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Today's clever new cat trick.
If you wait for the monkey to water the plants and then you push them off the shelf, it makes lots of exciting water on the floor!
If Nim figures out this works for Christmas trees I'm going to have a really rough holiday. -
Why we have no choice but to vote for Onorato.
Here in Pittsburgh, we all associate Onorato with the Poured Beverage Tax. Pretty much everyone who likes beer or bars dislikes that tax, and I think it's pretty stupid- sin taxes are generally just a way of targeting the weak. So on general principle it wouldn't break my heart to see Onorato lose the Governor's race ( Read more... ) -
I am annoyed...
...that all my favorite web sites have full-page video ads for Republican candidates. Those guys have too damn much money. OK, Sestak == taxes, Toomey == Love and the American Way. I get it. Enough already!
I know the Democrats are doomed and idiocy will rule over all. Let's be done with this. -
Ask LJ: third-party iPhone headphones?
So my iPhone earbuds are starting to fail. This is the second pair that has done so, and I'm nowhere near replacing the iPhone 3G yet. There are a lot of third party replacements available, with prices from $20 to above $200, and I have no idea what a realistic price for a reasonable set would be. Does anyone have experience or recommendations ( Read more... ) -
Farewell to All That
Sad to say, I ran out of astronomy funding at the beginning of September. I'm not out of money or anything; I've just lost a very satisfying project for the time being. There is at least one more proposal in the works, and *I* think it's really excellent, so maybe by this time next year I'll be doing astronomy again ( Read more... ) -
NIH has shut down its embryonic stem cell labs
Science (the magazine) reports that in response to last week's court order halting all federal funding for research involving embryonic stem cells or fetal tissue of any kind, the NIH has ordered a halt to all its internal ESC research. These are pretty much all Bush-era stem cell lines; these projects have apparently been going on for years. So ( Read more... ) -
Born to run!
Today was Run Around the Square, a very playful 5K run in Regent Square. I went, as I have for the past few years. This year it was just erink and me ( Read more... ) -
And the bad guys win again.
You may recall that back in March Obama lifted Bush's executive order banning NIH funding for embryonic stem cell research, and Bush's ban on using ESC lines which had been grown without mouse cell media (and so were unsuitable for use in medicine). And you may recall that the NIH then went on to develop guidelines for the extraction of ESCs from ( Read more... ) -
There is a World Series of Gay Softball! Who Knew?
If you're starting to come down from the rush of seeing Prop 8 overturned in California, you might want to savor this: The North American Gay Athletic Association has its World Series of Gay Softball coming up. It will take place in a couple of weeks in no less a gay Mecca than Columbus, OH. This I learned from my friend R, whose team is going to ( Read more... ) -
Earthquake!
Hey, I think I felt that earthquake in Canada. Nothing as exciting as the quakes in Taiwan, which my brother says aren't considered serious unless they shake the water out of the toilet, but it's my first earthquake!