Author Archives: Clifford

Back to the Lab

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Well, the transformation continues apace. As of last year, North of the USC campus now has the wonderful Bacaro, and as of three weeks ago, we now have The Lab on the Eastern edge of campus. It’s a gastropub (it is quite charming to hear that quaint term from early 90s London being bandied about as new and hip over here out West now), done up with the feeling of a laboratory of sorts. I think it works rather well, and I entirely approve of the science theme.

the lab gastropub at USCThe good news is that it actually does seem to be trying to do food somewhat a cut above the sort you get at your generic college campus dive. It succeeds with plenty of room to spare. I can see it as another place where both students and faculty can feel at home and find something on the menu that they like. There’s a surprisingly good selection of beers (no Duvel, Hoegaarden or Leffe, but I did spot a Chimay, so they pass) and several wines (did not explore the list on this first visit).

My risotto was pleasantly fresh tasting, with ingredients (including several different […] Click to continue reading this post →

The Spiritual Life of Plants

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cvj sowing seedsGiven all the gardening I’ve been doing over the last week or so (there’s some seed-sowing action going on to the right – more later), it may be fitting to go and sit and participate in the event coming up today. It is another of the College Commons events I’ve been mentioning here.

It’ll be a round table discussion and workshop to kick off a series, and here’s the summary:

“The Spiritual Life of Plants” series, arranged by Natania Meeker and Antónia Szabari of French and comparative literature, aims to reunite urgent contemporary conversations around ecology and the built environment with an early modern past — a past in which plants existed both at the limits of being and at the frontier of new forms of knowledge. What might these animated plants have to tell us about the ways in which humans experience, regulate, and are transformed by the non-human beings that surround them? How can we carry these conversations forward into the present and the future?

[…] Click to continue reading this post →

Finale Thoughts

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Well, some of the best writing on television (irrespective of genre) came to an end recently, and since I raved about it back at its height some time ago (and maybe even encouraged some of you to watch it) I feel I ought to comment a little, now that the series – Battlestar Galactica – has ended. If you’ve not seen the finale (or even several of the episodes leading up to it), please do not read any further if you don’t want to know plot details.
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Two Johns on the War

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Last week, John Stewart and John Oliver were hilarious about the Bush administration’s War on Science, and the Obama administration’s continuing efforts to undo some of the damage done. The rest of the content aside, John Oliver’s terrible Bush impression is worth seeing.

Enjoy: […] Click to continue reading this post →

One Million!

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millionHmmm. With all of the current bandying about of “Billions” and “Trillions” in the news (at least over here in the USA – referring to dollars, and economic stimulus packages and so forth), every single day, “One Million” sounds decidedly underwhelming doesn’t it? Perhaps I should instead write [tex]10^6[/tex]. Does that help?

Why am I focusing on this number? Well, while I’ve been in hermit mode the last week (uh… yes, that’s where I was and I’ve got the beard to prove it – was resetting my head over Spring break – more later) the sitemeter counter continued ticking away and sometime today passed the One Millionth Visitor To Asymptotia mark! So we have a landmark of sorts. One worth noting. So…

Hurrah!

I’d planned to note carefully that visitor’s data (you can tell roughly what part of the […] Click to continue reading this post →

Pi Day!

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piIt is Pi Day today! (It is also Einstein’s birthday, and Talk Like A Physicist Day. See below.) To remind you about Pi Day, from Wikipedia we have:

Pi Minute is also sometimes celebrated on March 14 at 1:59 p.m. If ? is truncated to seven decimal places, it becomes 3.1415926, making March 14 at 1:59:26 p.m., Pi Second (or sometimes March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.).

The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu.[1] The founder of Pi Day was Larry Shaw,[2] a now retired physicist at the Exploratorium who still helps out with the celebrations.

This year it is officially National Pi day too, according to the U.S. Congress!

Be sure to do some pi-ous things, ok? (Making pies, walking in circles at 1:59 pm (at […] Click to continue reading this post →

Waiting for Godot

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waiting for godot posterWow. This is a dream cast, a dream production, and a dream interview. You’ve got Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as the leads, for a start. Two of my favourite actors on stage or screen. But they are joined by another favourite of mine, the amazing Simon Callow! The quartet is rounded out by Ronald Pickup (who I don’t know as well, but is no slouch himself). They’re doing Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”, and it is going to tour at various theatres in the UK before ending up in London. That would be quite marvellous to see, I think.

Anyway, why am I telling you this? Other than just to enthuse about having those […] Click to continue reading this post →