Astronomers capture first images of new planets, the headline reads.

Further reading quotes Christian Marois, a lead astronomer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and the lead astronomer in the study of star HR8799 as saying,

The star, estimated to be 1.5 times the size of our own sun, and surrounded by 3 planets all many times larger than the largest planet in our own solar system – Jupiter – is considered a “normal” star according to Marois.

full article here.

from Bloomberg.com Economy

it appears the phrase “the new normal” is actually quite a popular phrase to describe or construct notions around for contemporary fine art practice (see the new normal mixery).

However this title from an article written by Tom Holert and published February 2006 in the art world’s glossy monthly, ArtForum (60% ads, 30% paperweight, 9% writing, 1% blog-worthy), takes its origin from an exhibition that took place at the end of 2005 titled “On Normality: Art in Serbia 1989-2001″ and refers back to the word normality, which the author says in the 1990s in Serbia

became a kind of ideological password, part of a code meant to sublimate societal antagonisms through the invocation of “the nation” or of a postcommunist version of capitalism, or both.

full article on Flickr – page 1, page 2

this headline screengrab taken this afternoon from the BBC website caught my attention for its use of the word normal to describe the should-be diplomatic status quo between Russia and Georgia which has more or less been put on hold ever since Russia’s incursion into Georgian sovereign territory.

the BBC’s headline refers to a quote by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and what he actually said was,

We have determined that we cannot continue with business as usual.

the BBC merely recoded his wording from usual to normal. And subsequently a new expression – business as normal – was borne!

full article here