I know about bacteria. I know about viruses, sort of. But what are prions? I’ve been reading about them in connection with mad cow disease, and I gather that they’re some new kind of germ, and that someone got a Nobel Prize for discovering them. But that’s about it. Maybe I’m just getting old, but what the heck–bacteria and viruses weren’t good enough? We need some new kind of high-tech bug that sounds like you make it by pelting muons with bosons in the Tevatron?
Continue reading straight dope – What’s the story on prions, which supposedly cause mad cow disease? →

obsequy (OB-se-kwee) noun

A funeral rite or ceremony.

[Middle English obsequie, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin obsequiae,
alteration (influenced by Latin exsequiae, funeral rites) of Latin obsequia,
plural of obsequium, compliance.]

…things of lasting quality, I am all the time looking around for ideas. I study reports, file information… make preparations. Life’s more than evil news, words of the day, or the occasional wacky link, even though that’s been the extent of what I’ve been posting lately. The quizzes are fun, and help me see what people who like me are like. (Our opinions aren’t always shared, but at least we can usually be civil… downright kind to each other. I like that.

I want to write a long story. Something my sweetheart can illustrate. Something we can birth together… give life to. A child formed of literature and visual art. The sum of us both as a single being.

But what to write about? Life during childhood? Butterflies? Fears? Love? All together, in some massive mishmash of concepts and plot?

Heck, I don’t know. I do know that I want to create something. Something with her. To me, there’s something amazingly special about the girl I love. She know so many things, a delightful mistress of trivia, and knowledge that is useful too. I think she’ll be my consultant on any health, plant, craft, web or womanly thing for future stories.

I need to go to bed… body is very tired.

I’ve just polished off another minor contract, a dentist’s office wanted a modification to the database they were using. quick job, I almost feel guilty for charging them. 2 hours, 45 minutes…most of it ado research.

I’ve been thinking of my sweetie sleeping as I work. It’s very comforting to me to know she’s sleeping, hopefully having peaceful dreams. I turn my head and half expect to see her visage there, turned, facing my workspace, with a sleeping look of calm. It makes bed altogether to appealing… to join her, cradle her in my arms, and drift to my own slumber… sharing dreams with her there.

Well, that’s it. I’m on it. See you kids in the morning. I inserted the poll earlier.

very interesting performance benchmarks on ms sql schtuff and ado:

So the message is clear. If you are going to use ADO, then if the database is Jet then use the Open and Addnew methods to insert records. If the database is SQL Server, use INSERT INTO statements.
sometimes i wish i had 4 monitors instead of 2. i wonder if that would make me more efficient or less efficient.

on second thought… I dont want monitors.. I want THIS!!

There’s a cartoon by the incredibly brilliant Gahan Wilson, from his book of the same name, in which a man stares around him at the people worshipping the signs saying “Nothing” and the cathedrals erected with the word “Nothing” on them, in glowing bright lights.

“Is Nothing sacred?” he asks.

“Monkeys learn sign language so they can tell the dolphins they love them.”

End random babble from the back of the skull.

little red monkey is still going through my head, but I like it. I’m *finally* home from work, scratching hard at the pile of work that built as I came in late today. Had a productive, if stifling hot morning seeking apartments. I didn’t take Danny out for breakfast, but we did get smoothies and sammiches to go at the grove, to eat while we seeked. two excellent prospects, and I think I might’ve been discriminated against… I suspect one of the people I asked about renting from thought that Dan & I were boyfriends. (we were finisihng each other’s sentences, and asking about a one bedroom apartment). Ack. Well, if he discriminates, I don’t want to rent from him anyway, even if he’s wrong. It’s also amazing to me how many places hold a cat as a deal breaker for a rental. An unexpected upside of Dan’s visit… he brought me prezzies!

An action figure of Big Guy and Rusty, the little boy robot!

and,the DVD of Tank girl, a movie that I enjoy, but would never, ever buy for myself… totally unexpected, and I’m delighted to get presents.

I didn’t get much good talk time with Dan, though… or if I did, I can’t remember what we talked about… I hope to see him again before school starts back up for him. We usually have really great, thought provoking conversations. Ah well, maybe I’ll remember more after my sleep.

