Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

Three kinds of poetry make a post.

some lines are short lines

So a while back, I posted about finding an extract of a translation of Lucretius into rubaiyat stanzas, which was, yes, just as bad as it sounds. At the risk of having sovey drink herself into the grave, a follow-up:

Behold, the complete text of Lucretius on Life and Death, in the Metre of Omar Khayyám.

There is, in fact, one thing heartening about finding this: learning that Mallock, W. H. (1849-1923) did not in fact attempt a complete translation in this manner -- this is extracts only. My memories of De rerum natura a bit dim, as it's been a while, but I recognize a couple passages that I recall as among those most amenable to bending into FitzGeraldian philosophasting.

I nonetheless remain in awe at the effort -- and not the good sort of awe.

others run a bit longer

My poem for nineweaving, "Winter Advice," is in the current issue of Goblin Fruit, along with art by rose_lemberg and excellent poems by the likes of shweta_narayan and csecooney.

i like the short ones

Fluid dynamics simulation using javascript. (also available in ascii) (via)

---L.

Sentences I had never expected to ever read: "If I ever go on hallucinogenic walkabout in the desert, I'd want Richard Feynman to be my spirit animal."

(Source)

(branna, if you haven't seen the linked videos, you should.)

---L.

My reaction to this is, roughly: Neutrinos. *shakes head* Because swapping between families ISN'T BIZARRE ENOUGH.

Not that the research group is reporting faster-than-light travel is in fact happening: "We are not claiming things, we want just to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result -- because it is crazy." They're seeing apparent FTL consistently in a fairly large sample set, but can't figure out what systematic errors might be causing this.

We'll see if it pans out.

---L.