Morning view from my room at the Swedish Institute’s writers’ retreat in Kavala, Greece.
- Made a list of the people who have worked in the field with me on my Medieval castles project of the past 3½ years. 50 names! I am such a lucky guy.
- The ancient supercontinent Gondwanaland is simply named for the part of India where many Gonds live: bits of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
- Andy Weir’s excellent new novel Artemis has been sloppily copy-edited. Early in the book he describes the general qualities of his moon base in the present tense while telling the story that plays out there in the past tense. (“France has many good restaurants. I went to Paris in 1897.”) Then this distinction breaks down and almost everything is past tense. (“France had many good restaurants. I went to Paris in 1897.”)
- Oh, how I love my morning cup of tea!
- Ocarina means “little goose” in Italian. The Swedish word, lergök, means “clay cuckoo”.
- There’s this tune that I kind of like except that I can’t get over the phrase “When you have someone that loves you”. Hey guys, there was a reason that musically gifted pop and rock musicians used to employ professional lyricists.
- I just finished writing my 7th book.
- Made up an elevator pitch for my forthcoming book. “Lifestyles at Östergötland’s Medieval strongholds. Slavery, skinned cats, boiled dogs and extramarital affairs!”
Kavala’s Old Town from the east. Note the aqueduct, right, and the snow-capped Mount Pangaion in the rear. “Mount All-Earth”!
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NASA and Google to announce huge Kepler discovery https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/nasa-and-google-to-announce-huge-kepler-discovery/ 1 p.m. EST should equal 19.00 civilized time, just in time for my evening coffee.
They tend to oversell coming attractions. It will prolly be some Earth-.size rock with the temperature of molten lead orbiting some nearby star, or possibly an Earth-sized blob of water with a bit of rock in the middle.
Planets are a dime a dozen. Planets with solid surfaces and tolerable temperatures are as rare as hen’s teeth, which supports the weak anthropic principle.
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NASA and Google to announce huge Kepler discovery https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/nasa-and-google-to-announce-huge-kepler-discovery/ -1 p.m. EST should equal 19.00 civilized time, just in time for my evening coffee.
They tend to oversell coming attractions. It will prolly be some Earth-sized rock with the temperature of molten lead orbiting some nearby star, or possibly an Earth-sized blob of water with a bit of rock in the middle.
Planets are a dime a dozen. Planets with solid surfaces and tolerable temperatures are as rare as hen’s teeth, which supports the weak anthropic principle.
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Goddammit! ( summons insanely overpowered fireball) -Duplicate begone!
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Genetics preserves traces of ancient resistance to Inca rule https://phys.org/news/2017-12-genetics-ancient-resistance-inca.html
(confirms that conquerors often exaggerate the scope of their conquest)
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“Study Finds Controlling, Possessive Behavior Most Pure Expression Of Love” https://www.theonion.com/study-finds-controlling-possessive-behavior-most-pure-1821180485
Also, “Time-Traveling Hillary Clinton Warns Self To Do Everything In Exact Same Way”
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Runes transcribed from Dig Site 401A in Ladysmith, Wisconsin http://www.nature.com/articles/550294a
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Study of sea creatures suggests nervous system evolved independently multiple times https://phys.org/news/2017-12-sea-creatures-nervous-evolved-independently.html Remarkable…
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The Onion: Trump Dismisses Accusers As Women
North Korea Claims Kim Jong-Un Can Control The Weather
Doug Jones Thanks Child Bride During Victory Speech
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