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The Year in Blogging, 2007

Because it's not science without graphs: That's the traffic for this blog for 2007. If you integrate the area under the curve, you get a total of 833,275 page views for the year, which is, frankly, kind of astonishing. That's up from last year's total of 574,676, so I guess the goal for 2008 is to break a million. The top ten posts for the year, in terms of traffic: Many Worlds, Many Treats: 52,667 (of course) Bunnies Made of Cheese: 14,068 Stealth Creationists and Illinois Nazis: 9,048 It's Turtles All the Way Down: 5,539 New "Meme": Manly or Self-Sufficient?: 5,213 Why Do Polarized…

The Pipeline Problem

Inside Higher Ed has an article on yet another study of why there aren't more conservatives in academia: Colleges have been increasingly competing to offer "family friendly" policies -- in the hopes of attracting the best academic talent from a pool of Ph.D.'s that includes both more women than ever before as well as many men who take parenting responsibilities seriously. A new study suggests that such policies may be important for another group that believes its needs aren't fully addressed in academe: conservatives. The study -- "Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don't Get Doctorates" --…

Reader Request: Borrowing Energy

Commenter miller asks: It's often said that virtual particles can "borrow" energy, as long as it's for a short enough time to be compatible with the uncertainty principle. This never made sense to me, because the uncertainty principle says that product of uncertainty in energy and uncertainty in time is greater than h-bar over 2, not less than. Please explain. The relevant equation is in the graphic at the top of this blog, just to the right of the title-- the one with ΔEΔt. It's easy to get turned around with this, due to the slightly unfamiliar business of working with inequalities. The…

Twitter in Business Schools

My initial reaction to the financial meltdown caused by the housing bubble was "Are our business leaders really that stupid?" Things like this news squib from Inside Higher Ed make me suspect the answer is "yes, they are that stupid": Business schools -- including such prestigious ones as those of Columbia and Harvard Universities -- are adding courses on social media to the M.B.A. curriculum, Business Week reported. The rapid growth of social media has many companies wanting to know more about how to use various tools, creating an opening for new M.B.A.'s who want to make themselves more…

Pie in the sky between your thighs

Ladies, there are people who want your menstrual blood. It contains stromal cells, which are a multipotent adult-stem-cell-like population that might be a useful source of fairly plastic, proliferative cells. This distant possibility has prompted one company, C'Elle, to offer to collect, test, purify, and store these cells for you. As they say, these cells "may potentially provide phenomenal life saving treatments and customized therapies in the future"…so you should stash away a supply in cryogenic storage, just in case someone comes up with a use. There is some serious science here, and…

I Write Like a Random Selection of Famous People

Via Crooked Timber, there's a silly web site that lets you put in a chunk of text, and does some sort of statistical analysis of it to determine what famous writer's prose it most closely resembles. It turns out, I'm kind of hard to categorize. For instance, when I'm writing about Holy Grails, I apparently sound like Dan Brown. When the subject turns to the size of the proton, though, I sound like Douglas Adams. Maybe it's just that the random variety of topics on the blog throws it off, though. I have, after all, written an entire book explaining quantum mechanics through conversations with…

Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be

SteelyKid has some molars coming in, which led to some intermittent generalized fussiness this weekend. When she gets that way, she can sometimes be calmed down using videos on the computer, such as the "Wheels on the Buss" DVD my mom has. In order to spare the sanity of the adults in her life, though, we supplemented this with kid-friendly YouTube clips, eventually running across this: I have very distinct memories of this when I was a small child watching Sesame Street-- I hesitate to call them happy memories, because I think I recall being upset when the singers are carried off. But I…

The Glamorous Life of an Experimental Physicist

The Virtuosi has quickly become a staple of the daily Links Dumps here, but the recent series of posts on experimental physics deserve greater prominence, so here they are: Life as an Experimenter- Day One Life as an Experimenter- Day Two Life as an Experimenter- Day Three Life as an Experimenter- Reflections The individual day posts provide an inside look at what it's like to do experimental condensed matter physics, specifically using beam time on an accelerator to do diffraction studies of materials. It's got everything you would like to see in such a story-- equipment failures, sleep…

