The Life Experience ~ Spring '13

What I Learned Since the Spring Equinox:

• There are a number of strategies being suggested for towing asteroids away from Earth. I can't decide if my favorite is gravity snare, where you send up something that has enough mass to tow the asteroid with gravity, or big Space Lasso.


• The Good Samaritan who helps Dairine in High Wizardry is, in fact, supposed to be the Fifth Doctor.


• The term for when someone blanks out and appears to be conscious but unresponsive to the people around them is dissociative stupor.


• Museums are really concerned with pest control. Which makes sense, but I had never thought about it before.


• When you post a job listing, it's probably better to figure out what you want the prospective employee or intern to do before putting it up.


• Since the Iranian Revolution, there has been a ridiculously high spike in multiple sclerosis among Iranian women. This is likely due to a lack of vitamin D caused by wearing sun-blocking burqas all the damn time. Talk about unintended consequences.


• There is catnip in our garden.


• The symbolic food of a Passover seder is not intended to be the main Passover meal. Which is good, because I also learned what food is acceptable for the Passover plate, and it hardly makes a good meal anyway.


• Nobody ever remembers that the T-rex in Jurassic Park is female, even though it is explicitly pointed out.


• Deep-frying is actually fairly easy; it's the battering/coating that is annoying.


• Although it is made slightly less so with the use of chopsticks.


• You're supposed to replace thyme plants every 3-4 years lest they get all woody. I don't know, I'm so impressed that my thyme has lasted this long that I'd feel kinda bad replacing it.


• The Europeans call moose "elks." I have no idea what they call elks. Europeans are so confused.


• "These aren't the droids we're looking for." - Launchpad McQuack, apparently


• Water can deflect bullets! Mostly because they tend to shatter on impact, which is kind of awesome.


• Sealed soda bottle with a little dry ice + water = EXPLODE


• The butterfly that employs mimicking the monarch is called the viceroy. They used to think the viceroy was mimicking the more poisonous monarch, but evidently the viceroy's got some poison in it, too.


• Butterfly namers have a thing for bureaucratic hierarchy, what with all the queens and viceroys and admirals and soldiers and emperors and whatnot. I swear at this point I would not be surprised to find that there is a Minister Of Agriculture and Transportation Butterfly.


• Unlike almost every other video game, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link did not prove itself to be easier now that I'm well past kindergarten.