New Additions

The newest additions to our family here are named as follows:

• Catherine
  
• Xena
  
• Cleopatra
  
• Aretha
  
• Mona Lisa
  

I wonder what they'll be wearing to the social... I guess it all depends on what's meant by "ladies... have fun!"

Winter Social

Today's funny email comes from RS, who notes that our "winter social" is this Friday, the third of February. She indicates that gentlemen should wear jacket and tie, "If you have one".

RS is becoming a bit snarky, now, isn't she? If we have one? IF we have one? Smashed is tempted to wear TWO ties, as a retort to that sort of thing. Just who does she think she's working with? OF COURSE we all have a jacket and tie laying around.

We just have to pray that they fit.

If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium

... Or in NR's case, time to fly home from Malibu, after a week soaking in the rays of our first deployment. RA flew back on Wednesday, and QN will be following later today, after a brief detour to Santa Barbara.

They all enjoyed staying at the Malibu Beach Inn, and particularly enjoyed the Zinfandel at Duke's, just south of their temporary digs.

The only real mishap came Wednesday morning. After watching a fabulous sunrise over Rancho Palos Verdes, RA decided to take his breakfast on the veranda. After placing his bearclaw, fruit plate and raisin bran cereal on the wicker table, he went back inside to fetch his toast. When he returned, he found a seagull on the table, about to fly away with his bearclaw - and his fruit plate seriously mauled. Luckily, QN had arrived by that time, to guard against any further incursions.

All things considered, it was quite a trip.

Moscow has our cold

It's reported that Moscow is enjoying temperatures of -30 degrees Celcius. (-22 F, sounds colder in C). Authorities are releasing emergency supplies of energy, starting in St. Petersberg.

``People should be at home drinking vodka,'' Mikhail Ivanov, 60, an unlicensed cab driver since 1962, said in an interview today. ``It's too cold for anything else.''

Spring can't come too soon.

Dry Patch?

Well, JU wonders what's up with the birthday celebration - it's certainly been a long time since we celebrated with a cake and candles. Smashed wonders if it's a statistical anomaly (due to all those summer babies) or maybe it's because we're looking to return to our svelt forms for the trip to Malibu and/or Princeton.

We're sure that the regular commenters here will have an opinion.

I'm gonna hafta update my tables

According to the census bureau, US Population will break the 300 million mark this year, probably in October. According to "The Big Picture",

The bureau estimates that with a baby being born every 8 seconds, someone dying every 12 seconds and the nation gaining an immigrant every 31 seconds on average, the population is growing by one person every 14 seconds.

That's nearly 6200 people per day (net) joining our great National Adventure. Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.

Lance takes the lead

Lance is wearing the yellow jersey—the French media are up in arms. We will focus on Lance as the target this weekend with Ivan peddling in second.

Vive La France! Nous sommes tous Americains! Liberte, Fraternite, Aliquote!

Friday Cat Blogging

Well, Smashed sure has been remiss this week, hasn't he?

We've been very busy here, attempting to turn ourselves into a beautiful butterfly, but it's tough to metamorphose on schedule. Still, we're trying, despite having to use words like "diluent."

Plans are advancing for the Winter Social, which if I recall correctly is the day after a meeting in New Jersey. That could lead to some complications, but will be a pleasant restorative, Smashed is sure.


The Yankee Swap will make it all worthwhile.

Punked Out

Via the urban dictionary comes this definition of a term ("punked out") recently heard in the office.

To be intimidated to the point of retreat.

"come on man jump..don't punk out"

" I just punked out 5 guys with bats by showing them my gun"

Smashed is not sure if that is quite what was meant, but it seems pretty close.

Damn you, 0xC000007b

The staff was mostly gone yesterday, so of course the most obscure problem cropped up.

Error 0xC000007b - affectionately known here just as "7b", caused Lance to be disabled most of the day. Thankfully, due to what amounted to some black magic, Lance was restored to health late in the day. He's back in fine form, working overtime to catch up on the backlog. With some luck, NR or RN will get some nice pictures sometime today.

The Awl is our current Achilles heel

The Awl is our current Achilles heel. Truer words have never been spoken. WL, gotta hand it to you, you sure can turn a phrase.

Perhaps we can find other weak points. Maybe our Achilles tennis elbow is our manufacturing process, and our Achilles wrist could be reagent problems.

I think I see a Fractured Fairytale here somewhere.

Saturday Cat Blogging

And for those who missed my usual Friday Cat blogging, here's a little something.

Friday Cat Blogging (One day late)

Just in time for Friday, Carl Zimmer posted his version of "Friday Cat Blogging" - and since we're a quasi-scientific outfit, I thought that perhaps my readership might like a gander (a look, not a male goose).

New Largest Prime Found

Via Making Light, we get this news:

... researchers at Central Missouri State University have discovered the largest prime number so far, clocking in at 9.1 million digits. It’s 2^30402457-1. If anyone finds a 10-million-digit prime it’s worth $100,000 in prize money. Plus fame and praise.

Maybe we can work on that next weekend.

1st Purple Cow Award

Head-Smashed-In is proud to announce the awarding of the first Purple Cow Award for excellence in Practical Jokery. While we've had some hum-dingers of practical jokes played upon various of us at one time or another, with the new year and our extremely gradual (some would say imperceptible) maturation, it has become advantageous to formalize our recognition of excellence in this field. (Perhaps it is our quality processes rubbing off on Smashed).



Unfortunately, it is unknown to whom the award should be given for this contribution to the advancement of the state of the art. Surely the authors of this act must have been influenced by the now-famous study of the efficacy of tin-foil hats. Perhaps they were worried that JM's furniture would be influenced by the government into somehow betraying JM upon his return to the office.

Happy Moo Year

Happy Moo Year, everybody. May you be as content as the cows in the field, may all your fodder be tasty, and all your pastures green.

Smashed is off to a New Years day party in Arlington, and still has to moooove the snow off of the driveway, so this entry must be short. Regular blogging will resume soon.

UPDATE: Driveway cleaned off in record time... Thought my (increasingly large) audience might like to read a synopsis of the year of the Jingosphere. (He of the "Aluminum helmets" retort). So that's the sort of thing that can happen to a guy or gal that blogs. Smashed should only be so lucky. Now, to Arlington.