Category: Weblogs
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How Risky Is Your Gathering?
In a time of alarm over virus transmission, how dangerous is a gathering of people? This post from Tyler Cowan's blog features a risk assessment calculator, giving the probability that someone at an event is carrying the Wuhan Coronavirus, based on the size of the event and the number of carriers nationwide. It's reassuring to…
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On the Air!
If you have enjoyed reading my posts about The Initiate here on my 'blog, you can venture into another medium! Listen to an interview with me about the book on the Baen Free Radio Hour podcast, linked here.
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Meta-Political Post
No, I'm not talking about politics. I'm talking about talking about politics. I recently read a couple of interesting essays. The first, by economist Robin Hanson, is "Respectable Rants" — his standards for good political rhetoric. Note that he's not trying to limit politicians to a Rain Man style recitation of facts, nor is he…
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The Future of Star Wars — And An Initiate Reading!
Andrew Liptak at Tor.com asked some science fiction writers what they'd like to see from future Star Wars projects. You can read my answer here. And if you're in or near Worcester, Mass., at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow, swing by Annie's Book Stop of Worcester, at 65 James Street on the west side of Worcester (take…
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Great Moments In Gaming
This table anecdote by Daniel J. Davis is one of the greatest examples I've seen of player-characters being player-characters. I love this stuff. It's why I love roleplaying games: seeing other people be clever (and, occasionally, horrifying). For more clever, horrifying acts, check out The Initiate, from Baen Books. It will be in…
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Ancient Recipes
Very interesting BBC Travel story about re-creating ancient Mesopotamian recipes. Read it here. They include a lamb stew which sounds worth trying. The only surprising thing, really, is that anyone should be surprised that people living nearly 4000 years ago ate much the same things their modern descendants do. Food is a bedrock of culture…
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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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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…
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Changes in Fandom: A Different Perspective
Judith Dial (editor of the delightfully un-redacted Conspiracy! anthology) published some remarks on the Amazing Stories blog about the shifts in fandom which provide an interesting "parallax view" on my own musings about status and social class in SF. You can read her post here.
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Open the Pod Bay!
You can hear my voice on the latest episode of the Baen Free Radio Hour podcast, talking about Arkad's World and various digressions. Listen here.
The Cambias Digression 