All I can think of as I wake up is this: will there be more mass murders this week? But more on that—and Obama’s speech last night—when I’m caffeinated. Today is, of course, Pearl Harbor Day, for it was on December 7, 1941 that Japanese planes attacked the U.S. naval base in Hawaii. In 1963, the first instant replay (in a football game between Army and Navy) was made on television, and, in 1993, Wolfgang Pauli died at 92 (misspelled as “Wolfgang Paul” in Wikipedia). There are only 22 shopping days left until Professor Ceiling Cat Emeritus’s birthday. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is illustrating the Second Law of Felidynamics: a cat will shapeshift to fill the space allotted.
A: I’m afraid you will not fit there.Hili: Just wait and see.
In Polish:
Ja: Obawiam się, że tam się nie zmieścisz.
Hili: Zobaczysz.
And in Wroclawek, Mr. Leon is bored:
Leon: What am I going to read today?
…a day that shall live in infamy?
Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!
Someone quicker than me has obviously corrected the Pauli spelling!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Pauli
No, the misspelling occurs in the “December 7” article on Wikipedia.
It occurs to me that the capacity for boredom is a sign of high intelligence. Without the capacity for ennui, you might as well be a rock.
I have always admired Obama’s reluctance to engage more aggressively in the Middle East. When passions run high, it’s better to measure your words and actions.
I also admire a cat’s ability to shape-shift. The effect is magnified in long haired varieties.
Hi Jerry,
There are two Wolfgangs, the great one surnamned Pauli and the short one Paul. Both are Noble Prize winners in physics. There should be no confusion in Wikipedia. I met Paul 20 years ago at CERN and later at a private party dicussing with him lighter topics than physics.
OMG, I erred. A Wolfgang Paul and a Wolfgang Pauli? I wonder if this is a result of the “many world” process.
The mathematics behind the “Paul Trap” is interesting, and the same as that behind the focusing magnets used in particle accelerators and storage rings. The alternating gradient effect has also been proposed for passively stable attractive magnetic levitation of flywheels and trains.
A rather logical error, if an error is what it should be called. Spotting an incongruence and noting notice of it helped bring forward something surprising in the comments. I appreciated the thinking process. (I’ve never understood many-worlds, but the joke here is amusing.)
I too woke up thinking about guns and violence but also woke up appreciating WEIT, as it is the most humanistic community within my reach and the thinking makes me a better person. Thanks.
“woke up appreciating WEIT”
+
It was nice of you to try to make Jerry feel better by misspelling “Nobel,” mhoefert.
😀
Seriously, I’ve learned something new, too. Quite the coincidence I’d say!
Well, there is another printing error in my text: surnamned instead of surnamed. In my early years a friendly Englishman told me that I had to write Nobel Prize instead of Price. I was never good in proof reading still finding “printing errors” in my web pages I composed ten years ago!
Leon is just waiting for someone to open a book and then he will read, or at least sit on it.
Seventy-four years ago on a Sunday morning the Japanese asked us to enter the event of the century. I should have mentioned yesterday, the Monti-Blanc in Halifax, Dec. 6, 1917. The largest man made explosion in pre- atomic history. 2000 dead, 9000 wounded and much of Halifax without homes.
Whatever Leon decides to read, I’d advise him to avoid the headlines. Too much misery and nothing he can do about it.
b&
Yes, agreed. May I recommend bird watching as an alternative to headline reading? A northern flicker just landed on my drooping, wet lawn and sang out loudly, louder than the rain and traffic. I don’t know what (?)she was up to, but she seemed to be aiming her calls into my window. About a minute later, descended a stellar jay. Do stellar jays and northern flickers rival for food? If I were a cat, this question would most enrapture me.
Were I a cat, I think I might be wondering more about whether stellar jays or northern flickers are tastier and / or easier to catch.
I think I might finally get the garden going this seasonâ¦if I do and do it right, Baihu should especially appreciate all the wildlife I hope to attract. Iâll be sure to ask him what heâs thinking about at that pointâ¦.
b&
>
Flickers frequent lawns, looking for ants and such. I’ve seen Robins & Starlings come to investigate what the Flickers are after, and follow along with them.
Jays are quite opportunistic and are probably drawn to feeding activity by other birds just to see what’s available. 🙂 In general species tend to mingle in winter more than other times of the year.
And btw, what a nice yardful!