You might not have noticed, but John Scalzi has a new book out. The Last Colony is the third book in the Old Man’s War series. It’s narrated by John Perry from Old Man’s War, now happily married to Jane Sagan from The Ghost Brigades, and working as a colonial administrator on a planet called… Continue reading John Scalzi, The Last Colony [Library of Babel]
Neal Asher, The Skinner [Library of Babel]
The Skinner is another book in the same Polity universe as Gridlinked, though it appears to be more or less self-contained. It doesn’t share any characters with the other book, though it does share bits of technology and a general attitude to the world. The book is set on Spatterjay, a planet with a complex… Continue reading Neal Asher, The Skinner [Library of Babel]
Faking Evolution is Hard Work
“The Fossil-Maker’s Blues”, by Steven Brust. Inspired by a comment in this post about paleoarcheology. It’s calcium and marrow and mix ’em fine I’m on the job from nine to nine Oh lord won’t someone set me free From the Devil’s Fossil Factory.
Are You a Cardinal?
You bet your sweet ass I am.
Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma’am
Over at Mixing Memory, Chris is annoyed with Larry Moran and PZ Myers for comparing themselves to suffragists: It’s difficult, at this point, to say anything other than, “Are you kidding me?” Watching white, middle-class, mostly ex-Protestant males (the dominant new atheist demographic) compare themselves to feminists, labor movements, gay and civil rights activists, or… Continue reading Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma’am
Impossible Lyrics Answer
Pretty much all of the songs that I thought anybody might possibly guess were guessed, so I might as well reveal the answers. If you’d still like to try your hand, don’t click through to the rest of this post until after you’ve finished… Those of you who have given up can find the full… Continue reading Impossible Lyrics Answer
Springtime Dog-Blogging
How can you tell that it’s spring? Look at the Queen of Niskayuna: When she’s regally reclining under the swing in the back yard, then it’s definitely spring.
RSS Query
Over at Cognitive Daily, Dave asks about splitting articles in RSS feeds. The ScienceBlogs feeds do not provide the full text of our posts, just the “above the fold” portion, and this practice rubs some people the wrong way. The reason for this is that our Corporate Masters are trying to support the site by… Continue reading RSS Query
Show Me the Money
Inside Higher Ed notes in passing a new bill from the Senate supporting scientific research. There’s a lot of bafflegab there, but if you scroll to the bottom, you can find the executive summary: More specifically, the Commerce and Science Division of the America COMPETES Act would: Increase Research Investment by: Establishing the Innovation Acceleration… Continue reading Show Me the Money
Family Friendly Competition
No, I’m not talking about the sort of thing where teams play cooperative, non-competetive games, and everybody gets a trophy at the end. I’m talking about academia, here, and specifically the recent flurry of colleges and universities offering child care support: In the last week, both Stanford and Yale Universities have announced significant expansions of… Continue reading Family Friendly Competition