Links for 2010-05-31

slacktivist: Sex & Money, part 1 "For Nehemiah, charging 1 percent was shameful usury. The low-interest loans I was championing through our alternative investing still charged more than that. And the Gospels weren't any help at all. Jesus did not merely reinforce the prohibition against usury, he reached past it -- forbidding lending with the expectation of repayment. I had studied myself into a bind. On the one hand, I earnestly believed, in that murky, visceral way we evangelicals have, that God had led me to this new job. And the job seemed like an exciting chance to learn a great…

Links for 2010-05-18

DLMF: NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions An Abromowitz and Stegun for the Internet age. (tags: math science software physics books internet) Blog U.: Is TED Making Us Stupid? - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed "Pre-TED, I used to be able to sit through a boring lecture or presentation -- diligently taking notes while being sufficiently nourished by whatever small sliver of new insights or information the speaker could provide. I had patience, fortitude, and a long attention span for the bad presentation. TED has extinguished this valuable skill." (tags: ted…

Congratulations to Frederick Franke and James Morton

I think I've mentioned before that I'm on the local committee that selects nominees for the Watson Fellowship, which is one of the best committees to be on, because you get to interact with some of our best students doing things that they really love. This year, we're thrilled to have two of our nominees selected as members of the 2010-2011 awardees: Frederick Franke, Union College Out of the Kitchen and Into the Fire: Exploring Open-Fire Cooking Methods South Africa, New Zealand, India, Jamaica, Turkey People don't generally like to eat alone; food is a necessity, but it also serves to bring…

Announcing the Climate Science Rapid Response Team

Okay, "A Team" was a little to simple, and it was taken. Instead I would like to inform readers of the "CSRR" Team, or CSRRT. I will let the press release speak for itself: NAME: Climate Science Rapid Response Team (CSRRT) WEBSITE: www.climaterapidresponse.org WHO & WHAT: The CSSRT is a match-making service between top scientists and members of the media and office holders and their staffs from various levels of government. Our group consists of dozens of leading scientists who wish to improve communication about climate change. The…

Open thread for "One or Two Warm Years is not Global Warming"

A commenter just asked on the original "One or two warm years is not Global Warming" thread if the article is still true five years later. Certainly the logic of it, that the temperature trend is unequivocally warming and we are not claimig global warming because of a record or two, still holds, but I thought it might be interesting to revisit the specific data points I raised in it and ask if they are still true. The temperature data points are from the GISS analysis and can be found here (as you see, I have discovered where they hide their data!). The statements I made are as follows: every…

How to talk to crakar - point 5

Crakar said: The peer-reviewed literature is unanimous in finding that the residence-time of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 7 years. The UN's climate panel, however, chooses a complex and unsatisfactory definition of residence-time that allows it to pretend that the residence time is in fact 100 years. This is one of many respects in which the climate panel, while claiming to represent the "consensus" of scientific opinion, is in fact entirely at odds with the peer-reviewed literature. Crakar is confusing the residence time of an individual CO2 molecule with the residence time of an increased…

Elizabeth Kolbert interview

Elizabeth Kolbert, journalist and author of "Field Notes from a Catastrophe", is interviewed by Yale Environment 360 editor Roger Cohn. The interview was put on their site mid-last week and readers might find it quite interesting. Kolbert discussed a wide range of issues: how the media and scientists are both responsible for the lack of public understanding on climate change; the Obama administration's chances of passing climate-related legislation; and the prospects of geoengineering the planet to mitigate the effects of warming. On whether there is a moral or ethical dimension to this issue…

Conflict in how to frame animals?

OK, folks, your wisdom is needed. I got an email from Sheril Kirshenbaum asking me to promote a blog post in which she asks for pictures that might be used to illustrate her upcoming book on kissing. I had planned to help her out, and in fact, here I am doing that right now: Please look at this post and consider sending Sheril some pics. Be nice about it. No porn please. (cc me anything you are not sure of and I'll tell you if it is porn or not.) Now, DrugMonkey has chimed in and made an interesting comment that I think should be taken into consideration (by Sheril). He points out, in…

Chris Comer Appeals Creationism Related Ruling

Chris Comer was the Director of Science with the Texas Educaiton Agency until she was forced to resign in November of 2007. That happened because she disseminated information about an upcoming talk that would likely be critical of creationism. She was fired because the TEA (hee hee he said .... "tea") claimed a "neutrality" policy and claimed that Chris had broken the policy. Her reference, via email, to the upcoming talk was an endorsement of ... OMG! Evolution! Evolution over Creationism!!! Yes folks, you read that right. Chis Comer was effectively fired from her job as director of…

Let's do this thing! Only a couple of more hours left!!!

