As part of an ongoing feud over the rights to use a particular shade of ultra-black paint, artist Artist Stuart Semple legally changed his name to that of his rival, Anish Kapoor

As part of an ongoing bid to get his hands on Vantablack, the super dark, light-absorbing material to which Anish Kapoor controversially has the exclusive license, artist Stuart Semple has legally changed his name to… Anish Kapoor.   “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Semple told me. “I like the idea of being able to try a name…

Delightfully geeky news story about a legal kerfuffle over typefaces

I’m very amused at this nerdy news story about some tension between a judge who asks for legible documents and a lawyer who files documents with flasher typography.   While I recognize that language changes and the distinction between “font” and “typeface” is unimportant to the general public, I teach my journalism students that historically…

Journalist flexes in story about Trump Media accountant who has spelled his own name 14 different ways in official documents

Gotta love how this reporter worked the spelling variations into the story. Meet Ben F orgers (we wish we were making this up). The founder of the accounting firm hired by Donald Trump’s social media group has used 14 variations of his name in filings with the industry regulator, far more than any other US…

Shakespeare-themed Math Puzzles

I didn’t know I had a Shakespeare-themed-match itch to scratch. 1. Hours and hours How many hours are there in a week? And when you’ve worked it out, can you now figure out how Shakespeare expressed that number in words? He did it using only 15 letters, true to his line “Brevity is the soul…

Looking for Par’Mach in All the Wrong Places #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 3) Worf helps Quark romance his Klingon ex-wife; Kira and O’Brien get very close

Rewatching ST:DS9 Outside the O’Briens’ quarters, Quark catches Bashir eavesdropping on raised voices. (It’s actually Miles and Kira fighting.) Dax and Worf are happily bickering over opera when he is smitten by the sight of a “glorious” Klingon woman. “She’s okay,” says Dax. It’s Grilka, Quark’s ex-wife. Quark realizes she needs his financial advice, but…

Body Parts #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 25) Quark announces he’s dying; Kira becomes “Aunt Nerys”

Rewatching ST:DS9 In Ops, O’Brien frets to Dax about his very pregnant, very active wife’s latest outing to the Gamma Quadrant. Quark, having just returned from a visit to Ferenginar, seems unusually happy to be back, but blurts out just before the opening credits that he’s dying. While on Ferenginar, Quark was diagnosed with the…