(From PostSecret, via a mailing list.)
Month: March 2007
Planet Earth: Oooh, Pretty Pictures
I was pretty beat after returning from Boston yesterday, so I ended up watching bits and pieces of the much-ballyhooed Planet Earth tv show on the Discovery Channel. I can’t really assess it in detail, as I was flipping back and forth to the Dresden Files, but they certainly had some impressive footage of various […]
More Problems with SAT Writing Test
Inside Higher Ed provides another example of an essay receiving a perfect score on the SAT writing test: In the 1930’s, American businesses were locked in a fierce economic competition with Russian merchants for fear that their communist philosophies would dominate American markets. As a result, American competition drove the country into an economic depression […]
Final Four
Hoops commentary has fallen off dramatically lately, but it’s not because my teams are out of the tournament. Or, rather, it’s not just because my teams are out of the tournament. Mostly, it’s because Kate and I were out of town for the weekend, on vacation in Boston, and I barely saw any of the […]
“Richard Stark,” Ask the Parrot [Library of Babel]
“Richard Stark,” is, of course, the name that Donald E. Westlake uses when he wants to write books tat aren’t funny. Ask the Parrot is the umpteenth Parker novel, picking up mere minutes after the previous volume, Nobody Runs Forever. In that volume, Parker and a crew of other guys robbed a bank in western […]
Giant Comics Round-Up
I stopped by the library the other day, just to see if they had anything new, and I happened across the graphic novel section, which actually had a fairly decent selection of collected comics. As I’ve said before, I balk at paying $20 for soemthing that will take me an hour to read, particularly if […]
Reading Science in College
Via Bookslut, there’s an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about whether reading is really important: Is it always a good thing to read an entire book? When I was a graduate student, it dawned on me that I often had the most intelligent things to say about books I’d only half- or quarter-read. […]
Cold Fusion and Congress
The case of Purdue’s Rusi Taleyarkhan, cleared by the university of charges of misconduct in a murky process, has taken another turn. Congress is getting involved, with the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee requesting more details from the university. On the one hand, I’m not enthusiastic about Congress getting […]
Lighten Up, Already
One of the unfortunate elements about the NCAA basketball tournament is that in addition to some great basketball, it brings around a few reminders of what an unpleasant organization the NCAA can be: During the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament last weekend, John Goodman — a freshman who wears a steer costume to cheer […]
Presidential Politics
There are two Presidential election campaigns underway at the moment. Both feature establishment / incumbent parties that are pretty much in disarrary, wracked by missteps and accusations of corruption. They’re opposed by candidates who are somewhat unexpected. One of these campaigns is unquestionably Important, and will affect my life and the lives of everyone in […]