Things you didn't know about men and women.....

If this sounds odd (excerpt):

Given that men are, on average, physically weaker than women: It's hard to see how they're going to win wars without troops, and survive walking the streets without alpha females willing to protect them. Among alpha females, chivalry is dead. If beta females are chivalrous, so what? Even if beta females had the courage to pull a rapist off of her victim, would she have the fortitude? Considering that the beta female wouldn't even be physically fit enough to join the U.S. Army, it's hard to imagine her stopping a wolf pack.

it has been regendered. HT Prettier Than Napoleon

Life as an adventure

Tyler Cowen from Marginal Revolution ponders one of his favorite philosophers (just follow the link, boys and girls) who compares literary adventures (where the main characters often follow a path that has been mapped out for them by either a living guide or a trail of clues) with real life careers.

His Robin Hanson quote is worth quoting again:

If you want life paths that quickly and reliably reveal your skills, like leveling up in video games, you want artificial worlds like schools, sporting leagues, and corporate fast tracks. You might call such lives adventures, but really they pretty much the opposite. If you insist instead on adventuring for real, achieving things of real and large consequence against great real obstacles, well then learn to see the glorious nobility of those who try well yet fail.

Those exotic Antarctican accents really turn me on!

If you've heard about the recent spy case, the Russians were able to divert suspicion by pretending to have Belgian accents (if you follow the link, there'll be a bit of a rant on how we are not only disadvantaged here in not knowing foreign languages, we are provincially ignorant of the outside world). One spy even convinced a college friend she was from Antarctica (although she came clean later and told her she was actually from Russia - some spy)!

Now Quebec ... THAT makes sense.

HT MR

My tiny contribution to Australian linguistics....

An example of liberty measles.

Quote of the day

Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell happened.
- internet wisdom forwarded to me by John Wurtenberg that didn't use the word "hell"

Dialog of the day

You'll have to follow the HT to see how

As an aside, I cannot refrain from relating another anecdote, which is told of Gore Vidal. In a TV interview he was asked: "Was your first sexual experience with a man or with a woman?" To which he replied: "I was too polite to ask."

fits into the Kagan confirmation hearings.

"Ae day whan he wis striddlin his cuddie doun the brae"

Perhaps translating Chinese into Scots is a sign that somebody has too much time on his hands, but I found myself oddly fascinated.

It's been a while since I put up an XKCD....

...and they are always so, so good.....

Quote of the day

"The difficult thing with quotes on the internet is verifying them" - Abraham Lincoln

Jocelyn is home!

Picked her up this morning, not much in the way of dead time in the process. When I got there - just to drop things off - she was just away getting x-rays. Just as they were explaining that, she was wheeled in. From there on in, it was signing papers, putting on clothes, packing things up, and getting the car from the garage to load her in.

After that, the focus was on getting her some Abbot's Frozen Yogurt on the way home. The first place was sort of closed - not open until noon. The second location Jocelyn remembered was no longer there. But the third - next to the amusement park and the lake, and not strictly on the way home - was the payoff.

Now she is safely home, and I am off to work. Erich will keep the patient under observation.

Quote of the day

"For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss--a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."

- Molly Ringle, 2010 Bulwer-Lytton winner, HT MR

Hospital liveblogging

I'm in the waiting room now. Should be with J in pre-op when she is prepped.

They have wireless everywhere here, yay.

Update [14:08]: Now in pre-op. Jocelyn has a splint/cast on one arm, and the other is intubated. She still manages to read her Kindle. Lady next to her bed is very upset because her man's operation has been canceled.

Update [15:38]: Still in pre-op, things are a bit backed up. Upset lady ended up missing her cellphone, minor panic, after a bit they found it on the floor on our side of the curtain.

Update [15:51]: I know everybody wants to see pictures of the wife smiling, but I don't want her whacking me with that heavy cast of hers.

Update [16:48]: STILL waiting. They gave me a $5 bonus voucher for the cafeteria to show they care. Jocelyn, however, hasn't had any food since midnight (she went to bed early but set the alarm clock to 23:30 to get some food in just before the deadline) and is beginning to rate orange on the Cannibalism Threat Indicator System"

Update [18:58]: STILL waiting, but at least in a different place. Jocelyn has signed the doctor's consent form, had the IV she had in for 5 hours removed (it was getting painful) and will soon have another IV in. We've met with the anesthesiologist, and she figures we'll get started any minute now - just after the cafeteria service closes and I can't use my food vouchers anymore. Asked whether she had a message to her sisters, she said "No, I just wanna get this show on the road!"