Hurry up and vote for Ana if you have done so yet today! And if you have, drive to the nearest coffee shop you've not been to lately and vote for her there!!!!!!! She's gaining momentum. Let's do this thing! This photo by Ben Zvan of Analiese Miller, who is also known as The Anthropologist, is the entry in a voting contest that could get Ana a chance at a part in Mad Men (the cable TV thing). It is necessary that you CLICK HERE and vote for Ana by giving her Five Stars (below the photo). Please do this right now, and again tomorrow. Don't vote for any of the other contestants. I've…

This is the Last Day to Vote for Analiese Miller

This is the Last Day to Vote! Ana remains in the top ten, but is near the bottom of that list owing to cheaters working for the other contestants, I can only assume. I mean, how else would she not be on top? So, go in and vote! Vote! Vote! This photo by Ben Zvan of Analiese Miller, who is also known as The Anthropologist, is the entry in a voting contest that could get Ana a chance at a part in Mad Men (the cable TV thing). It is necessary that you CLICK HERE and vote for Ana by giving her Five Stars (below the photo). Please do this right now, and again tomorrow. Don't vote for…

Make Your Own Linux!

There is now a very simple way to make your own GNU/Linux distribution, called a "linux appliance," at SUSE. SUSE is a Linux Distribution produced by Novell. It is one of the earlier distributions to make a sustained and effective effort to put Linux on your desktop. Perhaps even on your grandmother's desktop. WEll, a few days ago, Novell launched a new thing called SUSE Studio, which allows you to develop your own "Linux Appliance." A Linux appliance is essentially a specialized distribution. The SUSE Studio is a web applicatoi that lets you name the " appliance," specify software…

Windows always sucks. Linux in Exile on Printing

Imagine my surprise when I try to print a document, and nothing comes out of the printer. The printer isn't claiming it's processing the document - and in one instance, while waiting for my document, I saw the printer fire up and spit out someone else's document. On these occasions, if I go back to my desk and flip back to the Office application that was trying to print, only then does the document print. In fact, I can see Word finally display the status message "Printing page 1 of ..." at the bottom of the window. Read the rest of the horror story here at Linux in Exile. My own worst…

Giant blob found deep beneath Nevada, and other matters

How to knock out your children: Use PediSedate. PediSedate is a medical device consisting of a colorful, toy-like headset that connects to a game component such as the Nintendo Game Boy system or a portable CD player. Once the child places it on his or her head and swings the snorkel down from its resting place atop the head, PediSedate transparently monitors respiratory function and distributes nitrous oxide, an anesthetic gas. The child comfortably becomes sedated while playing with a Nintendo Game Boy system or listening to music. This dramatically improves the hospital or dental…

Franken Lead Increases in Minnesota Senate Race

According to news reports, the Minnesota Election Contest Judicial Panel finished their review of votes, counting just under 400 absentee ballots that were previous excluded. These votes were included as the result of Former Senator Norm Coleman's legal challenge to the election. With Senator Al Franken's lead over Former Senator Norm Coleman rising from 225 at the start of the process to 312 as of a few moments ago, it would appear that Coleman's challenge has backfired. The judicial panel still has a few more issues to rule on. One of the issues os the ca 130 votes that were lost in a…

Minnesota Recount Update

The three judge panel convened for the purpose of addressing the Coleman challenge of the Minnesota Senate Election won by Al Franken (after a detailed recount) will meet today to examine ballots they had asked brought to the court. The panel had asked for four hundred ballots, but a small number of these (just over a dozen) had already been included in the recount and thus will not be examined. The panel will examine the 387 or so ballots today, and decide which should be counted. Tomorrow, in a two step process the ballots will be opened by the judged (step one) and counted by court…

Sudden movement in the Franken-Coleman Senate Race Recount

The judicial panel that has been off somewhere deciding what to do about the Coleman election challenge has ordered 400 additional ballots opened and counted on April 7th. If (and we do not know this for a fact) these are THE remaining ballots to count, them Coleman would have to get a statistically unlikely majority to overtake Franken's lead of 225 votes. I suppose this is possible. So I suppose we'll be sitting on the edges of our respective seats for the next week. There does not seem to be any systematic meaningful bias in which candidate is likely to come out ahead in this group.…

Minnesota Recount End Is In Sight

So, my friend Phil was in the Air Force up near Grand forks (where the flooding is happening now). He told me today they use to use a super tall radio tower to spot weather, and this tower was something like 70 miles away. So it was in sight, but almost unbelievably so. Similarly, there is an end in sight for the Minnesota Senate Recount... The end has to happen at some point, of course, because these things only seem to go on forever. Here is what is supposed to happen: 1) The state judicial panel that is now in deliberation will make a couple of decisions regarding what to do about…

Which boots faster, Linux or Windows?

