Idiom Du Jour: In Over My Head

I just checked, and the correct expression is deep-seated, rather than deep-seeded.

No doubt the latter expression arises from a combination of folk etymology and phonetic 'laziness' (although, as my Oxford sociolinguistics tutor points out, 'laziness' is a term that should be discouraged, it being critical and often incorrect).

The correct phrase (deep-seated) was first used in it's figurative use in 1847, so it's not terribly old.  However, the word it stems from - seated - is not commonly used these days in the way it's meant when it is referring to something that's ingrained and deeply-rooted (and doubtless this is where the confusion starts to arise).  However, to seat not only implies, well, sitting...it also means that something is situated inside, firmly placed, planted, rooted...

And we come full-circle, both to the botanical and also to the image of something - an object, an idea - well and truly positioned and deposited in a certain locale.

Justification

I feel validated for my deep-seeded fear of swimming in natural bodies of water.



Although I guess this is pretty cool, if you get past the tentacles. And beaks.

Schrödinger

Input: a box, containing a cat, a poison, a small amount of radioactive material, and a Geiger counter.

Output: a simultaneously dead and alive cat.  A zombie cat.

Quantum mechanics are really weird.

It's a Sign

More where this came from here.  Perhaps it's just cheap LOLs.  Oh well.

Obscure 80s Weekly

It appears to be Thursday, so I thought I'd do another one of these 80s compilations.  Mom's off to Ireland (the lucky jerk) for a few weeks (and Dad's heading down to Virginia...WOOO HOME ALONE), so I was thinking Irish-themed would be fitting.  It seems, however, that Ireland in the 1980s was not terribly concerned with making new-wave and euro-pop hits - can't imagine why - so we're really pushing the envelope and scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Simultaneously.  How horrible.  

Thursday brings some lovely shoegaze, can't be bad: My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow

Okay how about Costello for Friday...still going strong: Elvis Costello - Everyday I Write the Book

Anddd rapidly clutching at straws with Saturday (although the 80s video still looks promising): Enya - Orinoco Flow

Umm this one sort of drags us back to task for Sunday's: Boomtown Rats - Banana Republic

Switching gears to some punk on Monday: Stiff Little Fingers - Tin Soldiers

Oh and here's Tuesday...a real obscure band you won't have heard before: U2 - I Will Follow

Okay I'm totally out.  This has been an unsuccessful endeavor.  Wednesday (this miiight have been filmed in the 80s, yeah?): The Dubliners (fea. The Pogues) - Irish Rover 

Anyway, enjoy it for what it is.  Back on track next week (perhaps).

Edward Woodward

Why has Edward Woodward got so many R's in his name?
     Because otherwise he'd be Edwad Woodwad.

Why has Edward Woodward got so many D's in his name?
     Because otherwise he'd be Ewar Woowar.

Why has Edward Woodward got so many W's in his name?
     Because otherwise he'd be Edard Oodard.

Why has Edward Woodward got so many vowels in his name?
     Because otherwise he'd be Dwrd Wdwrd.

Why has Edward Woodward got so many consonants in his name? 
     Because otherwise he'd be Ea Ooa.

Conclusion: Best. Name. Ever.

Small Talk

I suck at small talk.

...Maybe I'm descended from Neanderthals.

Artist: Gerhard Richter

For more examples of Richter's paintings, see here.

Idiom Du Jour

At the behest of my family, I've decided to start a periodic type of entry in which I define and investigate the roots of some interesting idiomatic expressions.

...And although the title of this installation is in French, I will in fact be defining (and perhaps debunking) English phrases exclusively.

First off, this gem: balls to the wall.

Definition: to go all out, to push the limits.

Origins: (Firstly, let me just note that I am in no way a proper professional etymological investigator...all I've got is the internet at my fingertips...a small selection of wordy-type books...and a limited amount of patience and interest.  Although...) however raunchy this one may appear, it turns out that everyone on the world wide web is assuring me it started out quite innocent and doesn't refer to male anatomy in any way.  From there, I have two or three possible explanations.  Firstly, the expression is said to originate in the particular speech used by pilots during World War Two.  According to this, the throttle and fuel controls are topped with joystick-esque ball grips, and so to go ahead at top speed, 'full throttle' (as it were), one pushes the aforementioned balls towards the front wall of the cockpit.  Makes sense.

