Category: Science
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Signs of the Times
Things I've seen in the past few days: • Disposable plastic gloves now get a listing on the supermarket aisle sign. • Big displays of disinfectant wipes at the front of multiple stores. • No dust masks at any hardware store. What have you noticed?
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Lewis and Lovecraft
This post is about a common thread I've noticed in the works of two very different writers: Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Clive Staples Lewis. (One of their few similiarities is that both are known by their first two initials.) C.S. Lewis, of course, is famous as the author of the Narnia series and numerous works…
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Alexei Leonov, R.I.P.
The title says it all, really. Alexei Leonov, one of the three greatest Russian space explorers, died last week after a long and amazing career. It's hard to avoid the feeling that we're living in a diminished age. We have great plans, great dreams . . . but too often they seem to stay that…
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Lovecraft and Claptrap
This past weekend I attended (as a humble paying member) NecronomiCon 2019 in Providence, Rhode Island. If you know anything about horror fiction or games you can probably guess that NecronomiCon is a convention focused on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the father of modern horror. I had a great time and plan to go…
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Vacation in Prague: Day 5
On Thursday morning we ventured down along the riverbank south of the Charles Bridge, admiring the gorgeous Beaux-Arts buildings. We wandered as far as Prague's newest (and, in my personal opinion, most over-rated) architectural landmark, the "Dancing Houses." If you haven't seen pictures, it's a pair of vaguely whimsical modern structures made to give the…
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Vacation in Prague, Day 3
On Tuesday the 16th we slept until nine and breakfasted on croissants and scrambled eggs, then set out to see the sights of the Jewish Quarter. This meant much less walking, as our flat was right in the middle of that part of town. We began at the Old New Synagogue, which follows the international…
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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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Disaster Excuses
One common thread running through science fiction, almost since the beginning, is a concept I call "Disaster Excuses." A Disaster Excuse is some awful event used to justify what would otherwise be an unlikely technological project, journey, or social change. For a long time the standard Disaster Excuse was nuclear war. From 1945 up to…
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SEE THIS MOVIE
The new Apollo 11 documentary is amazing. There's footage I've never seen, and I've probably watched every space documentary made in the past forty years. Skip this week's crop of comic book heroes and see a film about real ones.
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The Philosophical Alphabet Inside Us
Let us return to those thrilling days of yesteryear . . . specifically to Restoration-era England, when a group of intellectually curious men began to meet at Gresham College to watch scientific experiments and discuss matters like how gravity works and whether blood circulates. At first they were informally known as the "Invisible College" (not…
The Cambias Digression 