I hear people using “decimate” incorrectly a lot (why do people around me always want to talk about decimating things?).  To decimate would be to pick out and kill every tenth of the lot (from the Latin decimus meaning tenth).  So, bud, next time you want to tell me about how the forest by your house was decimated, you better show me some statistics. 

Black holes are the result of the gravitational collapse of a massive star (at least 10 to 15 times more massive than our sun).  When the star is no longer able to create outward energy to balance the strong inward gravitational forces, the star collapses into an infinitely dense black hole.  The escape velocity needed to overcome the gravity of the black hole is faster than the speed of light, hence the blackness.  One common misconception I hear is that black holes suck things in.  Black holes do not suck anymore than any object of similar mass in the universe.  If our sun was to magically turn into a black hole of the same mass (although realistically its ultimate fate is to become a white dwarf), the earth’s orbit would not change.  The gravitational energy depends on the object’s mass.  We would not be pulled into its powerful grasp unless we entered the event horizon, which is the point of no return near a black hole.  So everybody quit hating on black holes, saying they suck.  You suck.  You white dwarf.

Note:  A friend just brought this to my attention—  as white dwarfs (dwarves?) lose energy and they are no longer able to emit light, they become the hypothetical black dwarfs.  There are no known black dwarfs in the universe, because it takes longer than the age of the universe in order for a white dwarf to become a black dwarf.  That’s a long time.  But it makes sense.  Because once you go black, you never go back.

I always see this mistake made in text books— the incorrect usage of either i.e. or e.g., when explaining things.  You should use i.e. when restating the idea.  You should use e.g. when giving an example.  In Latin, i.e. stands for id est which means “that is.”  E.g. is Latin for exempli gratia, basically “for example.”  I don’t want to misuse these words in any of my writings; e.g., essays, posts, forged doctors’ notes.  It can get confusing when combining other abbreviations and acronyms; e.g., i.e., E.T., B.E.T, etc., etc. This is confusing; i.e., none of this seems to make sense.

I was just reading a book. I got distracted by the author’s use of “jerry-rigging.”  It should actually be spelled jury rigging.  Jury rig is originally a nautical term; on large ships, a jury rig is a quick-fix replacement of the mast and yard.  The yard is the beam that intersects the mast where sails are set…or to some, the big wooden thing that Peter Pan and Captain Hook had a sword fight on.  People also incorrectly use the word jerry when they talk about Jheri curls.  The little hairdo, made famous by Michael Jackson, was named after the hairdresser Jheri Redding.  Now to tie these facts together:  Michael Jackson had a Jheri curl.  He also wanted to be Peter Pan.  Peter Pan had a sword fight on a yard, which is often replaced by jury rigging.  So people, stop giving this Jerry guy all this undeserved credit.