Possible differences in Richard III if the title Richard was a humpback rather than a hunchback:

• They'd need a much bigger stage than most theaters have
• Probably Richmond could not have killed Richard without more specialized equipment than a sword
• The squeaks and whalesong would not be ideally suited to sweet-talking widows
• Update: A whale would look funny in a crown.

Recipe: Tamale-type Corn Cake Thingies (like at Hamburger Hamlet)
Materials

• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup pancake-mix
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• about 1/2 cup room temperature water
• sbout 1/2 cup corn kernals (freshly scraped or thawed frozen)

Preparing the batter

• Stir together cornmeal, pancake-mix, sugar and salt in a big ol' bowl.
• Stir in water until the batter is smooth. The texture should be quite viscous.
• Stir in corn kernals until evenly distributed

Cooking

• Add about 1/4 of an inch of neutral oil to the bottom of a saucepan. Heat until small water drops flung into the oil (from a respectful distance, mind you) kick up oil vigorously but not violently. I'll get a thermometer and determine the actual temperature later.
• Make drops of batter approximately 3 inches in diameter in the hot oil. When a golden-brown color begins to show about 1/3 of the way up the side of the cake, turn and cook until done (total about 2 minutes).
• Remove cakes from oil and drain excess oil.
• Serve with delicious sauces and garnishes that I will figure out another day.

Reminder:

Anyone is welcome to comment!

All you have to do is click the "comments" link at the end of the post you wish to comment on. A window will come up where you can put a name in the name box if you like (the email and URL boxes don't have to be filled out unless you want to) and write what you have to say in the comments box.

Seriously, is there anybody out there? Just nod if you can hear me.

Mathematical terms that sound like spy novels:

• The Fredholm Alternative
• Absolute Convergence
• Exponents of Singularity
• The Frobenius Method
• Impulse Response
• The Parseval Equation
• Asymptotic Expansion
• The Fixed Point
• Separatrix
• The Tautochrone
• The Outer Product
• The Vector Product

Good quiz. Via Pharyngula.

I see a lot of things going on lately that suggest when the bathwater gets too cool, or too soapy, or too wet, one should not hesitate to chuck it right out, baby or not...

John Adams Hurson, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates who is president of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said: "I am a Democrat, a liberal Democrat, but we can't sustain the current Medicaid program. It's fiscal madness. It doesn't guarantee good care, and it's a budget buster. We need to instill a greater sense of personal responsibility so people understand that this care is not free."

So the problem with providing healthcare for the very poor is that we have too many poor and their health needs are too great. Well, restricting their access to healthcare is definitely one way of reducing the number of poor people.

Today the Oregon Supreme Court was hearing cases in the PAC at my school. Any student could watch, but then when they broke for lunch they came into my class to eat, and the class had to go to the computer lab to work on stuff, or they could stay and talk to the Justices. My friends Kelly, Maddie, Thea and myself were the only ones to stay and talk to the justices. I met Jusctice Robert Durham, and he told me to call him Skip because he likes that name. So that was pretty neat-o.

In another town shill hall-style event about Social Security removal reform, Vice President Dick Cheney and various communicants congregants citizens referred to the Democratic Party as people of "the other faith."

This should make people uncomfortable- the continual establishment of an out-group by may be sound as politics-by-division, but the final result of that tactic leaves us farther from comity than ever. In fact, it sets us on the slippery-slope of contracting the moral circle... and that is a scary proposition (outside the moral circle is a scary preposition).

It reminds me of (of all things) a Tom Clancy novel, where the protagonist says something about politicans from one state promising to stick it to people from another state and wondering rhetorically if residents of that "other" state are not Americans, too.

How republican are you?

Go. Forth. Camel. Giddy. Up.

Yay for Megan! I was selected to be a delegate for Girls State, a political camp in Willamatte(?) just for girls to go and ...learn about government! Yay! What we do is we make our own government, lobby for bills, etc. It's a nationwide thing, and each state selects two girls to be senators, and then those girls all go to D.C. and introduce new bills. I want to be a senator. And hopefully, I will be elected director of the CIA. The only problem is that the organization is really republican, so I'm afraid I may be ostrasized. Well I got it, and that's the first step, eh?

