Category: Miscellaneous
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Most Disturbing Thing You’ll See Today
It's Carnival season again, which means it's King Cake season! Which means it's King Cake Baby season! I love my home town. Where else can one take pride in the "creepiest mascot" in pro sports? Here's a video made by the Pelicans which seems to glory in the unnerving nature of their mascot. Those eyes.…
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Random Historical Trivia
Anyone who complains that the Electoral College used by the United States of America is too complicated should take a gander at the method employed by the Republic of Venice to select its Doges. Step 1: The Grand Council (sort of a House of Representatives, except that membership was by invitation rather than election) would…
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It’s Not Christmas Without NORAD
Every year at this time I link to my favorite Christmas Web site: the Official NORAD Santa Tracker page. If you don't understand why this site is the sweetest, goofiest, and yet also the greatest embodiment of the Christmas spirit, you have the soul of a Krampus. And Krampus is not welcome in this airspace.…
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The Argument For Space
I've always been a fan of space exploration, which means I've often gotten into arguments with people over the value of doing it. NASA (among others) spends a lot of its public-relations budget promoting the importance of exploring space, but I think they focus on the wrong things. On the NASA web page there's a…
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Inoculating Against Woo
A while back I posted a little joke about why Marty McFly's father George, in the movie Back to the Future, is the worst science fiction writer ever. One of my complaints was that George couldn't bring himself to publish his stories until a midnight encounter with a fake "spaceman" convinced him it was all…
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PhilCon 2016, Featuring ME!
This weekend I'll be attending the venerable PhilCon science fiction convention, at the Crowne Plaza hotel in scenic Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Here's my schedule of events: Friday, November 18, 8:00 p.m., Plaza III: Utopias That Make Us Cringe — I'll be moderating a panel on utopian societies in science fiction that don't actually seem very…
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Movie Magic
Last weekend the family went out to see Dr. Strange, the latest Marvel Comics movie. This one is the origin story for Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and master of the mystic arts. It was entertaining and visually wonderful. It did get me thinking (uh-oh) about how magic is depicted in most modern films — and…
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A Peeve
I've lately become rather irritated at seeing the helpful little notices on the paper napkin dispensers in coffeeshops and the more pretentious fast-food joints, asking patrons not to hog the napkins because "napkins = trees." Grr. Yes, paper napkins are made from wood pulp, and wood pulp is made from harvested trees. But: the idea…
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Appalachian Spring, or Not
One of my favorite pieces of music is Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. I often listen to it while driving, but the last time I did that I realized something which had been scratching at the back of my brain for years: Appalachian Spring doesn't sound much like the Appalachians. The main theme is a Shaker…
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Another Political Paradox
I've already mentioned that solidly loyal states are at a disadvantage in modern American politics, but there's another paradox I've noticed: Elections are determined by the people who don't care much about politics. After all, the party faithful are the ones who care. The ones who read political blogs and listen to Rachel Maddow or…
The Cambias Digression 