For No reason at all –

Natural Predators of Man
Mako Sharks
Lions
Organized bands of Criminal Lobsters
Chihuahuas
Scotsmen
Hummel Figurines
The Kiwanis
Tigers
Tiger Woods
The Soul Consuming Ghost of Phil Hartman
Grizzly Bears
Sea Monkeys
Teamsters
Smurfs
Naugahyde
Young Republicans
Mexican Wrestlers (Luchadores)
Rogue Legos
Ceiling Fans
Pirhana

Little Red Monkee!… Thanks . I’m singing this now.

edit 6/14/2003- that link is now dead. This one still works, though!

Little Red Monkee!…

I just saw this in the bathroom –

“Staff are requested not to use the eye patches in this first-aid kit to impersonate ‘pirates’ or other characters. They are for medical use only.”
Notice taped to the side of a first aid box

Man, I’ll just have to bring mine from home. I didn’t know I was allowed to do that at all!

YO HO! Yarr!

My face has been scraped, the body soaped, steamed, pressed and rubbed. A healthy poop evacuated, and a breakfast composed of french toast, juice and coffee is due in about an hour. (I’ve decided to reward Danny for driving me all over creation by buying him breakfast before we get down to brass tacks.) I’m playing milk ring fetch with Newtie… he didn’t want to snuggle this morning, too much in pounce-mode. I don’t know why he gave up on paperwads, but I’m really happy he resumed milk rings and twist-ties.

Going to seek out apartments before work. I really hope something avails itself to me today.

a bone from allen ginsberg’s skeleton is used to hammer a dulcimer. the resulting notes heal a sad bird that had fallen into a crippling cycle of narcissism after weighing its own talon.

sui generis soo-eye-JEN-ur-us; soo-ee-, adjective:
Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique.

Sui generis is from Latin, literally meaning “of its own kind”: sui, “of its own” + generis, genitive form of genus, “kind.”

Dedicated to my darling, who is most certainly a sui generis woman… and I love her for it.

A Robber Snatched My Exam
=================================
Five hooded robbers holding up an Athens post office Tuesday took off with hundreds of algebra, Latin and chemistry exam papers instead of millions of drachmas, a post office spokesman said.

How To Get Free Donuts
=================================
A Knox County man accused of posing as a State Highway Patrol trooper to get free meals was charged last week with impersonating an officer after someone called his bluff and notified the patrol.

World’s Biggest Germ Breeding Ground Opened
=================================
A tropical resort sprouted on the streets of Manhattan as former “Baywatch” star and Playboy model Carmen Electra slipped into a bathing suit and shared the world’s biggest hot tub with about 70 of her closest friends.
“It’s too wet and wild in there!”

Ban Happy Hour
=================================
A crime prevention charity is calling for a ban on happy hours in bars, pubs and clubs. The National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders (Nacro) says bar promotions encourage rapid drinking can lead to binge drinking and violence.
“It is all rather depressing that people are proposing to ban happiness.”

The Morning After Risky Sex Pill
=================================
The equivalent of a “morning-after” pill will be given to people who suspect
they have been exposed to HIV.

Pot Is Good For Everything
=================================
In a study appearing in a scientific journal today, researchers have found that
marijuana users may be able to smoke and eat all they want without gaining
weight.
“They were eating more. They consumed more calories but their body weight was
somewhat lower,” Smit said yesterday.
“I’ve heard of this so-called munchie attack. I guess it’s kind of a gateway
drug to potato chips.”

Orphans Said Hurt by Stutter Tests
=================================
For four months during the Great Depression, Mary Tudor instructed a handful of children at an Iowa orphanage in a lesson they would never forget – she taught them to stutter.
The experiment eventually led to a theory that helped thousands of children overcome the speech impediment. But it also condemned some of the children in Tudor’s class to lives as outcasts and misfits.

Godzilla Meat For Sale Now
=================================
Japan’s best-known monster, Godzilla, is coming to stores soon – canned.
“Godzilla Meat,” actually 3.5 ounces of corned beef from Tokyo toy maker Takara Co., is packaged with pictures of the stomping, fire-breathing, irradiated dinosaur made famous by Toho movies that started coming out in the 1950s.
“People can eat Godzilla and become energetic and powerful. It’s got dreams mixed in with fun,”

God Is My Insurance Agent
=================================
A lay preacher who claimed he did not need car insurance because God had given him divine protection from harm has been fined nearly £800.

