The Comics Curmudgeon and others note the death of Johnny Hart, arguably the best known religious wing nut from Broome County, New York, where I grew up. (Sadly, this is not a set of one, as the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue also traces its origins to the Binghamton area.) Hart was the creator of the… Continue reading RIP Johnny Hart
Season’s Greetings
Bill Hicks on Easter. “At least a goldfish with a Lincoln Log on its back crawling across your floor to your sock drawer has a miraculous connotation to it.”
Framing and Coordination
I haven’t been following the discussion of the Mooney/ Nisbet “framing” article in Science all that closely, because most of the commentary has tended to be uninteresting in predictable ways. You can find a fairly comprehensive list of links from Bora (who else?), and Matt and Chris respond to most of it. There was one… Continue reading Framing and Coordination
Where the Nerds Are
For those few readers who are really fascinated by the workings of SF fandom, Kevin Standlee has posted a map of the Worldcon membership by country, and by state for the US and prefecture for Japan. It’s interesting not just for the distribution of the actual members, but for the gaps. Africa appears only in… Continue reading Where the Nerds Are
Hugo and Nebula Thoughts
There’s been a fair bit of discussion of this year’s Hugo nominees around the Internets, most of it centering around the gender of the nominees (that link goes to a fairly civilized discussion, which includes links to a rather more heated argument). For those who haven’t been following the controversy, only one of the twenty… Continue reading Hugo and Nebula Thoughts
Why Do I Blog?
I do it for the toys:
Jackie Robinson: Most Important American?
Yesterday, on my way in to work, I was listening to ESPN radio and Mike Greenberg made a bold assertion (paraphrased slightly): Jackie Robinson is one of the ten most important Americans of the twentieth century. Not just sports figures, Americans. Contrary sort that I am, my first thought was “I don’t think I believe… Continue reading Jackie Robinson: Most Important American?
Analogies Are Like a Thing That Can’t be Stretched Too Far
Inside Higher Ed today offers a column by Daniel Chambliss of Hamilton College, taking issue with the Spellings commission report on higher education, and its analogies comparinf education to manufacturing: By the conclusion of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ recently-convened Test of Leadership Summit on Higher Education, I finally understood why her proposals are so… Continue reading Analogies Are Like a Thing That Can’t be Stretched Too Far
Pick a Number, Win a Book
As you can see from the picture, my desk is a mess. Also, I’ve come into possession of a second free copy of Paul Davies’s new book Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life (one is an advance reading copy in trade paper, the other a spiffy new hardback). You can read… Continue reading Pick a Number, Win a Book
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
Eugene Wallingford talks about a great idea for a conference session: At SIGCSE a couple of weeks ago, I attended an interesting pair of complementary panel sessions. I wrote about one, Ten Things I Wish They Would Have Told Me…, in near-real time. Its complement was a panel called “It Seemed Like a Good Idea… Continue reading It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time