saturn return to sender

Really interesting talk about how we might mitigate climate change in the short term: inject a bunch of ash into the stratosphere. Increase the planet’s albedo, counteract the greenhouse effect. The science is 50 years old and says it will work, it will work fast, and it will be surprisingly cheap. The dangers? There are some as-yet poorly-researched side-effects, such as the destruction of ozone. Also it’s a band-aid and it’s too easy. It could destroy the political will needed to enact long-term, responsible solutions.

But, it might keep our coastal cities above sea level over the next 100 years. Pretty compelling.

Eggcorns:

The word eggcorn was coined collectively by the linguists who write at the excellent group blog Language Log. Linguists collect usage examples. Unlike language teachers or the often self-styled grammar experts who complain in the press about the decay of English, they are not picky: the actual, real-life use is what counts, and the most interesting bits — those that might reveal something about how real people apprehend their language — often stretch the received rules of correctness.

Yeah, but … c’mon, seriously? “Beyond the pail“? “Wind turban“? My favorite might be “take for granite“.

No no! This is definitely my favorite: “run the gamete.” Ha!

(via cosmic variance)

IMG_0002.jpg,
originally uploaded by thetaaquarii.

A friend of a friend had this little piece of Americana in his apartment.

It says COLD WAR UNICORNS and the two unicorns are named “Commie” and “Freedom.”

Wow, was my first reaction. This actually exists!? Who the hell was the target audience?

On the reverse, you see Commie and Freedom drawn in a fiery clash high over the planet and you can’t help but read them as ICBMs. Long pointy horn = long pointy nuclear missle. Heh. But mythological beasts power these missles, and this battle is therefore one of symbols, of absolutes: Good versus Evil, with capital letters. Commie and Freedom are the brightly-colored plastic harbingers of the apocalypse.

But then, you know, I’ve never ever seen an evil unicorn depicted, anywhere. And Commie looks exactly like Freedom, just with different colors. You’d think if they really wanted to drive home the nationalist point they’d make Commie look like a bad unicorn, right? With shifty eyes or something. Hunch-backed. At least give him a goatee. Where’s Disney when you need them?

So either the toy maker couldn’t afford an “evil unicorn” mold for Commie, or the hidden message of these unicorns is the relativism of war and hatred and jingoism: they’re just like us; they’re of the same mold.

Deep, man. Deep. OK, I’m done.

Most Fans Paid $0 for Radiohead Album.

It’s not hard to imagine that those people would have paid $0 for the album via a torrent anyway.

What I’d like to know is how the artists themselves fare by letting fans pay what they want and download the music versus the traditional label+distribution model. If 40% of all downloaders pay in the neighborhood of 50% of the regular retail price of the CD, that’s 20% of every CD sold/obtained going to the artist*, which does not sound too shabby.

I paid about $10 US. I think. My conversion to pounds may have been off.