Category: Miscellaneous
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Yale, Academia, and Power
This is a fascinating article by Natalia Dashan about her own experiences at Yale and the endless, seemingly pointless political/social controversies there. Read the whole thing; it's a bit long but very insightful. One thing which struck me very profoundly was her point that the Yalies (both faculty and students) are actively abdicating power. This…
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AlbaCon 2019!
This Friday and Saturday I'll be a guest at Albany's long-running local science fiction and fantasy convention, Albacon 2019. On Friday I'm doing two panel discussions. At 3:00 p.m. I'm talking about worldbuilding in fiction along with a stellar panel (including Debra Doyle, Ryk Spoor, and Ian Strock). Then at 7:00 p.m. I'm on a…
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Gothic: The Hip New Trend
It's a common misconception that the Middle Ages were a time of regression, both intellectual and artistic. Anyone who actually knows something about the Middle Ages knows that's ridiculous, but unfortunately those people are a definite minority. And one piece of evidence often used to show the cultural "backwardness" of the Middle Ages is the…
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Vacation in Prague, Day 4
After all the activity of the first few days, we took it easy on Wednesday. Got up late and had breakfast even later, with the result that we didn't even leave the apartment until past noon. Following a suggestion from a Prague native (see below) we crossed the river to the lovely Letna/Letenska Park on…
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WorldCon Turns Eighty!
I'm not actually going to this year's World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, and I only just discovered something interesting: the first WorldCon was held July 4 weekend in 1939, so this year represents the eightieth anniversary of WorldCons. Happy eightieth birthday!
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Celebrating Independence Day
"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from…
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A Matter of Principle
Waldo's momentum is 34,974 kilogram-meters per second. Now you'll never find him.
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Uncharacteristically Personal Note
We never observed "Fathers' Day" in my family. Still don't. My father liked to pick out his own neckties, and dismissed the whole event as something ginned up by the makers of greeting cards and electric shavers. So all the appreciations and in memoriams people are posting on 'blogs and social media today are very…
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June 6
I visited the Normandy beaches in 1993, a year before the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the invasion. Beaches, of course, don't preserve anything very long. They are places where the ocean grinds everything to sand. Normandy's seashore is good for strolling; the water's too chilly for swimming and there are more rocks than sand. Most…
The Cambias Digression 