dmose

actual science about 9/11's effect on people

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:18:57 GMT

There has certainly been plenty of discussion in the media about how it affected
people, but much that I've seen has been handwaving. Some actual science from the Journal of Sleep:

Results:

Dreams after 9/11 showed a highly significant increase in central image intensity, as well as central image proportion (number of dreams with scorable central images) but no change in dream length, dream-likeness, overall vividness, or content involving airplanes or tall buildings. There were no “exact replay” dreams picturing the actual events of 9/11 seen repeatedly on TV."

In Memory of Toonces

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 05:10:56 GMT

I got her around 1995, when she was about 6, in part to keep my other cat company and in part because she was super sweet in a very winsome way. She was always looking for pets, and purred at the drop of a hat, which made it impossible to say no when my friend Ken could no longer keep her. Unfortunately, the companionship thing didn't quite work out, as it took about a month before the two cats could be in the same room together, and they never quite got past the point of just tolerating one another.

She was, however, a great cat. She seemed to think she was part dog, and would follow me from room to room as I did stuff in my apartment. For a while, she had a German Shepherd pal to hang out with (an ex-girlfriend's dog), and they would play together a certain amount. Which really meant that she'd let the dog chase her around the house until she got tired of it, and, if Luna didn't let up, Toonces would reach out and slash a claw across her nose. Luna got trained pretty quickly. :-)

In later years, she slept on top of me almost any time I would lay down. She'd typically hop up on my back or chest, purr for a while, and then fall asleep. After about 20 minutes of companionship, she'd then leave and go sleep on the couch, which was presumably more comfortable. Toonces was an extremely licky cat, happy to lick my face and hair whenever she got the chance:

Her nickname was Bonker, because often when I put my head near hers, she would bonk me with her forehead. I remember reading somewhere that this is a sign of affection (as opposed to rubbing her jaw against my head, which would have just been marking me). Typically if I called her and tapped my fingers on the couch, she would immediately come over to ask for pets and purr.

She had been discovered to have cancer in mid-December and was a complete trooper through various diagnostic and treatment procedures. However, at the end, it got to the point where all she really did was sleep, and it appeared that it was actually causing her pain to breathe, which meant that it was time to let her go. The thing that made it so tough to figure out whether she was in pain is that she's always been a super social kitty, and purred whenever she was petted, right up to the very end (even waiting to be put to sleep in the doctor's office).

She died a week ago Friday (February 17th, 2006), at the ripe old age of ~17. I miss her lots.

You got your Tufte in my Orwell!

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:34:10 GMT

Boing Boing: To do in SF: Data surveillance performance art

Art is fun

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 06:36:56 GMT

I've been taking classes in plasma sculpture at The Crucible in Oakland. A while ago, I ordered one of Cliff Stoll's Klein Bottles. I had a Berkeley glass shop fuse a borosilicate electrode onto it, after which I took it to class, where we filled it with a little neon and a lot of xenon. The result:

Photo credit: candiedwomanire

another haiku

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 07:15:29 GMT

This one courtesy of jwz:

haiku's inventor
must have had seven fingers
on his middle hand

haiku du jour

Fri, 04 Mar 2005 08:01:09 GMT

slathered in bacon
Martha Stewart goes apeshit
upon her release

My First Real Neon Art

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 12:49:12 GMT

I made this during the first quarter of neon class, earlier this year.

Hardware store silicone cut with peanut butter?

Mon, 05 Apr 2004 02:38:02 GMT

Just reading this makes me squirm. How bad does one's sense of self-preservation have to be such that even the idea of injecting this sort of crap into your body doesn't set off loud alarm bells?

DO NOT BEND! PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO ENCLOSED

Tue, 09 Mar 2004 22:19:07 GMT

Curiously enough, I just got mail addressed to me from the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign. Perhaps because I am registered independent. They, of course, want money. The amusing thing is that the envelope had "DO NOT BEND! PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO ENCLOSED" printed in all red on the front of it. This is presumably intended to look like instructions to the postal service. Very silly.