September 14, 2007
One of our senior physics majors has made a video promoting sustainability to students, and posted it on YouTube. I need to figure out the best way to link it from the department web page, but it occurs to me that I have this big Internet platform I can use to plug it:
It's a good piece of work.…
September 14, 2007
Discussing Isaac Asimov's non-fiction a bit yesterday reminded me of my absolute favorite panel at Worldcon, Saturday's "Mundane or Transcendent?" with Cory Doctorow, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Charlie Stross, and Robert Silverberg as moderator. They're all really smart people, and they're all good at…
September 13, 2007
So, for the last several months, I've had a loaner tablet PC from our ITS department, that I used when teaching in the Winter and Spring terms. It's a Toshiba, and a few years old, but it worked pretty well for what I was doing.
Since I've got some book money coming in, I'm looking to buy one for…
September 13, 2007
A critical question has come up in looking over stuff for the book:
Does a dog have Buddha nature?
I mean, a dog has particle character, obviously. And quantum theory tells us that a dog has wave nature. But does a dog have Buddha nature?
Hard questions make Emmy sad. Or maybe she's just…
September 13, 2007
Via Steinn, the Incoherent Ponderer ponders academic clothing:
For some strange reason, whenever it is not clear whether the attire is formal or informal, I am much more concerned about overdressing, than dressing too informally.
I think that this is because it's very difficult to be dressed too…
September 13, 2007
James Nicoll has a question about pop science:
Who today fills the niche of science popularizer once filled by people like Ley or Asimov? That is, who writes essays covering a wide range of the sciences, as opposed to covering one in detail for the public?
If you look in the comments, the second…
September 12, 2007
Two words: Beef Sushi
This was bought at a stand in Takayama, which takes a lot of pride in the local beef (which was, indeed, excellent). I'm not sure it's completely raw-- another place had a poster showing similar sushi pieces being roasted with a blowtorch, but alas, they were closed for…
September 12, 2007
In a comment to the book announcement, "HI" makes a request:
Would you be able to summarize the recent paper "Progressive field-state collapse and quantum non-demolition photon counting" (Nature. 2007 Aug 23;448(7156):889-93) for non-specialists? How do you interpret it?
This probably would've…
September 12, 2007
Before it slips too far into the mists of memory, I should probably post some summary thoughts about Nippon 2007, the World SF Convention in Japan that Kate and I attended last week. To some degree, this will be inside-baseball stuff, but if you're not interested in fannish stuff, rest assured,…
September 10, 2007
I'm checking a last few things and putting papers into an envelope when the dog wakes up from her nap. "Hey," she says, stretching, "What're you doing?"
"I'm getting ready to mail this," I say.
"What is it?"
"Several copies of a book contract that I just signed."
"It's a book about me, right?" she…
September 10, 2007
I don't normally pay much attention to preseason or off-season sports, and my isolation has been better than usual this year with regard to the NFL, what with being in Japan for the past three weeks. As a result, I vaguely expected my Giants to suck this year, but I was not prepared for the season…
September 10, 2007
Many thanks to Aaron and Nathan, my guest bloggers over the past few weeks-- they did a great job, and if anything probably raised the tone around here. If you've got an academic job opening, and aren't afraid of those blog-reading types, they're both looking for permanent positions... Hint, hint.…
September 9, 2007
A few general observations from three weeks on vacation in Japan, in no particular order:
Thirteen hours is a long goddamn time to spend on a plane.
The Japanese can and will pickle damn near anything.
