Things I wrote this week: Oct 8 -14

Over at Mental Floss, I talked about the heyday of radium and the crazy-dangerous ways people used it before we learned about radiation sickness and death and whatnot. Highlights include jock straps,  kids' toys and food products. I collected some letters from Nobel laureates, ranging from scathing political arguments to adorable notes to children. I talked about the time Teddy Roosevelt got shot in the chest, then stepped up to the bully pulpit like the BAMF he was and gave a 90-minute speech with a bullet in his ribs.

Highlights from the week at Neatorama include a catalogue of gorgeous vintage microscope slides, the man who defaced a Rothko mural, a bizarre Stupid Human Trick from 1933, and the time the two creepiest-looking women alive met up and took a bunch of pictures.

At Geeks Are Sexy, I shared some incredible photographs of genuinely impressive pumpkin-carving. Highlights: Cthulhu, Superman and freaking Gandalf, y'all. I shared the story of Star Trek: TNG's influence on modern television.

The Atlantic picked up the radium piece from Mental Floss, which (in addition to radioactive suppositories) discusses Marie Curie's Nobel recognition and how the Radium Girls changed U.S. occupational safety laws.

Here's a picture of people in a space colony in the year 2000, according to the year 1977. 

Where are you going, where have you been?

My site has been unavailable for a few months pending my messy divorce from Wordpress. If there was anything there you needed, you'll have to learn to live again — somehow — without it. I'm not bringing any old content over here, so if I had recommended you/your book/your mom and you would like that to exist in writing somewhere again, email me. (Your mom is awesome, by the way.)

As you can see, this place is still straight-up Generictown. I'm ok with that. You can be too, at least for now.