A Clean Perspexive December 8, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Design, Etcetera, Technobabble, Wisdom, Words.Tags: Chanel, Etymology, Fashion, Karl Lagerfeld, Perspex, Words
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{ Perspex Briefcase by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, via Highsnobiety }
Everything is so much clearer…
…when viewed from a clean Perspexive.
Screen vs. Paper ~ Bookworm vs. Social butterfly November 30, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Etcetera, Pretty!, Technobabble, The Ether, Words.Tags: New Scientist, books, Reading, Study, Hitchhiker's Guide, Scientifica American, Nerdgasm, Holidays
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{ Evelin Kasikov, via FFFFOUND! }
Now that I have broken free from the manacles of full-time study (and settled into full-time desk work, for the nonce) I am readily able to indulge my desire to read Readables Of My Own Ready Choosing. No more Textbooks Which I Cannot Afford To Purchase and Do Not Wish To Read Anyway. And, hopefully — depending on my willpower — more printed matter, fewer blogs. I want to touch what I read (and not just on the eyePhone* screen).
Exhibit A:
Hyde Park.
Eoin Colfer (who is NOT Douglas Adams, but is trying VERY hard).
2 minutes later, a ladybird landed on me.
Then I had a nap.
Exhibit B:
Dotingly aware of my studious predicament, (LECTURES! THESIS! ASSESSMENTS! EXAMS!) Father saved a 3-month cache of my favourite nerd magazines.
I took delivery last week.
Nerdgasm.
Now, if only I could find the time to sit and read! [Not looking likely]
Maybe the outside world could stop being so remarkably interesting? [No thanks].
Oh, my library for a quantum life! Or alternatively, it may be time to start reading as a social activity. A bookworm with wings? Sounds nice.
* Secret tweeter’s tip: Never tweet about “iPhone” lest you suffer an instant inundation of DMing, @-replying macspambots. Choose an appropriate pseudonym, and tweet away.
Large Hadron Collider now actually colliding protons! November 24, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Etcetera, Pretty!, Technobabble, The News, Words.Tags: LHC, Large Hadron Collider, CERN, Neologism, Acronym, Language, Higgs Boson
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LARGE HADRON COLLIDER PRODUCES FIRST PROTON COLLISIONS IN BIG BANG MISSION
I can’t explain why, but this news makes me extraordinarily excited, proud, humble, thrilled, wonderstruck, optimistic… [insert further relevant emotions here].
Our Universe is a miraculous event.
Won’t it be fun to try and find out just what makes it so?
{ image from Boston Big Picture [I strongly recommend you click-thru for yet another must-see LHC collection]. This particular portrait features a “Compact Muon Solenoid”, a particle detector much like ALICE and ATLAS. I love lyrical jargon and acronyms the meanings of which fly stratospherically — nay, sub-orbitally — far above my head. }
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LHC too cool/broken for its own good; helium-based hilarity ensues
Through The Looking Glass: Where Coffee = Sleep October 10, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Etcetera, Laughing, Words.Tags: Alice in Wonderland, Caffeine, Coffee, Douglas Adams, Macchiato, Sleep, Starbucks
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Comparing coffee preferences to sleeping habits is probably the most ironic analogy ever made. But outside the asylum, through the looking glass, only the nonsensical truly makes sense. And so, I propose the following theory:
If coffee = sleep, then…
A) A macchiato (a shot of espresso with a mere dash of foam) is the coffee equivalent of “a short but intense nap between 12:30am and 6:30am, as popularised by yogis, yoginis, truck drivers and insomniacs”.
B) A Starbucks Venti Mocha Frappuccino (20 ounces of cream, caffeine & chocolate) is the “persistent vegetative state” of the coffee world.
Somewhere in between lies CATATONIA, which is what happens when you have an incurable weakness for both A) and B) (as regards both the coffee and the sleep).
“Patients with catatonia may experience an extreme loss of motor skills or even constant hyperactive motor activity. Catatonic patients will sometimes hold rigid poses for hours and will ignore any external stimuli. Patients with catatonic excitement can die of exhaustion if not treated. Patients may also show stereotyped, repetitive movements.
They may show specific types of movement such as waxy flexibility, in which they maintain positions after being placed in them by someone else, or gegenhalten (lit. “counterhold”), in which they resist movement in proportion to the force applied by the examiner. They may repeat meaningless phrases or speak only to repeat what the examiner says….
Catatonic excitement is a state of constant purposeless agitation and excitation. Individuals in this state are extremely hyperactive, although the activity seems to lack purpose.
…The only way to cure it is to keep the patient constantly active and the activities must have an end goal or they will not work. Stress must be reduced by not pressurising, keeping life predictable and by limiting choice as making choices is very stressful for catatonics.”
