Posts Tagged ‘6th Baron Byron’
Transmuting base (instincts) into gold…
The folks at 826LA (an institution inspired, it seems, by 826 Valencia in SF) have performed an alchemical feat: they’ve made cheating good!
click here for a larger view, and sign-up info
One simply forms a team, raises tax-deductible contributions to 826LA– then spends that loot on “cheats” (explained here) in the contest. A good time is had by all– and 826LA gets to continue its work “helping students across Los Angeles finish all their homework, write their first books, and become all-around more confident writers.”
As we practice recognizing diphthongs by ear, we might recall that it was on this date in 1811 that Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron) returned from the two-year trip that was the inspiration for Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812)… as a result of the publication of which, Byron became a major pop star– whose taste, manners, and fashion were all widely imitated. Quoth the startled poet: “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.”
“It’s the stories, man; it’s the stories!”*…
Readers who are readers will be delighted to discover (if they haven’t already) Narrative Magazine, a wonderful web-based literary review (though there is also a thrice-yearly hard copy edition). Featuring fiction from the likes of Ann Beattie, Richard Bausch, James Salter, Elizabeth Benedict, and Amy Bloom, essays from folks like Gail Godwin, Larry McMurtry, and Rick Bass, it also showcases poetry and your correspondent’s special weakness: cartoons like the one above (use the pull-down on the page at the other end of that link to see other galleries).
The love-child of two Bay Area literati, Narrative is a 501-c3 devoted to Letters. It’s worthy of readers’ attention– and, dare your correspondent suggest, of their support.
* Jazz giant Charlie Parker would hang around a jukebox at one of the clubs he frequented, putting his coins in to play country-western songs. When friends finally asked him, “Why do you listen to that stuff?,” he reportedly replied, “It’s the stories, man, it’s the stories!” (source)… not altogether apropos, your correspondent confesses; but it is an awesome anecdote…
As we luxuriate in good literature, we might recall that it was on this date in 1812, just before he published the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, that George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron– aka Lord Byron– made his first speech in the House of Lords… as it happens, a defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
Byron in 1813, in Albanian dress, as painted by Thomas Phillips
Sinking like a stone– that’s to say, complicatedly…
From our friends at Slashdot:
Researchers in Spain and the Netherlands add another piece to a centuries-old puzzle in physics: the dynamics of an object falling into water. This common occurrence has a complex anatomy that includes a thin ‘crown splash’ around the perimeter of the impact, a deep cavity of air following the impactor, and a high, narrow jet of water that results from the collapse of the cavity. The new research, recently published in Physical Review Letters, demonstrates that airflow through the neck of the collapsing cavity reaches supersonic speeds despite low relative pressures between the air in the cavity and ambient pressure. Such an effect has no analogue in aerospace engineering or other sciences because of the highly dynamic nature of the collapsing nozzle structure.
Note the all-too-current example of confusion in media business models: PRL (second link above) charges $25 to download what can be had on arXiv (first link) gratis…
As we reach for just the right flat smooth one, we might pause to offer birthday wishes to one who was not unacquainted himself with large bodies of water: poet, iconic bad boy (and, as readers will recall, father of the redoubtable Ada Lovelace) George Gordon, Lord Byron; he was was born on this date in 1788. Byron once famously suggested that “If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.” Still, history suggests, even then…
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
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