Everybody knows the answer is almost always Linux, and one of the reasons for that is because Windows cheats. Mr. Exile has run a test in which he compares two laptops, one with four times the memory and about double the processor speed and a more advanced processor, with the hotter computer running XP and the older, less powered computer running Linux. Since the valid test is not when the desktop pops up (because Windows is still busy booting when that happens), Mr. Exile instead timed how long it took for him to have a browser opened to his web based email page. If you are a Windows…

I had no idea CNN had gotten this bad

I mentioned that ghastly CNN hit piece on atheists the other day; I just saw it myself, and it's far, far worse than I had imagined. You can see the whole thing with a transcript, too, and you should be appalled. It starts off reasonably enough with a segment on a family of atheists who were ostracized in a small town; then it closes with some young Republican-looking talking head who babbles about how atheists bring it on themselves, and we should blame all the militant atheists for the fact that people feel compelled to shun those who don't believe as they do. It was a weird blame-the-…

Stay Tuned ....

Two or three items of interest that are scheduled and that you may want to know about. In order: 1) This evening, at 8:00 Eastern Time (US), the embargo lifts on an amazing new find. Tune in to your favorite science blog to read all about it. It is very cool if you are into science. 2) Friday, at an as yet undisclosed time, will be the unveiling of a new Internetial (pronounced: Internet-shul) project that many of you may find interesting. Watch for announcements here and on Almost Diamonds and TUIBG. 3) Friday evening, as I've indicated before, I'll do a live radio interview with Q.…

What is a kopje?

A kopje is a manadnock. Which, in turn, is an inselberg. Indeed, it may sometimes be called a Kakba, but that is the most obscure of all the terms for a very large lump sticking out of the earth all by itself. Like this: In South Africa, this is called a "kopje" (pronounced "Cop eee" a lot like the English word "Copy" like "I am going to the Xerox machine to make nine copies of this thing"). The term Kopje is actually used across a wider range of English speaking Africa. Monadnock is a North American term and this phrase comes from a Native American (I think an Algonquian language,…

Lean Linux File Management

The fastest, most efficient file manager in Linux is the set of GNU tools including ls, cp, and so on. But if you want a graphical user interface, you pay a cost in overhead. Considering how important file management is, and how easy it is to screw it up, a good GUI is probably worth the overhead. For Gnome users, Nautilus does the job well, with all the bells and whistles. KDE has its own version and I'm sure everybody who uses it loves it. But, new fangled file managers also tend to get bloated with features over time. I've been thinking of creating a couple of my own file managers…

Google Chrome for Linux (and Mac)

Codeweavers has got a Linux 'version' of Chrome!!! (And a Mac version too.) Chromium is the new Google browser. It is good because it is open source. (Yes, Virginia, that is one criterion for being 'good'). Also, it might be good for other reasons. My friend Gayle really likes it, for instance. I might especially like the fact that it is multi-threaded, so when some moron produces a web site that crashes my browser over there (pointing to left side of monitor) I don't lose the thing I'm working on over here (pointing to right side of monitor) like I did the other day (angry, frustrated…

After the sex, the babies

Oh, sure…one moment it's all long throbbing organs pumping slickly in and out of orifices, and then the next thing you know, you've got a whole faceful of babies and little larvae giving you that evil demonic look. This is what happens after the squid orgies. While most squid seem to lay their eggs in masses on the sea floor, Gonatus onyx is a deep sea squid that hangs on to its clutch of several thousand eggs, swimming along with them dangling in filmy sheets, occasionally pumping its tentacles to aerate them. The movies filmed from a submersible are spectacular (some are available here).…

What do you get when you mix a The Lion of the North and a bunch of explosives?

