Archive for 2010
Music for Writing
I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, mostly for work and the graduate school application process, and I’ve got a lot to do yet. The music I choose while writing is essential for me to be productive. Over the next few weeks (months?) I’ll share the music associated with my best writing sessions. And […]
On correct punctuation
From Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog: I open the envelope and read this little note written on a business card whose surface is so glossy that the ink, to the dismay of the defeated blotter, has bled slightly underneath each letter. Madame Michel, Would you be so kind as, to sign for the packages […]
What I’ve Noticed
Dogs take the train in Russia. Surprise! Scientists didn’t do anything wrong. The real ClimateGate criminals are the accusers. One in four flowering plants faces extinction today. Thought the oil spill wouldn’t affect you? You’re probably wrong: Remember all those people claiming the snow last winter proved climate change was a hoax? They don’t seem to […]
A New Berry Go Round!
As of last week, there’s a new edition of Berry Go Round available. The posts this edition are quite good, thanks to the discerning taste of the host. My two favorites were a post on the resurrection fern by The Phytophactor and Ted MacRae’s post on pawpaw flowers.
Meet a scientist
The general population has a pretty unrealistic view of scientists, perhaps unwittingly perpetuated by government policies. But it only takes a short interaction with actual scientists to undo many of those assumptions. 7th graders drew and described scientists before and after a visit to Fermilab. The differences are telling:
The last tree
We ask what the Easter Islanders thought as they cut the last tree down, implying that they were somehow stupider than us, that we would certainly recognize the value of a resource and preserve it before it got to that point. But species are going extinct every day and even many common species are in […]
Under patriarchy, women are not individuals
From Anaïs Nin’s A Spy in the House of Love: He turned his eyes fully upon her, now a glacial blue; they were impersonal and seemed to gaze beyond her at all women who had dissolved into one, but who might, at any moment again become dissolved into all. This was the gaze Sabina had always […]