WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!
To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” column, please paste the following message in at the beginning of your posts:
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
(That’s long enough. Remember to include the period, though, for the benefit of the sidebar.)
As nobody has started discussing the July/August issue of Muse yet,
I’m going to zapI have zappedwhat soon will have beenthe former first six posts on this thread.SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
I don’t get Muse, but I wish that I did, Is there a way that I can get a sort of book-ish thing that contains every Muse up to the July/August 2008 Muse.
First non-Administrator post!!
2-I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. It would be nice if they did. However, it would have to be insanely expensive: Otherwise people would wait and buy the book! They would have to charge for however many years’ worth of subscriptions the book contained, or more
That still isn’t on topic, and it isn’t a spoiler. *head hits keyboard* Ah well. It isn’t quite as bad. It should have been posted on ask the GAPAs.
Red-tailed HAWK
2- Three easy steps.
1. Go to your local library and find the latest issue of Muse.
2. Go to the inside back cover. It shows a list of back issues and how to order them.
3. Follow the instructions from there. It won’t give you all of the issues, but most of the famous and interesting ones are there.
3/4:
thanks!
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
2 (Brendan): Periodically, there are also back-issues sold on eBay, and they are announced on the blog so you won’t miss them. They are usually cheaper than the ones sold by the publishers, and have a wider selection.
THF and I made Oobleck (or, as Muse calls it, “Freaky Fluid”) today — it was really fun!
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
Does anyone know where I could get Antelope Slurp?
Because as the ad says
“If Antelopes drink it, it MUST be good!” ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
-7 er…Antelope slurp?
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER MAJOR SPOILER.
*sobs* my beloved Muse is losing my interest! I mean, Infections? Well, it is very interesting how we are mostly Bacteria, but after that I stopped reading ’cause it started to get a little boring. What has happened oh wonderful Muse? And the contest! It sounds like something that would be on a worksheet my teacher would give out!
Oh, Muse, Muse, how could this have happened to you?
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We have no cornstarch.
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8- Yes, Antelope Slurp its in a fake ad on the first page! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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Does Presto write “Bo’s Page”? I think so because it says “By E. P.” (E. P. = Elizabeth Preston = Presto!)
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I’m going to make the stuff today. I hope it works…
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Actually, there aren’t any spoilers here because I haven’t had a chance to read it yet…*scurries off to do so*
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
I made the stuff yesterday. It was flamablamablous! I used up all of our cornstarch, though, so I can’t make any pie today. What was with the cowboy article? And haven’t we had the same last page before? I think we have. Has Muse really become void of ideas and awesomeness? The “Dear Muse Reader” was cool, though. I found the word “go” 36 times in the word search. I wish Muse would stop reusing past articles. We’re supposed to learn something new each time we pick up an issue. It’s just not the same without Diana Lutz.
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the “Freaky Fluid” article is interesting. I’ve been making that stuff since as fa back as I can remember. It’s fun to make some and set it in a glass so it looks like milk spilled, then when someone comments just pick it up off the table.
the looks on people’s faces are usually worth remembering when you do that….
this Muse seems sort of short….I guess it’s the lack of some of the old columns, like he Math Page. I really miss that one, even though I’m a sworn math hater.
Oh well, I’ll have to read it all through and then comment some more on it.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*sobs and sobs and sobs and sobs some more, all very hystarically*
I HAVE’NT GOTTEN IT YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I REFUSE TO READ THIS TREAD UNTILL I HAVE, BUT THEN I WILL RETURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WITH A VEGANCE FOR IT BEING LATE!!!!!!!!!!
bu the way, where do you people live that you got it before me? after all, it is only the 2nd?
17~ I live in Maryland. I used to always get mine a few weeks into the month though,and it drove me crazy, I feel your pain.
Have a consolation pie, *hands over pie*
thank you. *pies herself with pie in remorse for screaming* I live in CT, so there isnt that much of a difference. I hope I dont have to wait WEEKS though. thank you
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
7: Try the Kalahari Desert. Yum! Antelope Slurp! My favorite!
I liked the ultramarathon article. Especially the “catch the antelope” bit, because it sounds so… I don’t know. It sounds like something my coach would say. It made me laugh.
