Heartily N'thing online book holds/reserves and interlibrary loans from your public library system. Your tax dollars at work!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:59 PM on July 1, 2008

Paper chromatography: separate the component dyes of water-soluble magic markers. Some purple markers have a purple dye, some contain red + blue, and so on for other colors.

Experimental setup: You'll need a small container for water for each kid, preferably clear plastic so they can watch what's happening inside. Put about 1 cm of water in the bottom. Next, cut a strip of white construction paper as tall as the container and a little narrower, so it can stand up... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 6:52 PM on June 29, 2008

N'thing the advice to move far away from your extended family for a while and live life on your own. Independence is scary at first but you will gain confidence in yourself as you realize you can cope with various challenges. You'll mostly be too busy to brood about Perfect Cousin, since setting up a new life in a new city takes a lot of time and effort. You will also meet people who don't know your cousin and won't compare you to her, or even mention her at all.

I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 1:49 PM on June 29, 2008

Does the mixing occur throughout the dish, or just at the edges? If the mixing is everywhere, maybe your sauces are a little too runny and they're seeping through the layers of noodles. Try thickening them somehow, maybe with cornstarch or by using more flour in the roux, or more cheese.

(And white sauce plus red sauce in lasagna sounds pretty unusual to me - where I grew up in New York it was red sauce all the way. What part of Italy was your great-grandmother from?)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 1:24 PM on June 29, 2008 marked best answer

I doubt that they continue picking on you because they're too clueless to notice that it makes you uncomfortable. I'm one of the most socially-clueless people I know, and even I can tell when my biting sense of humor is not appreciated. I think they've found you a satisfying target, for whatever reason. They don't hate you - if they did they'd just avoid you - but they pick on you because it's fun and there's no reason for them to stop.

I think you're right that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:53 AM on June 28, 2008

Yup, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is basic and will neutralize acid. Go easy on it, though - if you add an excess you'll get an unpleasant metallic taste. I'd start with much less than a teaspoon and add it in small portions, stirring thoroughly and tasting between additions.

Also, proteins can neutralize acids via their basic amino groups. This reaction goes more slowly, though, so it might take a few hours or overnight for something like meat, cheese, eggs etc... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 9:52 PM on June 26, 2008

I did this once, at a job I hated but with a boss I liked. The company had announced several upcoming waves of layoffs and it was pretty clear my project was going to be axed eventually, so I just told my boss if he needed any volunteers, I'd be willing to take the nice juicy severance package. I was on very good terms with him, though, so I wasn't worried about any nasty consequences.

He appreciated my offer greatly, by the way. A good boss always agonizes over... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 6:49 PM on June 21, 2008

Does his wife also realize that her chances are minimal? (Depressing aside: although I'm not an oncologist I work in a cancer-related field, and my understanding is that when clinicians tell their patients that a certain type of cancer has, say, a 95% mortality rate, it's a little white lie. The truth is closer to a 100% mortality rate, but they feel it's more important to give the patient a little hope than to tell the absolute truth. So your friend's wife may have a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:18 AM on June 21, 2008

If you have access to the great outdoors, try letting it flap in the breeze for a few days. Exposure to direct sunshine will help too, if you're not worried about the colors fading too fast. Spread it out as much as possible so that air can flow freely past all surfaces, and take it inside in the evenings so it doesn't get damp overnight.

If you don't have even a balcony or fire escape, you can try a pretty strong detergent called Synthrapol. It is used by dyers to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:55 PM on June 17, 2008

Apply for jobs as a lab technician? You'll be back in the research environment without needing a degree. Entry-level technician jobs are relatively easy to get, both in academia and industry, and nobody expects technicians to put in the insane hours required of grad students and postdocs, so they're good for people with families. Good luck!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:15 PM on June 17, 2008

Another vote for keeping the tattoo covered at a job interview. Among other things, a huge tattoo might distract their attention from your other attributes (you want them to remember you as that really good candidate, not as Tattoo Girl).

You can get away without wearing a suit. I always wear nice pants and a nice top to interviews, but never an actual suit (a suit would be little too stodgy for the type of research jobs I apply to; this may be true for your position... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:40 PM on June 16, 2008

Two novels that I flog repeatedly:

Ironfire by David Ball (also published as The Sword and the Scimitar) is a wonderful saga set in the clash of Christendom and the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Siege of Malta in 1565. Romance, espionage, and lots of bloodcurdling late-medieval warfare. (Seems like these guys had never heard of the Renaissance.)

