I continue to believe that David Malki ! must lurk here: [link]

Nice work, mac!

Sorry--stuff is on my mind because my father just gave up two years of trying to add me to his investment accounts, and finally gave up (probably legall messy on a number of levels, since I work for an investment firm, never mind tax issues) and put my sister on them instead to hold them for me.

My parents just met with their lawyer and put me in charge of everything if anything happens to my mother, finally -- I was actually a little worried about that, since I knew a few years ago they had put each other as backups and I knew that wouldn't work anymore.

In random news, my boss gave us each a paperwhite bulb in a jar as a gift, and I'm terrified for the day they all bloom! I will be driven out of the office by the smell. Maybe I'll bring mine home anyway for the long weekend, and then I can dispose of it if/when necessary.

Kat, I did read White Teeth, ages ago. I've read all four of her novels, and of the latter three, NW seems the most like White Teeth in terms of both setting and themes, though it's more experimental (sometimes needlessly so, IMO) in terms of structure.

I also learned why this process is so time intensive. Grace's stenosis is right below her vocal chords. If it had been lower then they would have done a reconstruction long ago. But they can't without damagin the chords. So we have to do it this way which blows. But now makes more sense.

Ah, that sucks that there isn't a faster way to do this, but I guess at least it's nice to know there's a good reason for it?

So this could be exciting: Big News From Mars? Rover Scientists Mum For Now

Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem.

They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.

...

SAM is a kind of miniature chemistry lab. Put a sample of Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of.

Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something earthshaking. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.

We'll probably have to wait a few weeks for the announcement of what they found. But "earthshaking" and "one for the history books" makes me think they found evidence of life.

(This is not the methane false alarm they had last week.)

"This These data is are gonna be one ones for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.

t /pedant

'"This datadatum is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.'

</other pedant>

"This datadatum is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says."

"This These data is are gonna be one ones for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.

I love you, P-C.

"This datadatum is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good, It's fuckin' awesome!" he says.

"LIFE ON MARS!" he says, spraying champagne all over the lab.