Life in a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. B.M.A.T.C., and Etruscan typewriter erasers. Blogged by David Gorsline.
|
Yee-hah! Transcripts of OnStar Service Conversations Not Selected for Commercials. (Thanks to kottke.org.) posted: 10:34:53 PM |
|
Jennifer Garrett bitch-slaps dot-dot-dot abusers with a nested parenthesis:
There are two reasons to use an ellipsis (and neither one is because you don't want to write a transition): Use an ellipsis to indicate words omitted from a direct quote or to trail off intriguingly. If neither of these are your intention, try a period. Dot. Full stop. Terminal punctuation can be your friend.
(Thanks to Leta.) posted: 9:17:42 PM |
|
Claudia Dreifus interviews Lawrence M. Krauss (The Physics of Star Trek) for Scientific American. Krauss seems to have picked up C. P. Snow's baton.
...I see part of my mission as trying to close the disconnect between science and the rest of the culture. We live in a society where it's considered okay for intelligent people to be scientifically illiterate. Now, it wasn't always that way. At the beginning of the 20th century, you could not be considered an intellectual unless you could discuss the key scientific issues of the day. Today you can pick up an important intellectual magazine and find a write-up of a science book with a reviewer unashamedly saying, "This was fascinating. I didn't understand it."
posted: 8:53:34 PM |
|
Developing wind energy resources in this country is generally considered to be A Good Thing. Wind is a renewable resource, it reduces our dependence on foreign oil—you know the drill. But wind turbines do have an adverse effect on winged wildlife, both birds and bats. Birds collide with turbine towers and surrounding structures; a study from 2001 estimates that 10,000 to 40,000 birds are killed per year from wind energy mishaps. (Keep in mind that birds die from collisions with communications towers and other buildings as well. Also remember that other energy sources, like coal, have their own deadly effects on the environment.) The American Bird Conservancy has released a policy white paper that gives guidelines for new wind projects that will ameliorate their effects on birds.
With sound pre-construction analysis of each wind energy site and with proper safeguards to protect birds and bats, ABC believes that wind energy can be a good choice for our nation's future and for our wildlife.
posted: 8:34:53 PM |
 D. Gorsline, Proprietor
   
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
