Month: September 2015
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Supermoon Eclipse: What They’re Not Telling You
Blood moon. Supermoon. Total lunar eclipse. When these effects coincide (as they will Sunday evening, 10:11 p.m. Eastern time), it’s a very Big Deal. For all the scientific reasons you’re already hearing everywhere. And one non-scientific, personal reason you’ll hear ᴏɴʟʏ from me. First, the science: ✦ Total lunar eclipse: The earth comes directly between the…
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One Word: Vasty
Glendower: “I can call spirits from the vasty deep.” Hotspur: “Why, so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?” (Shakespeare, Kɪɴɢ Hᴇɴʀʏ ᴛʜᴇ Fᴏᴜʀᴛʜ, Pᴀʀᴛ I, Act 3, Scene 1) This famous passage was my introduction to the word “vasty”. I came across it while…
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Revisiting the Higgs Boson
It’s hard to believe my report on the elusive Higgs particle is nearly a year old. If you’re reading these blog posts by email, you may have missed it: My “Notes from Stonehaven” email newsletter was in recess last September. But the article is still evergreen. Catch it here: http://garymatthews.com/2014/09/still-chasing-god-particle/ You’ve almost certainly heard of…
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Treating Friends Like Enemies
We all naturally want to keep our enemies in the dark. But why should we expect to improve outcomes by keeping our ғʀɪᴇɴᴅs ᴀɴᴅ sᴜᴘᴘᴏʀᴛᴇʀs in the dark? Even in dealing with enemies, this impulse isn’t always smart. But what sense can it ever make in our relations with supposed allies? Sense or nonsense, it happens…
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One Word: Blog
Am I the only person annoyed by the word “blog”? It reminds me of blob, glob, bog, grog, flog, and other words none of which do much for me either. Simply stated, blog is a word I experience as grating and vaguely unpleasant. That of course is only in terms of the way it sounds.…