Today’s Literary-Mechanico “Life in Review” item: “À la Recherche des Années Perdues, or, My Life is More Interesting than Formerly Thought,” J.D. Goddard, Acta Mechanica, vol. 205, nos. 1-4, June 2009, pp. 3-8. DOI: 10.1007/s00707-009-0159-2. The author is a Professor of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, (Thanks to […]
Category: Arts and Science
Research and other stuff that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
Serial comma commentary
I’m a big fan of the serial comma, and the Chicago Manual of Style now “strongly recommends this widely practiced usage, blessed by Fowler and other authorities…, since it prevents ambiguity.” Here’s an example from the Times that shows what can happen without the serial comma: “By train, plane and sedan chair, Peter Ustinov retraces […]
Lead Sentence: 1/6th of a foot
Herpetologist Robert Drewes will forever be remembered for his two-inch Phallus. That’s the winner in this week’s Lead Sentence of the Day competition. It begins a report by Brendan Borrell in the 60-Second Science Blog. The next few sentences are: In the upcoming issue of the journal Mycologia, scientists describe a new species of stinkhorn […]
Basenji reaction video
In this experiment, a group of basenjis react to a stimulus: Thanks to investigator Stephanie Kornfeld for bringing this to our attention.)