Balls To Die For
=================================
A 51-year-old scuba diver from Hickory drowned while searching for golf balls in a shallow, murky pond at a Lincoln County golf course Monday.
The inexperienced diver and his 38-year-old partner were diving in a large pond about 8 feet deep at the 15th hole of Westport Golf Club.
Around 1:30 p.m., the younger diver realized his partner was in trouble when he didn’t surface after the usual 15 minutes underwater. He scanned for some sign of the other diver. Then he asked a golfer to call 911.

Have You Asked the Rudest Question?
=================================
If there is a communication that corrupts good manners most, it must be the ill-advised question. Now a respected American arbiter of etiquette has declared that the rudest question of all is “Why aren’t you married?”

Revenge?
=================================
A 17-year-old juvenile, who may face charges for distributing a nude photograph of two classmates online, wanted revenge against the male in the picture, police said.
The juvenile, who is not named because of his age, was petitioned to Luzerne County Court on charges of harassment by communication and displaying obscene and other sexual material – both misdemeanors. He also faces felony charges of criminal use of a communication facility, said Exeter police Sgt. Leonard Galli. The photograph, which featured a 15-year-old male and a 15-year-old female, both of whom were naked, was taken during a gathering of friends at a house, Galli said. The teens were naked, but “not totally exposed,” he said, and would not describe the picture in greater detail.

MMmm

I want some purple throat potion, or Dr. Phineas Prescott’s Patented Guaranteed Cure-All Pain Reducing Powdered Fizzy Water Supplements.

Someone mentioned a virus to me that affects wasps. It encrypts the DNA in their semen…however, if the female wasp is also a host to the virus, it decrypts the semen and allows reproduction to occur.

The stuff is bacteria of genus Wolbachia. To quote a scientific article…”Wolbachia are cytoplasmically inherited bacteria found in many arthropods. They induce various reproductive alterations in their hosts, including cytoplasmic incompatibility, thelytokous parthenogenesis, feminization and male-killing.”

Some explanation:

cytoplasmically inherited: this means that children are automatically infected, because the bacteria live inside the cells.

cytoplasmic incompatibility: Infected individuals will only produce offspring with other infected individuals. Or in most insects, infected females can mate with everyone to produce offspring, but infected males will not produce offspring with uninfected females (“everyday there is more of them, and less of us….”)

Mother………………Father……………….Children
Infected…………….clean…………………infected
Infected…………….infected…………….infected
Clean………………..clean…………………..clean
Clean………………… infected…………….dead

The mechanism is also called “kamikaze sperm”, because it kills all fertilized eggs in the uninfected female, even those already fertilized by uninfected males!

thelytokous parthenogenesis: A female can produce other females from unfertilized eggs. These females are clones of the mother. arrhenotokous parthenogenesis means that males are produced from unfertilized eggs.

feminization: pretty clear, males turning into females.

male-killing: use your imagination. Actually, I think it means that male offspring of an infected mother die in the womb.

Scary stuff. I wonder if I could work that into a story for the future, as a ‘people virus’.

A strain infecting humans would definitly be a very fun device. The fact that Wolbachia is a bacteria means that it is susceptible to antibiotics and heat. Parthenogenous wasps held at high temperatures or given antibiotics will suddenly produce male children.

A fascinating subject.

Next thought: how parasitoids eat their victims from within and influence their behavior. Isn’t entomology fun?

I’ve been behind on my blood donation/apheresis lately. (If I’m going to get pierced later, I’ll have to take 6 mos to a year off… so I’d better get it in now)

And walkies.

New efforts will be redoubled to make sure that I get on schedule for those.

After the other day’s hoax, this occurs… It may just be me, but it seems that it wouldn’t be that hard to use Microsoft’s SharePoint Team Services as a back-end for a weblog. You don’t need a SQL Server database to run it; it will install MSDE (essentially, SQL Server lite) if you want it to. All in all, it’s a pretty interesting thing to think about — Microsoft muscling in on the weblog space. If Lj ever bites the biscuit, I’ll probably use that.

Speaking of which – More on Smart Tags: it seems that, in true American fashion, people are now considering lawsuit ideas to end Microsoft’s newest concept. I don’t know if I’ve heard anything more preposterous or legally specious. Could Opera be held legally liable for copyright violations because its web browser lets you turn off style sheets, and change the fonts, colors, and link styles of any web page? Heck, Netscape 6 will automatically translate web pages into other languages, and that’s pretty much the definition of a derivative work. People need to get over their apocalyptic fear of Microsoft — it’s making them look like real dingalings.