Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Benedict's Wrist
What an odd juxtaposition of news headlines today. First, we learn that Oscar Wilde's reputation is being rehabilitated in the pages of L'Osservatore Romano, considered Pope Benedict XVI's mouthpiece. According to the Telegraph [UK], it was a surprise move. But in an article published on Thursday, L'Osservatore declared that the author of The Importance of […]
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity
My Public Option
Headlines these days seem to be nothing so much as a circus of my pet peeves, whole tag-teams of peeves running up and pushing my buttons as quickly as possible. Let's put aside the amazing kabuki of the senate confirmation hearings of Judge Sotomayor and reflect, once again, on the health-care "debate". You may recall […]
In: All, Current Events, Feeling Peevish
Intellectual Abuse & "Insidious Creationism"
Creationist advocates of intellectually dishonest ideas like "teach the controversy", or "evolution is only a theory" are not engaged in a scientific debate. Neither are they engaged in a debate about how science works. Indeed, they are not even participating in good-faith (no pun intended) discourse but are pursuing their own subversive agenda, no holds […]
In: All, Current Events, It's Only Rocket Science, Snake Oil--Cheap!
Beard of the Week LXXXIII: Variations on America
This week's beard belongs to American composer Charles E. Ives (1874-1954). He's been a personal favorite ever since I tripped over some of his music a few decades ago. It is hard to find a biography of Ives that does not use the phrases "iconoclastic" and "quintessentially American". (This nice one, also the source of […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Things Happen
Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be time–or inclination, perhaps–to write about some of the things that have been going on and, partly, keeping me from writing about what's been going on. Not all of it's bad, either, so don't stop at the first one. Some big news I need to mention to some of […]
We Plant a Spirea
At the first house I ever lived in, the house from which we moved when I was between second and third grades, there was a large bush that my mother called a "bridal-wreath spirea". I liked that shrub; in my nostalgic memory I adored that shrub, but that may be recovered emotion due to advancing […]
In: All, Naming Things, Personal Notebook
Corporate Chump-Change Perverts American Policy
Let's suppose for a minute that your annual income is a modest US$50,000 (modest to some, unimaginable wealth to others). Don't you hate to see a bunch of that wasted in taxes? Wouldn't you like a nice tax cut, just for you maybe? Well, let me introduce you to Mr. Congressional Lobbyist. Would you be […]
In: All, Current Events, Snake Oil--Cheap!
"Hiking the Appalachian Trail"
Given the example of wacko Governor Mark Sanford (see, e.g.), a Republican defender of "traditional marriage", I'm thinking that saying one is out "hiking the Appalachian trail" could become a euphemism for "boinking one's mistress at taxpayer's expense while defending 'traditional marriage' ". Sure, it may not gain the currency of "saddlebacking", which is shorter […]
In: All, Snake Oil--Cheap!, Such Language!
Freedom to Choose a Doctor in the US
I find that I'm still thinking today about health-care matters and the train-wreck-in-progress in the US as "we" work towards health-care "reform". Possibly topping the list of the fear and doubt instilled in the minds of voters by the big health-insurance companies is that universal health-care (usually labeled "socialized medicine") could restrict one's freedom to […]
In: All, Current Events, Splenetics
Health Care: "Reform" = "Universal"
I've been reading and listening to talk about health care "reform" recently. As you will realize, for those of us in the US right now that's not a surprise, since it's the one thing all politicians are talking about while they try to figure out how to do nothing about it. The discussion right now […]
In: All, Current Events, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
They Made Pink Dot
It's a nice day here for a change so I thought something pleasant was in order to counteract all the sourness on LGBT issues that the Obama administration has stirred up lately. I'm behind on the story but I don't think joy goes out of style quickly, do you? Under the rallying cry "Come Make […]
An Eye for Science
I have been hanging around this blog for the past week but you might not have noticed. Most of my time has gone into the little box on the left (which you won't see if your reading the RSS feed — so visit the site once, already!), with "Eye for Science" at the top and […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Personal Notebook, The Art of Conversation
Beard of the Week LXXXII: Space-Time Expands
This week's beard belongs to* author John R. Gribbin (1946– ), a science writer who started life as an astrophysicist. (His website.) I've read and mentioned a few of his books here in the last year or so, and I've been enjoying them so far. The one that I most recently read and enjoyed is […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXXI: Pagan Russia
This week's beard belongs to Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich* (1874–1947), painter, lawyer, peace activist — any number of things, it seems. Excerpting some from biographical notes from the Nicholas Roerich Museum of New York Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 9, 1874, the first-born son of lawyer and notary, Konstantin Roerich […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
15 Books
Tim Wilson made me do this at Facebook. I ended up with 16 because his list reminded me of a couple I'd neglected at first. Choose 15 at will. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more […]
In: All, Books, Personal Notebook
Sex with Ducks
When it comes to the ridiculous and outlandish "arguments" from the wackos against marriage equality and other equal rights for gay and lesbian people, one can: try to ignore them, but then they get out of hand and some people actually believe them; try to answer their absurdities while not laughing too much, which some […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Laughing Matters
On Reading Potter's You Are Here
Another book I read and enjoyed recently was by Christopher Potter: You Are Here : A Portable History of the Universe (New York : HarperCollinsPublishers, 2009; 194 pages). Here is my book note. Potter said he wanted to write the book he wanted to read but no one had ever written. Great idea! His saying […]
In: All, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXX: Magnets & Relativity
This week's beard* belongs to Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879). He did significant work in several fields (including statistical physics and thermodynamics, in which I used to research) but his fame is associated with his electromagnetic theory. Electromagnetism combined the phenomena of electricity and magnetism into one, unified field theory. Unified field theories are […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science
On Reading Fagan's The Long Summer
More! More! More books that I'm just getting around to writing about. Here's another one: Brian Fagan, The Long Summer : How Climate Changed Civilization (New York : Basic Books, 2004; xvii + 284 pages). I liked it. So far I've liked both books by Fagan that I read, and I expect I'll read more. […]
Open Mind vs. Empty Head
For reasons that we don't need to detail, I was doing some online research today on the topic of perpetual-motion machines (PMMs). This bit that I quote below is an excerpt from his answer to the question given, but it conveyed the idea pretty succinctly, I thought. As you might imagine, being an atheistic, gay […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science