Slacker

Today for lunch, I had some souvlaki at the Pita Pit on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. I noticed that their posted grade from the health inspector was an A with a score of 99.5. Not too shabby, but I had to say I was disappointed. This score was from an inspection last week. When I ate there three weeks ago, I noticed that their health inspection was 101. 101? Did they somehow make the bookstore next door cleaner? I tried to ask the guy at the counter what they had done to get the bonus point, but he just kept saying things like "We try everyday to have the cleanest store possible for you, our customer."

"Thanks, but how did you get more than a perfect score? Do they start from more than 100 and deduct points?"

"We try our best to keep the kitchen as clean as possible."

A search of the Orange County Health Department yielded only the list of scores and not the reasons why 6 scored higher than 100.

Scorpios take note

For years and years, the ruling planet of Scorpio was thought to be Mars. However, with the relatively recent discovery of Pluto, many modern astrologers have taken this planet to rule Scorpio. Any good theory evolves once there are more facts on the table. However, this week, the International Astronomical Union has their XXVIth General Assembly in Prague (the perfect place for an astronomical assembly if you ask me) and the hot topic for debate is whether or not Pluto should remain a planet. Or should it become a "Pluton"? Should its moon Charon be bumped up to Pluton status as well? What about Ceres and 2003 UB₃₁₃, should they become planets or Plutons or something?

When I first started this post, as a Scorpio, I was all in favor of keeping the status quo ante XXVIth General Assembly. I mean, would you want to be ruled by a Pluton? But then I calmed down and began to reconsider. I mean, if the heavenly bodies do rule our actions, from an applied science perspective, shouldn't we take as many of those heavenly bodies as possible into account? If I am actually ruled by 2003 UB₃₁₃, isn't it better that I know it now rather than continue in darkness? Plus, with all the computing power available today, why aren't we looking to the Kuiper belt for more accurate horoscopes?

UPDATE: The day after I wrote this, there was an interview on All Things Considered with an astrologer about what if any effect the ruling of the IAU would have on astrology. It includes a great part where the astrologer calling out a colleague for committing malpractice.

Furthermore, the vote is official and Pluto is now not a planet. There are only eight planets. Please alert your local school board so that by the year 2012 we can teach our elementary school kids about this.

Any analysis welcome

In general, when controlled for other factors, I find a woman wearing mittens to be more attractive than one with gloves, yet I prefer a woman wearing toe-socks to one with standard "mitten-socks." (There is insufficient data on tabi socks.) However, I think the versitility of the handwear item with the mitten part that folds back to reveal fingertipless gloves give it the overall edge whereas the sock analog would just be totally wrong.

Cosmic retribution

A few weeks ago, my collaborator and I had decided to limit the focus of our paper and delete a section. Two weeks ago, when he sent me the file for me to work on, I noticed that he had indeed deleted the section. However, he had not deleted Appendix C, which was only used by that section. Therefore I quickly struck it before setting to work on another part of the paper. Little did I know how dearly this would cost me, for within the next three days, the appendices struck back. I started to feel the pain on Wednesday, and then late Friday afternoon, I had the CT to prove it, I had appendicitis. There's nothing like your doctors telling you that they've called ahead to the emergency room to let them know you're coming, only to have to wait 12 hours to finally get to the OR. And throughout all this, I'm fully alert and not in any pain unless I move suddenly or poke my abdomen, and really how often do you do poke yourself in the abdomen? As I lay there on the gurney for the three hours before they took me upstairs to a room to wait, all I could think of was the Paddy Chayefski film The Hospital and specifically, the line "The intern took his history, and then he was simply forgotten to death."

Which is worst?

Which is worst?

a) That this was left on me after surgery.

b) That it took me 30 hours to find it.

c) That it took me 2 more hours to find the one stuck to the other side.

Educational Programming

During the upcoming month, FOX will begin a broadcast season without any Arrested Development. While the choice to drop a show in which every season was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, it is FOX after all, and the execs evidently get paid per series they premiere. That this is such a funny series has been noted by this author and many others on many occassions. However, in this post I bring up a different aspect of the show.

In all the years of ER, I don't remember learning about the existance of a disease from the show. There have been great episodes of the hospital show dealing with a wide variety of maladies, but all the ones I remember dealt with filling in details of fighting a disease that I already knew about although I'd say it is probable that I learned of a new disease which did not make it out of the short-term memory buffer. Strangely enough, this is not true for Arrested Development. In the episode Prison Break-In, a disease must be found for the annual Bluth Foundation Dinner to raise funds to fight after the donors discovered that TBA was not actually a disease. Thus when Tobias develops Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD) when his transplanted hair plugs start attacking his body, they pick that. I was reminded of this lesson today when I read of the death of four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher from GVHD. While it seems that GVHD is a complication of bone marrow transplants, not other transplants like hair, thanks to the educational aspects of Arrested Development, I was at least aware of the disease.

Clean-up

It is always a good idea to clean out your apartment. My apartment has been continually occupied for at least 10 years, I think, with only the last two by me. However, this week one roommate is moving out and another is moving in. I've been trying to cut down on the things that are owned by the apartment. I've found a few interesting things. A closet contained a toaster oven and a blender that we have no idea whom they belong to. Another closet held a pair of sandals and a couple of backpacks. The worst however were the medicine cabinets full mainly of expired asperine and vitamins, but which also held an asthma inhaler, and then in the cabinet under the sink, there it was, the bottle of anti-lice shampoo. Ahh!

Where's the gravy and cheese?

The United States has no collective memory. We as a nation forget things. We're not good with history. We don't know which ethnic groups outside of our boarders have hated each other for generations. Generally, this is not a good thing, but nevertheless it does have a good aspect or two. Who was once our bitter enemy can become our friend quite quickly. Would aliens who knew nothing our planet believe that our grandfathers fought bitterly against the Germans or the Japanese? It is in this spirit that somehow, no one knows for sure exactly how, but within the last week, "freedom fries" and "freedom toast" in the House of Respresentatives are now French again. No word on whether the freedom kiss, the 14-freedom needle, or Third Rock from the Sun actor Freedom Stewart have reverted to their former names.