hummingwolf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hummingwolf) wrote2010-11-24 11:24 pm
hummingwolf) wrote2010-11-24 11:24 pm
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3 Things
Last night I watched The Time Traveler's Wife, which proved to be a great way to indulge my love of cheesy time-travel stories. One thing bothered me, though. I am, as far as I can tell, very much a heterosexual woman, so I don't expect to be attracted to unclothed women on screen. However, I'm pretty sure my reaction to seeing a topless woman's back should not be "GAH! Ribs!! Vertebrae!!! Cover it up! COVER IT UP!" So could someone please tell me that the actress and/or body double ate a sandwich sometime after filming this movie? Lie to me if you have to. Please.
Adventures in copyediting (or lack thereof). One of the books I borrowed from the library today is about the human nervous system, a subject of great interest to me. The book is written with kids in mind, but I'm hoping it will refresh my memory of all those things I learned in college and somehow managed to forget in the last twenty years. Anyway, one sentence in the section about the structure of neurons reads: "Although the cell body is usually just 5 to 100 micrometers, or μm, (0.0002 to 0.0004 inches) in diameter, axons can range in length from 1 millimeter to as much as 1 meter (0.04 in)." On the same page, in a section about synapses, it says, "Between the tip of each axon terminal and the point on the target neuron (usually a dendritic spine or the cell body) to which the axon sends a nerve signal, there is a tiny gap. It measures about 10 to 20 nanometers (3.94 to 7.87 in) across and is called the synaptic cleft."
Any kid reading this book uncritically is going to come away with some very confused ideas about how to convert from the Metric system to the Imperial system.
Early New Year's Resolution: In 2011, I intend to read at least one book in each of the ten main classes of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. And even though it's a part of the 900s, I might include Biography as an eleventh category since the local library shelves those books separately. I'm pretty sure I've read books in most of the big ten this year, but I'm also pretty sure I'm not going to read anything in the 400s before this year ends, which is pretty sad considering I was a linguistics major once. This resolution should be pretty easy for me to keep, anyway, unless I develop a sudden aversion to all things nonfictional.
(Wow. In January 2008 I resolved to get a haircut. I really should try to do that sometime soon, you know.)
Adventures in copyediting (or lack thereof). One of the books I borrowed from the library today is about the human nervous system, a subject of great interest to me. The book is written with kids in mind, but I'm hoping it will refresh my memory of all those things I learned in college and somehow managed to forget in the last twenty years. Anyway, one sentence in the section about the structure of neurons reads: "Although the cell body is usually just 5 to 100 micrometers, or μm, (0.0002 to 0.0004 inches) in diameter, axons can range in length from 1 millimeter to as much as 1 meter (0.04 in)." On the same page, in a section about synapses, it says, "Between the tip of each axon terminal and the point on the target neuron (usually a dendritic spine or the cell body) to which the axon sends a nerve signal, there is a tiny gap. It measures about 10 to 20 nanometers (3.94 to 7.87 in) across and is called the synaptic cleft."
Any kid reading this book uncritically is going to come away with some very confused ideas about how to convert from the Metric system to the Imperial system.
Early New Year's Resolution: In 2011, I intend to read at least one book in each of the ten main classes of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. And even though it's a part of the 900s, I might include Biography as an eleventh category since the local library shelves those books separately. I'm pretty sure I've read books in most of the big ten this year, but I'm also pretty sure I'm not going to read anything in the 400s before this year ends, which is pretty sad considering I was a linguistics major once. This resolution should be pretty easy for me to keep, anyway, unless I develop a sudden aversion to all things nonfictional.
(Wow. In January 2008 I resolved to get a haircut. I really should try to do that sometime soon, you know.)
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But one in each of the ten main classes is much more doable. Good idea!
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