Inara: Mal, this isn't the ancient sea. You don't have to go down with your ship. Mal: She ain't going down. She ain't going anywhere.

'Out Of Gas'


Natter 46: The FIGHTIN' 46  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


§ ita § - Aug 10, 2006 7:03:58 am PDT #1814 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Man, I'm glad I'm not flying (it gives me migraines, so doubly glad) any time soon. I need stuff to moisturise my lips and hands during the flight. I mean, I guess I could just not wash my hands, but fear that I might just have to go to the bathroom. I mean, it hurts if my hands or lips get too dry.

Ah, well. Merely theoretical.

Just sent off the work from home note (I have two meetings this afternoon that I just can't budge). Back to bed--the handful of pills and the biofeedback seem to have worked, but like the airport people, best be overcautious right now.


Steph L. - Aug 10, 2006 7:05:44 am PDT #1815 of 10001
I look more rad than Lutheranism

I guess I could just not wash my hands, but fear that I might just have to go to the bathroom.

Nah -- with no liquid around to be consumed, you won't need to pee.


beekaytee - Aug 10, 2006 7:08:57 am PDT #1816 of 10001
Compassionately intolerant

Unca Sam was a little too eager...

You have no idea. We get recruiting abuses in the military law office all the everloving time.


sarameg - Aug 10, 2006 7:10:03 am PDT #1817 of 10001

Just imagine how fun the flights from Heathrow today will be. Full of cranky, flaky, itchy, dehydrated and deathly bored people.


tommyrot - Aug 10, 2006 7:31:43 am PDT #1818 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

The Japanese obsession with robots: [link]

If she were anything other than a robot, Saya, the receptionist at the Science University of Tokyo, would have a very strong lawsuit against her employers. On a hot summer day last week, engineering students peered into her lifeless skull while her blouse was wide open, revealing—strangely enough for a robot—a brassiere. Which raises an important question: why do robots need underwear? “There are actually speakers in her chest. Using a brassiere was a cheap way to achieve the feminine shape,” says Dr. Hiroshi Kobayashi, the mechanical engineering professor who created Saya with his (all male) students.

Saya uses a few hundred phrases to converse with the university’s visitors and has six facial expressions at her disposal: surprise, fear, anger, revulsion, happiness and sadness. Most also inadvertently convey the illusion of digestive trouble.


aurelia - Aug 10, 2006 7:37:51 am PDT #1819 of 10001
All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story. Tell me a story.

Hm. I hope my parents were flying yesterday and not today. They don't tend to catch the morning news.


bon bon - Aug 10, 2006 7:50:57 am PDT #1820 of 10001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

Just got an email about the restrictions. In pertinent part, it notes:

No electrical or battery operated items including laptops, mobile phones, ipods, remote controls etc. can be carried in the cabin and must be checked as baggage. Please advise clients of same.

Checking laptops?!! That doesn't sound good.

(However, I'm OK with checking my remote control. I guess I can be without it for a couple hours.)


Jesse - Aug 10, 2006 7:55:49 am PDT #1821 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Checking laptops does sound scary. I think the thing that's going to catch people up (in the security line, I mean) is the car remote control on people's keychains.


sarameg - Aug 10, 2006 7:56:27 am PDT #1822 of 10001

Is that for here? Or overseas?

You know, with the lighter confiscation, I always thought they should have a bucket with the sign "Need a lighter? Leave a lighter?" where you'd be allowed to take a lighter once you were outside security. Or have them give out little "good for one free lighter at destination from security" slips. (Actually, at BWI, there was a section outside by the SW terminal where people'd go to smoke. The sill of the window was lined with lighters. Communal lighters! I've seen it in Houston, too.)

I now envision a whole little barter store for confiscated toiletries and lighters.


Megan E. - Aug 10, 2006 7:57:39 am PDT #1823 of 10001

my husband has a friend in England right now with $30k of camera gear, which cannot be checked since camera lenses shouldn't be subject to extreme cold. GHA. they will have to mail it home to themselves.