I got home very late last night after my talk in New Paltz, the cold that I’ve been developing for the last week has hit full strength, and I’m giving an exam this morning. So here’s something completely silly: Which sister do you prefer?Market Research For bonus points, guess which of these songs I have […]
Category: Movies
Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman to Wreck My Productivity
As has been mentioned numerous other places, ESPN is backing a new Bill Simmons project, which basically sounds like a pop-culture blog network kind of thing, headlined by Simmons and Chuck Klosterman. I saw this a while ago (I think I may have tagged a press release for a Links Dump), but was reminded of […]
Literary Interlude: Bearded Mentor Figures in the Literature of the Fantastic
It’s time now to talk about two of the greatest mentor figures in the literature of the fantastic. You know their stories well, I’m sure, but the parallels between them are eerie: Both are gruff but kindly mentor figures who provide crucial guidance for the young and naive protagonist of the story as he moves […]
Poll: Greetings
I don’t think this one requires any explanation: Hello:customer surveys Staying up watching the Giants game last night was not conducive to getting anything useful done this morning.
Short Story Club: “The Things” by Peter Watts
Over at Torque Control, Niall Harrison is doing a Short Story Club, hosting discussions of SF short fiction. As I always vaguely regret not reading enough short fiction to make sensible nominations for the Hugos, this seemed like a good opportunity to read a selection of stories that a smart person with pretty good taste […]
Scott Pilgrim
So, I blew off stuff I should’ve been doing, and went to see a matinee of the Scott Pilgrim movie this morning (it’s very much not Kate’s sort of thing, and I would feel guilty ditching her with SteelyKid to see it during the evening or on a weekend). Actually, first I went to Borders […]
All the Myriad Inceptions
In comments to yesterday’s post about my favorite Many-Worlds story, a couple of people mention “All the Myriad Ways,” a Larry Niven short story. I don’t think I’ve ever actually read the story, but it gets brought up all the time, so I’m familiar with the concept. It’s an angle on Many-Worlds that I don’t […]
Silly Poll: Pinch Me
I was going to write something serious about physics, but it’s my student’s last day, so we’re taking him to lunch. So here’s a silly poll to entertain you until I get back: If I suspected I might be living in a dream, but couldn’t be sure, I would:survey software You can only choose one […]
Inception
We haven’t yet gotten to the point where we’re comfortable leaving SteelyKid with a babysitter, so seeing the movie everybody’s talking about took a while. Since she’s off at Gammy’s, though, we got a rare night to ourselves and went to the movies. My immediate reaction is that it’s great to see a movie that’s […]
The Past and Future of the Laser
While it’s not aprt of the official LaserFest package of stuff, Physics World is marking the 50th anniversary of the laser with a couple of really nice pieces on lasers in science and popular culture: Where next for the laser interviews six laser experts– Claire Max of UCSC, Bill Phillips of NIST, Steven Block of […]