Aurlog

Da Vinci Code condensed film

Those of you who enjoyed my Drown Ban, Not Chav deicide, or The Mongo code or Ward Bonn's Digital Citadel may also like to read Scaryduck's Condensed Films: The Da Vinci Code. Excerpt:

A. Tatou: Listen very carefully I will say zis only once. Les Cops r stitching u up for ze murder of my grandfather.
T. Hanks: ONOZ!
A. Tatou: Also, he has 'ad you bugged. With a bug. FFS.
T. Hanks: ONOZ! Luckily, I have thrown teh bug out of teh window, so Les Cops think I have escaped. Now to spend several hours wondering around a murder scene surrounded by Europe's most expensive art works, where there appears to be no security whatsoever.

Digital Citadel

Those of you who enjoyed my Drown Ban, Not Chav deicide, or The Mongo code may also like to read Digital Citadel by Ward Bonn (sent to me my sil). The opening line should give you an idea:

The shadow creeped across the cryptographer's face as the sun rose. As the shadow reached his nose, he clicked twice on his e-mail program, which had been written by a shadowy group in another country in order to serve as a plot device.

To be fair I haven't read Digital Fortress although it seems similar enough to The Da Dan Vinci Code that I don't feel the need to.

A.D. VI KAL. MAI. MMVII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Cows probably don't have accents

Mark Liberman at* Language Log takes the scientific props away from the story that cows have accents, including quoting a testimony from John Wells, the linguist in question (and one of ours).

I particularly like Professor Wells's complaint about a PR company who issued the original press release on behalf of a Somerset cheese company:

They showed it to me only after they had sent it out, which meant that it was too late for me to protest that they had put into my mouth the solecism "This phenomena is...". Of course I would always say only "This phenomenon is..." or "These phenomena are".

*I refuse to use over at to refer to another weblog.

Update: More from Language Log and Professor Wells.

A.D. IX KAL. SEPT. MMVI

Permanent link | Comments (6) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Dan Brown Book Generator

Toby Inkster has created a Create Your Own Dan Brown Novel programme. Use your browser's 'Reload' button to create another novel, each one as original and well thought out as a real Dan Brown best-seller. Via Velcro City Tourist Board).

A.D. V ID. MAI. MMVI

Permanent link | Comments (54) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Smithy Code solved

I'm a bit slow off the mark on this one, I know, but the code hidden by the judge (Mr Justice Smith) in the recent Dan Brown trial has been solved (via Rashbre Central). According to the judge as reported by the BBC the mistake in the code was intentional:

Mr Justice Smith said a typographical error had been added deliberately to 'create further confusion'

A.D. VII ID. MAI. MMVI

Permanent link | Comments (8) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Da Vinci judge writes his own code

The BBC reports that the judge of the recent Dan Brown/Holy Blood Holy Grail (HBHG) plaigarism trial apparently left his own code in the judgement on the case. There are letters in italics which seem to spell out some words. Good stuff. He has apparently agreed to confirm it if anyone cracks it.

This makes sense of why the judgement took so long to come out. Interestingly I noticed that the judgement also admits that he had read HBHG several times over the last twenty years. Oh dear.

A.D. V KAL. MAI. MMVI

Permanent link | Comments (2) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Tom