But when you point a telescope at the Milky Way's nasty nub, you have the chance of picking up signals from all the civilizations between you and it, and all those beyond to the galaxy's far, fanning fringe. By sighting through the galaxy's most heavily populated neighborhoods, you guarantee that star counts are high: roughly tens of millions per square degree. This is the Milky Way's urban core, as thickly clotted as Devon cream.
"Nasty nub." "Far, fanning fringe." Seth might have a tragically blinkered view of the forms extraterrestrial intelligence might take, but he can alliterate with the best of them.
(And maybe I'm just culturally illiterate, but what's "Devon cream"? Should I know this?)
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Devonshire clotted cream is one of the most exquisite delicacies on the planet. It's like whipped cream but the consistency of soft butter. Most often encountered by Americans as part of the "cream tea" in the west of England, topping scones and strawberries. I haven't had any in years, I don't feel terribly trustful of British assertions about the safety of their miilk supply. I gave my husband peaches and fresh raspberries with clotted cream the morning after the first night we spent together, and he's stuck around for 30 years since.
When I saw he'd written "malevolent black hole" and "nasty nub" in the same paragraph, I was wondering if Seth Shostak doesn't like girls.
So I went looking to see where the term "nasty nub" came from, as it didn't sound terribly astronomical. There are a few subcultures where the term has been used recently.
"Here you can see A Nasty Nub" -- unicycle part description
"I'm serious Vera. I will shoot that black, crusty, nasty, nub of a toe off." -Harlem Nights.
"there is no protruding NASTY NUB on the back" Palm Pilot accessory discussion
" The entire head of The penis can be accidently removed causing a nasty nub." Urban Dictionary, discussing the word "botch."
"You’ll love every nasty, nub-loving minute! ...The most engorged clits are exposed in this video! Pussies pumped to outrageous proportions!!! Pumped To The Max! ...
" XXX Movie Web :: INCREDIBLE PUSSIES - Big Clits #2
Your intrepid lexicographer
hopes he is a unicylist.
For a guy whose primary job for SETI seems to be PR, Seth can't write worth a damn.
Seth writes like a frustrated novelist. And not such a good one, IMO.
But to see prose with any semblance of a "flowery" aspect is a sure rarity amongst astronomers, I suspect.
And I further suspect that Seth is liked at astronomer parties...a lot. LOL
Kyle
I didn't think Seth was British. I could be wrong. In any case, *he* certainly thinks he is.
Moving to Alaska was not on my "To do:" list for the week, but thank you for the kind offer. :)
Strangely enough, "Elizabeth" recently bought a small jar of the stuff . . .
The Anglo-gonzo style is one that someone like Colin Bennett can pull off, nut when it doesn't work it falls really flat.
That's because Bennett is a thinker; Shostak is not.
I actually do work with 7th and 8th graders, as one of the advisors for the local middle school's student newspaper. They are able to be affected by and appreciate real writing, but I don't think they'd fall for this "nasty nub" business.
But it's starting to get a little weird in education land. I was looking at a nineth grade textbook the other day, which was covering antiquities in Sumeria. It had strange little sidebar in which they discussed how in the first Gulf War, the Iraqis parked fighter planes around a ziggurat at Ur to protect it, but "the enemy" bombed it and "the enemy" left bullet holes from machine-gun attacks.
"The enemy" was us, US and Allied forces, but I wonder how many kids understand that?
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