Hey friends,
I’m new to this blogging business. Is “hijacking a thread” what it’s called when you make a post unrelated to the thread’s subject, for your own purposes? For example, if I posted on this thread reminding you all to (please please!) send in your submissions for Muse’s new reader-written column?
Just checking.
21- Yup!
I would write, but can’t think of anything.
22- I can’t think either.
EP- Can you find Ivars Peterson and
blackmailbeg him to start writing his column again? PLEASE?!?!? *sobs uncontrollably*SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
Elizabeth Preston: I’m still working on mine — I haven’t written for about a week because I got really stuck, but I’m going to give it another shot this weekend. My article is about mold!
Pan’s July/August 2008 Muse Review:
Front Cover: The design is really cool! I had no idea what it was until I opened the magazine.
As of the front page, it looked like a really promising issue.
Dear Muse Reader: I really liked this, as I like all of Nak’s work. Antelope Slurp sounds delicious!
Bo’s Page: My favorite fact was the Doomsday Refrigerator. It’s a really good idea! The WoW-itis was funny, though I like it better when it’s more difficult to spot the false fact.
Koko&Co: Classic Feather moment
Racing the Antelope: This was definitely my favorite article. His process was really interesting toread about, and I enjoyed the entire article. Great choice, Muse!
Freaky Fluid: I’ve been a big fan of Ooblec/Freaky Fluid for years and years, and although I had already done extensive research on the stuff, I still found it interesting.
Infection: This article was…okay. I was obsessed with this sort of stuff in sixth grade and read countless books about the same subject, so I didn’t really learn anything new from the article. I thought it was a decent topic to cover in a Muse, though I personally didn’t enjoy the article as much as I would have liked.
Renaissance Man: I love Leonardo da Vinci, though I think the article tried to tackle too much. Only 42 words about flying machines! (Yes, I counted, and yes, it was only 42.) I think picking one of the sections and expanding it would make for a better article, instead of giving tiny little glimpses of lots of topics.
Charlie Goodnight and the First Cattle Drive: I didn’t really like this article. I liked bits and pieces of it, but overall it just seemed a bit, well, dry.
Q&A: Two great questions and answers! I loved the Band-Aid question.
Contest Winners/Contest: We should create a day for Three Corner Day and celebrate it on the blog. Same with all of the other holidays. Though, the ones that require missing great lengths of school days might be a bit difficult. I don’t really like next month’s contest. It has potential for some really creative entries, but I don’t think I’m going to enter.
Sudsy Swim: Interesting. The picture is really cool
Overall: This definitely doesn’t make it into my favorite-Muse-list. I was rather disappointed.
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
Okay, my turn now.
Cat’s Meow’s July/Augest 2008 Muse Review
Cover: Um…I still don’t get what it is. Bacteria? Random slime? I’m a bit lost. Not one of my favorite covers ever… (3/10, at least pending an explanation)
Dear Muse Reader: It seems like a pale imitation of NotScape and Screamazon, which were two of the best first pages ever. The Antelope Slurp “ad” rocks, but other then that it’s kind of…blah. (5/10)
Bo’s Page: I liked “Mission: Impossible?” out of all of these. “Doomsday Refrigerator” was neat also. The others were okay, but not nearly as cool.
(8/10)
Muse Mail: I like the letters, but what else is new? It kind of bothers me when an individual letter needs to be continued on the other Muse Mail page, though, because it makes me skip ahead in my beloved magazine. Nothing major, but it’s just a teeny pet peeve… (7/10)
Kokopelli & Company: ^_^ One of my favorite K & Co comics in a while. Nice going, Feather.
