What I've read over the 2012/13 academic year

So at the beginning of 2012 I started noting every film I watched, but I have been doing the same with books since 2008. I began while I was at university in York and organised it by academic year, and so I have continued.

Last year (2011/12) I had a good look at my to-read list and realised I had about 10 years of stuff already lined up at the rate I was reading. I made a big effort to maximise how much I read and pulled in nearly 14000 pages over the year. I did not do so well this year, I guess it being my last year teacher training probably explains it, although I also got stuck on On the Origin of Species for like a month and a half.

A reminder of the awards:
 ★   Good!
 ★★  Very good
 ★★★ Amazing!
 ★   Bad...
 ★★  Very bad
 ★★★ Awful!
And, again, these are strictly a descriptor of my personal feeling towards the book.

If it wasn't the first time I'd read the book, that is indicated by its title.

★★  A Game of Thrones
    A Song of Ice and Fire #1, gritty fantasy and popular TV series.
★   What Do You Care What Other People Think?
    Several biographical stories by Richard Feynman.
★   Brutal Harry
    A somewhat dark Harry Potter fanfic. Link.
★   The Magician's Apprentice (attempted)
    Prequel novel to The Black Magician Trilogy, which I love.
    A Study in Magic
    A Harry Potter/Sherlock Holmes crossover fanfic. Link.
★   Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
    The 1886 classic.
★★  On the Origin of Species
    Darwin's treaty on evolution by natural selection.
★   The Illuminatus! Trilogy (attempted)
    A quirky trilogy with the subject of conspiracy theories.
★   The Dark Lord's Equal
    Harry Potter fanfic, a mature Harry goes back in time. Link.
★   The Ego Trick
    A for-the-masses philosophy book about 'identity'.
★★  Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (first 25 chapters)
    Harry Potter/Dungeons and Dragons crossover fanfic. Link.
★   The Colour of Magic (II)
    The first of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
★   Big Bang
    Popsci book about the Big Bang theory.
★★  The Silmarillion
    Tolkien's prequel epic to The Lord of the Rings.
    Hyperion
    An oft-recommended scifi novel.
★   Misspent Youth
    A sort of very early prequel to The Commonwealth Saga.
★★★ Pride & Prejudice (III)
    200 years since its publication, Jane Austen's best known novel.
★   How to Lie with Statistics
    A short '50s book about the ways statistics can mislead.
★   River Out of Eden
    One of Dawkins' books on evolution, the next one I hadn't read.
    Permutation City
    Hard scifi. May cause headaches and existential nihilism.
    Kil'n People
    A fun scifi book on an interesting theme.
★★  Interview with the Vampire (II or III)
    The book that began Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.
★★  The Vampire Lestat (II)
    First part of the sequel duology to Interview.
★★  The Queen of the Damned (II)
    The conclusion to the sequel duology to Interview.
★★  Harry Potter and the Natural 20
    As mentioned above, HP/DnD crossover, this time completed.
★   Harry Potter and the Confirmed Critical (first 6 chapters)
    Ongoing sequel to HPN20. Link.
★   Ender's Game
    Another oft-recommended scifi novel, and soon to be a film.
★★  Speaker for the Dead
    Sequel to Ender's Game (and the reason he expanded it).
★   The Lifecycle of Software Objects
    Scifi novella taking AI from a different angle. Link.
    Science Fiction Hall of Fame (first 17 stories)
    A highly recommended compilation of pre-1964 scifi short stories.
★   Hikaru no Go (first 6 volumes)
    A coming-of-age manga centered on a boy who learns to play Go.
★   Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (chapters 86-89)
    Harry Potter fanfic, where Harry is smart. Link.

Book of the year, I guess!

As for films: although I feel like I haven't watched many for ages (I've been busy with anime and, recently, Breaking Bad) I'm on 47 so far in 2013 which is more than I'd have guessed!

A Space Oddity performed by Chris Hadfield... in space

This man has been an absolute legend on the spacestation, producing fascinating videos, answering questions, and demonstrating all sorts of random things in space.

