The latest issue of Sunset Magazine arrived in my mail last week, and the cover story immediately caught my eye — “24 Best Places to Live and Work 2014.” “Looking for the perfect place to launch a career? Start a family? Just relax? We’ve found the ideal city, town, or neighborhood for you.” For instance, […]
Miscellaneous
January 13 – 17 This week, a modest proposal from Helen: Golden Globes, science writing edition. Cameron debated the merits of keeping a journal. Based on her observations on anemone, it’s a strong “yes please” from me. No big bang, ever? Guest poster Jeff Kanipe introduced us to Halton Arp, his galactic pathologies, and his […]
It would start with tapping fingers on my bar, as the house music blared its inane, sometimes nonsensical, lyrics. The hands would be fidgety, the muscles straining for something to press against. Then his legs would start bopping and his face would start working and he’d launch into a violent dance. The shirt would come […]
Halton Arp — “Chip” to his friends — died in Munich on December 28, 2013, and with him a cosmological banner has fallen to the ground. It’s a banner that younger astronomers may choose to take up. If they do, however, they should be cautious: it could mean the end of their careers. As a […]
Dear TV Executives: I hear you’re desperate to get people to watch your channels in real time these days. Apparently I’m not the only one who waits for everything to come out on Netflix. As a result, I heard on NPR yesterday, you’re televising more and more shows that people prefer to watch live, like […]
People have been singing Christmas carols in the pubs in villages around Sheffield, in the north of England, for hundreds of years. They sing week after week and year after year. Each pub has a season; in one, Christmas carols start on November 11 and continue until the first Sunday after Christmas. Every Sunday afternoon, […]
I am from nowhere. Until my husband told me this — stated it as a fact, like “it’s raining” or “the sky is blue” — I’d never had a truthful answer to a question that has always given me pause: where are you from? “You’re from nowhere,” Dave said. His words hit me like a […]
December 30, 2013 – January 3, 2014 Ann Redux: You know how, if your sister is a biologist, you have to be a physicist? This isn’t only competition, it’s also cooperation and as such holds the Recipe for World Peace — if only anyone would listen. Cameron Redux: the Snail Apocolypse is upon her, also […]
