In Australia, in my wife’s hometown, temperatures have reached over 115 degrees Fahrenheit. But worse than that are the fires that have killed more than 80 people. The most shocking line in the article is this one: “…police suspect that in at least one case fires have been restarted by arsonists after being extinguished by […]
I Do Not Believe You
Words that mean “VERY GOOD” but also mean (or used to mean) “Not to be Believed”: Fantastic: I.e., fantasy, i.e., not true. Incredible: I.e., not credible, i.e., not believable. Unbelievable: I’ll let you work this one out. Fabulous: From a fable, i.e., not true. Other types of “Very Good” words: Amazing: Shares an ancestor with […]
Older than we Thought?
Sponges!
Faith in Faith
Occasionally, when discussing science and faith, I have to admit that my belief in atoms, quantum mechanics, carbon dating, and lots of other stuff isn’t based on something that I know. It’s based on my belief, or faith, in science. And occasionally, someone somewhere will try to convince me that my faith in science is […]
Not Enough Hours in the Day? Just Wait.
The earth’s rotation slows by about a second every 50,000 years. So just stay alive a while and you can enjoy longer days. Unfortunately, the length of a year isn’t changing. As days get longer, there will be fewer of them in a year, meaning that you’ll have to do your taxes more often. [Incidentally, […]
In Encyclopedia News
Or is it “encyclopaedia”? Encyclopaedia Britannica becomes more like Wikipedia. Wikipedia may become more like Encyclopedia Britannica. Will they merge and become Wikipaedia Britannica?
Speaking of Luxury
I’m reading Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford. I’ve read a few of these light little romps through the 1920’s in upper crust England. They’re fun. But this is the first one I’ve read being told in first person by a female character. Suddenly, when all the ladies leave the men to their […]
Big Travels on NPR
NPR did a little story today about how some luxury items (massages, for example) are doing much better than expected in the economy. They figure that people are giving up the big ticket items (like travel) and instead settling for small, but luxurious, things. One woman is getting a spa treatment this year, instead of […]
Long Dry Spell
A tuatara named Henry hadn’t had sex for at least 40 years, but finally got it on and has become a dad to eleven bouncing baby tuatara. He’d apparently been grumpy due to a tumor on his rump (or his underneath area. I can’t be sure, since the article says “his bottom.” What does that […]
Birdies
boingboing.net directs us to cloudboxer, where you can see pictures of birds in the guy’s backyard. Incidentally, that was a hard sentence to write because I originally wrote: “… pictures of birds shot in his backyard.” Then images of bloody starlings came to mind and I changed it. Incidentally again, the word “backyard” is a […]