Monthly Archives: December 2009
goodbye, 2009
Goodbye, best year ever! Best year ever? Oh yes. And I’ve had a lot of good years, so that’s saying something. I mean, come on. I went to the Bering Sea and got paid to do this: And then I … Continue reading
not polluting too much
My car had its biennial emissions test today: Right after I took this picture, I found out why the inspection guys were crawling all over my car – they couldn’t figure out how to open the gas tank cover. It’s … Continue reading
tortoise/hare
I like how the tortoise (in Boston’s Copley Square last weekend) is dressed up for the holidays. Do you think the decoration would help him win the race? Or create drag and slow him down? Or motivate the bunny to … Continue reading
your mouth is a jungle
I don’t know how you have fun at your house, but I celebrated Christmas Eve with a story about tooth decay for ScienceNOW. (Ok, I wrote it on the 23rd; it just went through final editing on the 24th.) The … Continue reading
DotW: Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary
The Dictionary of the Week is a new acquisition. Yesterday I was killing time (and seeking heat) in Harvard Square, so I ducked into a used bookstore. Then I realized that they specialize in scholarly used books, so I was … Continue reading
particularly creepy gravestones
This kind of image is on a very large percentage of the headstones in Boston’s historic burial yards: Seventeenth-century Puritans were opposed to using religious imagery (like crosses) on gravestones, so they went for reminders of the limits of mortal … Continue reading
radio all over
Handy website: a list of public radio stations across the country that stream live, including (where available) what’s on right now. So if, say, you’re in a hotel in Boston where the clock radio is broken but the wifi works, … Continue reading
museum tourist: harvard natural history
There is nothing I love like a good old-school museum. And Harvard’s Museum of Natural History? It is OLD school. Ok, it has many excellent modern displays teaching scientific concepts. And it also has: Boxes of rocks! (Excuse me: cabinets … Continue reading
because I can
I’m posting with the free WiFi at BWI: Thanks, Google! Ok, I only logged on to do this post, so really I’m not using it. But if I were here for a long time (rather than rushing to finish before … Continue reading
science is not all fast-paced action
Today I spent two hours watching a scientist do incredibly tedious work. The time actually went really fast – she does this incredibly tedious work all the time, but to me it was all new and I had a lot … Continue reading