The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye is set in British India and also explores the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:18 AM on June 15, 2008

Thought of another: A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory is a mystery set in Restoration London with good historical detail (the author is a historian at Cambridge University, I believe). The hero is an unemployed former spy - for Cromwell, who's recently been executed and stuck on a pike over the London Bridge - who is trying to find work with the new Royalist government. Things are not going too well for him, and at one point he has to sell his hair to a wigmaker to pay the rent.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:06 PM on June 15, 2008

I found the old town of Jaisalmer enchanting. (The modern sections of town are humdrum.) The old city looks like something out of the Arabian Nights, unlike anything else I saw in India. (Not that I saw much of the country, but still ...)

Here are some nice tourist photos that show the medieval/exotic look of the place. You expect Sheherazade herself to lean out one of the windows.

The history of Rajasthan as a whole is rather interesting,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 3:03 PM on June 15, 2008

Build a wind-powered generator! Google turns up plenty of suggestions for DIY projects.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:42 PM on June 14, 2008

If you don't come up with anything better, MeFiMail me. Depending on your schedule, maybe you could stash your impedimenta at my place. I'm about 2 blocks from the Glen Park BART station, which is not downtown, but about a 15 minute BART ride away.

P.S. Burhanistan means the Powell St station, not Mason.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:24 AM on June 14, 2008

I sometimes get hot feet and have found that washing them thoroughly with soap and cold water cools them down. Oddly, cold water without soap doesn't work. This may not solve your problem, but it's simple enough to try. If you can't stick your feet in the sink at work, maybe you could put some soap on a wet paper towel and go at 'em discreetly that way.

SuperGlue has been used for battlefield medicine since the Viet Nam War, when medics used it to glue... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:12 AM on June 14, 2008

There's probably a Williams-Sonoma somewhere in your area; they will let you test knives for weight and balance (although I doubt they'd let you actually cut anything with 'em). A large W-S store will have a good selection of high-quality brands to choose from.

Once you have a good knife you'll want to learn how to sharpen it. A honing steel is a good investment since a few quick swipes before using the knife will keep the edge sharp for a long time without actually... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:18 PM on June 12, 2008

Songs with repeated refrains might work too - many people will know the words to the refrain even if they don't know the rest of the lyrics. Lots of folk songs have refrains.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 10:27 AM on June 12, 2008

It's been almost 20 minutes without any answers, so I'll have a go at it - hopefully something here will be helpful.

You say your bedroom shakes. What about the other rooms? Until you get your lease questions sorted out, could you sleep in a non-vibrating area?

Could you somehow isolate the bed from the vibration? (I ask this while thinking about the vibration isolation mounts we have on some lab instruments - I'm... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:59 PM on June 10, 2008

This happens to me too if I don't eat enough carbohydrates in a meal, regardless of how much protein I get. N'thing the suggestion to eat some bread with your salad, or pile on the croutons, and see if that helps. For today, try having a roll or some other starch to help shake the shakes. Um, just like everybody else has said.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 1:05 PM on June 9, 2008 marked best answer

Yes, quit, but find a new job first. It's easier to find another job while you're still employed, and then you actually have a place to go after telling Dad goodbye. If you quit without lining something else up first, he will assume you'll come crawling back after a few weeks of being unemployed, which won't gain you any credibility in his eyes.

If, however, you quit and don't come back, he might start to think of you as an independent adult. Your... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 11:06 AM on June 5, 2008

Thanks purplemonkie, do you have a reference or recipe for MgCl2 elution? I've never tried that.

We tried binding the partially-cleaned Abs to AminoLink and got a fair amount of protein bound to the resin, but the specific activity was dismal. Either the gelatin peptides out-competed the Ab, or the Melon Gel destroyed Ab activity. My hunch is that it's the former. We're going to look into this further, but I'm hoping somebody out there has already solved this problem!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 10:28 AM on May 27, 2008

Followup for the benefit of any biotechies who might have googled into this question:

Eh, we decided to ask the supplier (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) to do a custom order w/o gelatin for us. I mention it here because they're actually quite reasonable: the minimum order for this custom formulation is 2 vials but the price per vial is the same as the regular product. And they don't repurify the Ab over Protein G (which would expose the Ab to another harsh acid elution,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 10:24 AM on June 5, 2008

