It’s taken me a disgracefully long time to finish the review copy of Lee Billings’s Five Billion Years of Solitude I was sent back in the fall, mostly because I didn’t read anything not immediately related to the book-in-progress for most of November and all of December. Which is to say, the long delay is… Continue reading Five Billion Years of Solitude by Lee Billings
Category: Pop Culture
Sports Are Science
Unless you’ve been marooned on a desert island for the last couple of weeks– or, you know, foreign— you’re probably at least dimly aware that the Super Bowl is this evening. This is the pinnacle of the football season, and also the cue for lots of people to take to social media proclaiming their contempt… Continue reading Sports Are Science
On Persistence and the Counting of Things
Kameron Hurley did a blog post on what it took her to become a writer, which I ran across via Harry Connolly’s follow-up. These are fairly long, but well worth reading for insight into what it means to be a writer– and they’re both very good at what they do. You should buy their books,… Continue reading On Persistence and the Counting of Things
Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson [Library of Babel]
I’ve gotten out of the habit of blogging about the books I read for fun here, mostly because I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading for fun. Not for lack of desire, but because between my job and the kids and the massive amounts of research reading for the book-in-progress, I haven’t had time.… Continue reading Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson [Library of Babel]
Overwrought Arguments About TED Are an Existential Threat to Our Civilization
When I wrote about Benjamin Bratton’s anti-TED rant I only talked about the comment about the low success rate of TED suggestions. That was, admittedly, a small piece of his article, but the rest of it was so ludicrously overheated that I couldn’t really take it seriously. It continues to get attention, though, both in… Continue reading Overwrought Arguments About TED Are an Existential Threat to Our Civilization
Richard Feynman, Placebo Technoradical
This past Monday, a lot of people in my social media feeds were passing around this Benjamin Bratton piece about the problems with TED, blasting the whole phenomenon as “placebo technoradicalism.” The whole thing, he claims, is shallow pseudo-inspirational bullshit that makes people feel nice, but doesn’t actually lead anywhere. As he notes at the… Continue reading Richard Feynman, Placebo Technoradical
Eureka! Discovering Your Inner Scientist
I sent off the complete draft of the book-in-progress yesterday, somewhere between 12 and 36 hours ahead of my contractual deadline. Which I suppose makes it a book-in-process now, maybe. That process may still include re-writes, though, so my work probably isn’t done yet. The final draft, according to Word anyway, comes to 253 pages… Continue reading Eureka! Discovering Your Inner Scientist
Nostalgia and the Next Generation
“Daddy, I wanna play with the robot dog!” “It’s not a dog, honey, it’s an Imperial walker. An AT-AT. A fearsome armored assault transport used to overwhelm the Rebel defenses in the battle of Hoth.” “…” “…” “…” “OK, fine, you can play with the robot dog.” We came down to my parents’ for Thanksgiving… Continue reading Nostalgia and the Next Generation
“Eureka!” and the Problems Thereof
I’m not talking about the tv show Eureka here, which was mostly silly fluff but not especially problematic. I’m talking about the famous anecdote about Archimedes of Syracuse, who supposedly realized the principle that bears his name when slipping into a bath, distracted by a problem he had been assigned by his king. On realizing… Continue reading “Eureka!” and the Problems Thereof
The Sagan Thing
I am crushingly busy right now– massive book rewrites needed, papers to grade, etc.– so I’ve actually been fairly happy with the general lack of topics that inspire a deep desire to blog. which of course, was promptly upset this morning, when a brief outburst of hating on Carl Sagan erupted on Twitter just as… Continue reading The Sagan Thing