Before I conclude this episode, however, I ought to mention a possible usage of this idiom that would pre-date the aeronautical one mentioned above.  In this instance, we aren't so much concerned with planes, but trains...or possibly submarines (sorry, no automobiles).  Have I mentioned I'm no engineer?  Well anyway, as near as I can make out, these types of machines have generators, or drive-shafts, or counterweights, or something equipped with metal balls which get slung about.  There's probably a wall involved as well; regardless (yes...can you tell my interest is waning?) the end result is roughly the same: balls to the wall means full speed ahead.

The Final Frontier

One last space-aged, sci-fi post.

I bring you...DALEKS!
What?  Oh, fine.  I mean...SWARMBOTS!

Pretty much the same thing, no?

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

Space Sailing: Light exerts pressure.  Electromagnetic radiation has a momentum property that - in space, where there is little else in the way of forces - can be harnessed just like wind with a large and lightweight sail.  A low-mass, high-surface area reflective sail can accelerate a space ship in a cost-effective manner through the use of pressure from sunlight alone.

Space Pirates: not so science fiction now, eh?

A Last Theorem

Speaking of scientists with inopportune deaths...

Ever heard of Pierre de Fermat?  He was a French (obviously) lawyer and amateur mathematician who lived in the 1600s and who - in his spare time - came up with a lot of stuff that eventually led to modern-day calculus.  Not bad, eh?  I love science in this period: I think it was Newton who wrote down some hugely important observations and revelations and then locked it all up in a trunk for ages until some of his friends were trying to figure something out about planets and he was like, "oh that?  yeah it's in my bedroom...I figured that stuff out ages ago"...was that even Newton?  Anyway then there are guys who dissect their own legs to figure out musculature, and other guys who are primarily alchemists but also do a bit of biochem in their spare time...hilarious stuff. 

Back to Fermat.  Although he made several notable contributions - while not studying the law - to the subjects of optics, probability, geometry, etc., Fermat is best known for something he didn't actually complete.  The reason for lack of completion being that he died.  Fermat's Last Theorem (in capitals because that's the title of the thing...) was scribbled down in the margin of Diophantus' Mathematica - so typical - and then never revisited. 

I'm no mathematician.  Also, I don't really know why this sort of knowledge is useful...I'm sure it must be, somehow, but search me for why.  Anyway, Fermat's Last Theorem states that "no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ for any integer value of n greater than two."  The thing about mathematics, though, is that you can't just say something like that without proof - and when penning the above in 1637, Fermat left no mathematical proof.

In fact, proof was a long time coming.  It wasn't until the 1980s that a man named Andrew Wiles figured it out through a lot of big, scary words, concepts, and mathematical blather.  I won't get into it (but well done, Andrew).  Anyway - perhaps - it's best that this one at least went unsolved for so long, because in trying to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, mathematicians came up with a lot of cool mathy stuff on the way - like algebra.  And maybe ellipses.  Hooray!

Chemistry (although it applies to lots of other things, as well)

Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.     Antoine Lavoisier

Father of modern chemistry and French nobleman...gained the first title through discovering hydrogen and oxygen, helping to construct the metric system and a systematic chemical nomenclature, and drafting a first version of the law of conservation of mass; the second led to his death by guillotine during the Reign of Terror, when Jean-Paul Marat accused him of 'selling watered-down tobacco'.  Crappy Marat.

Feeling Good

[And yes, I re-discovered this one while watching a TV show.]

How Long?

Strictly speaking, this belongs in my Oxford series...but I've only just now discovered it, and think it's suitably witty - and true - that it deserves a mention somewhere.

So apparently the difference between me and my Brit friends is that Britons think 100 miles is a long way, while Americans think 100 years is a long time.

Ha ha ha...well anyway, mildly entertaining.  That's all I ever promised you from the beginning. 

