WWWednesday: September 16, 2015

This week’s word for Wednesday is “taradiddle,” meaning a petty lie or a bunch of pretentious nonsense. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it came into use in the late 18th century.

Jay Maynard started a long conversation on Black Gate this week when he brainstormed a new award that would honor “good stories.” The devil, as they say, is in the details. During a heated back-and-forth, Catherynne Valente suddenly conceived of an award that actually celebrates aspects of storytelling. Like the MTV Movie Awards, Valente’s as-yet-unnamed award would not be given for a specific work but a story-telling aspect of that work; Best Villain, Best Ending, Best World-Building, Best Romance, and so on. Valente seems to be running with this. It’s a cool idea and I hope it materializes, because this award would be fun!

Science and Technology:

This shimmering translucent violin was printed on a 3-D printer, and it plays.

Watch robot-arm Paul draw a pen-and-ink sketch of his human creator. At one point, I thought Paul had lost its robotic mind and was just scribbling… but that was not the case.

Internet:

From 2008, here is a link to the first fantasy science fiction air show. It’s “fantasy” because it only exists on the internet.

Little Gem Nebula (c) NASA

An in-depth look at the letters of Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, reveals that she was probably not the “world’s first programmer” but she would have crushed it in app-dev. Lovelace’s correspondence with Charles Babbage shows that she had a greater understanding of what his calculating machines would do than he did.

Earth:

Some very skinny paleontologists helped uncover the skeletons of a new hominin, described in this Atlantic Magazine article. The decent into the chasm to locate the bones is as suspenseful as any cave movie. They’ve named the new “ancient human” homo naledi.

21^st Century Fox has purchased National Geographic. The press release states that the non-profit National Geographic Society Foundation, which awards grants for scientific research, will be independent of the media outlets.

The National Geographic Society was founded on January 13, 1888, as “a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge.” It remains to be seen how well it will continue to do that.

The poetic name for a family group of otters is a “romp.” You’ll understand why after you watch this short video of otters playing winter games in snowy Yellowstone Park.

Giveaways:

We have two giveaways still going on: Jana’s interview with Hilary Badger and Identify Those Covers.

Space (and Art):

Today’s photos are from the New Horizon and the Hubble, courtesy of NASA. Thanks, NASA!