Skepticism

Skepchick Quickies 10.16

A very happy birthday to Rebecca today on Sunday!  We hope she’s having crazy amounts of fun galavanting about the world and peeing in new countries.

Amanda

Amanda works in healthcare, is a loudmouthed feminist, and proud supporter of the Oxford comma.

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36 Comments

  1. @Eliza: Oh wow, I love the summary of it on IMDB: “Giant mutant rabbits terrorize the southwest!!” That’s just genius.

    Of course, then there’s the tagline: “They were born that tragic moment when science made its great mistake… now from behind the shroud of night they come, a scuttling, shambling horde of creatures destroying all in their path.”

  2. @Amanda: It’s painful to watch the movie but not really because of an anti-science thing. The “big mistake” being letting children play with test animals — not like “ohnoes playing god!” The discomfort is more like real dead bunnies for entertainment purposes. :(

    It’s not as horrific to watch as The Food of the Gods though which has some amazing moments with hilarious giant chicken suits and Ida Lupino battling puppet maggots (!!!) but certainly pre-animal safety officers on set days.

  3. Per the Hanford site – my husband interviewed for a job at the PNNL facility near Hanford many years back. While he didn’t take the job (they offered him LESS money than he made in his current job, duh), we came away with one striking memory.

    As part of our tour, they issued us an informational packet for PNNL. One was a general lab safety brochure, and it listed the different sirens for the nearby Hanford facility. The most serious siren basically meant – Run as fast as you can and kiss your ass goodbye. (And the little icon actually showed someone running, it was hysterical.) Great PR job, that.

  4. Okay Texans, lets do something good here. I have just emailed my state rep and state senator about the nurses expressing my outrage and requesting their help for these brave nurses. Now you need to do the same.

  5. “Radioactive Rabbit Droppings” would be a great name for a band…

    @Chasmosaur: We don’t even have one at Ft. Detrick AKA “The Hot Zone.” I guess that if anything horrible gets loose and spreads quickly, they want us all to die here and not spread it to the world…wait, what?!

  6. I’ve got a google alert set up for “Simon Singh” and it really lit up this morning. Favorite headline: “In Soviet Russia, BCA defames Simon Singh!”

  7. @QuestionAuthority: Any two of the three worrds make for a better band name.

    Also, you don’t have a siren, or you don’t have a plan? Cause if you don’t have a plan, then you’re pretty much free to go all mad max on their shit when the whistle blows.

  8. No sirens or warnings that I know of. I have heard rumors that if anything truly nasty breaks out, the base will be sealed immediately. With us inside. That implies (to me) that deadly force would be authorized. It also means that from their point of view, a siren would be…counterproductive.

    In the remote case that something happens, I hope it’s quick. (shrug) Our building is about 1/4 mile downwind of the building where the ‘Hot Zone’ labs are housed (USAMRIID).

  9. @QuestionAuthority: Not necessarily. The sirens could cover up your screams!

    Hey, I live less than a mile from Ft. Detrick, myself. How about we make a deal? Promise not to kill me with any crazy diseases, and I promise I won’t mutate into a zombie and eat your brains. Sound good? :D

  10. I don’t live in Texas anymore, but one of my brothers is a nurse there, so I forwarded the URL to him to get his take. It does remind me of 1 of the reasons I left TX: those with power are deferred to and given even more power, whether it’s legal to do so or not.

  11. @imrryr: I can’t promise anything as I (very gratefully) have no contact with that kind of stuff. I’m in medical supply logistics IT as a tech writer for one of the Beltway Bandits at JMLFDC.

  12. @Eliza: “Night of the Lepus” was hysterically funny. Would you believe Peter Graves was in it? How did they keep straight faces during the shooting? It was obvious the “giant rabbits” were pet store white bunnies running around on a model train layout.

    Of course, our youngest was about 5 when she saw it and it scared her.

  13. @QuestionAuthority: Ah, I see. Well, if I do end up eating your brains, it was nothing personal, man.

    My job is some twenty miles up the road from you and involves producing graphics for the NFA’s training simulations. And being a government operation, they keep us knee deep in acronyms too.

  14. @QuestionAuthority:

    You have to remember – Hanford is actually separate from PNNL. It’s a DOE facility run by Battelle, so there’s a corporate/contractor thing going on there ;)

    I was never quite clear on whether or not it was Hanford’s sirens or their own. Didn’t make the brochure any less funny.

  15. @Andrew Nixon: Must be me, but that sounds hysterically funny…Like a Monty Python skit.

    @Imrryr: You can find me in the local Home Depot with crossbows/bows and arrows/firearms/axes and boxes of MRE’s. If you dare. ;-) You dirty zombies will never take me alive! Bwa hah hah!

  16. @QuestionAuthority:

    “Night of the Lepus” was hysterically funny. Would you believe Peter Graves was in it? How did they keep straight faces during the shooting? It was obvious the “giant rabbits” were pet store white bunnies running around on a model train layout.

    I can’t believe that no one has mentioned that DeForest Kelly was in it.

  17. I went to a university with a high male to female ratio. For one semester. There were days I contemplated taping a “No, leave me alone” sign on my forehead just so I could go about my life in peace.

  18. Ugh, I couldn’t read the entire Michigan Tech article. Seriously?

    I went to UNC Chapel Hill, which has more women than men (I think the ratio was 2:1, so it wasn’t really that bad) and I remember hearing girls talking about “OMG, must wear teh makeupz so teh menz will notice meeeeeee”. Freshmen, in particular, wore heels and shit to class. Many women talked about sucking up the rivalry and traveling to NC State (which apparently had more men, I guess) to meet guys.

    I was baffled by this whole culture and generally avoided it.

  19. I lost my virginity at Michigan Tech! It really is like shooting fish in a barrel…..Oh Tech, your collection of science guys warms my heart ten years later :)

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