Ugh!

WordPress update + parent theme update = Ugh!

Sorry. Will work on tweaking the child theme to correct whatever conflicts the core and parent theme updates produced.

clean-up

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Why “Life, the Universe, Everything” Part 3

This is the image I’ve selected for my blog’s Universe category.
prtistic view of the universe

I’ve always been fascinated by the world around me.

The Universe

Some of my earliest memories include lying on my back watching the stars (age three), peering through a magnifying glass to see a tiny bug walk up a blade of grass (age five), and taking apart an alarm clock to see where the BONG! came from (age seven).

My mother told that my first words were “WHY?” and “HOW?” She majored in math an physics at a time when she was the only woman in any of her classes. She taught me that science is cool…science is fun…science is more exciting than games or cowboys.

Much of my reading, for pleasure as well as for work, involves science, technology, nature, and archeology. I’m also addicted to science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries. There’s a common thread here….

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Why “Life, the Universe, Everything?” Part 2

Since I’m updating my blog design for the first time in several years, I thought I’d add featured images for the major categories: Life (my personal stuff), Universe (science stuff), and Everything (everything else).

Life

The tree of life cropped-treeoflife.jpgis a recurring image in many ancient cultures. A tree has deep connections with the earth. Its branches reach up to the heavens and outward to all sides.  It symbolizes the interconnection of earth and heaven, of body and spirit.

The tree of life is also used as a metaphor in biology, describing the relationship of all life on earth in an evolutionary context:

From the first growth of the tree, many a limb and branch has decayed and dropped off; and these fallen branches of various sizes may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no living representatives, and which are known to us only in a fossil state. … As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications.

Charles Darwin, On the origin of species

The image I’ve choses is a Tree of Life wallhanging created by Humdinger Designs, a husband-and-wife team of metal artists. I’ve requested the artists’ permission to use the image for non-commercial purposes.

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Why “Life, the Universe, Everything?”

When I started looking for a title for my personal blog, I wanted something that would incorporate all of my non-work interests: Science, music, books, art, cats, family…well…everything! At the time, I was rereading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series for the third or fourth time, and had just arrived at the third volume, Life, the Universe, and Everything. So…well…there it is.

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Merle Haggard and the Serial Comma

The caption of this old newspaper photograph illustrates why the serial comma (aka “Harvard comma” or “Oxford comma”) is useful.  <img src=”http://wp.me/a21Gqm-uc” alt=”photo of Merle Haggard” /> alt=”photo of Merle Haggard” >

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