The one eclipse I saw was in cloud, and I was surprised at how intense the experience still was. At the moment of totality, all the light seemed to suck away quite suddenly, even though it had obviously been getting darker gradually. It felt very eerie and a little frightening.
I was in Cornwall in the UK, and the amusing thing was seeing the sparkle of people's camera flashes going off all along the stretch of coast. I'd love to see those photos. "This might look like a picture of a fence taken at night, but trust me, it was 11am in summer..."
I remember when all the controversy started I thought wow, this must be exaggerated somehow, and sought out what she had actually said. Oh. My. Fucking. God. When she was challenged she didn't just double down, she quadrupled down, and then some. Loathsome woman, just awful.
Not a scientist, but I find astrophysics endlessly interesting. When daily life seems overwhelming it's good to consider what an insignificant morsel I am, in fact the whole solar system is, in the scale of the known universe.
Far-away family are the only reason I use FB too. My sister and some of my nieces use it to a disturbing degree, "checking in" when they're in restaurants etc, posting "memories", pictures of their kids. My sister has a special pose for her FB selfies - head tilt, fake smile. I hate it all with a burning fire, even when I'm clicking the heart button on a puppy photo.
AI just seems like another step closer to the abyss, the death of true creativity.
I remember a guy telling me that whenever a new woman started at work they'd phone her up say, "Is Mike there?" She'd say she was new & didn't know. "Oh, ok. Can you just stand up and call out if anyone's seen Mike? Last name Hunt." "Has anyone seen Mike Hunt?" Cue applause from the whole room.
Lol! It was quite a nostalgia trip for me to write about coal, and it never occurred to me that many people of course would never have experienced it. I'm 71 years old and grew up in New Zealand.
Our coal was pretty good quality, it came in large shiny chunks - some of them were too big for the firebox, so you had to break them up with a hammer. There was a lower grade of coal that was cheaper, but it didn't burn as hot.
Filthy, awful fuel. Looking back I'm amazed we didn't all get lung cancer or something, the amount of soot we breathed in.
I did cook it on the stove. Soaking the oats overnight beforehand makes it more unctuous imo. And of course I added a bit of salt, that goes without saying.
I wish it wasn't popular in the UK. I hail from NZ originally and everyone assumes I love rugby as much as they do. Any time there's a big tournament on people keep trying to talk to me about bloody rugby. I hate it, HATE it. An English friend who's a fanatic dragged me along to an All Black/Scotland test match - booooring. I don't know anyone who isn't at least interested in rugby, chats about the latest big game etc etc. Bloody rugby.
Sorry to rant, but I've just put my car key fob through a washing machine cycle, so I'm not in a good mood.
Thanks for that name-check, what an extraordinary man he was!
'Ramanujan initially developed his own mathematical research in isolation. According to Hans Eysenck, "he tried to interest the leading professional mathematicians in his work, but failed for the most part. What he had to show them was too novel, too unfamiliar, and additionally presented in unusual ways; they could not be bothered".'
Ramanujan could easily have lived and died without recognition of his abilities.
Grape nuts is one of those American things that I read about in magazines and couldn't quite picture; more like nuts, dry and crunchy, or more like grapes, super juicy? I still have never even seen them, so it's interesting to see the ingredient list. Yeast? Weird
Porridge. And yes, I do live in Scotland. I have just put some oats in a pot to soak overnight. I will be eating it with milk, and with honey made by bees I knew personally. Yum.
The one eclipse I saw was in cloud, and I was surprised at how intense the experience still was. At the moment of totality, all the light seemed to suck away quite suddenly, even though it had obviously been getting darker gradually. It felt very eerie and a little frightening.
I was in Cornwall in the UK, and the amusing thing was seeing the sparkle of people's camera flashes going off all along the stretch of coast. I'd love to see those photos. "This might look like a picture of a fence taken at night, but trust me, it was 11am in summer..."