The horrible truth...

And yes, I really do think Jelly Babies are the beest sweet. The real ones, no those Haribo knock offs.

What Doctor Who character are You? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as 4th Doctor Wild, eccentric, wacky! do you want a jelly babie? 4th Doctor 100% 5th Doctor 92% 3rd doctor 75% 1st Doctor 75% 10th Doctor 67% 7th Doctor 67% 6th doctor 50% Davros 50% 9th Doctor 42% 2nd doctor 25% a Dalek 17% 8th Doctor 17%

Ahem.

david --

[adjective]: Pretentiously academian

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

For having never toured in a band or done a cross country road trip, I think this is okay.


create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

A recent post by dobrovolets reminded me of something from Sarah's pregnancy.

When our peanut was in the womb they never could figure out whether she was male or female. For various (other) reasons we ended up having 5 ultra-sounds during her gestation, often with the top pediatric specialists in Britain (thank goodness for college towns). None of them, even the one they called the 'baby whisperer', could get her to uncross her legs. The final scan, about a month before she was due, resulted in two doctors looking intently at a screen for five minutes, manipulating the magic ultrasound wand and deliberating over whether they were looking at 'labia' or 'undescended testes'. What might be considered a binary choice by most medical professionals was boiled down to this unintentionally queer answer: "80% it's a girl."

Turns out our 80% girl did indeed have labia but is still routinely assumed to be a boy by strangers on the street even if she's wearing pink. So maybe the doctors were right after all...?

This story came over the History and Philosophy of Science departmental listserv here today:
Los Alamos Blocks Researcher Access to Archives
( (Story behind this cut.) )

I know the researcher in question from when we were both undergrads at Berkeley. He's really interesting and an excellent, and serious, researcher. What strikes me most about this story is how privatizing even seemingly innocuous bits of government services (like record keeping) has serious implications for the centralization of power. The irony that the decentralization of power can actually make it possible to further consolidate power centrally should not be lost I think. But it's not irony. This is serious stuff. People made light of accusations after 9/11 that Cheney, Rummy and co. were using 1984 as a user's manual for dismantling democracy. Christopher Hitchins in particular, many of you will remember, liked to brush that accusation aside by emphasizing that Orwell was writing about Soviet socialism not the democratic nations to the west. And of course he was. But it should not be forgotten that much of the inspiration and models for the buildings, and bureaucratic cultures of the 'Ministries' came from his life in London during the war. 1984 wasn't just a warning about the dangers of totalitarian governments already in place. It was a warning about how easily democratic societies can slide into the clutches of their own fear, and wilful ignorance.

It seems, looking from the outside, that the US is starting to crawl out of this trap again. One hopes. But as we all rejoice at finally having an 'opposition' party again, let's not forget that part of why it's been so easy for Bush's cronies to sell off bits of the government is because Bill Clinton, a democrat, laid the groundwork. The lesson of 1984, the way I read it, is not to trust anyone who tells you to let them have power for your own good.

I'm sure this went around a while ago, but I'm happy I found it. Does anyone else find this result a little odd for me?

Your results:
You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)

Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 90% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 85% River (Stowaway) 75% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 75% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 75% Wash (Ship Pilot) 70% Inara Serra (Companion) 50% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 45% Alliance 30% A Reaver (Cannibal) 25% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 25%

Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.

Click here to take the "Which Serenity character am I?" quiz...

Sorry for the extremely long silence. I'm buried in the final months of the PhD and the thought of 'relaxing' in front of a computer screen after 10 hour days writing is frankly horrific. I can feel boils bubbling out of my flesh just thinking about it. However, sometimes you receive news that is so timely, so appropriate and so life changing that you must brave the physical disfigurement to share it with the world. Long days writing have taken their toll on my body, but in my email box today was the solution to EVERYTHING! Please read on, the good news just gets better! Thanks go to the pseudonymous Ila Davison, wahbizzybeetrainingder @ bizzybeetraining.com. Seriously Ila, send me more unwanted emails like this so I can laugh this loudly again. It's scary spam, but there are some priceless phrases in it.

Short and fun, but I'm pretty sure I don't have a midland accent. If there was a question about how to pronounce "get" I would likely have tipped the Scale to the western side. I had a director in an apoplectic fit once because I couldn't say get without saying "git". Since my character was supposed to be from the northeast, it was a problem. It led to some ridiculously vaudevillian moments:

Me: "Git."
Director: No, "get"..."gEHHHHHHt!"
Me: "Git?"
Director: What the hell is wrong with you?
Me: I dunno. I just don't git it.
Director: ARRRRGH!
Me: (muttering) Git!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Okay, the bizzarre news from London yesterday was
(warning, this is kind of a ghastly video)

A pelican swallowed a pigeon in St. James' Park

a bit disturbing, and seriously weird. Apparently the pelicans are fed 12lbs of fish every day. So maybe he just got as fed up with the pigeons as other Londoners do. Can we blame global warming for this?

A good tip for better grades! or am I missing the point? Someday I'll write a paper about JC (Jack Chick that is!) just so I can get funding to buy every tract he ever made.

This halloween make sure you get Jack in your sack! Remember to add some candy and holy water to seal the deal.

Thanks all for trying. Here's what I found:

I managed to find zilch on the Appeals Court justices in my area (although, for those of you in the 1st Appellate district, this piece in the Bay Area Reporter might be of interest).