He recently returned to Earth, and this was his final production on the ISS.



Properly awesome.

2012 in film

This year I tried noting down every film I watched with a rating. I got 56 altogether, but I might have missed some towards the beginning of the year! They are presented below in chronological order.

Possible awards:
 ★   Good!
 ★★  Very good
 ★★★ Amazing!
 ★   Bad...
 ★★  Very bad
 ★★★ Awful!
These measure my subjective experience of the film, not my objective critique! If I enjoyed a movie, it got some gold stars, without deep analysis of whether it deserved it. And vice versa.

Also I've bolded some titles, to highlight significant films (one I was highly anticipating, is a well-known classic, was just really good, or has some sort of significance to me personally).

If it wasn't the first time I'd seen the film, that is also indicated.

★★  Predators
    2010 sequel to the 1987 classic
★★  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    2011 American adaptation of the book
★★  Agora (II)
    2009 historical drama starring Rachel Weisz
★   Requiem for a Dream
    2000 trippy film about drugs with a score by Clint Mansell
★   Chronicle
    2012 sci-fi film
★   Dogma
    1999 satirical film starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
★★★ The Adjustment Bureau (II)
    2011 sci-fi film, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt
★★★ The Shawkshank Redemption (II)
    1994 drama film
★★★ Megamind
    2010 Dreamworks animation
★★  Scent of a Woman
    1992 Al Pacino film
★   The Cabin in the Woods
    2012 horror/satire film
★★★ The Fellowship of the Ring (many)
    2001 Peter Jackson adaptation of the book
★   Prometheus
    2012 prequel to the classic Alien franchise
    Dark City
    Bizarre 1998 sci-fi 'film noir' homage or something
★   Cowboys and Aliens
    2011 western adventure
★   Men in Black 3
    2012 addition to the franchise
★   The Amazing Spider-Man
    2012 reboot
★   Brave
    2012 Pixar film
★   The Lost Boys
    1987 teen horror film
★   Iron Man (II?)
    2008 superhero film
★   American Psycho (II)
    2000 psychological thriller
★★  Batman Begins (III?)
    2005 first part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy
★★  The Dark Knight (II?)
    2008 second part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy
★   The Dark Knight Rises
    2012 final part of Christopher Nolan's trilogy
★   360
    2011 drama starring Hopkins, Weisz and Law
★★  Blade Runner
    1982 sci-fi classic
★★  The Avengers
    2012 superhero film
★   The Secret of Kells
    2009 animation
★★  My Neighbour Totoro
    1988 Hayao Miyazaki film
★   Stand By Me
    1986 coming-of-age film, starring Wil Wheaton
★   The Grey
    2012 Liam Neeson survival drama
★   Bridge to Terabithia (II)
    2007 children's fantasy-ish drama
★★  Sherlock Holmes (II)
    2009 film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law
★★  The Thing
    1982 horror film
★   The Thing
    2011 prequel to the 1982 film
★★  Road to Perdition
    2002 gangster film starring Tom Hanks
★   Brokeback Mountain
    2005 romantic drama
★★  Casino Royale (IV?)
    2006 Bond film, the first of the Daniel Craig reboot
★★  Quantum of Solace (II)
    2008 Bond film, the second of the Daniel Craig reboot
★★  The Fly (II)
    1986 sci-fi horror film, starring Jeff Goldblum
    Skyfall
    2012 Bond film
★★  Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
    1984 Hayao Miyazaki film
★★  Laputa: Castle in the Sky
    1986 Hayao Miyazaki film
★   Porco Rosso
    1992 Hayao Miyazaki film
★   Kiki's Delivery Service
    1989 Hayao Miyazaki film
★★  Princess Mononoke (II)
    1997 Hayao Miyazaki film
    Spirited Away (II)
    2001 Hayao Miyazaki film
★★★ Road to Perdition (II)
    2002 gangster film starring Tom Hanks
★★  Howl's Moving Castle (II)
    2004 Hayao Miyazaki film
★   Ponyo
    2008 Hayao Miyazaki film
★★  The Two Towers (II or III)
    2002 Peter Jackson adaptation of the book
★   Hook (many)
    1991 children's film
★   The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
    2012, first part of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the book
★★  The Return of the King (II)
    2003 Peter Jackson adaptation of the book
★   Life of Pi
    2012 adaptation of the 2001 adventure book
★   27 Dresses
    2008 romcom

Bring on 2013!

