In the initial “Basic Concepts” post, I discussed the concept of Force in physics. This time out, I’ll be talking about fields, which is a much dicier proposition. Not only are fields considerably more abstract than forces, but I’ve never lectured on fields in general (specific instances of fields, yes, but not fields as abstract […]
Month: January 2007
Charlie Huston, No Dominion [Library of Babel]
The last booklog post was about an author who made a name writing urban fantasy, who is trying to write in a different subgenre, so it seems somewhat appropriate to have this post be about an urban fantasy by an author who made a name writing something else. OK, Charlie Huston might object to having […]
Physics of Weight Control
Scott Aaronson lists his favorite foods, and says that he expects to weigh 3000 pounds by the time he gets tenure. Jenn Fallis explains his mistake: he’s a theorist. Experimental physics can provide a built-in exercise problem as you haul bits of apparatus from one place to another. Theory’s sitting-at-a-desk-staring-into-space program just can’t compete…
Fun with Worldbuilding
Via Neil Gaiman, I learn that: John Crowley (author of Little, Big)has a LiveJournal… … where he’s collecting suggestions for reference works for people seeking to invent interesting fantasy worlds… …and he’s come up with a great class exercise/ party game for the results: Can’t do it for the upcoming class, but for a class […]
More Murray
The discussion of Charles Murray continues in comments to my earlier post, and some interesting things have been said there. Also, some fairly loathesome things– you take the bad with the good. For those who can’t get enough Murray-bashing, let me also point to a few other people: Dave’s collecting suggestions of things that Murray […]
Jim Butcher, Furies of Calderon [Library of Babel]
Jim Butcher’s last few Dresden Files books (coming soon to a tv series near you…) have included little afterwords in which he tells the story of how he started reading SF, and urges readers to check out his new epic fantasy series (the “Codex Alera”). He explains that he’s always wanted to write that sort […]
SF and the History of Science
I’m going to be on a few program items at Boskone again this year. The highly preliminary schedule I received a couple of days ago includes a Saturday afternoon talk on “Spooky Action at a Distance,” which will be a sort of popular-audience explanation of the EPR Paradox and Bell’s Theorem. “Weird Quantum Phenomena” was […]
Tom Brady
My Giants are done for the year, but Kate’s Patriots are still in it, so there will be football-watching this weekend (well, actually, I’ll be playing in an intramural basketball game for a good chunk of the Pats game, but Kate will be watching). In honor of the Pats, then, here’s a video for Kate, […]
The Problem of Charles Murray
Charles “The Bell Curve” Murray is back with a three-part essay series on edcuation, published in The Wall Street Journal: Part I: The world is full of stupid people. Part II: Too many stupid people go to college. Part III: We should spend more money on the tiny fraction of people who are smart. (You […]
Perspective : SAT Prep :: Fish : Bicycle?
As I said previously, I get a lot of emails from people looking to promote their sites, and I do try to look at most of them. Yesterday’s batch included ePrep, a site offering college preparation advice, and while I can’t speak for the quality of their services, they get a link for pointing me […]