Well, if you want to make them squirm a little, ask them (sincerely and without attitude) "Really? Why do you say that?" If they were just floundering around for something to say, putting them on the hook to explain their dumb comment might be ... instructive. You can press them to keep explaining until you're satisfied that they realize what a stupid thing it was to say. This approach is not recommended if you want to stay on good terms with people. I use it a lot.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:02 AM on June 5, 2008

Seconding FelliniBlank. Set your limits and stick to them, even if it means hanging up or leaving the room. They'll eventually get the idea, even though it will probably be mighty uncomfortable for you at first. This is about retraining yourself as much as your parents, but it will work in the end.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 6:40 PM on May 27, 2008

Been married for 15 years to a guy I never had a crush on, but got to like him so much it eventually turned into love. Crushes are more trouble than they're worth, in my experience - good steady friendship is what did it for me.

Good luck!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 10:33 AM on May 19, 2008

Rash, check your MeFimail.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 6:23 PM on May 18, 2008

I think it was in one of Jared Diamond's books that I read the "latrine" theory of the invention of agriculture. The idea is that early humans probably had certain favorite areas for pooping, and eventually somebody noticed that lots of useful plants germinated in those "latrines", from all the seeds in the poop. Latrines tended to be close to home, too, which sure beat wandering all over the place foraging for widely scattered edibles. Ah ha! - bring seeds home and plant... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:53 AM on May 18, 2008

I'm not sure why you equate academia with instability and penury. If you get tenure, you're as stable as it ever gets, and academic salaries are respectable if not lavish. Certainly a comfortable middle-class life is possible on a professor's salary.

What do you mean by "unease" in academia? The stress of trying to get tenure? Playing university politics? Pressure to publish? In my experience, variations of those problems exist everywhere and academia... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 6:45 PM on May 8, 2008

Within a Rainbowed Sea by Christopher Newbert is utterly gorgeous. Each chapter is devoted to a color, starting of course with blue. Newbert is based in Hawaii but has a few pictures from other parts of the world. (It's a coffee table book, not a photography manual - can't help you with that part, but this is a slam dunk for your eye candy.) Oh, and by the way, Newbert can write as well as he takes pictures.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:55 PM on May 4, 2008

I'm something of a dinosaur around here (Ph.D. in 1988), so my grad school experience may be outdated. But I'm a working scientist and in my field (biochemistry), lab notebooks are still absolutely essential. There's no way to survive without writing stuff down, since you'll soon forget the details of what you've done. Whether your goal is to publish, or patent, or simply not have to repeat stuff that you did 6 months ago, you'll need a written record.

Whether... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:40 AM on April 29, 2008

The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye is a historical adventure novel with a major romantic subplot. Set in British India, it is the story of Ashton/Ashok, an English boy orphaned by a cholera epidemic and brought up as an Indian by his nurse. After rejoining the British, he falls in love with an Indian princess whom he is escorting to her wedding. This is complicated enough, but the characters are also swept up in the turmoil of their times (British and Russian maneuvering over Afghanistan drives a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:11 PM on April 21, 2008

Take some inspiration from Hollywood: probably the scariest movie I've ever seen was Alien, not so much because of the gore but because of the repeated "I thought we were safe but IT'S BACK!!!" Just when you start to relax a bit the danger recurs, over and over, until you're afraid to let down your guard at all. The feeling that nowhere is safe, anything and everything could contain a menace, nothing can be trusted - that's scary.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:22 PM on April 19, 2008

Seconding Pakwan for excellent tandoori and curries, an easy stroll from the 16th Mission BART station.

Near the 24th Mission BART stop is El Taco Loco, which has another branch on Mission near 29th, near the Safeway, Walgreens and Cole Hardware (making it excellent for lunch during weekend provisioning trips). Their carne el pastor puts everybody else's to shame. Also excellent salsa verde (I think it's avocado-based, like a diluted guacamole) in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 9:36 AM on April 19, 2008

Well, it's probably a good idea to look into what the town or city is like, although this is pretty darn obvious. (Disclaimer: I chose my postdoc based on where I wanted to live, so maybe I've just got a bad attitude.)

Not that you'll have a whole lot of time to explore your area as a postdoc, but you probably want to pick a place that you'll enjoy when you do have a little free time.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:22 AM on April 9, 2008

Kind of obvious, but the United Nations was born in San Francisco, the charter being drafted (? signed?) in what's now Herbst Theater (I think - one of those buildings on Van Ness). The UN ties in with international law so you could take in the UN Plaza and Herbst Theater (or whatever) on your tour.

