There are two types of Trekkies: those who love Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and those who don’t. Similarly, in the physics community, there are two types of solar-eclipse viewers: those who go for totality, and losers. During the Great Eclipse of 2017, I was the only member of my physics department not to boldly go to far-flung destinations to experience totality. And I felt … Continue reading 82.3% Eclipse of the Heart
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk treats the miracle of the 1940 evacuation with a refreshing solemnity. Nolan chooses progression of time rather than exchange of words as his medium of communication, but even that time is warped as the plotlines transition between land, sea, and air, each frame lasting the space of a week, a day, and an hour, respectively. Minimal, deliberately stilted dialogue leaves us looking … Continue reading Dunkirk
“There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?” This joke is from David Foster … Continue reading Songs from the Cage
What if I were a catfish, mama? I said, swimmin’ deep down in, deep blue sea Have these gals now, sweet mama, settin’ out Settin’ out hooks for, for me, settin’ out hook for, for me “Catfish Blues” (1941) Robert Petway Brightly colored fishing piers dot the shore of the man-made ponds at Lewis Emery park where, on bright summer days, locals bring their rods, … Continue reading Whiskers in the Water
By Joel Calvert CLICKBAIT: AN ENTRY POINT INTO THE ETHICS OF DESIGN “Increasingly, the way we use our skills is to compensate for the deficit between the audience’s desire for a sensitive, intelligent product or service, and the product itself. The end result is a total breakdown of trust between the audience and their visual environment. The intelligent observer has almost no choice but to … Continue reading WHAT’S THAT? TIME TO TALK ABOUT ETHICS IN DESIGN? : AN OVERVIEW OF A MISSING DESIGN DIALOGUE
By Chandler Ryd When I was fourteen, the thought one day struck me that what I wanted most in life was to be a great writer. Since then, it’s been an ambition that I’ve never quite shaken. To be more specific, I’ve wanted to be the sort of writer that others read and revere by saying, “Yes, he really was a great writer.” I’ve wanted … Continue reading The Forgotten Author: On Vanity of Ambition and Fame
By Noah Diekemper People have clashed in controversy since the news broke that Disney’s live-action update of Beauty and the Beast would use Gaston’s lackey LeFou to feature an “exclusively gay moment.” Some decried Disney’s gay parade (“think of the children!”), while others failed to see the change as newsworthy at all (“Wait, he wasn’t gay before?”). I think that the latter view is more … Continue reading No One Says No To Gaston: How Lefou Models Typical Human Behavior
By Andrew Egger How do you brew an evolutionary culture war? Take one long-standing religious tradition, then add one serious scientific challenge. Season with cultural suspicion, and add a dash each of class prejudice, anti-intellectualism, and intellectual arrogance. Take outside and let curdle in the sun for a century. The age-old (for us) conflict of creation and evolution carries with it much of the same … Continue reading Intelligent Design: Neither Science nor Faith
By Leah Hickman “At least the awkward is over.” It was a nonchalant comment made by a 20-something-year-old dinner guest at my parents’ home last year, but my mom immediately picked up on it. “What’s with your generation and the obsession with ‘awkwardness’?” she asked. With three children now in their early twenties and a growing number of newlywed church friends, my parents have recently … Continue reading Embracing the Awkward: Why We Fear Awkwardness and What To Do About It
By Mark Naida 1 On an early April morning, lines of fog still hung over the corn stubble that lay in the fields waiting for a plow to turn it under. I saw the fog through a break in the young wall of thin birches and ash trees that divided the interstate from the field. This line of trees is a sliver of the Northern … Continue reading A Small Stand of Trees
Hillsdale Forum 