Okay, I just received an email from the person who replaced me at my last position asking me if I could do the performance appraisal on my former minion. I have been gone from that dept. for six months, and was that employees supervisor for 7 of the 12 months of that fiscal year.

"Re: Appraisal of Minion X.

Eh. She didn't suck.

Signed,

Sue."

I'm not adequately caffeinated and people keep wanting me to do stuff that requires complicated thought. Does that seem right to you?

I opened up a jar of homemade jam this morning, and it had mold on it. Does that mean I have to chuck the whole thing, or can I just take off the top layer?

Alton Brown in his jam-canning ep had a great sequence of when to throw cans out. "If the lid has bubbled out, discard. If there's foam on the top, discard. If there's mold, discard..." etc.

Whoa. Dude.

Researchers say we can all see into the future

Those geniuses at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have figured out something profound. If you think about it, this makes sense: It takes a tenth of a second for visual information to get from your eyes to your brain, so everyone has the ability to predict what’s going to happen a tenth of a second into the future. That’s what you’re actually seeing, is that prediction. If you weren’t, everything would look like it was recorded a tenth of a second ago.

So this makes all of us somewhat clairvoyant, just so we can experience our world in real time. This also explains how lots of magic tricks are done. In his research paper, clear-thinking scientist Mark Changizi mentioned 50 types of visual illusions that work because your brain is attempting to predict what will happen 1/10th of a second into the future. This is weird, and changes everything in a small one-tenth-of-a-second way.

That’s what you’re actually seeing, is that prediction. If you weren’t, everything would look like it was recorded a tenth of a second ago.

Isn't it more reasonable to assume that we're all living 1/10th of a second in the past?

So now I had to check, and I'm glad to see the Mayo clinic thinks it's OK for me to just cut the mold off of cheese, at least: [link]

Sue, give her my standard response for an old job asking me for anything. For a consulting rate of $100/hr, I would be happy to assist you.

Shrift - I am starting on my "hit by a bus" binder for daily tasks I do and I feel much the same way you do - it will be a tome.

mac would LOVE the CTFL.

Isn't it more reasonable to assume that we're all living 1/10th of a second in the past?

Yeah, that makes sense.

OK, this is weird - it takes about 1/2 second (after the initial stimulus) for us to become conscious of something. But then our brain sorta' "backdates" our impression of when we became conscious of something, creating the illusion that our consciousness occurs in real time....

Jessica, probably not, because otherwise in certain high speed sports, such as baseball and luge, people would get hurt a lot more often. How much visual time do you have to hit fastball? Or to adjust a luge run so you don't go flying? In those scenarios, 1/10 of second counts...

I am starting on my "hit by a bus" binder for daily tasks I do and I feel much the same way you do - it will be a tome.

It's definitely making me feeling vindictive and contrary.

American Airlines will start charging $15 for the first checked bag, cut domestic flights and lay off workers as it grapples with record-high fuel prices. >[link]

They can't possibly think that's a good idea. I mean, dude, that would put me off ever flying American again.

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