It’s March now, which means that we’re at the absolute peak of the college basketball season. Small conferences have already started their tournaments, playing for the one shot those teams have of getting into the NCAA’s. Big conference tournaments start next week, with the Big Dance the week after. So, of course, ESPN and all… Continue reading Seasonal Sports Peeve
Category: Television
Award-Winning Science Writing
The winners of the American Physical Society’s Science Writing Awards for 2008 were announced today: Ann Finkbeiner won in the Journalist category for The Jasons, her book about a secretive groups of scientists who work on classified problems for the US government. Gino Segre won in the Scientist category, for Faust in Copenhagen, about the… Continue reading Award-Winning Science Writing
Quantum Physics for Dogs: Many Worlds, Many Treats?
On Saturday at Boskone, I gave a talk on the Many-Worlds Interpretation of QM. This was held up a bit by waiting for the projector to arrive (I was busy enough with other stuff that I didn’t notice that I hadn’t received confirmation of my request for a projector until late Thursday night, so this… Continue reading Quantum Physics for Dogs: Many Worlds, Many Treats?
What I’m Doing at Boskone
Boskone, the Boston-area SF convention that Kate and I go to every year, is the weekend after next. Once again, I’ll be doing a few panels and one talk. For those who might be attending, or who care about this for some reason, here’s my preliminary schedule:
Jesse Ventura Is to Blame for This
I realize it’s been several years now since the World Wildlife Federation won their lawsuit against the World Wrestling Federation, forcing Vince McMahon to re-brand his whole preposterous enterprise. Still, when I see a press release with the headline: WWF seeks innovative solutions to bycatch through worldwide competition I expect the “competition” to be settled… Continue reading Jesse Ventura Is to Blame for This
Doctor Who? Why?
Fannish regions of the Internet are all abuzz today, with the introduction of Matt Smith as the next actor to play the lead role in Doctor Who. Sadly, this is not the Matt Smith I went to college with (who would’ve been a really unusual choice for the part…)– he’s still comfortably obscure to anyone… Continue reading Doctor Who? Why?
Shouting Heads of Science?
One of the links in the previous post was to Josh’s thoughts on the CNN science shutdown. Toward the end, he had an interesting note on why science doesn’t get more play: This is especially bad for CNN, since so much of their airtime is taken up by talking heads yelling at one another. Science… Continue reading Shouting Heads of Science?
Parallel Universes and Morality
A little while back, when I complained about the treatment of the multiverse in Anathem, a number of people commented to say that it wasn’t all that bad. And, indeed, they were right. Compared to last night’s History Channel program on “Parallel Universes,” Stephenson’s book is a miracle of subtle nuance, teasing out the crucial… Continue reading Parallel Universes and Morality
Einstein on TV
The History Channel ran a two-hour program on Einstein last night. I had meant to plug this in advance, but got distracted by the Screamy Baby Fun-Time Hour yesterday, and didn’t have time to post. The show restricted itself more or less to the period from 1900, just before his “miracle year” in 1905, to… Continue reading Einstein on TV
Strain to SEE
When I’m in the right mood, I’m a sucker for really awful sci-fi movies. For example, Saturday night I stayed up far too late to watch the end of the tv-movie version of The Andromeda Strain, based on the book by the prolific and recently deceased Luddite Fiction writer Michael Crichton. It’s been twenty-plus years… Continue reading Strain to SEE