soapbox

So, the softball batting and fielding practice that Rob and I organized today ended with much greater excitement than we had anticipated.

With about 7 folks showing up to play, including some of the new grad students and a few undergrads, we had a nice bit of action going, even though we’re working around the confusion caused by the soccer field that has been painted over where we’d normally play softball.

Anyways, one of the undergrads, a hard-hitting senior named Ryan Michney, took a weird step so he could swing at a pitch I threw a little inside, and his feet went out from under him as he swung. After the resulting fall, it became apparent he had dislocated his knee. Ouch!

With a 911 call from my cell phone, we soon had the ambulance from the Hanover fire department (just down the street) on the scene. The EMT’s put his leg in a vacuum splint, suspending it for transport, and we all pitched in to help lift Ryan safely onto the gurney. Fortunately, Matt, one of the other undergrads present, had some EMT training, so Ryan was in good hands all the way.

Nevertheless, he’s having a hell of a day, and will likely be in a splint and/or negotiating crutches over the next couple of weeks, so be sure to wish him well if you know him and see him around the department.

Today’s other lesson: even a little innocent practice can result in some nasty sports injuries, so y’all be careful out there and keep y’all’s selves fit, ’cause being in good shape helps prevent injuries.

Apparently, minefields are highly effective at protecting penguin habitats.

I suppose there’s an upside to everything, but if you ask me, the Falklands War or Guerra de las Malvinas, depending on which way you lean, was one of the stupider conflicts on record.

Not that any of them are all that sensible…

(1) This is just sick: “The Daily News reported that the hate mail to the Yankees’ 31-year-old captain called him a “traitor to his race” for dating white women. It warned him “to stop or he’ll be shot or set on fire,” the paper said in Monday editions, quoting an unidentified law enforcement source.

(2)… and this is kinda cool: ER visits down during Red Sox playoff run
Associated Press.

“We knew if we were looking for any public event that would have an effect on health care utilization, it would have to be the Red Sox championship games,” Reis told The Boston Globe.

They discovered that during the championship games, fans in three of every five households were watching. At the same time, emergency room visits dropped by about 15 percent when compared with trends for ER visits on fall evenings.

here’s a lame copy-paste from a Move-On email, but it’s said pretty clearly [here's info on the full list of cuts]:

Last week, congressional Republicans responded to Hurricane Katrina by proposing to cut nearly a trillion dollars from vital national services, like health care for the poor and elderly, student loans, Amtrak, and eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (again!). Republican leaders in Congress are now gauging the public’s response to see if they can get away with their plan. We need to show them the answer is “no.”

The cost of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, while huge, is far less than what President Bush has given away in tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent. National crises like Hurricanes Rita and Katrina are times for all Americans to stick together and put in our fair share.
(more…)

There are some [fairly stale] petit fours in my office if you’d like to have some.

If they aren’t eaten by the end of the day, they’re getting thrown out.

The pictures from the croquet party are up so that you can relive the last sunny day of summer.

Personally, I think we all looked pretty sharp.

All the stuff’s still in the back of my car too, so we’ll have to play some day soon at lunch. I think it should be with the international setup too… and you don’t have to wear all white if you don’t want to.

well, i finally remembered to write down my mileage at two consecutive fill-ups, so i can now say that percy the metro gets almost 33 miles per gallon. and that’s not highway. i’ve hardly (if at all) been on the highway since the last fill-up.