You like ships. You don't seem to be looking at the destinations. What you care about is the ships, and mine's the nicest.

Kaylee ,'Serenity'


Natter 68: Bork Bork Bork  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Hil R. - Aug 01, 2011 9:20:24 am PDT #18847 of 30001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

I just blanch at all those web forms that can't be submitted without first and last names filled in. It would really chafe me to have to fake it.

I was just reading something about how Google+ requires a first and last name, and some Aborigines are protesting it, since they traditionally have just one name. (No one has actually come forward and said, "I have just one name and Google+ won't let me sign up," though, since, according to the article, most Aborigines who have much contact with the outside world also have a two-name name that they use.)


Lee - Aug 01, 2011 9:24:17 am PDT #18848 of 30001
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.

I took today off of work too so that I could do stuff like grocery shop and clean, but somehow all I've done so far is sit on the couch and figure out that if I make a quick run to the Safeway tomorrow night, I can hold off on real grocery shopping until next weekend.


Strega - Aug 01, 2011 9:27:52 am PDT #18849 of 30001

I don't think this was linked here, but I also don't remember exactly where I ran across it...

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names: [link]


Calli - Aug 01, 2011 9:31:29 am PDT #18850 of 30001
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

Aims, I can't recommend Band-aid Blister Block highly enough: [link]

I'd suggest wearing your walking shoes for a short walk before DC, noting any areas that rub even a little, then using Blister Block on them before every DC walk. I don't know if it's made of simmered unicorn tears or what, but it has saved my feet many times. I bought a new stick of it just for my trip to France this fall.


hippocampus - Aug 01, 2011 9:33:52 am PDT #18851 of 30001
not your mom's socks.

Anyone have some helpful links to point an older person to about the reasons why a Federal Balanced Budget Amendment may not do what Faux says it will do?


Hil R. - Aug 01, 2011 9:37:57 am PDT #18852 of 30001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

I've got a lot of students from China, and the class lists that I get seem to have no logic at all behind how they sort out personal name and family name. Like, a kid with the personal name Jingmei and the family name Chen could be listed in different university computer systems as "Chen, Jingmei" or "Jingmei, Chen" or (I had one of these last semester that always screwed up the alphabetizing) "Meichen, Jing." Or sometimes "Jingmeichen" or "Meichenjing" or something else entirely. I get student lists from a few different university offices, and frequently have to check one list against a different one to make sure the same students are on both lists, and there will usually be several names that are written differently on the different lists.


Tom Scola - Aug 01, 2011 9:38:32 am PDT #18853 of 30001
hwæt

Ezra Klein

Nate Silver

The Economist

Jared Bernstein


P.M. Marc - Aug 01, 2011 9:47:17 am PDT #18854 of 30001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

My sister works there! What broke you?

Uncanny Valley! Or, rather, Uncanny Canal!


Jesse - Aug 01, 2011 9:56:18 am PDT #18855 of 30001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names: [link]

OMG, the comments on that thing.


hippocampus - Aug 01, 2011 10:01:45 am PDT #18856 of 30001
not your mom's socks.

Thanks, Scola. Marked and printed out and likely to be used several times.