42 thoughts on “July 13, 2016: Starry, Starry Night”

    1. And speaking of starry nights, I recommend the Star Tracker app for yourself or kids if you want a simple point-and-identify for your phone for the night sky. Not many bells or whistles, but it's got a beautiful display.

      2. I need the Moon Tracker. The oldest is obsessed, and has been for a while, with the moon. He recently learned the final phase he was missing, gibbous. Though, he usually refers to the quarter moon as "half moon". Eh, close enough. I'm trying to get waxing and waning in next but it might be a while until he gets it.

  3. I’m walking through streets that are dead
    Walking, walking with you in my head
    My feet are so tired, my brain is so wired
    And the clouds are weeping

    Did I hear someone tell a lie?
    Did I hear someone’s distant cry?
    I spoke like a child; you destroyed me with a smile
    While I was sleeping

    I’m sick of lube but I’m in the thick of it
    This kind of lube I’m so sick of it

    I see, I see lubers in the meadow
    I see, I see silhouettes in the window
    I watch them ’til they’re gone and they leave me hanging on
    To a shadow

    I’m sick of lube; I hear the clock tick
    This kind of lube; I’m lube sick

    Sometimes the silence can be like the thunder
    Sometimes I feel like I’m being plowed under
    Could you ever be true? I think of you
    And I wonder

    I’m sick of lube; I wish I’d never met you
    I’m sick of lube; I’m trying to forget you

    Just don’t know what to do
    I’d give anything to be with you

    1. I think I see what I did wrong. A few googles to confirm what I put, and one switched. I got 30500.

      2. Actual Spoiler SelectShow

        It reminds me of something I read as a child in one of the early chapters of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses:

        Question: What is the opposite of faith?
        Not disbelief. Too final, certain, closed. Itself is a kind of belief.
        Doubt.
        The human condition, but what of the angelic? Halfway between Allahgod and homosap, did they ever doubt? They did: challenging God's will one day they hid muttering beneath the Throne, daring to ask forbidden things: antiquestions. Is it right that. Could it not be argued. Freedom, the old antiquest. He calmed them down, naturally, employing management skills a la god. Flattered them: you will be the instruments of my will on earth, the salvationdamnation of man, all the usual etcetera. And hey presto, the end of protest, on with the haloes, back to work. Angels are easily pacified; turn them into instruments and they'll play your harpy tune. Human beings are tougher nuts, can doubt anything, even the evidence of their own eyes. Of behind-their-own-eyes. Of what, as they sink heavy-lidded, transpires behind closed peepers ... angels, they don't have much in the way of a will. To will is to disagree; not to submit; to dissent.
        I know; devil talk. Shaitan interrupting Gibreel.

        [Source, with one correction and the last paragraph added via.] (I googled "Salman Rushdie opposite of faith".)

        I may have dithered on one or two between the equivalent of "doubt" and "disbelief".

    3. Just to check the model, I got everything wrong and ended up with a vocabulary of 0.

      Last 0.00%
      Your vocabulary size is like that of a 1-year-old kid in the US! (are you kidding?)

      2. Problem with multiple choice is you would expect to get 25% just picking randomly. That would be a nice experiment. Maybe each citizen would be willing to do one random pick quiz. Don't read the question, just pick a random a, b, c or d. (Or have a "system" to pick and explain your system) and then replay with your results to this LTE.

        1. I picked answers in order from top to bottom (answer to 1 was a, answer to 2 was b, etc.) and ended up with 4,350, which is the lower 39% or the vocabulary of an average 4-year-old in the U.S.

        2. I did all "D"s earlier. I didn't save it. I had the vocabulary of an 8-year-old child. 9000 words?
          If you answer too fast, it stops you.

        1. I don't recall the number. Certainly north of 30,000. I think there was some comment at the end comparing me to Shakespeare or something. To which I laughed.

          “Lube's not lube
          When it is mingled with regards that stand
          Aloof from th' entire point.”

              2. If you're a simpleton, I wonder what I am at 22350 (or so. My dumb brain can't remember the exact number.)

              3. I don't understand why not knowing the meaning of a word counts against you; if you use the word in everyday speech, it's part of your vocabulary whether you use it correctly or not.

    6. I got 30325 this morning. But didn't post it. Then I tried again and got 29975. I guess I'm more erudite in the a.m.

      1. In a separate post, though, comes a surprising fact: the reading of fiction specifically is as important as reading generally. People who read "lots" and fiction "lots" outscore those who read "lots" but fiction only "somewhat" or "not much". This is because a wider range of vocabulary is typically used in fiction than in non-fiction writing.

        I stop reading fiction nearly as much and look at what happens. Ruin!

  5. “We don’t want the unity of grief, nor do we want the unity of fear. We want the unity of hope.”

    You go, Dubya.

    seriously. I'm really not mocking. This whole thing makes me smile, and I respect what W had to say. Let the man dance.

    1. I read and was pleased by the speech transcripts of 43 and 44. It does prompt one to pause and reflect upon the term "presidential."

    1. that's a pretty good deal for the Wolves, I think. Decent energy guy to have in the rotation. Reasonable price.

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