Very Brief Observations

[fiveyearwinter]

My "Night Time" cough syrup is 20 proof.

[Thaurismunths]

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society."

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing."

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to prosper."

-Benjamin Franklin

VBO: Benjamin Franklin was The Man... or he had a good publicists.

[Oblio]

have you ever met people wh0 knowledge reacts with their brain like neutrinos react with the earth?

[jrderego]

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

[fiveyearwinter]

Verizon phone firmware is absolute crap.

[Bdoomed]

yea well sprint everything sucks.

[wakela]

Because we have an 11-month-old, many of my observations will be baby-centric.

My baby cries when Mom leaves the room.  Why does she do this?  After all, Mom always comes back.  I recently realized that, from the baby's perspective, sometimes people come back and sometimes they don't.  I would be pretty nervous too if I had to roll a die every time the source of all that is good in the world goes into the kitchen.   
"Oh, you got a critical failure.  Tough break, kid."
"Man.  And I just made in my pants.  This is the mother of all bummers. Heh heh, get it?"
"An umber hulk enters the room."
"I wish mom were here."

[SFEley]

My baby cries when Mom leaves the room.  Why does she do this?  After all, Mom always comes back.  I recently realized that, from the baby's perspective, sometimes people come back and sometimes they don't.  I would be pretty nervous too if I had to roll a die every time the source of all that is good in the world goes into the kitchen. 

Heh.  This is a good point.  Sometimes I think about how scary the world would be if I didn't know all the things I know about how it works.  Your kid right now is still getting the hang of object permanence.  Can you imagine trying to function if "objects you can't see continue to exist" was something you weren't quite sure about?

[Rachel Swirsky]

And it's hard to imagine* an evolutionary situation in which a baby would be alone, where that baby *shouldn't* be panicking. A friend of mine has their nursery upstairs, and everytime they put the baby alone in the darkened room, she howls for hours. I imagine her hindbrain is waiting for the [a href="http://www.museon.nl/NR/rdonlyres/4E472C03-5D20-46B6-8416-C7F8B260BC21/2211/JWMWAndrewsarchus01.JPG"] andrewsarchus [/a](why yes, I am engaged to a paleontology geek, why do you ask?) to come and devour her.

*or, alternatively, my imagination's not good enough.

[wakela]

Some of you probably heard on the Scientific American podcast that mother deer cannot recognize the cries of their own young, but young recognize the cries of their mother.  The reason for this (near as we can figure) is that the young learns that crying for its mother is useless and stops doing it.  So when a predator approaches, and the mother walks away to distract it, the baby doesn't give away its position by panicking.  I thought this was pretty interesting.  But the human babies, they love the panic. 

[wakela]

My baby's pants have pockets.  Usually one, single pocket. 

Sometimes I put something in there for her to discover later.  That's got to mess with the ol' object permanence thing.

[Thaurismunths]

I was driving around yesterday listening to NPR. Here in Michigan they've just started their spring pledge drive, so I switch over to the other station on the button (car radio) for a few minutes. It was supposed to be country (living in Detroit, it's that or rap), but I had tuned in to the NASCAR pre-race show just in time to hear the good 'ole boy say this to his co-host:
"Well you know, Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series of said 'The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.' and that's what these Cars Of Tomorrow are all about..."

[lowky]

how'd yer kid catch herpes in day care? heh the worst thing i ever caught in daycare was chickenpox or the flu...

It's actually pretty easy to catch.  It tends to run in families as a result.  Person A is exposed and contracts it.  They drink out of a glass while they have a "cold sore" Person B drinks out of same glass Person A is currently drinking out of (or shortly there after without it being cleaned well).  Person B now contracts it.  Think how many times young kids reach for and drink out of their parents glass.  Think how many kids put their mouths on things.  Or rub their eyes after handling things that someone put their mouth on.  I would wager that most sickness in homes with children comes home from school/daycare.  Kids are filthy disgusting germ spreaders, doesn't mean don't love them or have them (if that's what you want), but kids like to explore, don't notice how filthy they actually are, etc.  My friend's son is 5 now and he hates having to take baths, wash up, etc.  Herpes of all forms are amongst the more contagious viruses known to mankind.  It's why people with active outbreaks on suppression therapy are told not to have sexual contact with their partners. 




Brief observation: you know you cant sleep when you start listenin to every old podcast again just to have something to do.

[SFEley]

Here are three things, among an infinite possible list, that will make the universe pop into place and convince you that the balance of the world is weighted toward Good, and that all things are wonderful:

[ul]

• Weddings done well.
• Meeting someone new and finding that you like each other pretty much on sight.
• The absolute smile of a child.

[/ul]

It was a great weekend.  Hell, it's Tuesday, and I still feel fucking good.

[Russell Nash]

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society."

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing."

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to prosper."

-Benjamin Franklin

VBO: Benjamin Franklin was The Man... or he had a good publicists.

He was his own publicist.  He was Poor Richard of Poor Richard's Almanac.

[Thaurismunths]

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society."

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing."

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to prosper."

-Benjamin Franklin

VBO: Benjamin Franklin was The Man... or he had a good publicists.

He was his own publicist.  He was Poor Richard of Poor Richard's Almanac.

Poor Richard's Almanack (sometimes Almanac) was a yearly almanac published by Benjamin Franklin, who adopted the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for the purpose of this work in the title. It appeared continuously from 1732 to 1758. The almanac was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs typically ran to 10,000 per year.

It contained the typical calendar, weather, poems, and astronomical and astrological information that an almanac of the period contained. It is chiefly remembered, however, for being a repository of Franklin's aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with just a dash of cynicism.

Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor, statesman, and publisher, hit a publishing home run with Poor Richard's Almanack. Almanacs were very popular books in colonial America. People in the colonies sought them out for the mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, and other amusements Franklin published in them. Wordplay also had a large role in Poor Richard's Almanack, with many examples surviving into the American vernacular today.

During the final year he published The Way to Wealth, a collection of maxims from the almanac that remains widely-read today.

Yep. Well, I guess that makes him "The Man" then...

[Thaurismunths]

Don't mess with the Jews, they really know how to curse!

http://www.yiddishradioproject.org/exhibits/stutchkoff/curses.php3?pg=3
#4. "Finstere leyd zol nor di mama oyf im zen." - "Black sorrow is all that his mother should see of him."
#26. "Got zol im bentshn mit dray mentshn: eyner zol im haltn, der tsveyter zol im shpaltn un der driter zol im ba’haltn." - "God should bless him with three people: one should grab him, the second should stab him and the third should hide him."
#34. "Migulgl zol er vern in a henglayhter, by tog zol er hengen, un bay nakht zol er brenen." - "He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night."

[ClintMemo]

Wisdom from my nine-year-old.
"Dad, something smells bad, really bad, like.....mold and lipstick."

[ClintMemo]

Based on my experience with cell phones, I have concluded that when we get teleportation technology, it will suck.

[wakela]

I don't know what made me think of this, but a few years ago I got to work and found an email from tech support warning me of the "blaster worm" virus and giving me instructions on how to get rid of it.  I was annoyed because I had lots to do, but this stupid thing had to take priority. As I was watching the blue bar on the Blaster Worm Extractor window creep towards 100% I realized that this was an experience I'd been waiting for my whole life.  If you had told me when I was ten that I would one day be extracting a blaster worm virus from my own computer I wouldn't have known what to do with myself.  I would even have the Deckard from Bladerunner world weariness about the experience.   We live in a sci-fi world, and yet it is still mostly annoying.

[ClintMemo]

  We live in a sci-fi world, and yet it is still mostly annoying.

I think it's because the sci-fi we see and/or read is always either too optimistic and glosses over the downsides (Star Trek) or too pessimistic and is all about the downsides (1984).  You don't often see material that takes that bad and the good together.

[jrderego]

  We live in a sci-fi world, and yet it is still mostly annoying.

I think it's because the sci-fi we see and/or read is always either too optimistic and glosses over the downsides (Star Trek) or too pessimistic and is all about the downsides (1984).  You don't often see material that takes that bad and the good together.

I can't remember the source of the quote, but it's been said that "science fiction is the only truly optimistic literature because it insists that we have a future."

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Based on my experience with cell phones, I have concluded that when we get teleportation technology, it will suck.

VBO: You should take a good look at the other subscribers before selecting a teleportation service.




(Yeah, I was bored and thought this would be fun.)

[Heradel]

Based on my experience with cell phones, I have concluded that when we get teleportation technology, it will suck.

VBO: You should take a good look at the other subscribers before selecting a teleportation service.

(Yeah, I was bored and thought this would be fun.)

Some can't leave the dead well enough alone.

[Planish]

My neighbor has a Lexus.  If he has more than one Lexus, does he have two Lexus, two Lexuses or two Lexi?   

Lexuces or Lexim. Either is acceptable.

What if, instead, he has more than one Infiniti?

Then he is the ideal target of the Ad Infinitum
viz:

The President is "assassinated" but no-one can prove it because of a very revolutionizing procedure that takes the mind and allows you to change bodies for a period of time before the procedure kills you. The movie could be about the assassination, and the attempt to discover what is going on... Before the President's time runs out.
It could also be a book.

Or very much like a series of podiobooks.
J.C. Hutchins' 7th Son - got clones, memory and personality transfers, conspiracy for world domination, etc.
http://podiobooks.com/title/7th-son-book-one---descent
http://podiobooks.com/title/7S3-Destruction
http://podiobooks.com/title/7th-son-book-two---deceit

VBO:
Negotiating a smooth transition from the 12-fret palm-muted double-picked descending glissando to the E-B-G-B bass fill in the opening of Pipeline (The Chantays - 1963) is much more difficult than I thought it would be.