Tom @ 36 - Yep; I remember reading an account of a poisoning in a book on poisonous wild plants back when I was in junior high; I had hit on Euell Gibbons and was investigating the local wild edibles. The description was vivid and grisly enough that I stayed well away from anything that even looked like it *might* be poison hemlock.
Socrates had it easy compared to the kid in the description; from what I remember of it, it sounded as if he was experiencing multiple organ failure over about 24-hour period while conscious for all of it. Grim indeed.
Getting the opportunity to spend 90 minutes playing with an ARP 2600 in 9th grade.
Bruce@17: I *know*. Excuse me: possibly the best chamber music group you'll ever get to hear is currently playing. PIPE DOWN.
No, I think that's "This is how much I care."
There wasn't an appropriate context in which to mention it before - but here's a link between PDQ's universe and Girl Genius. I believe there may be a megahorn up and to the right.
albatross@124 -Actually, it's a lovely rearrangement of the Funeral Music for Queen Mary by Henry Purcell. The triplet arpeggiated version is Wendy Carlos', and one of the loveliest pieces of music I know. The straight version with the pseudo brass and the wonderful falling phase shifted sound at the beginning (unmistakeable and unlike any I'd heard before when I first got the soundtrack) still brings up the little hairs on the back of my neck when I even remember it.
On the portrayal of rape oin the movies, etc.: I challenge anybody to be anything other than shocked, sorrowful, and stunned after seeing the murder of Maddy (Laura Palmer's "identical cousin") in Twin Peaks. It's implied that this is a sex crime in addition to murder ... and I don't think anyone could feel that this was anything other than horrifying and sad. Especially with the cuts from the murder which seems to go on for an inutterably long time to the police who have the evidence that could have saved the victim if only they'd understood it faster. The realness of the struggle between the victim and her attacker was the most harrowing part of it.
At this point, I think someone could make a good case for prosecuting (among others) the Lehman Brothers CEO under RICO. That $45 mil condo? You won't be moving in after all.
Way back before I got sensible and left inorganic chemistry, the scary one around our lab was nickel carbonyl. This is essentially a nickel atom cozying up with 4 carbon monoxide molecules. Boils at 43C, extremely easy to absorb through the skin, and with a nice high vapor pressure.
It has the wonderful feature of giving you heavy metal poisoning and carbon monoxide poisoning in one handy package. Plus the vapor is so heavy that regular fume hoods are very, very bad at containing it. Thank heaven I never even had to think about using it.
I'm late in - spent the day at the Obama office from noon till 8 calling PA, OH, IN, CO, IA, NV, and just because we could, AK. Ha. (I'm too tired to hope to spell the state names right at this point.)
My favorite call was one to Iowa where Grandma had picked up, but grand son (3 or 4, very vocal and insistent that *he* wanted to get it) picked up the other phone and said, "Hello. Who's calling, please?" quite properly; when I said "Hi. I'm from the Barack Obama campaign ..." and that was all I got out for two minutes plus. I think he thought that Barack Obama had called his gramdmother and it was like Santa had showed up with a pony and the keys to Disney World. He was *so* excited.
Shynala is beside herself with joy; eight years of wondering if she was going to wake up and find out that naturalized citizens from Malaysia were now on the "enemy combatants" list are now over.
Lila@52: Damn. I sometimes think Hillerman taught me more about understanding people from other cultures than anyone else.
I was at the Obama office last week doing data entry for the New Mexico calls, and I hit a Chee living in Crownpoint. Not Jim though.
It was a very odd feeling to see the same names I'd seen in Hillerman's novels on the log sheets. It felt like running into long-lost relatives.
Okay, this is one I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned: that just-out-of-the-box smell of a new Mac. The original Macs, the Powerbook 100, various Performas, and even my 2004 reconditioned iBook all have that smell that I associate with anticipation, excitement, and eagerness to explore.
There's also that distinctive smell of the IKEA warehouse, composed equally of cinnamon, sawdust, and optimism.
Xopher@205: Thanks! It was an interesting experience, because the only way I could get the lines to scan was to re-edit the song inside my head with the new lyrics. This gave me the peculiar internal auditory experience of repeated hearing "turn on the fridge light (Will-iaaaaam)" ... which was disturbingly catchy.
Wiiliam
You don't have to turn on that fridge light
The day is over
You should try to save those plums overnight
William
you don't have to eat those plums tonight
so cold so sweet so delicious
you don't care if it's wrong or if it's right
William
You don't have to put on the fridge light
Put on the fridge light
Oh
So breakfast food won't do ya
Those stone fruit, just two yeah
I have to tell you just how I feel
I won't share them with another boy
I know my mind is made up
so put away your teacup
told you once I won't tell you again
It's a bad way
William
You don't have to put on the fridge light
Put on the fridge light
Put on the fridge light
Stefan@2:
What do zombie theoretical physicists want?
"BRAAAAAAANES ..."
I just finished the artwork and audio editing for a CD release, which was a lot of fun; I got to play designer for both the CD case and the disc, and I got to both re-use old skills and learn new ones in the audio editing process.
Digital audio editing beats the pants off a reel-to-reel recording, a splicing block and tape, and a razor blade.
My best wishes and good energy to you, Teresa; hang loose and they'll let you out soon.
I am suddenly reminded of Doc Smith's descriptions of Kimball Kinnison champing at the bit to get out of the hospital. :)
Knowing you from reading you here, I'm sure that you're feeling almost the same way.
Jim @14: Magic and Showmanship is another one of those books that is applicable to so many things other than magic alone: I've successfully used some of the pointers in there for public speaking, designing a presentation that actually kept people's attention, even sequencing music on a CD.
It's a treasure.
And paraphrased from Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit" (which everyone here should read right now):
"Good dancers practice the things they are good at; great dancers practice the things they are bad at."
From the NASA systems programmers back when we had the S360/95 big enough to get lost in[1]:
"What's the simplest and stupidest possible way to solve the problem that you can prove works?"
and
"Don't ask them what they want to do. Ask them what they want to have happen."
[1] If you took the wrong turn in the back of the machine room, you'd find yourself in a dead end somewhere in the middle of a bunch of faceless blue cabinets.
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| 2009 | 6 |
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| 2006 | 1 |
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