Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Standing Watch

I believe my dog has an imagination. And a memory. Those are the two things you need acutely to be a writer. That and, uh, hands with fingers. And language.
So instead of writing down what is in her head, she must make do with the loop of Shorty-generated stories she tells herself.
Why else would a dog settle down atop a mound of snow, surveying her surroundings with interest and alertness, when all her companions are indoors where it's warm?
She is gathering material. She has been there for more than a half hour, alone, researching.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

We Are The 4%

Eighty five percent all the gravity in the universe comes from something about which we know nothing. ...
[Add that to dark energy and] it is ninety six percent of the universe. Everything we know and love--electrons, protons, neutrons, light, black holes, planets, stars, everything we know and understand--occupies four percent of the universe. Dark matter and dark energy is everything else.
          Neil deGrasse Tyson