Looney Toons: Back in Action

3/5 stars

Campy, silly, and over-the top. But that’s on purpose, so it makes it all the better. It’s a fun 2 hours.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2003)

Edited by Richard Dawkins

This is a collection of articles published during 2002 on they topics of physics, astronomy, computer science, geology, environmental science, etc. Andrew had told me that previous editions were quite biology-heavy, but this one had several astronomy articles, so I started tithe this one.

The astronomy articles spanned quite a range of topics:

• “At Home in the Heavens” by Tim Appenzeller covered the state of the search for extra-solar planets
• “Astronomy’s New Stars” by Timothy Ferris discussed some of the contributions to astronomy by amateur astronomers
• “A New View of Our Universe” by Dennis Overbye talked about the state of cosmology and the concept of the multiverse
• “The Very Best Telescope” by William Speed Weed discussed a new optical interferometer

For the most part I enjoyed the articles in the book, even the non-astronomy ones :-). “What If It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie” by Gary Taubes sheds light on why the Atkins diet has been scorned by science funding agencies (pressure to promote the low-fat diet) and why it merits further study. “Memory Faults and Fixes” by Elizabeth F. Luftus discusses research into memory, reporting on research that shows how easy it is to alter humans’ memories.

There were a few articles I didn’t particularly enjoy, like “Terminal Ice” by Ian Frazier, which seemed to stretch out into forever. However, that’s to be expected in a large collection like this, and certainly I enjoyed more of the articles than not.

A Fire Upon the Deep

by Vernor Vinge

Wow! This is epic sci-fi writing at it’s best — I have to put it up on my list with Poul Anderson’s Starfarers.

The novel opens with the explosive creation of a destructive “higher power”. Out of the explosion, the Olsndots escape with their two children, Jefri and Johanna, and the children of everyone at the station in cold sleep. They are forced to land on an unknown planet, and in a skirmish with the medieval natives of the planet the Olsndot adults are killed and Jefri and Johanna are separated.

Across the galaxy, Ravna Bergsndot is working as an archivist on Relay. The galaxy is hearing reports of the new “higher power”, now called The Blight because of it’s destructive ways. Ravna receives a communication from Jefri — communication from a starship present at the creation of The Blight. Her bosses are very interested in getting their hands on the records of the starship in hopes of finding a way to defeat The Blight.

Ravan is enlisted for this rescue, along with two Skroderiders — a plant-like race made intelligent and mobile by wheeled wagons with technology beyond that of much of the galaxy (including the Skroderiders). Also along for the mission is Pham Nuwen, a human cobbled together from the remains of members of an ancient failed mission frozen in a junk yard near Relay.

This epic novel follows the trials of Johanna and Jefri, embroiled in the politics of a medieval world, and of the rescuers in their ill-fated trek to save the children and the spacecraft.

Cold Mountain

4/5 stars

We’ve been meaning to see this one for a couple months now, so we found a theater still showing it, and headed out this afternoon.

It was quite good — definitely deserving of the Oscar nominations it received (unlike Lost in Translation, imho). At it’s simplest, it is a love story. Inman (Jude Law) is separated from his love (though they don’t really know it until they’ve separated), Ada, by the Civil War “draft”. We follow his wanderings, after being wounded and deserting the military hospital, to return to Cold Mountain, where Ada is coping with life without her father on a large farm.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

3/5 stars

Typical Terminator movie. Not much else to say.

The Adventures of Pricilla, Queen of the Desert

2/5 stars

Actually, this wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but that might have been because I was sewing while watching the movie. I can imagine that if I had to actually sit and pay attention through the whole thing, I would have enjoyed it less.

Mitzi, a drag queen, discovers that his ex-wife needs his help. So he and two friends, Bernadette and Felicia, head across the desert to Alice Springs (Australia), to put on a show at her hotel. I was distracted, though, because Mitzi is played by Hugo Weaving, the same actor who played Agent Smith in the Matrix movies and Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I can imagine that the next time I watch The Matrix, I’ll be picturing Agent Smith in drag.

Shakespeare puzzle finished!

I haven’t actually had much time to work on puzzles in the past 6 months, so this one has been on the puzzle caddy for a long time. But I finally sat down and worked on it for nearly two days straight, and finished it. I think this is the first puzzle that I’ve done where I didn’t complete the frame first — that’s because this was one of those puzzles where it’s way too easy to connect the wrong two pieces without realizing it.

Lost in Translation

1/5 stars

I want my 2 hours back.

I’m not sure what this movie was supposed to be. It had moments that were fun, moments that were funny, moments that were touching. However, these moments didn’t seem to come together in any meaningful way. I’m shocked that this movie was nominated for any awards. I definitely can’t recommend it.

God’s Equation

by Amir D. Aczel

Aczel traces the history of Einstein’s theory of relativity and the formulation (and subsequent use) of his field equation. I found that for me, the most interesting parts of the book were the tales from Einstein’s time.

For example, after Einstein developed the general relativistic equation, he wanted to test it, naturally. On possible way would be to measure the bending of light (or lack of bending) around the Sun during an eclipse. He collaborated with Freundlich, an observational astronomer, and an expedition to Crimea was set for August 1914. Unfortunately, Germany declared war on Russia in early August. Freundlich was already on his way to the observation site when these events escalated, and was arrested for being a German in Russian territory with suspicious-looking equipment (the telescope). So much for that attempt to test the theory.

The modern stories about the vindication of Einstein’s addition of the cosmological constant to the equation were less interesting for me. However, that might just be because I’ve heard countless colloquia and read countless abstracts on this topic.

Wizards of the Coast is closing :-(

Since the Wizards of the Coast stores, and Gamekeeper stores, are closing, Andrew and I decided to head to the nearest one to get some good deals on games we’ve been eyeing. They were down to 30% off of everything, and 50% off of select items when we went tonight. We saw a bunch of games that we’ve been considering, like City Scape, Carcassone, and Settlers of Katan. However, we only walked out with a 2-player Lord of the Rings game and a couple games for kids to have at our wedding reception. Andrew wanted to research the games a bit more before we decided which ones to get, so we’ll return this weekend and get a couple.