Gustavus The Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College, naturally. Gustavus Adolphus was the king of Sweden and founder of the Swedish Empire from the age of seventeen until he his death at the age of 37, in 1632. He looked, as a testosterone-ridden teenager, at vast unconquered lands, at his large and experienced army, and noticing that he was in charge of everything, made a run at taking over the world. He left Sweden with his army and never looked back. Meanwhile, well, a couple of centuries later, Alfred Nobel was busy inventing TNT and establishing the Nobel Prizes for…

Highly Organized Anarchists Run Wild at RNC in St. Paul

Anarchists, clashing. Macy's, St. Paul Police, and Fox News suffered attacks by anarchists wearing clothing that did not match, facial scarves, and silly goggles. There were at least two different fronts to this attack, one along the designated protesters parade route, where the anarchists broke a large window at Macy's, and another in a nearby neighborhood, where anarchists attempted to stop buses coming into the security area. In the latter case, horse mounted police used rubber bullets and pepper spray, and at least one anarchist was kicked in the head by a horse. Which is kinda…

Palin for President?

Razib has noted that there is a 15% chance that if McCain/Palin is elected, that Palin will take office based on actuarial data. However, I beg to differ with this given that the presidency is a) known to add years to a person's life, b) is a somewhat more dangerous job than average (there are 43 presidents, and four were killed in office, making this one of the most dangerous jobs in America) and c) we might as well consider other ways that a president can leave office, because that happens sometimes. Of the last eight presidents that are also dead, half were dead before reaching McCain's…

Nakamura Wins U. S. Chess Championship

Hikaru Nakamura has won the U. S. Chess Championship by a full point. It was a dominating performance, capped off with a stunning win with black, in the penultimate round, against the other pre-tournament favorite Gata Kamsky. This is Nakamura's third title. So, congratulations to him. Today's tactical exercise comes from the tenth round game between Kamsky, playing white, and the struggling Yasser Seirawan. It's white to move:     The position looks a bit dicey for black, with white's rook eying his king down the half-open g-file. White's pieces seem well-placed for a king-side attack. His…

Puppy Butt

For the past month, I have been living in the lab trying to cram some of my data + new data for a grant submission. I am alive right now exclusively due to the calories consumed via Mountain Dew (classic, and a wide variety of exciting flavors they have added to the collection), because I otherwise didnt eat (too busy/stressed to eat real food). So Friday night, I came home from work, sat in front of the TV and ate an entire large pepperoni and artichoke pizza and several rootbeer floats. I then slept for like 14 hours. Yeah, science is *nothing* like meth, children. The grant was…

Sunday morning nausea

Thanks, Jody Wheeler, for poisoning my morning a little bit. You just had to mention this guy, Stephen Bennett, of Stephen Bennett Ministries, who is "Emerging as One of the Nation's Key Speakers on the Issues of Homosexuality & the Homosexual Agenda…A Man who is Not Afraid To Speak the Truth… in Love." Here's Stephen Bennett's kind of love: As a heterosexual man who once engaged in homosexual behavior for 11 years, I've lost numerous dear friends to AIDS. While recent news in the search for a cure for AIDS is promising, I believe this possible HIV prevention pill is only going to push a…

A sick juxtaposition

Story A on Yahoo! News: FDA to consider approval of modified salmon "This is perhaps the most studied fish in history," he said. "Environmentally this is a very sustainable technology." Stotish says the fish would be bred in better conditions than many of the world's farmed salmon, and could be located closer to population centers to help feed more people. The company has also said the increase in engineered salmon production could help relieve endangered wild salmon populations. ... "It is outrageous to keep this vital information secret," said Wenonah Hauter, director of the advocacy group…

ERV junk in your junk

As if you all needed one more reason to want Junk DNA to stay JUNK, I just read a couple of neato papers on the impact of wayward ERV and LINE activity in testes/sperm development: MOV10L1 is necessary for protection of spermatocytes against retrotransposons by Piwi-interacting RNAs Mouse MOV10L1 associates with Piwi proteins and is an essential component of the Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway Turns out that mice that lack MOV10L1 (a protein named after a retrovirus, but not retroviral-- its totally a host protein, long story), grow up to be nice normal mice... except for the fact the…

