cellio | short takes

The story about the elephant is the funniest thing I've read in days.

I have a new front-runner in the "deceptive marketing" category. Today I examined a bag of Glenny's Soy Crisps, which proudly proclaims "10 grams pure soy protein" and "only 65 calories per serving". However, it is not 10 grams of protein per serving. (The bag contains two servings, so it's 5g protein per 65 calories.)

Yesterday I came into the office to find a keyboard tray peeking out from beneath my desk. I wondered how long it had been there without my noticing; it was possible to push it back well out of sight, so it could have been there for a long time. The mystery was solved when someone walked into my office later and found me, not my office-mate, sitting at my desk. Apparently he'd installed it the previous night, but in the wrong place. I suppose that beats the alternative outcomes. :-) (No, I don't want a keyboard tray; my arms aren't long enough to use one with proper posture.)

Tonight was an On the Mark practice. Jenn has decided to leave the group due to an attack of life. It's unfortunate, but I understand. I don't want anyone to burn out. Ray is staying, so we'll juggle some parts around and things will be ok.

Tonight's episode of Enterprise, "Cogenitor", had a dreadful preview. It was also one of the best episodes of the show to date. That was an extremely pleasant surprise. (Ok, I saw every key plot point well ahead of schedule, but that didn't hurt the show, as it turned out. Now we just have to wait and see if they actually follow through on this in future episodes.)

Embla lay down in my lap while I was watching the show tonight. She's never done that before. Yay! It took five and a half years, but she's finally comfortable enough to actually settle down in my lap, rather than just walking across it and then scampering away. Progress. :-)

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Cigfran and I spent the commercial time trying to work out the mechanics. The doc's pictures would have helped! :D They apparently have male, female and neuter genders. I think they said the neuter contributes an enzyme and about 3% of the population is neuter. The engineer wanted to sleep with Tripp, so it's possible to have sex with just two people. Given that Tripp can participate, it's probably some varient of er, ah "tab and slot" mechanics. But how does the neuter fit in? (Pun intended) :D Can you mate with a neuter? Niven did it well for puppeteers, a seed male, an egg male and a womb female.

Well, Phlox said something like "first the woman..." before Tripp cut him off. And we don't know which of the three provides the womb. So there are several possibilities:

1. Female acquires enzyme from cogenitor, then mates with male.
2. Female deposits egg-equivalent with cogenitor, male mates with cogentor. (Probably the cogenitor provides the womb in this case.)
3. Female and male mate, then whicheve of them ended up with all ingredients (canonically the female) mates with the cogenitor.

There are more, but you get the idea. We don't have enough information to narrow it down much. During the episode I was assuming #1, but that's just instinct.

As for Tripp and the female, remember: these aren't humans. We don't know what anatomy they have; we also don't know if she had done any basic research on compatability issues. Maybe she was just horny and wanted to make out despite incompatabilities. :-)

Or maybe she found out from the holo-deck aliens from ealier that Trip was easy and also a good mommie?
(Haven't seen this episode; life intervened and I forgot to tape it... I'll see it on Sunday, maybe.)

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Enterprise

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Re: Enterprise