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You are here: Home / Music / Early Morning Open Thread

Early Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  August 11, 20102:46 am| 35 Comments

This post is in: Music, Open Threads, Science & Technology

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In a somewhat similar vein, I am absolutely gonna get me a copy of Mary Roach’s new book, PACKING FOR MARS: The Curious Science of Life in the Void:

It would be only slightly unfair to say that Ms. Roach’s main focus in “Packing for Mars” is scatological. She’s interested in borderline mental states too. (“If you carry a bathroom scale to the top of Mount Everest,” she says, “you may see that you actually weigh a tiny bit less, not counting the marbles you have obviously lost.”) She also cares about the linguistic acrobatics used by space scientists when they address things they don’t want to talk about. A stricture against astronauts’ sharing “undue preferential treatment” is NASA’s way of banning sex in space…
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Here’s a book that will tell you exactly how bad a stuffy space capsule can smell (“different from the fresh ocean breezes outside,” the astronaut Jim Lovell tells her, recalling comments made by frogmen who opened the Gemini VII hatch after splashdown) and what happens when astronauts can’t bathe for long periods of time. In a book full of smooth segues and clever chapter headings, this section is called “Houston, We Have a Fungus.”

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Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    EvolutionaryDesign

    August 11, 2010 at 2:53 am

    Jon Stewart absolutely skewered the NY mosque situation tonight. I think maybe, with some patience, this extreme din of anger and fear that comes from both sides of the political divide may be getting close to it’s apex. Not any time soon, of course, but sooner than it looks.

  2. 2.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 11, 2010 at 3:00 am

    The first interests me not, but the second slightly interests me. And, AL, I have to thank you for the Torchwood/Dr. Who mash-up vid with the I Know Him So Well song. Loved it (though I don’t watch either show).

    @EvolutionaryDesign: Checking it out right now. Thanks. He shaved! Woot woot!

  3. 3.

    Yutsano

    August 11, 2010 at 3:00 am

    That, of course, reminded me of this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LUgIYKtvFA&feature=related

    I don’t even remember where I found that, randomness on the Interwebz somewhere.

  4. 4.

    hamletta

    August 11, 2010 at 3:01 am

    That book sounds great! I’m so old, I remember being thrilled at each new space mission and thinking astronauts were super-human.

    But of course their shit stinks like everybody else’s. That some enterprising author has explored the implications of farts in space just makes me wanna kick myself for not thinking of it first.

  5. 5.

    Yutsano

    August 11, 2010 at 3:15 am

    @hamletta: I am curiously reminded of Douglas Adams, who I am certain would be quite bemused with this author’s work. She is actually very respectful of the material from what I can tell, she’s just documenting that there are people who HAVE to consider these matters when putting humans out of their natural environment.

  6. 6.

    BlueDWarrior

    August 11, 2010 at 3:29 am

    A part of me really wants a non-violent ‘blowout’ of this currently building socio-politico-economic pressure that is been building in the public for the last 30 years.

    Dylan Ratigan had a segment Monday on the “Pressure Cooker” of American Society, and it made me think: are we approaching a point where people are just visibly losing the ever loving minds and just need an opportunity to get everything, every last bit of everything, off their chest once and for all?

  7. 7.

    Zuzu's Petals

    August 11, 2010 at 3:33 am

    A note from a Homer citizen who actually knows Kathleen Gustafson: here (#315).

    You’d think some of the nutters would have taken enough time to actually talk to people who, you know, live in Homer. That would be an awful lot like getting the story straight, though.

  8. 8.

    Yutsano

    August 11, 2010 at 3:35 am

    @Zuzu’s Petals: HA! I think they removed the comment! AWESOME!!

    @asiangrrlMN: The link itself has a comment tag (at least it does when it shows in FF) and it just goes to the main page. My guess is they purged that inconvenient truth. Of course no one can ever wrong Saint Sarah so can’t say I’m surprised.

  9. 9.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 11, 2010 at 3:35 am

    @Zuzu’s Petals: You do realize you linked to the GatewayPundit, right? There are three hundred comments. Help, please? I did a search for Homer, which helped, but I still read some of the crap. Ugh. Need moar mind-bleach now.

    @Yutsano: I found several comments, though, defending the teacher. Still, mostly idiots with no clue that they are idiots.

  10. 10.

    Zuzu's Petals

    August 11, 2010 at 3:38 am

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Dang dang dang, I thought it would link to the actual comment. Sorry. Best I could do was edit my prior to include the comment number (315). But yeah, you still have to go to GP. So sorry again.

  11. 11.

    hamletta

    August 11, 2010 at 3:38 am

    @Yutsano: Well, of course! You’d have to if you’re spending jillions of dollars to send a bunch of people off into The Great Yonder to spend weeks cooped up in a modded-up Airstream trailer with no escape. The (ahem) by-products of human existence take on monumental importance in cramped quarters.

    Just ask any band that spent a few weeks on the road in beat-up van.

