New Person of LWON

May we introduce Emily Underwood, to whom you’ve already been introduced because for years she’s been writing guest posts here, like the one about her suicidal hamster. She writes about neuroscience, the environment, mental health, and of course everything else. Her bio is here; her first official post is tomorrow, 1/3/2018. She’s one of the […]

Abstruse Goose: Tradeoff

AG has found a fatal flaw in one of the Just-So stories that naturalists tell, that is, they’re either saying that creatures in fancy dress get sexually selected while the ones in sweats and sneaks don’t; or else they’re saying creatures in quiet camouflage don’t get noticed and eaten.  So which is it?  I can […]

Redux: Weapons-Grade Private Enterprise

A little while ago, I was talking casually to an old arms-controller.  “What have you been up to?” I said.  “Talking to the Russians,” he said.  The Russians he would have been talking to were probably nuclear policy experts or nuclear weapons scientists and they probably would have been talking about ways of controlling international […]

Redux: Ask Your Doctor, Much Good It Will Do You

Half the people I know are sniffling, hacking, sneezing; and the other half are getting over it. Is it colds? the flu? sinusitis? For the last two weeks, I’ve had something wicked that’s had unfortunate and not entirely related sequelae (I use that word, “sequelae” every chance I get), and when I told the nurse […]

Abstruse Goose: Flight of the Good Ideas

My own pile of good ideas I’ve had and forgotten is smaller than AG’s — probably he’s just brighter than I am.  But this is a deeply depressing cartoon.  AG doesn’t think so.  His title for the download is:  good_artists_copy_great_artists_steal_and_the_greatest_artists_dumpster_dive_. _________ https://abstrusegoose.com/589

Editor’s Note

Every week we’ve posted The Last Word, a quick summary of the week’s post.  This is our official notice that we’re not going to do that any more.  If you really want us to, we’ll consider doing it again.  If you want a weekly notice of LWON’s splendid posts, you could if you like sign […]

Short, and on the Battle of Maldon

One morning in my usual small coffee shop with the usual people, a young woman walks in, long straight hair of varying colors, flannel shirt, ill-advised leggings, you know the look.  An old guy at the table of regulars – the regulars tend to have been living in the neighborhood for generations – says to […]