The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Category: review

  • Review: Billy Goat Tavern, Chicago

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    Billy Goat Tavern 430 N Michigan Ave., Chicago IL Billed on several sites as home of “Chicago’s best cheeseburger” and made famous by a skit on early Saturday Night Live (“cheezborger! cheezborger! cheezborger!”). As part of our very-intermittent plan of sampling “the best of…” in Chicago eateries, Annie and I decided to stop at the…

  • Review: Metatropolis

    Review: Metatropolis

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    Metatropolis Edited by Jack Scalzi Rating on an arbitrary 5-point scale: 4 out of 5 Metatropolis is a science fiction anthology exploring, as it claims, the “future of cities”.  That’s not strictly accurate. It’s really a collection of stories that explore the question: If we as a species are going to survive the mistakes of…

  • Review: Inception

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    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…

  • Ethics and Economics in Journalism

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    Via Ezra Klein, a well-argued piece by Timothy Lee on the recent flap over the forced resignation of Dave Weigel from The Washington Post.  If none of those names mean anything to you, then this is unlikely to be very interesting…  Lee’s thesis is that reportorial objectivity is more a function of the economies of…

  • Knowing is Half the Battle

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    I was cruising TechDirt and saw a neat post on “Is The Federal Government The Most Interesting Tech Startup For 2009?”  The idea is that the recent data.gov initiative has led to an outpouring of with-it and effective apps allowing anyone to get a handle on the vast trove of information compiled by the federal…

  • Joking about Science

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    I regret the simple me-too-ism of just posting a link to an article, but this piece over at Project Syndicate is a nice, short reflection on how jokes scientists make (about their own profession) illuminate the two distinct views we hold of science (as relating to truth and utility).  Short, easy to read, and worth…

  • The Start of Summer

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    Everyone has their own unique signs that summer is upon us, the signature sound that signals the academic year is winding down. For me, it’s “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. More below the fold.

  • Two Finales (2): Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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    As mentioned in a previous post, recently two of my favorite shows reached their conclusion.  While the Battlestar Galactica finale left a lingering bad taste in my mouth (The Cylons had a plan all along?  Bollocks!), the conclusion of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was gripping and satisfying.  In fact it was one of the…

  • Two Finales (1): Battlestar Galactica

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    In the past couple of weeks, two science fictions shows I follow have had their finales: the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (OK, so technically, the word is still out on Sarah Connor, but many people feel it’s doomed, and although I have no inside information, the reasoning seems solid.) Very…

  • Senator Clinton’s Speech

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    Senator Hilary Clinton has finished her address to the Democratic National Convention. My personal response: She didn’t hit it out of the park but she definitely got some extra bases and maybe batted some runs in. I think she delivered a full-throated, crystal clear indictment of the past eight years and of John McCain’s alignment…