Why I Hate America, Pt. x, where x \in, uh, the countably infinite natural numbers (N?)

[fflo]

Before I could get an aspirin out of the new package last night, I had to

1. open the glued-shut box

2. take out the plastic bottle

3. remove the plastic "protective"¹ wrap around the cap

4. do the childproof² lining-up-arrow and popping lid opening

5. find a knife and pierce the "protective"³ foil seal

6. wedge my fingers in there and remove the little bits it breaks into, while
6a. steeling myself against potential personal phobic gross-out, cuz of which I was also
6b. trying to get all the little bits off of it while minimizing time spent on the job

7. reach fingertips into narrow opening and pull out protective⁴ cotton.

I won't even get into issues of wasted resources/work, trash, and culturally perpetuated paranoia.

---------
¹ Bullshit!
² yeah, right
³ Bullshit!
⁴ protects the aspirin from damage, for without it the pills would rattle around quite a lot, cuz, even before you've removed a one, they fill at most a third of the volume of the bottle

Comments

[paperkingdoms]

Yep - N. with a sort of strange typeface that makes the first vertial bar doubled up. \mathbb{N} ;^)

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Why, that would be "Blackboard Bold"---vs. plain ol' \bf, the standard (though we follow copy if consistent with the variant bold) at Math Reviews, where I work---likely known to you, I imagine, for MathSciNet more than the old orange print journals. Ever use our database?

[paperkingdoms]

Oh! yes. Sometimes. And probably more as my "stuff" shifts more from classes towards research.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Not to mention when we start reviewing YOUR stuff. We just added a feature for figuring out yer Erdos #. Well, you can figure out your anybody number---degrees of separation via copublication links. It's just a goofy thing, with no serious practical scholarly purpose (that I can think of), but (or should I say "and," knowing mathematicians) it's getting an awful lot of play so far.

[paperkingdoms]

Well, it's a toy¹, isn't it? We like toys. ;^)

[I'm gonna stick to the playful interpretation. Because there's also a good chunk of elitism involved in the way mathematicians love that stuff... but that's less fun to contemplate.]

¹gratuitous footnote

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Ha! I, too, choose the happy take on't just now.

(read to self monosyllabic first four words slowly, with strong, even accenting:)
You are all right, woman.

And now, a short poem:


gratuity
rhymes with ambiguity

[paperkingdoms]

::smiles::

Thank you. :^)