Review: Strange Beauty

Amazon

From Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics, by George Johnson:


He is sometimes called the Mendeleev of the twentieth century, for what he provided was no less than a periodic table of the subatomic particles."

Strange Beauty is both a book about particle physics and a biography of a scientist. It suffers from the weaknesses of its two subjects. Particle physics is a mind-numbingly complex field that few understand, and even they are mostly bluffing. And the scientist examined here is not an easy person to like -- brilliant, arrogant, competitive, sarcastic and insecure. Think "The Big Bang Theory's" Sheldon Cooper without any innocent charm.

After the jump, my review and excerpts.

Review: The Art of Fielding

Amazon

From The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach:


To want to be perfect. To want everything to be perfect. But now it felt like that was all he'd ever craved since he'd been born. Maybe it wasn't even baseball that he loved but only this idea of perfection, a perfectly simple life in which every move had meaning, and baseball was just the medium through which he could make that happen."

The Art of Fielding is a book about baseball. But that's like saying Moby Dick is a book about fishing. The two books have a lot in common.

After the jump, my review.

Late Autumn in the Steger Garden (2011)

From Flowers

More photos after the jump.

Another Look At Single-Member Districts

Bill McCalpin's "Rumorcheck.org" asks the question, "What would happen if Richardson had single member districts?" and comes up with the same answer that "The Wheel" came up with when that question was examined after the last city election in May.

• Rumorcheck.org: "What would happen if Richardson had single member districts?"
  
  
• The Wheel: "Analysis of the Votes for Richardson City Council"
  
• The Wheel: "Are Richardson's Voting Districts in Need of Change?"
  

Spoiler alert: the answer is that single member districts probably wouldn't have much effect on election results.

Bad News for the RHS Panthers

Panthers? Huh? If you're thinking, "Doesn't he mean RHS Eagles?" the answer is no, I mean Panthers. But you're excused if you read "RHS" and automatically thought "Richardson High School." That's understandable. It would have been even more understandable if I had left off "Panthers" altogether, as one local blogger did.

After the jump, the latest example of the old adage, "Don't believe everything you read."

Where Are You From?

An American opens a window to Bulgaria:

"От къде си" or "Where are you from?" is one of the most frequent questions I’m asked. You’d think it would be an easy question to answer, but for me it’s not.

Source: Window to Bulgaria.

Brian, who is serving with the Peace Corps in Bulgaria, answers that question on his blog. Because so much of his answer involves family, and Brian's family is also my family, I found it not only interesting but personal. So, where are you from?

Sanity Check for School Finance

You have to be really old to remember when the introduction of "new math" caused such a commotion in public education. The biggest change was in how students are taught to approach computation. In the old regime, rote memorization was the order of the day. Mechanical processes ("put down the 4 and carry the 1") were drilled into students' heads. Students graduated knowing what 7x9 equaled, but lacking the ability to apply their skills to the real world.

After the jump, some examples, both fictional and real world.

For Once, Let's Not Fill 'er Up

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times. What Richardson needs is more places to store your boats and campers while you're out shopping and dining. And more gas stations next to our DART stops.

I've been a champion of development at US75/PGBT, at Galatyn, at Eastside, at Brick Row, and eventually I hope, at old downtown Main Street and along West Spring Valley Rd. But that doesn't mean I'm all in favor of every cockamamie idea for new development anywhere in Richardson. Really, I do draw the line somewhere.

After the jump, examples of misguided development in Richardson.

Crunchy Cons vs Islamist-y Republicans

Today's dialog is prompted, once again, by my favorite crunchy conservative, Rod Dreher. If you know Rod Dreher, you know that if there's one thing that sets him off, it's Muslims. In truth, my dialog is really not much of a dialog. It's more an opportunity for Dreher to show who's boss.

Dreher accuses self-described conservative Andrew Sullivan (Rod, he's one of yours) of going "far, far, far beyond rationality" (emphasis is Dreher's), then accuses me of "hysterical bigotry" (mercifully, no emphasis).

After the jump, the details.

School Lawsuits. Council Endorsements.

Richardson's school board and Richardson City Council members took divergent positions this week, probably without even being aware of it. The school board sued the State over school finance. Council members endorsed one of the legislators responsible for our school finance mess.

In the current state budget, the RISD received $14.2 million less for this year's operating budget due to state cutbacks in education funding. Next year, RISD's operating budget will take a further $7.5 million hit. This is despite rising enrollments. Schools are adding students but the legislature isn't supplying the resources needed to educate them.

After the jump, what the RISD is doing about it. And how the city council members are making the schools' case more difficult.