The New Yorker: Intelligent Design

Funny piece of short fiction in the New Yorker.

Essay: A physicist talks to theologians

There’s a neat essay on a blog I just found of a theoretical physicist. The purpose of the post, I think, is to convey a bit about how a scientist thinks. It is long but largely successful.

Primer

The movie Primer was the Grand Jury selection at Sundance in 2004. It is a science-fiction film about a couple guys that invent a time machine. Unlike most current sci-fi, though, this movie is not about special effects. Instead, it focuses on the breakdown in the relationship between two friends as the power which the machine grants them requires increasing trust in each other. The movie is quite sucessful at entertaining the viewer, although I find it hard to imagine getting through the film the first time without being confused. The film is unlike most time travel stories because the characters are not traveling to the distant past or future, but to earlier the same day. Consequently, as we watch the story unfold from the perspective of one of the characters we also see events which occur simultaneously, or later, depending on your point of view. The puzzle almost requires two viewings to piece together, and I still haven’t decided on the precise sequence of events shown in the film.

What is particularly impressive about this movie, from my point of view, was that it was made on a budget of $7000 (that’s less than Alan and I spent on Gutter Falls!). That it was Mr. Carruth’s first film is evident in some places, such as spotty audio in various sections of dialogue. But, the camera work was as successful as anything I have achieved. I definitely recommend this one.

Political Profile

Inspired by Margaret, I took an online political profiling quiz. The results were not surprising:

You are a

Social Liberal
(60% permissive)

and an…

Economic Moderate
(55% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist


Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Converging deadlines

May I mention that I hate it when deadlines converge upon the same day? For the last few weeks I have kept up with my work and been able to find time to relax because one professor was yet to assign a problem set and the other two classes had psets due at different times during the week. And now, here I am struggling to finish pset #2 which is due tomorrow. Grr…

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