Right, so this comes from my burrowing through the blogsphere; I encountered a bit about the differences between Americans and the English that seemed worth reading at the time.  For all the similarities - I've said it before - the UK is not merely Ye-Olde-USA...little funny disparities are likely to crop up when you least expect it.  This one is not the most striking, I don't think, or the most useful, or even the most correct, but there you have it.  Perhaps it will put some things into perspective next time you have some friends from Scotland over for vacation and decide to take them on an hour-long drive out to look at some historical site (as you see it) from the Roaring Twenties.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Late Renaissance Poetry

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (by Christopher Marlowe, 1593)

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant poises,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherds's swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

...

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd (by Sir Walter Raleigh, 1599)

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall,

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten--
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind may move
To live with thee and be thy love.

...

The Bait (by John Donne, 1633)

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks.

There will the river whisp'ring run
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun ;
And there th' enamour'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.

Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest ;
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.

For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait :
That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,
Alas ! is wiser far than I.

...

hmmm.

...

Wheeee!  More where these came from at this lovely site.

Marketing Ploy

I'm seeing the beginnings of a trend of viral guerrilla product marketing, little clever, sneaky videos that pop up on Youtube to subtly sell something almost without your knowing it.

Here's one (link) that sells not only Rustler's One Finger Food, but also does a pretty good job selling the college-bros-filming-a-hilarious-video style.  I'm still not sure how they do it, but I'm 99% sure it's fake...if this were real, wouldn't his finger blow up?

This one (link) is a bit more professional-looking, but I believe it's a fake, firstly because of physics, and secondly because essentially all of their gear is by the company Hi-Tec.  Puts you in mind of that one with the massive water slide, eh?  I suppose this one works thanks to a slightly submerged platform...still, it's fun to watch, and certainly less painful than getting walloped over the head by Herbal Essences and GoDaddy and what have you.

Eh

Here's to the good old days.



See you next year.

Good Old Fashioned Fun

I've just located 170 pages of zany comic-book images from the 50s and 60s and may never be productive again.

Unsuccess Stories

We've all heard that Einstein failed at math, Beethoven was deaf, Oppenheimer nearly got kicked out of university for trying to poison someone...

[Actually though, Einstein apparently got top marks in math and science all through his life; Beethoven didn't lose his hearing until midway through his career; Oppenheimer...well...he's also known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb, so what do you expect?]

One thing that is true, however, regarding famous celebrities failure in their areas of success, is that, as a young man, Casanova was unlucky in love.

When he was 24, the man whose name would become synonymous with seduction met a woman from Parma whom he called in his autobiography Henriette.  This beautiful, cultured, and brilliant woman deeply attracted Casanova; according to a widely-quoted passage, "They who believe that a woman is incapable of making a man equally happy all the twenty-four hours of the day have never known an Henriette."  For three months, the two dazzled each other with witty conversation and so on (...) but, alas for Mr C., three months was sufficient for Henriette to get his measure.  In fact - Scholar J Rives Childs notes - she "penetrated his outward shell early in their relationship...came to discern his volatile nature, his lack of social background, and the precariousness of his finances" and beat a hasty retreat back to her family home.  Hmmm...now I don't think either Lothario or Don Juan would admit to as much, but then, they were mere fictional characters, and I don't believe either were truly in love.

Not totally heartless, Henriette left Casanova five hundred louis as a parting gift.  Still, he was apparently quite shook up about it, and moped about for quite some time (in jail...), until picking up on his notably successful career as a professional lover/rake/womanizer...indeed, a regular Casanova.

Return of the Trivia

Apologies for the two-day hiatus...I was back in Richmond (graduating booyah) and unexpectedly had no internet access in my down time.  Although I suppose we should all be more amazed that I haven't had an internet access problem until nearly halfway through the year (ish).  Anyway, seven hours down, seven hours back, and some pyrotechnics and polyester trashbags in between.  No, it was nice.  A good wrap-up.

Okay, enough about me.  Time for a pop quiz!  Question: Why are manhole covers round?

Actually, this is a serious question made famous in a serious interview (or rather, a series of serious interviews) by the company Microsoft.  I read about it in the book Outliers (by Gladwell), but I think it stuck with me because I've been preparing a bit for interviews.  This kind of question, though strange, allegedly measures an important aspect of an individual not easily assessed by the SAT, GRE, MCAT, GPA, or any other mouthful of alphabet soup.  While those measures all do a relatively good job of reporting what we typically think of as intelligence, they don't really investigate practical intelligence, street-smarts, or creativity.  Ask someone why manholes are round, or how many uses they can think of for a blanket, and - the logic goes - discover who can hit the curveballs and who can't.

