this could just be, like, an open thread, man. although we don't do open threads here. so it could be about hot sauce. I favor tabasco, but for buffalo wings I like to fry them and then let them marinate in a sauce which is equal parts melted unsalted butter and texas pete hot sauce. if you use tabasco there they'll be too hot.
now the thread should probably make a productive turn into whether putting hot sauce on your kids' tongues is reasonable discipline or not. that would be great. get on that.
I totally want to come but can't get halfway across the world. Maybe someday.
it's only 15,000 measly miles!
Or look at it this way: if it's 15,000 miles one way, it can't be more than 10,000 in the other direction.
Oh, also, OT, sometimes I stream the BBC radio as I'm going to bed, so I was looking at Radio 4's In Our Time program's website.
'
Next week they're going to have a program on the divide between analytic and continental philosophy and the new movement to bridge the two. I know nothing about either, but I thought of you all instantly.
fuck, OK, it's 12,500 miles or some shit?
Intercontinental travel. How does it work?
Narnia Airlines (recommended) has the longest scheduled flight in the world, direct from Narnia to NYC over the pole.
Regarding the hot sauce, perhaps I should mention that I actually managed to physically burn a layer of skin off my upper lip at carnival this year. To be honest, I did see the notice that said "Hot sauce. Hot Hot Hot sauce. We mean it, it's hot" but thought "well, how much hotter than a good Bradford phaal can it be?" and went ahead anyway. The pain didn't kick in until the next day.
6: That is an accurate description of US Air's frequent flier rewards program.
Ah yes, 18 and a half hours, Airbus A340-500, limited to 181 pax for humanitarian reasons.
the direct is the greatest flight ever! I was so crushed when it became business only and now ye lowly economy classes must stop in frankfurt or narita or HK as the case may be. adds hours to the journey, utter pain as they make you take everything off the plane (carry-on) and go through security again. I mean, where do they think you got the fucking bomb, the jetway? instead of a mere 18 hours it's more like 23. fuck that. and that's just to NYC/LA/SF. god forbid you have to fly a domestic leg next.
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Can I just say how much I love reading Charles Pierce?
|>And that 19 percent for Romney in North Carolina -- which is, after all, the Halfway Normal Carolina -- is pretty damned ominous. His only real hope in the South appears to be all those transplanted Yankees in Florida and, since half of the Republican base thinks it's voting for the president of the Confederate States of America every four years, that doesn't bode well for Willard. I mean, with all due respect to E. J. Dionne, the only difference between the "old" South Carolina conservatives and the "new" South Carolina conservatives is that Jim DeMint isn't knocking up black women the way that Strom Thurmond used to.
next summer we're not going to america. it costs so much money and is so tiring. everyone is supposed to come visit us instead. we are luring them to island paradises. hopefully the in-laws are coming for christmas!
Air New Zealand has a UK ad campaign pointing out that they fly from London to lots of other places too - "after all, it's on the way". And it is. Essentially anywhere in the world is on the way from London to New Zealand.
LOL, even as a chile of SC I can't deny the truth of the "halfway normal carolina" remark. SC is like concentrated southern craziness. even the other southern states are kind of edging away like, "yeah, we love you cuz, we're just going to be over here with georgia for a while."
@15
An interesting tidbit I picked recently (from a Lawyers Guns & Money thread) is that SC is the only one of the original colonies that wasn't founded from either England or another colony. It was founded by emigrants from Barbados.
The theory is that this explains the extra craziness of SC. A touch of that Caribbean sugar plantation culture.
since half of the Republican base thinks it's voting for the president of the Confederate States of America every four years
I think that those people voting in the primary is pretty much Obama's hope of re-election at this point.
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Jesus Fucking Christ! Can't these people be locked up!!!!!????
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19: I think that if the laws on the books were enforced they fucking well could be locked up?!
Narnia Airlines also has nonstop flights from Houston to Moscow, for the benefit of consular workers.
18 USC 2332a: A person who, without lawful authority, uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction... against any person or property within the United States, and the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce is used in furtherance of the offense... shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, and if death results, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
For purposes of this section... the term "weapon of mass destruction" means... any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector.
22. Personally I'd invoke that sucker without hesitation. Let's see, shall we?
But what does "weapon" mean? Must there be intent to use it as a weapon?
Also "uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use" hinges on the definition of "use"....
More detail:
...any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector (as those terms are defined in section 178 of this title)[.]
