Here’s a call for submissions for an anthology of erotic stories featuring tentacles. The deadline is 30 June, so get writing — I want some hot summer time reading. I’d send in something myself, but I’m afraid it would be so weirdly specific and technical that no one else in the world would want to read it.
Also, as a most excellent bonus, this is a charity anthology, and all proceeds go straight to Oceana, a cause I can definitely support.
You know, I really despise Alvin Plantinga’s ‘philosophy’ — it’s more of an obsessively masturbatory exercise in theological babbling. Jerry Coyne has been slapping him around a bit, in part because there is a new book out called Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?, in which Dan Dennett and Alvin Plantinga go at it.
I really want to read that book. It’s got to be at least as entertaining as Bambi Meets Godzilla. But they don’t have a Kindle version! So go read Coyne’s post, and go order the book for yourself if you’d like, but could you also click on the “Tell the Publisher! I’d like to read this book on Kindle” button? For me? Pretty please?
I know how I’m going to spend the entirety of my Christmas break: preparing to teach my new Cancer Biology course. And since I’m going to be dwelling on cancer for the next month or so, I think it’s only fair that my students and any passers-by should also get a faceful of the stuff. So here are the texts I’ve settled on for the course:
Weinberg’s Biology of Cancer
Skloot’s Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies
There will also be a few papers assigned throughout the term, but that ought to get everyone started on a good long depression.
I made the cut, and have an entry in Open Lab 2011, which means that I am one of 51 finalists. Which further means there are 50 articles over there you want to read. Which means I have just sent my readership away from here.
(Also on FtB)
I made the cut, and have an entry in Open Lab 2011, which means that I am one of 51 finalists. Which further means there are 50 articles over there you want to read. Which means I have just sent my readership away from here.
(Also on Sb)
Publishers Weekly is having a meaningless poll to pick the best book of 2011. I think the choice in this list is kind of obvious — everyone else can chime in with your preferences.
Vote for the best book of 2011
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens 34.67%
Other: 17.59%
After the Apocalypse by Maureen McHugh 16.08%
Bossypants by Tina Fey 9.05%
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 8.54%
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock 5.03%
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides 4.52%
There but for the by Ali Smith 2.01%
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie 1.51%
One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina 1.01%
Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson 0%
There aren’t enough children’s books telling the story of evolution — every doctor’s office seems to be stocked with some ludicrous children’s book promoting that nonsensical Noah’s ark story, but clean, simple, and true stories about where we came from are scarce. Here’s one, a new children’s book called Bang! How We Came to Be by Michael Rubino. Each page is formatted the same: on the left, a color picture of an organism (or, on the early pages, a cosmological event); on the right, a short paragraph in simple English explaining what it is and when it occurred. The book just marches forward through time, showing us where our species came from. Easy concept, nice execution, and it fills a gap in children’s literature.
It’s short enough to be good bedtime reading, and simple enough for pre-schoolers. The illustrations are thought-provoking enough for older kids, but won’t keep them engaged for too long — they’ll be asking for more books to satisfy their curiosity about these strange creatures that lived billions or hundreds of millions or tens of millions of years ago. Which is exactly what we want to do to our kids, right?
(Also on Sb)
There aren’t enough children’s books telling the story of evolution — every doctor’s office seems to be stocked with some ludicrous children’s book promoting that nonsensical Noah’s ark story, but clean, simple, and true stories about where we came from are scarce. Here’s one, a new children’s book called Bang! How We Came to Be by Michael Rubino. Each page is formatted the same: on the left, a color picture of an organism (or, on the early pages, a cosmological event); on the right, a short paragraph in simple English explaining what it is and when it occurred. The book just marches forward through time, showing us where our species came from. Easy concept, nice execution, and it fills a gap in children’s literature.
It’s short enough to be good bedtime reading, and simple enough for pre-schoolers. The illustrations are thought-provoking enough for older kids, but won’t keep them engaged for too long — they’ll be asking for more books to satisfy their curiosity about these strange creatures that lived billions or hundreds of millions or tens of millions of years ago. Which is exactly what we want to do to our kids, right?
(Also on FtB)
How dare Terry Pratchett release his new book, Snuff, next week, on top of the new stuff from Dawkins and Pinker? Hasn’t he been paying any attention to my schedule?
It’s an Inspector Vimes novel, too.
Yes, I’ve preordered it. I cannot resist temptation.
(Also on Sb)
How dare Terry Pratchett release his new book, Snuff, next week, on top of the new stuff from Dawkins and Pinker? Hasn’t he been paying any attention to my schedule?
It’s an Inspector Vimes novel, too.
Yes, I’ve preordered it. I cannot resist temptation.
(Also on FtB)
