Archive for the 'News' Category

Thar be dragons!

mbietz April 24th, 2008

“The random nature of quantum physics means that there is always a minuscule, but nonzero, chance of anything occurring, including that the new [Large Hadron] collider could spit out man-eating dragons.” - Dennis Overbye, NYT, 4/15/08

An interesting article about how to gauge the risk of a scientific experiment that just might blow up the world. But now all I can think about is how many of those physicists were D&D geeks in high school, and that CERN’s real mission is to prove that fantasy is reality. Turns out that Hadron is actually the name of a supremely powerful dragon banished to live inside a proton by 20th-level wizard who rolled a 19 in battle in 1982.

Larry Craig = Mrs. Peacock?

mbietz August 29th, 2007

I can’t help but think of this little snippet of conversation from Clue (1985) every time I hear the news about Larry Craig:

Mrs. PeacockWADSWORTH
…under the door of the men’s room,
how would you describe that transaction?

SCARLET
I’d say it stinks.

PEACOCK
Well, how would you know?
When were you in that men’s room?

PLUM
So it’s true!

PEACOCK
(standing)
No, it’s a vicious lie!

WADSWORTH
I’m sure we’re all glad to hear that.