But if you're like me, you're probably a little irritated - how the heck are you supposed to know when an interviewer will tolerate insane (and probably smart-ass) remarks versus when they expect you to play by a more conventional set of rules? - and you also want to know, well, why are manhole covers round, anyway?

Firstly, not all of them are.  There are plenty of manhole covers from Rhode Island to Rome that are square, rectangular, triangular, etc. and the world carries right along.  However, Microsoft probably wants a bit more than that, so...

Geometrical reasons

• A round cover can't fall through a similarly-sized round opening, whereas another shape might be able to (a rectangle, for instance, or a square inserted diagonally).
• Spheres and circles are strong shapes and good at distributing weight and pressure.
• Circles have a large area to perimeter ratio.

Manufacturing reasons:

• Circles are easy and efficient to make.
• They also use less material.
• Round holes are simple to dig.
• So that they don't catch on car wheels and feet (etc), the cover needs to be flattened, and round or curved surfaces are easiest to lathe (...apparently).
• Circles are the traditional shape, and they can be mass-produced in standardized shapes and sizes, rather than custom-made.

Utilitarian reasons:

• People's torsos are roughly circular in cross-section.
• Circular covers will match up with a circular hole in any direction, and do not need to be maneuvered or rotated into place.
• Round things can be easily rolled if they need to be moved.

Painfully obvious reasons:

• Manholes are round, so their covers ought to be round, too.

 Wellllllllll there you have it.  Now interview away!

Sunday

Saturday

Architecture "Cymraeg"

 [Photo from the BBC.]

Yes, it's the Senedd!  That's Welsh, and it's pronounced sɛnɛð...oh yeah, I broke out the IPA.  It's also known as the National Assembly Building, and is essentially the Welsh parliament - I gather there have been some efforts for decentralization or devolution or what-have-you in British government, and so this is where it all happens for Wales. 

It's quite an impressive building, intending to bring together nationalistic history and cosmopolitan technology...I was pretty intimidated when I went there, although that may have been less because of the acoustic panels and computer screens and more because everyone tried speaking Welsh at me.  All I know how to say back to them would have been cariad, the one word I picked out of a song by the Welsh band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, which means something along the lines of 'beloved'.  Yeah.  I'm not quite comfortable with projecting pseudogaelic hippie vibes to government people?

Inside, you can see this nifty structural device...the brochures I read at the time said it was supposed to represent a tree trunk, but it kind of looks like a smokestack?  (Orrr a mushroom cloud???).  And underneath that is a skylight that illuminates the debate chamber.  Anyway, since its opening in 2006, the Senedd has won several awards for aesthetics as well as environmentalness...it's made from local materials, gets heated geothermally, and! the toilets flush with rainwater collected from the roof.

Oh, and I nearly forgot...the thing is located on Cardiff Bay, where several key Dr Who moments have occurred.  And it's not too far from the Dr Who museum.  So you can just go ahead and scooch this one to the top of your tourist list, eh?

More Pickles (what a surprise): Architect Edition

Not really edible this time, though...

I was trying to write a post about skyscraper regulations - has anyone heard something about how skyscrapers used to totally shadow city streets but then 'they' made rules about tapering and so on that changed everything for the sunnier?...no?...well neither has Google.  (What is up with the new Google, by the way?)

Anyway, that put me in mind of the London Gherkin.  This notable structure, located at 30 St Mary Axe in the financial district of London, sparked the BBC headline: Erotic Gherkin for London Skyline.  Perhaps you dirty-minded individuals can see why.  I certainly can't imagine...

 [Photo from here.]

Right, so if you do an image search of the word gherkin, all but one of the first twenty are of 30 SMA.  Big stuff.  It won some awards when it was first built in 2003, and is quite 'green' - apparently it uses half the energy needed for a typical building of its size.  (I wonder if its glass panels include aerogel insulants?)  Great Britain's most expensive office building is also aerodynamic and "improves the wind environment for pedestrians in the area" - something I hadn't thought about, but which I'm sure is worth considering as an architect.  It's also quite economic by the manner in which floorspace is used, although I can't say for certain how, never having been inside.  I've only ever peered at it through the windows of the London Eye, or else from somewhere like the Tower or the Tate Modern's Bankside Power Station.

