Sylvar's New Writeups

Cerebrin (thing)

2009-04-27T12:13:20Z

In The Space Merchants (Pohl and Kornbluth, 1953), cerebrin is a drug given as punishment; it causes physical and mental anguish, and is typically administered for 20 years at a time for serious (i.e., anti-commerce) crimes.

Only the higher classes refer to getting cerebrin; the consumers just call the process "being brainburned".

Hello World (thing)

2007-12-19T02:28:08Z

"Hello World" in LOLcode:

HAI
  I HAS A GREETZ ITZ "HELLO"
  I HAS A WURLD ITZ "WORLD"
  VISIBLE GREETZ N " " N WURLD
  BTW we could have done this in one line (VISIBLE "HELLO WORLD")
KTHXBYE

vasectomy (thing)

2003-07-02T22:23:41Z

I had a vasectomy today, and it was much less unpleasant than the horror stories above.

It started with disrobing to the waist. Not a lot of surprise there. Then I lay down on a reclining table a bit like a chaise lounge. After applying an iodine swab, the nurse brought a lamp over. This had three purposes: warming up the skin to prevent shrinkage, providing light for the doctor, and festive mood lighting. I barely felt the wire-thin needle that put anaesthetic in, and occasionally managed to notice more needles that covered more surface area. It's done with local anaesthesia because as a rule, general anaesthesia is more dangerous (losing consciousness is never good for your health) and used when necessary.

I didn't feel a whole lot, although I did occasionally feel exactly as if someone were gently tugging on the little stringy bits inside. Which he was, of course. No crochet hooks involved (all of the cutting and cautery is done…

Lawrence v. Texas: an Analysis (idea)

2003-06-26T23:13:19Z

My comments on the case:

Thanks to the CIPA decision, library patrons would need to ask permission from a library staff member in order to read this important bit of news (unless the library wasn't receiving e-rate or LSTA money, which most do).
I think I just scored 2²⁰ geek points for finding a typo in the summary on supremecourtus.gov. ("Although the laws involved in Bowers and here purport to do not more than prohibit a particular sexual act...": replace "do not more" with "do no more".)
My favorite sentence of the actual decision: "This, as a general rule, should counsel against attempts by the State, or a court, to define the meaning of the relationship or to set its boundaries absent injury to a person or abuse of an institution the law protects." This, along with other parts of the decision, implies that all laws prohibiting private consensual sexual acts may be

…

Arthur the Rat (thing)

2002-12-20T17:15:02Z

A standard passage used by American dialectologists to record someone's regional accent. Just as "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" contains all the letters in the English language, Arthur the Rat contains all the phonemes in American English.

Once upon a time there was a rat who couldn't make up his mind. Whenever the other rats asked him if he would like to come out hunting with them, he would answer in a hoarse voice, "I don't know." And when they said, "Would you rather stay inside?" he wouldn't say yes, or no either. He'd always shirk making a choice.

One fine day his aunt Josephine said to him, "Now look here! No one will ever care for you if you carry on like this. You have no more mind of your own than a greasy old blade of grass!"

The young rat coughed and looked wise, as usual, but said nothing.

"Don't you think so?" said his aunt stamping with her foot,

…

Bowling for Columbine (thing)

2002-10-25T10:37:43Z

I saw this movie last night with turtlebat and Segnbora-t, on a sneak preview, and we all loved it.

I don't know how Michael Moore gets the interviews he does, but he manages to get access not only to NRA president Charlton Heston's home, but also to the kitchen and bedroom of James Nichols, brother of Terry Nichols, also indicted with Timothy McVeigh. He sandbags them for a while with disingenuously softball questions, then pulls out the big questions. He asks James, who has a loaded handgun under his pillow (Mike checks) and fuel oil and ammonium nitrate on his property, about bigger weapons:

MIKE: Should you have the right to own [weapons-grade plutonium]?

JAMES: That should be restricted.

MIKE: So you do believe in some restrictions.

JAMES: Because there's a lot of wackos out there.

When this guy starts a…