Review of <i>Freedom and the Self: Essays on the philosophy of David Foster Wallace,</i> Edited by Cahn, S. M. and Eckert, M., New York: Columbia University Press, 2015

No abstract available

Small flow rate can supply inwardly migrating shortest-period planets

The number of exoplanets found with periods as short as one day and less was surprising given how fast these planets had been expected to migrate into the star due to the tides raised on the star by planets at such close distances. It has been seen as improbable that we would find planets in such a small final fraction of their lives. The favored solution has been that the tidal dissipation is much weaker than expected, which would mean that the final infall would be a larger fraction of the planets' life. We find no reason to exclude the explanation that a small number of planets are continuously sent migrating inwards such that these planets indeed are in the last fraction of their lives. Following the observation that the distribution of medium planets disfavors tidal dissipation being significantly weaker than has been found from observations of binary stars, we now show that the numbers of planets in such a "flow" of excess planets migrating inwards is low enough that even depletion of the three-day pileup is a plausible source. Then the shortest period occurrence distribution would be shaped by planets continuously being sent into the star, which may explain the depletion of the pileup in the Kepler field relative to the solar neighborhood (Howard et al. 2012, hereafter H12). Because Kepler observes above the galactic plane, H12 suggested the Kepler field may include an older population of stars. The tidal dissipation strength in stars due to giant planets may be not greatly weaker than it is in binary stars.Comment: Four pages, four figures, submitted to Hot Planets Cold Stars conference (2012 November Garching, Germany

The making of Wallace’s Everything and More: an interview with Erica Neely

Of all the works by celebrated author David Foster Wallace, his ‘popular mathematics’ book on Georg Cantor is by far the most neglected. Everything and More: A compact history of Infinity has proven difficult to reconcile with both Wallace’s fiction and non-fiction alike. This interview article aims to shed some light on the nature and construction of Everything and More. First introducing the book in context by reconstructing from Wallace’s personal letters its production, it then benefits from the unique insight of Wallace’s technical adviser on the project, mathematician-turned-philosopher Erica Neely. Over the course of the interview, Wallace’s motivations as well as his research and compositional strategy are exposed as Neely reflects on her time working with the author. This unique exposition and reflection paves the way for future dialogue about Everything and More that we may fully appreciate and understand this complex ‘oddity’ at the centre Wallace’s oeuvre

Performing Fabulous Monsters: Re-inventing the Gothic Personae in Bizarre Magic

Bizarre magick is a form of performance magic that favours theatrical character, storytelling, overt allegory, symbolism and metaphor, and themes of the supernatural, fantastic, amazing and weird. While the form has its roots in Victorian stage magic, it realised itself as a movement in the 1970s through a counter-cultural reaction against the big boxes and card flourishes of a disenchanted, contemporary, mainstream stage magic. Bizarre magicians sought to re-enchant performance magic with the mysterious and the spiritual, (re)discovering meaning through storytelling and theatrical character. This chapter examines the adoption of popular Gothic representations in the stage persona of a number of key figures in bizarre magick. In performance, bizarre magick presents a complex series of meta-narratives within the form, often supplanting the literary in favour of popular Gothic (re)imaginings. These, often twice-removed, transformations/translations of classic and contemporary Gothic form and fiction are considered in the context of the bizarre performer's engagement, through both performance and theoretical writing, with the fabulously monstrous