Without a doubt, this one of the most beautiful and sinister-looking fossils I have seen in recent years. It is the exquisitely preserved hindlimb of a brand new species of carnivorous dinosaur, Balaur bondoc, discovered in Romania and described eight days ago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This creature dates to the Late […]
Month: September 2010
I’m a keen reader of the New York Times Book Review, and thanks to the wonderful New York Public Library, I’m able to read bestsellers soon after they are published. However, I’ve often thought that old books – both the classics and the more obscure tomes that one finds tucked away in dusty old bookshops […]
Even though Heather is Canadian, Josie and I have prevailed and Last Word on Nothing is having a holiday today, the American Labor Day during which labor is celebrated but nobody works. We’ll be back on Tuesday and we hope that before then you won’t have gotten discouraged and quit. Please, come back. Actually Labor […]
Buns are flying across the airwaves of The Last Word on Nothing: currant buns, sticky buns, cinnamon buns, steamed buns, hot dog buns–all kinds of buns, but thankfully no buns of steel (yet). The bunfight began several weeks ago with an exchange between myself and my esteemed colleague, Ann Finkbeiner, on the benefits and burdens […]
Sublime: you don’t hear it much except as an adjective meaning really, really good, used the way “divine” or “glorious” “wonderful” are used, just another adjective, nothing to do with divinity or glory or wonder. But really, sublime describes something that takes you beyond the ordinary — Glenn Gould plays Bach sublimely — something […]
Hurricane Danielle and its 40-foot-tall waves drove Expedition Titanic back to port on Monday, but not before crew members recorded this haunting HD video of the RMS Titanic on August 29th. Each time I watch this footage, I feel a sense of awe and emptiness. So much silent, eerie, lacy beauty, so much spooky preservation–all under […]
