In a chat with a colleague today, I learned the following:
Category Archives: Passing thoughts
Ask a silly question …
Ah, Spring! The time of year when children wear sandals and then admonish their siblings not to pick their toes on the way to pot-luck dinners.
Yesterday’s toe picking prompted me to tweet a question that was mostly facetious:
Just out of curiosity …
I’ve been noticing a little spike in traffic from search engine searches on “Luk Van Parijs” (about whom I have blogged here and here and here and here).
So of course, I wonder: why the sudden spike in interest? Has there been a new development since the Office of Research Integrity “final action” on Van Parijs’s research misconduct? Is he applying for jobs and getting Googled? What’s the story?
A chat with Uncle Fishy about beekeeping.
Frequent commenter, sibling, and bon vivant Uncle Fishy recently set up a backyard beehive, but lately he’s been worried about the bees. This came up in a recent online chat:
Dr. Free-Ride: So, what’s worrisome about your bees?
Uncle Fishy: i dont know if they’ll make it
Dr. Free-Ride: 
Uncle Fishy: there were fewer coming out to sting me last night
Uncle Fishy: maybe it was just past their bedtime
Dr. Free-Ride: Maybe they had better things to do than sting you again
Outing pseudonymous bloggers.
I’ve gotten word that another blogger who has been tracking IP addresses associated with comments (on his own blog and on the blogs of others) is preparing to blow the whistle on what he is inclined to view as sock-puppetry. I’m not sure how complete this blogger’s information is, nor whether it is consistent with other conclusions besides the ones he is drawing.
But at this point, it might not matter that much. So I’m just going to go ahead and tell you what I know.
Mythical Pet Shop.
As promised, a picture from the elder Free-Ride offspring:
There’s a sale on Chinese dragons and hypogryffs! I don’t know if it’s related to the economic downturn, though.
Sometimes the world smacks you upside the head.
And sometimes it happens right across the street from my favorite aquarium. With a smack that’s slightly squishy.
Sea Notes provides the details:
A habit that never ceases to amaze me.
When scientists make claims with numbers they have clearly pulled out of thin air. For example:
Spring starts springing.
As Friday was the first day of spring (for my hemisphere, anyway), I went out to the back yard to survey the local level of springiness.
I didn’t make a quantitative measure of the spring constant, but qualitatively, things seem to be on their way.
In which the younger Free-Ride offspring offers a visual representation of Skullcrusher Mountain.
The younger Free-Ride offspring’s admiration for and appreciation of the work of Jonathan Coulton continues unabated.
In fact, JoCo songs have become the subject of painstaking drawings that the younger Free-Ride hopes Mr. Coulton might encounter while Googling himself (as one does).
The latest offering is the younger Free-Ride offspring’s conception of Skullcrusher Mountain (lyrics here):