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Embrace the shallow
Evidently long-time windbag and vainglorious waste of space David Brooks got another piece published in The NY Times. You can’t read it without paying, and it’s almost certainly not worth it. But it does have a good title (which Brooks almost certainly didn’t come up with): We Deserve Pete Hegseth. Mitch Wagner expanded on it… Continue reading
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Doing the wave
A “soliton” is a special kind of wave. While it appears here and there in publications devoted to quantum physics — because it has to do with quantum or quasiparticle propagation — the word also has to do with other kinds of waves, even the traditional kind you see at the beach. “Soliton” is derived… Continue reading
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The Air War
Those noisy birdswould you believe?They fly awayuntil I leave. They seem to thinkthat it’s okayto just ignorethe things I say. What I tell themisn’t hard:“Go land insomeone else’s yard!” It almost makes meblow my stack:every timeI turn my back, There they areignoring me’cause I can’t fly(which they can see.) So now it’s warand I will… Continue reading
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Another Amazon delivery?
Everybody knows what a “box” is, right? Yup, it’s a type of small evergreen shrub used ornamentally. The word goes back to Old English, where its first known use is from the early 900s in Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici. The citation is “Of ðere gemear~codan æfsan to ðon readan slo..of ðam treowe to ðere wican… Continue reading
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We’re in a horror movie
“Biden is like the protagonist in a horror movie who defeats the villain but doesn’t finish him off, congratulates himself, and turns his back on his foe and starts walking off into the sunset. All the while, with the audience screaming, “Finish him off! He’s getting back up! Turn around! Oh god, I can’t watch…”… Continue reading
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That makes sense
senses My human family’s very nice.I have to say they try;It’s not their fault I do thingsand they cannot figure why. I guess they’re smart (or sort of),but a way that they are dense isthat they have never figured outthat I have extra senses. When I come into any room,I know (I’m never off),The best… Continue reading
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Try the chicken
“Abligurition” is an impressively obscure word, so rare that you won’t even find it in most dictionaries. Even in the dictionaries where it does appear (well, okay, the one dictionary where it seems to appear), it’s called obsolete. This is certainly unjustified; after all, even if the word itself is unfamiliar to most people, the… Continue reading
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F**k those guys
Córy Doctorow posted a searing commentary on people with power ignoring advice, doing stupid things, and screwing LOTS of things up for everybody who’s not in the 1% — or possibly the 0.1%. Reagan is still the #1 on my list of most malevolent recent US presidents, but Doctorow’s info bumps Clinton’s position, so congratulations,… Continue reading
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If you’ve got the location…
This is a good argument for installing solar panels closer to ground level, at least in the snow zone. The snow fell yesterday, and today is sunny and I thought warm enough that the snow on the panels would melt enough to slide off. Or are there solar panels designed for snow, with built-in warming… Continue reading
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Is it really all about fear?
At emptywheel, Ed Walker posted an interesting essay about why so many people voted for “a revolting bag of guts [who] has no integrity, no loyalty to the Nation or anyone besides himself, and no reason to want to be president other that personal gratification and staying out of jail.” He turned to Rousseau, who… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
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