Links, pithy comments, you know the drill. The graphics on this one might not be astonishing, but the idea of supermassive black holes being flung from collisons at galactic cores is probably cool enough on its own to sustain interest. I love how science writers drop line like “these objects can have masses equivalent to one billion Suns” the way… Read more →
Tag: behind the scenes
I am so glad I’m out of the dating scene…
And now for something outside my usual range… As I talk to more and more single people who are roughly my age, it becomes apparent to me that the Internet dating scene has become both gigantic and socially acceptable in the time I’ve been off the market–whatever stigma there once was to dating services has apparently completely vanished in the… Read more →
Was He The Last Ottoman?
I saw a story on Wikinews today about the death a couple of days ago, at age 97, of Ertuğrul Osman, who, according to the story was the last pretender to the throne of the Ottoman Empire. That lead to some fascinating reading about the Ottoman Dynasty (start here) who ran the Empire for more than 625 years until the… Read more →
Sometimes you need more than six words
I knew he had potential when, instead of being creeped out, he was fascinated by the antique glass eye I carry around in my purse. One sentence stories. All the potential of PostSecret, but less bathos. Although drunken ideas rarely come to fruition, we found ourselves on Pearl Street the next morning serving syrupy handfuls of my famous pumpkin spice… Read more →
Language By Example, Again
As I said the last time I talked about this, several times a week I find myself saying something and I realize that while I know what it means, I don’t know why it means that. When I catch myself at this, I’m off to find out why. This morning brought two new examples. The first was “proof”. I mean… Read more →
Language By Example
I like to think I have a pretty large vocabulary, and more than that I kind of pride myself on understanding why words mean what they do–what the history behind them is. Even so, there are lots of times I find myself using a word or phrase in a way that I’ve heard it used before, often many times before,… Read more →
Context
Have I spoken of the Lapham’s Quarterly blog? It’s a fine, fine thing–they take current topical news stories, and link them to something contextual from history to provide a different view, or highlight a particular nuance, etc. A recent piece, contrasts some US election pandering with… well, that would be telling, but anyway you should check it out. The editors… Read more →
I Am Not Making This Up
When I first checked into the hotel on Sunday, I noticed that across the hall from my suite was a door marked “Maintenance Office”. I had an offhand thought about it being odd to find that on the 3rd floor–you’d think it would be on the first floor, or possibly in the basement–and thought no more about it. This morning… Read more →