Science is a process

Science is a process, not the accumulated knowledge we have thus far.

It's like building a map - the map might change over time and mistakes might even be made that later get retracted and altered, and there might be disagreements about some regions of the map, but that doesn't alter the fact that the territory exists and that, in fact, we have managed to map out much of it and that there is a process by which it makes sense to continue to do so (the scientific method). We are building a map of reality, our universe, Nature, what is true and what is not. There's no a priori reason to believe this territory actually exists, but it definitely seems to, and we've had great success with our map-making so far (see literally all technology).

Saying science is about making up theories at random (something I heard honestly asserted by a fellow trainee teacher this year), or pointing out how scientists now believe different things (have a different map) than scientists in the past as if that invalidates the whole thing, is a misunderstanding of this fact. Science is the answer to the question 'how do we build a conceptual map of reality'? Or, in simpler terms, how do we find out about the world.

Tribute to Neil Armstrong

In 2009 my crazyawesome family threw a party to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing (complete with replica lunar landing module/obstacle course). Since Neil Armstrong has died this week, at the age of 82, my brother Darren has edited some of the footage from the party as a tribute to Neil Armstrong.

The Olympics were good, I admit it, but we've been to the goddamn moon, people.



And, because I can, an excerpt from a certain Harry Potter fanfiction which proves beyond all reasonable doubt that Science is more magical than Magic:

And Harry raced back up the stairs and shoved the staircase back into the trunk with his heel, and, panting, turned the pages of the book until he found the picture he wanted to show to Draco.

The one with the white, dry, cratered land, and the suited people, and the blue-white globe hanging over it all.

That picture.

The picture, if only one picture in all the world were to survive.

"That," Harry said, his voice trembling because he couldn't quite keep the pride out, "is what the Earth looks like from the Moon."

Draco slowly leaned over. There was a strange expression on his young face. "If that's a real picture, why isn't it moving?"

Moving? Oh. "Muggles can do moving pictures but they need a bigger box to show it, they can't fit them onto single book pages yet."

Draco's finger moved to one of the suits. "What are those?" His voice starting to waver.

"Those are human beings. They are wearing suits that cover their whole bodies to give them air, because there is no air on the Moon."

"That's impossible," Draco whispered. There was terror in his eyes, and utter confusion. "No Muggle could ever do that. How..."

Harry took back the book, flipped the pages until he found what he saw. "This is a rocket going up. The fire pushes it higher and higher, until it gets to the Moon." Flipped pages again. "This is a rocket on the ground. That tiny speck next to it is a person." Draco gasped. "Going to the Moon cost the equivalent of... probably around a thousand million Galleons." Draco choked. "And it took the efforts of... probably more people than live in all of magical Britain."

Read it, go on, just the first few chapters...

"Welcome to science"

A beautiful tribute to science.

Source

YouTuber and Maths-enthusiast Vihart on reaching your audience

In this video Vihart discusses a surprisingly relevant, to the internet today, piece of writing from the 70s in a video that should be interesting to all, but it has a special significance for me.

Though the theme of the video is how a YouTuber should go about reaching an audience, to me the interesting and pertinent message (as a teacher-in-training) is her opinion towards education. From 02:07 to 02:38 she compares the popularity of her maths videos to the approach, which I am well familiar with, frequently advocated in the modern teaching profession. Watch:



So, food for thought. Next time I hear somebody say that to teach maths (or any other subject) to children we should make it 'relevant', make it about sports or wrestling or whatever, I'll think of Vihart's videos, and see if I can't express some of the feeling one gets from watching them, missing from their approach.