Abi Southerland on the current popularity of Zombies:I mentioned this puzzle to my better half, who happens to be in the middle of a reread of World War Z. His answer? ... You can have a fascinating story about a single zombie in a world of humans or the last human in...
Some commenters on my recent post about emotions in IR are a little flustered over the difference between Klingons and Vulcans in Star Trek. Representative David Wu of Oregon offers a clarification...
Anyway, the end begins tomorrow. I'm sure the political-science/science-fiction nerds that dominate the international-relations blogsphere will have much commentary.The main question: will it be...
It has been a busy week in world politics, but despite finishing my book I've been too squeezed to provide insightful commentary. A bit of geek-blogging, on the other hand, takes far less energy....
Dan Drezner reveals that he was (is?) a Civilization addict:Occasionally, despite my mental efforts, one of these activities sneaks it's way through my defenses. I'm convinced that had I not gotten hooked on Sid Meier's Civilization game, I'd have another article somewhere on my cv. [What about blogging?--ed. A more complex answer -- I'd probably have another article or two, but the articles on outsourcing and blogging would not be there either.]Now, I must admit that I'm a bit dubious about being addicted to Civilization III. Did Dan escape the snares of Civilization I and Civilization II,...
In response to Time Burke's "Rampant Geekery: Star Wars Thoughts [SPOILERS]", I made a comment about what I called "nerd hermeneutics": the analysis of the text and media of speculative worlds, such as Star Wars and Star Trek, as if they were complete, self-contained systems. In a followup, Tim expands masterfully on this concept. He talks about it as "ways in which a fiction like Star Wars invites a particular kind of reader to make it into more than it is, to fill in its gaps, invent coherencies, see themes that are only barely there."Reading my comment with the benefit of, well, actually...