Have a look at some impressive photos of yesterday’s astronomical event, here.
With the Walker recall election on the morrow — widely regarded as a key American battle in the bitter ideological conflict now convulsing all of the West — here’s a piquant item from Mark Steyn. Excerpt: [I]n 2012 the advanced Western social-democratic citizen looks pretty similar, whether viewed from Greece or Germany, California or Quebec. […]
My friend G. Orcalimbo Jones (be sure to listen to the live stream of his radio show on WOMR, Fridays at 9 P.M.) has sent us a nifty item: a continuously zoom-able display of our Universe at all scales. Seen this way, scale itself seems to become a linear dimension of its own. Have a […]
In a rare online moment over the holiday weekend, I ran across an article in the Daily Mail about how our Department of Homeland Security, in its restless hunt for loquacious malefactors, scans the Internet for alarming words. The article lists scores of examples. I noted with interest, though, that the list is published on […]
This space will be mostly quiet for the next few days, as the lovely Nina and I occupy ourselves with spring cleaning, houseguests, and Memorial Day revelry. Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Life just keeps getting better.
Attention, readers: Radio Derb is back. John Derbyshire, following his defenestration by National Review, has dusted himself off and taken his weekly podcast over to Taki’s. So far, there are three new installments. Have a listen here. And speaking of Derb, here’s a recent essay of his, also at Taki’s: Ridding Myself of the Day.
For those of you who might enjoy it, here’s a five-part interview with Thomas Sowell on the role of intellectuals in modern democracies. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5.) Churchill said this, once upon a time: The worst difficulties from which we suffer do not come from without. They come from within. They do not come […]
Ever since seeing Fantasia as a boy, I’ve been fascinated by animated renderings of music. Poking around online today I found two very different animations of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #6. Both are complete mappings of the musical score onto a scrolling visual display, and so both express the same information. I can’t decide, though, […]
Here’s a poignant item from the Daily Mail: a P-40 Kittyhawk lost in the Sahara 70 years ago has just been discovered, preserved in the sands.
There’s a sad front-page article in today’s New York Times about frontotemporal dementia, a family of degenerative brain diseases that gradually destroy not only various skills and cognitive functions, but also the essential nature of a patient’s personality. These diseases are stark reminders that what we are — that all of what we are — […]
It’s been a long day at work, but I might have managed to write a post nevertheless — had I not lost myself for the past hour at the infinitely engaging (at least for a well-seasoned old gaffer like me) ‘miscellaneous” page at Lileks.com. Have a look for yourself.
Here we are in 2012, and the most advanced technological civilization that has ever existed is stymied by three tons of meat in a log cabin. What was it that Emerson said about hobgoblins?
April 26, 2012 – 10:09 pm
First thing tomorrow I’m driving down to Milburn Landing State Park, near Pocomoke City, MD, for a weekend of camping with some boyhood chums: a long-overdue reunion inspired by a weekend we spent there 40 years ago this summer. One of us lives in San Diego, one in Minnesota, one in Cincinnati, and one in […]
Sitting for a portrait? Keep this in mind. Going on a date? Head for Peter Luger’s. Last, but not least: there’s no need to be glum just because Earth Day’s over. Not until you’ve read Iowahawk’s annual homage to Gaia, anyway.
April 21, 2012 – 10:25 pm
Sorry, haven’t had much to say since getting back, and it might be quiet here for a few more days. I need a little recess while I think about things.
I’m back from my trip to Singularity University, and I’ll just say it was one of the more remarkable experiences I’ve ever had — something like a futurist’s boot-camp, in the company of a hundred or so very smart people. The days’ events began at about 8 a.m., typically didn’t let up until midnight or […]
April 10, 2012 – 11:43 pm
I’ll be away for a few days: my friend Salim Ismail has invited me to participate in a program this week out at Singularity University, so I’ll be flying to San Francisco early Wednesday morning. I’ll be posting when I can — this looks like it’s going to be a fascinating experience — but the […]
No posting today: I’m heading off to Ephrata, PA, for the annual banquet and awards ceremony of the national quilter’s association I’ve been sewing with since my early twenties. (I’ve been quilting since I was a boy; I should post some photos of some of my work sometime.) My latest piece, which expresses the deepening […]
March 23, 2012 – 10:12 pm
The lovely Nina and I, having pried open a tiny gap in our routine of ceaseless toil, made the five-hour drive back to the Outer Cape late last night. We arrived sometime in the “wee small hours of the morning”, and awoke to a clear blue sky, fragrant sea breezes, and warm golden sunshine — […]
I follow a lot of different accounts on Twitter, but one of my favorites is @NASAVoyager2. Here’s the latest: I am currently 13 hrs 37 mins 31 secs of light-travel time from Earth (2012:081:2L) That’s it: cool, calm and collected. I’ve been a follower for months now, and never once have I seen this thing […]
Here. I assume the Royal Navy has a carrier on the way.
I’ve been grappling for three days with a difficult problem at work and an impending deadline, and so have had no opportunity for writing — though Lord knows there’s a lot going on right now I’d like to comment on: Afghanistan, the Dharun Ravi verdict, the man who was buried alive by pinto beans, etc. […]
March 14, 2012 – 12:32 pm
Anyone have experience with Movable Type upgrades? I have a friend who needs some assistance.
