One of my favorite board games is Betrayal on House on the Hill. It’s a semi-cooperative board game. The game has two phases. In the first phase, the players work together in exploring an old house. After a random event occurs, the game shifts into its second phase: One players’ character is randomly chosen to be a traitor. The traitor works to kill off the other players’ characters, while the other players work together to escape that fate.
From today's <a href="http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20160704/">Writer's Almanac</a>: <b>Preface to Leaves of Grass</b> by Walt Whitman This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have…
Today I finished editing the video for the hour-long talk I gave a month ago. It was on the history of the Nevis estate, and is the most recent of the <a href="http://www.nevis.columbia.edu/events/science-on-hudson.html">#ScienceOnHudson lecture series</a> at <a href="http://www.nevis.columbia.edu/">the lab</a> where I work. <lj-cut>I'm proud of this video. The main reason why is that I had to pull…
Today, a student comes into my office. This is one of the physics summer students who are here as a result of a nation-wide selection for the brightest. Here's the exchange: "I can't run GIMP on the server." "Did you try typing 'gimp' on the command line?" "I did, and it didn't work." I sigh, and start…
The saga is complete, at least for now. It's possible that there will be more games released with the Uncharted title, but Nathan Drake has climbed his last cliff face. In reviewing the game, the most striking thing about it is the graphics design. Naughty Dog knew how to take full advantage of the PS3, and they…
I was one of the jurors let go as a result of a challenge. So my jury duty is over. I won’t have to do it again for four years (for a federal court) or six years (for a state court).
This year’s Passover seder (on Friday evening) is more logistically complex than previous years, even though the number of people is fewer.
I seem to be slowly moving back to working on Isaac Bonewits' biography. I've let it lie fallow for about two years, mainly because I became frustrated at my attempts at some hard-to-reach interview subjects. Recently, Phaedra Bonewits has tried to identify the original members of the American Council of Witches. She was kind enough to forward…
From today's Writer's Almanac: On this day in 1327, the poet Petrarch saw Laura for the first time. [...] Petrarch was 22 years old, and she was a teenager, maybe 17. He fell instantly in love. He wrote: It was the day when the sun's heavy rays Grew pale in pity of his suffering Lord When I…