— Wikipedia (of course)
And on that note, I REALLY have to get back to writing this thesis. 13 days and counting…
{images via smh.com.au and wikimedia commons }
The multifarious meanings of ‘Momental’ September 12, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Pretty!, The Ether, Words.Tags: Etymology, Momental, Obscure words, OED, OED Word Of The Day, random, randominity, Words
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Today’s email inbox Oxford English Dictionary Word Of The Day is…
Momental
As far as ‘knowing thyself’ goes, momental is a fickle creature, caught seven ways between obscurity, rarity, statistics, maths, and philosophy. Behold:
1. Lasting only a moment; momentary.
2. Of or relating to momentum.
3. Of or relating to moments of time.
4. Of or relating to a moment or element, especially of a conceptual entity.
5. Of or relating to a moment of inertia. [see #2, smirk at the complete contradiction]
6. Of or relating to the moments of a random variable.
7. Momentous; of value or importance.
Now I know it’s been a while between OED Word Of The Day musings, but momental is so unexpectedly interesting that I couldn’t help but share. For though it is an unassuming word, its multifarious (and muddled) definitions give it that je ne sais quois that some like to call randominity.
Randominity is a specialised neologism, not entirely unlike The Dirk Gently Navigation Method:
“My own strategy is to find a car, or the nearest equivalent, which looks as if it knows where it is going and follow it. I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often I end up somewhere that I needed to be. So what do you say to that?”
“Piffle.”
“A robust response. I salute you.”
{ Yes cheers, [Saint] Douglas Adams ( The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul) }
Now, momental clearly doesn’t know what it wants to mean. But all its various definitions are so nice in their own way that it hardly matters which one you intended to express in the first place (Ephemeral? Moving? Inert? Random?). Odds are you’ll be saying something of value or importance. Momental even.
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Playing favourites with pretty words August 14, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Cinema, Pretty!, Words.Tags: Ambrosial, Amrit Vela, Anvaya, Equanimity, Etymology, Magnanimity, Nebuchadnezzar, OED, Sangfroid, The Matrix, Veuve Clicquot
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Winter holidays long gone, I’ve been rather busy studying relatively bland legal verbiage… which is what I ought to be doing now …which would make this the perfect time to wax lyrical about some new personal favourites in the ‘beautiful’ end of the linguistic spectrum!
1. Ambrosial
Huh? Immortal, divine, celestial, ethereal. Belonging to or worthy of the gods. Also suggestive of golden deliciousness.
As in? As in the amrit vela: “the ambrosial hours just before dawn” (when yogis and the sun rise in unison).
Why? Because it both means and sounds what it is: divine.
2. Equanimity
Huh? The quality of having an even mind. Resilience. Evenness of temper. Being undisturbed by emotion, elation or depression. Contrary to popular belief this DOES NOT equate to apathy or a dispassionate disregard for the vicissitudes of life. I’m pretty sure that one CAN be both equanimous and ecstatic, or equanimous and outraged: it’s the capacity to return to even kilter that matters. Far easier said than done, of course (the sea of life is tempestuous and full of serpents).
As in? Anvaya: looking equally upon friends and enemies; enjoying the fair and taking no umbrage at the unfair… and magnanimity*, which, according to Democritus, “consists of enduring tactlessness with mildness”. Nicely said, old man.
Why? For such a relatively small word, equanimity ripples with polysyllabic prettiness. And I’ve been looking for the right word to define “excitably tranquil” for quite some time.
See also: Sangfroid…
3. Sangfroid
Huh? Yeah, okay. it’s pretty much the same as equanimity. What can I say? I really like the whole concept.
As in? See above.
Why? Because it sounds so Frenchy-pretty (as most Franglais does). And although when translated literally from the French, it means “cold blood”, I like to think that the “cold” is in this context more like “cool” – and it never hurts to have a chilled, chic outlook on life, the universe and everything. And speaking of chilled-and-chic…
4. Nebuchadnezzar
Huh? An extremely large wine bottle,especially for champagne, equivalent in volume to twenty standard bottles, or 15-16 litres. Used primarily for the novelty factor, and rather large parties.
As in? Well, Veuve:
(The big one. via Whisk Hampers ).
Why? I find it gleefully ironic that all the really ridiculously large wine bottles are named after biblical royalty. And let us not forget, The Neb’ was Morpheus’s ship in The Matrix **.
{ via comingsoon }
* Itself, a charming word.
** Let’s just keep it to the first one, shall we?
Definitely related posts:
- New Year, New Words
- OED WOTD: 2 out of 3 ain’t bad
- Lawks! More silvery ‘new’ words
- Patent/Patently/Patent Leather…
Going Forward… [*shudder*] August 6, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Ire, Words.Tags: Going Forward, Henceforth, Language, Newspeak, Words
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I just realised why the phrase “going forward” irks me so.
It is newspeak for “henceforth”, which is actually a lovely word and does not need to be replaced. Think about it: anywhere the phrase “going forward” is used, one could just as well say “henceforth” and convey the same meaning. It’s an ugly, ugly synonym.
Henceforth, whenever I hear the soulless, economistic, accountantesque* words “going forward”, I shall mentally replace them with “henceforth” and thus obscure the linguistic ugliness. That way, the politicians, teachers and grown-ups all get to play with their boring newspeak, I get to enjoy the phoentic rustle of henceforth, and everyone is happy.
