Thursday, November 29, 2007
Nobody fucks with the Jesus!
- Jesus Quintana played by the incredible John Turturro in The Big Lebowski. Edit(12/3/07): I can't wait to see No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers current theatrical release. If you haven't seen any of their movies, I would highly recommend, Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the previously mentioned The Big Lebowski.
I assume you've heard about the British teacher who went to teach in Sudan. If you haven't, here you go: she let her class of 7 year olds name a class teddy bear. They came up with Muhammed which is a very common name for men in Islamic cultures. But it turns out that's not OK and she's going back to prison for a few days. Oops.
I completely see their point though. Do you see it? She broke the law by allowing her young students to name a bear Muhammed. Bear is an animal and that's insulting to the Prophet. Her punishment is 15 days (although she had already served 5 leading up to the trial, efficient legal system no?) and deportation. Some jail time, banishment, media circus and hopefully a free first class ticket home, right chaps? Hopefully she'll be fine after this whole debacle, but it serves a valuable lesson.
Learn the customs of the foreign nations you visit.
Simple really, but so hard to actually do. For example, did you know that in Brazil, the okay sign,
means asshole? Spitting in public isn't considered bad manners in China? (Although they have a public campaign against it for health reasons and it being nasty.) It's bad manners to refuse food, um, somewhere. It's a huge sign of disrespect to show someone else the bottom of your foot in the Middle East? (Like when you sit cross-legged, so be careful) I'm sure someone has a book about things of this nature, and I'm sure it would be in the intro chapter of most good travel books, so read up!
The other lesson here is that the First Amendment is great, wonderful and just fucking awesome. For example, let's say the shoe was on the other foot and pretend that the Sudanese teacher named her class' teddy bear Jesus Christ. And say the government thought that would be horribly insulting to poor Jesus. So they tossed her in Leavenworth (or maybe Guantanamo) for a couple days then sent her ass back to Sudan. Does that sound a bit extreme? Or does that sound like a good idea?
Be careful, Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Vishnu and Mother Nature are always watching.
Edit(12/3/07): She was pardoned! Congrats to Gillian Gibbons and I'm sure she'll want to thank these two gentlemen:
I assume you've heard about the British teacher who went to teach in Sudan. If you haven't, here you go: she let her class of 7 year olds name a class teddy bear. They came up with Muhammed which is a very common name for men in Islamic cultures. But it turns out that's not OK and she's going back to prison for a few days. Oops.
I completely see their point though. Do you see it? She broke the law by allowing her young students to name a bear Muhammed. Bear is an animal and that's insulting to the Prophet. Her punishment is 15 days (although she had already served 5 leading up to the trial, efficient legal system no?) and deportation. Some jail time, banishment, media circus and hopefully a free first class ticket home, right chaps? Hopefully she'll be fine after this whole debacle, but it serves a valuable lesson.
Learn the customs of the foreign nations you visit.
Simple really, but so hard to actually do. For example, did you know that in Brazil, the okay sign,
means asshole? Spitting in public isn't considered bad manners in China? (Although they have a public campaign against it for health reasons and it being nasty.) It's bad manners to refuse food, um, somewhere. It's a huge sign of disrespect to show someone else the bottom of your foot in the Middle East? (Like when you sit cross-legged, so be careful) I'm sure someone has a book about things of this nature, and I'm sure it would be in the intro chapter of most good travel books, so read up!
The other lesson here is that the First Amendment is great, wonderful and just fucking awesome. For example, let's say the shoe was on the other foot and pretend that the Sudanese teacher named her class' teddy bear Jesus Christ. And say the government thought that would be horribly insulting to poor Jesus. So they tossed her in Leavenworth (or maybe Guantanamo) for a couple days then sent her ass back to Sudan. Does that sound a bit extreme? Or does that sound like a good idea?
Be careful, Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Vishnu and Mother Nature are always watching.
Edit(12/3/07): She was pardoned! Congrats to Gillian Gibbons and I'm sure she'll want to thank these two gentlemen:
The pardon came following efforts by Nazir Ahmed and Sayeeda Warsi, Muslim members of the House of Lords, to persuade the Sudanese government that releasing Gibbons would create international goodwill toward their country.She was released 6 days before the end of her sentence. I think she's still being deported but probably wants out anyway. There were some protests calling for her execution, so it might be best to hang out in the UK and let this whole thing blow over before returning to a foreign country to teach.
Labels: 1st amendment, freedom of speech, injustice, sex and religion, The Big Lebowski
Friday, July 13, 2007
KOH Facial
Seeing as how Dawn was the only responder, she gets to hear her choice.
We do our reactions in silver (Ag) tubes that we weld shut and then heat up to 300-500 degree Celsius and 10,000 - 20,000 PSI. They retain some pressure inside the tubes mostly from the decrease in entropy, or just because. We all know this and are careful to wear eye glasses and lab coats when opening our Ag tubes. Some tubes are small and we only put in 0.4 mL of water and others are larger and hold 4 mL of water. This was a large tube and it contained 4 mL of 10 M KOH (potassium hydroxide).
I make my initial cut into the tube to start the opening process and nothing happens. I turn it and make another cut. Release the pressure! I feel a small shower of wet. Oh shit. Okay think. This doesn't burn yet but it will. It splattered on my cheeks and some on my neck. Eye wash! No, the eye wash drains into the floor and will make a huge mess. It isn't that kind of emergency. Ow! It's starting to burn! Take off my shuffle who got hit but is no worse for the wear. Sink! Turn water on and use the hose to direct water at my face. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. Much better.
