Musings

The word history traces back to the Greek, where its meaning required investigation/inquiry and research; it wasn’t merely story telling. History also has a context (social, cultural, temporal, etc.), and, sometimes, good luck figuring that out.

Apologies for the two-day delay in posting….

Posted at 10:22 PM | No Comments »

There’s a bit of politics behind it, but the lake levels are dropping (by removing boards in the dam) to prepare for the ice season followed by the spring melt.

Just off our beach, odd bits of sandbars are surfacing, like this island(let). I was spellbound by the diamond pattern generated by the wave series coming from different directions on the far side of the emerging landform.

Perhaps riffles are technically only created by interruptions in flowing water, like creeks and rivers, but I keep thinking of this as a riffle.

Posted at 8:55 PM | Comments Off on Not Atlantis

I’m sure it’ll be warmer again soon, but for now the mornings keep being in the 60s. I’m still distrustful that it’ll continue. Call me a climate sceptic?

I found the word minimifidian among the synonyms for sceptic. I’ve no recollection of ever seeing it before. Turns out it was apparently used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1825—once. No wonder I missed it.

Posted at 8:28 PM | Comments Off on I’m a minimifidian (sometimes) (kinda)

I saw this grey above and thought “lowering sky.” Where did I get that?…as in, that’s an uncommon adjective, no?

Elsewhere…I came across this definition: Fishing—precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge.—observation by character Henry Standing Bear in “Land of Wolves” (2019) by Craig Johnson.

Posted at 8:46 PM | Comments Off on So right

Watch out for the epenthetic schwa. Then (hopefully) you can sort your plurals and possessives.

Details in Remy Tumin’s article in the NYTimes. It may be called “Is It Harris’ or Harris’s? Add a Walz, and It’s Even Trickier.”

Posted at 8:42 PM | Comments Off on Apostrophe complexity

I am beyond aggravated at discussions of poll results showing a candidate ahead/behind, when both values are within the margin of error…meaning they could be equal, or they could be the reverse of what is offered in the text, as in this article in the NYTimes. Rrrrrrgh. The Times isn’t the only “reputable” source doing this. Double rrrrrrgh.

Posted at 9:36 PM | 1 Comment »

I do enjoy this swirl on the inside of a shallow bowl made by an Athens (GA) potter-friend. It is a finger-ridge on the clay that has heightened the shading in the glaze. I like the crazing/crackle/craquelure*, too. Crazing is not crazy.

* The appropriate term depends on whether the effect is intentional or not, as I understand it. In this case, I dunno the intention.

Posted at 9:14 PM | Comments Off on Material culture, again

We toured across piedmont Georgia to lunch with relatives, then returned. Along the way, I spotted a sign reading horse supplies that tickled my funny bone. Still does. After all, who would want an unsupplied horse?

Posted at 9:51 PM | Comments Off on Overanalyzing

The other day I came across a discussion of perhaps the most common protein on earth, rubisco, technically styled RuBisCO. Its long version is Ribulose-1,5 bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase. I have no recollection of encountering mention of RuBisCO before.

RuBisCO is an enzyme, and it is critical for plants in extracting CO2 from air as part of the photosynthetic process. One key aspect of RuBisCO is that is extremely slow-acting, for an enzyme.

The utility of RuBisCO for human dietary needs is still under development, although I don’t know what the holdup has been…maybe it’s all chemistry? 🤣 Anyway, it has to be extracted from plant matter, then purified, etc., all without altering its protein properties.

My perspective is merely from trying to manage the onslaught of vegetative summer growth, without consideration of its potential RuBisCO content. Think: mowing, walking, cutting, and the like…. How would these chores be different if I could dump the plant-matter into an extractor…and, pfft, there’s dinner.

Posted at 9:28 PM | Comments Off on Lost in the weeds?

Dunno if one can judge one’s own brat-ness. Now it’s morphed into demo(b)rat, I’ve read. Pardon me, I’ve gotta go study up on Charli XCX lyrics and the meme-world.

BTW, it was rainy all day, with a few breaks of drippy grey. The rain barrel had surface bubbles, which I never remember seeing there before.

I used the noir filter on this shot. I don’t remember ever using a filter on a shot I’ve posted here before. It’s a visual reference to today’s sunlessness. Unfortunately, the noir takes away the iridescence. So much of art—and life—is trade-offs.

Posted at 8:16 PM | Comments Off on Are you brat?