our own Marie Curie

Apparently Sarah Palin has discovered a new element:  lectrum.

She announced this scientific breakthrough at the Tea Party meeting, and provided us a glimpse of its potential use:

“…when President Barack Obama stands behind the lectrum…”

Daniel opines that lectrum is to Obama as Kryptonite is to Superman.

Probable scenario for this statement – the ballpoint pen on Sarah’s left palm got smudged by sweat, causing her to read “lectern” as “lectrum”.

CDC – Excellence in Action

From a NYT article today:

Most Americans do not intend to get the swine flu vaccine, assume the pandemic is over and think the flu threat was overblown, according to a poll released Friday by the Harvard School of Public Health.

As of the end of January, only about a fifth of all Americans had had swine flu shots, according to that poll and data released separately by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

and in conclusion:

In Harvard’s poll, 59 percent rated the response by public health officials to the swine flu pandemic “good” or “excellent.”

More than three-quarters remembered seeing or hearing some sort of public health announcement urging them to get vaccinated.

75% heard something about getting vaccinated, but only 20% actually went ahead and got H1N1 flu shots.

I think we have just re-defined excellence.

That is illogical, Captain.

I am attending a conference in Columbus, OH, in April.  I’ll be driving down with the others of the BAM Team, but I would like to come back earlier than they are planning, so I’ve decided to investigate airfare one way from Columbus to Madison.

The results are bewildering.

Among the myriad options available to this intrepid traveler are the following delightful adventures:

• Leaving Columbus at 7:45 pm, flying to Providence, RI, then to Cleveland, and finally arriving in Madison the following morning at 10:12 am.  For this jaunt, I would pay $865.30 to USAirways.
• Leaving Columbus at 7:30 pm, connecting in Detroit, and arriving in Madison at 10:24 pm that night.  This trip via Delta would set me back $100.40.

Hm, let me consider – ok, I’ll take option #2.

Someone needs to explain to the honchos at USAirways the basic geometric precept that the shortest distance between two points is NOT to first head in the opposite direction.