short takes

[cellio]

A geek perspective on the papal conclave (from dglenn).

MIT's time-traveller convention (from arib).

Remember those rebates I'm due from CompUSA and HP? I got a ding letter from HP, saying I didn't qualify because I didn't send it in in time. I called their 800 number and said "I disagree with that", the rep put me on hold for about ten minutes, and then the rep told me "ok, you should have your check in three weeks". Notably absent from this exchange is the part where the rep says "why do you disagree?" and I support my position. I suppose they could have spent those ten minutes pulling the original envelope from a file and looking at the postmark (um, no), or their database could be so slow and awkward that it took them that long to look up a previously-entered field. Or, maybe they simply roll over and comply in the face of any customer challenge. That might be cheaper than anything else. (Now if CompUSA would just cough up... I am so never doing this again!)

Why does just about every Trek series do at least one mirror-universe episode, and why are they almost always so embarrassing to watch? ("Mirror, Mirror" from the original series is the only exception that comes to mind.) Somebody must like these, right? I mean yeah, ok, it's a chance to do warped things to established characters without consequences, and with scantily-clad women, but for me (a straight woman who likes the baddies to at least not be stupid), that's not enough. Oh well. With luck they'll only waste one more episode of Enterprise on this. They had an opportunity to do good stuff with their few remaining episodes, after all.

Note to future self: kosher-for-Pesach yogurt is runnier than usual. I have no idea why. Next year we might skip that.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I liked "In a Mirror, Darkly," part one because of the connection with "The Tholian Web" from the original series. In fact, a lot of what they have been doing this season has been casting what we know (or thought we knew) from the original series in a new light.

[cellio]

Ah. Maybe I would have reacted better if I'd seen "The Tholian Web", then. Thanks.

And I did like the opening bit -- nice bit of misdirection there. (We know this story. We've even seen this footage. Right? :-) )

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

The opening bit was cool. Of course, since I already knew this was a mirror universe episode, I kept saying to gnomi that Cochrane was going to pull a gun...

[cellio]

Good call.

Is everyone in the mirror universe supposed to be evil, then? I had no expectations about Cochrane in particular, though I assumed that it was going to end badly.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

There have been a few mirror universe episodes; one in the original series, and a handful in Deep Space Nine. I'm afraid I don't remember enough to know who's good and who's bad...

[jducoeur]

Is everyone in the mirror universe supposed to be evil, then?

Everyone in the mirror universe is a warped version of the main-universe versions, as a matter of convention. Since our protagonists are almost all capital-H Heroes, they always come out looking relatively evil in the mirror version.

Some years back, Peter David did a very interesting run in the comic books (set more or less during the animated series), giving the back history of the mirror universe. IIRC, it's actually a what-if scenario, rather than a simple mirroring, postulating things going quite differently at a juncture point in history, and everything simply taking a darker turn after that. The underlying notion there seemed to be that the resulting *culture* was simply far less idealistic and much more ruthless, and our protagonists, as the epitomes of their culture, reflected that...

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Note to future self: kosher-for-Pesach yogurt is runnier than usual. I have no idea why. Next year we might skip that.

Lots of them use various binders and thickeners that may not be kosher.

[cellio]

I guess that's the case. I don't really know anything about the production of yogurt; I suppose it's possible that they're using cornstarch or the like as a thickener, though I wouldn't have thought of that. (Yogurt that's kosher the rest of the year isn't as runny as what I ate today. So presumably there's some thickener that's kosher but not pesadik.)

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

My favorite commercial yogurt thickens with "inulin", but I don't know what that is. (Ah, their web site says it's a natural dietary fiber they derive from chicory root - maybe that's why the kosher-for-passover yogurt I had yesterday was absolutely normal to me). I'm not sure what the others use, but so many products use "modified food starch" that it seems a safe bet to me that kashrut has lead to disappointment.

[amergina.livejournal.com]

You could make yogurt... but I suppose you'd need to use the kosher for passover yogurt for a starter for the made yogurt to be kosher. Other than the starter, all you need is milk and salt. And time.

Or, if you want an easier way to thicker yogurt, use some washed muslin to make a bag, then pour the yogurt into the bag. Use some string to close the top, and hang it over a bowl or sink and let the yogurt drain for a while. Then take the drained yogurt out of the bag.

If you let most of the liquid drain, you get yogurt cheese, but you need not go that far.

[cellio]

Interesting idea; I hadn't considered making my own. Thanks!

[madfilkentist]

When a software catalogue lists a price with the words "after rebate" in fine print, I just skip over that item.