Friday, June 30, 2006
This incredible picture was taken by the Cassini spacecraft, currently exploring Saturn and its environs. The hazy ring of light is a planet-wide (moon-wide?) sunset seen through Titan's thick atmosphere. Find out more here. [Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech]
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
From the site of the Multi-National Force in Iraq:
Good thing there were American soldiers nearby.
The mother of the child told Iraqi Police she left the child in her daughter's care. The daughter was carrying the baby on the road near the LSA when she was chased by wild dogs and left the baby so she could run faster, according to reports given to Capt. Lance Awbrey, commander, Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery.
Those guys don't get paid enough.
Staff Sgt. Donald White, patrol leader 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, and his team came across a box on the side of the road while on patrol.
Initially, he thought it was an improvised explosive device until he heard crying coming from the box. ...
The skin was literally hanging off the child and we could see it was massively dehydrated and malnourished. Sullivan told me we needed to get the child to a hospital right away and we jumped into the trucks and drove to the hospital as fast as we could, Smith said. ...
By the time the patrol made its way to the Balad Air Base hospital the staff was already waiting for them when the vehicles pulled up. The Air Force medical staff treated the child by putting a feeding tube into him to replenish lost fluids. After a while the baby regained its strength and was in stable enough condition to be released. A civilian liaison with the Iraqi hospital in Balad was called and the child was released to hospital care.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
This is undoubtedly a triumph for all the panda lovers, but I can't see how changing the designation of land that the creatures already use will help them breed more.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is giving an unusually endangered species of panda extra space, privacy and protection to help the animals reproduce, state media said on Friday.
The 300 pandas of a rare subspecies who call northwest China's central Shaanxi province home will soon be protected by five new reserves in the fog-shrouded Qinling mountains, the China Daily said. ...
The reserves would cover about 80 percent of the pandas' habitat once they are expanded from 181,100 to 500,000 hectares, the paper said.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
I hope they can get it fixed. The images taken by Hubble have been breathtaking and sublime. It is sad to think there might be no more, but we can be thankful for what we have.
The Advanced Camera for Surveys, a third-generation instrument installed by a space shuttle crew in 2002, went off line Monday, and engineers are still trying to figure out what happened and how to repair it.
"It's still off line today," Max Mutchler, an instruments specialist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said Saturday.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
From the AP:
How do they know this? They took genetic profiles of poop. And it had to be fresh.
SHANGHAI, China - Scientists using DNA samples have doubled their estimates of the wild panda population in a nature sanctuary in China, a finding they say bodes well for the survival of the endangered species.
The researchers believe between 66 and 72 pandas are living in the Wanglang Nature Reserve — more than twice the previous estimate of 32, said Wei Fumin, a zoologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
What a job.
[Study author Michael] Bruford said the field work, carried out by graduate student Zhan Xiangjiang, was arduous, not only due to the mountainous terrain but also because of the need to obtain fresh samples for DNA analysis.
"Once panda feces change from green to brown, we know we've had it," he said.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
If what you have written causes this much confusion (128 comments to discuss the matter at the time of this writing!), then dump the phrase. Find another way to say it. This bugbear just isn't worth the hassle.
As the first comment demonstrates, these usages (x times larger, x times lower) can be confusing. For ten times larger, multiply by 11; for ten times lower, divide by which: ten or eleven? Although I'm neither a genius nor an expert on English usage, I do have an advanced engineering degree and some facility and familiarity with both math and English. Despite that, I find the usage "X times lower" to be confusing; I'm never quite sure what is intended. If what is meant is "one tenth as much," I ask myself, when I encounter it, why did not the writer write that?
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Saturday, June 17, 2006
- PRESS BOTTOM OF CRAB TO TURN ON AND OFF THE FLASHING LIGHT
- THROW CRAB TO THE WINDOW OR SMOOTH SURFACE AND WATCH IT CRAWLING & ROLLING DOWNWARD
- DO NOT PLACE ON PAPERED OR FLAT PAINTED WALLS
- DO NOT PUT CRAB INTO MOUTH OR AROUND THROAT
- TO REMOVE DUST OR DIRT ON CRAB BY WASHING WITH WATER AND AIR DRYING
CHOKING HAZARD-Small ball. Not for children under 6 year.
Caution: If your crab gets dirty simply washing with clean water.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Let's all work together to get humanity to Mars. Soon. Even if it means working with Russia.
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia plans to send up a space exploration capsule to analyse the surface of Mars and collect test samples from one of the red planet's moons in 2009, Russia's space agency has said.
And, how can you not like a spacecraft called "Phobos-Grunt"?
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Don't raise the ire of the people at the Language Log, especially Geoffrey K. Pullum.
That's why I try to keep my criticisms to the obvious. If I'm unsure about why a piece of writing looks wrong, I usually keep my mouth shut to avoid putting a Reebok in it. And I almost never ridicule typos. They're pretty easy to identify, and I know they stem from a slip of the finger, not from a lack of learning. Though sometimes they are pretty funny.
The bottom line here is that people who are clueless about English grammar shouldn't be trying to humiliate others over grammar for political advantage. Those who feel grammar correction is something they want to discuss in the media should do just a little bit of work to prepare themselves for their calling. Not knowing a preterite from a participle or a clause from a phrase is like not knowing how to add small integers.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
The Internet is reinforcing bad English habits started during the linguistically lackadaisical '60s and '70s, [Naomi Baron, professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C.] says.
"There are other social forces affecting languages that make them far more informal than it used to," she says, citing the decline in formal tone and grammatical discipline set in motion in public education during the feel-good, express-yourself-as-you-will, don't-be-hampered-by-the-Man-with-the-red-pen hippie era.
"The Internet reinforces that," Baron says.
This is a good piece from Jen Gerson of the Toronto Star on the changing nature of the English language. I know that all languages evolve, but I lament any decline in punctuation in English. The properly placed mark can make all the difference in meaning, and I’m for more punctuation if it clarifies the message. Heck, I even prefer to use the optional comma before “and” in a series.
But, there is still hope for the language.
But Baron says that the day of abbreviating phrases and encrypting communication is ending.
She has found that while coded language is common among young teenagers, once a given person becomes more confident with typing and computers, the abbreviations and corruptions are abandoned.
The reason is simple: It often takes more time and effort to decode abbreviations than it does to spell out phrases in full.
I’ve often thought the same. What’s the point of “ROTFLMAO”? I can type the entire phrase as quick as it takes me to hold down the shift key with one hand and peck out the letters with the other. And how much does it actually add to “LOL”? Not much, I think.
I think Baron’s right. As people mature, they tend to put aside childish ways of thinking, acting, and—thankfully—writing, and they spell out words and use punctuation more. That’s good for our beautifully complex language.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
That's an ass-shot of a 16-year-old. In the New York Times.
Is the Gray Lady going tabloid?
Monday, June 05, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Take this wonderful sentence:
Intercutting the real with the staged and bombarding the audience with emotive footage and questionable data, these dubious productions served up an easily digestible but nonetheless half-baked reality, a type of dissent for dummies.
Nicely done. A little song in prose, as far as I am concerned.