erinlefey

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Marca got the news today that as of next Wednesday, her temp assignment will be converted to actual employment. She'll be a permanent employee of LegalZoom!

Go, Dear Spouse!!!!!

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AKA: Mentos and Diet Coke cause the deaths of millions

Do I have your attention? Not yet? I will. I'd like to share with you the most recent way I've learned that the Earth can fuck you up.

Exploding Lakes.

Technically they're called limnic eruptions. I include the link so you'll realize I'm not making up this thing out of my fevered imagination, go check it out later.

Here's what's involved:
1) A lake with CO₂ (carbon dioxide) saturated water coming in.
2) A lake where the local temperature doesn't really change much. Think equatorial.
3) A volcano or fault line nearby that can make the lake rattle on occasion.

That's it! A recipe for disaster! Why? Well, CO₂ saturated water is heavier than oxygenated water, so it sinks to the bottom. In the overwhelming majority of lakes, seasonal differences change the temperature of the lake, and it "turns over", gradually releasing the stored gases and moving the oxygenated water throughout the lake.

In three lakes in the world, Lake Monoun, Lake Nyos, and Lake Kivu, CO₂ saturated water comes in and the lake does not "turn over" seasonally. This means the CO₂ stays at the bottom of the lake, under increasing pressure. The water at the bottom of the lake becomes saturated with the carbon dioxide over the course of years, pressurized like the soda in a bottle of Diet Coke.

Then something nearby rattles. A fault line. A minor earthquake. A mudslide. Whatever. It rattles the lake enough that a bit of the pressurized CO₂ saturated water comes to the surface. That acts as the Mentos in the Diet Coke bottle. Boom. The entire lake surface then looks like the bottle top of that Diet Coke bottle. A surface-wide geyser of carbonated liquid shoots hundreds of feet in the air. The lake level can drop by as much as three meters due to the removal of all of that pressurized CO₂.

Awesome, huh? Jamie and Adam of Mythbusters should totally do this!

Well, except for the mass death. Why? CO₂ is heavier than oxygen. All of that realized CO₂ comes out as a huge invisible cloud, and it hugs the ground. It will gradually be dissipated into the surrounding atmosphere. But until it does, it is pulled by gravity, slowly coasting downhill.

Did I mention that animals, including my favorite species Homo Sapiens, cannot breathe CO₂?

Lake Monoun's eruption in 1984 killed 37 people. Lake Nyos' eruption in 1986 killed about 1,800. The latter eruption released 80 million cubic meters of CO₂. The cloud passed through valleys and villages, where people realized they were breathing oddly, were briefly puzzled, and then fell over dead. People were killed as far as 15 miles away

Now here's the kicker: The third lake, Lake Kivu, hasn't erupted in centuries so far as we know. Geologists, now that they know what to look for, have solid evidence of mass extinctions in the area every 1000 years or so. Lake Kivu is 2000 times larger than Lake Nyos. There are 2 million people living along it's shores. How's that for a potential disaster?

There's a way to degass Lake Kivu. Pretty easy, actually. Stick a huge pipe in it like a straw, pump up some of the water from the bottom, and as the CO₂ saturated water comes up, it does the Mentos/Diet Coke trick into the air. You can even turn off the pump at that point, it will be self-sustaining.

But the cost is high, as you'd need dozens of such pipes. And it's hard to find money for anything in that region, let alone for some hypothetical future disaster avoidance. So, sometime in our lifetime or in our children's lifetimes, millions of people will die in Africa at one instant, due to an exploding lake.

Earth is a terrifying place to live.

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I've possibly made a horrible mistake.

I just discussed the amusing concept of micronations with my Dear Spouse. The things we find on Wikipedia! Oh, the jocularity!

I believe she is filling out citizenship applications as we speak.

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Turns out Ken Mehlman is gay.

Now, there's only about 10 of you who will know, or care, who Ken is. He was the head of the Republican National Committee. He was a major advisor for George W. Bush. He has been a major player in the anti-GLBT movements of the last 20 years.

Apparently he someohw didn't know he was gay. Oddly, everyone who watched politics knew he was gay. As John Aravosis of Americablog said, he was apparently the only closeted straight guy in politics, as he'd never answer the question whether or not he was gay or straight.

Assorted 'major figures in the GLBT movement' are supporting him. Coming out is tough, after all. It's challenging. Show him respect for his conflict!