What a great idea! Can I come? Please?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:15 AM on April 9, 2008 marked best answer

As Class Goat says, the old-skool way to integrate irregular shapes was to cut them out and weigh them. You need a good milligram balance and some reference standards (1 square centimeter pieces of paper, or whatever is appropriate). Knowing the scale of your map, you can convert the weight of your island to its area.

This is how we used to integrate chromatography peaks in that strange brief period where strip-chart recorders were available but not computerized. It... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 11:37 AM on April 8, 2008

Congratulations! Yeah, families can be pretty clueless at times, so your friends are probably going to be a better source of support and good cheer here. (My parents didn't come to my PhD thesis defense, the closest thing I had to a graduation, or to a post-wedding party because of some pretty lame excuses, and then proposed some totally weasel "but we'll make it up like this" alternatives, so I can commiserate.)

Celebrate with your... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 5:43 PM on April 5, 2008

Any architectural salvage places in your area? Many urban areas have salvage yards with lots of old house parts. They have mostly doors and windows but occasionally fancier stuff shows up.

On preview, iconomy has good ideas. But check salvage yards as well as antique shops - they're likely to be quite a bit cheaper (although the stuff will probably not be in as good condition).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 9:18 AM on April 5, 2008 marked best answer

The Carnaval Parade (warning: link contains music) occurs in San Francisco on Sunday, May 25th. It's a South American/Caribbean style Mardi Gras parade (yeah, we're a little different from other people's calendars here), the highlight of a festival that stretches over the whole weekend. Plus, we MeFites of San Francisco love nothing better than to hold a meetup in honor of our out-of-town guests, particularly if they're buying the beer.

On general principals, though,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 9:08 AM on April 5, 2008

These usually get quizzical looks: cream cheese and ketchup sandwiches. Or butter and ketchup.

It's a vegetable, y'know
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:33 PM on April 2, 2008

With a big ol' disclaimer about never having tried this myself, I'm 99% sure that food processor bowls are made of a plastic called polycarbonate and here's what I googled up for polycarbonate glues:

methylene chloride, an organic solvent (not really a glue, it softens the plastic so it gets sticky and will bond)

SC-325 some kind of glue

Weld-On 45 another kind of glue.

You'll have to research... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 9:00 AM on March 30, 2008

Seconding the Topkapi Palace, especially for its somewhat non-European emphasis.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:46 AM on March 30, 2008

'Nother biochemist here. Yup, reading the literature and going to conferences when the company will spring for it.

Also wanted to second Rock Steady's comment about actually doing the work - as you move up in the hierarchy it's easy to lose touch with reality (at the bench, in my case) and forget how long everything takes, how failure-prone certain equipment is, etc. So "going to the gym" is necessary but not sufficient - you have to put those freshly honed chops to use.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 6:28 AM on March 28, 2008

It's kind of a cliché but I'd be happy to make you some casseroles or something, so you don't have to deal with cooking for a while. Please MeFiMail me if this would be helpful for you. Best wishes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:19 PM on March 26, 2008

The Feng Shui Detective is an entertaining bit of fluff set in contemporary Singapore, although the author lives in Hong Kong.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 8:25 PM on March 22, 2008 marked best answer

The Black Death certainly got everyone's attention, and there were plenty of crackpot theories about why it happened, where it came from, and how to stop it. Medieval medical theory is comically insane and I think the plague was politicized in various places ("Those filthy foreigners started it!" "The Jews caused it!" etc). It's been done before but it's a rich lode of facepalming idiocy.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 12:03 PM on March 14, 2008

N'thing the pseodoephedrine jitters. It takes about 8 hours for it to wear off for me. Hang in there!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 7:15 AM on March 14, 2008

Develop a love of leftovers. Cook 2 dishes every weekend and reheat all week. (Not as bad as it sounds - many dishes reheat well and improve with age.) You will probably end up cooking a main dish and a side dish (e.g. rice or pasta, etc) but that's easily doable. You'll quickly collect recipes that work well with this approach, or focus on soups, stews, pasta sauces, curries, and fairly liquid-y dishes, since those tend to reheat best.

Choose 2 recipes every week... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Quietgal at 9:21 PM on March 3, 2008