Mark Rosenfelder's Metaverse

Why liberalism works - and why plutocracy doesn’t
Advanced Language Construction - the LCK sequel is now available!
The Planet Construction Kit is now available on Kindle
Zompist's Rant Page —


My books	Virtual Verduria	The Incatena
The Language Construction Kit The Planet Construction Kit Against Peace and Freedom Historical Atlas of Almea	Almea is a fantasy world with insanely detailed languages, history, religions, and maps. Find out how a country run by artists works, or a female-dominant society, or an empire run by sea creatures. Or consult the Almeopedia.	Meet the Incatena — A s.f. universe featuring STL travel and thousand-year lifespans. A good place to begin is the Areopolis text adventure. Then you can start the novel.


Permanent at- and detractions

Comics		Linguistics
Jaime Hernandez Chronology Jaime Hernandez Character Index Love & Rockets Links Exploring French comix with gun and camera A roundup of Latin American comics Getting beyond Mafalda, if you've got that far Bob's Comics Reviews - all the comics worth reading Fuschia Chang comics: Fuschia takes on chat, comics stores, Asians in comics, evil, etc. Swatoons Skeevy little bits of #spinnwebe What the translators did to Ranma		sci.lang FAQ Frequently asked questions about linguistics The numbers 1 to 10 in over 5000 languages. Deriving Proto-World with tools you probably have at home. And whether you should bother. How likely are chance resemblances between languages? - Quite likely, really. A statistical investigation. Proto-World and the Language Instinct Two dubious ideas that work dubiously together Hau to pranounse Inglish: The real rules of English spelling Writing English Chinese-style English spelling is such a pain-- why not use logograms instead? When do people learn languages? And how to make them learn yours
Culture		Language Construction
E-Z home test: Are you an American? Plus many more culture tests: French, German, Brazilian, Scottish, Japanese, Indian, Australian, Verdurian... Some Faye Wong lyrics in English Quel con ce Baudrillard (English/français) Trip to Brazil Plus travel pictures! It's the cities, stupid: Jane Jacobs on cities Blogging Adam Smith On The Wealth of Nations		The Language Construction Kit SCA² - The Sound Change Applier: A Javascript program to apply a set of sound changes to a lexicon gen - a Javascript language generator Hergé's Syldavian: a grammar
Diversions		Particular Languages
Horselover Fat's Page o' SpinnStuff: Spinnwebe-related pages, including DFC stuff, and a map of #spinnland The Zompist Phrasebook. The last phrasebook you'll ever need In more languages! - In Chinese They Thought You'd Say This : Unlikely phrases from real phrasebooks English As She Is Spoke vs. Babelfish! Do humans or machines translate worse? The Excuse-O-Mat 3,000,000 ready-made apologies for all occasions. The Names of Alchemy - What's butter of antimony? Flower of zinc? The Green Lion? Dephlogisticated air? Un Chien Spinndalou The #spinnwebe crowd Hollywoodizes Buñuel The sun starts sinking as the party sits there in the sand not doing much D&D or something What will happen when you meet Lore And you know you want to. The Not My Desk Interview The Readers' Commentary on the Not My Desk Commentary Great Rock Group Names The Quotations File: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven The Chicago Reader Review-O-Mat Unlimited pedantry on demand! Inspector Kinnian Meets Godzilla		Fun facts to know and tell about Quechua Amerindian words in English Arabic words in English English words from Chinese English words from India Hiragana flashcards: Gotta learn 'em all! Hanzi flashcards - Get to learnin'!
		Editorials
		New items at the bottom Is government evil? Have Evangelicals sold their souls to the devil? What Bob and Newt don't want you to know about welfare Traveler's Guide to the U.S. Elections 2000 and 1996: Making sense of America's favorite quadrennial sport U.S. Interventions in Latin America The Clinton scandal: Washington, grow up! Progressives = Fundamentalists? Left is right and we are all together, goo goo g'joob. Why the rich should pay more taxes Guaranteed to set consie blood to boiling The last century: what the heck was that? Finally, I explain everything Reconstituting America Five ideas to begin Fascism: What is it? Are we in danger? The Bible on the poor: Or, why God is a liberal What's still wrong with Libertarianism Or, distinguishing sci fi from poli sci; v3.0 How to argue with Zompist: or, Social Skills 101
Science		Science fiction
Facts from my bookshelf Understanding the Chinese Room Searle's response to AI 12 reasons to toss the Turing test Crib Notes for the Turing Test The new pseudo-science of memes The history of chemistry on Earth and Almea The nearest stars - A conworlder's guide		Is science killing science fiction? Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Psychohistory: Was Hari Seldon pulling our legs? Forward and Backward with the Foundation All those Foundation books beyond the original trilogy Iain M. Banks' Excession Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash Do Sheep Run in Electric Dreams? Comparing the visions of Dick and Scott The cold readings: Don't blame it on physics Stories Rights for Robots What happens to the beta? The Fire Shall Try: The world after our regrettable deaths The rogues: A forgotten deity is not harmless
Gaming
Recent games are covered on my blog How to take over the world Well, in Civ2 Winning at Civ3 sometimes How to do better at Civ4 than you probably were Oblivion Journal - Or, why there haven't been updates lately Extra fun with the Sam & Max video game
The fine print
Created by Mark Rosenfelder, mostly after midnight, with a touch of lime. Some pretty old background info. Also how to get in touch. Except where noted, entire contents © 1996-2011 by Mark Rosenfelder.