Discover blogger Sean Caroll, wielding an adapted passage from his book, dispels some popular myths about time travel:
Since time is kind of like space (the four dimensions go hand in hand), a working time machine would zoom off like a rocket rather than disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Read more.
“The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade [...]” ☞
Screenwriter John August, whose blog was a great asset when I was writing my first screenplay, offers up some tips for outlining stories with index cards.
As somebody who has crashed and burned with index cards—pathetically—I am eager to see if any of these work for me.
The Wall Street Journal recently printed an interview with Don DeLillo to discuss his new book, Point Omega.
There are also some brief insights into DeLillo’s off-kilter writing style:
His approach to writing borders on obsessive. He fixates on the shapes of letters and words, and judges each phrase for its visual appearance as well as its rhythm and clarity.
Much talk lately about the iPad’s lack of Flash support.
So here’s a demo of SublimeVideo, a stunningly awesome HTML5 video player. Check out the scrubbing functionality! The smooth resizing transitions! The excellent quality! The manageable CPU load!
Be forewarned that it only works in WebKit browsers for now—so Safari or Chrome.
An admonition against mythmaking in yesterday’s New York Times: J.D. Salinger, famously reclusive author, didn’t actively cultivate that sort of reputation. He just moved to a small town in New Hampshire and was, by all accounts, a pretty good neighbor.
Want to bury some warm childhood memories under a mountain of cold analysis? A close examination of the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ aesthetic.
A recent post of Things Magazine—where I happened upon the above link—offers a review, of sorts, of such ‘graph fetishism’.
The January issue of Wired included an extremely interesting story on the benefits of replacing uranium nuclear reactors with thorium nuclear reactors. Among other things, thorium doesn’t create dangerous waste, doesn’t produce plutonium and is both infinitely efficient and very common.
The article mentions a blog—Energy From Thorium, run by aerospace engineer Kirk Sorensen—that’s worth a look if the above appeals to you in the slightest.
A short article in the LA Times on the twilight years in the life of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
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