* Nothing against economists/accountants. I hear some of them are LOVELY people.
More On The Moon July 22, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Blogging, Etcetera, Pretty!, Technobabble, The News, Words.Tags: Yoga, Moon, Lunar, Ashtanga, Solar Eclipse, Moon Day, New Moon, Twilight, Apana
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More on the topic of lunar loveliness…
Ardha chandrasana: Half-moon pose { via lenayoga.com }
For Earthlings, today is New Moon (the lunar phase, not the teen vampire popfic phenom). For Ashtanga yogis, today is therefore Moon Day. Traditionally, this is a day of rest, or at least, non-practice, associated with apana: a grounding force that renders us settled, but also less inclined to physical exertion. Personally, as an Earthling and an Ashtangi, I feel out of kilter if I don’t rise with the sun and meander to the mat. So my Moon Day began with lots of beautiful, earthing asanas — parighasana, krounchasana, gomukhasana and supta padangusthasana — woven into my practice, followed by a long, deep savasana, pulled downward by the firm hand of gravity.
ALSO…
The longest solar eclipse of the 21st Century happened today:
{ via The Age }
In parts of India, the sun even rose in partial eclipse, the moon edging further and further in between Earth and Sol with every passing dawntime minute…* I can only imagine that saluting to a partially eclipsed surya must be a truly wondrous experience. Can you think of a better way to feel like an infinitesimal animated visitor in an incomprehensibly mysterious, miraculous universe? I can’t!
* The Beeb has some nice photos here.
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Lunar loveliness July 22, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Etcetera, Pretty!, Technobabble, The News, Words.Tags: Boston Big Picture, Space, Moon, Lunar, Science, Armstrong, NASA, Lunar Landing, Apollo 11, Earthrise, Mare tranquillitatus, Sea fo Tranquility, Sabine Crater, Translunar Coast, Late heavy Bombardment
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It was 40 years ago today… that a handful of Really Brave Menfolk* did something unfathomably unfathomable, and jetted off to the moon for a bit of a stroll on the lunar surface.
As usual, Boston.com’s The Big Picture has put together Remembering Apollo 11 for the occasion: a remarkable photographic retrospective. My favourites are the ever-famous ‘Earthrise’ image (see below for more on the wording):
And this beautiful portrait of a beautiful young Neil Armstrong:
Beautiful!
But, as usual, it’s the highly-specialised, sometimes elegant, often eccentric extra-terrestrial lexicon (with cutely self-explanatory acronyms) that tugs at my heartstrings.
- Mare Tranquillitatus / Sea of Tranquility: A large, relatively blank basaltic plain, onto which the Apollo 8 lander set its foily feet.
.
- Sabine Crater: Found in the Sea of Tranquility (see above). Named after astronomer, ornithologist and explorer Edward Sabine.
.
- Pre-Nectarian: A lunar geologic period (not that bit of summer just before the stone fruit glut)
. - Translunar Coast: the trip from Earth to Moon (“coast” as in “coasting”, not seashore). A whimsical name for what is no doubt an incredible journey.
And the cutely obvious:
- ALOTS: Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking System
.
- Earthrise: Only On The Moon. From Earth, we can watch the moon rise above the horizon. On the Moon, it’s t’other way around. Simple.
.
“The Earthrise photograph was not on the mission schedule and was taken in a moment of pure serendipity [cute phrase]…As Apollo 8 emerged from the far side of its fourth orbit, crew commander Frank Borman rolled the spacecraft so as to position its antennas [sic. I know: I'd use "antennae" too...] for radio contact with mission control. Looking to the lunar horizon for reference he exclaimed: “Oh my God, look at that picture over there! Here’s the Earth coming up!”…The image shows our entire world as a small and blue and very finite globe, without our nearest celestial neighbour a desolate presence in the foreground.”– ‘Genesis: The Story of Apollo’, The Sciences 1998, via abc.net.au
. - Late Heavy Bombardment: The era during which frequent meteor impacts left the moon with its pock-marked complexion.
And, to finish, an iota of luminous trivia for us all: the reason the moon glows so is because almost half of all moondust is made of tiny spherical glass particles, which reflect dazzling sunlight in our general direction (much like those reflective glass bead road markings… but, er, prettier).
And on that note, Goodnight Moon!
* I have no feminist or post-feminist qualms referring to Armstrong, Aldrin & co as such: I can’t think of anything more terrifying than space travel, let alone pioneering space travel.
DEFINITELY RELATED POSTS: The language of deep space
All photos: Remembering Apollo 11, Boston.com The Big Picture
More perfect than Helvetica? Now THAT is true love. July 18, 2009
Posted by Olivia McDowell in Art, Helvetica, Pretty!, Typography, Words.Tags: Helvetica, Love, Typography
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More perfect than Helvetica?
Now THAT is true love.
(Or just very, VERY good blandishment.)
{ by The Voice That Said via Don’t Touch My Moleskine }
