Hugo Humiliation

Over in LiveJournal land, nwhyte just finished reading all the Hugo-winning novels, and provides a list of them with links to reviews or at least short comments. He also gives a summary list of his take on the best and worst books of the lot. The obvious thing to do with such a list, particularly… Continue reading Hugo Humiliation

What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics, Now Streaming

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk based on How to Teach Physics to Your Dog for the University of Toledo’s Saturday Morning Science program. At that time, their local PBS affiliate recorded the talk, for use on their very nice streaming video site, Knowledgestream.org. My talk is now up, and the video is… Continue reading What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics, Now Streaming

Hey, Ho, Northern Ohio

Just a quick reminder that I’ll be giving my “What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics” talk (same basic one from Tuesday night) as part of the Saturday Morning Science program (pdf) at the University of Toledo tomorrow, Saturday the 19th. The talk will be at 9:30, with breakfast beforehand. If you’re in the… Continue reading Hey, Ho, Northern Ohio

Steven Erikson, The Crippled God (Spoiler-Free Comments) [Library of Babel]

(This is a post about the concluding volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, so if you clicked through here because the title made you expect a rant about religion, you’re at the wrong blog.) It’s hard to say anything coherent about this other than “Wow.” I mean, this is the tenth thousand-page book… Continue reading Steven Erikson, The Crippled God (Spoiler-Free Comments) [Library of Babel]

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… Continue reading Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman to Wreck My Productivity

Upcoming Appearances: New Paltz, NY and Toledo, OH

Another shameless self-promotion post, but since I was confirming some arrangements this morning, I thought I’d throw up a post, so: – On March 15, two weeks from yesterday, I will be giving a talk for the Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association at 8pm on the campus of SUNY-New Paltz. If you’re in the downstate NY sort… Continue reading Upcoming Appearances: New Paltz, NY and Toledo, OH

Con or Bust

Every year, Kate runs a fundraiser to help support SF fans who want to attend Wiscon, which takes the form of an auction of various cool items, such as a signed book about quantum physics. You can find a big listing of everything at the Con or Bust community on LiveJournal, but some items of… Continue reading Con or Bust

Hugo Nomination Recommendations?

I’m leaving today for the AAAS meeting in DC, where I’ll be through the weekend. The AAAS works much differently than the physics conferences I’m used to, most notably requiring speakers to upload their presentation several days ahead of time. This means that my usual night-before-a-talk process of fiddling with my slides is right out.… Continue reading Hugo Nomination Recommendations?

Talking Dogs Are Big in Italy

I haven’t been as relentless about flogging How to Teach Physics to Your Dog (now available in paperback!) as I was last year, because it gets kind of exhausting. I do have a vanity search set up on Google Reader that points me to the occasional review– this one, for example, so I still see… Continue reading Talking Dogs Are Big in Italy