The Whippet #142: Experiments performed on a cosmical scale
The Carnegie was built to be non-magnetic, so it wouldn't interfere with compass readings. The anchors were made of bronze and attached to hemp cables a foot in diameter.
The Whippet #141: Say yes and figure out how later
17-year-old ballerina Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dresses up as a cat and dances on wine bottles, June 1958. Her performance was based on a dream she had.
The Whippet #140: Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless
Byron’s apocalypse sounds strikingly like nuclear winter, because he experienced something very similar: the eruption of Mt Tambora and the year-long ashcloud that followed
The Whippet #139: Heads or tentacles?
Today I am thinking about: weird career milestones. The ones that absolutely are indicators of prestige, but ones that you never would have deliberately aimed for or thought about achieving
The Whippet #138: Nothing rhymes with money-laundering
If you see a news item about how some artwork or random object has been sold for a madly disproportionate amount of money, assume it’s money-laundering, and you will be right 99 times out of 100.
On living apart from your spouse
It’s really nice knowing that, every time you see your partner, it’s because they made the choice to be with you, not just because they happened to be in the same physical location by chance anyway.
The Whippet #137: Please don’t make me fight a fire ant
Here are some animals whose existence I learned of in 2022 so far: the Sarcastic Fringehead, the Stoplight Loosejaw, the Silken Windhound, and the Raspberry Crazy Ant.
Whippet Cetera: Two ways to think about hope
One is an emotion, a sort of optimistic sensation or belief, and the other is taking action as though a good outcome is possible. You can have hope without feeling hopeful.
The Whippet #136: Please don't explain to me what a metasurface is
Today's items include: "The world’s deadliest shark is not the one you think it is, or your next two guesses" and "all muppets are left-handed"
The Whippet #135: “That’s not very sentinel chicken of you”
“Oh! Are you hungry?” Dorothy asked. “Dreadfully hungry,” answered the Tiger. “Then why don’t you eat something?” “It’s no use,” said the Tiger sadly. “I’ve tried that, but I always get hungry again.”