April 2011
25 posts
1 tag
March 2011
16 posts
Well, Damn
I really wish there were a way to make this my account’s primary tumblr. If I’m not following or reblogging anyone, that may be why. Sorry.
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Goodnight, CapCom whispering, "Hush."
“Jennifer writes: ‘I’m not a scientist (exactly) but I am in the Navy, just like many of the men who visited the moon. My husband and son are space fanatics, the Goodnight Moon window is for my daughter. She loves the book.’ “
Another found via Discover Magazine’s Science Tattoo Emporium (H/t to Douglas Wolk).
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Connotations and Dennettations
dennett, v. (1) To while away the hours defining surnames; hence, dennettation n. (2) The meaning of a surname. “Every surname has both a meinong and a dennettation.” n. (3) An artificial enzyme used to curdle the milk of human intentionality.
Today is the birthday of Daniel Dennett, my second-favorite contemporary philosopher. Go read The Philosophical Lexicon and then go look up...
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Seventeen Names
A syzygy of sorts, considering where my mind’s been of late.
“After the Columbia accident, I felt compelled to do something. Space has always meant so much to me, and I felt I wanted to memorialize them somehow.
I donated to college funds and other charities in their name, but still felt like I needed to do more, and I found myself reliving and considering Challenger, and...
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What It Says on the Tin, Redux: Sputnik Sweetheart
Artwork by Nanci Scali, from the Sputnik / Alyonka Mail Art Project.
The Tiny Tribulations of Technology
In fits and starts, the keyboard on my laptop is losing its capacity to type capital Ts by way of the shift key (the caps lock, mercifully, still works). Shift + T doesn’t provides not lower-case T—what you’d expect—but nothing at all. This doesn’t affect any other letter, nor does it happen consistently—some days, it will be perfectly fine; then, without...
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"Drag Queen Astronaut," by Sandra McDonald
“On the fourth day of Artemis 3′s manned mission to the moon, while early morning America watched two of its astronauts investigate an alien ship buried under the lunar surface, a live video feed from the orbiting command module captured the third crewmember in an unguarded moment. That astronaut was a tall black man who had earned his navy aviator wings and a PhD in Aeronautical...
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Skin as History
I have two tattoos.
The first is a wing, which takes up most of the left half of my back, from shoulder to hip. The top is realistic; toward the bottom, it gradually transitions to a line drawing. I had originally planned to get the whole thing done realistically but loved the dissolution from detail to idea, so left it unfinished.
I don’t have a good photo of that one.
My second tattoo...
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My Little Saturn V
Here are some photographs of a My Little Pony I modded for a group gallery show a year and change ago. It is based on a Saturn V rocket, because I am a big nerd.
Coda: My Little Saturn V was ultimately purchased by a rocket science student, which is about as happy an ending as one could hope for.
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Craft
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
The above passage is excerpted...
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Points of Intersection
If you go up to an artist at a convention and request a sketch of your favorite astronaut, what are the odds that the artist will not only know whom you’re talking about, but also be able to draw him from memory?
Probably significantly higher if the artist in question is Zander Cannon, who drew T-Minus: The Race to the Moon.
I’m pretty sure that sketch is the single nerdiest thing...
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"So, what are you boys wearing?"
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Come Outside
“Hold stick near center of its length. Moisten pointed end in mouth. Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum. Use gentle in-out motion.”
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Where No Man
Since ladies are apparently the order of the day, here’s set of drawings of female astronauts and cosmonauts, by Philip Bond. They’re great, even if Eileen Collins is inexplicably absent. Plus, y’know, it makes me happy when comics artists draw astronauts.
Also, Nick Mamatas is having a contest over at Haikasoru, where you can post a short essay on the future of women in space...
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They Say It's Just Like Being There
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