(9/10)
Racing the Antelope: Blah. Okay, we get it, running takes a lot of diet control/distance management, whatever. We didn’t need 7 pages to figure that out. (2/10)
Freaky Fluid: I knew about this already, but the article was still kind of cool. I liked the stuff about the practical applications for this technology, but I felt like the whole presentation for the article was kind of off. It blended into the background too much, which made it kind of easy to skim through. (7/10)
Infection: The first two pages and the first column of the next page was way cool. Just the thought that we are not entirely human gives you the shudders, but in a weirdly-awesome sort of way. The rest? Not so much. Cool, but not quite as fascinating. (First part: 9/10, second part: 6/10, Overall: 7/10)
Renaissance Man: It’s extremely rare that I find an article so boring that I skip it altogether. Most of the time I can find the will power to slog through an article, if only so that I can knowledebly complain about it later. This was one of those few that gets just plain skipped. Is Muse so low on fresh ideas that it resorts to taking random excerpts from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks? (1/10)
Speaking of excerpts, it rather annoys me that every single article in this issue (Racing the Antelope, Freaky Fluid, Infection, and Renaissance Man) was excerpted from a previously-written book. I’m including da Vinci’s notebooks in that, for the record. Doesn’t that bother anybody else? (I’ll complain more in this in a second, when I get done with the main portion of the review)
Charlie Goodnight and the First Cattle Drive: Who the heck cares!? I don’t know about you guys, but I read Muse to get interesting, informative news on science. If this article constitutes science, then the definition of science must have been seriously revised. (2/10)
Q&A: Something interesting, finally! I especially liked the band-aid explanation, seeing how many of them I’ve been going through lately. Good job, Andy and Ruth.
(8/10)
Contest: There have been better contests, with better winners, in the past… =| The upcoming contest is rather drab, too. (5/10)
Sudsy Swim: Love the picture! The article was good too. (7/10)
Overall: 4/10
Blech. Muse, what is wrong with you? Where are the awesome articles that have driven me to subscribe to Muse since I was 8? Where is the science, where are the amazing articles, where is the amazing page design, for goodness sake? Where is the Muserly culture: Not a single mention of HPBs in ages! Where are the controversial subjects, the up-and-coming science, the things that make people talk? Instead, we get the science of pencils, red, running, and driving cattle. Yeeha.
One of the reasons I love(d?) Muse was because it taught me things I didn’t know. Whether it was on black holes, self esteem, Elvish, or whatever else, it captivated my attention and held it. Even on subjects as “normal” as cats and dogs, Muse added its own flair that have made them famous issues years down the line.
How many of these current issues will earn that designation? Not many, that’s for sure. I can’t even remember the last issue I got, much less the ones from several months ago. There are no more articles on hidden passageways, poison, tombstones, dung beetles, and Chilean mummies. Instead we get Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook.
Whenever I got a new Muse, I would be full of facts to spill to my family, friends, and classmates forever. It is a running joke in my family that whatever new science my parents learn about will have already been covered by Muse – 6 months earlier. I mean, I’m still quoting that “We share 60% of our genes with fruit flies” line ages after that epigenetics article was published. But now, does anybody really think that I’ll run up to my parents and say, “Hey, guess what! In order to run long distances you need to have a good training program!” Dur.
I’m sorry if this seems a little harsh. But, looking back on old issues, this new Muse is only a shadow of what it once was. What a shame…
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
Cat’s Meow: I definitely agree with most everything you said, especially the fact that everything is excerpted.
I did really like the running article, though. For some reason, his narrative was really interesting to me.
And, great rating idea! I’ll definitely do that in the future. I think I’d probably rate it 4/10 overall, too, if that. After reading the Muse I went back into my collection and read three old ones, so I didn’t fall into a black hole of depression.
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Not really, tho. I have yet to get it (We got back into Town yesterday, and Have yet to pick up our mail), so I’m not reviewing it yet. I will coment on the gereal state of the muse magazine.
I Agree with Cats Meow. In the old muse (Pre- down sizing, and lossing eight pages), which ended march of 2007, I hardly knew most of what the mag was talking about before i read it.
Cattle Drives? Infections? Running? Pencils? a Very, Very, Very Weak Artice on the Color Red (liked the article a few years back about that bug more.)? What happen to the great muse?
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUST SPOILER.
27 – Eh, that article wasn’t my favorite. And, yeah, that’s about what I did. I grabbed a few old articles and started reading, but it just made me realize even more how low-quality the current issues are in compairson.
28 – Exactly!
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUST SPOILER.
Stupid economy. I hate the economy. It consumes everything we love! This issue of Muse was weak, like everyone else is saying. What’s with the Leonardo da Vinci article? Tiny, tiny little excerpts? Why not just write the whole thing about his flying machines, and people building them? That would have been interesting. I understand if Muse can’t afford to print as many articles as it used to, but is it to much to ask that what articles there are are about up and coming science, famous scientists, and things like that? Not facts that we’ve known forever, or articles and excerpts from old books and note books. We need the stuff that hasn’t been written about before! Things that none of us readers could write about. So when I ask what I can do to help, don’t tell me to write an article. I’ll write an article, but it won’t be about anything new.
