It turns out that you don’t have to be a Vulcan like Spock or Tuvok to have green blood. No, you merely need to have migraines. A team of Canadian surgeons discovered during an operation that their patient had dark green blood. Why? Because of the migraine medication he was on, sumatriptan. The result? ThisContinue reading “On Green Blood”
Category Archives: News
On Scooter Libby's Sentence
Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff, was convicted earlier this year of perjery and obstruction of justice in stemming from the revelation of Valeria Plame’s identity as a covert CIA agent. Today, Scooter Libby will be sentenced. Twenty months. That’s my guess. ETA: And I was wrong! It was thirty months!Continue reading “On Scooter Libby's Sentence”
On Beamish
When it comes to drinking beer I have a few simple rules. One, you drink it from a glass or a bottle. Two, if you drink it from a glass the beer needs to be dark enough that you can’t see your hand through the glass. Three, micro-brews are good and imported is better. WhenContinue reading “On Beamish”
On Toilet Fires
This headline almost speaks for itself: “Free repairs to flammable toilets.” It seems in Japan there’s been a rash of toilets catching on fire. From the article’s lead: Japan’s leading toilet manufacturer Toto is offering free repairs to 180,000 toilets after some of them caught fire. There have been three incidents of the electric bidetContinue reading “On Toilet Fires”
On Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and founder of Liberty University, passed away this morning. He was seventy-three. I met Falwell a few times over the years. Living in Lynchburg, his home town, will do that. Falwell and I would never have seen eye-to-eye on politics–I’m progressive, he was a conservative–nor religion–he wasContinue reading “On Jerry Falwell”
On Frank Gasperik
Ten years ago I joined a mailing list devoted to the works of Larry Niven. I’d loved Niven’s works for years but never had anyone to share that love with, and one of the great things about the Internet in those wild and wooly days of the mid- and late-90s was discovering their were otherContinue reading “On Frank Gasperik”
On Virginia Tech
I have friends who went to Virginia Tech. My family has friends who went to Virginia Tech. I have friends whose friends went to Virginia Tech or may still be students there. When I saw the news about the rampage at Virginia Tech today, I felt it personally. To anyone who attends Virginia Tech, IContinue reading “On Virginia Tech”
On John Fiedler
John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet in Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh films, died over the weekend at the age of 80. With Newhart, on “The Bob Newhart Show,” he was Mr. Peterson, the meek patient who was often a target for Jack Riley’s sarcastic Mr. Carlin. Fiedler also appeared in the films “12 Angry Men,” “The OddContinue reading “On John Fiedler”
On Raleigh news coverage
It depresses me to write this, but I realized glumly that the only thing that kept the UNC basketball victory in last night’s game from dominating the front page of the morning’s newspaper was the Pope’s death. Anything less, and the only thing above the fold would have been the basketball game. Can’t you tell?Continue reading “On Raleigh news coverage”
Today's Weirdness
I had no idea. Dolphins have no legal standing to sue the United States government in general and the Bush administration in particular. We should thank the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for clearing up that burning legal issue.