https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/supername
Unless I missed the great Helen Salzman does not once mention that the title of her podcast is a superhero name, like this guy in Michael Chabon’s book “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay“, which is also great.
So, another study in mice is being touted as the new cure for Alzheimer’s. No human trials yet for this use, so just a tad premature. The stuff is called Mefenamic acid and its an existing drug that’s been around long enough that its available generically. It’s a (an?) NSAID, a pain killer, same type of medicine as naproxen, ibuprofen and aspirin. Very widely available, but not widely used. Its mostly for menstrual pain.
Here is the amazing part:
Source: Wikipedia
Queanbeyan Age newspaper
Wednesday 24 December 1879
The paper still exists. News is not all that different.
This is Alfred Jarry. I ran across this photo kind of randomly. He looks just very contemporary, so I looked him up.
Turns out he was an archetype Artistic Genius. French, iconoclast of the first order, famous and successful in his day, into absinthe, probably gay, died penniless at 34 in 1907, of TB exacerbated by drugs and alcohol, novel published posthumously, unknown today. The whole package. His last request was for a toothpick. He rode a bicycle. Picasso admired him, did a sketch of him, and bought up his estate after he died. Pioneer of the symbolist movement, now seen as a forerunner of Dada. He added a key element to the movement when he defined “pataphysics” as “the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments”. Thats pretty Dada precursive right there.
And, really, great photo.
Wikipedia entry
British anti-road protest manifesto. No idea what this is all about, probably a joke that found its way to the internet. But oddly engaging, as British locution so often is.
Lollipop men/ladies are what we would call crossing guards, so called because they use round stop signs attached to a stick. Giros are unemployment cheques. Quag barter system, no idea.
Set Up a Low-Tech, Whole-House Speaker System Through Existing Phone Lines.
This is a post that ran on Lifehacker, a few years ago to my immense satisfaction. The system works great. I added an Airport Express device that makes it all “wireless”, ie without having to physically connect the computer. Marion very correctly thinks that word “wireless” is a misnomer. Looking at a wireless speaker that needed to be plugged in, and referring to system as a whole, she said, “What do you mean wireless? Theres wires everywhere!” And so there are.
I rarely read comments, and don’t have them yet for this site, my theory being anyone who might see this has my cell number, but I that I noticed this about the comments on Lifehacker: the more technically informed the commenter, the less the setup, which is brain-dead simple in its operation, was understood. My favorite comment, “Get this guy a beer!!”