The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by John Houghton:

Show all comments by John Houghton.

Posted on entry Restoration Hardware et al. vs. the TSA ::: November 25, 2009, 02:24 PM:
Tazistan Jen:
Ask your pharmacist for the bottles they use to mix medicines. Create a pharmacy label. Apply same. Put it in a bag and declare the bag as "medical necessities" (which is what you are supposed to do with drugs and appliances etc. These are excluded from carry on limitations and TSA (in theory: people have had the TSA insist that they open the transparent sterile packaging for their urinary catheter and subsequently got a UTI)).

I expect that people undergoing peritoneal dialysis* need lots of extra time at the airport since they need to have multiple liters of dialysate with them. The medical suppliers are very good about getting supplies to wherever you are traveling to, but some is needed onboard for long trips or possible delays.

*Peritoneal dialysis involves filling and draining special fluid in and out of the abdominal cavity to filter the blood in people without functioning kidneys. Our dear departed Mike Ford did this before his kidney transplant.
Posted on entry Open thread 132 ::: November 23, 2009, 04:53 PM:
My stupid little trick for clearing pretty much all formatting on stuff in Word is to select all, copy, paste into Notepad, select all, copy, and paste back into a new window in Word. Now I have something clean to work with, and Word doesn't try to be "smart" and mess things up.

I do this even when the end product is going to use extensive Word formatting.
Posted on entry Rouge Queen ::: November 21, 2009, 06:15 AM:
Antipodean...
Posted on entry Open thread 127 ::: November 21, 2009, 06:14 AM:
Take a hike...
Posted on entry Rouge Queen ::: November 15, 2009, 07:02 PM:
I especially like the ones that allow the dispensing nozzle to be turned up and dispense bacon directly to the mouth without getting your hands greasy. Now if they'd put them somewhere other than restrooms....
Posted on entry Technically American ::: November 14, 2009, 07:21 PM:
While heading down the staircase I realized that another reason why Batman isn't as effective against American* crime as we would hope, is that while Gotham looks like Manhattan, it's really Vancouver. Or maybe Toronto.

*For certain parochial values of American.
Posted on entry Technically American ::: November 14, 2009, 07:11 PM:
If you were wondering about the current crime rate, and why we haven't been rescued from major disasters, Superman is in indefinite detention by the UCIS (INS) as a deportable illegal alien with no place to be repatriated to. While the facility cannot hold him, Superman yields to the law.

Batman, being a citizen and not as law-abiding as Superman tries to keep up, but he is, after all, only human.
Posted on entry Open thread 131 ::: November 12, 2009, 10:36 AM:
Ginger #805:

Cool. I just chased it down and learned more about MRIs, and what they call function MRI (fMRI). Brain is now (somewhat) updated.
Thanks!
Posted on entry Open thread 131 ::: November 12, 2009, 09:19 AM:
Joel Polowin #798:

MRI only sees physical structure, not electro-chemical activity. PET scans can see the activity, and patients can get that kind of warning. Jay Lake* talks about being told to try not to move or think for the hour or so that it takes for the radioactive glucose to bind to the active cells.

* Send good thoughts his way, they're about to remove a tumor, from his lung this time.

Posted on entry And furthermore, the Anaconda Plan didn't actually take place on the Snake River ::: November 09, 2009, 09:02 PM:
I guess you could plow with a mule, if you used to at least two oxen to pull him. [Image of mule with all four hooves dug in being inexorably dragged along by the oxen]
Posted on entry Open thread 131 ::: November 09, 2009, 08:56 PM:
It is clear that Pat Robertson wouldn't get this joke. But then it is clear that he isn't that familiar with the Bible either, and that quote of his sounds like something from the "use only the King James version, if it was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for us" crowd. ISTR that the name Jehovah isn't used in the New Testament, and is, of course, only one of the names of God in the Old Testament.
Posted on entry It was twenty years ago today ::: November 09, 2009, 08:34 PM:
The New York City Math Teacher #46:
Yes, tonight is also "The Night of Broken Glass", a night that shouldn't be forgotten for much different reasons than the one we're celebrating, I gave up on my attempt to make my earlier toast reflect on both events, I don't have that kind of skill with words. I'm sorry beyond words to hear that you have relatives that were taken to Dachau, and I hope they made it out of Germany and survived the war. I've visited Dachau, and can only vaguely comprehend what it was like to be interned and brutalized there.

Never again.

In a way, Nov 9th was the wrong day for the wall to fall, since it overlays the Kristallnacht history, but I also wonder if the somberness of the day had anything to do with the restraint of the East German guards in 1989.
Posted on entry It was twenty years ago today ::: November 09, 2009, 05:00 PM:
Jägermeister I think, the medicinal aspects seem fitting.

A toast to all those who had the grace to bow to the inevitable and let what was the symbol of an intractable divide become meaningless overnight. May all the walls that divide us fall so easily, for we are more alike than we are different, we are one human race.

Prost! Zum Wohl der ganzen Welt.
Posted on entry And furthermore, the Anaconda Plan didn't actually take place on the Snake River ::: November 09, 2009, 07:18 AM:
"InfernoCrusherNanoLaserPiratePunk to Bambi Punk, a Survey of the Literature"
Posted on entry Open thread 131 ::: November 06, 2009, 09:34 AM:
Kevin Riggle #544:

Tom Whitmore @501, Teresa @Particle, could you clarify what you found objectionable about that page, for those of us who remember mimeograph only from papercraft projects in Kindergarden? It seems relatively unobjectionable to me.

I'm neither Tom nor Teresa (I'm fairly certain), but did you see any Science Fiction 'zines in the list? SF fans had a leading role in the "Little Magazine" (Fanzine) movement. But it seems that we* don't count.

*Editorial "we", I never pubbed my ish beyond some minor appearances in a couple of APAs.

Posted on entry "Radical Presentism" ::: November 05, 2009, 06:07 PM:
Earl Cooley III #73:
It's the age old conflict: Braun vs. brains.
Posted on entry Open thread 131 ::: November 04, 2009, 07:55 PM:
xeger #411:
In dealing with trebuchet parking, I'd also want to find out which way they are pointing. Parking them facing in is considered to be rather unneighborly.
Posted on entry Technically American ::: November 04, 2009, 03:36 PM:
beth meacham #16:
That's a wonderful poem you quoted. Parts of it should be inscribed for eternity in some notable public place for the world to see. Perhaps on a big statue in New York harbor, or some place like that.
Posted on entry Open thread 131 ::: November 03, 2009, 09:43 PM:
xeger #379:
... [so speaking of cooking,] what should I do with two cabbages, and no desire to have sauerkraut for months on end?

The trebuchet is always an option for the disposal of round vegetables.

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