Last night I saw Christopher Nolan’s latest, Interstellar, a film about a desperate mission through a black hole to find a new home for humanity before the Earth becomes uninhabitable. It’s mostly hard sci-fi, softened with a bit of metaphysics, but at its heart is a story about a father and his daughter. [Read more…]
Archives for November 2014
Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Ch 8)
Well it’s about danged time! And it’s also time for chapter eight in my series, Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief…
We Capture a Flag
This will be a quick post. A lot happened but my reactions are pretty brief. Finally it’s made official that Percy is Poseidon’s son! I was boggling at the idea that even after he’s found to be good at canoeing and energized by having water dumped on him, people “weren’t having an easy time of” figuring out who his father was. It occurred to me that perhaps some of them were simply good at keeping their suspicions from Percy. [Read more…]
Nolan’s “Interstellar”: Now with Realistic Black Holes!
According to this article on Discovery.com, a black hole featured in Christopher Nolan’s new sci-fi film “Interstellar” will have the “best black hole in sci-fi.”
Nolan has consulted with Caltech physicist Kip Thorne, who provided a modern, scientific understanding of black hole theory via Einstein’s general relativity equations and the Black Hole Information Paradox.
Oh, and also the movie apparently stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, and comes out tomorrow, yadda-yadda-yadda…
Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Ch 7)
Something was stolen, monsters are attracted to demigods, and Mr. D’s still cranky. I now present the seventh chapter of Michael Reads Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief…
My Dinner Goes Up in Smoke
This is another chapter that’s primarily given to world-building and character development, both of which are welcome things at the moment. Most of the development goes to Annabeth while she introduces Percy to more of the camp and many of the concepts related to it. I still like her – she’s friendly enough, but she’s got her own agenda as well; this is a good thing. She seems to be her own character rather than just a prop for Percy. Luke, the counselor that’s one of Hermes’s sons, got a bit of development, too, but so far the book hasn’t had a chance to give him too much depth. [Read more…]