The Cambias Digression

Notes and thoughts on everything from what I had for breakfast to the fate of the Universe.

  • Word of the Week

    This week's Word of the Week is: Cholecystitis.  

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  • Comic Timing

    My talented wife was leaving early this morning on a trip, and I was getting ready to drive her to meet her ride. She glanced outside and said, "Ugh. It's raining." But then she brightened up and added, "At least it isn't snowing." Five minutes later, as we were about to leave, I opened the…

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  • Aristocracy in Space!

    Why are there so many aristocrats in science fiction? They're all over the place. In books you've got David Weber's Honor Harrington (who works for a Royal space navy and eventually becomes a Countess), Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan (a Count who works for an Emperor), Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Rod Blaine (the son…

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  • Search For The Old Ones

    One of the great revolutions in human thought was the concept of "Deep Time" — the notion that the Earth and the Universe are vastly older than recorded human history, and even the origins of the human species lie long before the invention of writing. Charles Lyell, the Victorian geologist, was probably the first person…

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  • There’s No Pleasing Some People

    I do most of the grocery shopping for my family. Yesterday I went on my usual big monthly run to the discount club, to stock up on stuff that comes in large packages. One of the items my talented wife asked me to pick up was cereal. So I bought cereal. Was my return with…

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  • Huh?

    Can anyone explain why my Thursday post apologizing for missing a week of posting got more than 600 hits? That's about ten times more than anything since my gripe about Marty McFly's dad.

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  • Still Bunk After All These Years

    So here's an article from Quillette about "social constructionism" — in particular how postmodernists have applied the concept to the sciences, and how bad an idea it is. I was amused to see that one of the examples cited in the piece is Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar's book Laboratory Life, because that book was…

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  • We Apologize For The Interruption

    Apologies for my absence. I was traveling and didn't have the time (or reliable Internet access) for 'blog posts. But because I was traveling on my own, I wound up having a lot of time to think about various things, and one of them was this 'blog. Up to now I have focused on "long…

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  • Random Encounters: On the Fantastickal Moon

    We know what you'll find on the Moon if you get there via a Saturn rocket and Apollo Program Lunar Module lander. But what if  you sail to the Moon aboard an elven galleon or step there through an enchanted silver door? ENCOUNTERS ON THE FANTASTICKAL MOON (Roll 1d20 when roving about the Lunar surface,…

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  • A Vexillic Issue

    Most State flags are awful. There, I've said it and I'm not sorry. Even my home State of Louisiana has an awful flag. There are fifty States in the United States, and two-thirds of them have awful flags. What makes an awful State flag? Well, twenty-nine States have flags that are horribly boring. You can…

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The Worldbuilding Index