06.26.08
Streaking for Obama
Overheard on a college campus
Dude: I’m bored- let’s go streaking!
Dudette: Ok! But we need a reason.
(long pause. Then, inspiration strikes)
Dude: For OBAMA!
05.19.08
Work, School, and Life
A random assortment of links:
Student arrested over e-mail: Upset over receiving a B-, a business student threatened to put his professor in a wheelchair. This did not improve his grade.
Things younger than John McCain: Although slightly amusing in itself, the real entertainment value comes from the fact that the blog was started by a senior democratic strategist. (A tidbit which has since been removed) The major political parties are getting increasingly savvy about using the internet, and this is an excellent example of using blogs to test a possible campaign strategy for November.
FakeRecycle: A friend found this virus on her USB drive last week. Unlike a lot of the internet-based threats out there, this one propagates by copying itself onto removable media (like USB drives or floppy disks). This strategy was once common, and it might be ripe for a return- as my friend discovered, there’s more to computer security than staying off the internet.
Also: don’t do this. I’m not quite sure where things went wrong, but the oil rapidly caught fire in the pan. And I didn’t get popcorn.
05.09.08
And the plural of quorum is…
Here’s an interesting way to sideline a law you don’t care for: refuse to nominate leaders for the agency in charge of implementing it.
Yesterday, I learned that the Consumer Product Safety Commission had too few members on the panel to call a quorum: while it should have five members, it actually only clocks in at two right now. Apparently, agency rules require that at least three commissioners (a quorum) vote in favor of certain enforcement actions- like demanding a recall or issuing fines.
In the absence of a quorum, their power becomes pretty effectively (knee)capped- and of course, Bush gets to complain that Congress caused the problem by rejecting his last nominee for commissioner, a lobbyist for the manufacturing industry.
Today, I pulled up the NY Times for some light entertainment while working late, and found that the same stunt is being pulled over at the F.E.C. Has anyone done a study to find out how widespread this is?
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And in other news, Congress will have some explaining to do come Mother’s day. Next up: a vote on Apple Pie!
05.01.08
Power to the people!
Today is May Day, a holiday sometimes celebrated with marches and speeches in communist countries. (It’s also known as international worker’s day or labor day in some places)
There’s plenty of other things to celebrate. Some examples of sharing and caring today include:
- Our local bus line is offering free rides to anyone in town.
- The first program written in BASIC was run on this day in 1964- a time when computers were large, expensive mainframes staffed by experts. It was designed to make computing more accessible, and variants of the language are still in use even today.
- I’m told that Britain is holding elections today. (England? The U.K? Beats me.)
- Lab cleanup day (a strictly private celebration, of course!)
I’ve mostly been slaving away at the last one- my desk is once again visible, thanks in part to 50+ person hours of cleaning today. Whoo!
04.27.08
Good to know
This past weekend, we said farewell to our undergraduate students for the summer. This marked not only the graduation of my first-ever crop of students, but also a number of friends who at last wound their way through the adventure that is the PhD.
And just when that starts to feel sad, I learn that Ben and Jerry’s is hosting “free cone day” this Tuesday, in honor of the store’s 30th anniversary. Did I mention how many fewer people there are waiting on line once this town empties out for the summer?
11.22.07
A turkey day tip
It follows that if chopping an onion into large chunks induces some tears, then putting that same onion into a blender is a terrible idea.
Guess what I did today?
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, then, I thought I’d pass on a little of the science behind why onions make us cry more than, say, a disney movie. It starts with an array of sulfur-containing compounds that, when released, irritate the eyes- and tears well up to flush them out. The good news, however, is that the process runs its course within around five minutes.
Despite an array of myths on how to get rid of the problem, one interesting possibility is the suggestion that the irritating chemicals are localized to specific parts of the plant (in the comments section of this link; I don’t know what the bit with lolling your tongue is all about. Kooky.) If that’s the case, a careful cut could solve all sorts of problems… I’ll have to try it the next time I have an onion handy!
Until then, I thought I’d leave everyone with a list of the most bizarre science experiments ever done, in which we learn where baby turkeys come from. Coming in at #7, researchers have discovered that a balsa wood mockup of a female turkey head is enough to get the old hormones flowing. (Perhaps this discovery was an inspiration to the 2005 Ig Nobel winners in their study of mallards?)
10.24.07
The sociology of wrinkled pants
While preparing for another academic presentation, I found myself wondering at the necessity of ironing. For all that we all expect to be dazzled by brilliant research- and not the ankles of the person presenting- these details often seem to make the difference.
And when a scholar is in doubt, they inevitably use the tools at hand. Following a link discussing the sociology of wrinkled pants (and how clever marketing of synthetic fabrics influenced our preference for ironing), I’m reminded that conspicuous consumption has been with us for longer than we give it credit. Kind of a scary thought.
…Related to the huge market for “things that help you brag”, I also got one of those annoying “be listed in Who’s Who among executives and professionals” letters today. When someone goes out of their way to be “proudly not associated with any other Who’s Who publication or organization”, that’s a good sign of trouble on the horizon. And when they invite someone like me aboard, I can only hope that other organizations are shunning them, too.
10.20.07
Sweetest Day: The End of Subtlety
While purchasing a few choice ingredients earlier today, I came across a series of signs advertising “Sweetest Day”, a holiday I’d heard almost nothing of until recently.
Curious (and somewhat cynical), I did a bit of research, and found that long-held allegations were indeed most true: the holiday was literally begun as a promotion for candy makers. Apparently, sharing your halloween candy isn’t quite what the romantics of the world had in mind.