Stuff that just crossed my mind
There is one facial hair style I can’t recall ever seeing: the double toothbrush. This would be a clean-shaven philtrum with a Chaplin-stache on either side. Of all the creative license ever applied to facial hair (and it seems the hirsute male can be very creative), how did this one slip by?
And before you just say that it’s “stoopeed” — well, double toothbrush with a soul patch.
What language you use can matter in a tech society. On twitter, 140 characters divided by 6 (average 5-char word length plus space) equals about 23-1/3 words max per text — emoticons notwithstanding. However, if you write in Chinese logograms, you can achieve up to 140 words (well, more if you are clever with linguistics and don’t punctuate) in a single tweet. Up to 6x more! That’s a few paragraphs for most people.
Similarly, a picture of a sunset or of kittehs being all lol-catty has more meaning in a single expression than a book of words could adequately convey. So, in a way, LOLcats (and pics of cute animals in general) are more profound than you might initially suspect.
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I make no secret about the fact that I love the Saturn V. It’s the rocket of my formative years. Elegant and powerful, in forty years it remains a technological marvel. It’s now getting a serious second look. No, not … Continue reading
I’m an inventor. I’m an inventor in the same way most of us are inventors: I have a need and I jury-rig something that will get the job done. It’s not fancy, it’s usually not pretty, but it does what … Continue reading
There was a recent article in the New York Times that asks the question: “What to call two people who act as if they are married but are not?” While some of the conventions of our society have changed, our language has been a little slow keeping up. Since I’m hardly shy about my willingness to try out new word usages (witness my never-ending push for a genderless pronoun class), I thought I’d have a bash. Continue reading
The 366th day of the year 2012 (it was a leap year, remember?) is about to ring its last. Here at the casa it’s felt like a year of transition and reevaluation. Continue reading
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One of the curiosities of American elections is that when they color in the map on election night as to who won what state, it really doesn’t tell us anything. The trouble comes from the ironic reality that most of our largest states in area are actually among Continue reading
This week marks the 30-year anniversary of emoticons. Some purists hate them, but I think they’ve been a wondrous addition to our written language. Honestly, even a writer doesn’t always want to exert the effort to write and re-write a phrase so that it is clearly nuanced. Continue reading
To boldly go beyond Earth’s orbital neighborhood is the next level of courageous, crewed exploration. To make it to that step, we’ll need a spaceship purpose-built with the idea that that crew will be gone for protracted amounts of time and will likely set up camp somewhere else. Continue reading
I’ve missed using a fountain pen. After decades of longing, I finally bought another one…an inexpensive one. To go along with that, I’ve also been practicing to revive my long-abandoned skills with cursive writing. In a way, it makes me feel more “writerly”. Continue reading
OV-103. The space shuttle Discovery. Twenty-seven years of service. Thirty-nine times it lifted off and thirty-nine times it landed safely. All told it spend a year in space and traveled over 238 million km (148 million miles). That sort of use leaves its mark after a while. Continue reading
On April 2, 1997, I was issued the cjcs.com domain. It was in the neighborhood of the millionth domain, depending on how you choose to reckon these things; more than likely it was a smidge over that. In the fifteen years that have followed, this little domain has seen a lot of data get posted and read. It seems a good time to reminisce about it a little. Continue reading
Just about every book of nursery rhymes with the Humpty Dumpty poem shows an anthropomorphic egg sitting on an imposing partition before ending up as a shattered shell and soon-to-be-omelet at the foot of the wall. Lies! Continue reading
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Sometimes it’s not just the words but how you say them that makes a difference. Though other astronomers follow his example, the fact remains Carl Sagan was a master. Continue reading
I think it’s safe to say that I’m an introvert. I’m very thankful for fellow introvert, Susan Cain, who is forced out of her introversion to speak before the audience at TED. Her message that it’s OK to be quiet and thoughtful is welcome and important. Continue reading
