//beconfused

Following the list of things you know not of Leonardo da Vinci, there is another site with examples of the mistakes Dan Brown made in his book The Da Vinci Code.

Warning: Spoilers are ahead (more…)

Here are some of the things you didn’t know about Leonardo Da Vinci.

*20 Things You Didn’t Know About Leonardo da Vinci*

# Leonardo narrowly beat a sodomy rapâ??possibly involving one of his male modelsâ??brought against him by Florentine officials.
# He crushed intelligent design before anyone even thought of it: His studies of river erosion convinced him that the Earth is much older than the Bible implies, and he argued that falling sea levelsâ??not Noah’s Floodâ??left marine fossils on mountains.
# Sometimes he could be such a dick: He was a big fan of puns and word games, and Folio 44 of his Codex Arundel contains a long list of playful synonyms for penis.
# Bill Gates bought the Codex Leicester in 1995 for $30 million. This manuscript, the only one not held in Europe, includes da Vinci’s studies on hydraulics and the movement of water.

…

Read more at source: Discover

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code isn’t really an accurate depiction of the great Leonardo.

Now it seems like everyone’s talking about Da Vinci Code, I am asked at least 5 times on whether I read Da Vinci Code. That’s a book by Dan Brown, also author of Angels & Demons, perhaps one of the most controversial fiction titles ever written.

Now that the movie is coming up, more people start to talk about it. The controversial part lies in Jesus Christ fathering Mary Magdalene a child. That statement is enough to make the church curse, I mean, scream.

My mother just went to church yesterday to listen about the mistakes that Dan Brown made in Da Vinci Code. It is the church latest efforts to attempt to let believers understand Brown’s book better. Because, once again, Brown made some factual errors. And the greatest error is perhaps to claim his book is historically accurate.

_(The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. Book cover.)_

Fictional character Robert Langdon is a professor with Havard university, an expert in symbology, a study that Brown invent some time back. Langdon got involved in the death of Sophie Neveu’s grandfather, a museum curator. Neveu and Langdon then set out to find out who killed Neveu’s grandfather only to discover nothing less than the greatest conspiracy the world would ever see.

The style of writing is similar to Angels & Demons - captivating till the last page, lots of history, lots of exageration with history and trying to make Robert Langdon the second smartest man alive, first is Brown himself of course. Unfortunately, the very attempts to boost Langdon’s character intelligence in the book didn’t quite work for me. I cringed on each moment Brown tries to make Langdon smart.

A typical sentence would be like - Most people believe so and so, but experts in the field all know that blah blah blah. No points for figuring out the expert is Robert Langdon himself. It just occurs too many times, till I feel kinda stupid at times. The suspense is still there. I have to admit that that book is one of those I read fastest. I keep wanting to find out what happen next.

I would give The Da Vinci Code novel 4 out of 5 for being fun to read unfortunately historically incorrect in many pages. The Da Vinci Code movie would probably do well too. I still felt Angels & Demons is better, do give it a try if you like The Da Vinci Code.

I’ve been sleeping later and later these days. So much so that my whole sleep cycle becomes quite screwed up. I slept at 5 in the morning yesterday. The day before, I slept at 5 am too. It’s not good for health.

One both days, I was reading books. Yes, the book is interesting but what actually made me sleep late is the fact that I can’t sleep until about 4. I only fall asleep when I grow really tired.

This thing only happens when in camp. At home, I can sleep anytime I want.

Perhaps it’s due to an environment change and I just like my own bed more. The bed in the army is soft till I feel the hard springs. And each time I move my body, a bunch of springs releases sound effects. Very irritating and it’s quite painful to turn around.

I’m not surprised when a fellow bunk-mate can’t sleep too. I was reading books and he start talking to me about money and statuses in Singapore. I don’t mind entertaining since I can’t sleep anyway of course.

Today, it’s just my own bed and I. I guess I’m going to sleep earlier. It’s nearly 1 am. But I find myself sleep. It’s a good sign. Good night!

_(Windows Live Academic Search logo.)_

Check out Microsoft’s contribution in journal searches. It’s pretty good so far really. I am quite surprise. It’s a beta right now and they only have 3 fields - Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Physics. Which is seriously not enough.

Give Windows Live Academic Search a try and you may be pleasently surprised that behind the horrible naming by the marketing department hides a pretty cool tool if you do need to research on science stuff. I tried, it works in Firefox, but it didn’t seem to work in Opera. I haven’t tried in Internet Explorer but being a Microsoft product, it should work there I think.

Well, not exactly the latest new but Playboy magazine has halted operations in Indonesia.

Playboy magazine halts operations in Indonesia after protests

JAKARTA : The Indonesian edition of US adult magazine Playboy has suspended its operations for security reasons in the wake of violent protests by Muslim hardliners, its editor said Thursday.

The announcement followed violent demonstrations by the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) last week over the publication of the magazine, a toned-down version of the original which does not carry nudes.

“For the time being, we are prioritising security. We have vacated our office and we have halted our operational activities,” chief editor Erwin Arnada told reporters.

About 300 members attacked the local publisher’s office last week, smashing windows, injuring two policemen and tearing up copies of the magazine which had quickly sold out after debuting this month.

Police have in recent months seized tabloids and magazines depicting scantily dressed women from newsstands in Jakarta and arrested vendors as part of a crackdown on pornography.

But local versions of British magazines with pictorials similar to Playboy’s debut edition here have remained on sale, while pornographic DVDs are easily available on the streets of Jakarta and other major cities. - AFP/ch

Source: ChannelNewsAsia

I tell you, if this things were to occur in Singapore, no one would protest. We’ll just have a bunch of people discussing in talk show, writing commentaries in forums and trying to sound morally-right in blogs. So you see, we are rather passive people. Having said that, would the Playboy guys set up a branch over here instead. We seriously won’t protest. But our government would probably said no anyway.

I have just read the book - The Broker. I never read any John Grisham books prior to this one. The Broker was bought simply because it says its a New York Times bestseller and I like the green cover and the words are quite big to me. I didn’t get the summary at all - it sounded crap to me.

So I start to read, not knowing what kind of book I am venturing into. And the next moment, I was at page 2, and then page 3, and then page 4 and I went on and on and on. Boy, I was hooked.

The Broker is Joel Backman, the fallen lawyer who got into trouble after he got hold of the program to control a secret satellite system that is unknown and more powerful than U.S.A. technologies. The creators died for it, his partner too. Backman is to serve twenty years of jail and got out in just six years after a presidential pardon. He was then relocated to Italy by the C.I.A. And that’s when the hunt for him began.

John Grisham’s The Broker just kept me reading. I have no idea about how U.S.A. works, what is The Broker [I thought he does stocks actually] and nothing about Italy except that’s where my pizza came from. Grisham describes well and for an ill-informed Singaporean, I am comfortable with its setting as he did quite a good job telling me how C.I.A. and F.B.I. works and stuff.

There wasn’t really a moment that I was bored except for the Italy part. Grisham wrote a lot about the country, the people and the culture. It feels as if I’m reading some Lonely Planet tour guide book. Heck, I won’t be able to know if he anyhow introduce strange Italian words to me, I’ll believe everything he translates since I don’t know the language anyway.

John Grisham’s The Broker deserves 4.5 out of 5 for its brilliant plot and the wonderful font size the publisher chose. It makes good traveling companion. If you’re interested in Italy, that’s an extra bonus for you.