Locus is the semi-official magazine of SF– its reviews are quoted almost as prominently as those of better-known mass media outlets in cover blurbs and the like– but it remains a small operation, a “semi-prozine” in Hugo ballot terms. That means most issues aren’t edited quite as carefully as they might be, and there are… Continue reading Typo of the Month
The Last Stand, Except for the Sequel
Despite generating a surprising number of comments with last week’s burning question (thanks to Kate for the suggestion), we didn’t actually go see X-Men III until yesterday afternoon. Short verdict: Not quite as bad as I was led to believe. The longer version is either on Kate’s LiveJournal, or below the fold.
Giant Hugo Nominees Round-Up
As you know, Bob, the Hugo Awards are one of the top literary honors in the field of science fiction and fantasy. They’re voted on by the attendees of each year’s Woldcon, held in August or September, and include awards for Best Novel, Novella, Novelette, and Short Story. I posted about the Best Novel nominees… Continue reading Giant Hugo Nominees Round-Up
Outlaw Physics
PZ notes and article about a controversial physics demonstration: Every year, physics teacher David Lapp brings his Korean War era M-1 carbine to school, fires a shot into a block of wood and instructs his students to calculate the velocity of the bullet. It is a popular experiment at Mill Valley’s Tamalpais High School, where… Continue reading Outlaw Physics
Friday Random Eleven
Having been depressing and/or political for the last few posts, I feel like I ought to do something to lighten the mood. So here are some pop songs (extended beyond the canonical ten because it’s the last day of classes. Woo-hoo!):
Bottomless Stupidity
Scalzi has the proper response to the Bush Administration’s latest insult to the collective intelligence. New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News. That was a key factor used to determine that New York City should have its anti-terror funds slashed by 40… Continue reading Bottomless Stupidity
Farewell to Warblogging
Matt Welch has a nice post-mortem for the 2001 blogging boom, in which he recalls the days when the whole post-September-11th-attacks thing seemed like it would really shake up American politics, and that weblogs were at the forefront of a grand realignment. That failed pretty spectacularly, didn’t it? It’s a good piece, both recalling what… Continue reading Farewell to Warblogging
Ray Davis Dead at 91
The post title pretty much says it. Raymond Davis Jr., who shared the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work on detecting neutrinos, died Wednesday. The Times obituatary showed up in my RSS feeds today. Davis got his dynamite money for the neutrino detection experiment that he ran for years in the Homestake mine, where… Continue reading Ray Davis Dead at 91
Sporting Event Live-Blogging
A List of Things Thrown Five Mintues Ago is live-blogging the National Spelling Bee. The Internet is large, and contains multitudes. (Via a comment at Making Light.)
Can I Pick ‘Em Or What?
Back in the fall of 2000, I was a post-doc working at Yale, working on a fairly major paper (at least from the my persepctive), and starting to apply for academic jobs at small liberal arts colleges. Kate and I also got engaged that September, so we started doing a bit of wedding planning. We… Continue reading Can I Pick ‘Em Or What?