Mostly lemon based

Day: August 11, 2014

  • rememberwhenyoutried:

    One thing I love about Star Trek: The Motion Picture is that the characters talk up the risk of going to warp speed inside the solar system, and when they do and it turns out the engines haven’t been properly calibrated they fall into a wormhole and nearly destroy the ship. Compare with Star…

    See, that was the thing that disappointed me most about Enterprise. I don’t think I ended up watching all of it, but the bits I did watch they would go “Oh, we’re going to do this technically complicated and risky thing” and lo, it would work.

    And I’d go ‘oh’. And get very bored.

  • General Malaise

    So we got back yesterday after a very nice wedding at which we met lots of new, nice people, and worked our socialising abilities to the max. Neither Kathryn nor I seem terribly big on socialising, and find it pretty hard going, so after the wedding/reception/next day BBQ we were both completely people’d out.

    I very much don’t want to sound ungrateful. I am honoured to have been invited, and it was a pleasure to be there and witness the ceremony, but it reminded me that outside of work, when I don’t have my work-head on, I find peopling pretty damn hard. I don’t have great social skills so trying to maintain small-talk conversations with people I don’t know is quite a challenge.

    Anyhow, so we got back, and today I’m totally in the malaise category of behaviour today. I had vaguely thought about changing the ignition unit in the Austin, but then realised that it wants me to set the timing with the engine running at 1000 rpm. Whilst I have a strobe, mine doesn’t also give me the RPM, sadly (I’ve seen one that does, it ain’t mine). I’ve therefore popped in an order for a 10 quid ebay special laser tachometer*. But that does mean that I can’t do that today.

    I also took my Disclosure and Barring Service (Criminal Records check) to the nursing agency – a quick way to test out the new exhaust I felt, but forgot to take along proof of ID. So I’ll need to send that to them, too. Gah. I mean, the point of the journey was to test the exhaust, so I did achieve that, but could have done with having succeeded in the secondary point.

    I’ve also realised that my cunning plan to do 3 shifts this week has failed because I’ve managed to arrange a variety of other things that need doing too. All of these things, and a headache, are conspiring to not put me in the best of moods. But never mind.

    I have written a little one-year piece for Transport Evolved…

    Anyhow, I should stop whinging and get off my arse. P’raps go and switch the steering wheel for something more traditional.

    * Another tool who’s function will probably diminish rapidly when we get the minor converted.

  • stele3:

    Ferguson Police have dogs and shotguns. The unarmed crowd is raising their hands.

    For anyone not following the Mike Brown story on Twitter: a 17 year old black boy named Mike Brown, who was supposed to start college tomorrow, was shot to death in Ferguson, Missouri by police while jaywalking. He was unarmed. He was shot 9 times.

    Initial media reports claimed that an 18 year old black man had been shot and killed while fleeing police after shoplifting.

    People in the neighborhood, including members of Mike Brown’s family, came out of their homes and began to protest, shouting “no justice, no peace,” and keeping their hands in the air.

    Media reports claimed that a violent mob quickly formed around the shooting location shouting “kill the police.”

    Spread this. Tell the truth about what happened to this boy. Tell the truth about what is happening NOW. The police and the mainstream media is painting him as a criminal, and his community as a violent mob.

    SPREAD THIS. Don’t let them lie.

  • medievalpoc:

    Math and Science Week!

    aseantoo submitted to medievalpoc:

    Kamoya Kimeu

    [x], [x]

    Yet another Paleontologist of Color! And a really important one, too,

    Kamoya Kimeu (c. 1940-) began life in Kenya as a peasant, but was hired as a labourer on the paleontology expeditions of Louis and Mary Leakey. As soon as he got over the taboo of digging up human remains (associated with witchcraft in his culture), he distinguished himself as a particular talent for discovering and identifying fossils.

    He went on to become the right-hand man for Richard Leakey‘s expeditions, then took over operations, and was named the National Museums of Kenya’s curator for all prehistoric sites in Kenya.

    His discoveries include a nearly complete Homo habilis skeleton in 1959, as well as Turkana Boy, the most complete Homo erectus skeleton ever found, in 1984.Two fossil primates have been named after him: Kamoyapithecus hamiltoni and Cercopithecoides kimeui.

    Sadly, almost all the credit for Kenyan paleoanthropology has gone to the British-born Leakey family. Let’s change that, shall we?

    [x], [x]

    medievalpoc:

    Math and Science Week!

    aseantoo submitted to medievalpoc:

    Kamoya Kimeu

    [x], [x]

    Yet another Paleontologist of Color! And a really important one, too,

    Kamoya Kimeu (c. 1940-) began life in Kenya as a peasant, but was hired as a labourer on the paleontology expeditions of Louis and Mary Leakey. As soon as he got over the taboo of digging up human remains (associated with witchcraft in his culture), he distinguished himself as a particular talent for discovering and identifying fossils.

    He went on to become the right-hand man for Richard Leakey‘s expeditions, then took over operations, and was named the National Museums of Kenya’s curator for all prehistoric sites in Kenya.

    His discoveries include a nearly complete Homo habilis skeleton in 1959, as well as Turkana Boy, the most complete Homo erectus skeleton ever found, in 1984.Two fossil primates have been named after him: Kamoyapithecus hamiltoni and Cercopithecoides kimeui.

    Sadly, almost all the credit for Kenyan paleoanthropology has gone to the British-born Leakey family. Let’s change that, shall we?

    [x], [x]

  • outerlabia:

    fpti:

    earlygr4ves:

    i walked into health and screamed and the teacher goes “you’re the 7th person today. they’re cpr dummies.”

    jesus christ

    they’re calling to mother for food

    Of course, you need to remember that the face of the Resusi Anne/ie dolls is based on the face of an unidentified woman who drowned in the Seine in the 19th century…