Mark Reynolds > Recent Status Updates

Fun, easy to read, description of life as an observational astronomer. A great gift for aspiring astronomers.

So far, it looks promising. As a biography of Fischer, it will be hard to top "Profile of a Prodigy" by Brady.

So far so good. The prewar situation is so intense, it almost writes itself. The true test of an author is how the story develops.

A classic. Physicists don't write like this anymore. It's a pity.

Not quite what I was expecting. But interesting. I guess that's always good when a book surprises you.

Incredibly well written. “And that is just how it should be. That sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for, and cherish to the last of our days; for it is only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.”

So far, clever and funny.

As usual, the fine dry humor of Sam Wyndham, our hero, and just an awesome feeling of the time, the place, this history of Calcutta - and British India in general - in the 1920s.

There is only one category of legend that would be convincing: When information is contained in the legend that could not possibly have been generated by the civilization that created the legend - if, for example, a number transmitted from thousands of years ago as holy turns out to be the nuclear fine structure constant. To the best of my knowledge, there are no such legends.

On the possibility of UFOs today:

“My own view is that there are no cases that are simultaneously very reliable (reported independently by a large number of witnesses) and very exotic (not explicable in terms of reasonably postulated phenomena).”