This page will look much nicer in a browser that supports CSS, or with CSS turned on.

Uncertain Principles

Physics, Politics, Pop Culture

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Curse You, Television!

Last Thursday night was spent loafing around the living room watching CSI on TV. It's one of those shows that's just hypnotically awful. The dialogue makes J. Michael Straczynski look like William Shakespeare-- it's incredibly stilted, full of as-you-know-Bobbing, and hideously pun-ridden-- while the plotting is contrived even by the standards of televised police dramas. And yet, it's weirdly fascinating.

Anyway, the superfluous subplot of the week involved an idiot college student found dead in a bathtub. It was, of course, incredibly disgusting, and, of course, the cause of death didn't turn out to be anything straightforward like "he slipped, hit his head, and drowned." No, he died because of some sort of tiny brain hemorrhage sustained when he was rabbit-punched in a sports bar a few days earlier. According to the crusty medical examiner character, he felt just fine after the fight (maybe a little head-achy), until-- BAM-- he dropped dead.

Fast-forward to Saturday afternoon. It's cold, and rainy, and Kate and I are out running errands. Driving down one of the major streets in the area, I see a bunch of stopped cars up ahead at a light, so I step on the brake. Nothing much happens. I step harder, and the wheels lock. Whee! We skid to a stop a few feet from the back end of the car in front of us. Which, of course, turns out to be a cop car.

"Gee, it would've sucked to hit that cop," I say. Or words to that effect. A few seconds pass, then...

CRASH!

The guy behind us, driving a big pick-up truck, wasn't quite so lucky, and slammed into the back end of my car. The damage was pretty minimal, save for the fact that the car's design (1999 Taurus) is such that a dent in the bumper requires replacing the entire back end of the car. The truck was smashed up a bit worse, but both vehicles were drivable, and after much pacing around, explaining about the wet roads, and the filing of an accident report by the cop, we went on our way.

Nobody was hurt in the accident, and the other driver's insurance company has already contacted me about getting the car repaired, which is good. Kate and I feel just fine, except maybe a little stiff and head-achy...

And thanks to CSI, I've spent the last few days saddled with the mental image of suddenly dropping dead from a previously undetected brain hemorrhage.

Bastards.

Posted at 10:24 AM | link | follow-ups | 5 comments


ΔxΔp ≥ h / 4 π

My stuff

orzelc@steelypips.org
What's with the name?
Who is this clown?
Does he know what he's talking about?
Archived Posts
Index of Physics Posts
RSS, version 0.91
The Library of Babel
Japan Stories

Δ E Δ t ≥ h / 4 π

Other People's Stuff

AKMA's Random Thoughts
Arcane Gazebo
Arts and Letters Daily
Balkinization
Boing Boing
Chronicles of Dr. Crazy
Confessions of a Community College Dean
Corndoggerel
Cosmic Variance
Crooked Timber
Brad DeLong
Diary de la Vex
Drink at Work
Easily Distracted
Electrolite
Electron Blue
Fafblog!
John Fleck
Gallimaufry
Grim Amusements
David Harris's Science and Literature Hellblazer
In the Pipeline
Invisible Adjunct
Izzle Pfaff
Knowing and Doing
The Last Nail
Learning Curves
The Little Professor
Making Light
Malice Aforethought
Medpundit
Chris C. Mooney
Musical Perceptions
Musings
My Heart's in Accra
Newsrack
Michael Nielsen
Not Even Wrong
Notional Slurry
Off the Kuff
One Man's Opinion
Orange Quark
The Panda's Thumb
Pedablogue
Perverse Access Memory
Pharyngula
Political Animal
Polytropos
The Poor Man
Preposterous Universe
Prometheus
Pub Sociology
Quantum Pontiff
Real Climate
The Reality-Based Community
SciTech Daily
Sensei and Sensibility
Slacktivist
Snarkout
Talking Points Memo
Through the Looking Glass
Unmistakable Marks
Unqualified Offerings
View From the Corner of the Room
Westerblog
Whatever
What's New
Whiskey Bar
Wolverine Tom
Word Munger
Yes, YelloCello
Matthew Yglesias

Book Stuff

Book Slut
Neil Gaiman
The Humblest Blog on the Net
Pam Korda
Lundblog
Outside of a Dog
Reading Notes
Seven Things Lately
The Tufted Shoot
Virtual Marginalia
Weasel Words
Woodge's Book Report

Sports

ACC Hoops
College Basketball (2.0)
Dave Sez
Hoop Time 3.0
KenPom
The Mid-Majority
Set Shot
Tuesday Morning Quarterback

Δ N Δ Φ ≥ 1 / 2

Reviews

BlogCritics
75 or Less Album Reviews
Rotten Tomatoes
The Onion A.V. Club

Geek Stuff

Annals of Improbable Research
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Britney Spears's Guide to Semiconductor Physics
The Comic Book Periodic Table
MC Hawking's Crib
The Museum of Unworkable Devices
Myths and Mysteries of Science
The Onion
Physics 2000
Sluggy Freelance
Sodaconstructor
Web Elements
Physics Central (APS)
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics

Useful Stuff

Bloglines
Blogtracker
Web Design Group
Weblogs.com

While it is my fervent hope that my employers agree with me about the laws of physics, all opinions expressed here are mine, and mine alone. Don't hold my politics against them.

Weblog posts are copyright 2003 by Chad Orzel, but may be copied and distributed (and linked to) freely, with the correct attribution. But you knew that already.

If you use Internet Explorer, and the text to the right cuts off abruptly at the end of this column, hit "F11" twice, and you should get the rest of it. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Powered by Blogger Pro and BlogKomm.

Steelypips main page.