One of the problems with a long-running series is that it accretes backstory as you go (unless, of course, you go the Rex Stout route and just pretend that time doesn’t pass for the characters, even when you have the client in a later book being the son of a character from one of the […]
Month: July 2011
Happy Saturday Music
SteelyKid’s third birthday is next week, but we’re going to Kate’s mother’s for the day itself, so we’re having a birthday party today for her and her friends from day care. So, even though all the news is depressing, it’s a day to be happy. So here’s a happy song: (OK, I don’t quite know […]
Fringe Query
I’m going to be talking to someone about treatments of parallel worlds in popular media next week, and as the only going mass media concern with a parallel-worlds plot seems to be the show Fringe, it would be helpful for me to be able to talk sensibly about it. Thus, two questions: 1) Where is […]
China Mieville, Kraken [Library of Babel]
I’m not a huge Mieville fan, but the descriptions I read of Kraken sounded like good fun. As I like fun books, and a fun book written by China Mieville seemed sufficiently improbable that I just had to see it, I picked it up a little while ago, and read it over the last week […]
Friday Physics Videos
We’re having a birthday party for SteelyKid tomorrow, so I have a ton of stuff to do today. I may have something more substantive later, but for the moment, here are a couple of videos to enjoy. First, from the Minute Physics set of videos at YouTube, an explanation of why you have quantum physics […]
Links for 2011-07-29
Design View / Andy Rutledge – News Redux “Digital news is broken. Actually, news itself is broken. Almost all news organizations have abandoned reporting in favor of editorial; have cultivated reader opinion in place of responsibility; and have traded ethical standards for misdirection and whatever consensus defines as forgivable. And this is before you even […]
Thursday Fine Art Blogging
Shhh! There’s an Artist at work: That’s SteelyKid hard at work on something. I think she was writing my name, though it might’ve been writing Emmy’s name. It’s a little tough to tell from the photographs. Of course, the real purpose of making art is to be able to discuss it: This led to my […]
How Does the Pulse Meter on Our Exercise Bike Work?
Unlike the previous post, this is not a rhetorical question that I will ask and then answer. I genuinely do not know the answer. I could Google it, of course, but I’d like to see if somebody reading this is able to deduce the correct answer from the available evidence. So, here’s the deal: as […]
How Good Are Polarized Sunglasses?
A while back, I explained how polarized sunglasses work, the short version of which is that light reflected off the ground in front of you tends to be polarized, and by blocking that light, they reduce the effects of glare. This is why fishermen wear polarized sunglasses (they make it easier to see through the […]
Links for 2011-07-28
How to turn the GOP into a party of liberals – War Room – Salon.com “July 28, 2011: Barack Obama announces he’s had second thoughts, now fully endorses Boehner debt ceiling plan, “Cut, Cap and Balance,” and Reid plan. His new bottom line? He’ll accept anything Congress can pass, as long as it isn’t just […]