14 APR 2015 by ideonexus
A Sunset Bloom
Then we sat on the sand for some time and observed
How the oceans that cover the world were perturbed
By the tides from the orbiting moon overhead
"How relaxing the sound of the waves is," you said.
I began to expound upon tidal effects
When you asked me to stop, looking somewhat perplexed
So I did not explain why the sunset turns red
And we watched the occurrence in silence instead.Folksonomies: poetry
Folksonomies: poetry
Lieutenant Commander Data (2338 – 2379)
11 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The Curse of the Gifted
When you were in college, did you ever meet bright kids who graduated
top of their class in high-school and then floundered freshman year
in college because they had never learned how to study? It's a common
trap. A friend of mine calls it "the curse of the gifted" -- a tendency
to lean on your native ability too much, because you've always been
rewarded for doing that and self-discipline would take actual work.
You are a brilliant implementor, more able than me and possibly (I say
this a...Because some people grew on their own talent, they never learned to appreciate the reasons for overhead.
Eric S. Raymond writing to Linus Torvalds.
16 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Directionality in Zero-G
Phrases like “things are looking up” and “look at the upside” once
meant something like “consider the good in the situation,” but
they went through an ironic shift in the solar system’s early spacecolonial
culture, mutating in the microgravity of early tin-can
stations to mean a variety of practically sarcastic sentiments, typically
something like “be careful” or “let’s be realistic.” The joke
(that is, that there is no “upside”) wore off in a hurry, but use it
wit...Many of the phrases we use on Earth make no sense in space.
20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
There are Fairies of Science in Everything
There are forces around us, and among us, which I shall ask you to allow me to call fairies, and these are ten thousand times more wonderful, more magical, and more beautiful in their work, than those of the old fairy tales. They, too, are invisible, and many people live and die without ever seeing them or caring to see them. These people go about with their eyes shut, either because they will not open them, or because no one has taught them how to see. They fret and worry over their own litt...and with patient observation, we can see them.