HPV vaccines vs HPV landscape

Over and over I see people concerned about the long term implications of only vaccinating against High-Risk HPV types: If we vaccinate against types 16 and 18, wont other HPV viruses evolve to fill that empty niche? Wont other HPV step up to cause cancer? This is a valid concern. With viruses, you need to get rid of it all, or you get rid of nothing. Say we figure out a perfect vaccine for HIV-1 Subtype C. We get rid of all HIV-1 Subtype C on this planet. Other subypes of HIV-1 will step up to fill that void... and youre back to where you started. Ugh. But the answer to the question about HPV…

Wisdom From Polkinghorne

If you are not already familiar with Oxford's series of Very Short Introductions, I recommend having a look. I've read about two dozen of them to this point and have found them to be consistently excellent. I've just finished reading the volume on Quantum Theory, written by John Polkinghorne. I especially liked his concluding two paragraphs, where in the space of a few sentences he says all that is important in dealing with the woo-meisters who use the subject for their own New Agey ends: It seems appropriate to close this chapter with an intellectual health warning. Quantum theory is…

Idaho Science Teachers Against Teaching ID as Science

According to this news brief, the Idaho Science Teacher's Association has come out against teaching ID in science classes: Science teachers in Idaho are officially against teaching intelligent design in the state's public schools. The Idaho Science Teachers Association has approved the official position, saying teachers in public schools are charged with teaching methodology that's been approved by the scientific community. Intelligent design contends that complex living organisms must have been created by a higher being. The Association's president says the teacher's group isn't taking a…

Kasparov Leads Putin Protest

My parents have been in town for the past two days, so I'm a bit behind on my blogging. So how about we get back into the swing of things with a little chess news. Sunday's New York Times had this article about a protest held in St. Petersburg against the government of Vladimir Putin. The leader of the protest? None other than former world chess champion Garry Kasparov: The rally was held in advance of local elections scheduled for March 11. Opposition events typically draw no more than several hundred people, but several thousand gathered for the rally in Vosstaniya Square. Two leaders…

Kearney Bans Taping

Remember Kearney, NJ? That was where history teacher David Paszkiewicz routinely lectured his students on the fine points of getting into heaven and about which trendy scientific theories were not scientific. I described the basic facts of the case in this post. The case was remarkable not just because a teacher grossly overstepped his classroom authority, but because the community largely supported him against the student who recorded his classes. Rather remarkable behavior, especially from the blue states. The story was a useful reminder that all those folks who state so casually that…

Yet Another Monty Hall Paradox

Just when I thought I had seen every wrinkle on the Monty Hall problem, Raymond Smullyan has to go come up with another one. Here's an excerpt, from his book The Riddle of Scheherazade and Other Amazing Puzzles: “And now,” said Scheherazade, “I have a paradox for you. There are three boxes labeled A, B, and C. One and only one of the three boxes contains a gold coin; the other two are empty. I will prove to you that regardless of which of the three boxes you pick, the probability that it contains the gold coin is one in two.” “That's ridiculous!” said the king. “Since there are three…

Who Was John Morrison Moore?

The BECB (that's the big evolution/creation book) is slowly winding its way towards a complete first draft. I just finished writing a chapter about religious experiences. Creationists routinely tell me they have had them, you see. So over the last few months I have read my share of the literature on the subject. I started with classics like William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, which actually made for more interesting reading than you might expect. James' approach to the subject is pretty measured and reasonable, especially given the state of science at the time (his…

Bombardier Beetles, Bacterial Flagella, Blood Clotting ... Ear Wax?

We close the week's blogging by savoring an amusing example of just how bad things have gotten for the creationists. For as long as there have been creationists there has been the argument from complex structures. You know the one I mean. Some erstwhile evolution critic points to some complex structure and says, as smugly as possible, “Surely something that complex could not have evolved by natural means.” Then they slink on back to their hidey hole perfectly secure in the belief that they have just said something clever. The annals of creationism record many such examples. For a time…

Links for 2009-08-23, 2009-08-24

Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Goodbye, Dortmunder: Donald Westlake's Get Real "There couldn't really be a conclusion to these books -- what could it possibly be? The gang will just keep on forever looking for one more job to keep them going. The regulars in OJs will keep on having their senseless conversations. Dortmunder hasn't aged and now he will never die, because the one person who could have killed him chose to spare him. Dortmunder is immortal now, and in this last adventure, he smiles twice in one day." (tags: books literature mystery crime culture review tor…