Loo/Teddy/Life

[enismirdal]

Yesterday I:

• Got confused by our crazy bedder. She poured about half abottle of bleach down the loo, then decided it was blocked and, after tapingit up and sticking on an 'out of order' notice, called in Maintenance, who arrived maybe an hour later. Maintenace man unblocked the loo afternearly passing out from the fumes. Loo became blocked again that evening and proceeded to make strange gurgling noises all night. Maintenance returned today and decided it was too deeply blocked for them to sort and will bring in an outside contractor to fix it.
  
• Finished a doodle on my Pathology notes.
  
• Spent an hour and a half lookingat slides of lymph node and spleen.
  
• Discovered that lymph node and spleen look mostly the same, so got very bored after drawing a whole series of near identical diagrams, in which cells were designated by biro dots, resulting in me basically hammering the page with a biro so hard that the pad of paper has pressure-marks 6 pages in.
  
• Went for a walk with l_j_b round town. We came to the MS foundation stall, where they were running a tombola. Since I am generally lucky in tombolas (and it was a very good cause), I entered. I didn't win a whole teddy, but I got the runner-up prize, which is the right to buy one at half price. Since I didn't have £6, I borrowed it off l_j_b,and subsequently wandered into Pathology with an enormous Teddy-Santa.
  
• Was then informed by Teddy-Santa that he wished to be named Voronwë. I agreed, so I now have a giant teddy called Voronwë in a Santa hat.
  
• Went to the "lesbians' coffee evening" at Clown's with Girly, and drank coffee(and ate carrot cake), watched lesbian arm-wrestling, and was impressed by how pretty Cambridge lesbians are.They are very nice and fun and good to laugh with, andI enjoyed it muchly.
  
• Went 'oops' when Girly's phone rang and the person on the other end gently reminded her that she had a supervision, like, NOW.
  

Today I:

• Went to lectures and was bored (not in the mood, really, and an hour of anyone talking about Biochem, even in Plants, makes my brain try to retreat to a quiet, fluffy place. Biochem is logical but HARD. And who got the crazy idea of trying to work out how photosynthesis occurs anyway? I mean, didn't they have a job or something to be doing?)
  
• Got twitchy in Plants lecture, as it was my supervisor lecturing, andI didn't want to look like I was falling asleep (I wasn't any more bored than usual, just felt really dopey this morning...)
  
• Went to a supervision where my enthuisiam for plant phylogeny and taxonomy scared both supervision partners. I'm sure stating that a spider plant is Chlorophytum, and comparing the carrot and potato families for lethal-ness isn't really that scary. It's interesting.
  
• Wrote a bit more essay.
  
• Managed to keep college inbox size below 600 e-mails for a little longer.

Have lots of polls I want to make. Will have to do them...

Comments

[emperor]

Plant sciences part II, then? :)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

All evidence would seem to point that way, certainly!

Hooray for the killer potato

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

comparing the carrot and potato families for lethal-ness isn't really that scary. It's interesting

Potatoes are a member of the Solanaceae family of plants that include tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, tobacco and deadly nightshade. They are characterised by their ability to produce toxic alkaloids such as solanine in their leaves, roots and fruit. Read on...

Anyone who's spent any time on a farm in Ireland knows that green potatoes are dangerous. I was, however, unaware of homicidal tendencies in the humble carrot.

Hooray for the killer carrot (or poison hemlock, as the case may be)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

From http://www.farmersmarketonline.com

"...people should learn to recognize poison hemlock and wild parsnip. These plants look similar to and smell like other plants in the carrot family (Apiaceae, formerly known as Umbelliferae). Both plants originated in Europe, but are now commonly found in America, growing in wet, wooded areas and open fields, and along roadsides and railroad tracks.

“Poison hemlock, which has nothing to do with the evergreen hemlock tree, is very hard to distinguish from other family members,” said Quigley. “It’s earned the nickname fool’s parsley. Because the leaves smell and look just like those of a large wild carrot there have been cases of adults, children and farm animals accidentally being poisoned by eating just a leaf or two.”

Poison hemlock, most famous as the plant that was used to execute the Greek philosopher Socrates, can be fatal if ingested. The plant was used through the 19th century as a narcotic and an anticoagulant and to treat inflammatory diseases, but was discontinued because of the uncertainty of dosage required. Coniine, the active ingredient in the plant, is also a poison that causes paralysis of the muscles, including those used for breathing. There is no known antidote.

Poison hemlock is the most toxic indigenous plant in North America."

And not just that, but...

Wild parsnip also looks similar to other carrot family members. The plant is relatively harmless if ingested, but causes severe burns if the juice of the plant comes into contact with the skin.

This meant I was right, as I told her the poisonous hemlock was Umbelliferae, and she said it was Solanaceae. Ner ner! I beat the woman with the PhD. *grins*