Hmm...it occurs to me that I should probably make it clear I'm not trying to hint at anything with these last two posts. Just thought the Slate article was interesting, and Tom told me about the Name Wizard thing the other day, which I found to be way too nifty not to share. So no speculating, all ye speculators!

The Baby Name Wizard - NameVoyager is pretty neat. I killed a good half an hour last night just typing in random names and seeing how popular they've been over the past hundred years.

Interesting Slate article about baby names, how they become popular/unpopular, various historical trends, etc. Jack and Jill, meet Aldo and Annika.

Fair Verona this ain't.

Passed. Still not totally official, as one of the four profs didn't show- I'll have to present to him later. However, it says "Passed" on the examination result line. Go me.

Wow. Google now offers satellite mapping through their regular map engine. For free.

Tick... tock... tick... tock... (reminds me of something I think Dennis Miller said about Morley Safer gettin' old: "How do you think he likes the sound of that clock ticking?!" Mind you, this was in the 90s (I mean the date, not Safer- though that's not an unreasonable estimate))

April fools from Google. Funny folks, those Google peoples.

Requiescat in pace, Mitch Hedberg... He made me laugh until I cried.

Now here's a cool thing - a watch that monitors your sleep pattern and wakes you up at the most optimal time. Definitely a neat gadget.

Penny Construction Project: Creations built entirely out of pennies. No glue, no additional support of any kind. Really neat. (And a good band name.)

Cool new MRI application.

Good ol' McSweeney's: Lyrics to the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" if they were written by a muskrat instead of by Billy Joel.

Funny CNN headline: Laura Bush Making Unannounced Trip to Afghanistan
Um...so much for unannounced, there, CNN.

Gee, this is great. There's a law on the books to prevent collection agencies from defaulting active-duty military personnel (or their spouses) on loans, mortgages, etc. while said personnel are deployed. The problem is, there are a fair number of judges who don't know the law exists, so they've been phenomenally screwing people who are supposed to be protected. Good job, folks.

NCAA+NCLB = Harrison Bergeron? (you'll have to read to the end of the list)

1. All teams must advance to the Sweet 16, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same basketball skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in basketball, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY BASKETBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL.

This morning while walking to the convenience store at Caltech, I saw an really old fat white guy walking a tiny little dog. He was wearing a FUBU sweater.

A completely fascinating piece on This American Life, tonight. In the mid 80's, Jello Biafra was prosecuted in Los Angeles for obscenity by ADA Michael Guarino. The prosecution failed, and eventually, the Guarino dude left the DA's office and has come to like Jello. They spoke, in this piece. It was pretty cool.

I like dried cranberries, but craisins are disgusting. The concept is great, but the consistency is all wrong, and I accidentally got the cherry flavored kind... ugh.

More animal blogging...this is totally wacky. There's a small species of octopus that can do this funky two-limbed tiptoe thing. Definitely check out the video clips (requires QuickTime).

Apparently, elephants have now been added to the list of animals that can vocally mimic. Pretty funny.

Here's an interesting NYT article about a problem with urban development that I hadn't really considered:

"Portland is a great city that attracts a lot of educated people. But the real estate is becoming outrageously expensive. And then you get wealthy singles and wealthy retirees. What's missing are kids."

School enrollment in Portland has apparently decreased by 10,000 kids in the last decade, and there are currently more dogs than children in San Francisco.

Target tops wedding registries. Interesting- bed linens and bath towels are the most common items registered for both first-time wedders and repeat offenders.The average wedding gift rings up at about $130, while the average shower gift is roughly $60. Crazy.

Ahh, Susan's kind mother:

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon State football had a stolen sheep in the bed of his pickup when he was pulled over for speeding last week, Benton County authorities said.

That's some alma mater. Ba-dum dum!

The members of the King of Kings Skateboard Ministries team "do not skate for adulation or even for the thrill of catching big air. They skate for Jesus."

Turquoise-colored reproductive organs?!

I probably need this.

