What Struck Me

I have a cold. Just a little one, but annoying enough. The timing could be better, I’ve been vv good this week about eating healthier, working out, and my past history shows that all it takes is a little cold to totally throw me off track.

I’ve taken to scheduling workouts into my google calendar. I absolutely love google calendar. Between that, gmail, Google reader for my RSS feeds, and of course the google homepage that pulls it all together, my life is completely integrated with google. I’m not sure this is the safest plan of action, because if google has a major stroke I’m doomed, but that seems pretty unlikely, more unlikely than my own computer going belly up, more unlikely than me misplacing a paper-based planner, so I’ll stick with it.

My computer is set up in my bedroom. At night before I go to sleep I put it on standby, but I leave it and all peripherals powered on. Every once in awhile my all-in-one printer, which is hooked up to the phone line for the fax, lights up. It does this just before my phone rings, which is kind of cool, and sometimes at night it lights up but the phone doesn’t ring. I just figured there’s some kind of signal hitting it and didn’t pay much attention.

Then early this morning, while I was asleep, something even weirder happened. I woke up to a loud rushing noise and a strong wind. My first thought was that it had started pouring rain and a window had blown open, but I quickly woke up and knew that couldn’t be true.

Somehow our ceiling fan, which is controlled via a remote, had turned itself on at full speed. The remote sat untouched on my night table, there was no way I could have accidentally knocked it.

Spooky.

If you’re sitting there wondering what to do with the next 20 minutes or so of your life, may I suggest you take a look at the “caught my eye” box on my sidebar? Some really cool stuff has popped up in the past few days, at least I think so!

But it was enough to cause a delayed opening this morning. The roads were fine, but I guess they were a bit icy this morning when the high school buses were running, and after a small debacle 10 days ago, when there really were dangerous conditions yet school wasn’t delayed, they played it safe. And when the high school is delayed, everyone is delayed.

At least it gave Nick the chance to wash the dishes he so slyly avoided washing last night! I guess he thought if he ignored them they’d disappear, and in days gone by he may have been right. But in this case, they would have been right there waiting for him at the end of the school day.

Now I’m quickly running down my todo list. Schedule the dog for her rabies shot and a haircut. Get Nick’s yearbook baby booster in the mail. Find and order online the weird little lightbulb my desk lamp needs. Exercise a bit.

Last week was nuts, fortunately this week the stressors seem to have gone away and things are back to normal!

Thingamababy: Baby Patent History: Labor and Delivery by Centrifuge

…The mother is then spun around and around at a speed the gynecologist has predetermined will be sufficient to dislodge the infant (or as the patent states, “the fetus”). The apparent maximum g-force for the machine is 7.

The mother’s head is positioned at the center of the machine to reduce her head’s rotation, as if that will somehow make the experience more pleasurable. This also presumably concentrates as much puke as possible in and around the mother’s face, rather than having it flung outward toward hospital staff. Or maybe the circular fence acts as a shield.

…

When the infant is successfully ejected from the mother, a “pocket-shaped reception net” catches the infant. Don’t worry, the baby is cushioned by a “thick wad of cotton” in the net.

Furthermore, when the baby lands on the “cotton bed” inside the net, its weight exerts force on a switching plate which then turns off the centrifuge. The patent notes that the switching plate can also be configured to ring a bell at the same time.

Phbbbbbt! *ding!*

The carnie gynecologist then pulls a hand brake to quickly slow the mother’s rotation so that she can safely exit the ride.

Click through for illustrations!

From CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Reports about a study that found microwave ovens can be used to sterilize kitchen sponges sent people hurrying to test the idea this week — with sometimes disastrous results.

A team at the University of Florida found that two minutes in the microwave at full power could kill a range of bacteria, viruses and parasites on kitchen sponges.

They described how they soaked the sponges in wastewater and then zapped them. (Microwave zaps germs on sponges.)

But several experimenters evidently left out the crucial step of wetting the sponge.

“Just wanted you to know that your article on microwaving sponges and scrubbers aroused my interest. However, when I put my sponge/scrubber into the microwave, it caught fire, smoked up the house, ruined my microwave, and pissed me off,” one correspondent wrote in an e-mail to Reuters.

“First, the sponge is worthless afterwards so you have to throw it out instead of using it. And second your entire house stinks like a burning tire for several hours, even with windows/doors open,” complained another.

Aaron Hoover, a press officer at the University of Florida, said several other news organizations received similar complaints, although no one had complained directly to the university.

“We figured, ‘Wow, we better let people know right away that the sponge should be wet,”‘ Hoover said in a telephone interview.

The university issued the following advisory: “To guard against the risk of fire, people who wish to sterilize their sponges at home must ensure the sponge is completely wet. Two minutes of microwaving is sufficient for most sterilization. Sponges should also have no metallic content. Last, people should be careful when removing the sponge from the microwave as it will be hot.”

duh.