http://www.zompist.com Recent changes to Zompist.com. en-us Copyright 2006 Mark Rosenfelder. Mark Rosenfelder's Fingertips 1440 http://www.zompist.com/zlogo3.gif http://www.zompist.com 144 50 Recent changes to Zompist.com. http://www.zompist.com/arguing.html Editorials As well as why to do it. http://www.zompist.com/xurnash.htm Virtual Verduria The Xurnese grammar is finally up. http://zompist.wordpress.com Rants The rants page, after years of denying that it's a blog, now *is* a blog. I've moved it to Wordpress, since the hassle of posting, though small, is just large enough to prevent me from posting most of the time. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#12 Rants Review of His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#26 Ask Zompist Did Al Gore deserve to win? http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#11 Rants Angst among Christians and CEOs. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#25 Ask Zompist No less than four questions. And answers! http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#10 Rants Subtle propaganda. Also, baseball team loyalty map. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#9 Rants Great map showing US politics by population density. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#8 Rants I'm dragged to a Michael Moore film. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#21 Ask Zompist Local Englishes and whether they'll still be there in 1500 years. And is it time to reevaluate Arafat? http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#19 Ask Zompist The meaning of life, and ordering Gemma and Emma. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#7 Rants Authoritarians and social dominators from the source. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#6 Rants John Dean answers two questions: Where did all these conservatives come from? And what the hell is wrong with them? http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#5 Rants What Bond has in common with the Beatles. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#4 Rants Thoughts on one of history's most famous lost battles. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#16 Ask Zompist Why did Christians move from social justice to minding the mote in their neighbors' eyes? http://www.zompist.com/bob49.html Comics Web comics explore wombats, dreams, and sick humor. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#3 Rants Showing off my brother Terry's paintings. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#2 Rants Frans de Waal challenges the popular depiction of nature as savage and brutal. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#15 Ask Zompist We've had overrated things; now the underrated things. http://www.zompist.com/rants07.html#1 Rants More tales of outrageous failure. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#23 Rants My boss scars his children with an inexplicable toy railway. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#14 Ask Zompist Questions on overrated aspects of the 20th century; on Dave Sim; and on electoral scurrilousness. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#22 Rants Why Bush's plans won't work. Executive summary: continuing to follow the same failed plan will result in more failure. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#21 Rants Everyone should embarrass themselves with a plan for Iraq. Here's mine. http://www.zompist.com/zhangday.html Fuschia Chang The first Fuschia Chang comic in five years. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#11 Ask Zompist Questions on afterthoughts, on Linux, and on Ronald Reagan. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#20 Rants So it turns out that the American people don't have limitless patience with failed war, Congressional corruption, fiscal irresponsibility, shameful emergency management, unchecked presidential arrogance, reflex negativity, and small-minded denial. http://www.zompist.com/bob48.html Comics Scott McCloud and Matt Madden show you, between them, well over a hundred ways to make comics. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#9 Ask Zompist Does the Koran encourage intolerance? http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#8 Ask Zompist Why schools are the worst way to teach kids. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html#7 Ask Zompist A cheap way to generate more site content by having you, the readers, submit questions! Three new answers are up. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#18 Rants A review of Poul Anderson's sf novel, which wasn't quite named that but might as well be. http://www.zompist.com/ask.html Ask Zompist#4 A cheap way to generate more site content by having you, the readers, submit questions! First answers are up. Questions, too! http://zompist.com/illo/sw31.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features tieboy, Samwise, Kyol, Bob, and me. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#17 Rants Why does Bush want to shred the Constitution? Tony Auth pretty much nailed it back in 1983. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#15 Rants An economist offers you and a stranger $10. The stranger proposes a division of the money; you can accept that, or reject it-- in which case no one gets anything. What's the rational strategy? http://www.almeopedia.com/ Virtual Verduria Or, Virtual Verduria for short attention spans. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#14 Rants Who cares about Pluto? I wanted planetary status for Ceres! http://www.zompist.com/bob47.html Comics Graphic novels that really seem like novels: one a satirical modern retelling of "Madame Bovary", the other an autobiographical work from the creator of "Dykes to Watch Out For". Also, all the Bobs were converted to the new format and prev/next buttons were added so you can read them in sequence. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#13 Rants The foiled terror attack will probably give a temporary boost to Bush. In fact, the attempted attacks are more evidence that Bush and DeLay's approach is wrong, and makes us less safe... http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#12 Rants Sometimes an analogy is so awful that it actually attains reverse sentience, sucking out intelligence and working against progress. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#11 Rants How well does Blazing Saddles hold up, thirty years later? http://www.zompist.com/oblivion.html#2 Gaming More thoughts on Oblivion: neat stuff; world-building critique. http://www.zompist.com/oblivion.html Gaming Or, why there haven't been any updates lately. I should really return that amulet to Weynon Priory sometime. http://www.zompist.com/rogues.htm Rants A forgotten god is not powerless. A new story in Virtual Verduria. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#10 Rants Critics swing their puny little daggers at To Kill a Mockingbird but fail to dispel the magicka. