Fun picture of me and Emmett

Almost exactly a year ago.

AWESOME -- the passport people say my passport is going out today, so I should be home tomorrow to get it! If it was going to come Thursday, I was going to have to beg my deli guy to sign for it, and hope for the best.

AWESOME -- the passport people say my passport is going out today, so I should be home tomorrow to get it!

Sweet! Time for foreign adventures.

I have to be at the airport at 6 am on Saturday to fly to Mexico, so it's none too soon.

My company is urging people to relocate out of California, and it's working. Not on me, but on people whose driver seems to be home owning. Some cool people will evidently leave. Hmmph.

I have a borderline cold, which makes me crave Coke. Hmmph.

Teppy, or any other knowledgeable people...when a drug (say, Elavil) has a side-effect of causing weight gain, how does it? Increased appetite? Altered metabolism/ability to burn it off?

Teppy, or any other knowledgeable people...when a drug (say, Elavil) has a side-effect of causing weight gain, how does it? Increased appetite? Altered metabolism/ability to burn it off?

Either. Both. Some drugs can screw with your hormones, which in turn tweaks your metabolism -- birth control pills do that.

Fun picture of me and Emmett

Especially fun considering the discussion in F2F today.

I'm telling you, they'll wish they had trampolines set up all around the base of shrift's building the day she hands in her notice. (Or, at the very least, tarps to minimize the cleanup afterwards...)

I'm starting to fear that South Dakota politics is leaving the realm of bat-shit crazy and entering the territory of insane, rabid, stoned-outa-their-gourds bat-shit crazy....

The newest front in the war on the courts is being fought in South Dakota, where, in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore, a group called "J.A.I.L. 4 Judges" is promoting one of the most radical threats to justice this side of the Spanish Inquisition. It's extreme and it's incoherent, but it's got more than 40,000 petition signatures—and it will go to the state's voters as a constitutional amendment in November. A national network of supporters is waiting in the wings, threatening to export the revolution to other states if they do well this fall.

The group's proposed measure would wipe out a basic doctrine called judicial immunity that dates back to the 13th century, protecting judges from personal liability for doing their job ruling on the cases before them. A special grand jury—essentially a fourth branch of government—would be created to indict judges for a string of bizarre offenses that include "deliberate disregard of material facts," "judicial acts without jurisdiction," and "blocking of a lawful conclusion of a case," along with judicial failure to impanel a jury for infractions as minor as a dog-license violation. After three such "convictions," the judge would be fired and docked half of his or her retirement benefits for good measure.

Apparantly the 14th century onwards is too liberal for these people....

Anyway, it seems very unlikely to pass.

[link]

Nanocar!

Rice University scientists have constructed the world's smallest car - a single molecule "nanocar" that contains a chassis, axles and four buckyball wheels.

The "nanocar" is described in a research paper that is available online and due to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nano Letters.

The nanocar consists of a chassis and axles made of well-defined organic groups with pivoting suspension and freely rotating axles. The wheels are buckyballs, spheres of pure carbon containing 60 atoms apiece. The entire car measures just 3-4 nanometers across, making it slightly wider than a strand of DNA. A human hair, by comparison, is about 80,000 nanometers in diameter.