link round-up

[cellio]

I've been accumulating browser tabs for a while, so here's a "misc" dump. (Aside: this new LJ "choose your icon by browsing pictures, and by the way we won't put them in alphabetical order or anything nice like that" interface really stinks. Grr.)

siderea posted The Music Theory Song: Intervals (YouTube). For anyone who's trying to work on ear training to hear intervals, and for those of you who already grok that, this video's for you. Really.

12 letters that didn't make the (English) alphabet. I forget where this link came from.

thnidu over on Dreamwidth posted a link to "Earth as Art", which looks to be a nifty photo collection. The link isn't currently working for me, so I'm linking his entry instead of there for now.

More beautiful photography, from a locked post. Warning: gravity alert -- it wouldn't be hard to get sucked in.

Some time back I noticed that one of the regulars in the Mi Yodeya weekly parsha chat drew a lot on Abarbanel and that it sounded interesting. I asked him if he knew of an English translation and at the time he didn't, but more recently someone else who remembered my question pointed me at this adaptation (not translation). This sounds like something I should check out. (And it's kind of cool that, months later, somebody remembered my asking and followed up.)

When atheism is good: a chassidic story, linked by thnidu on DW again.

From XKCD: an exploration of wise men, stars, and paths. What would the trip look like, depending on what star you were following when? I can't confirm the math, but I found it an interesting read. (I don't know why he has the journey starting in Jerusalem, though.)

A map of every grocery store ever. Interestingly, my regular "big shopping trip" store (as opposed to the "grab a few things on the way home from work" store) recently remodelled and deviated from the norms. Now I can't find anything without effort.

And a funny cartoon from gnomi:

Comments

[sethg]

I miſs the long S. I wiſh I could uſe it in my correſpondence to portray myſelf as a perſon with a ſort of claſsical dignity.

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

Nice video! And the grocery store map made me guffaw, repeatedly. ;-D

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

The 12 letters link probably came from this post of mine (http://cahighways.org/wordpress/?p=6818), unless you subscribe to the mental floss RSS feed. Tomorrow I'll be using another mental floss link, this time on blood types of dogs and cats.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

from "The Confessions of Ebenezer Scrooge", by James Morrow:

"Three years ago we operated wholly in the indicative mood -- Christmas Past, Christmas Present, Christmas Future," Marley explained. "But reality is more complicated than that, don't you agree, Ebenezer?"

"If I were you, I'd attend carefully to what I'm about to hear," the Ghost of Christmas Subjunctive -- so ran the inscription on his stone -- asserted as he jabbed his fork into a ruddy potato and lifted the prize to his mouth. He was dressed foppishly, all velvet ribbons and lace filigree, an immaculate white handkerchief emerging from his waistcoat pocket like a puff of smoke.

The Ghost of Christmas Present Perfect sipped her claret and said, "We have travelled a long, hard road to bring you our message." For the price of her black silk dress, Cratchit could have paid off all his medical bills. An aristocrat, surely, as flawless in face and carriage as her epithet implied.

[...]

"Observe this cloth," demanded the Ghost of Christmas Imperative, [...]

(There were additional ghosts in that scene as well.)

[eub.livejournal.com]

My grocery stores are flipped: produce is on the left, prepared food is on the right, and the frozen aisle is towards the right. But yeah, the Pittsburgh stores that I can recall had produce on the right. (Hm, or the front, but the Centre Ave. Geagle shouldn't be taken as an example of anything.) Regionalism?

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

Starting the wise men's journey in Jerusalem puzzled me for a moment as well. Then, I remembered that they stopped in Jerusalem and spoke to Herod first, then they proceeded to Bethlehem. Although, it was Herod's scribes that told them about Bethlehem. So, they knew they were going there, and scripture says that the star preceded them.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

this video's for you. Really

Yes, yes it is. OMG.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love these, and I'm very pleased that a couple of mine likewise pleased you and will hopefully please more people through your link. :-)

About the letters: I have written most of a filk (ttto Frank Hayes's "Never Set the Cat on Fire") with a verse for every letter of the alphabet, including Ȝ, Æ, Þ (those three in CatFabretical order (http://www.echoschildren.org/NonCDlyrics/Yogh.html)), Ð, and Ƿ.