Category: personal
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Sometimes the worst thing is saying, “I’m sorry”.
So, last Saturday (Sep 11), a paper in Maine ran a story about the local celebrations at the end of Ramadan the day before. It was a pretty innocuous piece, a typical fluff article about local culture. Then the Internet happened.
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My summer reading
Just to put it in one place, here’s what I’ve read and what I hope to read this summer. Already Read Neverwhere by Niel Gaiman The Engineer Trilogy by K. J. Parker Devices and Desires Evil for Evil The Escapement To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski (2010 0708) Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay…
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Quote of the Day
From a post by Steve Benen over at Political Animal: In human history, it’s never been easier to get — and stay — well informed. Folks just have to take some responsibility. If they don’t, the result can be a dysfunctional democracy. It’s impolitic to say this but not all pastimes and passions are equal.…
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Review: Inception
Inception a Christopher Nolan Film Arbitrary 5-Point rating: 5 out of 5 Inception is a weird, ambitious, action-packed sci fi thriller-cum-heist flick. It is, in its own way, as ambitious as The Matrix and suffers from the comparison only in that it didn’t come first. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Tom Dom Cobb, a thief of a…
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Why I have no respect for design behaviors at Microsoft
I’ve received my new laptop and am working on getting it outfitted and up to speed. (This process, by the way, is distressingly like moving to a new home and is equally as frustrating and potentially as traumatizing.) After logging in for the first time, the system helpfully suggests that you create a system backup. …
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Days of miracle and wonder, indeed
For about ten years, I’ve been running a project in my Honors Physics course called Days of Miracle and Wonder (yes, title taken from a Paul Simon song). In it, the students are asked to create a business case for a product or service not available today but likely to be so by 2030. Although…
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Seconded…
This piece from the Atlantic captures my feeling pretty close to exactly, re: the recent Rand Paul flap on the Civil Rights Act and his alleged “courage”. In particular, the conclusion: Now, after the police dogs, night-sticks and fire-hoses have been beaten back, Rand Paul wants to reopen the question, while, to be sure, claiming that…