Quark and Antiquark February 8, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Etcetera, Pretty!, Technobabble, The News, Words.Tags: Etymology, xkcd, LHC, Large Hadron Collider, CERN, Meson, quark, antiquark, Uncyclopedia
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>> REPORT: LARGE HADRON COLLIDER PRODUCING TONS OF AWESOME COLLISIONS
NOW: Though still operating at low gear dawdling speed, everyone’s favourite particle collider has produced PLENTY <alt=”unexpectedly high numbers“> of mesons*, Thank You Very Much.
THEN> The LHC will run at half power — you know, only 3.5 trillion electron volts [TeV] or so — until 2013.
LATER>> Full speed ahead!
In the mean time, amuse yourself over at xkcd. (As if anyone ever needed an incentive.)
*In case you couldn’t be bothered with the link (but could be bothered with post-scripted footnotes?) a meson = a quark + an antiquark. Yes, I know. I did just link another link. But it was under pressure of absolute necessity, for I certainly do not possess the intellectual faculties to explain said topic myself. Wikipedia, on the other hand, is the font of all knowledge… though admittedly, Uncyclopedia might be more fun:
The Large Hadron Collider, also known as the DESTROYER OF WORLDS, is the largest particle accelerator ever built by humans. It has not destroyed the world yet. [1] When activated, it will accelerate protons to almost the speed of light, before colliding them at precisely 13.5 billion kerjigatrons. It may also dim the lights all over Western Europe, and possibly will cause human hair to stand up on end as far distant as Sweden. Hailed by some as Earth’s own Death Star, the LHC is a milestone in human technology as it is capable of both explaining the universe and blowing it to Hell, unless James Bond reaches the control room just in time to avert it.
“Colliding hadrons is the greatest pleasure one can experience while fully clothed.” ~ Oscar Wilde on the LHC
DEFINITELY RELATED:
Large Hadron Collider now actually colliding protons!
LHC too cool/broken for its own good; helium-based hilarity ensues
Wallflower Words: Vitriol (n.) February 2, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Cinema, Earworms, Ire, Videorama, Wallflower Words, Words.Tags: Big Day Out, Black Mamba, Bluejuice, Etymology, Kill Bill, OED, Oil of Vitriol, Quentin Tarantino, The Bride, Venus, Vitriol, Wallflower Words
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Wallflower Words is a series of Proof (v.) posts dedicated to beautiful but under-appreciated and seldom-encountered words. Those that are never invited to dance at the parlance party; those that deserve more exposure than is currently afforded by contemporary trends in popular English. This is their turn on the dancefloor.
The Word: Vitriol (n.)
Huh? Originally, referred to sulphates of metals in general (iron vitriol, copper vitriol, sulphur vitriol &c.). Subsequently, ‘vitriol’ became a specifically synonymous term for sulphuric acid (aka. Oil of Vitriol). Hence, ‘vitriol’ in its currently popular role, as an apt reference to bitterly abusive language or vituperation: nothing short of spitting, spiteful, acerbic, acidic ire.
As in? Give it a little bit of vitriol!
And? ‘Vitriolic’ has a nice Sherlockian ring to it. AND it is formed naturally in the upper atmospheres of Venus and Europa, which I consider to be a particularly cool triviality. AND, Bluejuice played at Big Day Out on the 23rd! AND they were awesome. As in… they were all dressed like Quentin Tarantino’s The Bride! (aka. Beatrix Kiddo; aka. Black Mamba; aka. Mommy)
{ via Entertainment Weekly }
Now THERE’S a woman with vitriol!
See also:
Wallflower Words: Liminal (adj.)
Wallflower Words: Saturnine (a./ n.)
Wallflower Words: Quantise (v.)
Lunar Perigee: Why The Moon Looks So Huge Right Now January 29, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Etcetera, Meteorology, Pretty!, Technobabble, The News, Words.Tags: Meteorology, The moon, Perigee, Apogee, Cosmo's COsmic Adventures, tides
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These few days past, I’ve been somewhat astounded by the apparent fullness of Sydney Harbour. Honestly, as though someone set the tap on to fill ‘er up, and accidentally left it on overnight.
See that tiny sliver of beach in the background?
That’s usually, well, a proper beach that slopes down to the water’s edge. Of late, it has looked more like a crumbling pie-crust on the edge of a very swollen, watery pie.
A mere bit o’ sand about to be gobbled up by the advancing ocean.
Anyway, it turns out that I am NOT a lunatic (in this regard). The seemingly unprecedented height of this tide is NOT a figment of my imagination. IT IS, in fact…
…THE PERIGEE.