  12. 12.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    August 11, 2010 at 3:38 am

    @BlueDWarrior: Most of the bullshit is being stoked by the right wing propaganda machine, and their fellow travelers n the corporate media (including Dylan Ratigan’s horrible show).

    I don’t know a single person who cares about a Mosque in new york city, but that doesn’t keep infochannels from manufacturing Jerry Springer type screaming matches over a non issue.

  13. 13.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 11, 2010 at 3:42 am

    @hamletta: Hi ya. I gave you a response to your Dayton question in the thread below. Short answer: Mark Dayton is, indeed, part of the Dayton clan. Asshat who gave money to Emmer is a CEO of Target, not named Dayton.

    @Zuzu’s Petals: There were actually a few who defended the teacher (search for Homer). I will brave the icky depths and see if I can find the specific comment. Found it. Great comment. And, I love the fact that it’s Jewel’s brother who played Hedwig.

  14. 14.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 11, 2010 at 3:46 am

    My anthem song from Hedwig. It’s not my favorite, but it’s in the top five.

  15. 15.

    Yutsano

    August 11, 2010 at 3:48 am

    @asiangrrlMN: I found it. It’s the next to last one, although the very last is a supportive comment as well. It gives you the perspective they have about Bible Spice up there. Very elucidating.

    BTW did FH #1 get lost in work again? I’m gonna have to have a talk with that chile.

  16. 16.

    BlueDWarrior

    August 11, 2010 at 4:03 am

    @Mike Kay (Team America): Heh you don’t have to tell me twice about how unwatchable the Dylan show is (that was the first time i’ve watched in like 2 months.

    The nihilist in me just wants the whole f**king thing to burn down to the ground. But the realist in me just knows that what ‘rises’ from the ashes in those scenarios are 90% of the time as bad or worse than what burn ‘the thing’ to the ground to begin with.

    One other thing I’ve noticed is that there are some people who get really touchy when someone brings up the legitimate point that some people on the internet Left are horrendously impatient and that somehow means that people like me are either telling them that what the President and the party are doing wrong don’t matter or that they should just STFU, when really all I’m saying is that sometimes this shit just takes a long time to wind it’s way through and good things never happen when they should happen, it just happens when it finally you hack at the system away far enough to where it can have space to happen.

    To be perfectly honest I think that in the 70s and 80s too many liberals got lazy when it comes to establishing media avenues (or were squeezed out of doing so) and now we are trying to fight against a 40-Year-Old Fine-Tuned Hate Wurlitzer (hows that for a tag) with whatever we can cobble together on the internet. It’s just going to be a hard slog, it always was going to be a hard slog, and if anyone thought that it wasn’t going to be a hard slog then brother they were or are deluding themselves.

    (wow that was pretty damn long comment for 3 AM CDT)

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    August 11, 2010 at 4:13 am

    And because life is never complete without a full dose of teh cute:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTqV6LPl8c

    I’ve linked to this before but since there’s been a rash of births lately and in honour of SamKitten’s first birthday, I figured I’d throw it up there again.

  18. 18.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    August 11, 2010 at 4:16 am

    @BlueDWarrior:

    One other thing I’ve noticed is that there are some people who get really touchy when someone brings up the legitimate point that some people on the internet Left are horrendously impatient

    The thin skinned part is fascinating, considering how hostile they are. It’s an unavoidable conclusion, they can dish it out, but they can’t take it. They can criticize anyone, but no one is allowed to criticize them.

  19. 19.

    wgbbearing

    August 11, 2010 at 4:19 am

    Wow, amazing! Thanks for sharing!

  20. 20.

    Batocchio

    August 11, 2010 at 4:32 am

    Sullivan linked two defenses of the teacher, or at least factual corrections. They linked it earlier today here at BJ:

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/08/the-desperation-of-the-palinites.html

    This might also help:

    http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/sarah-palins-homer-moment/

  21. 21.

    asiangrrlMN

    August 11, 2010 at 4:40 am

    @Yutsano: I love that video! OK. On that note, night all. I’m out.

  22. 22.

    Tattoosydney

    August 11, 2010 at 4:49 am

    @Yutsano:

    BTW did FH #1 get lost in work again?

    I can’t help it is your active time corresponds with the end of the work day here!

  23. 23.

    Objective Scrutator

    August 11, 2010 at 5:08 am

    Uhh… what the fuck is this?

    Mister Kurtz is alive and well if Fiorina manages to take the Senate seat. Of course, I believe that there is a higher probability of Newt Gingrich atoning for his past crimes by doing a month-long trek on foot along the Extraterrestrial Highway while picking up litter, but the possibility cannot be discarded.

  24. 24.

    Comrade Baron Elmo

    August 11, 2010 at 5:15 am

    Submitted for your approval: a fascinating article about the decline of the Christian religion in England’s fair and pleasant… and how that’s led their homegrown bible thumpers to bitching and screaming “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!”:

    The Slow, Whiny Death of British Christianity

  25. 25.

