I was talking this weekend with the mother of a 17-year-old boy, and assured her that he was going to be useless until he turned 25. Turns out science knows why.
Author Archives: Craig
From the industry
By which I of course mean the business. Who’s doing what with that shortcode? Especially interesting to me is that the Pope’s thought of the day has (at least) two different shortcodes. Makes me wish I had noted what shortcode they used at the ballpark last night for voting on what song they should play later in the game.
Isle of the Dead Review
Isle of the Dead, Zelazny. Yes. I’ve been afraid lately to re-read some of the favorites of my youth, fearing my increasing crankiness will render them unreadable. Isle of the Dead is one of the most idiosyncratic works Zelazny published, but I don’t hate it. It was written in 1969, and it shows its age, but the man was a great writer, and his penchant for writing works such as this one, This Immortal, and He Who Shapes does not obscure his gift. Now I’m wondering why I don’t want to put Lord of Light in the same category. Maybe I’ll read it again and find out.
Quote of the day
"Allusion through similarity of form is, I have discovered, a marvelously rich vein of self-reference, but unfortunately this article is too short to contain a full proof of that discovery."
—Douglas Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas
Books of Lost Swords Review
The Books of Lost Swords, Saberhagen. No. Prompted by recent reading, I re-read all eight of the Lost Swords books. I get the feeling Fred gave up about mid-way through (probably around the Sherlock Holmes hommage), and by the last couple wanted to kill the series so badly that he ignored the previous rules by which the Swords had operated. My disappointment with the tying up of loose ends in this series was similar to my disappointment with Ardneh’s Sword, though this one didn’t so much end up contradicting existing canon (Sword rules notwithstanding) as leaving me thinking "Really? That’s the best you can do with an abiding enigma?" Quite unsatisfying.
Self-Made Man Review
Self-Made Man, Vincent. No. This was a book-club obligation, a book I would not likely have read voluntarily (and I ended up reading only one of the sections). Between the author’s assumptions, generalizations, and overall unwillingness to maintain a coherent position, the only conclusion I can reach is that people are complicated and don’t communicate very well.
Finally, our astronomical nightmare is over
Just when I had given up hope (due to misleading news coverage that suggested the round=planet proposal was a fait accompli), the IAU finally made the right choice regarding Pluto. The additional criterion (missing from an earlier version of the BBC report) is that a planet must have "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." I had been hoping for requiring that it possess the majority of the mass in its orbital region, but anything that gets us down to the eight bodies with shared origins and finally excludes the Kuiper Belt is okay with me.
My interpretation is that, faced with solid evidence of the absurd results of crafting an objective standard that allowed Pluto to be commonly referred to as a planet (even the proposal separated the 8 "classical" planets from the "plutons" (bizarrely including Ceres)), only the most sentimental of the scientists could bring themselves to support it.
It's (un)funny because it's true
Quote of the day: "Children who are developing on a typical development track actually tell very unfunny jokes, so we have provided that facility for non-speaking children as well." That from Dr Annalu Waller, a researcher on the System to Augment Non-speakers’ Dialogue Using Puns (Standup), as reported by the BBC.
I Am the Messenger Review
I Am the Messenger, Zusak. Yes. I have a couple issues with the book. First, it assumes (or perhaps implies) a characteristic of human nature that I am firmly convinced does not exist; second, the writer does a thing that I ordinarily disapprove of. He executes it competently, but it is not necessary to the story and I believe it does a disservice to the characters. Your assignment: compare and contrast IAtM and Zero Effect.
Walking in Circles before Lying Down Review
Walking in Circles before Lying Down, Markoe. Yes. I laughed more reading this book than I have laughed at a book in a long, long time. Ms Markoe is a gifted humorist.