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"Dr. Wansink, who holds a doctorate in marketing from Stanford University and directs the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, probably knows more about why we put things in our mouths than anybody else." (NYT)

Normally this is the sort of thing that'd end up in the lateral tally (that's sidelog, for those not keeping track), but I felt that that quote needed to appear in a prominent sort of way. It's actually referring to food and how people think about food, but I had a little MiG (that's Mind in Gutter) moment. I mean, think of the possibilities. Wait, isn't that a food slogan?

Anyhow, you can check out the article for yourself.

(00:25:26) Me: So Phil is basically the man.
(00:25:30) Dani: Phil?
(00:25:34) Me: Phil Collins.
(00:25:38) Dani: ok whys that
(00:25:56) Me: Because Genesis would've pretty much sucked if they had Axl Rose.

Ok, this is the second post in a row that doesn't say terribly much. I think it's fun. I'm even adding a category for it!

There are a lot of things to say about my hiatus, but first, breaking news!

William Morva escaped custody at the Montgomery Regional Hospital yesterday. He was being held on charges of armed robbery. He stole the sherrif deputy's sidearm, wounding the officer and killing a hospital security guard in the process. He shot and killed a police officer while being pursued early this morning.

As of 11:30a all classes at Virginia Tech have been cancelled. There were rumors of a hostage situation in Squires Student Center, but they turned out to be unsubstantiated. Students not residing in dorms have been evacuated from campus, and all dorms are closed to non-residents.

I'm sitting in my apartment chatting with some friends about the situation. Charlotte, started at VT last year, had told me that there was almost no crime here. I didn't hear of a single incident of this magnitude in the 4 years that I've known Steve, most of which he spent in New York City.

What a first day of classes!

link

[UPDATE: 5:13p]
Morva has been taken into custody.

Apparently George W. Bush rocks out.

I found this image on Wikipedia. Yes I'm addicted to Wikipedia.

As a challenge to web-geek types, Dustin Diaz has proposed the challenge to turn off CSS for a day. CSS is what gives many websites their colors and layouts. Once that is gone users can see the page the same way a blind person's screen reader software does, which is incidentally the same way Google, Yahoo!, MSN (and many other services) see it. The theory is that you should be able to use a site just as well whether it's visually styled or not.

I totally messed up my organic chemistry lab today, but it turned out for the better. I dropped my entire 4mL of water miscible (completely mixable) solution into about 200mL of water. This was relatively early in the procedure. Instead of having me restart, my lab instructor pulled out a massive set of equipment which would supposedly remove most of the water and leave my product behind. This was an ancient rotavapor unit. If you happen to be familiar with a rotavapor, this one is much older. If you're familiar with an old rotavapor, this one is still probably a bit older. Still though, the entire unit was incredibly shiny. The amount of transparent glassware and running water involved nearly made me orgasm right there in lab. The fact that I applied heat by flame made it even better. A classmate has pictures on her phone, so when (if) I get them I'll put them up.

Okay, so that was incredibly geeky. Sometimes orgo just consumes my life.

I love Wal*Mart. What other store contains as large a variety of incredibly useful and incredibly useless things? I saw beverage warmers for A DOLLAR. A mere dollar could insure that my warm beverages never become cold before I finish with them. They also have socks and pens and milk, and because the one here in Cobleskill is one of the massive 24 hour operations, sausage and produce and other grocery-type items. I can fill my prescription there, get my taxes done at the H&R Block booth, or even get checked out by their on-site optometrist. Yes, my Wal*Mart has an optometrist. Will the wonders never cease?

Actually, my favorite thing about Wal*Mart is the fact that we can do completely random things and not be questioned for it. I'm not sure if it's because the employees have seen so much of it that they don't care, or if they just aren't paying attention, but it never fails to amuse me. For example, Lisselly was demonstrating earlier that she already had a pair of those underwear, only the girls' version, and she was wearing them at that particular moment. This is an important thing to note. Also, I'm not sure she took me seriously when I told her there was going to be a picture of her in her underwear on the internet.