Month: February 2005

Miss Gould

I are a writer-feller.

I writes a lot.

I also work with editors and proofreaders a lot and have sometimes served in those capacities.

Here on the blog, I don’t have an editor or proofreader, so a significant number of typos get through, but that’s par for the course in the blogosphere. Other, more hit-laden bloggers than I have expressed their gratitude for the slack readers give them over typos. When you’re cranking out stuff in the rapidfire manner that blogging typically requires (what with fitting it around a day job and all), typos are bound to get through, and it is much appreciated when folks don’t sweat the small stuff.

It is also appreciated, however, when a reader points out a real howler. F’rinstance: One reader recently pointed out to me that the phrase I had intended to be "does not" had a misplaced space so that it read "doe snot."

The subject was not deer hunting.

Change made.

All of my dead-tree writing, though, does go through editors and proofreaders. These folks don’t get the credit that they deserve for the valueable work they do.

IT’S NICE TO SEE CREDIT BEING GIVEN.

(And it’s a fascinating look into the world of publishing that rings true to my experience of it.)

I Feel All Googley

Referrers

On my hits & referrers page I get a list of where many of the folks visiting the site zoomed in from. Some are coming in from search engines like Google, and if I click on the link provided it takes me to the page on Google (or whatever) that they were on, so I can see the search terms they typed in to the engine. I also see where my page is in the the search engine’s ranks.

Often I’m intrigued by what I find.

Some tidbits:

  • The initial post on the passing of Sr. Lucia turns up at the top of the list if you type in "Sr. Lucia" on Google.
  • The post Double Crime Recap!!! is right at the top if you type in "What happened to Sharonna on Monk" on Google.
  • The post The Liger Sleeps Tonight? gets a surprising number of search engine hits. I’m often intrigued by what people type in to get it. Some are very blunt ("liger picture"), others suspicious ("liger hoax"), and some are child-like ("picture of the liger"–as if there were only one).

At least these are the way things are right now. I’m sure over time other pages will come to prominence on these issues, given the way Google technology works.

Sometimes it isn’t what is in the post itself that is driving the search engine’s rank. Sometimes it’s what’s in the comments section, so kudos to all y’all for adding value to the site via your comments!

Dark Galaxy, Dark Energy, Dark Planet

SCIENTISTS HAVE "SPOTTED" THE FIRST GALAXY MADE (MOSTLY) OF DARK MATTER.

Cool!

The new galaxy is named VIRGOHI21, and it’s around 50 million light years away.

We have no idea how common these things are in the universe. They may be all around us, conspiring sinisterly against the sun-litten universe.

Excerpts:

Theorists have long said most of the universe is made of dark matter. Its presence is required to explain the extra gravitational force that is observed to hold regular galaxies together and that also binds large clusters of galaxies.

Theorists also believe knots of dark matter were integral to the formation of the first stars and galaxies. In the early universe, dark matter condensed like water droplets on a spider web, the thinking goes. Regular matter — mostly hydrogen gas — was gravitationally attracted to a dark matter knot, and when the density became great enough, a star would form, marking the birth of a galaxy.

The theory suggests that pockets of pure dark matter ought to remain sprinkled across the cosmos. In 2001, a team led by Neil Trentham of the University of Cambridge predicted the presence of entire dark galaxies.

Dark matter makes up about 23 percent of the universe’s mass-energy budget. Normal matter, the stuff of stars, planets and people, contributes just 4 percent. The rest of the universe is driven by an even more mysterious thing called dark energy.

Dark energy is thought to be the force pushing the universe apart faster and faster.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DARK ENERGY.

But some dispute the existence of dark energy.

ONE GUY IS HOPING NEW MEASUREMENTS OF THE MOON’S ORBIT WILL EXPLAIN IT AWAY.

I bet they know the answer to these questions on the dark planet Yuggoth.

"There are mighty cities on Yuggoth – great tiers of terraced towers built of black stone like the specimen I tried to send you. That came from Yuggoth. The sun shines there no brighter than a star, but the beings need no light. They have other subtler senses, and put no windows in their great houses and temples. Light even hurts and hampers and confuses them, for it does not exist at all in the black cosmos outside time and space where they came from originally. To visit Yuggoth would drive any weak man mad – yet I am going there. The black rivers of pitch that flow under those mysterious cyclopean bridges – things built by some elder race extinct and forgotten before the beings came to Yuggoth from the ultimate voids – ought to be enough to make any man a Dante or Poe if he can keep sane long enough to tell what he has seen.

"But remember – that dark world of fungoid gardens and windowless cities isn’t really terrible. It is only to us that it would seem so. Probably this world seemed just as terrible to the beings when they first explored it in the primal age.

LEARN MORE ABOUT YUGGOTHPLUTO.

The Most Under-Reported Stories Of 2004

Every year WorldNetDaily comes out with a list of the ten most under-reported stories of the preceding year.

HERE’S THIS YEAR’S LIST.

I agree with most of them. Most were woefully under-reported.

But I’m not with them on the idea that al-Qa’eda bought a bunch of nukes years ago. If they had ’em, they’d a used them by now. (‘Course that doesn’t mean they haven’t acquired them recently, unfortunately.)

ABC On UFOs

UFO researchers frequently complain that they can’t get the MSM to cover their story.

True.

Normally, they can’t.

Of if they do the coverage is lousy.

Well, tonight ABC news is doing a two-hour special on UFOs, hosted by Peter Jennings.

GET THE STORY.

CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS.

I’m betting that they’ll have some people telling interesting tales, but they ain’t gonna have a grey alien walk out in front of the cameras (though that likely would only bring Col. Carter out of the woodwork to debunk it). They’ll just end with the typical "We didn’t prove anything, but it makes ya think, don’t it?" ending–just like an episode of the X-Files.

Formal Acts Of Defection

A reader writes:

I’m still confused about the post HERE. What constitutes a formal act of leaving the church? I have friends who do not consider themselves to be Catholic anymore and attend another type of Christian service or are not attending any type of service (but are honestly searching for truth). In either case, is their marriage valid?

This is a matter that hasn’t been fully clarified. The 1983 Code of Canon Law allowed an exemption from the requirement of observing the Catholic form of marriage for Catholics who had left the Church by a formal act of defection. This was a new provision in the law, but unfortunately the Code didn’t go on to define what is required for such an act. Thus there is some debate about particular acts of defection, but the following seem reasonable:

  • The act must involve true defection–that is, a person determining that he is no longer to be considered a member of the Catholic Church. (Joining another church under the belief that one could be a member of two churches at once would not count.)
  • The act must be formal. There must be a moment in time when the individual performs some kind of formal act, such as being baptized in another church or sending a bishop a letter of resignation from the Church. (Just starting to attend another church or falling out of the habit of attending the Catholic Church does not count.)
  • As a juridic act, it must be a fully human act (e.g., one not done due under duress or by a person not in command of his faculties).
  • Also as a juridic act, it must be done by one capable of placing a juridic act, which leaves out minors.

Unfortunately, the law isn’t clear on this point. At some stage, I suspect that we’ll have an authentic interpretation to clear it up (if the recently-released instruction Dignitas Connubii doesn’t clear it up [my copy is still in the mail]).