{ via Wikipedia }
Yes, as opposed to Apogee*. For the moon keeps us company on an elliptical, eccentric [as opposed to beige] orbit, and thus every month, she spends some time in very close proximity to Earth (perigee): filling our tides, knocking us off balance, bathing our beds in bright white moonshine… before whirling away again (apogee).
But, tomorrow’s lunar perigee is not just ANY perigee. No indeed. Tomorrow, January 30, is the closest we two shall be all year. So if you have a tendency to moongaze, and find yourself marvelling at the apparent largeness of our satellite — and the fullness of our tides — rest assured that you are not imagining things. Technically, the moon is actually bigger than you remember it.
{ via NASA }
And now, when I awake tomorrow to find the ocean on the very verge of overflowing, and wonder again who left the water running, at least I’ll know who to blame.
*Personally, when I think of Apogee, the first thing that comes to mind is Cosmo…
{ Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventures, by Apogee Software via Wikipedia }
…and, to a lesser extent, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 3D, and Commander Keen.
DEFINITELY RELATED POSTS:
Wallflower Words: Quantise (v.) January 18, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Cinema, Earworms, Etcetera, Videorama, Wallflower Words, Words.Tags: Etymology, OED, Music, James Bond, Quantum of Solace, Wallflower Words, Quantise, Quantize, The xx, Shure, Bass
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Wallflower Words is a series of Proof (v.) posts dedicated to beautiful but under-appreciated and seldom-encountered words. Those that are never invited to dance at the parlance party; those that deserve more exposure than is currently afforded by contemporary trends in popular English. This is their turn on the dancefloor.
The Word: Quantise (v.)
[or Quantize (v.), depending on your hemisphere]
Huh? To divide into discrete units or into the smallest possible component parts; to express in terms of quanta.
As in? Solace, quantised. Not really. More like “Could you kindly quantise how many times you have rewatched Quantum of Solace?”. [I could not]. Or “Please quantise the expression on your face while listening to The xx on new birthday earphones”.
Again, I shurely could not.
And? Well, it just sounds cooler than ‘quantify’, despite being more or less synonymous. Note to self: preference ‘quantise’ whenever possible. Especially when describing nerdy, spacey, technobabble [<alt="cool">]stuff.
See also:
Wallflower Words: Liminal (adj.)
Wallflower Words: Saturnine (a./ n.)
Wallflower Words: Saturnine (a./n.) January 13, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Etcetera, Technobabble, Wallflower Words, Words.Tags: Astrology, Capricorn, Etymology, OED, Planets, Saturnine, Space, Wallflower Words, Words
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Wallflower Words is a series of Proof (v.) posts dedicated to beautiful but under-appreciated and seldom-encountered words. Those that are never invited to dance at the parlance party; those that deserve more exposure than is currently afforded by contemporary trends in popular English. This is their turn on the dancefloor.
The Word: Saturnine (a./n.)
Huh? Influenced by Saturn. Contaminated with lead [the effect of lead poisoning may also known as Saturnia] and therefore leaden. Hence the quality of having a heavy, slow, dull, sullen and depressed demeanour.
As in? January Astrology. Saturn takes 29.5 YEARS to orbit the sun, as opposed to our 365 DAYS. Saturn is the ruling planet of Capricorn (implying that we January babies are goatishly stubborn).
“Astrologically, Saturn is associated with the principles of limitation, restrictions, boundaries, practicality and reality, crystallizing and structures… Saturn is also considered to represent the part of a person concerned with long-term planning… According to the first-century poet Manilius, Saturn is sad, morose, and cold and is the greater malefic… Saturn symbolized processes and things which were dry and extremely cold, and, therefore, inimical to life. It governed the melancholic humor… Saturn being the planet of mortality, and hence, why the Grim Reaper carries a scythe).”
Also: In bodily (sort of) form, Saturnine is The Guardian of the Road of Lost Souls in the Marvel Universe (which exists within THIS universe of course, but which anyone who has had more than a cursory glance can tell you, occupies a practically endless interlinking Wikipedia Universe of its own). Very morose; very Grim Reaper; very apt.
And? Planetary adjectives are all the rage. Happy people are commonly described as jovial, and mad ones as lunatic. The changeable are mercurial; and anything alien is either martian or at the very least, unearthly. So I say that ’saturnine’, dark and sluggish beast that it is, deserves a better linguistic workout.
See also: Wallflower Words: Liminal (adj.)
RELATED POSTS:
– Lunar Loveliness
– The Language of Deep Space
Wallflower Words: Liminal (adj.) January 5, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Cinema, Wallflower Words, Words, books.Tags: Alice in Wonderland, Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis, Etymology, Limen, Liminal, OED, Wallflower Words, Words
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Wallflower Words is a series of Proof (v.) posts dedicated to beautiful but under-appreciated and seldom-encountered words. Those that are never invited to dance at the parlance party; those that deserve more exposure than is currently afforded by contemporary trends in popular English. This is their turn on the dancefloor.
