The Wikipedia article on Arnold-Chiari malformation states that a surgical procedure that reshapes the base of the skull where skull meets spine provides improvement in 80% of hundreds of cases studied.

"Gee, thanks, Mom and Dad. What a thoughtful graduation gift!"

I've seen something similar in museums in Europe - specifically, if I remember correctly, the Science Museum in Kensington in London.

They created working scale models of factory floors, complete with belt-driven energy for all the devices on the floor. Presumably the real-life belt was being turned by a turbine in falling water. Perhaps the models were created for investors? Maybe they were created before the factory itself was actually built?

I've just heard from a caretaker that it is indeed true. Apparently it was a heart attack.

Does anyone know what the "MOO card" is that he referred to? MOO is such a common acronym, I can't figure out what his "MOO card" represented.

Great example. Koyannisqatsi got under my skin when it came out - I must have been 12 years or so old back then. I remember that whole sequence of people-watching in Vegas better than any other part of that beautiful movie. Such a powerful piece of art. Have we seen anything as innovative or daring in the years that havs come and gone since Koyannisqatsi? I say No, No, No.

From my iTunes library:

Disco Pope by The Prats

Skanatra singing Fly Me to the Moon

Pogo Pogo by Plastic Bertrand

Just a glimpse of those deep-fryers made me want to run from my office, screaming, so I could wash my face.

ditto Volcanodust.

Check out "Start Wearing Purple," my favorite of their songs - it rocks and it's fun!

Amazing collection. Excellent choice for a post, Sr. Doctorow!

This is a reflection of the dark underbelly of some of our fellow liberals.

Come on, guys, free WiFi for everyone is nothing short of AWESOME for all involved.

Health risks due to radiation?

Please make my brain stop hurting.

I went to college with Yronwode's daughter Althea. We both lived in Berkeley's Barrington Hall in 1989/90.

* Morphine
* Methamphetamine
* A couple o' hits of LSD (takes up hardly any space!)
* Prophylactics
* MDMA (for use with the Prophylactics)

I'd like to compare the "energy nugget" with a couple of tablets of pharmaceutical grade methamphetamine.

Didn't the survival kits in Dr. Strangelove include gold coins and stockings, too?

Bring back Klaus Pierre!

The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York is one of the best museums I've ever been to. Anyone interested in glass technology or glass history will love it. I visited in summer of 2006 and enjoyed it more than any other museum visit I've had anywhere.

A good-naturedly critical article about coverage of your talk appeared earlier this week on the liberal political humor blog Sadly, No:

http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/8960.html

I live on the outside of a curve on a busy road. My neighbors and I are constantly having to replace our mailboxes. I have been through many phases of mailbox protection philosophy, including one that weight about 40 pounds and would hopefully shatter teen-age bat-wielding hand bones.

I've settled on a shitty, cheap, loose mailbox that breaks away easily.

Neat! Like ecobore I took the Srinigar to Leh road in Jammu/Kashmir - two days to go perhaps 200 miles. Beautiful and frightening.

I used one in Paris once - waited in line to use it, actually...

The self-cleaning cycle appeared to be done with steam. Believe it or not it was sparkly-clean when I took my turn in spite of the fact that a half-dozen people went before me - each followed by a blast of steam.

My recollection is that it wasn't free but I'm unsure.

Beergood:

There's a classic reggae tune with the refrain:

No one remembers
Old Marcus Garvey

...so you're apparently not alone.

A lot of good it did them!

The Khmer Rouge used waterboarding. Here is a photograph from Tuol Sleng death-camp/prison in Phnom Penh illustrating how waterboarding was used:

http://flickr.com/photos/waterboardingdotorg/2104418459/

Look! He's even using a watering can!

Here's a photo of the "board" itself:

http://flickr.com/photos/waterboardingdotorg/2104419905/in/photostream/

How proud should we be of following Pol Pot's moral example?

Are you still breathing, Dustin?

Salvia is another one I found both profound and frightening - by no means a recreational experience.

I felt as if I time-traveled with salvia and the scene I revisited, from my youth, was important to me. Seeing it again was valuable.

It was also terrifying and I'm certain that it's not something I'd try again.

Interesting that Shadrack mentioned breathing.

I was under the distinct impression during my experience that I was not breathing. Intellectually, I recognized that I was breathing, else how could I remain conscious and alive? No matter how carefully I listened or covered my mouth with my hand, however, I couldn't feel or hear myself breath.

I remember asking my sober "sitter" to keep an eye on me. "I know I'm breathing because I'm not dead, but I can't for the life of me detect it happening. Can you hear me breathing? Are you sure?"

Creepy!

I've consumed the brew and had a powerful and profound experience that provided me with some valuable insight into my life. Unfortunately there was a terrifying element to the experience as well. It should be emphasized that indeed there is nothing "recreational" about ayahuasca. It would be wrong to lump the ayahuasca experience in with [oftentimes] recreational LSD, psilocybin or mescaline experiences.

I don't regret my ayahuasca experience - again, I found it to be insightful. I have no desire to experience it again, however.

I visited the one in Hong Kong in 1988.

Sad to hear that it is no longer there.

Vachement cool!

I find it remarkable that the right has so successfully stilted the prism through which we gauge morality that our discourse in this area tends to focus on whether or not waterboarding is torture - rather than whether or not being cruel to people in our custody is right in the first place.

Christ - I hope that Espinosa fled straight to her dermatologist's office.

Yay for Earth and Fire Erowid! Wooo!

Fart be gone.

Talented guy. Always fun. Yay MC Frontalot!

Good story.

It's lame, however, for Chicago Public Radio to report on the estimated values of peoples' homes as if the estimates provide any real insight into someone's honesty.

A lot of people live in $450,000 homes.

Note that when the cell phone is being pulled by the "gravity," the nylon lanyard doesn't move at the same speed as the phone - it gets dragged alongside. If the phone was being pulled by "gravity," the lanyard would move along at the same speed.

Is the new Lotus Notes TCP/IP compatible yet, or are we still waiting for the next version?

What does that mean?

I'm reading it now and am enjoying it a great deal, but I don't think it is quite as good as Pattern Recognition.

I'm only halfway through it, however - perhaps something amazing will happen to change my mind!

They sell "I got it in the Bunghole!" t-shirts. Groovy.

Yay: Miss Tibet
Boo: Lotus Notes

CreateSimplicity is Lotus Notes! AWWWWWW!!!!!

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die.

All these worlds are yours to use, except Europa. Attempt no landing there!

Lotus Notes!

A perennial favorite of mine is the sign in front of Burger King or McDonald's that is supposed to say, "NOW HIRING CLOSERS" and has been modified instead to say "NOW HIRING LOSERS."

Wacky!

I see that Diana has had her teeth fixed. Congrats to her. She had the most imagination on that season of Project Runway.

...and then they didn't let the people who tested positive in anyway, even after they were searched and found not to be carrying.

What a crock of shit.

OC & Stiggs!

I grew up hearing stories about my grandfather and his siblings having to scrounge coal from the railroad track yards in order for their destitute Lithuanian immigrant family in New York to heat their apartment and cook. This would have been in the 1910s - 1920s.

"Yaari.com," a social-networking site for Indians and their friends around the world behaves similarly. Stay away from Yaari.com as well!

I like the fact that she appears to have dipped her nipple into nail polish.

I wonder if it's crunchy?