Muse, what can I, an average American girl, do to help bring back the good science?
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUST SPOILER.
I don’t think it’s the downsizing that made Muse begin to fall. It was the loss of Diana Lutz, the old head editor. It seems that she always had amazing ideas. But with her gone, we have no Math Page, and are instead bored with pencils, cowboys, and Da Vinci’s doodling. Where’s the controversy, like vegetarianism? Where’s the breakthrough science, like epigenetics, mirror neurons, or learning languages? I still don’t understand why they changed the format of their articles. They used to be neatly divided into sections with titles, filled with sidebars and quirky comics. Now they’re page after page of words, all of them boring. Bring back our old Muse!!
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God! This is awful! That Contest is like something youd get from SCHOOL!
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31 – Seconded!
32 – I know.
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31 – Agreed.
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Alice’s July/August Muse Review
Cover: I’m afraid it looks a bit like some prank thing a fifth-grader might love… but what is it?
First Page: ♥ Go Nak! I think you’ve rediscovered how to make wonderful first pages!
Muse Mail, part 1: No comment.
Koko and Co.: I like it. Isn’t is funny how Koko always says “Gleep!” when he’s surprised?
Racing the Antelope: Very interesting. Although I’m annoyed at how most articles are now taken out of books, I really like this one. I wish I’d read it while I was still in PE class.
Argh! Why did I hit submit? And I forgot to put a spoiler warning!
Argh, I’m so absentminded today… Oh well, that’ll be Part One. And could the GAPAs please put a spoiler warning above it?
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
I just remebered something. isn’t it funny that all most all of the letter writers were very young?
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37- YES. I noticed that.
Freaky Fluid: Very cool. I want to try it now. But it’s another excerpt.
)
Infection: The first bit of this was great, but then it started getting into information that I read in National Geographic ages ago, which was disappointing. Oh, and another excerpt.
Renaissance Man: Look, Leonardo da Vinci is very interesting, but tiny excerpts from his journals don’t fascinate me. I would have loved an article about LdV, but they were trying to cover too much in too few pages. And need I say that it was also an excerpt (albeit from something written hundreds of years ago. That’s no excuse)?
Charlie Goodnight and the First Cattle Drive: This was boring. I’m sorry, but it was. Guess what? It was another excerpt! -dies-
Q&A: I knew about the Band-Aid one too… -sigh-
Contest: It was kind of dull… And the really interesting title was an “awareness holiday”. (Although I was quite sorry for the bird.
Sudsy Swim: I can’t complain. It was good, and made me still more determined not to swim in that type of stuff EVER.
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Part one (Comment box shrinkage looms overhead)
It’s disappointing that Muse is full of book exerpts now. I always valued Muse for it’s brilliant writing, which is there in book form, but it’s still a exerpt, not a new article.
Another thing it, there’s no contral focus anymore. It used to be that the issues were focused around one thing that they explored in a new and exciting way. Most of the articles would be focused on this topic.
[comment box shrincage, look for the next post.]
I’ve always liked “theme issues,” too, but many readers used to complain that if they didn’t like a particular topic, there would be nothing in the issue to interest them at all. (The editors heard a lot of comments like that after the “Lord of the Rings” issue, for example, which not all Musers enjoyed as much as I did.) With a mix of subjects, they said, there was bound to be something for them to read.
By the way, I don’t know why so many people here think that Muse is supposed to be a science magazine. It has always run a lot of articles about history and literature (the Black Death, Captain Kidd, Horatio Hornblower, and many others).
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
Part two.
It seems now that Muse is relying on it’s funny jokes to keep it lively. While Kokopelli and Co. is funny, it cannot replace the good writing in articles and interesting subject matter. I completely understand that Muse has a wonderfully dedicated following from its readers, but the whole magazine shouldn’t be concentrating in funny in-jokes and halarity. I for one am a fan of the magazine because of the excellent writing, interesting articles, and ability to clearly write about potentally confusing information witha good sense of humor.
Funnies alone cannot make up a magazine. Ack, comment box shrincage again…poop.
