Category Archives: review

Reviews of books, movies, CDs, whatever.

Review: Billy Goat Tavern, Chicago

Billy Goat Tavern 430 N Michigan Ave., Chicago IL Billed on several sites as home of “Chicago’s best cheeseburger” and made famous by a skit on early Saturday Night Live (“cheezborger! cheezborger! cheezborger!”). As part of our very-intermittent plan of … Continue reading

Posted in review | Leave a comment

Review: Metatropolis

Metatropolis Edited by Jack Scalzi Rating on an arbitrary 5-point scale: 4 out of 5 Metatropolis is a science fiction anthology exploring, as it claims, the “future of cities”.  That’s not strictly accurate. It’s really a collection of stories that … Continue reading

Posted in books, review, science fiction, technology | Leave a comment

Review: Inception

Inception a Christopher Nolan Film Arbitrary 5-Point rating: 5 out of 5 Inception is a weird, ambitious, action-packed sci fi thriller-cum-heist flick.  It is, in its own way, as ambitious as The Matrix and suffers from the comparison only in … Continue reading

Posted in movie, personal, review, science fiction | Leave a comment

Ethics and Economics in Journalism

Via Ezra Klein, a wll-argued piece by Timothy Lee on the recent flap over the forced resignation of Dave Weigel from The Washington Post.  If none of those names mean anything to you, then this is unlikely to be very … Continue reading

Posted in politics, review, technology | Leave a comment

Knowing is Half the Battle

I was cruising TechDirt and saw a neat post on “Is The Federal Government The Most Interesting Tech Startup For 2009?“  The idea is that the recent data.gov initiative has led to an outpouring of with-it and effective apps allowing … Continue reading

Posted in Health of the Republic, politics, review, technology | Leave a comment

Joking about Science

I regret the simple me-too-ism of just posting a link to an article, but this piece over at Project Syndicate is a nice, short reflection on how jokes scientists make (about their own profession) illuminate the two distinct views we … Continue reading

Posted in review, science | Leave a comment

The Start of Summer

Everyone has their own unique signs that summer is upon us, the signature sound that signals the academic year is winding down. For me, it’s “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. More below the fold.

Posted in movie, personal, ramblings, review, teaching | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Two Finales (2): Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

As mentioned in a previous post, recently two of my favorite shows reached their conclusion.  While the Battlestar Galactica finale left a lingering bad taste in my mouth (The Cylons had a plan all along?  Bollocks!), the conclusion of Terminator: … Continue reading

Posted in review, science fiction | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Two Finales (1): Battlestar Galactica

In the past couple of weeks, two science fictions shows I follow have had their finales: the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (OK, so technically, the word is still out on Sarah Connor, but many people … Continue reading

Posted in review, science fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Senator Clinton’s Speech

Senator Hilary Clinton has finished her address to the Democratic National Convention. My personal response: She didn’t hit it out of the park but she definitely got some extra bases and maybe batted some runs in. I think she delivered … Continue reading

Posted in politics, review | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment