Just Things

I have an earache, as I said yesterday. (Yes, two posts in a row. It's blowing my mind.) If I complain about an ache or pain in general, the first question people ask is, "Have you taken anything?" which always surprises me. No, most of the time I haven't taken anything. I get a whopping headache, I go with it. Right now I have an earache. I haven't taken any of the normal painkillers, but if I were going to take anything, it would be acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), as it has the best combination of analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects, as opposed to acetaminophen, which doesn't do so much on the anti-inflammatory side and which makes me feel weird. I might take ibuprophen (not helpful for fevers) if I had injured myself, but that is not the current case. As it stands, no, I haven't taken anything. It never occurs to me to do so. Why is that?

Because if I take a painkiller, I don't know what is going on with my body and I can't pinpoint the problem.

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A few weeks ago Hub and I were involved in an NMR anniversary celebration, and in conversing about the people involved in the event it became clear that we were dealing with some fine NMR minds. I have worked with Big Brains, I have met Big Brains, but in this case the BB's that I met were the most self-effacing demure group I'd ever encountered. One older fellow did point out that it shouldn't have just been George Olah's Nobel, he could have shared it with Ron Gillespie, who got NMR data for all the black superacid crap George used to bring up from Dow.

In another case, RB (again, self-deprecating in the extreme) was the first person to have proposed the mathematical relationship for the NOE (Nuclear Overhauser Effect) experiment...he said that he was at a meeting, and all nervous because he had to explain the effect as being related to 1/(distance)^6 between the atoms in question to Big Brains. Within a very short time this distance/signal intensity relationship was in constant use, and even now the protein people, who prove a lot about folding and conformation from these experiments, use the basic principle that RB proposed.

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I could go on, and normally I would, but Goldmember is on and I am a fan. When the first Austin Powers movie started out with the theme from the game show Definition which probably provided the worst prizes ever....but anyway, when that played and the dance scene ensued, I was hooked. Tonight Goldmember is on and I haven't seen it, so I will.