It was a lovely day today, with golden sunshine and temperature well into the 60’s, and so I took a walk along Mayo Beach, a south-facing harborside littoral a few hundred yards from our wooded hilltop. Readers may recall that Wellfleet has had a rash of dolphin strandings this winter. As I walked the mile-long […]
Well, while we’ve been fussing over such trivialities as the essential principles of American society and the fate of our Republic, we’ve missed the big story of the day: a chicken nugget that looks like George Washington. It sold for over eight thousand dollars.
Folks my age are old enough to remember, wistfully, the golden age of the American manned-spaceflight program, and have with sadness watched NASA’s long descent into senescence and irrelevance — from the virile pioneer of a “new frontier” that it was in the 1960s, to a sedentary bureaucracy tasked with getting children interested in science […]
With a hat tip to John D., have a tour of Kiyosato, a Japanese ghost town.
Here’s a home-delivery service that loses its customers as fast as it finds them.
Shocking news this morning: Andrew Breitbart dead at 43.
February 29, 2012 – 11:46 am
It appears that the George Friedman resignation letter we mentioned here has turned out to be a hoax. (Thanks to reader Dom for the tip.) More here.
February 27, 2012 – 2:40 pm
At the beginning of his book Breaking the Spell, Daniel Dennett wrote: You watch an ant in a meadow, laboriously climbing up a blade of grass, higher and higher until it falls, then climbs again, and again, like Sisyphus rolling his rock, always striving to reach the top. Why is the ant doing this? What […]
February 26, 2012 – 11:40 pm
Speaking of where the buck stops, it appears that George Friedman has stepped down as the head of STRATFOR in response to the recent hacking attack against them, in which client accounts containing credit cards, passwords, etc., were breached.
February 24, 2012 – 7:41 pm
Okay, enough grumpiness. Time for a lighter note, to ring in the weekend. In this item, magician Teller talks about the tricks of the trade.
February 23, 2012 – 10:45 pm
After working all day and teaching class this evening, I’m spent. So for tonight, just a few links to keep you occupied: — Nothing new under the sun. — Plan B: Algae! — The birds and the bees. — Last but not least, news you can use: How to to deal with those annoying roadblock […]
February 22, 2012 – 12:30 am
Google has commemorated the 150th birthday of Heinrich Hertz, the physicist for whom the standard unit for the frequency of oscillating waves is named, with one of its “doodle” tributes. Here it is: Forgive me, but as an audio engineer I have to say that this image is very poorly chosen, and will offend, in […]
February 21, 2012 – 3:16 pm
Here’s a pair of images for you: an eclipse of the Sun, as seen from Earth orbit, in visible light and ultraviolet.
February 17, 2012 – 12:27 am
Poking around online just now, I ran across the text of the speech given in the House of Commons by Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, regarding his condemnation in the “Don Pacifico affair”. The Pacifico kerfuffle arose in 1847, when Mr. Pacifico, the Portuguese consul to Athens, had his house plundered by a mob. […]
February 15, 2012 – 2:45 pm
Sorry to harp so much on politics and social issues lately, but these are parlous times, and a great deal is at stake. A reader reminded me the other day that many of the categories over on the sidebar — categories that used to be the busiest ones — are now nearly “widowed”. The reader […]
February 11, 2012 – 6:25 pm
Here’s something for you all to digest.
February 9, 2012 – 2:48 pm
This item has left me speechless, so I’ll just pass it along without comment.
February 6, 2012 – 11:35 pm
Drove up to Massachusetts this evening; stopped in Orleans to pick up supplies. The place seemed to be in a somber mood, for some reason. From the snatches of conversation I overheard, it seems some local chap by the name of Welker must have died, or is going to die, or something. Couldn’t quite make […]
January 31, 2012 – 9:50 pm
Here’s an all-Macbeth smackdown: Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, and the late Nicol Williamson go head to head to head in the steel cage. Who claims victory?
January 27, 2012 – 11:21 pm
Here, courtesy of Bill Vallicella, is an appalling story: a young woman who has eaten nothing but chicken nuggets all her life, and was finally taken to the hospital after collapsing. I suppose this is no different from somebody drinking herself to death, but one does wonder what her parents must have been thinking. (Our […]
January 24, 2012 – 11:34 pm
We were on the road all day, so all I have tonight is this odd item from long ago, in which goldfish bowls were banned in Monza, Italy. Apparently, according to the town council’s Giampietro Mosca, a fish kept in a curved glass bowl “has a distorted view of reality … and suffers because of […]
January 22, 2012 – 11:08 pm
When you mix cornstarch with water, you get a gloopy liquid with a strange property: its viscosity increases the faster you try to move through it or deform it. Back when my kids were in grade school, they informed me that the stuff now has an official name: “oobleck”. It turns out that oobleck behaves […]
January 21, 2012 – 9:52 pm
Off the coast of Brazil is a huge oilfield. Ensuring a stable source of Western-Hemisphere oil would be a good thing for us here in the U.S., especially given recent unrest in the Mideast, and uncertainty about the security of the Persian Gulf. So The Obama administration went to Rio last month to make a […]
January 18, 2012 – 1:22 am
Well, Wikipedia’s down for a day. This should reduce the apparent know-it-all-ness of the blogospheric commentariat by about 98%, I reckon. (Fortunately I downloaded a copy, so I should be OK.) Feeling a little better today. Should be my old self shortly.