Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Oh! We Like Poodles!
Behold the Poodle of God! We've talked about it enough, so here's a lovely example, spotted on our recent trip to Rome. This PoG is painted above a doorway in a courtyard from which one reaches the stairs to the entrance of Sant'Agnese fuori la Mura, the church of Saint Agnes outside the Walls, a […]
Exponential Growth
Here's a quick question with a pedagogical purpose. Would you buy a battery from this man? "The energy capacity of batteries is increasing 5 percent to 8 percent annually, but demand is increasing exponentially," Mr. Cooper[, vice president for business development of PolyFuel Inc., a company working on battery technology,] said. [Damon Darlin and Barnaby […]
Don't Need no Science
Is Bob Park's What's New for 11 May 2007, this quick summary of the Republican presidential-candidate field, demonstrating that science is not a conservative, traditional-family value and that Ars Hermeneutica has its work cut out for it: BELIEFS: SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY REACHES CLEAR TO THE TOP. Last week at the Republican presidential debate, moderator Chris Matthews […]
In: All, Current Events, It's Only Rocket Science
The Brightest Supernova Ever
Here's the lead from the NASA release about an observation with the Chandra X-Ray [orbiting] Observatory of "the brightest supernova ever": May 7, 2007: The brightest stellar explosion ever recorded may be a long-sought new type of supernova, according to observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes. This discovery indicates that violent […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science
Noctilucent Clouds
For those who fear that there may be nothing left in the world to discover (hardly a chance!), consider this item from Space Weather News for April 25, 2007: NIGHT-SHINING CLOUDS: NASA's AIM spacecraft left Earth Wednesday on a two-year mission to study mysterious noctilucent (night-shining) clouds. Hovering at the edge of space, these clouds […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science
Calm Outside the Walls
On Friday morning we left our hotel a little earlier than usual, about 9:30, to catch a bus* that went northwest outside the ancient walls of Rome, through the Porta Pia and up Via Nomentana a way. We spotted out destination out the window and got off at the next stop to visit the basilica […]
Gravel on Love
From Raw Story (David Edwards and Mike Sheehan, "Mike Gravel: 'Love between a man and a man is beautiful' ", 9 May 2007) New Hampshire's WMUR TV hosted a conversation with [Democratic presidential candidate Mike] Gravel in which the former US senator, answering an audience question about gay marriage, replies, "If a couple of lesbians […]
Three Plates in Rome
Eating in Rome is fun and different for me, for very little reason other than what seems a refreshingly different approach to organizing the meal. For years I had learned and mostly implemented a French-style, multi-coursed approach to a dinner, with a progression of courses that followed certain prescriptions. In Italy, it all seems much […]
Unexpected Delights in Rome
Planned sightseeing and famous points of interest on a trip are all well and good, but I find that what really gives a trip its spice and creates the finest lasting memories are the unexpected delights: places or events that one just trips across accidentally, spontaneous and unplanned. At lunch on Sunday we all talked […]
Team Chiesa
Rome has some 450 churches; it seems that one can't walk 50 meters without encountering yet another church. As we strolled we would sometimes point and exclaim: "Oh look! It's another church!" Some people find it odd that I, an atheist, should show an interest in visiting churches in Rome. Obviously, there's more to the […]
Brief Spring Hiatus
It may seem unusually quiet around here for the next 10 days or so, but this time by choice. Isaac and I are going to Rome, Italy again, this time with a much smaller tour group — there will be only 5 of us, one of whom is one of my four regular readers. The […]
Types of Printing
Soon after his time in Basel, Dürer took up a new medium–one that would prove very important not only in his own later work but also in shaping the directions that print would subsequently take us. It was copperplate engraving. Copperplate was less in evidence than woodcuts were during the maturation of print [in the […]
The Original Bath of Maria
One other Hellenistic [i.e., ancient Greek] inventor had worked directly with steam, but she showed greater staying power in the long age of alchemy that covered the wake of Hero and Lucretius. She was a chemist called Maria the Jewess. Maria has left fewer personal tracks than any of the others we have mentioned, despite […]
Lienhard's How Invention Begins
How Invention Begins, by John Lienhard (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2006) was a fascinating book. I picked it up because the cover looked nice when I was shelf surfing at the library. It was a fortunate if serendipitous choice, because I really enjoyed reading it. Lienhard is an engineer, and he takes an in-depth […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
Quammen's The Boilerplate Rhino
Here's another title from recent weeks' reading: The Boilerplate Rhino, by David Quammen (New York : Simon & Schuster, 2000). It's one of his collections of essays, all of which were published originally in his monthly column for Outdoor magazine between 1988 and 1996. Like most collections it has uneven spots, but I enjoyed reading […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
Shermer's Science Friction
Here's another title that I finished a couple of weeks ago: Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown., by Michael Shermer (New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2005). This, too, is a miscellaneous collection of essays, assembled under the general theme of skepticism and its central role in science. Some of the essays […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
Lightman's A Sense of the Mysterious
Another of the books I've completed in recent weeks — but only get around to mentioning now — is A Sense of the Mysterious, by Alan Lightman. Lightman is known as a physicist turned novelist, and he has taught both subjects at MIT. As a physicist and writer of fiction I feel a certain kinship. […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
Slather on the Clichés
By the way, when I get around to writing a novel, remind me not to use the word "slather". It always irritates me when I read it. I was reminded of this while reading Laura Lippman's No Good Deeds this morning — she had someone slather peanut butter on a pine cone (but to maintain […]
Count My Words
A couple of years ago a job recruiter asked me "What would be your perfect job?" With some wit, but unexpected precision, I responded: "One that requires a knowledge of partial differential equations." This does sum up pretty well the level of technical skill and experience that would have characterized a suitable position for me, […]
In: All, Reflections, The Art of Conversation
Our Kids' Pedigrees
Push aside those bumper stickers about kids and honor rolls, our kids' pedigrees are available online! I refer, of course, to our adopted, ex-racing greyhounds, whose pedigrees Isaac was looking up today at greyhound-data.com. (One does start to get the feeling that almost anything you can think of can now be found online.) Most of […]