Neil DeGrasse Tyson: US need not lose its edge in science … but if things continue as they have been the last couple decades, it will. This seems quite similar to the talk that Mia McDavid, Rachel Hadley and I heard him give in May
As with much of what I know about the 19th British Empire, I first learned about Lakshmi Bai from George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman stories, in this case Flashman in the Great Game.
Especially about slavery.
I saw the first episode of the new Cosmos last week. The first and third parts were fine. The middle part, the cartoon about Giordano Bruno was the story I had heard long ago about how Bruno was a martyr for his scientific beliefs. This story is very widespread, and widely invoked by those who are hostile to religion. Back in 1971 I was in Turkey, on the walls of the formidable late medieval fortress of Rumeli Hisarı, when I saw a Soviet freighter passing through the Bosphorus named, in Cyrillic letters, Giordano Bruno.
Fur flies over 16th century ‘rocket cats’ warfare manual
Researcher baffled by document written by artillery master Franz Helm featuring pictures of jetpacks strapped to cats and doves
Elf lobby blocks Iceland road project
Why So Many Icelanders Still Believe in Invisible Elves
The description of the the elves in the second article reminded me very much of the elves in Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword. This is not at all surprising.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 