Stephen > Recent Status Updates

I just finished Little,amazing book, very worth reading.

Just the book to read after Mary Beard's SPQR and A Don's Life.

I just finished It's a Don's Life and gave it 4 stars.Great insight into Mary Beard's persona and character as well as the whole area of scholarship, classical scholarship and the great Oxbridge ecosystem.In answer to her final query of whether or not a book of blogs is worthwhile I would say yes. It loses spontaneity and links, gains in portability and access.

I just finished Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time--and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything.

At this point think about the hundredth monkey effect: discredited though some of that work may have been good deal of it is still quite insightful.

Just starting, but this book is already very thought provoking. --Just a "full disclosure": I studied under the author many years ago, and was strongly influenced by his teaching and example.

A great classic, not for the faint of heart, or faint of Math....

Continues to be even better than I remember it, and SO much better than the current movie.

One of the best ever Scientific Bios--Andrew Hodges, the author, is a real mathematician, an excellent writer, a sympathetic biographer of Turing who has created a classic. Going to see "The Imitation Game"? Read the full addition, not the abridged or "movie" version. Just skim the technical parts if they are too much.

One of the best ever Scientific Bios--Andrew Hodges, the author, is a real mathematician, an excellent writer, a sympathetic biographer of Turing who has created a classic. Going to see "The Imitation Game"? Read the full addition, not the abridged or "movie" version. Just skim the technical parts if they are too much.

Reading a preprint of Jack's new book, "Dreams and Resurrection: On Immortal Selves, Psychedelics, and Christianity", where he revisits and moves on from some of his views in "God is a Symbol..." His style is so readable and frank, a pleasure to read-- his arguments and reasoning are what one expects of a professional philosopher so I can focus on the issues, not distracted with a lot of logical errors and omissions.

Still wondering if this book is worth the time--Interrupted because now rereading Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges, on which the new movie The Imitation Game is based. Such a good book! Hard to justify spending time with Niffenegger's volume--though it is so different,it can't be judged in the same category.

I don't usually read this "sort" of book, but it's holding my attention. I'll have to puzzle out why when I've finished.

Kehlmann's riff on the lives of Gauss and von Humboldt. taking the "facts" of their lives, he builds an interpretive piece, variations on a theme of genius in the world of the ordinary ..."looking backward briefly, running down the road."

My very own copy arrived from a used book shop online--so nice get these almost perfect copies, perfect dust jacket--and for just a few bucks. I thought the LA Library copy was likely damaged from the fire they had a few years ago, but I can see from this copy that the paper is just substandard and has turned rather brown. It's really a reference book, as well as a fabulous read.

Very useful review of current thinking on the question, and some very cogent reasoning about various arguments. good antidote to Krauss A World from Nothing. Saw Holt recently in conversation with Sean Carroll--they were both excellent.

Now that Cosmos will return with Neil deGrasse Tyson time to retread on Carl Sagan--I'd forgotten just how wonderful he was. Now if Fox can just not mess it up.... http://tinyurl.com/4x795k8