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#9 Rants Democrats are savoring an unusual taste these days: the taste of possible incipient victory. It's sweet and a little effervescent, with a nutty undercurrent of potential failure... http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#8 Rants What happened in Iraq? It's hard to imagine a better answer than George Packer's The Assassins' Gate... http://www.zompist.com/bob46.html Comics Having fun with, or at, superheroes. http://www.zompist.com/civ4.html Games If you can't beat Prince, I'll tell you how. If you can beat Monarch or higher, please tell me how. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#7 Rants In which I describe everything that we should be doing militarily in Iran in the next 2.5 years. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#6 Rants What exactly makes for great gameplay is a deep mystery... but not so deep that it can't be argued about. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#5 Rants OK, you people said you wanted more rants, more rants is what you'll get. What's going wrong *this* month? http://www.zompist.com/survey.html Reader Mail Results of my first reader survey, which was your chance to offer feedback, help determine the direction of the site, and influence the development of culture for centuries to come. http://zompist.com/illo/sw28.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This big ol' number features Samwise, Agent Orange, Tieboy, Spinn, Craig, SeanQ, Lore, and Bob. http://zompist.com/illo/sw28.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features Lore, Bob, Tieboy, Sean, Zompist, and Spinn. http://zompist.com/skouras.htm#1705 Virtual Verduria The Skourene Historical Atlas is complete, with the addition of three final maps (1705, 1726, 1810). http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#4 Rants A nice visualization of what's happening to the US debt. By the way, there's no separate RSS entry because it's on another site, but check out the Russian Culture Test here: http://accidentalrussophile.blogspot.com/2006/02/if-you-are-russian.html http://zompist.com/pomcult.html Culture tests By Justin M. Entirely revised for the brave new world of 2006. http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#3 Rants Notes on Woody Allen's latest film, "Match Point". http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#2 Rants If there's any recognizable ideology behind American movies, I'd say its pretty conservative... http://www.zompist.com/rants06.html#1 Rants The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and some People Gaping At Them A Lot... http://zompist.com/illo/sw28.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features Agent Orange, Freyja, Kyol, and Tieboy. http://zompist.com/Skouras.swf Virtual Verduria The first ten maps in a new historical atlas focussing on Skouras. I'll be putting up two new maps a week till it's done. http://zompist.com/Skouras.swf Virtual Verduria The commentary for the historical atlas. Introductory material and comments for the first ten maps, including information on Skourene religion, political systems, and arts. http://www.zompist.com/rants05.html#18 Rants Thoughts on Mirrormask and Serenity and, as a lagniappe, Aeon Flux. http://www.zompist.com/rants05.html#17 Rants The new plan for Iraq is full of fine goals and almost as many holes. http://www.zompist.com/rants05.html#16 Rants So, you ask, how's Civ4? http://www.zompist.com/rants05.html#15 Rants Reflections on Wikipedia. http://www.zompist.com/indiawords.html Linguistics English words from the Indian subcontinent. http://www.zompist.com/ukraine.html Culture tests The latest in an ongoing series of culture tests; this one is by Vadim Urasov. http://www.zompist.com/rants05.html#14 Rants An open letter to conservatives on how not to get kicked out of power. http://www.zompist.com/rants05.html#13 Rants Two good places to look for more info on the Gulf Coast disaster. http://www.zompist.com/chinawords.html Linguistics A list of all the English words I could find that derive from Chinese. http://www.zompist.com/bob45.html Comics If you don't like either one of these two comics, there's something wrong with you. http://www.zompist.com/rants05.html#12 Rants Natural disasters and how to make them worse. http://zompist.com/rants05.html#11 Rants Is evolution incompatible with religion, and why would Jacob Weisberg think it's a good idea for evolutionists to think so? Also, can we use a computer-generated nude to prove Weisberg wrong on another point? http://zompist.com/rants05.html#10 Rants Random thoughts about being in Boston for six months now. http://zompist.com/illo/sw27.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features Lore, Spinnbot, Samwise, Freyja, Bob, SeanQ and Tieboy. http://zompist.com/illo/sw26.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features Samwise, Leth, Tieboy, Agent Orange, and a few walk-ons. http://zompist.com/lenani.htm Virtual Verduria A grammar and lexicon of the Old Skourene language, which is spoken by people who are no longer living in a place which does not actually exist. http://zompist.com/rants05.html#9 Rants From Revenge of the Sith to Batman Begins, with some side reflections on Miller, Mafias, and morbid political movements. http://zompist.com/rants05.html#8 Rants Can a republic be the basis for an empire? We're not talking about Chancellor Palpatine here; we're talking about Niall Ferguson's Colossus, an overview of the history and prospects of the empire that Americans don't like to believe they have... http://zompist.com/illo/sw25.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features Tieboy, Agent Orange, Samwise, and SeanQ. http://zompist.com/skourenetest.htm Virtual Verduria Would you eat that? I'll have a slice / Do I get paid for taking this test? People and other people Why you'd better get along with your mother-in-law and more http://zompist.com/rants05.html#7 Rants Here's some complaints I don't want to hear any more about the Hitchhiker's movie:... http://www.zompist.com/libertos.html Editorials Entirely rewritten version: it now takes twice as long to arrive at the same conclusion! (The major changes are to show that yes, people really do say this stuff; to avoid sidebars that no one seemed to read; and to respond to some criticisms.) http://zompist.com/rants05.html#6 Rants A correspondent tried to define libertarianism at me the other day. Naturally, I didn't stand for that nonsense. People love to work out definitions, as if this told them something about the world.... http://zompist.com/bob44.html Comics Why most web comics suck, and one that doesn't. Plus, Roy Lichtenstein examined from a comics perspective. http://zompist.com/rants05.html#5 Rants Most people are New Dealers today. But what did the New Deal look like at the time? Who opposed it? Did FDR really know what he was doing? http://zompist.com/illo/sw24.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features Agent Orange, Craig, and me. http://zompist.com/illo/sw23.gif Swatoons These are illustrated snippets of chat from #spinnwebe. They may not be for you if you have a weak stomach or a strong conscience. This one features Lore, Tieboy, Craig, Freyja, and me. http://zompist.com/rants05.html#4 Rants Snow Crash. It's a lot of fun-- once I was about a third of the way in, I had to stick with it till I was done. I think Snow Crash is more of a mind-blower; but The Diamond Age is a lot more coherent; it's not just a sequence of set pieces, but a unified whole.... ]]>