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A rose by any other nym
Most people know that an “acronym” is a word created from the first letters of a group of different words, like “NASA” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The “-nym” part of “acronym” is from the Greek word “onoma,” which means name. The “acro-“ part is also from Greek: “akros” means the top of something. You Continue reading
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It’s intense
Keeping your nose to the grindstone means continuing to work; paying attention. It actually comes from old grist mills, which had big turning stones for grinding grain into flour. The stones, which were several feet across and weighed tons, had to be adjusted precisely so they ground the grain, but didn’t grind against each other. Continue reading
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Milling Around
Keeping your nose to the grindstone means continuing to work; paying attention. It actually comes from old grist mills, which had big turning stones for grinding grain into flour. The stones, which were several feet across and weighed tons, had to be adjusted precisely so they ground the grain, but didn’t grind against each other. Continue reading
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Pathological science?
Remember cold fusion? Back in 1989, two scientists specializing in electrochemistry announced — not in a scientific journal, but in a press conference — that they’d created a “sustained nuclear fusion reaction” at room temperature without the vast technical apparatus traditional “hot” fusion experiments required. The leading scientist on the team was Martin Fleischmann, who Continue reading
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Symmachy against the Philologasters!
Like “-mancy” or “-logy”, another English suffix that indicates something important about a set of words is “-aster”. That suffix is from Latin, and indicates “lower status” or “incompleteness”. In Latin it was used pejoratively. The English words that end in “-aster” have passed out of everyday usage, but a century or more ago they Continue reading
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Shedding water
If you happened to read the Daily Telegraph, back in June 1999, you might have run across this: “The Balkans conflict is at a watershed between a diplomatic settlement and the prospect of a ground war.” If you’re an English speaker from North America, you probably would have wondered, at least for a moment, what Continue reading
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Martina Raskova
Back in the days before GPS and similar systems, navigation was complex and difficult. It was one thing on a ship, which is moving at a reasonable speed, but as airplanes got bigger and capable of longer distances, somebody had to navigate a machine hurtling through an invisible fluid at super-high speed. On March 28, 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 Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity.
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peterharbeson@me.com