some random thoughts:

It is one week until the presidential election, and the polls show a virtual tie between George W. Bush and John Kerry. No matter how objectively I realize that many Americans are self-centered and not particularly insightful, I still cannot believe how anybody could vote for a president who lied constantly, led us into a war for the sole purpose of enriching big business, and gave unnecessary tax cuts to the richest Americans, all the while letting the economy stagnate and the federal deficit balloon.

Ever since I began my Visions of Paradise blog, I have only gotten 2 comments on it. That is a bit frustrating, although I am not sure if it means (a) nobody is reading it, or (b) nobody finds it particularly thought-provoking. Neither option is very encouraging.

I am reading the first issue of a new British speculative fiction magazine called Postscripts, and it is very interesting reading. Even had I not known its mailing address, its preoccupation with contemporary disasters would have exposed it as British, since such disasters have always been a staple of British sf rather than American. Authors such as John Wyndham, John Christopher, and J.G. Ballard all achieved fame writing very good novels of that type.

It saddens me a lot that parents of some of my immigrant students refuse to accept that not all students are geniuses, that they are actually trying the best they can, but they will never excel in science. It is especially sad when the students prefer some area of humanities or the arts, but their parents refuse to accept that as a valid career choice.