New: Solutions listed
Mike Dunford, who is still trying to get me to pay for that time he put me up in Hawaii when his wife was on active service in Iraq (if I knew what I'd have to pay, both in climbing horrific rainforested slopes to release wallabies, and this meme, I'd never have gone) has tagged me, the bastard. It's a meme created by Henry Gee (I'll get even with him later, too).
Find ten books, the first ones you see, go to page 56, sentence five and transcribe it. You readers are supposed to guess what they are. [I better keep a note or I'll be screwed later...] Below the fold:
1. Another odd property of significance tests concerns the way in which they are sensitive to sample size.
Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science, by Elliot Sober
2. Those favoring materialism continued to believe that perhaps the most basic form of life might be produced directly by nature, and by the end of the century the discovery of the electric current offered them a new force, which, it was hoped, might explain how dead matter could be brought to life.
Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons: Evolution and Christianity from Darwin to Intelligent Design (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine), by Peter Bowler
3. His other distributions too evened things out this way.
Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity (Sather Classical Lectures) by David Sedley
4. Annette bustles around busily, pointing out angles and timings to the forensics team her head office sent in answer to her call for backup.
Accelerando (Singularity) by Charles Stross
5. 'That's the sea!' she said, starting towards the crack.
Everville by Clive Barker
6. The belfry movement could play fixed tunes, for example to chime the hours.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
7. Darwin was suddenly very much on the defensive.
The Darwin Conspiracy by Roy Davies
8. It was connected to the Library by a covered marble colonnade; inside the Library were ten great halls, lined with shelves and cupboards, all numbered and titled, housing a vast collection of manuscripts.
The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants by Anna Pavord
9. Today it would be assumed that they were a lesbian couple, with Jane clearly the "husband" and sweet, retiring Betty the "wife".
Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer
10. Or, to express the point more precisely, ours is a world of space, whereas Aristotle's was a world of place.
by David Lindberg
Mike gave hints. I won't. I'm a bastard too.
I tag
Larry Moran
Christopher Taylor
Jim Downey
Jim Lippard
Ian Musgrave
and anyone who actually wants to do this.
Comments
Just tried it on the Rough Guide to Evolution and the answer is:
"In adult life, Charles Darwin stood just less than six feet tall".
So that will help any future victims google the answer!
Posted by: Mark Pallen | December 2, 2008 1:27 PM
Is this no. 10?
Sedley, David N. 2007. Creationism and its critics in antiquity.
Full disclosure: I read your mild apology from a couple of days ago and made a wild guess...
Posted by: JLT | December 2, 2008 4:18 PM
Mike gave hints. I won't. I'm a bastard too.
Wilkins is only doing this because he knows we have to be nice to him for the next twelve months!
Posted by: Thony C. | December 2, 2008 4:53 PM
I think I have two of them:
1. Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science by Elliot Sobre
7. The Darwin Conspiracy by Roy Davies
Posted by: pubcat | December 2, 2008 5:58 PM
JLT and pubcat, both right. Thony: if you meet a six hundred pound gorilla at any time, I bet you are nice to him...
Posted by: John S. Wilkins | December 2, 2008 6:00 PM
Since I went to the bother of cheating:
5: Everville: The Second Book of the Art
by Clive Barker - Fiction - 1999
9: Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and lived to take all (or almost all) of it back.
by Frank Schaeffer - 2008
Google has not yet indexed every word in every book, but they had those two. None of them rang a bell with me.
Posted by: Brad | December 2, 2008 6:39 PM
Naughty boy. Correct naughty boy, but still naughty...
Doncha just love some Clive Barker?
Posted by: John S. Wilkins | December 2, 2008 8:09 PM
Hmmm.
I think it's time for you to publish a photo of your home library.
Posted by: Gary Bohn | December 3, 2008 3:10 PM
Well if we are going to use our research-fu....
6. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Posted by: pubcat | December 3, 2008 6:12 PM