Saturday, 19 April 2025

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Happy National Doughnut Day!

Yes, it’s commercially driven. No, it has no official standing. On the other hand, if you look around a little, you just might be able to snag a free doughnut.


2 comments

Happy 5.846K Day, ZNZ!

That’s a roundabout way of saying that ZNZ turned 16 yesterday (Sunday, June 2) when the GAPAs were offline and too distracted to post a notice. The June “Happy Birthday!” Thread is open for congratulations. Meanwhile, ZNZ, our apologies.


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June Random Thread: Cats and Dogs

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June 2013 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known MBer birthdays and “K Days” this month:*

06-02 ZNZ’s birthday (1997)
06-02 Shadowkat’s 8K Day
06-04 Drama Llama’s birthday (1999)
06-07 POSOC turns 7,000 days old
06-09 Beetles’s birthday (1999)
06-13 muselover’s birthday (1997)
06-15 bookgirl_me turns 7,000 days old
06-20 Piggy turns 7,000 days old
06-29 Selenium the Quafflebird’s birthday (1996)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between September 24 and October 23, 1999.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between December 28, 1996, and January 26, 1997.
You turn 7,000 days old this month if you were born between April 2 and May 2, 1994.
You turn 8,000 days old this month if you were born between July 7 and August 6, 1991.

*Note: Listed MBers who have been inactive for several months won’t appear on next year’s birthday calendar unless they show up again.


Happy Towel Day!

Dedicated to the memory and works of Douglas Adams.


1 comment

Just Friends (or Family, Workmates, etc.), v. 2013

Most of our interactions with other people are non-romantic. Here’s a place to discuss relationships that belong to that usually silent majority.

Continued from Just Friends, v. 2011.


12 comments

What I Learned Today, 2013-2016

Piggy’s description:

We could share factoids we’ve read, advice from personal experience, observations about the world, what-have-you. Everyone learns something new every day, and I’d like a place to share.

Continued from v. 2012.


Random Thread, May 2013 — One Issue to Rule Them All

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Coming Soon: Pollyhymnia’s Next Novel

Cover of

It’s called The Wells Bequest and will be published in June. It’s already getting good reviews on Goodreads (www .goodreads . com/book/show/16101024-the-wells-bequest).


May 2013 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known MBers’ birthdays and “K Days” this month.

05-04 Cat’s Eye’s birthday (1995)
05-07 Nancy Kangas’s birthday
05-09 Axa’s birthday (1992)
05-15 Thanks For All The Fish42’s birthday (1996)
05-18 Midnight Fiddler’s birthday (1992)
05-23 Sans Orchestre’s 7K Day
05-28 Agent Lightning’s birthday (1998)
05-28 gradster’s 7K Day
05-30 SudoRandom’s 6K Day
05-31 Tesseract’s birthday (1994)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between August 24 and September 23, 1999.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between November 27 and December 27, 1996.
You turn 7,000 days old this month if you were born between March 3 and April 2, 1994.
You turn 8,000 days old this month if you were born between June 7 and July 7, 1991.

*Note: Listed MBers who have been inactive for several months won’t appear on next year’s birthday calendar unless they show up again.


17 comments

Happy Presumed Birthday, Will Shakespeare!

We don’t know that you were born on April 23, 1564, just that you were baptized a few days later. And there’s no evidence that you ever spelled your name “Shakespeare” when you signed it. But never mind. You gave us lines like these:

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.


May/June 2013 Muse Roll Call and Discussion

Tell us when your magazine arrives and/or what you think about it.
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4 comments

North Carolina Kokonvention, 2012

Last summer, Randomosity101, Agent Lightning, Tesseract, Kiwimuncher, Koppar, Lady Bunniful, and assorted parents Kokonvened at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Stories. We have pictures to prove it, but they’ll have to supply the stories behind them:
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April Random Thread: Are You Prejudiced?

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Welcome, Neophytes!

If you’re new on the blog, please stop by this thread and say pie — er hi.

