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4c1e571
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Semper Fidelis Dawn star flares on disk of night I fall, sun rises
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haiku
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Neal Stephenson |
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13887d3
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In Memoriam, Louis Anglesey, Earl of Upnor, finest swordsman in England, beaten to death with a stick by an Irishman.
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Neal Stephenson |
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248671b
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When later generations come to read about our history they will think they are reading a romance, and not believe a word of it.
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Neal Stephenson |
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e8443f8
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So, just as all Fords rolling off the assembly line in a given week might have serial numbers beginning with the same few characters, all the network chips in a given batch would start with the same few hex digits. Some of Dinah's chips were cheap off-the-shelf hardware made for terrestrial use, but she also had some rad-hard ones, which she hoarded in a shielded box in a drawer beneath her workstation. She opened that drawer, pulled out th..
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Neal Stephenson |
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464732e
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And don't give me any sentimental nonsense about creativity. I believe that a Universal Turing Machine could show behaviors that we would construe as creative.
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Neal Stephenson |
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233b4b8
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If you make certain assumptions about the force of gravity, and how the weight of an object diminishes as it gets farther away, it's not improbable at all," Isaac said. "It just happens. You would keep going round and round forever." "In a circle?" "An ellipse." "An ellipse..." and here the bomb finally went off in his head, and Daniel had to sit down on the ground, the moisture of last year's fallen apples soaking through his breeches. "Li..
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Neal Stephenson |
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b0a64bd
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The meeting would later be known as the Council of the Seven Eves.
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Neal Stephenson |
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2546549
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Time, tide, and comets waited for no man.
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Neal Stephenson |
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c35850a
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He was already thinking about the videos he was going to make to teach his baby about calculus when he climaxed.
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Neal Stephenson |
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f1c42c3
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Men believe that they are accomplishing something by speaking speak in a different way from men who believe that speaking is a waste of time. Bobby Shaftoe learned most of his practical knowledge - how to fix a car, butcher a deer, throw a spiral, talk to a lady, kill a Nip - from the latter type of man. For them, trying to do anything by talking is like trying to pound in a nail with a screwdriver. Sometimes you can see the desperation spr..
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speaking
contemplation
quiet
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Neal Stephenson |
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e5b789f
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For members of the general public might not care about Wolf-Rayet stars in the Quintuplet Cluster, but they definitely saw why having hot rocks fall on one's head was a good thing to avoid.
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Neal Stephenson |
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b59bd07
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All duty is inconvenient to a greater or lesser degree, or it would not be duty.
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Neal Stephenson |
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dceec98
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Never been here before. It's like something on the top floor of a luxury high-rise casino in Atlantic City, where they put semi-retarded adults from South Philly after they've blundered into the mega jackpot" Hiro Protagonist - Snow Crash"
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hiro-protagonist
snow-crash
sci-fi
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Neal Stephenson |
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5f40859
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By outward appearances, Cantabrigia Five was a video journalist. But it made sense that, in a world where no police or military action could be judged successful unless it looked good to ordinary persons watching it on video screens, she was also a general.
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Neal Stephenson |
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ac2fb38
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There followed one of those comical interludes in which the jihadists were confused about what to do next and fell to bitter recriminations.
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Neal Stephenson |
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684c956
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Let's to the Kit-Cat Clubb.
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Neal Stephenson |
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8e9ec35
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THE PREMISE OF THIS BOOK CAME TO ME CIRCA 2006,
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Neal Stephenson |
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a18d5df
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It was a kind of eleemosynary institution,
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Neal Stephenson |
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88b1a48
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Moira wished she spoke better Russian so that she could talk to Tekla about her ideas regarding appearance and grooming. The facial scars put her well outside the norms of feminine beauty and she had doubled down by electing to keep the buzz cut. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, she was, to put it bluntly, kind of hot. Moira hated to say it. But hotness was a part of the human condition and it was pointless to pretend that it did..
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Neal Stephenson |
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ea675e0
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Daniel saw in a way he'd never seen anything before: his mind was a homunculus squatting in the middle of his skull, peering out through good but imperfect telescopes and listening horns, gathering observations that had been distorted along the way, as a lens put chromatic aberrations into all the light that passed through it. A man who peered out at the world through a telescope would assume that the aberration was real, that the stars act..
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Neal Stephenson |
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131f314
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And yet people went on thinking this way, kind of in the way that someone who has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness will go on getting up and going to work every morning, not so much out of habit as because the knowledge of impending doom makes them wish to assert an identity.
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Neal Stephenson |
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d3f5fef
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I guessed that by pretending to be the leader I could make a few things go my way, at least for a little while, until they figured out I was faking it.
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Neal Stephenson |
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0986ccb
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The sight of the bare katana inspires everyone to a practically Nipponese level of politeness.
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Neal Stephenson |
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2c99314
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So through no rational process whatsoever I was the leader, And I had no idea what I was going to say.
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Neal Stephenson |
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6bfb61e
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The answer is, I chose to seek my fortune. Failed. Lost all. Then got a fortune I had not ever looked for. Lost it though. Got it back. Lost it. Got another - the story is somewhat repetitious.
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Neal Stephenson |
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37eef62
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Insubordinate/undisciplined witch--murders colleagues, not on board with mission objectives, declines to disclose functionality
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Neal Stephenson |
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0446f2b
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A bullet will bounce off its arachnofiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door, but excess perspiration wafts through it like a breeze through a freshly napalmed forest.
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Neal Stephenson |
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4e3968c
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He was neither dead nor here, but in Idaho, a state often confused, by bicoastal folks, with Iowa, but that in fact was the anti-Iowa in many respects, a place that Iowans would only go to in order to make some kind of statement.
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Neal Stephenson |
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3920178
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Now this was like trying to comprehend all the activity of an anthill, and read all the words in a book, and feel all the splendor of a cathedral, in one glance. Jack's mind was not equal to the demands that Cairo placed on it, and so for a long while he fixed his attention on small and near matters, as if he were a boy peering through a hollow reed.
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Neal Stephenson |
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aa1d5d9
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When you just wing it, you are aware of the risk and the uncertainty, and inclined to be more cautious. When you have a high-tech tool giving you an illusion of omniscience, I am concerned that it will lead to greater risk-taking. LYONS:
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Neal Stephenson |
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e083de7
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Readers of this memo will be disappointed to know that Bong-Bong Gad (sic), designer/owner/driver/proprietor of the vehicle, anticipated the inevitable "there but for THE GRACE OF GOD go I" witticism by unloading same on Yours Truly while we were still shaking hands (Filipinos go in for long handshakes, and the first party to initiate termination of a handshake--usually the non-Filipino--is invariably left with a nagging feeling that he is ..
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Neal Stephenson |
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877a7ca
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Like a couple of peasants huddled together in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Jack and Eliza performed their role in the Mass and then departed, leaving no sign that they'd ever been there, save perhaps for an evanescent ripple in the coursing tide of quicksilver.
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Neal Stephenson |
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5592d66
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The virus of irony is as widespread in California as herpes, and once you're infected with it, it lives in your brain forever.
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Neal Stephenson |
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34838f6
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Their eyes meet and her heart starts flopping around weakly, like a bunny in a Ziploc bag. He grins and waves.
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Neal Stephenson |
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7e3455a
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the whole idea of stealing fantastically dangerous weapons presents the would-be perp with inherent dangers and contradictions: When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.
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Neal Stephenson |
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f67edf4
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No, rebellion is what the Duke of Monmouth did, it is a petty disturbance, an aberration, predestined to fail. Revolution is like the wheeling of stars round the pole. It is driven by unseen powers, it is inexorable, it moves all things at once, and men of discrimination may understand it, predict it, benefit from it.
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Neal Stephenson |
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2cbc392
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But around the time Manila heaves into view, a warm breeze springs up over the deck and all of the Marines sigh, as if they have all ejaculated in unison.
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Neal Stephenson |
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0794625
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The manager thunks down a couple of steps, glares at her, glares at her for rather a long time. The manager, clearly, is tempted. That momentary glimpse of flesh has been ricocheting around in his brain for half an hour. He is wracking his mind with vast cosmological dilemmas. Y.T., hopes that he does not try anything, because the dentata's effects can be unpredictable. "Make up your fucking mind," she says. It works. This fresh burst of cu..
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Neal Stephenson |
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f426511
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I know. That's exactly the problem. Ninety-nine percent of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later, and they conclude that the entire one hundred percent is bullshit, which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds.
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Neal Stephenson |
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22f3c3c
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Randy is a member in good standing of American society again, having cheerfully endured the process of being ritually goosed by the Government. He feels a strong impulse to drive straight to the nearest gun store and spend about ten thousand dollars. Not that he wants to hurt anyone; it's just that any kind of government authority gives him the creeps now.
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Neal Stephenson |
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a647d43
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We gotta come up with a plan," Shaftoe says. "The plan: You live, I die," Goto Dengo says. "Fuck that," Shaftoe says. "Hey, don't you idiots know you're surrounded?" "We know," Goto Dengo says wearily. "We know for a long time." "So give up, you fucking morons! Wave a white flag and you can all go home." "It is not Nipponese way." "So come up with another fucking way! Show some fucking adaptability!" "Why are you here?" Goto Dengo asks, cha..
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Neal Stephenson |
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729bc73
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Now there are many Shaftoes--mostly in Tennessee--but the Shaftoe family tree still fits on a cross-stitch sampler.
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Neal Stephenson |
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29b1556
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On a sub, you know, there's no place for things to drain to. The survivors claimed that the blood was knee-deep all through the submarine.
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Neal Stephenson |
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e90fac8
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RESUMES: Just recall the opening reel of The Magnificent Seven and you won't have to bother with this part; you should crawl to us on hands and knees and beg us for the privilege of paying our salaries.
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Neal Stephenson |