Most of the time they'd start fights over a glance. In the land of the Camorra a look is a question of territory; it's an invasion of one's private space, like breaking down the door and violently entering someone's home. A look is something more than an insult. To stare someone in the face for too long is already somehow an open challenge.

• robcorr
• July 12, 2009
• Gomorrah
• Page 254
• Reply

The first 50 or so pages are pretty heavy on the "here's what happened last time, here's the rules for vampires in this world" stuff. But when Pitt's new mission is revealed, I found myself sitting deeper in the couch and settling in. Keen to see where this takes us.

• robcorr
• July 7, 2009
• Every Last Drop
• Page 50
• Reply

Extracts from the journal of She Who Must Be Obeyed! Classic.

• robcorr
• May 21, 2009
• Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
• Reply

Yerkes designed a multiple choice system in which different species could be challenged with the same task. This involved finding a food reward hidden in a line of identical stalls set up in a row. The object was to find the right stall in the least number of trials. The test was repeated 40 times, and went on each time until the reward was claimed.

All that was simple enough, but there were complications. The reward was put in a different stall at the end of each set of 10 tests, moving say from 'the first stall on the right' to 'the second stall on the left'. And one or more stalls were locked and taken out of play in a pattern which changed with every test, so that subjects had to make a mental shift from 'the second stall on the left' to 'the second available stall on the ...

• robcorr
• April 29, 2009
• The Whole Hog
• Page 234-235
• Reply