No.

Let me reiterate. FUCK NO.

You are an outcast, Ken. Not welcome. You don't get to attack people all of your career, and the embrace them afterwards. You played a part in harming untold millions of people. Work to fix that. Apologize. Make restitution. When you have helped just ONE more person than you have hurt...I'll welcome you.

Until then... Fuck off.

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I was having dinner out with some friends at a Mexican restaurant yesterday, when we noticed an odd addition on the menu. One of the breakfast tacos had, next to it in bold print, "TRY IT WITH HAM!". Seemed odd to us. A little mor forward and punchy than is usually associated with breakfast tacos.

But then, we realized that the phrase really works in any circumstance, anywhere, and is especially useful in the workplace environment. For instance:

"I'm sorry your vehicle repair wasn't done to your satisfaction. If you'll bring it back to the dealership, I'll contact the Service Manager and they's TRY IT WITH HAM!"

"All right, I've corrected the billing on your insurance policy. Remember, next month you can pay by check, debit card, or TRY IT WITH HAM!"

"I've reset your password, so type in TRY IT WITH HAM!. Yes, it is case-sensitive."

Comment with how you can incorporate TRY IT WITH HAM! into your personal and work life!

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Deaths come in threes, as I'm sure you well know. The final one of the current trio passed away. Many regards to:

Gary Coleman, Dennis Hopper, and Rue Mcclanahan.

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No, no, no. Not THAT "The Fog". You must be thinking of the classic from the 1980's. This is the one from 2005, the anti-classic. We watched the "unrated" version on DVD. We're not sure why it was listed as unrated. There was certainly nothing there to indicate any reason for such a rating, unless the rating board simply got bored halfway through the rating process and died right there in the screening room.

Review below, and aye, there be spoilers here! Of course, you don't actually want to see it anyway.

Cue up Remy Zero's 'Somebody Save Me', would you please?
( Read more... )

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1263658/Scrabble-upset-purists-proper-noun-rule-change.html

"Any Scrabble fan will tell you that knowing how to spell Beyonce, Timbuktu, or Quorn would never help you win the game.
But now, to the horror of the purists, the game's makers are throwing out the old rule book and allowing proper nouns.
Worse still, not only will the names of places, trademarks and people be permissible, but even words spelled backwards or placed unconnected to other pieces."

No.

Did I mention, "No"?

Apparently the game will still include the 'older' rules. That will be the version I play. I'm open-minded, but proper nouns in Scrabble? UNCONNECTED words, you can just plop down anywhere? BACKWARDS? Over my dead body.

EDIT: The lovely and erudite emilydm did her research and discovered that Mattel was being mildly disingenuous. They're listing these rules as part of a "Scrabble Trickster" game they're releasing in the UK. Hasbro, who owns the US rights, has no interest in such shenanigans. Whew!

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Bunch of fuss going on recently, socially/politically/everything-ally. Try this for an antidote: A guy decided to use the Internet's power of connectivity to arrange a beautiful original choral work, with over 100 singers in 12 countries. As near as I can tell, none of them have ever met each other in person.


"I’d like to take the virtual choir a step further, and see if we can really start to make some delicate, nuanced music together. Our goal this time will be to sing with unified dynamics, vowels, and cutoffs, and to use only a conductor and a piano reduction as our guide.

First, I’ll record a conductor track this week, with me conducting and a friend playing the reduction on the piano. I’ll also record a separate video where I’ll discuss the piece, and try to illustrate a few musical concepts that everyone should try to achieve while performing their individual parts.

Charles Anthony Silvestri will post a video talking about his translation of the text. He’ll also speak each of the words with pure, perfect Latin vowels.

Then, Scottie will make individual part videos, one side of the screen showing the sheet music for the part you’ve selected to sing (soprano, alto, tenor, or bass) and one half of the screen with my conductor track."

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A 25 year-old just told me I had to lower her auto insurance rates because President Obama said I had to.

She said this seriously.

After inquiring why she would think this, she said she saw it online.

I pleaseantly advised that this was not the case, and that we could look at other ways of reducing her premium costs (while not going into the Constitutional ramifications of the Executive branch of the Federal government imposing decisions upon state-regulated auto insurance).

She then asked me why something would be online if it wasn't true.

I weep.