Tell us when your magazine arrives and/or what you think about it.
WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!
To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” columns, please paste the following message in at the beginning of any posts discussing things in the magazine:
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Mine arrived a couple of days ago. Here’s a detailed review:
Koko&Co: Flammy, as usual
Dear Muse Reader: This is possibly one of the best I’ve read so far. It’s brilliant! Article accelerators…! When I go to a school where you can start clubs, I am going to have to remember to start a local chapter of this society.
Bo’s Page: Fascinating! The fish that mimics the octopus that mimics the fish is my favorite.
Higgs Hunters: Fascinating, but it didn’t explain how it works. I don’t know why there might be tiny black holes; I don’t know what the evidence is, so I can’t assess it for myself. That’s just an example; the whole article is like that. All the facts are amazing, but I don’t feel like I understand them. Maybe it’s impossible without having taken at least college-level physics, but I don’t know; I can understand the most of the nonfiction articles in the Anthology of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics perfectly well with no prior physics experience.
How to Shrink a Wasp: My favorite article in the issue, not counting Dear Muse Reader. I love learning about miniature versions of complicated creatures; that’s part of what makes tardigrades so fascinating. I’ll have to check out the author’s blog.
Small Wonders: Beautiful! I love it!
Answers in the Sand: Excellent!
The Ocean’s Invisible Crowd: I loved this article, but I wish they’d called it something different on the cover. It’s too easy to get one’s hopes up when one sees that there’s an article on “Animals Too Small to See” with no other information.
Muserology: I like it! That was a pretty unique experience, and it’s interesting to read about.
Pocket Muses: I’m sorry, but really? This bit was just rather… unnecessary. Of course it’s better than the standard magazine fortune-telling device–Bo’s and Aeiou’s advice was especially funny–but it’s nowhere near as good as most other Muse material. Also, where is Pwt in all this?? Would it have been more difficult to add in one more Muse?
Muse Mail: Middling well–average or maybe a bit above average
Muse Contest: Interesting! I don’t think I’ll participate, but I like the idea. I love the stories and am surprised that they’re so much better than the stories in the Cricket contests.
Last Page: I love Last Pages, and this one exceeds expectations.
Aren’t you describing the March issue?
I didn’t check. Maybe so. I’m glad, then, because I’ll get an April issue, too! I haven’t gotten Muse in a while because my subscription ran out, and I renewed, but it took ages for them to actually send me issues.
I just got my March issue too. I was really excited about the Higgs Boson article.
Since this thread already has 2 comments about the March issue and none about April, and the March thread is empty, maybe we should use the other thread to discuss the April issue.
I am a little bit annoyed because normally, I’d be getting my April issue about now, and I just got my March issue, so it looks like I’ll receive them more slowly from now on. I hope not.
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Got it!
In this issue, I especially enjoyed both covers, “Kokopelii and Company”, “Dear Muse Reader”, “Bo’s Page”, “The Hue of Death”, “Q&A”, “A Tale of Two Violins”, “Built-in Bias”, and “Winging It”. I haven’t gotten “How Spiffy Is Your Sniffer?” to work yet, but I generally like Muse quizzes.
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I got it too! I like “A Tale of Two Violins” and “Built-in Bias” best. I’m pretty sure “How Spiffy is Your Sniffer?” is an April Fool’s joke, though.
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I don’t get muse any more, could someone tell me what the “Tale of Two Violins” was about?
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Cerulean Pyros – Check the answers to the quiz. Don’t worry about ruining it for yourself.
This has been one of my favorite issues. I loved it! Although, like the March issue, it seemed to me to imply that algae are plants, which is untrue.
Bo’s page isn’t always a challenge for me, but this one had me completely fooled. I was sure the article about zebras was false!
I also loved the article “Built-In Bias”. I wonder if people who actively prefer cold to heat might get different results with the coffee test? I know that with the try-it-yourself right-handed versus left-handed mini-test, I actually answered “left” both times even though I’m right-handed. I think it’s because I tend to really look and assess options when I’m choosing between two things as opposed to just glancing at them, but it may just be that I looked at the left side of the page first, or maybe I was just subconciously being contrary.
But my favorite article was “The Hue of Death”. Cskia, Athenian Psycho, and I always say “Life is purple; death is green”. Some people have told me we have that backwards, but now we can prove it!
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I was looking forward to reading “A Tale of Two Violins,” but I was a bit disappointed. It was really short, and I thought the “What’s so Special about a Strad” part could have been incorporated into the actual article. That said, it was nice to see something about instruments/classical music!
Lizzie–The article was about a double-blind test of violins. 21 professional violinists came in to test six different violins–two of which were Strads, one a Guaneri, and three modern. The participants were asked to choose their favorite and to guess whether it was new or old. The results were that a large majority couldn’t tell which were old and which were new–and the only pattern of preference was that one modern one was ranked higher and one Strad was ranked lower than the others.