Bandelier National Monument (Photo by Josh Witten CC BY-NC-SA)
I’ve spent the week with a bunch of talented wordsmiths in Santa Fe. Among many discoveries, we learned that the terms used to describe groups of creatures can be wonderfully imaginative (eg, unkindness of ravens, murder of crows, etc); but they can also be dull.
We improved them:
OLD: A flight of dragons (also, weyr or wing).
NEW: A blaze of dragons.
Alternate: An ohshit! of dragon(s) (1 or more dragons).
OLD: A blessing of unicorns.
NEW: A sparkle of unicorns.
Anton Zuiker, co-founder of ScienceOnline and communications director for the Duke Department of Medicine, is one of the nicest, kindest people you can meet. Annoyingly, while thanking people for being generous and kind, he manages to be more generous, kind, and thoughtful than the people he is thanking.
Human population structure is such that it would require either (or both) a strong selection pressure or a big increase in fitness for natural selection to dominate the evolutionary dynamics. I submit as evidence that humans were not subject to intense selection pressure from predation one word: crying, specifically the crying of small children.
The idea that a primitive band of reproductively successful humans could remain hidden from things like leopards boggles the mind of this father. And, I have thought this for a long time, before I had children. It is in no way related to the fundamental conflicts generated by bed time and potty training in the mind of a two year old child. Nothing at all.
Yesterday, I was the unexpected recipient of a form letter from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Like many others, I have sent Senator Graham missives via the internet regarding CISPA and CFAA. This would explain the first two sentences of the letter, the second of which conveys no actual information about Graham’s cyber security position.
Thank you for contacting me regarding cyber security. I believe that establishing a robust cyber security network that protect s our nation while adequately maintaining privacy is critically important to the United States.
In this time of tight budgets, you really did not need to waste the ink, letterhead, or postage on such inane correspondence. Continue reading “I get mail”
As you all probably know from my posts on NCAA basketball, in which I use fawning examples of Coach K‘s tactical and strategic genius, I went to Duke. You also probably know that I played rugby, a lot of rugby.
My first season (1997-1998), I don’t think we won a single game. In my senior season, after transitioning to Division 3 to play against comparably sized schools, we went undefeated in our regular season league play. As a former team captain and club president, I’ve watched from a distance with great pride as the club has continued to build upon its successes, culminating in this year’s achievement.
If you live in Hartsville, SC and think you might be hearing slightly off-key rugby songs drifting on the wind from the direction of my house tonight, you are right.
*Duke may be an NCAA Division I school for major sports, but the actual undergraduate student body size is only about 6500. For non-scholarship/club sports, this makes Duke comparable to smaller colleges.
The Finch and Pea 