame, are written in such a way that memories of your own childhood will be conjured up, emotions fresh as if it were yesterday. Throughout the story, the main...
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“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who...”
– Frank Serafini (via booksandnerds)
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An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro My rating: 4 of 5 stars
*Spoilers*
I finished this book on a very blue note. The narrator has a great amount of emotion built up that he refuses to acknowledge, and keeps a ‘stiff upper lip’; acting almost normal despite the fact the world he once knew and loved has been completely eradicated by the war and those adapting to the...
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Between Two Seas - Carmine Abate
Between Two Seas by Carmine Abate My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5/5 Basic premise of obsession, family, and culture, a good vibrant tale of Italian food and love of life. Speedy read, the ending was expected but not made boring by the predictability. I liked the details, it was very easy to maintain a colorful mental pictures while reading. No great insights into the human condition here,...
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The Slynx - Tatyana Tolstaya
The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya My rating: 5 of 5 stars
*Spoiler Alert*
This book. This book describes the addiction to literature I have in excruciating detail. It makes me appreciate the wealth of knowledge I have in comparison to the main character, for what is reading if you don’t understand it? Also, post apocalyptic at its best. No drowning in scientific garble describing the...
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Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel My rating: 3 of 5 stars The book is decent. The recipes would be worth coming back to for trying out. Otherwise, the fantastical premise is nothing inspiring. There’s your romance, your death, your regret for past actions, your overwhelming hate for a familial tyrant, etc etc. It was a quick read, but doesn’t leave the reader much to...
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Deep River - Shusaku Endo
Deep River by Shusaku Endo My rating: 4 of 5 stars There is death. Yet, there is also life. There are long emotionally dead passages. Yet, there are also moments so charged with feeling they consume all in their path, carrying along for a bit and leaving behind ones willing to do anything to catch up. You have the search for reincarnated love ones, the search for emotional fulfillment, the...
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84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff My rating: 5 of 5 stars Quick, witty, and charming, with the slightest tones of nostalgia and heartbreak. Definitely rereadable with short time periods in between the readings. If the movie is just as good, that would be lovely. View all my reviews
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A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Finished - 4/3/11
Rating - 3/5
This book was depressing, almost overly so. What was the point of completely disintegrating every main character and forcing them into various types of hells, both living and dead? The worst part was while there wasn’t obvious potential for happiness, there was a definite trend of small improvements throughout the story, at least till the point that the...
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Time To Actually Make Use Of This Tumblr
That’s right. Original posts. In the form of Goodreads reviews, because that is what I do, other than write school essays that have no place here. To the people actually paying attention, I’ll be posting one review daily from the stockpile I already have. Once I get through those, the reviews will come as fast as I can get through books. So, weekly? We’ll see.
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Watchshortformblog:
Got a chance to see the Oscar-nominated animated shorts tonight, and there were some impressive clips nominated, including a cute Pixar short. But all pale in comparison to “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” above, which on a purely animation level is on a whole ‘nother level. But what’s even more fascinating is that the clip is also available as an iPad app in...
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First Aid Kit - Wolf
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My tumblr needs more of this kind of thing.
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Obama for America: “I’m going to make a special... →
barackobama:
“I’m going to make a special plea to the press—not just the folks who are here, but also your editors—give this some attention. This is the kind of stuff, what these young people are doing, that’s going to make a bigger difference in the life of our country over the long term than just about…
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“I think we ought to only read the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the...”
– Franz Kafka , 1904 (via floralnymph)
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Reblog if you believe in Sherlock Holmes.
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