Superconductive Hysteresis Loops in Crunchberries

Yeah, let's talk about superconductive hysteresis loops.

You start - I have no idea what they are.

Friends are vacationing in Asia. They're eating lots of insects, apparently on purpose. These folks have to have certain toppings on pizza or they won't eat it. Certain brands of jelly for their PB&J sandwiches. So in addition to hearing crickets, they're eating them. Maybe being in Asia does something to their minds (or stomachs). I performed some scholarly research on this. 

• Formicophilia is liking being crawled on by insects, although I'm looking for crawling down the GI tract.
• Cnidophilia: fondness of stings
• Entomophobic: fear of eating insects
• Ok, I found it.. anthropo-entomophagy. It would probably be entomophilia if it produced a sexual thrill.
• My favorite: coitophilia: fondness of coitus. Isn't that called Normal? Even for married guys?

Two companies are selling Moon burials for your ashes. Nothing thus far on live burials.

Naturally there are complaints, sure as there is air (or isn't, in the case of the Moon). This time it's the Navajo, who hold the Moon as sacred, so any burial desecrates the Moon, even non-Navajo. The companies will continue, giving the Single Finger Salute to the Navajo. Tough call. I'd have to go with the burial companies... we screw up and pollute everything we touch; the Moon is the obvious extension.

This is why the aliens are pissed at us.

Speaking of aliens, it turns out the mystery has been solved! 25 years ago, the aliens landed, learned the language, and have been living among humans. We are unaware of this because they're in Scotland, where nobody can understand either of them.

Experimental antibiotic kills deadly superbug, opens whole new class of drugs

Pfizer doing the Happy Dance<tm> 

 I don't like touchscreen typing, even after all these years. This was brought home after finding some of my old phones with real honest-to-goodness tactile keyboards. I long for the mechanical feedback of my old Crackberry and Treos. Somebody came out with a very interesting case for iPhones that has a keyboard at the bottom. But that's for iPhones. ThermionicEmissions is strictly an android shop. I still start to burn and smoke when I walk by an Apple store. The smell is horrendous.

Speaking of nostalgia, the endless stream of it is amusing and confusing. You can now spend tens of thousands of dollars on ancient video games and players. A couple of automobiles are patterned after muscle cars, although they fail. I want a car just like a 1980 Cadillac, a 1990 Town Car, and a 1975 Station wagon, complete with Real Imitation Woodgrain paneling on the sides. People who used to drive them and people who saw them call them Land Yachts, and they were the most comfortable cars to drive and passenge. We do not have a comfortable car anymore. I do not want a BMW or Mercedes - they may handle well, but they ride like crap.

It worse in the UK, where everybody drives these tiny little death traps, which make my Hyundai like like a full size limousine. What's worse, many of their transmissions expect the driver to shift their gears. I dunno about you, but I am secure enough in my manhood that I don't need to shift gears all the time; I prefer to let the expert (the transmission) shift the gears for me. Yes, I have driven manual transmissions, but I think they should be made illegal, except on some trucks. If you keep the manual transmission on tractors, you add a whole new dimension to Drunk Tractor Driving, the state sport of Kentucky.

The IRS is testing an online tax submission program in 0 states. The main opposition comes from... wait for it.... Intuit (maker of TurboTax). I think credit should be given where it's due - to the IRS. They barely have time to wallow around in the $80 billion gift from President Giveaway.  The IRS should be shut down; this alone should get people to vote libertarian.

I'm minding my own business in my office, when the dog walks by with something large and brownish. It's always a good thing to catch up with her to see what she has this time. This time it was a piece of rye toast, with butter. Rye toast. What use could a dog possibly have for rye toast? When she manages to snatch a burger, she leaves the bread; she's not into carbohydrates. Yet she's carrying around rye toast. 

It makes one curious about how things went in ancient times, when dogs were wolves. They were carnivores. Know why? Because when the male wolves went out and hunted, the female wolves could not bake bread and after that, could not toast it.  Dogs would never have evolved if wolves had to argue about what to put on they rye toast: butter, margarine, real imitation butter-like substance, jelly, jam, preserves, peanut butter, or leg of yak. 

After all this careful thought I put into the matter, she took 2 bites and left it on the floor. This must be what it's like to have kids.... constantly running around, picking up their partially used food and toys. I maintain my dog is cuter than a kid and causes less damage.