Here's a neat, short NYT article about blue lobsters.

Oh man. I would have killed to have been able to do this when I was a kid.

Sick cat

Loki, the evil cat that lives with us, developed a stricture in his urethra a week we took him to his vet. After a week, his vet for some reason did not get back to us about his urinalysis (we took him in last week because he was spending a lot of time at the litterbox to little effect). So yesterday we took him to the emergency animal clinic and they had to catheterize the poor bastard to allow him to eliminate liquid waste.
Damn our regular vet (with whom Loki will be staying for the next few days).

Okay, this is just ridiculously amusing.

Your Honor, the prosecution rests, doggone it.

Some Stanford research profs are working on producing mice that have brains made up of 100% human cells. Fascinating work, but some of the potential ramifications are a wee bit creepy.

There is growing unease over whether human stem cells could migrate to other parts of the animals, creating human sperm or eggs in their reproductive systems. Should two such "chimera mice" mate, it could lead to the nightmarish scenario of a human embryo trapped in a mouse's womb.

Useful Latin phrases for everyday life. (via Geekpress) Magister mundi sum!

Soon, they'll change the name from "Afghanistan" to "Arrakis," and from "heroin" to "spice." (Referring to Frank Herbert's Dune, wherein a planet called Arrakis is the source of a potent drug (spice) used throughout the universe, supplying great power to whomever controls Arrakis. Like Afghanistan, only with no competitors. And magic. And interstellar space travel. And giant sand worms.)

"Excuse me, Mr. Bolton, but we're not taking your picture for the new Got Milk? ad until after the press conference..."

Hehe. Dinosaurs have problems, too.

Trying to schedule my candidacy exam. I have 75% of my committee members on board... getting so close. Currently it looks like April 4-10. Wish me luck in herding four cats.

Update: Zero hour: April 6th, 3:30pm.

Hey...how'd my cat get to New York?

Crazy Jennifer Government inspired game.

Corphish, power pinchers!

People who play games like these must not have actual employment.

Things you might say about the Bush administration if it were a sitcom or other weekly tv show.

Hamster music. Actually sounds pretty interesting. Begins to resemble an Elizabethan folk song, or something, towards the end.

Stupid hurts.

Holy floating berg, Batman! (via Geekpress)

#1 public enemy: the Canada goose. #1 public defender: the falconer.

Burninating the cocktail sauce!

Google just keeps getting cooler. Now you can get movie showtimes by entering the movie title and zip code.

Vivienne the virtual girlfriend, huh? With this system, men pay real money to woo a virtual girl via their cellphones. Sure, the language translation feature might be handy, but the rest of it is just a little too creepy for me.

Got God?

Andrew Sullivan is a dumb jerk. But he can write fairly well. I agree about 30% with his thesis, but enjoyed the piece.

Who knew there was so much history behind the song on that annoying Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper commercial?

Remembering Lenny, with tidbits about the new L&O spinoff.

Gone for good
The Shins

Untie me, I've said no vows
The train is getting way too loud
I gotta leave here my girl
Get on with my lonely life

Just leave the ring on the rail
For the wheels to nullify

Until this turn in my head
I let you stay and you paid no rent
I spent twelve long months on the lam

That's enough sitting on the fence
For the fear of breaking dams

I find a fatal flaw
In the logic of love
And go out of my head

You love a sinking stone
That'll never elope
So get used to the lonesome
Girl, you must atone some
Don't leave me no phone number there

It took me all of a year
To put the poison pill to your ear
But now I stand on honest ground, on honest ground

You want to fight for this love
But honey you cannot wrestle a dove
So baby it's clear

You want to jump and dance
But you sat on your hands
And lost your only chance

Go back to your hometown
Get your feet on the ground
And stop floating around

I find a fatal flaw
In the logic of love
And go out of my head

You love a sinking stone
That'll never elope
So get used to used to the lonesome
Girl, you must atone some
Don't leave me no phone number there

It's sort of erudite isn't it, what with the whole poison in the ear reference?

NYT article from a few days ago, about the anti-Christo. I'm amused. I'll have to check out this guy's website when I don't have evil work firewalls blocking me.