However, the two CA Supreme Court justices did appear in the news recently (see the Sacramento Bee and the Chronicle). Some conservative groups and pundits are urging people to vote against both Kennard (a Deukmejian appointee) and Corrigan (just appointed by Arnie in January). Apparently these two "liberal" (according to the Conservative Voice, not me) justices are likely to be pro gay marriage and, Kennard at least, has decided against parental notification order legislation in the past. Without more info on them, and with the legal status of Mayor Newsom's marriage ceremonies likely to appear in front of the court in the coming year and Prop 85 on the ballot right now, it seems worryingly like a case of "my enemy's enemy".

[see the update]
One of the frustrations about trying to vote from overseas is that I'm clueless about the local issues and the more obscure candidates. I've managed to find enough info to form an opinion on everything but the California judicial nominees. I'm tempted to leave them blank, but since they are State Supreme Court an Apellate court positions I'm afraid of accidentally letting some really nasty anti-civil libertarian nominee through. Does anyone in CA know where I can get more info on the judicial nominees beyond the sparse candidate statements on smartvoter?

-Lab Note 01659-
22 October 2006
After initial success with prototype Stella-G1, I've decided to proceed with my plan to create an army of flying babys to do my evil bidding. Let them try to laugh at me now!

mmmwWWAHHAHAHA!

Oh...looks like it's

APPLE DAY AGAIN!

guess that means it's been almost a year since I last posted...oops

Invaluable fatherly advice -

#1:Don't eat the bombay mix off the rug in the living room. You're too young for solid food and besides, that's what the hoover's for.

#2:Drooling in your father's mouth while playing supergirl might be fun, but it's not very hygenic.

#3:While I like that you want to share, bringing your father a bad case of the runs from the nursery is not the best way to say "I love you".

#4:That big smile you give when your father comes home goes a long way to getting you anything you want.

#5:Blue is a really good color for you.

to be continued (as I think of it)...

My next favorite holiday after Halloween is this Sunday...

***APPLE DAY***

They ain't just fer dunkin' anymore.
Please let us know if you happen to be going. I'll save a Belle de Bosksoop for ya.

LJ Interests meme results

1. arboretums:
   This started when I lived in San Francisco, in the Inner Sunset at 4th and Irving. My house was two blocks fom Golden Gate Park which runs from just east of there all the way to the ocean. The entrance to the arboretum is effectively on 9th and was an easy five minute walk from my front door. Some days I'd take the 71 home and stop there before doubling back to my house. It served as the setting of the surprise birthday bagel party for arasay which she nearly spoiled for herself. I'll never forget the look on her face when she saw jactitation, gordonzola, anarqueso, and their other roomate at the time, sitting under that massive tree just past the entrance (big enough they could hide behind it) with a pile of round doughy treats and schmear from here to here. I think I love arboretums most, though, because this one saved my life. It was the hours long walks that I took during my nervous breakdown for the month and a half after I quit my job that slowly nursed me back out of my depression and gave me some reminders that there really are some lovely and good things in the world. Those walks helped me decide to go back to school, a decision which eventually lead me here to Cambridge. I owe a lot to arboretums.
2. bioengineering:
   The people who do this are the people I study as an anthropologist. but I also suspect this is my thwarted scientific ambitions. I have lab envy.
3. botanical gardens:
   Much the same reason as arboretums. They are the kind of public space(even if they're not always free) where you can be alone and reflective. That needs to be valued more I think.
4. comic books:
   Anthropology hasn't been my longest running career goal. Before that, before filmaking, before everything, I wanted to be a comix artist. From the age of 10 to 16 I begged, borrowed, stole (literally), and scrounged all of the cash I could to support my habit. Never thought of stealing the actual comic books though. Although the brothers behind the counter, the ones who owned Bonanza Books and Comics, were grumpy, they were always nice to me, and that meant a lot to a misfit geek whose only friend was the Dungeon Master's Guide and an active imagination. My friend Tim got me hooked and I immediately knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My mom finally beat that out of me by the time I was twenty, but recently I'm finding a new interest and am determined to start a new branch of anthropology that thinks through and communicates with sequential art. Who watches the... oh you know.
5. dot cotton:
   Okay, never saw Eastenders before I moved to England, but how can you not love the dear old, camp, fag smokin', bible quotin' luv. She just learned to drive too, so I feel for her.
6. genetic modification:
   Much the same as bioengineering. Plus, there's something wonderfully ambiguous about these technologies as issues and the ways that people try to fit them into their already existing moral boxes, often very uncomfortably. They expose as lot about the different ways people conceive of the world, what is natural, what isn't and what that means. In other words, it's really just fun with anthropology.
7. graphic novels:
   This is what interest number 4 morphed into by my late twenties.
8. little scrowlie:
   Just have a look. Plus it's set in the East Bay. Okay, that's pretty shallow, but who said I need a reason. It's an LJ interest! Get over it!
9. nanotechnology:
   Not really sure why this is an interest other than, I want to know more about it.
10. pubs:
    Seriously, like I have to explain?

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

Can anyone who knows New York tell me if this hotel is in an okay neighborhood. My standards are actually quite low. Piss, vomit, and drugs I can handle, I just don't wanna get mugged on my way to check in. I'm travelling with three other people in December and they're trying to talk me into sharing one of the rooms instead of staying with pals.

Hotel Deauville
103 East 29th Street, New York, 10016
Locality: Midtown, Murray Hill District