Some thoughts on an early morning I found difficult to get out of bed. Continue reading “If I Just Lay Here . . .”
If I Just Lay Here . . .
Card-Carrying Doofus
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
– Bill Gates
Three Limericks, Animal Style
Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! has the Listener Limerick Challenge. This is like that, except totally different. Continue reading “Three Limericks, Animal Style”
Monday Morning Grievance: Pluto v Planet 9
It’s Monday and I haven’t had my coffee.
Continue reading “Monday Morning Grievance: Pluto v Planet 9”
Oc: The Element of Magic
Sign the Petition to Name Element 117 Octarine
in Honour of Sir Terry Pratchett
The Petition
To:
IUPAC [International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
This petition is to name element 117, recently confirmed by the International Union of Applied Chemistry, as ‘Octarine’, with the proposed symbol Oc (pronounced ‘ook’), in honour of the late Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series of books.
The Discworld series has sold more than 70Â million books worldwide, in 37 different languages. Terry Pratchett died in 2015 and his final book, The Shepherd’s Crown, was published in the same year. He was well-known as a lover of science and, with two well-known science writers, co-wrote a series of four books called The Science of the Discworld, which took a sideways look at ’roundworld’ (Earth) science.
Octarine, in the Discworld books, is known as ‘the colour of magic’, which forms the title of Pratchett’s first ever Discworld book. According to Disc mythology, octarine is visible only to wizards and cats, and is generally described as a sort of greenish-yellow purple colour, which seems perfect for what will probably be the final halogen in the periodic table. Octarine is also a particularly pleasing choice because, not only would it honour a world-famous and much-loved author, but it also has an ‘ine’ ending, consistent with the other elements in group 17.
Octarine is being counted as ‘a mythological concept’ under IUPAC rules, which state that elements must be named after “a mythological concept or character; a mineral, or similar substance; a place or geographical region; a property of the element; or a scientist”. The Discworld stories are certainly stories about gods and heroes, and 70 million books surely count for something.
[signed]
The Chronicle Flask & 8,000+ Others
Now, should we call it
“The Element of Magic”
or
“The Element Fantastic”
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Sunday Snapshots
As you [probably] know, this week I masqueraded as my alter ego:
I started working every morning before sunrise;
111+ heat indexes are not to be trifled with!
My working hours looked remarkably the same:
I counted at least twelve trips to the solid waste recycling center.
The center is only open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
There was even one incredibly large azalea that turned out to be six separate plantings grown together.
However, the Master Shrubber has power to create . . . and to destroy:
We’re probably going to burn the stumps out.
Being summer in the South. every afternoon brought rain showers.
The one redeeming feature: the breeze blowing off the water:
What did you do this week?
Have a suggestion for a poem, photograph, or future post?
Drop a note in the prompt box!
Don’t forget to follow me on:
Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.
Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?
Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.
