I was chatting with a friend about ice. In short, we talked about how interesting it is that pressure, even without heat, can melt ice. I remember an experiment where you loop a string around a block of ice, then put a weight on the bottom part of the loop, so that the string is […]
Author Archive | weeklyrob
Ok. The iPad
I’m not planning to get one. I mean, even if I was planning to spend some money and get something cool, I wouldn’t get the iPad. Not yet. At the moment, I use a laptop for laptop things and a phone when I want mobility and a Reader for eBooks. But I recognize that things […]
Roundup
By weeklyrob on January 20, 2010 in Famous People, Language/Lit, Law, Miscellany, Politics, Religion, Science and Such
— The Britannica blog calls a spade a spade. Robertson and Limbaugh are: “…two men who have made a very good thing in this life of saying very stupid things that excite an audience of equally stupid people.” [LINK] — Freakonomics wonders: Do Bike-Helmet Laws Discourage Bicycling? — The Why Files: Fish cheat and get […]
Google, the Internet, and China
Google finally wakes up. Mind you, mere censorship and repression really didn’t bother them. It wasn’t until China literally attacked Google’s service that they decided to change the relationship. Still, better late than never. [Thanks, Baron, for the link]
It's a New Decade!
I’m suddenly responsible for a bi-monthly newsletter that shall go nameless in these pages (at least until I’m no longer responsible for it). I wasn’t responsible for it when it mentioned that 2010 was the beginning of a new decade, but I do have to suffer the slings and arrows of outraged pedants. They want […]
Sanitizing History
My most recent post reminded me of reading old books that are hostile to Jews. Though I’m Jewish, I never for a second thought that the book should be banned or sanitized the way that SOME people want to ban or sanitize the books I mentioned. (I could see a modern publisher correcting some of […]
Conrad and the N-Word
A few years ago, I quoted from an article about a woman who wanted to ban “To Kill a Mockingbird”: “She acknowledged she hadn’t read the entire book, but strongly felt if it had the word “nigger†in it, it shouldn’t be used in schools.†Obviously, the woman didn’t read enough to know that the […]
I'm Reading: The Cretan Runner
Not Cretin. Cretan. From Crete. It’s a first-hand account of the resistance in Crete against the Germans in WWII. The author (George Psychoundakis) was a “runner,” delivering information and people to and from pockets of resistance in the hills and mountains. Sometimes he’d guide people down to the shore where English submarines were waiting to […]
Names
What do the following names have in common? Ashley Carol Courtney Lauren Lindsay Marion Robin And more recently… Addison Madison Sydney Taylor Tyler Answer: They were all names for men which are now names for women. And there are more. Now here’s a list of names for women that have become names for men: —— […]
Nutrition Education
Some language you might not want to play at work: [Found at Free the Animal]