40~ Funny you should mention the LOTR issue, that was my first. I hated it. I had never read LOTR (I still haven’t, but not for lack of trying) and I was new to some of the jokes that they made in it. I did enjoy the Elvish article though, because it was on a language, whether it had anything to do with LOTR was irrelevant to me.
that’s why the “weirdo” article, the one that was on something totally unrelated was always a nice addition to the mix.
What I found fascinating about the themed articles was how in depth you could explore the topic. I’ll ake the Food issue as an example. It had a wonderful article on food stylists, and how they prepare food for pictures.
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
The witty captions just aren’t that witty anymore.
And what’s worse, it isn’t that funny.
[continued]
That was fascinating, then there was an article about a guy who made food sculptures, strange and interesting, and then some oter food-related articles if I remember correctly (I don’t have it with me now) I don’t even remember what the other artilce was. I was so impressed with that issues, because it took a simple topic that we are familiar with–like food–and explored it in a totally new way that makes me look at it differently even now. That was wonderful. Most children’s magazines are dumbed down, and expecting the reader to have no thought processes, Muse is different. It speaks to the reader as a n intellligent person worthy of respect.
It takes the time to really explore something, expects the reader to have enough of an attention span to read it and writes it in a clear but intelligent way that assumes that the reader will make the effort to understand it. Reading and understanding things isn’t a passive thing, but so many magazines geared towards children assume that we cannot understand importaint issues of simply don’t awnt to have anthing to do with them.
I’ll come on later……maybe tomorrow….gotta go now!
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37 – Yes, I noticed that. For both Muse and Cricket.
40 – It has had articles about history and literature, but at least those articles were approached INTERESTINGLY. Unlike cattle drives…
Oh, and I miss the theme issues too. A good example was the parasite/Phineas Gage issue. That’s the only reason I can remember what the prefrontal cortex is.
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37- Yeah, around my age…
My sister’s letter got published.
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One think i really liked about Muse is that it picked/wrote articles that were really in-depth. Every article really looked deeply into the topic of discussion and really told you something interesting and unknown about it. Now, they just seem to skim the surface. I mean, seriously. The Da Vinci article was pure summaries. Picking one of the topics it skimmed and developing it would have made it so much more interesting — why did they have to excerpt one-paragraph summaries of each part!
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But why is it all excerpts now? Do they have any reasons?
Are the editors reading this?
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49 (Bookworm): They’re losing money (as are all magazines and newspapers and non-digital-medias) — that’s all I know, though.
(50) Elizabeth Preston not only reads the blog, but posts on it.
(sort-of) SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
47 – Really? Neat!
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48~ EXACTLY. Now it’s all fluff. Where is the amazing writing that we used to have??
it’s disappointing, because Muse is so respectful of the readers, in that they trust them to actually WORK to figure out what they’re reading. *sigh*
Maybe I’ll write a letter, I’ve been meaning to for ages…..
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Robert (52): Romana didn’t post on it, though. Did she read the blog?
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49 – It’s probably cheaper…
(55) I’m not sure. I don’t know much about what goes on at headquarters nowadays.
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48 (Purple Panda): AAH! I used a lowercase I!!!!! *hits self in head, smashes responsible finger underneath a cinderblock and jumps out a window*
Robert: How many months in advance do they finish each Muse issue?
NOT REALLY A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
*peeks head out* Is it safe to come out now?
Okay, I will try to answer some questions! Yes, we have been using a lot of excerpts from books recently. And, as you’ve guessed, it comes down (sadly) to money. It’s the same reason our other magazines, like Cicada and Cricket, have been undergoing some format changes. We wish it weren’t the case, but we have to work within certain restrictions.
That said, we still want the magazine to be as fabu-…flambu-…famab-…er, GREAT as possible! We’re working on some cool articles for the October and November/December issues right now. And, we’re working on getting some more articles that are written specifically for Muse, not excerpted from books. Think of this as Muse’s awkward adolescence. Don’t worry, we’ll get through it!
It’s always helpful to hear feedback on specific articles, designs, and other things we do. But, um, please be gentle.
NOT REALLY A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER ALSO.
59 – It’s flamablamablous.
ALSO NOT REALLY A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
59- Designs… I think that Muse is too flashy nowadays, which makes people grumpy when the articles aren’t as good. You might try toning it down a bit.
