dark arts

Scientists could mine for evidence of dark matter indirectly by careful study of core samples from deep beneath the Earth’s surface and looking for glitches in the samples recovered.
By glitches, we don’t mean impurities or Golden Spikes in the ancient samples but rather some ghostly and microscopic structural flaw that might only be explained by interaction with membranes of dark matter that the Earth passes through. Anything sufficiently large and stable has an uptapped role as a cosmic detector for such phenomena.  Research might even render us the ability to conjure up dark matter by inducing the signature types of material flaws found.  Visit BLDGBLOG at the link up top for more metaphysical speculations.

the fix is in

Via an engrossing discussion on the word like gaining the status of a tmesis, from the Greek for “I cut,” as in parsed phrases “fan-f’ing-tastic” or “un-f’ing-believable,” with its premiere as a milder way to express shock and hyperbole—“un-like-sympathetic”—we learn more about the parts of speech categorised as affixes.

An infix, inserted within a word, is a pretty rare occurrence in English outside of chemistry jargon, but some colloquial examples include hizouse and edumacation, affecting an air of sophistication with the superfluous syllable. Another category is the linking element the interfix, like the s or z appearing in many German compound words like Arbeitszimmer (office) or the connecting o of pedometer and odometer.

the president isn’t not in putin’s pocket

Via

for whom the bell tolls

Currently on display in the operating theatre of Berlin’s Humboldt University, Hyperallergic’s reflection upon experiencing the bleak and forlorn installation of Crystelle Vu’s and Julian Oliver’s “Extinction Gong” is certainly worth your consideration.
A litotic tribute to mark the death of an entire species, a Chao gong decorated with an hourglass annihilation symbol clangs out a sobering, echoing crash every nineteen minutes, calculated to be the average frequency that the Earth loses an insect, animal or plant—known or undiscovered—due to the intervention of humans. Attempts to upgrade the automaton to name and eulogise species as they pass has run into technical difficulties, mounting insult, certainly—but somehow fitting with humanity’s rapaciousness.