Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

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Thursday, November 6. 2008

Thursday morning links

What's new with brain-computer interfacing?

Psychologists study the minds and brains of psychopaths. The New Yorker. It's important to be able to identify psychopaths, so you can stay away from them.

Very useful new office stamp. Every desk needs one of these.

Tagging Bluefin Tuna. Very cool. I did not know that they were essentially a warm-blooded fish.

Ran a mile with a rabid fox clamped to her arm. Sounds like something from Carl Hiassen.

Red really is the color of love. h/t, Flares. Hmmm. I think most women look best in black.

China's Space industry is taking off

Dr. William Gray on The Over-Hyping of Green. We view "green" as simply a fashionable marketing tool, but we are big on land and marine conservation.

Women have more germs than men.

A nice post on Crichton at Reference Frame

Oldest Hebrew text found

Thinking about how T.S. Eliot found God. I sorta wish Gaghdad would resist the temptation to spill into politics.

Crusading for the Everglades, behind the scenes. Good for her, and good for Paul Tudor Jones too. Rich folks have their purposes.

"Poverty and disadvantage are a better preparation for success than wealth and capitalizing on advantage.” Malcolm Gladwell. Adversity helps. But what is "success"?

Markets in everything: "gold-farming" in China

"A successful market-timing Man will typically have a portfolio composed of 60% High-end Hookers, 30% High-end GFs and 10% value High-end Wives when the market is bottoming. As the cycle comes around..." read the rest.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:00 | Comments (30) | Trackback (1)

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A new stamp for the office
I am going to have one of these made just for the hell of it: Hat tip to Theo via Maggie's Farm...
Weblog: Synthstuff - music, photography and more...
Tracked: Nov 06, 18:40

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So the old saw about girls having cooties is true? I mean I had my suspicions as the idea of being love-sick seemed somewhat dubious, but it's cleary a matter of the germs carried by the object of our affections. Ewww, cooties.

Okay, on a serious note: I have heard for years that men do not wash their hands after using the johnny (from appalled women mostly). In my personal experience this is simply not true, but with this new finding I'd like more research into the whole issue of how well women are washing their hands after a bathroom break.
#1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 07:33 (Reply)
I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would clamp a rabid fox to their arm before going running. Does it make you run faster?
#2 Ray on 2008-11-06 10:39 (Reply)
The latest fashion statement from PETA?

Personally, I like a nice gorilla clamped onto my back for my morning run. The cardio workout is so enhanced, you know.
`
#2.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 11:17 (Reply)
Weasels are much light but have all of the cardio benefits of gorillas. Plus, gorillas smell bad and they don't wash their hands after potty.

I once spotted a disoriented beaver heading towards the beach near my home. A woman was approaching the beast with an extended hand as though she wanted it to check her scent prior to her petting it's thick, desirable coat. I offered this wisdom: It cuts down trees with those teeth. The moral of this tail is if you want to pet a beaver it's better to stun the creature with a large rock first. The same lesson would apply to rabid foxes.
#2.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 12:08 (Reply)
Whack the beaver before you pet it?

Are you gay, Jephnol?

:} hahhhahahahaha...... I'm kidding.
`
#2.1.1.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 12:37 (Reply)
Dear Meta,

Would you rather I told a tale of choking the chicken?

The story was not a metaphor advocating for the abuse of roofies or espousing emasculating fears of the vagina dentata.

I appreciate the fact that a reference to beavers puts you in mind of the fairer sex. We drive through the north country quite frequently and on our trips we pass a place called Beaver Hollow and that has been fodder for some colorful humor. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

As to the question of my orientation, well, do you color your hair?
#2.1.1.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 13:01 (Reply)
I like when Habu called it the 'pudenda'. It sounds so Mexican.
Unlike 'vagina dentata'. That sounds dental. Why are men pudenda avoidant? I never understood that.

What is a roofie? And you can say anything you want and I'll laugh. You have it down for laughing. We need more of it.

No. Don't color my hair. Or paint my nails. And when my tractor runs out of gas at the farthest point from my house, I put the gas tank in my truck and drive it to the tractor. :)
`
#2.1.1.1.1.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 17:25 (Reply)
A roofie is a small club for knocking out a beaver before the lecherous strokes its luxurious fur. It is named after the handle end of a roof-wedge, which is a short handled pitchfork like tool used by roofers to lift up shingles and knock out their girlfriends. It is illegal in fifty states. It might also refer to Rohypnol; that's illegal, too. Something about dating....

