MetaFilter posts tagged with swift

Brindin Press, poetry translations

Kattullus — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:38:18 -0800

Brindin Press has lots of poetry translations into English online, concentrating on French, German, Italian and Spanish, though more than 40 other languages are represented as well. A boatload of translators is represented, from those toiling in obscurity to big literary names (e.g. there are translations of Catullus poems by Ben Jonson, Jonathan Swift, Louis Zukofsky, Aubrey Beardsley and Thomas Hardy). There is also a section of quirky poems. Finally, here's a rendition of Goethe's Der Erlkönig that substitutes the elfish king with a dalek.

Gamma Ray Bursts - they're neat

ikkyu2 — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:14:48 -0800

How far can the naked eye see? About 7.5 billion light-years. On March 19th, a Gamma Ray Burst was noticed by NASA's Swift satellite and given the name GRB 080319B. It left an optical afterglow estimated at +5 apparent magnitude for 30 seconds, about that of an average star. (Sadly, no one was looking at the area with an optical telescope at that exact time.) Read the original Burst Alert, including the email address of the Burst Advocate, here. Gamma ray bursts and other galaxy-sized energy events previously on MetaFilter.

The Sin of Competence

bardic — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:27:50 -0800

Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift is the Navy lawyer who took the case of defending Salim Ahmed Hamdan (aka Osama bin Laden's driver). A quick plea-bargain was expected, but Swift managed to get his client a hearing before the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. While a complicated and nuanced decision, most would agree that "Swift, one of five judge advocate general lawyers assigned to represent the first round of commission defendants, determinedly stepped through this looking glass, defying skepticism at home and abroad that he and his colleagues would do more than a perfunctory job." However, despite all of his efforts and obvious legal abilities, he was recently passed over for promotion and effectively fired under the military's "up or out" promotion system. (Previously: [1] [2] [3])

Tough on Terror, Tough on Stains

jonson — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 23:02:51 -0800

Writer Merrill Markoe proposes a novel solution to the issue of having our elected officials turn out to be little more than political figureheads for corporate special interests; why not allow the corporations to run for office directly?

Working on the Fourth of July

Fat Guy — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 08:08:08 -0800

What are you doing for July 4th? I just found out I'll be working. Our spacecraft Swift is going to be observing comet Tempel1 at the time of the Deep Impact encounter. (Previous discussed here on MeFi 2 years ago.) We'll probably have images and movies first, but the first images you'll see after the encounter will likely come from either JPL or Hubble. You can't have Penn State scooping NASA.

Oh well, at least we will have a barbecue at work to celebrate. Our acting Mission Director during this time is a great bloke from MSSL. It is oddly appropriate to be celebrating the Fourth with a person from the UK.

A Swift Bickerstaff, sir!

OmieWise — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 08:37:02 -0800

Jonathan Swift and April Fool's. In March of 1708 Swift published a pamphlet (under the name Isaac Bickerstaff) predicting the death of a popular astrological charlatan (John Partridge) who had predicted the demise of the COE. On March 29th, Swift published an account of the fulfillment of the prophecy and of the man's death, convincing people, despite Partridge's protestations, that the man claiming to be Partridge was an imposter. The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers.
Ben Franklin used a similar prank when he started Poor Richard's.
HP Lovecraft used the name Isaac Bikerstaff Jr., in 1914, when attacking "a quack named Hartmann, a devotee of the pseudo-science of Astrology."

the aeronaut, deflecting the rudder, sent the Red Cloud on a downward slant

mwhybark — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 17:52:24 -0800

The Original Tom Swift Series Public Domain Texts. Twenty-five of 'em for your perusal. In piles of formats, some including page scans, and with color cover images (mostly from here, where they also have larger images). Not that kind of Tom Swift, mind you.

I must admit, the domain name gave me pause. So far, no teleportation has transpired.