Click here for a revised PDF version of this post. If you're not rewriting, you're not writing! Recently, Caryn, the wife of my old ACS (American Community School of Beirut) friend David Holladay, called me out of the blue. The instant I took the call, I knew it was bad news. She told me that … Continue reading Last Schoolboy Standing
Tiny Universe Syndrome
Jennifer pursues evil AIs in a tiny Universe. I sat through Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix movie Atlas the other night. Atlas is what I call generic low-IQ science fiction. It sports many sci-fi elements: evil AIs, good AIs, warm heroines (Jennifer is way too old to be considered hot), robots, spaceships, space marines, explosions, and … Continue reading Tiny Universe Syndrome
A Note Regarding the Contents of the Total Library
In Jorge Luis Borges’s 1939 essay The Total Library, we catch our first glimpse of the Library of Babel. Borges, like many writers and artists, kept revisiting favorite themes. The Total Library of 1939 is best considered a Library of Babel construction site. The foundation crews are busy excavating whatever esoteric material will support the … Continue reading A Note Regarding the Contents of the Total Library
Evelyn’s Death
Next week is the 11th anniversary of my mother’s death. It seems like yesterday, but a decade has passed. In that decade, my father Frank, my aunt Alberta, my wife’s mother Mahin, my good friend Carl, and many others have died: an entire generation has fallen. Those of us still alive have also changed. My … Continue reading Evelyn’s Death
My Three-Body Problem
I have a three-body problem. Today, while wandering in our local Barnes & Noble, I spotted, for the nth time, a boxed set edition of Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem (TBP). Once again, I resisted the urge to snatch the books off the shelf, pony up whatever B&N was asking, and ferry TBP home for a … Continue reading My Three-Body Problem
The First Total Solar Eclipse of the 21st Century
Earlier this month (April 8, 2024), a total solar eclipse cut through Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Total solar eclipses are paramount spectacles. It’s unlikely you will see anything else in your short, pointless life that will match a total eclipse. Thus, whenever an eclipse passes nearby, you should endeavor to place yourself in … Continue reading The First Total Solar Eclipse of the 21st Century
Frankenstein Weather
In my old age, I’ve picked up a nasty habit: a fondness for literary biographies. Recently, I’ve enjoyed books about Keats, Shelley, Byron, Blake, Twain, Orwell, Tagore, Joyce, and others. It’s a strange affliction — utterly without rational basis, lacking the danger of street drugs, but like drugs delivering peculiar damaging delights. Last night, while … Continue reading Frankenstein Weather
Math Eras
As part of a larger project, I needed a simple timeline for the history of mathematics. I kicked around a bunch of candidates but settled on the following: Old Tally — before 4000 BCE Bronze River — 4000 BCE to 1001 BCE Early Philosophic — 1000 BCE to 301 BCE Euclidean — 300 BCE to … Continue reading Math Eras
Generation Ship: Review
I grew up reading hard science fiction. Some of my favorite authors were Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Frank Herbert, and Jerry Pournelle. All these writers created technically plausible stories with heavy doses of science. I’ve always held that science fiction needs some actual science to distinguish it from … Continue reading Generation Ship: Review
The Pointless Existence of Ambrose Oliver Cuddlepomp
We find Ambrose Oliver Cuddlepomp at work, or at least what he calls work. It’s not work in the sense of exerting energies for earnings; it’s more like a deliberate marking of time: a way to distinguish one hour and day from another. Ambrose Oliver Cuddlepomp, or “Cuddie” to use the demeaning nickname, has never … Continue reading The Pointless Existence of Ambrose Oliver Cuddlepomp
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 