Since it was only a small amount, albeit fairly concentrated, I knew water would get rid of it and I didn't want to waste time looking for sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda which is a natural buffer and can neutralize an acid or a base)
My eye goggles saved my eyes from getting a direct shot but my face was uncovered. My t-shirt was saved by my lab coat but it's just a t-shirt. The ipod has some marks on it but it still works just fine. Phew, that was close. I looked at my goggles after and there were 8-9 spots of it directly over my right eye. That would've been bad, Seth can't really see anymore bad.
From now on I will be wearing the full face shield that we have to open tubes from now on. Yikes.
Moral of the story: Wear your safety gear at all times and you might be able to see on the way home.
I love this blog. It's my own little Freedom of Speech zone. But it isn't just mine, it's yours too. You are free to say anything you want here, anything at all. I might not agree with it or understand it but it is your right to be able to say it.
I was rewatching Fuck last night and I loved one of George Carlin's clips. It was how we learn the bad words. When we're young words are just words and we have to be taught their meanings. You don't know a word is bad until you say it and someone tells you not to, and it reminded me of the first time I ever said fuck.
This story takes place at our old house (we lived on that cul-de-sac and Dad worked at the church just to the left) I was 6 or 7 so that puts us smack dab in the middle of 1985 or 1986. My dad, brother and I were in our room and Dad was telling us a story. I can't remember the story at all but something was gross, so Brother said "Yucky!" Not wanting to be outdone I said "Yucky trucky!" cuz rhyming is cool. My brother comes back with "yucky ducky!" so I naturally pick the next letter in the alphabet and say "yucky fucky!" completely oblivious to the meaning of the wonderful word I just made up. SETH! I don't ever want to hear you said that word again! my dad firmly tells me. Whoa, that was pretty forceful, that's some word. So I kept it in my head for years and years and finally got comfortable enough to start using it here and there. Not around kids or people who take great offense to it, but the last part is pretty tricky. How do you know who will be offended by it?
It's a very special word because not everyone uses it and even people who do use it, don't say it all the time. Alanis said something to that affect in the documentary and she's right.
So I'm dedicating my 3 year blogiversary to Li Zhao, the First Amendment and to you, my loyal band of readers!
We do our reactions in silver (Ag) tubes that we weld shut and then heat up to 300-500 degree Celsius and 10,000 - 20,000 PSI. They retain some pressure inside the tubes mostly from the decrease in entropy, or just because. We all know this and are careful to wear eye glasses and lab coats when opening our Ag tubes. Some tubes are small and we only put in 0.4 mL of water and others are larger and hold 4 mL of water. This was a large tube and it contained 4 mL of 10 M KOH (potassium hydroxide).
I make my initial cut into the tube to start the opening process and nothing happens. I turn it and make another cut. Release the pressure! I feel a small shower of wet. Oh shit. Okay think. This doesn't burn yet but it will. It splattered on my cheeks and some on my neck. Eye wash! No, the eye wash drains into the floor and will make a huge mess. It isn't that kind of emergency. Ow! It's starting to burn! Take off my shuffle who got hit but is no worse for the wear. Sink! Turn water on and use the hose to direct water at my face. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. Much better.
Since it was only a small amount, albeit fairly concentrated, I knew water would get rid of it and I didn't want to waste time looking for sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda which is a natural buffer and can neutralize an acid or a base)
My eye goggles saved my eyes from getting a direct shot but my face was uncovered. My t-shirt was saved by my lab coat but it's just a t-shirt. The ipod has some marks on it but it still works just fine. Phew, that was close. I looked at my goggles after and there were 8-9 spots of it directly over my right eye. That would've been bad, Seth can't really see anymore bad.
From now on I will be wearing the full face shield that we have to open tubes from now on. Yikes.
Moral of the story: Wear your safety gear at all times and you might be able to see on the way home.
I love this blog. It's my own little Freedom of Speech zone. But it isn't just mine, it's yours too. You are free to say anything you want here, anything at all. I might not agree with it or understand it but it is your right to be able to say it.
I was rewatching Fuck last night and I loved one of George Carlin's clips. It was how we learn the bad words. When we're young words are just words and we have to be taught their meanings. You don't know a word is bad until you say it and someone tells you not to, and it reminded me of the first time I ever said fuck.
This story takes place at our old house (we lived on that cul-de-sac and Dad worked at the church just to the left) I was 6 or 7 so that puts us smack dab in the middle of 1985 or 1986. My dad, brother and I were in our room and Dad was telling us a story. I can't remember the story at all but something was gross, so Brother said "Yucky!" Not wanting to be outdone I said "Yucky trucky!" cuz rhyming is cool. My brother comes back with "yucky ducky!" so I naturally pick the next letter in the alphabet and say "yucky fucky!" completely oblivious to the meaning of the wonderful word I just made up. SETH! I don't ever want to hear you said that word again! my dad firmly tells me. Whoa, that was pretty forceful, that's some word. So I kept it in my head for years and years and finally got comfortable enough to start using it here and there. Not around kids or people who take great offense to it, but the last part is pretty tricky. How do you know who will be offended by it?
It's a very special word because not everyone uses it and even people who do use it, don't say it all the time. Alanis said something to that affect in the documentary and she's right.
So I'm dedicating my 3 year blogiversary to Li Zhao, the First Amendment and to you, my loyal band of readers!
Labels: 1st amendment, accident, dirty words, KOH
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