grab-bag

Wanting to learn about database programming, it occurred to me to resume work on my fullerene search code. I’m a bit surprised to find that I haven’t touched it in two years.

Speaking of surprises – Angel the vampire had (as far as I can see) the same makeup in Buffy as in his own series, so it’s odd that Harmony’s is completely different. I liked the Sunnydale version better.

Posted in cinema, mathematics, me!me!me! | 2 Comments

cui bono?

Debra of Wolfesblog reports:

the federal government (you know, the guys who swear they’re doing ‘everything possible’ to protect the beef supply) does not allow such private testing for mad cow disease.

Perhaps that should read “to protect the beef suppliers“.

Posted in medicine, politics | Leave a comment

me and my big mouth

I used to sneer at those so tone-deaf as to mistake the soundtrack of Conan the Barbarian (1982) for Carl Orff’s arrangement of the Carmina Burana. (Which, by the way, ought to be pronounced cármina, not carmîna.)

This last Frinight I was at the Paramount theater in Oakland to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail in a slightly longer edit than usual; and before it there was shown a trailer for Conan with, guess what, the Orff. I gather it’s common for movie trailers to be made before the feature’s soundtrack is complete, requiring the trailer’s music to be borrowed from elsewhere.

Posted in cinema, music+verse | 1 Comment

no Glory!

Continuing to catch up on events in Sunnydale, I find the writing sloppier in season 5. My remarks at greater length. Another fan replies:

When Buffy was rockin’ this sort of trivia didn’t matter. The show was about Buffy’s tears, Xander’s angst, Willow’s neuroses, Giles’ inhibitions.

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rounding error

Well what d’ya know. You make a casual post to alt.language.artificial about leap-seconds and before you know it someone sends links on the subject: The Future of Leap Seconds; Extrapolations of the difference ( TI – UT1 ); Time Scales. Thanks Steve!

Posted in calendars | Leave a comment

practicum

At a Thai restaurant just now, the staff were playing Scrabble. That’s one way to practice a language!

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and a fine shin it was too

On February 29, I whacked my shin on a truck’s tow-bar, making a deep dent but drawing almost no blood. Today, six weeks later, the scab came off. (The dent is still there.) I wonder, did the wound heal more slowly because of the relative scarcity of blood on the front of my shin? (Russell says yes.)

November: The spot is still discolored.

September 2005: Guess it’s permanent: the first of my scars to be so precisely dated for posterity.

Posted in me!me!me!, medicine | Leave a comment