Boston author Tom McCann's Christmas story, The Tree Nobody Wanted, is available in hardcover and now as an eBook. It's a poignant (but non-schmaltzy) tale, great for kids and for their parents.
If you'd like to sample it first, his new, engaging blog, Real People, is featuring it now.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Stem Cells...
My post today on Wesley Smith's rant at the Weekly Standard.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Christoph Clavius
At Forbes, I pick up on Tony Christie's Ode to Clavius.
Labels:
Christoph Clavius,
history of science
Friday, August 19, 2011
Fond memories of high school?
We shot this on a nice Nikon Super8mm film camera during the 1979/1980 (senior) school year. Remastered with Final Cut Pro and music from GarageBand.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
The Science of Tequila
And yes, there is some. At Forbes, the results of painstaking research (and a little imbibing...).
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
From the Archives of Louvain
Some new findings in the LemaƮtre/Hubble debate. At my Forbes blog.
Labels:
history of science,
Hubble,
Lemaitre
Friday, July 01, 2011
In Boston for the 4th?
If you're coming to the Hub this summer, here's a nice all-in-one guide for you to bookmark on your iPhone or other portable life support system. Pay special attention to the restaurants.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
What It's All About
Bill Vallicella is one of my favorite philosophers. He manages so often to say better what we often think we know, but just as often cannot articulate so well.
This post today made me think of an old friend from school. An atheist, but never satisfied with it; always searching for something more meaningful than just the Pale Blue Dot. I like to think she'd appreciate this.
This post today made me think of an old friend from school. An atheist, but never satisfied with it; always searching for something more meaningful than just the Pale Blue Dot. I like to think she'd appreciate this.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Astronomers Behaving Badly
In my 2005 biography of Georges LemaƮtre, I argued that Hubble's Law should have been called LemaƮtre's Law, as he derived the linear velocity-distance relation between galaxies two years before Hubble did. (That bastard.)
Turns out, there was more going on behind the scenes at the time than people realized.
Turns out, there was more going on behind the scenes at the time than people realized.
Labels:
cosmology,
history of science,
Hubble,
Lemaitre
Friday, May 27, 2011
Christopher Lee Does Heavy Metal
Here's the last segment of my video interview with Sir Christopher Lee, in which he discusses his Heavy Metal album, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross. Enjoy!
Labels:
Christopher Lee,
heavy metal,
music
Friday, May 20, 2011
Expanding Horizons for Arabic Children
It's been a while since I posted at Huffington. Here is my latest, on the great program started by Jordanian molecular biologist Rana Dajani, whom I met on my last trip to Cambridge.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Galileo's Conversion
I discuss a fascinating new paper by Owen Gingerich and Albert van Helden at Forbes.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Sir Christopher Lee on Acting
The next installment from my interview with Christopher Lee is up at Forbes. He has a great private collection of photos from all periods of his career, and I was able to work a few into this segment. Up next, we'll be discussing his adventures in the Heavy Metal world.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sir Christopher Lee
Over at my Forbes blog, the first of a series of videos from an interview I did with Sir Christopher Lee when I was in the UK earlier this month.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Price is Right
Taking my cue from Gary Ponzo, I'm selling the Kindle version of my first novel, Doctor Janeway's Plague, for ninety-nine cents at Amazon. It's now in trade paperback, audio and eBook formats. (Now all I have to do is sell the movie rights.)
Thursday, April 21, 2011
When the Cure Doesn't Arrive in Time
A short tribute to my late father-in-law.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
An Archeology of St. Patrick
At my Forbes blog. SlƔinte!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
My First Novel Now on Kindle (iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry)
The Kindle version of my novel Doctor Janeway's Plague, is now live at Amazon. (It's a cross between C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength...and Resident Evil.) I'm pricing it low ($1.50) to attract more readers.
I've been reading about more and more new writers (and some established ones) taking this route as frustration with the current publishing model mounts, especially among mid-list writers.
I've been reading about more and more new writers (and some established ones) taking this route as frustration with the current publishing model mounts, especially among mid-list writers.
Friday, March 11, 2011
iPhone Microscope
I definitely have to try this at home.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Did Apple Save B&N?
The Author's Guild thinks so.
There's Nuance...and nuance.
On the continuing databasization of health care, and why it's a good thing.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Moving...Over
Since my Forbes blog Progressive Download is taking up more of my time, among other writing assignments, and my posting here has been much less frequent, any interested readers should add the rss feed from Progressive Download for more regular items. While it's more geared to science/tech, I hope to work in other book and media-related posts as well.
I'm not planning on shutting this one down, by any means, but posts will definitely be less frequent....
I'm not planning on shutting this one down, by any means, but posts will definitely be less frequent....
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Problem with Mike Leigh
I've been a fan of his films, but as Anthony Lane nicely summarizes, there's a deep flaw in Leigh's work:
Leigh can't help exposing his characters in a way that betrays deep down I think, his lack of real sympathy for humanity; this is a streak you don't see in current directors like Alexander Payne, who dwell in their stories on people's selfishness and cowardice, but never without reserving compassion for even the characters most morally flawed. (I think William Trevor and Alice Munro do this beautifully in short fiction.) And it's very hard to achieve in film (Payne's films are uneven, but still enjoy them).
Devotees of Leigh, of whom there are legions, greet his careful scrutiny of faces as a compassionate mapping of deep trouble, as if he were Bergman. To my eyes, however, the litany of closeups is itself a troubling act of intrusion, touched with a cruelty that Bergman, for all his sobriety, seldom sought, and I gradually came to dread the next appearance of Mary, with her slurred, embarrassing miseries probed by the lens as if placed under a microscope.
Monday, January 10, 2011
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