soapbox

some thoughts, belonging to two rough categories: things-you-might-care-about and things-you-really-should-have-not-bothered-reading.  I’ve mixed them up so that you end up reading everything.

(1) this effect, which we’ll call “The Z Effect”, will certainly have been observed by other blog community members, is amplified due to the sheer size of March Meeting… the Z Effect pertaining to the degree to which a little estrogen-flaunting will go a long long way when applied to clothing choice.  I’m feeling a little wimpy/PC right now so I shan’t elaborate, but the past few days have had some fantastic examples.

(2) Denver is a pretty cool city - this is the first time I’ve spent any significant time downtown.  Sadly, the first thing that I notice is the fact that the whole of Hanover’s eating/dining/drinking establishments are overshadowed by those in a three-block radius around our hotel.  No surprise to anyone, but just commenting.  oh yeah, and the Big Blue Bear is pretty funny.

(3) Probably by sheer chance, but with Murphy-esque improbability, my poster was assigned next to the poster of a guy who is best described as a competitor of the man.  I’m leaving names and content out of this to prevent any Google-induced PR problems, but it was a little awkward.  He was actually very nice to me and we had a bit of discussion on his disagreement with the man - I’m kinda in the middle in terms of agreeing with both sides - and honestly I would like to work for him at some point in the future, but still the whole thing was a little funny.

I had more ones saved up but I’m tired of typing.  Well, tired of sitting, really, and plus I need to go head off to Tim’s talk in a few minutes.  It’s only today that I’ve had any success with the whole Internet thing, since up until then the wireless system seemed overwhelmed to the point of uselessness.

Yeah, heavy metals are great for killing off critics of the state, but really, in order for them to be effective, you can’t use them every week. People do catch on. Plus, you can always push reporters out a window or shoot them.

Today’s case though involves a Russian-American doctor and her daughter in Moscow for a wedding. It turns out now that they’ve both tested positive for thallium poisoning.

The thing that I find really interesting is that the treatment for thallium poisoning is paint. You take oral doses of Prussian blue which is a really nice dark blue pigment. It has some cool chemical properties that allow it to sequester thallium and cesium in the body.