A Modest Construct

precocious

adj. prematurely developed, as the mind, faculties, etc.

You might be wondering why I chose a rather pedestrian word like “precocious” rather than my usual kind of esoteric wonder. As it turns out, I happened to stumble across this interesting bit of etymology as I was researching the origin of the word…

• CDrtfe is 1.2.2 beta, fixing fix and overall stability
• Mozilla Firefox is 2.0.0.2, patching a nasty Javascript exploit that was recently disclosed.
• Paint.NET is 3.01, fixing some crash issues and a performance improvement.
• Scribus is 1.3.3.8, with bug fixes and plenty of translation updates.
• Notepad++ is 4.0.2, fixing four crash issues from 4.0.1.
• ImgBurn is 2.2.0.0, adding an enormous number of…

The “Played all 14+ minutes of Kayo Dot’s “The Manifold Curiosity” to my Creative Writing class today” edition

1. The New Pornographers • Mystery Hours
2. Stars of the Lid • Articulate Silences part 2
3. Sufjan Stevens • Tahquamenon Falls
4. Pineapple Thief • Vapour Trails
5. Old Man Gloom • Close Your Eyes, Roll Back Into Your Head
6. Giant Squid • Eating Machine
7. Smashing Pumpkins • 1979
8. 65daysofstatic •…

I was forwarded this article this morning by someone who often sends me not links to articles, but the sort of perfidious chain e-mails that recast a bogus FNC story and add the lines “God Bless America! If you agree with this e-mail, pass it on!”

When I’m passed an e-mail…

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Publisher: Viking Adult

Year: 2006

Pages: 528

See the rest of this year’s listings

What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?

№10

Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a murder mystery: we find that out in the introduction. We also learn that Blue van Meer, our narrator, is writing this book during her…

sangfroid

n. coolness of mind; calmness; composure

Sangfroid literally means “cold blood,” sang being Old French for “blood” and froid being “cold.” It, of course, doesn’t have the sort of connotations that its English transliteration has, “cold-blooded” being synonymous with “ruthless” or “sociopathic” rather than “calm and collected.”

Importantly, it’s not pronounced “sang froyd,” but rather…

Also 2.0.9, for those of you who don’t want to upgrade (why? 2.1 so much faster…)

Ah, the first point release after a major revision is always so satisfying: many of the bugs that get vetted after the public release are squashed.

You can grab 2.1.1 here, and 2.0.9 at the release archive.

…

“I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned,” the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.

McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint judges who “strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and do not legislate from…

The premier 3D modeling software in the FOSS world, Blender, has seen a major upgrade. In fact, it’s numeric increment is small, but the changes are major, introducing a number of major new features. I can find a proper changelog, but you can read about the changes (with screenshots) here.

Downloads…