Academic

Holiday Entertainment

By Jacqueline Lipton

In terms of holiday movies, so far I've seen Avatar and Up in the Air.  Surprisingly, I can highly recommend both, although Up in the Air is understandably a little depressing.  I still have hopes of seeing some of the other movies on my list before teaching starts again.

Avatar certainly made me realize how close the link between science and art really is.  If you don't believe me, just stay around and watch the entire end credits - there's probably more computer scientists' names there than artists, writers, actors etc.

I also managed to read a couple of books and had the pleasure of reading Erik Larson's book about the 1900 cyclone in Galveston, Texas (Isaac's Storm) during an extremely windy and rainy Christmas afternoon in Cleveland.

As usual, I enjoyed Larson's historical fiction - extremely well researched, and his writing style intertwines science, technology, politics, history, and narrative.  Probably not my favorite Larson book so far, but worth a read if you have time and aren't planning to travel to any areas prone to cyclones in the near future.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on December 26, 2009 (boomark / email).