When I was in college, my geology professor went to some meeting in Indiana, and a geology professor there showed him the geologic sights as a courtesy. He (the Indiana guy) showed him a ridge. My professor asked where it was. He literally couldn't see it. The Indiana guy got a little peeved.
To be fair, the northern 2/3rds of Indiana got smooshed flat by the last ice age ice sheets. The lowest 1/3 is quite hilly.
I think this was in the northern 2/3 then, as my understanding is that it was flat as a pancake, and he couldn't see that there was a hill when he was standing on it. Of course, he taught geology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and since his focus was vulcanology, most of the conferences were in Hawaii, so he was used to seeing mountains.
Honestly, the Lizzie Borden thing doesn't actually bother me. It's just with the Cummings thing it feels like fighting the tide.
24 -- I realize that we must suspend some belief here, but:
1. When were there mountains on the Illinois-Iowa border?
2. No friggin' way would a lawyer from "Amnesty Global" get that kind of immediate access to a detainee. Nor would he be able to get a court order or shut down the interrogation like that. The country does not need to become a fascist state to fight terrorism. It's a shame the show wrote this so poorly as some half-assed plot device to get Jack to do something lone-wolfish. (The torture of the Secretary of Defense's son was much better handled, including addressing the security v. rights issue.)'
Interesting piece about the "vampirism-porphyria connection" or lack of one: The Straight Dope.
But Lizzie Borden being acquitted is the bestest part. It's like Madeleine Smith -- you know damned well she did it. Both ladies got off because girls just didn't DO things like that. Hooray for the double standard.
Huh. Never heard of Madeleine Smith. Sounds a lot like Strong Poison, though, doesn't it?
Because of Emily, I'm reading (off-and-on while doing other things) transcripts from Lizzie Borden's trial. And, no, I didn't know she was acquitted. Or about E.E. Cummings.
Thing is, 2-5 really is impossible in the set of natural numbers (the set is closed under addition and multiplication, but not under subtraction or division).
This SO makes my head hurt.