ALSO ALSO NOT REALLY A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
46 (Cat’s Meow): I liked the Phineas Gage issue, too. However, I had already read the entire book from which the Phineas Gage article was excerpted, so it wasn’t anything new.
59 (Elizabeth Preston): I like the side-bar-things that go into more detail about a specific part of the article. Because, as I said earlier, I like detail and depth in articles, so I learn something I didn’t already know before.
ONLY SOMEWHAT A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
59 – Okay, sorry. -tries to be gentler- It’s just that Muse was so awesome, and now it’s really different. But, okay. I guess I can think of Muse as being in an awkward stage. That makes sense.
Anyways, I just found the weirdest thing. I’m cleaning out my e-mail Inbox, with e-mails from last November that I never read. And guess what! There was an e-mail about the foam thingamabob that was at the end of this issue of Muse! How weird is that?
(This may have posted twice. If so, ignore it.)
ONLY SOMEWHAT A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
61- Exactly. As I was reading, I felt the urge to stop, but pushed on, knowing it would get better. Sadly, it didn’t. What happened to the articles where you want to keep reading even though it has stopped? Where you want to go back and read the excerpts under the photos? Like the article on genes, and *shudder* cesspools? Or even cannibalism? The best in my opinion were like the extreme origami, why can’t you remember your first birthday?, exploding trousers, baffling your brain, birds doing math, I could go on, because almost every issue up to this one has been oh so spectacular. Oh, wonderful, flamablamablous Muse, what has happened?
64 – I love the Tower of London and the tombstone one!!!!
NOT REALLY A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
64, 65 – Yeah, I loved those too. If I tried to list all the ones I’ve loved, it would be a really long list.
But I’m still willing to give the New Muse a chance, I guess…
I love fuel efficient cars (GO PRIUS), so I looked up running efficiency after reading “Kick the Wall”. Turns out, just like you measure Miles Per Gallon of gas–MPG–in cars (the current Prius gets 48 mpg and the ’09 Prius will get 100 mpg), you can measure the efficiency of walking or biking with food energy! Walking gets on average about 235 mpg equivalent, while cycling gets a average of around 653 mpg equivalent!
Right on, Cat’s Meow. Doomsday Refrigerator was AWESOME!
It’s so good to know that sustainable life will go on. WALL-E had me worried there.
59~ Okay. i know about the other magazines “makeovers” and such (I receive both Cricket and Cicada [I don’t mind the new Cicada format, either, so you can rest easy on that one] by the way, your drawings of turtles in Cicada was beautiful!)
I think that that the new muse contents page is too kiddie and overwhelming. I find myself phiscaly bracing myself for what I know will come after reading Nak’s “Dear Muse Reader” (the latest I must say was considerably better than any others of this new kind lately).
As for having some articles written just for Muse, GOOD!!! Thank you so much, the book excerpts are often interesting and well written, but the entire magazine should not be made of them. I’m very glad to hear that this is going to be changed….I’ll put off the writing of that letter for a little bit at least to allow you all some time.
Oh, and one other thing, that redredred thing was VERY ANNOYING AND INSULTING. I am not trying to be harsh or rude, but that was a terrible slip in Muse. I sincerely hope that nothing of that sort happens again, because it was distracting and pointless.
Thanks you for reading this and I hope you are not offended by the way I have worded it.
P.S. The themed issues were wonderful, if there’s any way of bringing them back, by all means, do so!!
MUSE SPOILER!.
heeheehee! Bernd Heinrich, wow! that made me so happy!
Cricket is still good though. Love the story “The Star Shard” I’m looking forward to the next part.
69 – Really? I thought the “red” thing was cute! I loved it!
MUSE SPOILER YAY.
I just did the freaky fluid thing, green coloring and all. It was SO COOL.
73~ Really? I thought was terrible! It was horribly annoying and made no sense at all.
74~ It’s weird, isn’t it? I’ve been making that stuff for ages….it’s quite fun and can keep a kid occupied for hours……I know, I was the kid.
SOMEWHAT SPOILER MUSE JULY/AUGUST ETC.
I was “the kid,” too. My neighbor and I used to make buckets and buckets of it and dump them all over her porch. As messy as it is, it’s really fun to walk around in and smear all over everything.
