Brief Point Of Interest

Tucson Weather Today

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Curiosity, the one-ton, six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has landed on Mars.

Chicago Tribune Story

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Gyrfalcon


The Gyrfalcon, also spelled gerfalcon, -- Falco rusticolus -- is the largest of the falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and the islands of North America, Europe, and Asia. It is mainly resident there also, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter. The Gyrfalcon is dispersed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere, with populations in Northern America, Greenland, and Northern Europe. Its plumage varies with location, with birds being coloured from all-white to dark brown.

When I was just a little kid I heard a short rhyme and never forgot it:

Birdie birdie in the sky,
Shooting whitewash in my eye.
I'm no baby; I won't cry . . .
I'm just glad that cows don't fly.

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WORD FOR TODAY

exiguous [EX-eh-juss]
Adjective
Very small in size or amount.
Synonyms   
scanty - small - little - meagre - meager - slender

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Andy Warhol

Born Aug. 6, 1928

Died Feb 22, 1987

Andy Warhol was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became a renowned and sometimes controversial artist. The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives. It is the largest museum in the United States of America dedicated to a single artist.

Robert Mitchum


Born Aug 6, 1917
Died July 1, 1997

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Mitchum rose to prominence for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s.

Lucille Ball


Born Aug. 6, 1911
Died Apr 26, 1989

Lucille Desiree Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy. One of the most popular and influential stars in the United States during her lifetime, with one of Hollywood's longest careers, especially on television, Ball began acting in the 1930s, becoming both a radio actress and B-movie star in the 1940s, and then a television star during the 1950s. She was still making films in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1962, Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu, which produced many successful and popular television series.

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Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today -- but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.
--Isaac Asimov

The Good Doctor

Once Again, R.I.P. Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

(January 2, 1920 - April 6, 1992)

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Where does the sun go at night?

The above link is to an essay by Lance Parkin that should, in one way or another provoke the reader to think, as will some of the comments that follow it.

Maybe.

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Today's entry is short since I am otherwise occupied in a separate and complex writing-related endeavor.

More another time . . .

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Isaac Asimov had writer's block once. It was the worst ten minutes of his life.
--Harlan Ellison

Things Others Are Saying . . .

Tucson Weather Today

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Here is a wealth of information on the recent spate of animal deaths in the world.

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Isaac Asimov on the greenhouse effect back in January, 1989.

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Word Of The Day

Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact is a mostly self-taught person, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a full-time tutor or mentor.

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Even Huckleberry Finn can't say the N-word anymore.

Publisher's Weekly announced that they want to publish a version that won't be banned from some schools because of its language, two scholars are editing Mark Twain's classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to eliminate uses of the "N" word and replace it with "slave,"

It's all right to rewrite history due to shamelessly propagandized 'consensus', I suppose.

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NPR (National Public Radio) has a fine website. and I like to visit it frequently. If you've never read some of their stuff, you are missing out on a valuable experience. One example is the coverage of the victims involved in the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy, including a picture of the nine year old girl killed and the revelation that she was born on 9/11.

Here is the link

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While determining whether of not the word Nobelist is a correct designation for a winner of the Nobel Prize (yes it is) I spent at least a half hour reading all about the Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Prize

This was a fascinating Wikipedia article.

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The New York Times about Tucson shooter

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Choice In Dying is a blog written by Eric MacDonald arguing for the right to die and against the religious obstruction of that right. Eric MacDonald is a fine writer and a dedicated proponent of the right to assisted dying. He is an example of the newly-evolving 21st century thinking man.

In my opinion.

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