Vagina dentata is dental. It refers to something Freud made up about, well, a beaver with teeth that chewed on wood. Some nonsense about archetypal fears and longings.

Pudenda is from the Latin pudenda, which apparently has something to do with shame. (Apparently the latins were hitting the same pipe as Freud). It refers to both male and female naughty bits, but more the womans. Haven't you ever heard the expression "pulling your pud"? As in "Hey, Joe! Stop pulling your pud and help me move these boxes."
#2.1.1.1.1.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 18:10 (Reply)
You are so cleverly naughty. I don't know about anyone not willing to stop pulling their pud to move a box. There's a cool beach song that sings, "Baby, lemme bang your box, Baby lemme bang your box." I don't think they were talking about using a roofie. I think 'pudenda' should be like the Mexican hat dance only with sex in mind. Like the tango. Or most dances for that matter with the exception of the Quadrille. But I think women of that time had their tatas pushed way up so it all about sex anyway. I like crotch-grabbing hip-hop. Now that....if you don't get turned-on, theys sumthin' wrong wit yew.
`
#2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 19:50 (Reply)
jephnol ... I do like a man who distracts us from grieving by starting a new, unwinnable fight. This is like the intrusive sex researchers who ask intimate questions of strangers and expect to get honest answers. You think anyone -- anyone!-- is going to answer you honestly about their bathroom habits? Get real, sweetie. But nice try. It's a good distraction.

And while we're being distracted, here's a question I've been wondering about. How can ignorant busybody environmentalists who have obviously never been to the Cold Far North, have the gall to expect us to obey them about not drilling for much needed oil on a patch of frozen tundra the size of Dulles Airport? And get away with it? Talk about chutzpah!

Marianne
#3 Marianne Matthews on 2008-11-06 10:44 (Reply)
Marianne, I would never presume to ask if you were inclined to wash your hands under any circumstances; my faith in you is complete.

You--no gossamer advocate for the noble qualities of humanity--are a sober critic of the vagaries of the human condition. The potential of character to be weighted in favor of either side of a moral scale is the stuff of your meditations. You are not, in my experience of your writing, inclined to favor affirming conclusions of a dubious nature. Your orientation is towards the truth of a matter, and so I ask you: Do most of the women you know wash their hands well after potty?

Respectfully,

Jephnol
#3.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 11:56 (Reply)
Marianne, the same way hundreds of psychologists study psychopaths but have never met one. From the article above. Where's Commander Clopfelter? He'll be interested in that one.

Love the WTF? sticker. I sure could have used it when I was teaching. ... On my administrators.

Women wash their hands, turn the nobs off with a paper towel and hit the door with their elbows. If they need to actually touch the door, they do it with the paper towel and then toss the paper towel in the direction of the trash can.
`
#4 Meta on 2008-11-06 11:24 (Reply)
Meta dear, do you dress the seat of a public toilet? Cause my mamma told me and, my mamma's mamma told me to always dress the seat with toilet paper. I forgot about the hand washing. : )
#4.1 jappy on 2008-11-06 12:22 (Reply)
No, Jappy. I put a nice hat on it and then some stilletos near the base of the hopper so no road-weary traveler who doesn't bother to look beneath the door first will bang through the door and bonk my head as I hold myself up off the seat.


I want you to be the first of the site-males to run down the beach in a Speedo. I don't care if the other girls want BD or Barrister. I want you. Yay!
`
#4.1.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 12:44 (Reply)
"I put a nice hat on it and then some stilletos near the base of the hopper so no road-weary traveler who doesn't bother to look beneath the door first will bang through the door and bonk my head as I hold myself up off the seat."

I have to tell you I'm finding this picture disturbingly arousing.
#4.1.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 13:11 (Reply)
P. S. Forgot to mention above that the "patch of frozen tundra" I mention is a tiny part of ANWR, contiguous to a drilling area which has been producing heavily for some years, and is owned by one of the privately held oil companies in the U.S. As I may have mentioned before, investor-held oil companies in the U.S. and elsewhere represent a little less than 10% of the world's oil producing companies. The rest of the world's oil producing companies are owned and operated by various governments. That small 10% has, and can only have, a tiny effect on world oil prices. So punishing our investor-held oil companies by new, heavy "windfall" profits taxes won't change world oil prices except perhaps to make them even higher. And none of us would like that.

Just a thought ...

Marianne
#5 Marianne Matthews on 2008-11-06 11:39 (Reply)
BD.