18 USC 178: As used in this chapter--
(1) the term "biological agent" means any microorganism (including, but not limited to, bacteria, viruses, fungi, rickettsiae or protozoa), or infectious substance, or any naturally occurring, bioengineered or synthesized component of any such microorganism or infectious substance, capable of causing--
(A) death, disease, or other biological malfunction in a human, an animal, a plant, or another living organism;
(B) deterioration of food, water, equipment, supplies, or material of any kind; or
(C) deleterious alteration of the environment[.]
Intent would be knotty, I agree. Certainly they would have intended to use it to cause disease in humans, according to the letter, but they wouldn't have meant it as a harmful action.
Apropos, I need to stop using the word "knotty" out loud at work to describe problems.
Certainly they would have intended to use it to cause disease in humans, according to the letter, but they wouldn't have meant it as a harmful action.
Well, Osama bin Laden intended to destroy the World Trade Center, but he didn't mean that as a harmful action either. He thought it would be a boon to humanity.
19: Nobody *mailed* anything, but it was certainly common to have parents send other kids over to get chicken pox (on the "younger is better" theory) when I was a kid.
Ah, sorry to miss the Narnia meetup! I'm going to be on the other side of the wardrobe until early January.
but it was certainly common to have parents send other kids over to get chicken pox (on the "younger is better" theory) when I was a kid.
It was. And in a few cases there were appalling outcomes, but presumably the parents knew the risk they were taking and the affected children would probably have caught it eventually anyway. Also, before they developed vaccination, they used to innoculate kids against smallpox using live cultures of the stuff. But you know what? They stopped, because they found a better way.
And they didn't expose the postman to the risk of contracting it even then.
19 and 29: The thing that gets me are the number of people who claim that they get sick because of the flu vaccine. A social worker who used to work with me and got a good job on an inpatient unit at a private hospital didn't want to get one for that reason.
She'll probably have to now that she's working for a medical hospital.
I don't think any of those viruses could be considered weapons. Anything you can send through the mail would have to be administered pretty intensively in order to infect somebody. How are these people planning to infect their kids? Injection? Inhalation? Rubbing it into the skin?
I just think the federal government should use these laws to scare the shit out of the instigators. Catch, release, and media.
32. This is crap too. Some years I get sick from the flu vaccine. Some years the nurse says, "Oh, by the way there have been a couple of people who reacted against this batch, so I hope you haven't got anything important on this afternoon."
But the point is, I/they don't get flu. We're a bit poorly for up to 24 hours. I honestly think people don't understand what flu is, they think it's a bad cold or something. Your ex-coworker should know this stuff if she's a professional carer.
Your ex-coworker should know this stuff if she's a professional carer.
Right, that's what's so frightening. I mean, sometimes people do still get the flu, because they were already exposed before they got vaccinated or the vaccine didn't match the virus in circulation, but it's not because of the vaccine.
32: I totally had a reaction to the flu vaccine last week (unless it was the tetanus, and that doesn't really pass the Occam's Razor test). It was like being moderately hungover for 3 days. Not like having actual influenza, obviously, but you can see why it would be a disincentive.
33: If the people sending the viruses were anarchists, the state would totally consider them weapons. Since it is just UMC morons, there's little danger of prosecution.
32: 35: 37: I've had minor reactions a few times and felt sort of blah for a day or so. That beats the hell out of coughing up green rubber cement, high fevers, and the rest of the real flu.
I did spend about twelve hours under a comforter and a heating blanket shivering after a flu shot one year. It was the coldest I remember ever feeling. The cats loved it, the little bastards.
I got a flu shot this year. No reaction.
We keep talking about going to Narnia to see a former roommate, but we can never seem to figure out a time to do it.
I really care more about all the fabulous food than seeing the roommate, but it would be nice to catch up with him.
A contribution to the hot sauce subthread.
8, 10: It is about the greatest flight path ever.
Damn, i'll be flying back to narnia in december only. Quite surprised that there are unfogged readers in narnia. Are any of them also benevolent technocratic overlords?
Am I getting hot sauce and butter for lunch? Because that sounds excellent.
45: none of the others I know are benevolent technocratic overlords, but, as I say, you are welcome. we'll have another meetup when the ethical werewolf returns.
sorry nakku, only "festive meats."
naw, I'm just joshin you, we'll either go out for south indian or I'll make fried chicken and biscuits and greens or something. both options involve hot sauce and the former melted butter in the form of ghee, though, so perhaps you're not that far off base. hell, there's melted butter on the biscuit too (president unsalted, as we all know.) so, yeah, hot sauce and butter.
47: Ah well, I'll be leaving Narnia on New Year's Day.
crap, well now you've piqued my curiosity. we could have coffee?
50: OK, I'll send you an email.
My tolerance for the festive meats appears to be shrinking. I discovered that if goat brain is on the menu, I do not want to order it.