The Word: Liminal (adj.)
Huh? Of or pertaining to a ‘limen’ or threshold.
As in? The ‘rich as plumcake’ Wood Between The Worlds, that magical in-between place in The Magician’s Nephew (in CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, of course).
“The Wood Between The Worlds shares some traits with other liminal spaces, way stations and thresholds, like the bardo of Tibetan Buddhism, or the door-lined hallway that Alice tries so hard to get out of in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But unlike other “between” places in myth and fiction, the Wood is both empty and full. It is a unitary movement, containing everything, the pause before a story is told, in which nothing has happened, and so anything might… On a less abstract level, the Wood is also a library. For someone like Lewis, who lived so much through his reading, each book was potentially a portal to another world.”
– Laura Miller, The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia (which I have finally finished reading, and feel thoroughly nourished by).
{ via The Crystalline Entity }
And? ‘Subliminal‘ — being “below the threshold of conscious perception”— is a relatively common word. As is (though to a somewhat lesser extent) ‘superliminal‘ — being above said threshold, or faster than the speed of light. But somehow the root ‘liminal’ has fallen out of common parlance. How terribly unreasonable.
[NB. This reminds me of that most existential of questions in 10 Things I Hate About You: "Q: I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be... whelmed?" "A: I think you can in Europe?"... Except that 'liminal' is an actual word, whereas 'whelmed' is, well, not really, unless you're talking in the nautical sense.]
NYYYE: Bewitched at the witching hour by musical magic and Mother Nature January 2, 2010
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Meteorology, Pretty!, Words.Tags: Falls Festival, Karen O, Lightning, Marion Bay, Mother Nature, Music, New Year, New Years Eve, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wicca, Wicked, Witches
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As Oh-Nine switched into Twenty-Ten*… One pedantic blogger, Three friends of mine, and around Sixteen Thousand strangers were wildly dancing to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, in the rural coastal farmland wonderland that is Falls Festival, Marion Bay, Tasmania.
To the North, a full moon — a full BLUE moon — peered through the clouds:
{ via me, @miss_om }
To the South, behind the stage, instead of mankind’s incredible but economically and environmentally expensive fireworks, our pyrotechnics were provided by a truly electric lightning storm, erratically illuminating the wild Tasmanian night from end-to-end, for hours on end.
{ the view in Hobart, via The Mercury }
And then, as if sensing the combined heat of 16000 revellers, great big raindrops began to fall from the sky, lit like glitter by the neon green strobe lights. For the last hour of Oh-Nine, the crowd… went wild. The atmosphere was nothing short of primal.
A witching hour decorated by magic music and some of Mother Nature’s finest miracles? A bewitching start to the new year.
And speaking of witches**, the following is an item of wiccan imagery:
{ Witch Tower, via FFFFOUND! }
And THIS…
…is the official Yeah Yeah Yeahs t-shirt.
Wicked, yeah?
* Entering a new decade has been a popular topic of conversation of late. Personally, I’m more interested in the changed abbreviation. It seems like just yesteryear that we were all in a bother about how to abbreviate 2000 (after the convenience of ‘Ninety-Nine’ and all its predecessors). Turns out we were okay with ‘Two Thousand’, and the the rest of the noughties took care of themselves. Twenty-Ten rolls off the tongue beautifully, don’t you think? Though I hate to think where we’ll be this time next year. ‘Twenty-Eleven’ is far too polysyllabic: too cumbersome. But then simply saying ‘Eleven’ just doesn’t say enough: it lacks clarity. Oh well. At least we’ve got 363 days to decide on a suitably agreeable abbreviation.
** No, nothing about Karen O! Though the fact that she wrote the soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are (and is pretty darn wicked) makes the wildness particularly relevant.
DEFINITELY RELATED POSTS: Camping on Tenterhooks (aka. Another apt OED Word of The Day)
Camping On Tenter-hooks (aka. Another apt OED Word of The Day) December 28, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Earworms, Etcetera, Videorama, Words.Tags: Falls Festival, Marion Bay, Music, OED Word Of The Day, Tasmania, Taswegia, Tent, Tenter
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Today’s OED Word of The Day is…
…Tenter (n. 1) “A wooden framework on which cloth is stretched after being milled, so that it may set or dry evenly and without shrinking”.
As in tent.
As in camping.
As in… tomorrow I fly (then bus) to Marion Bay, Tasmania, for the 3-day New Years Eve rural musical escape that is Falls Festival. Sleeping in a tent for the first time since Tibet.
