The Circle Game

A happy and peaceful new year to all our readers.

Etymologically speaking

etymology

late 14c., ethimolegia “facts of the origin and development of a word,” from O.Fr. et(h)imologie (14c., Mod.Fr. étymologie), from L. etymologia, from Gk. etymologia, properly “study of the true sense (of a word),” from etymon “true sense” (neut. of etymos “true, real, actual,” related to eteos “true”) + -logia “study of, a speaking of” (see -logy). In classical times, of meanings; later, of histories. Latinized by Cicero as veriloquium. As a branch of linguistic science, from 1640s. Related: Etymological; etymologically.

Source: Online Etymology Dictionary

With thanks to beatnic again.

Moebius Ship

Look at this delightful take on the Moebius strip: an infinitely recursive tallship by California-based artist Tim Hawkinson.

Thanks to Indianapolis Museum of Art

Infographic: growth in use of the term infographic

Infographic: instances of the term “infographic” over time. Source: Google Trends

With thanks to beatnic.

In Parenthesis

This paragraph comes from the Wikipedia article on brackets – you’ll find it if you scroll down to the section on Parentheses () or click on 3.1.1 in the Contents:

Parentheses may also be nested (with one set (such as this) inside another set). This is not commonly used in formal writing^{[citation needed]} (though sometimes other brackets [especially parentheses] will be used for one or more inner set of parentheses [in other words, secondary {or even tertiary^{[citation needed]}} phrases can be found within the main sentence]).^[6]

Note especially the delicacy of that editor who nested the words “{citation needed}” inside the last set of brackets, neatly making a fourth, or quaternary level.

(Because this text may be edited out of this Wikipedia page at any time, here is a link to the article as it existed today [30/03/2010]).

The Second Law of Model Train Layouts

As so often, xkcd says it so much better than anyone else could:

Original cartoon here: http://xkcd.com/878/  But well worth sitting down and reading through the whole archive: laugh out loud funny about the interface between science and… people, plus plenty of nesting, recursion fans!

Escher’s Waterfall

with thanks to mcwolles

Four Quartets

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

 

T.S. Eliot

Little Gidding from Four Quartets

Björk — Bachelorette

A video by Michel Gondry that charmingly nests narratives and narratives of narratives within narratives.

Hofstadter’s Law

I had thought that I would come up with a new post for this blog before now but I hadn’t taken Hofstadter’s Law into account.

Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter Law.

(From: Douglas R.  Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid)