This interview could make a person melancholy. Stephen Jay Gould talks about books he plans to write, religion, and pattern.

My first book, ''Ontogeny and Phylogeny,'' was about organisms. My new book is about theory. I need to write one about pattern, which I think will be called ''Life's Direction.''...

[Q]: ...many people associate you with the idea that there may not be as much pattern in the world as we think.

A lot of the patterns we see are entirely contingent. Most of them would not be repeated if we could just start everything over again.

I'm really sorry that we'll never get to read SJG on Wolfram. If I read others' interpretations correctly (having not yet got my hands on a copy myself), the gist of "A New Kind of Science" is that both pattern and complexity must arise out of some of the simplest processes. This would seem to be an argument for the ubiquity, even inevitability, of life.

For more on Wolfram: 1,197 pages I'm going to have to read..., Life, the Universe, and Everything.

11:27:03 PM    please comment []

Given the negligible amount of time I've spent in the wilderness lately, I rather doubt I'll have use for this information anytime soon. Nonetheless, when faced with a juvenile grizzly who's recently been booted out of the den, your best bet is to stand stock still, talk in a reasonable tone, avoid eye contact, and pack a squirting water bottle.

Never, ever run. Chasing hominids on the hoof is fun, especially when they go UP a tree expecting to be safe. Bears can climb.

11:16:38 PM    please comment []

New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden had the same experience I did:

It was just days ago that United States officials suggested that suicide bombings are inevitable on American targets. And as the film's fictional depiction of events leading up to a small nuclear blast (in Baltimore) unfolded at a recent press screening, the audience sat riveted in silence.

"Riveted" may or may not be the right adjective.

The rest of the review isn't exactly a rave, but it's not a slam either. I still think (see Bad Timing) that even Ben Affleck isn't going to get BAMA girls to buy tickets to this one.

2:41:22 AM    please comment []

Just for the record, I would like to note that lying supine in bed with an iBook on your abdomen whilst surfing the web, or writing, or whatever, is both more fun and less hassle than a hot water bottle ~ and more effective in relieving cramps.

2:36:33 AM    please comment []