Did you get lots of good, usable stuff, erika?

I don't understand the home warranty thing at all. To be honest, I'd never heard of it before you got one, beth.

(edited to head off attacks from serial commaists)

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If anyone asked me if they should buy a home warenty - I would say no way, unless you don't know how to use a hammer and screwdriver

I'm sure that did get attention. Warranties and service contracts are huge cash cows.

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Yes, it makes *my* head hurt, too. (I actually understand it, but I'll be damned if I could explain it in layman's terms.)

Damn, Teppy. I know what it's about too, but damn is it poorly written. It's a bunch of listing with no sense of coherence or transition at all! I stopped reading halfway through, but I'm sorry you don't have that luxury.

In return, here's some blathering from my talk in two weeks:

The HERG channel has three states: closed, open, and inactive. A closed channel allows no passage of ions, and an open channel allows free ion passage. The inactive channel is less understood, and while this diagram shows an extracellular “inactivation gate,” it’s an oversimplification. The process of going from closed to open is called activation. In HERG channels, this process is slow, like a typical delayed rectifier-—hence the “delayed.” Unlike most delayed rectifiers, however, inactivation—-going from the open to inactive state—-is very fast. So fast, in fact, that inactivation often begins before activation even completes. As a result, very little outward current passes through during depolarization.

This can be seen here. Note the very small outward current produced when the membrane voltage shifts from -80 to 0. When the membrane is subsequently hyperpolarized, the channels reopen. This time, however, they open quickly since recovery from inactivation, like inactivation, is rapid. And since the voltage is now negative compared to the resting potential, the driving force is for positive potassium ions to flow inward, resulting in this large inward current. That current decays as the channels slowly deactivate on their way to the closed state. Note the sharp contrast in the speed and magnitude of the current resulting from a closed-to-open transition and the current resulting from an inactive-to-open transition.

Connie has a new tag, and it sounds like it's from Big Trouble in Little China, but I haven't seen that movie in years, so.

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Oh, I so would have gone to jury duty without the shower. How dirty could she be?

That's what I said. I mean, who cares? Plus maybe you'd have a better shot at being dismissed if you show up disheleved.

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I'm sorry, but I'm giggling madly, because this would only be a term of endearment here.

See also: My mother's side of the family

beth, we got one free from our realtor when we bought the house. They knew the sellers (head broker lives nextdoor) and the house was on the market for a while. We never even tried going through them, because we figured we were in for a lot of run around and no pay off. I'm sorry you're having such a frustrating time of it.

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I don't understand the home warranty thing at all.

Ours came with the house (ie. the seller paid for it), when renewal time came, we didn't renew it. It was nice though since we had to have some plumbing repairs that first year.

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Connie has a new tag, and it sounds like it's from Big Trouble in Little China, but I haven't seen that movie in years, so.

It's a Pratchett quote, but I can't say which book.

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Just for fun, here is a chunk of text from an article I'm editing right now:

You know, one of the good things about crossing over to writing for the public instead of for the trade (In spite of the insane hours and teeny salary) is that I don't have to edit stuff like that anymore. I feel your pain, Teppy.

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Plus maybe you'd have a better shot at being dismissed if you show up disheleved.

Oh, yeah. She's just reporting for the first time today? GC, you're a genius!

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I have this feeling Lyra Jane has reverted to an older but recent tag. Weren't the llamas last week?

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