THEMES. I really liked the themed articles. Even though there were some editions I didn’t like as much as others, I always learned so much and it was great to see everything corresponding to one particular topic. Adding a few segments or an article that is non-themed would probably help the people who absolutely hate the theme, but I think the themed Muses were really successful.
And yes, please refrain from using abrasive colors. It makes for a very unpleasant reading experience.
NOT REALLY A SPOILER.
73 – I think it was funny at first, but then got old.
Theme issues were awesome. I had seriously almost forgotten about them.
Also, guys, please make sure your spoiler warnings include a period – otherwise, they don’t do much! (coughBeavocough)
NOT REALLY A SPOILER.
I loooved those theme issues!
[Spoiler Gnome to the rescue. –Admin.]
NOT REALLY A SPOILER.
Themed issues, once again….
I was just looking through some of my back issues, and even the ones that didn’t have a theme all the way through often had two articles that were on similar topics. That was good too.
Please bring back the Muse that explores things deeply!!!!
SPOILER-ISH.
I really liked the articles that had the little boxes to the side or top that explained it more deeply. I always had to decide whether I wanted to read them in the middle or at the end.
MUSE OCTOBER SPOILER.
Incidentally, there is a themed issue in the pipeline.
MUSE OCTOBER SPOILER.
81~ *gives a pound of virtual choklit to be shared amongst the Muse editors, writers, etc.* THANK YOU!!!
MUSE OCTOBER SPOILER.
81 – *gasp* THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *flattens with 9999999 tons of choklit* Whoops. Hehe. Sorry ’bout that.
NOT REALLY A SPOILER.
17 – I live in Kentucky. One of the few good things about living here is that I always get my Muse promptly at the beginning of the month.
SPOILER JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER.
Eccentric’s thoughts on the issue….
Cover: My thought process went “What the heck is that?! Eeew!! Oh wait, that actually looks really cool. Yay!” In other words, it was a good cover because it made me want to open the issue immediately and find out what the green stuff was.
Dear Muse Reader: Not as funny as others, but still amusing. I think my favorite “Dear Muse Reader” lately was the one with the Octopus musical.
Bo’s Page: Nice false fact. I liked the real factoids about chameleons and the doomsday fridge.
Muse Mail: Entertaining as ever, although I do miss the symbols. Do letters about cats and dogs still get bunnied? Do people even still write in about cats and dogs? It’s good to see someone else from Kentucky reads the magazine. Now if only those other KY Musers would come to the blog!
Kokopelli & Company: Liked it, as always. Koko is cute when he says “Gleep.”
Racing the Antelope: I learned something from the details in this article and I enjoyed learning it, which is what makes me happiest when reading Muse. Good article, even though it is an excerpt!
Freaky Fluid: I made this stuff at a chemistry class orientation last year, but we didn’t get to bash it with a hammer or throw it at the walls. Makes me want to do it again so I can!
(Rest of articles omitted for the time being because I haven’t finished the issue.)
Q&A: The band-aids question/answer drew my attention to something cool I otherwise never would have thought about. Again, that’s what I like about Muse. Well done, Q&A answerers!
Contest: I want to celebrate Moose day! The new contest does remind me of a school assignment, though.
Sudsy Swim: Fun! I would still love to play with the foam, even knowing what it’s made of.
Am I imagining it, or are the mini Koko & Co. cartoons in the articles bigger than usual in this issue? Not that that’s a bad thing.
Regarding themes, I think Muse is at its best when it sticks to a theme for most of the issue, but also throws in one or two random articles.
MUSE OCTOBER SPOILER.
I’ll be looking forward to it! The October issues are always my favorites, especially the one with the hagfish and catacombs.
59 – Muse isn’t in danger of going bankrupt, is it? *worried*
SPOILER THAT ISN’T A JULY/AUGUST MUSE SPOILER BUT IS STILL A SPOILER.
81 – HURRAH! Three cheers for Muse!
84 – Yeah, I wonder that about the symbols. I liked the Muse Mails where there are all the odd symbols, like the bunnies, Koko x infinity, and the I hate Milton Rupines/Who is Milton Rupines? ones.
And, yes, I can’t wait until the October issue. Those are always really cool.
SORT OF SPOILER-TYPE THINGY, I GUESS, BUT NOT REALLY.
