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"The Stipe of R.E.M.'s early recordings uses words to create abstract compositions. It's not the only way to approach lyric-writing in rock music, or even the best way. Some of my favorite lyricists favor strong statements and clear narratives. Bruce Springsteen's "Stolen Car," to choose just the first example to spring to mind, is an extraordinarily effective, deeply sad song that would lose much of its power if Springsteen were to mumble a word.1
But crypticism is a valid choice too. "
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"One of the most common questions I get asked is whether gravity is instantaneous, or whether there's a speed limit to how fast the force of gravity can travel.
It's a good question! After all, we know how fast light travels, and if the Sun were to suddenly wink out of existence, we'd still receive light from it for just over 8 minutes after it disappeared! But what about gravity, and the Earth's orbit? Would the Earth simply fly off in a straight line, like a twirled poi ball the instant a string broke? "
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"I cannot disagree with any of what David Foster Wallace says about cruising. For me, it all inelegantly came down to a morbid fascination with how much intricately carved fruit people seemed to be ingesting versus a mounting, and unfortunately quite rational, fear of shipboard toilet unreliability. The pools were like big bowls of human soup. The ice shows (ICE SHOWS!) contained much falling. On both trips, I came to see the vessel not so much as an unfathomably massive ship, but rather more like a floating small town I couldn't pack up and run away from. Not for seven days, at least.
So, I can honestly say that I hadn't really ever planned on taking another cruise. Until April, when after a difficult day of fifth grade, which a different kid might have dealt with by eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes while watching cartoons he usually says he's too old for, my son tried to end his life."
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Pretty much exactly as advertised: A tornado made of fire. If it could somehow involve sharks and bears, it would be the scariest thing EVER.
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