Can you explain this to me, please? For once I won't say anything nasty about the good doctor.....well, other than to generalize is to lose your argument and to make you look like a "doubledunce" - something I am according to him..... Help.

"The irony is that any scientist who actually takes the trouble to think deeply is a philosophical realist. There is no great mathematician who is not an explicit or implicit Platonist. For example, G. H. Hardy, in his A Mathematician's Apology, wrote that "It would be difficult now to find an educated man quite insensitive to the aesthetic appeal of mathematics.... A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas." Who could argue with that proposition but an innumerate illiterate, or atheistic doubledunce?"
`
#6 Meta on 2008-11-06 11:45 (Reply)
Sometimes with him you just have to go with the flow...
#6.1 BD on 2008-11-06 19:33 (Reply)
jephnol, you devil ... I haven't been going out as much as I used to, but in my [by now] limited experience, most women do indeed make a pass at the soap and water before exiting the Ladies' Room. I Should Hope So!

I would, however, draw your attention to dreary statistics that hospitals have found that both doctors and nurses frequently fail to wash between visiting patients, which is one of the factors in increasingly high iatrogenic infections of hospital patients who have submitted their weary bodies to the attentions of so-called medical 'professionals' who are supposed to help them get well from what ails them.

Isn't that a nice word ...' iatrogenic?'

Marianne
#7 Marianne Matthews on 2008-11-06 12:39 (Reply)
Great word, Marianne. Diseases passed between medical professionals. ick.

My fear is at the dentist. I watch everything they touch, and I ask, embarrassedly, if they changed the little plastic covering on the light handle. I really get the willies about that.

I also watch carefully at Subway. They seem to hire morons, so I always watch to make sure they keep the same gloves on while they make my sub and don't touch anything else.

Now, I don't have a problem sticking my tongue on a frozen light pole. I don't know why that is.
`
#7.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 12:58 (Reply)
iatrogenic: It's just bad form

As for female hands being home to more bacteria, I would like to posit this may be an evolutionary adaptation designed to expose infants to more germs to stimulate their immune systems. If I understand correctly, many health problems in otherwise healthy children are thought to exist due to a lack of early exposure to germs.

Also, the article states hand washing has no impact of the bacteria counts. Apparently the bacteria return as soon as they are removed. It is not a question of hygiene, as funny as that contention may be.
#7.2 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 13:56 (Reply)
My pediatrician said not to wash my baby's pacifier. He said if it dropped onto the floor, kick it around the floor a bit and give it back to the baby. Oh, yeah...and if the dog slobbered all over baby's face, that was good, too.
`
#7.2.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 17:35 (Reply)
You have a dog?
#7.2.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 18:46 (Reply)
Yes. Three dogs. A Yorkie and two pit bulls. The Yorkie rules the small ponies.
`
#7.2.1.1.1 Meta on 2008-11-06 22:17 (Reply)
Jappy,

My apologies. I never looked you up before I headed over to KTP.
#8 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 13:18 (Reply)
Did you get that special gun? Check out Rock River Arms. There's always next time. Hope your doing well!
#8.1 jappy on 2008-11-06 13:29 (Reply)
I passed on the Socom II. What I settled on was a Smith & Wesson M&P15 carbine. It's a 5.56/223 in an AR configuration. I read reviews, which were very positive, and my experience at the range is bearing out the review conclusions: It's accurate out of the box and it functions reliably.
#8.1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 13:37 (Reply)
Now that we've moved on from female hygiene to the ever-fascinating subject of guns, how much additional ammunition [410 shotgun shells] would you experts advise me to buy for my house gun [the Taurus The Judge with the 6 inch barrel] so that when the Presidential One decides to outlaw house guns and sport guns, I won't be caught short without enough ammunition before 2012? I expect that Badly Intentioned Persons will only increase in the next 4 years. And that I will become more decrepit.

Marianne
#9 Marianne Matthews on 2008-11-06 15:13 (Reply)
I suppose 10 rounds would be a good number, just because it'll be nice to have extra floating around.
#9.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2008-11-06 15:43 (Reply)
Let's not be so negative. If this guy operates to the left of Clinton, I see a big reversal in congressional elections in 2010. Lefty government moves slow too (they're incompetent, remember), so it'll be end of next year before they start doing any damage. And with 2010 on the horizon, the smart ones will turn on Neo to save their own skins by mid-2010. That's all they really care about (their own skins, that is). With the market tanking the last two days, I've already heard some buyer's remorse. Negativity is their game, I know I don't plan to make it mine.
#9.1.1 KRW on 2008-11-06 20:18 (Reply)

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