The Quantum Mechanic

…the wizard of Hollywood.

A question from a client, related in a tax professionals’ mailing list:

Client: Our new German shepherd was playing with his rope toy upstairs and crashed through the window and fell into the tree.

Tax Pro: So you want to know if you can get any deduction for replacing the window?

Client: Actually, we were wondering if we could take any loss for the dog–he had internal injuries and torn tendons and the vet bill is going to be
$6,500.

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=131773

I was doing some googling on trichinosis and discovered that according to FDA regulations, the larvae are killed instantly at 144F.

So despite what people have been taught, there’s no need to cook pork to the consistency of shoe leather.

EDMOND, Okla. — Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter’s poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.

She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: “I don’t do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food.”

(via)

A friend coined this term to refer either (both?) the current dressing style amongst female teens and pre-teens or those who dress that way: prostitot

From a mailing list:

Jesus said unto them, “Whom do you say I am?”
They replied, “You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the ontological foundation of the context of our very selfhood revealed.”
And Jesus replied, “What?”

…be aware that the new IKEA in Stoughton will be opening on 9 November.

Diamonds? No. Hallmark cards? No. It’s our favorite bit of edible pinkness.

http://www.cathnews.com/news/510/56.php

A pocket-sized book published by the Catholic Truth Society in the UK addresses Catholic attitudes to extra-terrestrial life. Independent Catholic News reports that with increasing numbers of people believing not only in the possibility of intelligent life on other planets, but even claiming encounters with aliens, it is not surprising that the Catholic Church is beginning to explore what effect the discovery of sentient ETs might have on Christian theology.

In: Intelligent Life in the Universe? Catholic belief and the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life, author Guy Consolmagno SJ, asks:

• Would humans recognise intelligent life if we saw it?
• Could we communicate with it? Should we even try?
• Is Original Sin something that affects all intelligent beings?
• Is Jesus Christ’s redemption valid for intelligent beings throughout the universe?
• or would other worlds have their own version of Jesus?
• Would the Church send missionaries to ET planets?

[snip]

Brother Guy has advanced degrees in planetary science from MIT and the University of Arizona. He spends his time observing comets and asteroids, and does experiments with the Vatican’s vast collection of meteorites one of the largest in the world.

And just what is the Vatican doing with those meteorites, anyways? :-)

But seriously — those are eminently reasonable questions for an organization like the RCC to be pondering.