The Magician King By Lev Grossman Viking Press; 400 pages Lev Grossman will read from The Magician King at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill. An unhappy boy is plucked from the humdrum banality of his everyday life and initiated into a hidden world of magic and adventure when he […]
Gerry Canavan
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Duke professor Orrin Pilkey takes on the deniers in Global Climate Change: A Primer
Global Climate Change: A Primer By Orrin H. Pilkey and Keith C. Pilkey Duke University Press Publication date August 2011 Our Expanding OceansN.C. Museum of Natural Sciences On exhibit through Nov. 6, 2011 According to an August 2000 Harris Poll, more than 70 percent of Americans surveyed believed in global warming, with only a small […]
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After Fukushima, a tour of the Shearon Harris nuclear power facility
If you’ve noticed a flurry of stories in local media outlets spotlighting upcoming safety upgrades at the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant this month, rest assured it’s not your imagination. On Wednesday, May 18, Progress Energy shepherded a group of Triangle media through the plant on a tour that, we were told, is only conducted […]
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Pondering the 600 million in Facebook’s global village
Times are tough for the world’s youngest-ever billionaire. An unflattering biopic, David Fincher’s The Social Networkwhich portrays Mark Zuckerberg as a socially awkward, pathologically jealous loser and backstabberopens this Friday, Oct. 1, ushering in another round of press debating Facebook’s controversial origins and even more controversial effect on our social relations. Facebook hates this film, […]
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Our full interview with William Gibson
Zero History by William Gibson Penguin; 416 pp. William Gibson, the author whose early worksespecially his 1984 debut, Neuromancerepitomized cyberpunk literature, is a writer who has seen his visions become unremarkable reality. He’s just published his 10th novel, Zero History, which also completes his third trilogy, known as the “Blue Ant” series. (Read our review.) […]
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Interview: William Gibson discusses memory, Twitter and his latest novel
Zero History by William Gibson Penguin; 416 pp. ⇒ Read our full interview with Gibson. William Gibson, the author whose early worksespecially his 1984 debut, Neuromancerepitomized cyberpunk literature, is a writer who has seen his visions become unremarkable reality. That doesn’t mean he’s run out of things to do: He got a lot of attention […]
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Field notes for the apocalypse
On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems That Make Our World Work By Scott Huler Rodale, 236 pp. “If you want to see examples of virtually every demographic challenge facing the United States,” writes Scott Huler on page 1 of On the Grid, “come to Raleigh.” Regular Independent Weekly […]
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The varieties of crashes at Flanders in Raleigh
Crash Work by Sharon Dowell, Shaun Richards, Derek Toomes Flanders Gallery Through May 29 When you enter the Flanders Gallery for Crash, its current three-artist show now in its final week of exhibition, the eye is immediately drawn to Shaun Richards’ massive studies of turned-over, wrecked cars. On one wall, in a colorfully grotesque homage […]
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Field notes for the apocalypse: Raleigh’s Scott Huler tells us how bad it really is
On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems That Make Our World Work By Scott Huler Rodale, 236 pp. Huler visits Quail Ridge Books & Music at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 26. “If you want to see examples of virtually every demographic challenge facing the United States,” writes Scott Huler […]
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Area campuses focus on going green
Additional information on campus sustainability programs: Duke University UNC-Chapel Hill N.C. State University Maybe they’re doing it to save money. Maybe they’re doing it because someone somewhere in the administrative hierarchy really cares about the university’s social and environmental impacts. Maybe they’re doing it because their students demanded it. Maybe it’s for advertising or prestige. […]