Hmm.  Tomorrow, another modern UK architectural feat!  One I've actually been inside!

Aerogels

What looks like blue smoke and feels like styrofoam?

Well...aerogels, obviously...

So these are pretty cool, actually.  Aerogels are the least dense of all solids (natural or otherwise).  Wikipedia - my faithful friend - tells me that they are made by replacing the liquid in a gel with a gas.  Seems logical.  Tricky to do though...evaporation has to occur really, really slowly so that the whole thing doesn't collapse like my mom's puff pastries (sorry, Mom).

Anyway, they are quite strong (though they shatter easily), they are great insulators (all that air), and they can leech all the water out of your hands if you hold onto them for too long (darned desiccants). 

Go ahead and do a quick Google Image search of these things - they're quite sci-fi and pretty.  You may think you've never come into contact with them...but you just might be wrong.  Apparently they've been used in paints and cosmetics, for insulating skylights and windows, and as a delivery system for certain drugs.  And yes, also in the space exploration, nuclear technologies, and environmental cleanup industries...but that's another story.

Update

Yes. Sorry for the minimal effort of late. My bags are by now neaaarly unpacked though, and today is my mother's 50th birthday (!) - we are watching the Pens game...real celebrations occur tomorrow, and that, my friends, is fanhood. 

Anyway, Interpol (the band, not the crime-fighters) is back?  Is anyone even interested?  I kind of outgrew them, but if you like, they've got a free download from the latest album online.  Huzzah.

Okay, time to cook a pear tart.

Some More Poetry

Hope this isn't too highbrow for you...

Games!

Cool things - made by math whizzes.  Go figure?

I first by started playing GridLock, and of course Theseus and the Minotaur, but then through that found a lot of cool Alice Mazes, and I quite like the BoxUp Puzzles (I wish there were more of them).  I'm not very good at any of these things yet, sadly...anyway, maybe you are?  Or perhaps you can find a mathy game of your own, either here or here.

Enjoy!

Precipitous

Been packing and driving all day, so this one should be brief.  I hope.

Anyway, amidst suitcases and sixteen-wheelers, I've come up with the perfect answer for when people ask me what I plan to do after graduation.

So they'll ask, "Why hello, Emily - what are your plans after graduation?"

And I'll respond with a winning smile, "Well you see, I haven't the foggiest."  Which is a fun little phrase meaning I don't know, but with a fresh and interesting spin.  Then, depending on who I am talking to, I will either (a) go on at length about how I've been very busy and important setting up an ERP lab, conducting research, etc., etc., (b) say that I would like a break from academia for a year or so to 'discover myself', or (c) laugh/cry hysterically.  Or (d) all of the above.

Then I will make a rueful little comment about how many graduates experience the lemming-like sensation that they are sprinting off of a cliff. 

Okay, I looked it up, and lemmings - the real, live, Arctic rodents (cute little guys.  maybe.) - don't actually have collective suicidal urges.

But the image is a colorful one, one which hopefully will further distract my audience and move them along to other, pleasanter topics.  Like rodentia.  Or suicide. 

Seriously though, isn't it strange that probably 90% of people my age have been set since age five or something ridiculous on this track that culminates with an undergraduate diploma?  And now I'm here...and it sort of does feel like treading on thin air.  I suppose the title of this post is inaccurate, because this moment is anything but abrupt and unexpected (quite the reverse, in fact); still, for whatever silly, stupid, melodramatic reason, I can't shake the idea of a sign post reading CAUTION: PRECIPICE AHEAD. 

Ehh...circling back to lemmings...this isn't a sudden plunge or death spiral so much as it is one of those cartoony moments where the legs pinwheel in space before shooting ahead across a canyon.  So I guess the moral is that we'll all get there soon enough.  Just stop asking me where precisely 'there' is...I think I'll need a month or so to find my bearings (or embrace freefall) and move beyond these college years.