moon phases

Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.

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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death)
[me, on a bad day]

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WRITER'S LINKS
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(and my Wish List)

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One of my favourite book titles:  
Things you see when you haven't got a gun by Harry (Henry Arthur) Hooton | National Library of Australia catalogue entry for this 1943 self-published poetry book by one of Oz's turbulent poets.

Things you see when you haven't got a gun by Harry (Henry Arthur) Hooton | National Library of Australia catalogue entry for this 1943 self-published poetry book by one of Oz's turbulent poets.
Review in 'Southerly' magazine (www.archive.org/ stream/ southerlymagass05howarich/ southerlymagass05howarich_djvu.txt)

(See also King's Cross)

Labels: Australia, history, language, literature, poetry, రైటర్స్

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:58 pm

 
Crumple Zone  
Protecting my limited time and mental energy, to help retain some fingernail-edge grasp on whatever shreds of sanity I try to gather 'round me, I've had to develop, inter alia, Pedantry Crumple Zones.
I still feel shame and guilt when, seeing an error and a chance to teach and spread truth, I pass by the other side of the road. But there are so many other things to feel shame, guilt and anger about that the pedanticism is well down the priority list :)

Labels: language, personal

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 12:42 pm

 
The Brain Rummager  
The Brain Rummager – Brian Barratt's page(s)

Herein find: "... word puzzles; quizzes; creative thinking; creative writing; anagrams; homophones & homonyms; crossword puzzles; weird pictures; Aesop's Fables; fractal thinking; an ET hamburger; weird creatures; the amazing Mandelbrot fractal; proverbs and sayings; dragons; the Unpeople behind the dark; curious words and spellings; 17th century books; The First Folio of Shakespeare; letters of the alphabet; potions and spells; written expression; the Seven Wonders of the World; thinking skills; nonsense verse; and much more."

From Brian Barratt, who also advises: 'Persons not wishing to see worlds outside or inside themselves are gently advised to close their minds whilst in this place'

Labels: language, links

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:08 pm

 
Annihilation: Black Hole  
'Annihilation', from the Latin word nihil, meaning nothingness, nothing, absence, zero.

Utter destruction: eradication, extermination, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, liquidation, obliteration.
putting an end to: abolishment, abolition, abrogation, annulment, cancellation, defeasance, invalidation, negation, nullification, voidance.

In law: avoidance, extinguishment.

Images

www.spaceref.com/ news/ viewpr.html?pid=10345
www.djspiral.com/ images/ graphics/ BlackHole.html
www.spaceref.com/ news/ viewpr.html?pid=10290
www.bbc.co.uk/ derby/ unexplained/ unexplained_websites.shtml
www.cosmographica.com/ gallery/ portfolio/ portfolio101/ pages/ 131-BlackHole.htm
www.spaceprime.com/ blackhole.htm
www.thestarsareout.com
www.exn.net/ Stories/ 2000/ 01/ 13/ 57.asp

Sheer joy that Liberal Party is worried. I'm not sanguine about the result, though; many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, as the old saying goes. I do like the use of the word they so freely and without feeling or care liked to use to wipe out people from consideration being used repeatedly in the dictionary/thesaurus entries for the word they are worried about for themselves. (I used to carp and say they should use 'extinction' rather than 'extinguishment', because that might bring people up a little short and get them to think.)

Labels: astronomy, language, pix, politics, space

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 12:19 pm

 
Words, words, words  

Are you aware of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a lexicon of fringe English - www.doubletongued.org ?

(Seems to be associated with 'A Way with Words', about words, grammar, and language on USA public radio)

Labels: dictionaries, language

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:54 pm

 
Election Day — NSW State Election 2007  
Whatever happens, it's been nice to be able to (try and) say "Premier Iemma, the Member for Lakemba", simply from a tongue-twisting perspective

Labels: events, language, politics

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:40 am

 
Old thoughts made new  
One of my reasons for reading science fiction (as opposed to sword & sorcery style fantasy or space-located varieties of westerns, &c) is that it can deal with all sorts of ideas & speculations about humanity, society, reality, &c. This edited extract deals with a subject that's been discussed very many times.

From "Inheritor" by CJ Cherryh
(p 365 of my paperback edition)
Third in a series set on an alien world where 'stranded' humans are co-existing uneasily with another race who are said not to have emotions in the same way as humans. CJC tends towards the 'higher' end of 'space opera' — lots of action & excitement, but touching on bigger themes — tho' she also does other sub-genres.

"Not love, he thought to himself. And then thought, ... maybe they'd had such rotten luck with the love and man'chi aspect of relations because that word in [English] blurred so many things together it just wasn't safe to deal with.
They were lovers. But Ragi said they were sexual partners.
They were lovers. But Ragi said they were associated.
They'd made love. But Ragi said there they were within the same lord's manchi.
They'd made love. But Ragi said there were one-candle nights and two-candle nights and there were relationships that didn't count the candles at all.
They'd made love. But a Ragi proverb said one candle didn't promise breakfast. ...
He was quite out of his depth trying to reckon that. But with Jago he certainly wouldn't count the candles. Whatever they could arrange, as long as it could last from both sides, that was what he'd take."

Labels: language, science fiction, scifi, SF, society

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:10 am