Archive for February, 2008
A Cluster Balloon Pilot
February 27th, 2008
Instead of using one large balloon to achieve lift, cluster balloonists use many small ones, usually attached to some sort of harness. In this way they float freely across the countryside.
One of the most notable cluster balloonists is Larry Walters, who in 1982, without any prior ballooning experience, attached 42 weather balloons to a piece of patio furniture and lifted off.
– Wikipedia
He’s also the subject of a song by the Lucksmiths.
A Pre-Socratic
February 11th, 2008
Empedocles was one of the more famous pre-Socratic philosophers. He lived in northern Sicily around 440 B.C., where he established himself as a democratic politician before being exiled. His scientific writings were in the form of epic verse.
He is noted for his discovery of air and centrifugal force, belief in human evolution, suspicion that light traveled at a finite speed, and going totally fucking crazy later in life.
Bertrand Russell, in his marvelous History of Western Philosophy, writes:
Legend has much to say about Empedocles. He was supposed to have worked miracles, or what seemed such, sometimes by magic, sometimes by means of his scientific knowledge. He could control the winds, we are told; he restored to life a woman who had seemed dead for thirty days; finally, it is said, he died by leaping into the crater of Etna to prove that he was a god. In the words of the poet:
Great Empedocles, that ardent soul
Leapt into Etna, and was roasted whole.
It’s somehow comforting to know that no matter what I do with my life, I will never be as awesome as this man.
A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius
February 11th, 2008
Eggers is about due for another volume of short stories, I think. It’s been four years since How We Are Hungry was published. I know he’s been writing since then, but still.
Meanwhile, at least McSweeney’s is still churning out wonderful miscellanea.
A Rat King
February 8th, 2008
When several rats get their tails intertwined, they sometimes form a huge, squeaking ball of rats which is referred to as a rat king. Rat kings are very rare, but not quite mythical; examples have been found and captured (and, in the case of the rat king in this picture, mummified).
Unsurprisingly, they’re usually seen as a bad omen.