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On redemption and Christianity in The Book of Strange New Things.
So, I read a couple reviews that didn’t like Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things. The problem was, in the reviewers’ eyes, that the novel as science fiction was bland (e.g. this piece from NPR). And I’ll admit, I wasn’t having fun for most of the time I spent reading it. But at…
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On inspirational women … and board games.
I’ve been thinking about role models for my daughter; specifically, one day last June I found myself wondering whether anybody is selling good inspirational posters of strong, intelligent women that’d look cool hung up in a bedroom. One of the first poster-types I started searching the internet for was “Hedy Lamarr, Inventor.” A poster of…
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On redaction as art and Guantánamo Diary.
Guantánamo Diary is a hard book to write about. It was a hard book to read, honestly. Not because the language is difficult. It isn’t. Not because it’s poorly written. It isn’t. Not even because numerous words and sentences and sometimes entire pages are elided; that takes some getting used to, but eventually creates an…
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On a global wealth tax, automation, and human trafficking.
If you wanted a super-brief summary of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century (which I’ve discussed in a previous essay, here), it’d probably be: “Piketty presents extensive historical data to demonstrate why we ought to have a global wealth tax, followed by a brief, snappy, depressing summary of why we won’t have one anytime…
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On starfish (and whether they are zombies).
Against all odds, N. fell soundly asleep at seven last night. In celebration, I slapped together a pizza; K. and I watched “Juan of the Dead.” Well, the first two-thirds… then we got tired and fell asleep. But the first two-thirds was pretty good! And it was enough to make me want to write a…
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On scientific training, warmth, and pornography in writing, or: why I failed to fit Bonita Avenue.
I’d really thought that I would be the target audience for Bonita Avenue. But I was wrong. Seems like there were a handful of reasons why I wasn’t a good fit for it. Math: there’s a lot of space devoted to mathematics in the book, but in my reading the math seemed not to matter.…
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On translation.
My turn in our local library’s queue to read Peter Buwalda’s “Bonita Avenue” has just arrived, which means that now feels like as good a time as any to jot down a couple thoughts on translation. After all, I wouldn’t get to read this novel if not for the hard work that Jonathan Reeder did…
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On talking to students about school, particularly high schoolers.
Oscar Fernandez (find him @EverydayCalc) recently wrote a charming little article about how to talk to your high-school-aged kids about math. Well worth the quick read, if you’re a parent, or might someday be a parent, or happen to interact with other people’s kids. He has some great tips, and provides a lucid description of why it’s…
coaching, cross country, hating school, high school, How to Talk to Your Kids About Math, math, math with babies, math with toddlers, mathematics, Oscar Fernandez, Out-of-breath conversations about mathematics, parenting, running, school, sullen teenagers, track, volunteering, What was your best class today -
On the PubPeer lawsuit, scientific fraud, and anonymity.
There are some problems with academic bioscience. That much seems to be well agreed on. There are a lot of contributing factors — the pyramid-scheme-like training & employment setup, the recent propagation of soft money positions (universities hiring without setting aside money for salaries, expecting salary money to come out of research grants instead), a…
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On penis size, Sports Illustrated, and child pornography.
Another scientific study was published recently on penis size. Veale et al. aggregated data from many previous studies to attempt to provide a best current estimate for the full distribution of sizes amongst men worldwide. And, sure, you might ask yourself “why?” The authors work in urology, though. If someone feels that his penis is…
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Frank Brown Cloud 