More RFID. This story is more interesting than I initially thought. I'll write more, later.

A most heartstrings-tugging short piece from the New Yorker. Abstemiously, anyone? Watch out for the last two lines; it gets sad at the end.

There is something decidedly Gattaca-esque about screening all newborns for genetic disorders. I think if the medical community wants to go ahead with this, they'd better be sure the tests are accurate and the proposed treatments are effective; sounds like neither is the case at the moment, though.

Whoa. This is messed up.

Soooo sore. And tired. That was tough. We got a swank couch at the Salvation Army, though. Pictures of the place are located here. Further pictures to follow.

Moving, tomorrow. See our destination? Lets hope it doesn't rain too much.

For those who can't get enough Homestar Runner, it's the HSR Wiki! Hey, at least now I finally know the parts of the HSR theme song that sounded like gibberish to me. ;)

Dang it, neil5280, how many times do I have to tell you to keep your shoes on when you go listen to politicians debate?

Nice! Postal Service has a new track out.

Religious boosterism is, inch by inch, getting wrapped around the throats of school-children. The result?

One mother, who herself teaches Sunday school but nevertheless opted out of the program, explains it better than I ever could: "I asked them whether Jesus was a Christian and they said 'yes.' When I said, 'Jesus was a Jew,' one girl said, 'But Jesus was a good person.' "

The Onion Infographic:

Vows to drive one another into the sea must be downgraded to vows to drive one another to the beach for a nice weekend.

Great, just what I needed...another reason to hate Shrub.

"This new game is sure to be one of the biggest blockbuster hits of 2005..."

"What is, Can You Beat Ken?"

Fafblog! strikes again.

"Keep your half-octopus females to yourself!" says Giblets. "All they wanna do is digest Giblets and turn him into ink."

"A good woman is like a fine cheese," says me. 
"Or a large hat. Or an aggrieved sasquatch. Or an elephant made outta trees an ropes an lotsa smaller elephants."

"Giblets never wants to see another elephant again!" says Giblets. 
"He is done with them and their cheating hearts! He is burning all pianos!"

"But you love the elephants," says me. "You can't live with em an you can't live without em."

"Cause they tear out your liver an brains an replace em with the fungal herbs of the undead," says Giblets.

Yet another example of airport (in)security.

Here's a word I learned from NPR: melisma.

Hmm. Well I guess I was curious to know if Abe Vigoda was still alive. But I can't imagine having it constantly indicated in my browser.

Band name: Palm Frond Hierarchy

Crazy song...

One More Robot
-Flaming Lips

Unit three thousand twenty one is warming.
Makes a huming sound.
When it circuits duplicates emotion.
And a sense of coldness detaches
As it tries to comfort your sadness.
One more robot learns to be
Something more than a machine

I've been thinking that maybe I've given too much worry to the prominence of Faux News. After all, nobody complains that The Weekly World News, or The National Enquirer isn't really Fair and Balanced © . I mean, they don't exactly interview the Wolfman's supporters when he impregnates a random trailer-dweller, do they?

Eugh...creepy.

That Christo is sure weird. Likes to wrap things?

Middle schoolers....livestock...what's the difference?

So Americans think that foreign aid is one of the largest areas of the federal government budget. What the hell? Washington monthly has a post and link for ya. A table, even.

Scientists have selectively bred tame foxes. I want one. Check it out: Cute! Via Geekpress.

People should be free to raise their children how they see fit? Sounds great! Wonder if anyone will do a bad job? Oh, never mind- the free market will see to it that badly performing parents will not retain their customers children.

Band name: Flap of Jackson. (came up in conversation at work, about solving a physics problem)

Did you know the Disney Co. established a town in Florida called Celebration? I didn't.

Apparently Lynne Cheney's Secret Service codename is SLOTUS. Sounds dirty.

Here's an amusing NYT article: Cook and Tell - Confessions of a Kitchen Romeo

Huh. I didn't know Hilary Swank was The Next Karate Kid.

Quantifying evil.

Off caffeine as of Saturday. Blech. Not gonna be fun.