Leonard Susskind of Stanford gave a HEFTI public lecture, based on his book The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design at UC Davis on Oct 17.  About 400 people got an entertaining look at the "landscape" of universes allowed by string theory and how it might explain some of the apparent fine-tunings in nature that make life possible. "Lenny" (as he is affectionately known to almost all) was in high form, but also showed how he could be gentle with his critics.