SF
drorzel | March 5, 2006At the Tor party at Boskone, Teresa Nielsen Hayden introduced me to Jim Kelly as "a reviewer." While technically somewhat accurate (I do occasionally post book reviews), and a better answer to "Why are you at this party?" than "I'm a guy with a web site," it made me feel a little guilty for shamefully neglecting my book log these past few months.
Guilt is a wonderful spur to action, so I've posted a bunch of reviews over there this weekend, all of them at least vaguely related to Boskone:
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell
Permanence by Karl Schroeder
The…
drorzel | February 26, 2006The following will be of interest only to people who were at Boskone, or who for some reason care deeply about what I did there, so I'll put the bulk of the text below the fold.
We arrived at about 3:00 Friday afternoon, parked in the hotel garage, and discovered that the trunk of my car would no longer stay closed. Happily, that didn't turn out to be an omen for the weekend, which otherwise went very well. I had a coil of rope in the trunk, that we used to tie the trunk shut, and that held until the next Friday, when I finally got around to having somebody fix the lock.
I had exam papers to…
drorzel | February 15, 2006A continuation of the lecture transcription/ working out of idea for Boskone that I started in the previous post. There's a greater chance that I say something stupid about quantum measurement in this part, but you'll have to look below the fold to find out...
At the end of the previous post, I wrote:
We can verify this by doing the experiment with single particles, and what we see is exactly the prediction of quantum theory. If we send one electron at a time toward a set of slits, and detect the electron position on the far side, we see individual electrons arriving one at a time, in an…
drorzel | February 14, 2006I'm teaching our sophomore-level modern physics course this term, which goes by the title "Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Their Applications." The first mid-term was a couple of weeks ago, on Relativity (special, not general), and the second mid-term is tomorrow, on Quantum Mechanics, and then we get three weeks of applications (basically, whatever topics out of atomic, molecular, solid state, nuclear, and particle physics I can manage to fit in).
I like to end the quantum section with one lecture on superposition and measurement, which isn't covered particularly well in the book. It's…
drorzel | February 10, 2006The preliminary Boskone program has been posted, and I'll soon be adding another tag with a "Participant" ribbon to my Wall of Name. (I have a big collection of nametags from various meetings hanging on a wall in my office.)
Excerpts of the schedule will appear below the fold, with scattered commentary, for those who would like to know exactly where I'll be next weekend.
Friday
Friday 5:00 pm Gardner: Five Things You Should Never Say to Your Favorite Authors When You Meet Them
People blurt out the most amazing things when tongue-tied. Here's a chance to think about what to say before you meet…
drorzel | February 4, 2006The 2006 Locus Reader's Poll is now up, with a convenient on-line ballot for you to vote for your favorite books and stories of the year. For those not in the know, Locus is sort of the trade magazine of the science fiction field, publishing extensive reviews, and also all manner of publishing news and fannish gossip. If you're not into science fiction or fantasy books, skip the rest of this post. (After the cut.)
The on-line poll comes with pull-down menus to aid you in voting for the books recommended by the Locus staff, so you know it's completely scientific. The lists are pretty…
drorzel | February 2, 2006Kate and I will once again be attending Boskone in a couple of weeks, and for the second year running, I'll be on a handful of panels. I had a great time as a panelist last year, so I volunteered again, and I've been looking forward to finding out what I'll be on.
I got the preliminary schedule yesterday, and it seems I'm moderating a panel with the slightly alarming title "Is Science Fiction Necessary?" (There's no further description, other than a list of panelists (Tobias Buckell, Rosemary Kirstein, Karl Schroeder, Charles Stross), though that's apparently an oversight, and some more…