I was just looking through web traffic statistics for K-Squared Ramblings, had just finished reading the top 20 search terms people were finding us with, and started on the list of individual pages linking to the site. I muttered “Ah, direct hits,” and then, at the same time, alenxa and I both started saying “Krakow! Krakow!” (old “Calvin and Hobbes” joke).
Does this sound remotely familiar?
alenxa and I were driving back from lunch when something reminded me of David Bowie’s “A Space Oddity.” This in turn reminded me of a previous conversation — with somebody — about a story or story idea I had read or thought of. The key issue here was the repeated “Major Tom” theme. There are at least the two songs, and I recall hearing that there is at least one more somewhere.
Anyway, the story idea was this: suppose there was some seriously traumatic event – maybe not 9/11 level, maybe more like Challenger, or any of several celebrities who died before their time – that everyone knew about, and everyone was affected by. Now suppose that all memories and records of this event disappeared. But it’s still sitting there, in the back of people’s minds, and every once in a while there’s a song, or a TV movie, or something about this event that no one remembers really happened.
Imagine “Candle in the Wind” without Marilyn Monroe, for instance. Or imagine that an early astronaut really did drift off into space to be lost, and no one remembers Major Tom except a few songwriters, and even they don’t realize they’re remembering his story and not making it up.
Has anyone read a story like this? If not, would anyone like to?
In case anyone was wondering…
The quake was magnitude 4.7, 13 miles outside of Lancaster.
(To be honest, I only checked because I wasn’t sure whether it was an earthquake or just someone moving heavy equipment around in the building.)
Update 4:05pm: Apparently it wasn’t anywhere near Lancaster, but off the coast of Baja (and 5.1).
The report’s still there, but the shake map has been removed, and the Lancaster non-quake is no longer on the map
Sleep
I haven’t been getting nearly enough sleep the last few weeks (weekends excepted) and it’s really starting to catch up.
A few minutes ago I was staring at a web design-related website (I can’t even remember if it was Mezzoblue or A List Apart – I could check by switching over to the other computer, but it emphasizes the point) and my eyes sort of glazed over and I realized just how far into my chair I was slouching.
I decided caffeine was necessary, preferably with sugar. So I trekked to the lunch room only to find the soda machine half-disassembled. I figured I could grab a new box of syrup and put all the pieces back, but since the cabinet was left open I assumed someone was halfway through something and there was some reason it hadn’t been put back together.
So here I am at 4:25 on a Friday afternoon, drinking coffee and eating a candy bar to make sure I stay awake through the last hour of work and the drive home.
Dinosaur Flambe
Here’s an interesting theory: What if it didn’t take months of impact-caused “nuclear” winter to kill off all the dinosaurs? A new report suggests that the impact itself would have released so much heat, it would have flash-burned all life on land within hours. Only those animals protected by, say, the ocean (fish), or rivers (crocodiles), or underground burrows (small mammals) would have survived.
It doesn’t explain the death of aquatic dinosaurs, or (to my mind) the survival of birds, but it’s at least interesting. (As with all fly-in-the-face-of-accepted-theory theories, some skepticism is required. But hey, people used to think that the idea of asteroid-impact extinction was far-fetched.)
It’s a scary idea. Most disaster epics are at least in part about what comes after the disaster. Who lives, what they have to face, how they go on. From Noah to the Day After Tomorrow. Human beings can survive a nuclear winter. Not in as large numbers, not necessarily with civilization intact, but it’s at least possible. If you’ve got only minutes to hours, you’d better have Jor-el and a rocket – or a hell of a lot of bomb shelters – because the world is going bye-bye.
Oh, if you have a chance (and can turn on the sound), check out the DAT link: NPR did a review, but they decided it would be more fun to send their science correspondent than a movie critic!
That New Computer Smell
I picked up the PowerBook! It took me most of my lunch break to get up to the UPS center to pick it up and get back home to drop it off, so all I’ve done is open the box. It looks like I’ll be eating at my desk today.
Checklist
LiveJournal back up? Check.
Phone line back up? Check.
DSL connection stable? Check.
Fixed Ticketmaster order? Mostly.
Pick up PowerBook? ….
Well, I figured UPS would drop by in the early afternoon, so my original plan was to come home for lunch and hope they showed up while I was here. When the phone crapped out and I needed to schedule an SBC tech to come out, I figured 1-5 was a good idea for the same reason. Of course, UPS got here at 11:30, long before I did. So now I’m trying to arrange to pick it up, but because it’s still in the truck, I have to wait until 8:00 before I can get it.
I’m beginning to think I should have just signed for it, only I didn’t want to leave a $1600 computer sitting outside the front door. I suppose I could still just go in at lunch tomorrow.
Back to Ticketmaster: Aimee Mann concert in Anaheim on June 12. Somehow ended up with tickets to her concert in Atlanta on June 16. Last night they told me my order had gotten switched with someone else’s, but today they said I had confirmed it that way on the website. I suppose it’s possible, since I was rushing through the order the night before the wedding, but still… Atlanta? Anyway, even though they say no refunds or exchanges, they will make exceptions in extreme circumstances (like tickets to the right show on the wrong side of the country!), so I have 10 days to send the wrong tickets back.
Anyway, now that the phone line’s working again, it’s time to head back to work.
An interesting angle on the Iraqi prison abuse scandal
Abuse less shocking in light of history
The author compares it to things that have happened in other wars, and looks at it in terms of psychology and sociology research, including our old friend Milgram.
The conclusion seems to be that someone should have seen this coming and put measures in place (clearer orders, stronger accountability, better supervision & training, etc.) to prevent it.
Thoughts?
Giving Blood
In the past several years, I’ve gotten mosquito bites in exactly two places:
1. The Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu. The first day we were in Hawaii, it seemed like I was bitten by every mosquito in the park. The rest of the bugs on the island must have decided I’d been tapped out, because no new bites appeared all week. Of course, the ones I had stayed with me for about a month.
2. Outside alenxa’s parents’ house. Repeatedly.
Maybe it’s just that I don’t spend a lot of time standing around in shorts outside at night. (With three cats in the house, I basically can’t stay inside for more than a few minutes without breaking out the Benadryl.) Or maybe they really do have more mosquitoes there than we do. But lately it seems that every time we go over there, I come back with bug bites. That. Won’t. Stop. Itching.
You know, this might actually be a use for emergency pants. Or just bug repellent.
Logic
One of my coworkers has the following written on his white board:
Knowledge is Power
Power Corrupts
Study Hard: Be Evil