original

"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all." -Abraham Lincoln It might be Veterans Day / Armistice Day all around the world, but it's still Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! We may have been fighting wars for all of human history, but nearly all of the 110 deep sky objects that make up the Messier Catalogue go back long before that. Image credit: Tenho Tuomi of Tuomi Observatory, via http://www.lex.sk.ca/. Today, we take an in-depth look at one of the brightest and closest star clusters in the entire night sky, one that -- despite being…

In the New York Times today there is an interesting article about Helene Hegemann whose debut novel, "Axolotl Roadkill," drew wide praise. You know this story: turns out that the book contains plagiarized passages (plagiarism: check, sales rising: check.) What I find fascinating about the story, however, is not this rehash of a tried and true marketing tactic, but Ms. Hegemann's defense of herself, summarized in this quote: "There's no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity," said Ms. Hegemann in a statement released by her publisher after the scandal broke. Why do I love this…