The Japanese love paper. This is not an exotic-art-of-origami reference, either: every…
September 9, 2007
Friday morning, we woke up in Osaka, and from there, the "day" went something like this:
1 hour on the train from Osaka Station to Kansai Airport
2 hours at the airport
12 hours on a plane to Detroit
2 hours in the airport at Detroit
2 hours on a plant to JFK
2 hours on Long Island (getting our…
September 4, 2007
Worldcon wrapped up Monday morning, with a panel on blogs and LiveJournals in SF, which was recorded for a possible Tor podcast (it's not up yet, but may turn up in the next few days). If you'd like to hear what I sound like when I find myself moderating a con panel with no real preparation, that'…
September 1, 2007
Several days ago, I mentioned that I had taken over 1,000 pictures on the trip thus far. That number has increased somewhat since then, and I offered a prize to the person who comes closest to guessing the final number, without going over. Specifically, I promised something cheap and tacky from…
September 1, 2007
If you really care about the winners of the 2007 Hugo Awards, you probably don't need me to tell you this, but the winners of the 2007 Hugo Awards were announced last night. The ceremony went off pretty well, and clocked in at just over two hours, so it was much better than the Academy Awards.
As…
August 29, 2007
Back in 1998, when I was here for three months working outside of Tokyo, I made a trip down to Kamakura, which was the capital (or at least the seat of power) for a century or so, around 1200. It's a beautiful town, full of great old temples, but it was a pissy, cold, and rainy day when I visited.…
August 26, 2007
One great link, while I'm posting things: rice paddy art in Inagadate:
[B]y precisely planting four varieties of rice with differently colored leaves in fields their ancestors have farmed for centuries, the people of Inakadate Village have this year grown remarkable reproductions of famous…
August 26, 2007
(I'm not sure what the right counter word for digital photos would be, but physical photographs would be flat things, so we'll go with "mai"...)
The post title pretty much says it: I have taken 1,000 pictures thus far on this trip. We're now in Yokohama, staying in an absurd room on the 62nd floor…
August 25, 2007
Saturday, we did a swing through northwest Kyoto, where there are a whole bunch of famous temples with gardens, spanning pretty much the full possible range. They range from the dry rock gardens (karesansui, according to Google) at Ryoanji to the faintly preposterous Golden Pavilion at Kinkakuji,…
August 24, 2007
No update yesterday, because we went to Nara, about an hour away by train, and hurried out to get an early start. Thursday was a light day, anyway-- the highlights were a visit to Nijo Jinya, which is a preserved Edo-period inn for feudal lords visiting Kyoto, and includes a number of slightly over…
August 22, 2007
(These regular updates are brought to you by the loaner laptops in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency, and the fact that jet lag has me waking up at 5 every morning, well before the restaurant opens for breakfast. They may or may not continue from Yokohama when we get there, but for now, it gives me…
August 21, 2007
(I think that's right-- we're drifting into phrasebook stuff, here...)
Another day of tourism, another golf shirt with visible salt crystals from dried sweat. Did I mention that it's really frickin' hot?
Today was a split day-- we spent the morning looking at temples near the Kyoto station, and…
August 20, 2007
My rudimentary Japanese will run out much too fast for me to keep up the conceit of titling all travel updates in Japanese, but we'll run with it while we can... I don't know if there's a Japanese equivalent of "It'sãnot the heat, it's the humidity," so we'll just go with this.
When I told people…
August 19, 2007
I'm sure I'm neither the first nor the last person to note that it probably says something about Japan that the ordinary meet-new-people ritual includes asking them "Please be kind to me." But, you know, sometimes you have to be obvious.
Anyway, I'm in Kyoto, typing on a loaner laptop in the hotel…
August 16, 2007
As mentioned several times hereabouts, Kate and I are headed to Japan on Saturday, where we'll be spending three weeks touring around and attending the World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama. We will have at least some Internet access, and I may post the occasional travel update from Japan,…
August 16, 2007
A couple of days ago, Brad DeLong hoisted a proposal from comments (originally suggested by Bernard Yomtov):
A reporter should not be assigned to cover subject X unless he has as good an understanding of X as a baseball writer is expected to have of baseball.
Kevin Drum isn't sold on the idea:
Man…
August 16, 2007
A little while ago, James Nicoll posted about the shifting subject areas of SF:
In fact, a fairly consistent pattern in SF is to retreat away from areas that have come under the light of scientific examination. When probes began to visit the planets, SF retreated to the stars (There are very few…
