The Incal

Tags

comics, Incal, scifi

So, yesterday afternoon, I rode my bike down to Oolong Tea House in Kensington (if you are Calgrian, go there.  It’s my favourite hangout in the city) and picked up a copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius’ 1981 classic, The Incal.  And woah boy, let me tell you, it has been very enjoyable.  I’m only just over halfway through, but it so far I am totally engrossed.

If you like cyberpunk, space opera, and crazy psychedelic/new age sci-fi stories, do your self a favour and go buy a copy.   Blade Runner, Akira,  and The Fifth Element  are all hugely influenced by this fantastic book.  Just make sure you don’t get screwed over with a bowlderized edition.  Moebius’ art is spartan by modern standards, but it is absolutely gorgeous,  far too beautiful to let it be ruined by the crude hands of censors.  I got the Classic Collection, which you can pick up on amazon for just under $50.  It’s a 307 page hardcover full-colour book, so the price isn’t as outrageous as it seems.  Well, if you’ll excuse the short post, I’m off to read more Incal!

Ted Chiang’s Exhalation: Science Concepts Presented Through Fiction

Tags

BMC, materialism, science, writing

I was just reading some of Ted Chiang’s excellent short story collection “Stories of Your Life and Others”, and was reminded of a story of his I read much earlier, Exhalation.  This Hugo-winning short story didn’t just catch my imagination and sense of wonder (something that a good Sci-Fi writer can do extremely well in the short format) like Asimov’s Last Question, but also is a wonderful pedagogical tool for explaining thermodynamic concepts.  I won’t blow any of the fascinating world that Chiang built, but I will tell you that the final revelation the protagonist faces is a perfect illustration of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  This story is such a good way of explaining it to people, precisely because it is a story. Any skeptic or psychologist can tell you that the emotional connection a good story provides is among the most effective ways of compelling people (after all, what is mythology but a good collection of stories?).  So, in other words, go read his story here:

Exhalation

Lifehack: Reading Rule

Tags

lifehack

Despite my great ambitions, I have managed only a fraction of the reading I had hoped to achieve this summer. In fact I’ve really only read about 1.5 books since the school term ended. This is an embarrasing state of affairs, and is in spite of the recent addition to my room of a giant comfy chair perfect for reading.

The fact is that I have not been making enough time for reading, something I want to change. In order to facilitate this I am trying out a new rule for myself:

On any given evening, I will undertake no other leisure activities (TV, computer games, music etc.) unless I have read for at least 30 minutes.

I think I will extend it to say that if it is before 9pm I must read for at least an hour. I just read for a solid three-quarters of an hour, so the rule is a success thus-far!

Light Summer Reading

Tags

books, neuroscience, philosophy, reading

Exams are over! Subsequently, I finally have time to get to some of the books which have been collecting on my desk over the past few months. Here’s the list I mean to undertake in short order:

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

More after the break…

What’s the E-mail Equivalent of “Leafing-Through” Letters?

ZOMG, FIRST POST!!1!!one!!

I am in Scotland for the summer, working as a software assistant in the lab of Dr. Mike Tyers at the Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh. Waiting in the airport before my flight over from Vancouver, I realized that I hadn’t packed a book, and my Irex Iliad was out of batteries… doh! As thrilled as I was at the prospect of Zoom Airline’s masterful film selections, I thought I’d better load the proverbial Dice of Entertainment Probability, and happened upon a wonderful little book in the airport bookstore: