Some midweek links

I post links for two reasons. One, I find things I think that the few readers who check this blog out will find interesting or may wish to discuss. However, since this is mostly a failure, i mainly post so that I can go back to read these articles. When I get to the computer each day, there's a slew of things I want to look at, and I go through fairly quickly. I link to these articles when I know the subject but haven't read them yet; linking to them means I will go back to read them.

Some brief comments on things I've been reading and watching of late:

--More and more my interests are leaning toward science, particularly cosmology and evolution. So what I'm reading and watching has been reflecting this interest. I'm going back through old issues of "Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine," and last night I caught part of a PBS show about the history of the earth and all that. I learned the most accepted theory on the origin of the moon. Good stuff.

--I watched Manhattan this week. It wasn't bad, but it was enough for me to realize I really don't need to see any more Woody Allen movies.

--Watching more and more Deadwood, it's now pretty obvious that Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen are co-protagonists, but in the sort of non-traditional way HBO shows are capable of treating protagonists.

--I re-read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language." Forgetting the politics for a second, his comments on usage of English should be required reading for all college students. Oh wait--I'm a college English professor. I have some control over this, so I suppose I'll assign this to my students. But his comments on the English language sort of bolstered me up a bit. I read some blogs in which the language and vocabulary seems to be quite above the language and vocabulary used here. However, the point is the idea, and the idea expressed as clearly and concisely as possible. I realize these other blogs that momentarily intimidated me are using a lot of the linguistic techniques Orwell despises.

Anyway, here are some links.

THE SHARPENED QUILL
Was Thomas Paine too much of a freethinker for the country he helped free?
by JILL LEPORE

Sound Science or Sound Bite?
By Michael Bugeja

The Royal United States of America
Posted by Adam Roberts