Update [19:50]: Made it to the cafeteria while there was still hot food available. The surrender of the glasses (they wanted her to keep the glasses as long as possible so she could sign stuff) has taken place. The anesthesiologists have wheeled her away. I'm sure people would rather have details on the patient - so would I - but all I can offer is detail on the dinner - two slices of pizza, one veggie (broccoli, tomatoes, cauliflower, onions, I think even artichokes) one pepperoni. Parfait. Coke. Will blog again when I hear anything.

Update [20:40]: Family Waiting Room at Strong - where I just heard the operation is complete, went well, two pins are holding the bones in a good position, and Jocelyn is awake already and I should be able to see her in half an hour.

Update [22:23]: Everything still good, was just overoptimistic about being able to see Jocelyn quickly. Should be soon, though.

Update [23:26]: Got to see the patient-bunny. Unfortunately, this operation hurt, she was feeling quite miserable. She won't be going home tonight, I can pick her up in the morning. I saw her in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) and they just wheeled her to a patient room a moment ago - I'm blogging while they are making her comfortable there. She's getting some meds now that got the pain down to bearable. They'll probably be kicking me out soon, it sounded at first like I was only going to get to see her for a few minutes but I've been with her almost an hour.

New day, new topic!

Whores and Holes - two great things that go great together

But they don't sound THAT much alike....unless they are black, and you are the NAACP.

If you're not going to click on the links to get the full story (and you should), Hallmark recalled an audio card with an astronomical theme (which included "black holes") because somebody in the NAACP thought it sounded like "black whores". You can judge for yourself if you follow the links.

Don't cry over spilt milk - build storage tanks....

As though the EPA didn't have anything better to do, they were threatening to apply rules meant for oil spills to milk:

The EPA regulations state that “milk typically contains a percentage of animal fat, which is a non-petroleum oil. Thus, containers storing milk are subject to the Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Program rule when they meet the applicability criteria ...”

Unfortunately, Marginal Revolution didn't post this until weeks after it was announced that this would not be the case.

Vuvuzela virtuoso visiting Eastman Theatre?

Seems unlikely, but clearly so far the biggest winner at the World Cup is this delightful little instrument - and the biggest losers are those condemned to have to hear it unwillingly. Perhaps, as with garlic, the solution is "If you can't beat them, join them."

Now we can not only see any web site to the background of vuvuzela sounds, youtube has added a gadget (soccer ball shaped) that lets you mix the audio of the clip with the appropriate sounds.

Another loser would be astrology, after France rather convincingly showed that it is NOT useful when selecting your soccer team.


Update: the horror!

Women in literature - the early years

I've been reading Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, a book about language history. A passage in it reminded me of a gurl friend of mine, who takes an interest in early female authors - although this one is well before the medieval times that interest her.

Akkadian bilingualism would have become common in the elite, and one can see evidence of this at the highest level, since Sargon's daughter Enheduanna is supposed to have composed two cycles of Sumerian hymns, and the most famous (to Innanna) has been found in some fifty copies.

This participation by women, especially princesses and priestesses, in Sumerian literature was not uncommon. They wrote funeral hymns, letters and especially love songs.

Thy city lifts its hand like a cripple, O my lord Shu-Sin
It lies at they feet like a lion-cub, O son of Shulgi,
O my god, the wine-maid has sweet wine to give,
Like her date-wine sweet is her vulva, sweet is her wine.....

(in background here, Sargon and his daughter were not Sumerian, they were Akkadian - and their language was not at all closely related, although they adopted the Sumerian cuneiform writing system for their own language and kept Sumerian culture alive)

Does anybody have any cunnilingus reference that pre-date this?

Coyote's public service announcement....

...needs to be widely distributed:



(Coyote, who is all about public service, here)

The excitement of chess

This xkcd comic turned out to be inspirational.


I sort of wanted to try it, too, but some went further than just wanting.

Quote of the Day

"The referee's should have been wearing pink in the match where the German striker was given two yellows."
- An Australian co-gamer