    NobodySpecial

    August 11, 2010 at 5:39 am

    @Comrade Baron Elmo: It’s a nice article, but there have been times before that where religion was not too prominent in British life, and it came roaring back. I’m thinking of the early 1700’s, with the rise of Calvinism and Methodism.

  26. 26.

    Zuzu's Petals

    August 11, 2010 at 5:46 am

    @Batocchio:

    I wish Sullivan had included the factual correction the GP commenter did: while the local family planning clinic that Gustafson supports provides mammograms, pap smears, and other health services to women, it does not provide – and never has provided – abortions. Oops.

  27. 27.

    Paul

    August 11, 2010 at 6:26 am

    Mary Roach was on Talk of the Nation, and then on a local public radio station talking about her book. I found her knowledgeable and interesting, and I imagine her book is both accurate and entertaining.

  28. 28.

    Mark S.

    August 11, 2010 at 6:32 am

    Christ, I finally got around to watching that Palin video. Anyone who thinks this bimbo is going to win any nomination needs to watch that video over and over until it sinks in that this is not how a serious candidate for office an adult reacts to adversity. I’m not sure Sarah even remembers how to talk to someone who isn’t kissing her ass.

    Well, I could see one way she could win: if everybody else dies and it’s just between her and Newt.

  29. 29.

    bemused

    August 11, 2010 at 6:49 am

    I assumed Mark Dayton won in MN but Margaret Kelliher didn’t concede as of about 12:30 am saying there were still votes to count. There was about 1500 votes difference between Dayton and Kelliher. I’m still looking for any more updates on this.

  30. 30.

    gene108

    August 11, 2010 at 7:03 am

    I think they covered the Superman theme a bit around the first minute.

  31. 31.

    MikeJ

    August 11, 2010 at 7:04 am

    @Mark S.: You would think a video like that would ruin her completely, but the deluded segment of the population can watch it and think she did great. External reality isn’t used as a basis for judgment anymore.

  32. 32.

    mclaren

    August 11, 2010 at 7:18 am

    @EvolutionaryDesign:

    I think maybe, with some patience, this extreme din of anger and fear that comes from both sides of the political divide may be getting close to it’s apex.

    Ha! Hasn’t even started.

    Just wait till the Republicans sweep in this November. All subpoenas all the time. Non-stop congressional investigations of Obama’s birth certificate. A Special Committee of the House will be set up to investigate Michelle Obama’s vacation in Spain. The mainstream media will suddenly discover this is a huge important issue and they’ll headline it nightly with taglines like “The growing Obama Spanish vacation scandal — new revelations! Did Michelle Obama steal towels from her Spanish hotel? House investigative committee demands answers, White House stonewalls.”

  33. 33.

    Kryptik

    August 11, 2010 at 9:24 am

    I hate to open up this can of worms again, but I mostly just wanted to point out this paragraph from Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars that encapsulates my frustration with the whole Gibbs thing from yesterday:

    Moreover, much of the frustration, not only on the part of the professional left (which I take to mean MSNBC, as their self-identified anchors on the left have taken some legitimate and not legitimate shots at the White House, not the progressive blogosphere, as important as some of us want to make ourselves), but all of Obama’s base is that in some backwards notion of “bipartisanship”, Obama has not only given the right wing–whose openly expressed sole purpose is to derail any success Obama and his party might have–seats at the table, but all the seats, and the table and the carpet on which it rests. Anyone knows that when you negotiate, you don’t start from a compromised center and move further right.

    That’s where my frustration lies with the administration and the current crop of Dems. Not so much the result of what goes on or even the process. It’s that they consistently start from a compromised position, and expect Republicans to do the same despite first-person evidence that Republicans only working definition of bipartisanship is ‘Democrats cater to Republicans at all times, or else’. I mean, fuck, look at McConnell’s statement of how he expected Obama to behave if the Republicans took back Congress.

  34. 34.

    lou

    August 11, 2010 at 9:59 am

    I read Mary Roach’s Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers for book club once and it was both hilarious and gruesome. Not for the squeamish. So I bet this book is great too.

    Did anyone see this article in the NY Times. It really highlights what BS this mosque controversy is. The planners of the community center were focused on building up interfaith support from their colleagues. It never occurred to them in their wildest dreams that a 9-11 controversy would erupt. The wife of the imam, who actually started the whole thing, is on the 9-11 memorial board, ironically enough.

  35. 35.

    EvolutionaryDesign

    August 11, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    @mclaren: I agree with you that there is a TON of crap coming down the pipe. I was referring more to the idea that this extreme noise is going to wear out more moderate Americans eventually. You can only be screamed at for so long before you don’t care to listen to the beligerence any longer. I don’t know if that will happen any time in the foreseeable future, but I think we may be turning a very long corner. Jon Stewart’s show makes me think of what Murrow did to McCarthy – giving the screaming hate-mongers enough rope to hang themselves with their own incoherence.

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