Just a reminder, if you’re someone who’s eligible to vote for this year’s Hugo Awards, the deadline to do so is tomorrow. Of course, you probably already know that– they sent out reminder emails last night. They want me to vote so badly, in fact, that I got four reminder emails last night, two with… Continue reading Hugo Voting
Category: Books
Infinite Jest: My Favorite Footnote
The Infinite Summer people got me to start re-reading Infinite Jest, but I’m not really going to attempt to hold to their proposed reading schedule. Not because I find it hard to find time to read, but because I have trouble putting it down to go to sleep, let alone in order to keep pace… Continue reading Infinite Jest: My Favorite Footnote
Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
While I’ve seen him on tv a bunch of times (both on NOVA and on the Comedy Central fake-news shows), I have somehow managed not to read anything by Neil deGrasse Tyson before. I’m not sure how that happened. After his appearance on The Daily show last year, and especially after the Rubik’s Cube thing… Continue reading Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
How Not to Break Into Publishing
One of the fun thing about being at home for a weekend is that I get to see a close-up view of the death of the American newspaper. When I was a kid, Binghamton had two daily papers, the Sun-Bulletin and the Evening Press, published in the morning and evening, respectively (bet you couldn’t’ve guessed… Continue reading How Not to Break Into Publishing
Reminder: Enter to Win My Book
Just a quick reminder post to note that you can win an advance proof copy of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in one of two ways: By captioning pictures of the dog with physics apparatus By writing short poems about dogs and physics Regarding the last one, I’m thinking of adding a second… Continue reading Reminder: Enter to Win My Book
We’re Gonna Build Something This Summer
I’ve been reading a bunch of posts at Infinite summer lately, where they’re planning to spend the summer (re)reading David Foster Wallaces most magnum of opuses, Infinite Jest. In a development that surely nobody could see coming, I’ve decided to spend some of my infinite (hah) free time re-reading it myself. If you’re not familiar… Continue reading We’re Gonna Build Something This Summer
The Limits of Elven Vision
Kate’s Tolkien re-read has reached Rohan, and her latest re-read post includes a reference to a comment I made about Legolas’s improbable visual acuity: Re: Legolas seeing the Riders: I have since been advised by the resident physicist that the size of a pupil is a limiting factor on the resolution possible–if I understood properly,… Continue reading The Limits of Elven Vision
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Poetry Contest
There once was a dog from Niskayuna… The previous post announced a photo caption contest for a chance to win an advance proof copy of my book, How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, six(-ish) months before it’s available for purchase. I thought I should include something for the less visually inclined, though, and I… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Poetry Contest
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Caption Contest
Today is six months to the day from the official release date of my book, How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. It feels like I ought to do something promotion-like to mark this date, and I have a couple of extra bound galley proofs (seen above with Emmy), sooo….. I hereby announce the first… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Caption Contest
Understanding and Enjoyment are Orthogonal
In a comment to Friday’s classical music post, Chris Evo recommended a TED talk by Benjamin Zander that has the goal of convincing his audience that they love classical music: If you’re not able or inclined to watch it, he goes through a Chopin piano piece in detail, and explains how it plays off our… Continue reading Understanding and Enjoyment are Orthogonal