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April 2013 “Happy Birthday!” Thread

Known Muser birthdays and “K Days” this month*:

04-02 THF’s birthday (1995)
04-08 Beavo’s birthday (1995)
04-09 POSOC’s birthday (1994)
04-10 Vendaval’s birthday (1992)
04-11 FantasyFan?!?!’s birthday (1993)
04-17 Grant O.’s birthday (1990)
04-17 bookgirl_me’s birthday (1995)
04-18 Maths Lover’s birthday (1996)
04-22 Piggy’s birthday (1994)
04-23 Optimatum’s birthday (1996)
04-23 Ducky’s birthday (1997)
04-24 speller73’s birthday (1995)
04-30 Oxlin’s birthday (1990)

You turn 5,000 days old this month if you were born between July 25 and August 23, 1999.
You turn 6,000 days old this month if you were born between October 28 and November 26, 1996.
You turn 7,000 days old this month if you were born between February 1 and March 2, 1994.
You turn 8,000 days old this month if you were born between May 8 and June 6, 1991.

*Note: Listed MBers who have been inactive for several months won’t appear on next year’s birthday calendar unless they show up again.


7 comments

Today Is March 31

Ergo, it follows that tomorrow is April 1.

If you’ve been on MuseBlog for a while, you’ll know that the First of April is a special day here on the blog. You’ll also know that there are always a few people who forget to come here that day and wind up kicking themselves for having missed it.

So unless you are into kicking yourself (and they do say it takes all kinds to make a world), you’d be well advised to show up at some point tomorrow. This is particularly true for Jadestone, POSOC, and a few other MBers, for reasons that will become apparent. (Anyone who is in touch with POSOC may want to give him a nudge.)

That’s all we’ll say for now.


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Pamplemousse’s Wager

bookgirl_me’s idea. Her description:

What say you to a thread about posting about certain goals/successes we set ourselves/achieve?

The catalyst for this is a bet I made with a classmate: he wagered I couldn’t pass the Cooper’s Test (a fitness test: run as far as you can in 12 minutes). I’d been thinking of getting back into shape for a while, but it never really clicked until now. It’s just so much easier to be motivated when you’re doing something with friends- sort of like NaNoWriMo, except in my case with running (I actually did “NaNoRuMo” or whatever I called it a few years back when I ran a total of 50 kilometers or so in a month but I can’t find the thread).

Anyhow, I know most MBers are pretty determined/high achievers: it doesn’t have to be about fitness, just setting yourself a not-that-easy goal and working towards it (together). Anyone with me?

Enigmatic thread title by Rebecca.


6 comments

April 2013 Muse Roll Call and Discussion

Tell us when your magazine arrives and/or what you think about it.
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2 comments

Writing, v. 2013

A place to post things you’ve written and to talk about writing in general.

Continued from v. 2012.


Happy Birthday, Albert Einstein (1879-1955)!

Albert Einstein standing in front of a shelf of books

A century later, we still have trouble wrapping our minds around the bizarre universe you unveiled. But it really does seem to be where we live.


2 comments

Happy Pi Day*, Everybody!

Pi Day poster from Robert's office

*(That’s 3/14 in USA date format, for those who write it the other way around.)

This photo from the employee lounge on Robert’s floor at Science magazine shows why geek-rich environments are great places to work.

Where will you be at 1:59?


Attention, Oceanography Fans!

Those of you with online access to Science magazine should definitely check out this week’s news feature “A Sea Change for U.S. Oceanography” at www . sciencemag . org/content/339/6124/1138 .

Short version: As research budgets shrink and technology improves, oceanographers are spending less time at sea and relying more on data from remote sensing.


5 comments

The Polling Place, v. 2013

Polling Place threads: vital source of Muserly information, time-wasting distraction, both, other, or what? (We pick “what?!”)

Continued from v. 2011.2


X-Men Panels for KaiYves

KaiYves is tracking the history of high-altitude balloons through a wide variety of sources. At her request, Robert has scanned relevant panels from “The X-Men” number 18 (March 1966) and posted them here for her inspection:

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7 comments