Listening to Grizzly Bear…
And Sarah Blasko…
And Little Birdy…
And The Yeah Yeah Yeahs…
And The Temper Trap…
And Art vs Science…
And Wolfmother…
And Midnight Juggernauts…
All while living in a tent city. [Jovial meteorological reference. Last year there was a snow warning. This year, we'll be expecting midday highs of 34 degrees in the Celsius. Practically unheard of in perpetually chilly Taswegia. Sydney, on the other hand, City of Summer and everything, will be stuck as it is in the mid-20s, with rain in abundance.]
My myringes are on tenterhooks (even without the chance of snow).
Loves: Books & Spiral staircases (all). Does Not Love: Eames (some). December 22, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Design, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Ire, Pretty!, Typography.Tags: books, Bookshelves, Design, Eames, Eames Lounge, Milton, Spiral Staircase, Time-Life, Typography, Vintage Furniture
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I love books.
Love love love. Adore. Cherish. Worship. Covet & Lust after.
I also have a VERY strong aesthetic attraction to spiral staircases. [Aside: I once scared off a fellow theatre patron by waxing lyrical about the set design for Bell Shakespeare's Hamlet, and my "thing" for spiral staircases].
So to me, this image…
{ Casa Aquino by Augusto Fernandez Mas, on Freshome, via FFFFOUND! }
…is almost perfect.
Almost.
Why?
I just can’t abide the Eames Lounge Chair (670) and Ottoman(671). Look at it. ‘Tis a boring blot on an otherwise heavenly room.
This aversion, I think, is borne of 5 years working for an architecture & interior design magazine — where I chance upon an image of ‘The Eames’ at least three times a day, usually as prop-furniture in project promo photo shoots — in addition to a lifelong general disaffection for Stuff What Everyone’s Already Got.
Some people (okay, LOTS of people) adore 670 & 671. And I’mma let them finish… but I’m sorry, I think it ruins everything. See, That Chair can even turn this really sweet and interesting poster (full of good intent and fine advice):
{ Graphic-ExchanGE via FFFFOUND! }
…into “Oh. Another pretentious design poster”:
HI.jpg "Graphic-ExchanGE design poster with Eames Lounge")
{ image credit: ditto }
Even the ineffable cuteness of Polaroid can’t save this from the Eames Lounge Instant Cliché Effect (patent pending).
It’s just so thoroughly and undeniably… beige (in the figurative sense… unless you buy this one, in which case it is also literally beige, and therefore the definitive definition OF beige).
But to prove that I’ve no deep-seated [oh. Oh that was BAD. Sorry] prejudice against Eames’ designs in general, I’d like to introduce a beautiful new acquaintance I made just this past weekend:
{ via eamesoffice.com. Take special note of the jaunty umbrella and hat. Very handsome; pure class. More chair-lust here. }
Everyone, I’d like you to meet the Eames Time-Life Executive Chair. Designed in 1960 for the Time-Life building in New York. The pair I had the pleasure of meeting — in a severely cool retro-antiques furniture store the quiet country streets of Milton, South Coast NSW — were upholstered in aqua-blue wool tweed, with the smoothest, buttery, faun-coloured suede back and armrests… I fawned over them. I thought they were truly lovely.
This fleeting encounter was an informative one. All this time I thought I was anti-Eames, yet all it took was 5 minutes with two darling retro chairs to prove that this dislike only applies to SOME Eames (Eameses? Eames’es?).
This is a happy discovery, for absolutist prejudice is never a pleasant thing.
Disclaimer: This does not change my feelings re: 670 & 671.
Don’t forget your [insert modern essential here] December 15, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Blogging, Design, Etcetera, FFFFOUND!, Laughing, Pretty!, Technobabble, The Ether, Typography.Tags: Apple, Decal, eyePhone, FFFFOUND!, iPhone, Mantra, Memory, Snellen Chart, Steve Jobs, Typography
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.
This…
… is a brilliant idea. Before Leaving Check List vinyl wall decals by Hu2 Design.
{ Public Poster Project by Egor Bashakov on Behance Network, via FFFFOUND! }
I abhor, loathe, and dread the niggling feeling that you’ve left something behind somewhere. Even when it’s just a completely unjustified twinge at the back of your mind all day. But especially when it’s true!
*Things gets more complicated with music players and reading glasses of course. Though I have yet to encounter said technicality, because music lives in the eyePhone, thus killing two birds with one apple seed [it's worth your time clicking that last link, for technological comparison with this, for example]. And these young eyes are working perfectly well, thank heavens**.
**Although if they weren’t, I could always test them out on this awesome type-lovers’ Snellen Eye Chart).