EP- I agree with previous posters on here in that I miss little sidebars which go more in depth, I miss themed articles (can’t wait for October!), and I think Muse is too flashy. I think most, if not all, readers would appreciate it if the effort that is currently being expended on the appearance of the magazine would instead be spent on articles and sidebars. And we miss Ivars. I know he freely chose to leave on account that his life was too busy, but we needses our Math Page.
NOT REALLY A SPOILER.
86 – Yessss. We needs Math Pagesss. We wants our preciousssses back.
On a completely random side note (as if that wasn’t random enough), our spoiler warnings get better every time.
NOT REALLY A SPOILER.
Math pagesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! Yayes!!!!!
81-Hooray! *cheers loudly*
math pagessssss….my preciousssss.
OR: “Gimme The Math Pages!”
I actually loved the Math Pages. Even though I usually abhor math. They were always interesting, and made me think about math as something different than evil problems to be solved in mind numbing quantities.
91 – Yes! Yes! Yes!
91 – Who didn’t love them?
SPOILERS THAT AREN’T ABOUT THE MAGAZINE, BUT THEY MIGHT SPOIL THE CONTENT OF THIS CONVERSATION FOR YOU, SO STAY AWAY IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS WHOLE THREAD, OR ELSE (EXCEPT NOT REALLY).
Or wait! I do remember them! Yay! Bring them back!
Ha! Beat that!
RE: Themed issues: It’s been so long I can’t even remember them.
RE: Math pages: YES. Muse was sad when the Math Pages disappeared.
RE: Symbols: I wrote a letter asking about the symbols but I never got a reply and it didn’t get into the magazine.
Anyone else for group-writing a letter to Ivars offering him our first-born sons if he’ll return to Muse? I guess we don’t really have to give him our children, but…
I’ll write him!
Some Kokonventioneers met him last summer.
97 –
REALLY???
97- Oh wow.
96- I’m all for it.
Maybe if we have a ton of people he’ll come back…
CONVERSATION SPOILER.
I’m all in favor of the group e-mail idea. Would it be all as a group, or each indivudually?
Also, does anyone have his e-mail?
100- Individually sounds more effective to me.
101-Same Here!
MUSE ALMOST-SPOILER.
Agh, I forgot to put a spoiler warning on my other post. Not that it was really a spoiler, but… *annoyed*
I wish I could read the back issues, but for about 4 years, I read them from the library (I just convinced my parents to actually subscribe 5 months ago :roll:), and I believe they (library staff) threw out, or took out of circulation, or hid all of the back issues until maybe a year ago. Possibly less. I could have cried when I discovered there were only a few remaining issues of Muse on the library shelf
97 – Seriously? Lucky them! *jealous*
103 – If your public libraries work like Kentucky public libraries, then they only keep back issues for two years. After that, they throw away all but the most recent issues. I really hope your libraries don’t do that, though – it would be such a shame to throw away several years’ worth of perfectly good Muse issues!
SPOILER CONVERSATION SPOILER SPOILER.
So the plan is to spread the word here on MB and convince everyone to each write a letter to Ivars, hoping he will give in and return to his rightful place in our hearts. Do you think he might just get really annoyed and not come back, though? I’m kind of thinking that one massive letter, like the Kokonspiracy letter, might be more effective and less annoying, but I’m not sure. What do you all think? I guess I really don’t care one way or another.
CAN BE CONSIDERED A SPOILER I GUESS.
I made about four batches of that green goo from page fifteen. It actually works! I made a terrible mess in my backyard flinging it all over the place. Thank goodness the rain washed it all away. But it’s so cool!
NO SPOILER … REALLY!
105-I kind of agree…
107- So one big letter, then? If so, who wants to write a first draft?
NOT REALLY A SPOILER, BUT SINCE IT SEEMS TO BE THE FASHION TO POST SOME SORT OF SPOILER WARNING HERE I’LL GO ALONG WITH IT AND WRITE THIS.
97~ Didn’t Grant O. meet him once too? I thought I remembered something like that…..maybe I’m wrong.
(109) Yes, they met at a college to which Ivars’s son and Grant had both applied for scholarships.
110~ Aah. Okay, I’m glad I wasn’t just making that up. By the way, has he been on far awhile? (Grant, I mean) It seems the last time I saw him on was in June.
111 – Yeah, I don’t think he’s been on much lately.
Why does it have to say spoiler PS HPBS rule!