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It is startling and a little bemusing to realize that in the last six months my hair has suddenly started silvering. I'd had white hairs here and there for a few years, but now there's many in every lock. It's not yet to the point that I should put "grey" down as my hair color, but I'd always assumed, given my hairline's behavior in my early 30s, that I'd go bald before white.
Anyone interested in either Tang-dynasty poetry or the works of Frederick Turner* may want a look at his translation of Chinese Tang Poetry, an anthology in the form of a long-ass blog post (or, if you prefer, available through Scribd). Turner's introduction should be taken with a few grains of salt -- his generalizations are based on the selection (made by his Chinese-speaking collaborator) and so do not always reflect Tang poetry as a whole,** let alone all Chinese poetry, plus he also is a bit stupid about Chinese meter -- but as an attempt to render the original rhymed and measured forms as rhymed and metered English poems in unstrained colloquial language, it is an experiment to commend. Note: I cannot say how much he bends the original meaning in the process. Nathless, much good writing in this.
Timelapse of Comet Lovejoy over the Andes, over a couple days. No music, but with a tail like that it doesn't really need it. (via)
Smoke Screening: how much T.S.A. "security" measures don't accomplish. (hat-tip to someone lost in the browser tabs)
The 20 Most Important Cats of 2011.
* It still surprises me how little the SF community knows about Genesis and The New World. Science fiction epics! by a really good poet!
** His ignorance of longer poetry, such as Bai Juyi's romantic narratives, particularly stands out.
---L.
Anyone interested in either Tang-dynasty poetry or the works of Frederick Turner* may want a look at his translation of Chinese Tang Poetry, an anthology in the form of a long-ass blog post (or, if you prefer, available through Scribd). Turner's introduction should be taken with a few grains of salt -- his generalizations are based on the selection (made by his Chinese-speaking collaborator) and so do not always reflect Tang poetry as a whole,** let alone all Chinese poetry, plus he also is a bit stupid about Chinese meter -- but as an attempt to render the original rhymed and measured forms as rhymed and metered English poems in unstrained colloquial language, it is an experiment to commend. Note: I cannot say how much he bends the original meaning in the process. Nathless, much good writing in this.
Timelapse of Comet Lovejoy over the Andes, over a couple days. No music, but with a tail like that it doesn't really need it. (via)
Smoke Screening: how much T.S.A. "security" measures don't accomplish. (hat-tip to someone lost in the browser tabs)
The 20 Most Important Cats of 2011.
* It still surprises me how little the SF community knows about Genesis and The New World. Science fiction epics! by a really good poet!
** His ignorance of longer poetry, such as Bai Juyi's romantic narratives, particularly stands out.
---L.