TL;DR

Those letters are internet shorthand, not for, “Transgender lifestyles; Dominican Republic” as you might expect, but for, “Too long; didn’t read.” It’s the battle cry of the short-attention span, the post comment meant to be critical, but instead illustrating the missing depth of the commenter. “Reading is hard,” it says, “You’re expecting too much [...]

Tech support

For everyone who came here (or to the main site) in the past two days and got blocked out, I apologize, on behalf of my hosting provider GoDaddy who will never do so. It remains unclear what exactly happened, but suffice to say they were woefully unprepared for it, which is pretty inexcusable from [...]

You know…

I was thinking about the animated feature Ratatouille earlier. The head chef, Skinner, was the villain in the movie, but I’m not sure why. His primary action throughout was trying to prove that Linguini was harboring a rat in the kitchen, which was true; it even turned out that Linguini was a fraud and [...]

Much ado about “fucking”

If the title didn’t clue you in and you’re not already familiar with other posts here, I’ll kindly inform you that I do not refrain from obscenities, vulgarities, expletives, blasphemies, curses, and potty-mouthing. However, it’s a public service, because there are people who actually judge what I have to say by whether or not [...]

Just because, part nine

Nature photography is still a bit slow yet and the weather’s been going back and forth, so I’m just tossing out this curiosity from last year.

Seen here is a vain fruit fly, Drosophila genus, on the bathroom mirror. I’ve definitely done sharper, better shots, but this one has a distinctive property. You’ll notice [...]

History, folklore, or rumor?

This is an examination on stories, assumptions, and filling in the blanks, which changed as I was writing it.

I grew up on the northern tip of Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes of central New York, and right down where my street ended at the lake’s edge sits an historical marker telling [...]

Stupidly proud of myself

I mentioned before, I take pride in being able to retrace my steps, even on trips long ago where I’ve never been before or since. But back when I added the Google Earth placemarks to many of the images in the photo gallery, one in particular was a little tricky: the time exposure on [...]

Odd memories, part nine

It’s funny – as a species, we seem to have a propensity for discovery, to explore uncharted areas in the hope/belief that something magical awaits just over the horizon. It’s probably responsible for most of our explorations across the planet. There is definitely a cool feeling when you’re traveling, and you see a new [...]

The proper way

Sorry, this will be brief, and pointless. Courtesy of a post by Sean Carroll, I herewith present the proper way to order your favorite drink:

1. Ask for what you want.

2. Drink it.

You will note that I have excluded everything having to do with learning how anyone else does it, receiving instruction, [...]

Nicely done!

[UPDATE: The video has been taken down now, since apparently the copyright holders of the ABBA music felt that a non-profit organization using it was "too commercial" and was unlikely to boost the sales of a thirty-five-year-old song. Did you need more proof that attorneys are not bright?]

It’s been a while since I [...]